USING SPECIES POPULATION STRUCTURE STUDIES TO DETERMINE REGENERATION STATUS OF PLANTS IN NATURAL FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

By

KISEKKA JAMES WILLIAMS

Msc. FORESTRY 2010/HD07/3363U

INSTRUCTOR: DR. EDWARD N. MWAVU

A paper presented for continuous assessment in the Tropical Forest Ecology and Management course unit (FBN 7201) of the School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences of Makerere University

2011

The structure of plant and animal communities in many natural ecosystems is largely determined by the disturbances, which occur quite frequently (Vogl, 1980; Armesto and Pickett, 1985). While Clements (1936) viewed disturbance as a negative force that destroys climax assemblages and brings instability in the system, Paine (1966); Lubchenco (1978); Houston (1974) considered it as a positive force that might increase species diversity in the community by preventing competitive exclusion by dominant species. Disturbance whether natural or human induced, plays a critical role in shaping vegetation communities (White, 1979) by altering structure and composition, consequently, affecting regeneration patterns and the availability of food for animals (Plumptre, 2000). The ability of a population to recover from disturbances, whether natural or anthropogenic is what has been termed regeneration by various researchers, for instance West et al. (1981). Regeneration implies the process of re-growing or reproducing new individual plants in the community (Singh and Singh, 1992). Forest regeneration, defined as the establishment of new tree cohorts, normally occurs during succession, which involves changes in plants, animals, and microbes (Bernier and Ponge, 1994).

Various researchers, for example Saxena et al. 1984; Khan et al. 1987; Rao et al., 1990, reported that the population structure of plant communities is represented by the diameter distribution of trees that comprise those communities. Similarly, the population structure of single species is also depicted by the diameter distribution of its individuals. Population studies pertaining to specific species are always beneficial in identifying the species spatial distribution and its regeneration status (Chandra et al., 2008). The structure of the populations gives information on their viability, in other words, on their ability to regenerate (Condit et al., 1998; Swaine et al., 1990; Sambou, 2004). Plant composition and structure are important elements of any description of the development of a forest stand (Norland and Nix, 1996).

Good and Good (1972) considered three major components which cause the successful regeneration of tree species. These components are the ability to initiate new seedlings,

ability of seedlings and saplings to survive and ability of seedlings and saplings to grow. Regeneration status of species is based on population size of seedlings and saplings (Khan et al., 1987), whereby; regeneration is good if seedlings >saplings >adults; fair if seedlings > or saplings adults; poor if the species survives only in sapling stage, but no seedlings (saplings may be <, > or = adults). In addition, if a species is present only in an adult form it is considered as not regenerating. A species is considered as new if it has no adults but only seedling or saplings. However, this may not always be true for cases where the adult individuals are always targeted for harvesting.

Smith et al. (1995) reported that plant populations exhibiting a frequency distribution that is characterized by most individuals occurring in the smaller size (age) classes, and a declining number of individuals in each successively larger size class are normal. Such a structure is said to follow an inverse J-shape, and is reported to be indicative of sustainable regeneration (Vetaas, 2000; Condit et al., 1998). Presence of sufficient number of seedlings, saplings and young trees in a given population indicate a successful regeneration (Saxena and Singh, 1984). On the other hand, a flat size class distribution with positive slopes suggests that there is no regeneration and the population is unstable and degraded (Everard et al., 1994), implying that regeneration is discontinuous (Poorter et al., 1996). Also, distribution with no individuals in some diameter classes implies that regeneration is not continuous. Figure 1 shows cases of fairly sustainable regeneration for all the sites studied with the exception of Kalusungwa, Kabukokwa and Sseeta that have no individuals in the higher diameter classes. Figure 2 shows a case of no individuals in some diameter classes. This could imply that such individuals are specifically targeted, leading to discontinuous or unsustainable regeneration which affects the viability of populations.

Figure 1: Population Structure for woody vegetation in the Conservation areas studied by Kisekka, 2011 (unpublished)

Figure 2: A case of discontinuous regeneration

CONCLUSION Population structure is a vital indicator of population health and viability in terms of ability to recover from the current disturbances that forests, especially in the Tropics are faced with. The ability for recovery is indicated by the possibility to achieve continuous establishment of new individuals in form of seedlings and their ability to be recruited into and survive in the subsequent diameter classes up to maturity.

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