The role of topography in differentiation of the vegetation at National Park Bidoup – Nui ba, Lam Dong province

The Bi Doup – Nui Ba National Park in Lam Dong Province follows the characteristics of medium and high montane subtropical forest. Together with other national parks, such as Chu Yang Sin, Hon Ba, Phuoc Binh, they amount to hundreds of thousands hectares in area which is an ideal condition to coordinate forest protection and biodiversity protection of Central and Western Highlands regions of our country.

The topographic differentiation has indirect effects on the characteristics of vegetation, the typical factors such as elevation, direction of exposure and topographic slope. The differences in elevation create the various vegetations: the mid-montane subtropical forest and the high montane subtropical forest. Additionally, the elevation zones in montane massiffs are not actually similar. The direction of exposure of mountain side also makes the original feature and the specific characteristics of the vegetation. There are many subtypes of vegetation at the same elevation, especially the appearance of mid-montane “cloudy mossy forest” at 1,650 – 1,700 m elevation.

The topographic slope adds meaning to the structure and complexion of vegetation. At the same elevation, the slope makes a variety of figures of trees – trunk, leaf canopy and root system in a species. However, different from the elevation and from the direction of exposure of mountain side, the topographic slope clearly affects the vertical structure of vegetation, but not clearly affects the species composition of vegetation.

Nguyen Van Hoi, Kuznetsov A.N.
Viet Nam - Russia tropical Centre

(Proceedings of 3rd National Scientific Conference on Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi 22th October 2009 - IEBR)