Does the altitude affect the stability of montane forests? A study in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Cirimwani Legrand, Gourlet-Fleury Sylvie, Kahindo Jean-Marie, Doumenge Charles, Gonmadje Christelle, Amani Christian. 2017. Does the altitude affect the stability of montane forests? A study in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 15 (4) : 1697-1713.

Quartile : Q4, Sujet : ECOLOGY / Quartile : Q4, Sujet : ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Résumé : To understand the functioning of montane forests, this study was conducted in the highlands of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republicof the Congo. The relationship between thealtitude andthe floristic stability of woody layers and regeneration capability of canopy species after many yearsofdisturbance was studied. Ten 1-ha plots were established from 1935m to 2760m a.s.l. In each plot we inventoried the trees ≥10cm of diameter at breast height (DBH), separating a canopy layer (10% of the tallest trees) and an understorey layer (all the other trees). In each plot, we nested a 0.1 ha subplot to inventory the saplings between 1 and 10 cm DBH. We found that the Jaccard index of dissimilarity between the understorey layer and the canopy layer decreases with the altitude. The proportion of species which arewell represented in the three layers increases with the altitude.The number of pioneer species decreases with the altitude while that of non-pioneer and shade tolerant species increases. These findings suggest that altitude influences the stability of highland forests, higheraltitudebeing more stable than lower ones in the case of this study.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : forêt tropicale humide, altitude, montagne, biodiversité forestière, régénération naturelle, parc national

Mots-clés géographiques Agrovoc : République démocratique du Congo

Mots-clés libres : Highland forest, Regeneration capability, Woody layers, Jaccard index of dissimilarity, Non-pioneer species

Classification Agris : K01 - Foresterie - Considérations générales
F40 - Écologie végétale
P01 - Conservation de la nature et ressources foncières

Champ stratégique Cirad : Axe 6 (2014-2018) - Sociétés, natures et territoires

Agences de financement européennes : European Commission

Auteurs et affiliations

• Cirimwani Legrand, UNIKIS (COD) - auteur correspondant
• Gourlet-Fleury Sylvie, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0002-1136-4307
• Kahindo Jean-Marie, UNIKIS (COD)
• Doumenge Charles, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (FRA)
• Gonmadje Christelle, Université de Yaoundé (CMR)
• Amani Christian, CIFOR (COD)

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/595036/)

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