Bukit Timah Literature Review

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Large trees have higher growth rates in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Introduction Tropical rainforests are one of the most endangered habitats in the world. Many factors threaten these forests, possibly leading to deforestation and decrease of species within a forest. In South-East Asia, the point where tropical rainforests can only exist as preserved fragments in nature reserves is approaching very fast (Aiken & Leigh, 1985). One example is a nature reserve named “Bukit Timah” in Singapore. Next to the problem of habitat loss, fragmentation can cause a lot of other trouble to species living in the remaining parts of the forest by increasing side effects in the forest (Murcia, 1995). First of all, fragmentation can cause parts of a forest to…show more content…
Fragmentation usually results in the loss of wildlife very quickly. But seeing the direct effects of fragmentation in the floral composition of a forest is much harder. Certainly because most of these species have a longer lifespan and reproduction happen in a way more unnoticed. Therefore, this study focusses on the difference between species with different average sizes to see whether fragmentation selects for trees of a certain size. In South-East Asia, tropical rainforests are increasingly deforestated and fragmented, such that most remaining fragments can only exist as preserved fragments in nature reserves (Aiken & Leigh,…show more content…
When looking at recruitment rate, trees of different size classes do not seem to differ significantly between 1993 and 1995 in comparison to years between 1995 and 2004 (p<0.05, two way ANOVA). However, when looking at recruitment rate over the entire time span (1993-2004), the small trees have a significantly higher recruitment rate than the medium and large trees (p<0.05, two way ANOVA). Furthermore, for mortality rate, there was no significant difference between the size groups within the 1993-1995 and 1995-2004 time span (p<0.05, two way ANOVA). Nonetheless, mortality rate between 1993 and 2004 turned out to be significantly higher for small sized trees compared to medium sized trees (p<0.05, two way ANOVA). Small and medium sized trees did not appear to be significantly different in any time interval (p<0.05, two way ANOVA). In contrast, large trees proved to grow significantly more over all time intervals (1993-1995, 1995-2004 & 1993-2004) than small and medium sized trees (p<0.05, two way
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