Structural characteristics of vegetation on Kien Giang limestone hills

This paper presents the ecological and structural characteristics of plant communities on Kien Giang limestone hills in southern Vietnam. This research is based on plots (30 m x 10 m) which have been randomly sampled from the foot to the peak of the isolated karst hills of Hang Tien, Ba Tai, Mo So Chua Hang hill. The plots represent three plant communities, namely, plant community on summits, plant community on slopes and plant community on dolines. The analysis of the plant community structure shows that the three communities are under a balanced development and human impacts on plant communities are fair strong. The plant community on summits and slopes is dominated by the evergreen and deciduous plant species that belong to the families Moraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Ebenaceace, Sterculiaceae, Combretaceae, Sapindaceae, and Annonaceae. The communities on dolines are dominated by the species adapted to humid environment or semi-wetland conditions such as Rubiaceae, Leeaceae, Annonaceae, Myrtaceae, Myristicaceae Myrsinaceae, Poaceae, Araceae, Arecaceae, and Flagellariaceae. These plant communities contribute to form the unique and specific characteristics of the vegetation on the limestone hills in southern Vietnam

Ly Ngoc Sam, Truong Quang Tam
Institute of Tropical Biology
(Proceedings of 3rd National Scientific Conference on Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi 22th October 2009 - IEBR)