The effect of forest land allocation on understory plant species associations

Abstract

Species association is a reciprocal relationship among species within a community and can estimate the community composition. This research aimed to obtain information regarding the level of dominance and plant species association in each forest land allocation. Data analysis tested in this study constituted an analysis of the importance value index and association analysis performed on the main constituent species with INP > 10% using a 2x2 Contingency Table. The research revealed that species association in understorey plants in plantation forests contained one pair with real associations, five with unreal associations, six with positive associations, and none with negative associations. Meanwhile, there were no real associations in protected forest areas, ten pairs with unreal associations, four pairs with positive associations, and six pairs with negative ones. There were two pairs with real associations in natural forests outside the company's concessions, 13 species with unreal associations, four pairs with positive associations, and 11 pairs with negative associations.