Lilibeth PEROCHO, Jessie SABIJON, Reynaldo AQUINO

FLORISTIC COMPOSITION AND SOIL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANTATION FOREST IN NORTHWEST SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN JORGE CAMPUS

The study was conducted to assess the floristic composition and the soil characteristics in a plantation forest of NwSSU San Jorge Campus. Descriptive statistics was utilized to treat the data collected for vegetation and soil characteristics. Pearson’s correlation was utilized to test the interrelationship between the soil and vegetation in the study area. Results showed that the floristic composition in the study site has starting to resemble that of the secondary forest. Floristic diversity is also comparable to the diversity of secondary forest. Diversity and evenness distribution though cannot be associated with the physiographic locations as the results have shown more diverse vegetation in a potentially erodible soil of the mid-slope than that of the upper and lower slope. Life forms in the plantation forests are mostly trees and shrubs. Soil physical properties indicated that the surface layers of the profiles contain considerable amount of humic materials which had caused the darker hues of the soil. Soil pH is considered to be in the tolerable range for crop production. Basically, the soil in the plantation forest is sandy clay loam. Organic matter is high in the lower slope than in the upper and mid-slope which was attributed to the continuous deposition and accumulation of organic materials. Nitrogen availability is relatively considered low to moderate for plant growth across all the physiographic locations. Phosphorus (P) on the other hand was found to be the limiting nutrient in the site, wherein the amount present is considered below the required amount for crop production. Upper and lower slope had higher potassium (K) content than the mid-slope. Results of the correlation analysis showed that there is high correlation between the soil organic matter and tree size. This indicates that the higher soil organic matter the bigger is the tree size.

Keywords:

Floristic composition, soil characteristics,

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