Structure of disturbed habitats in pine forest fragment in La Trinidad, Benguet [Philippines]
2023
Reginaldo, A.A. | Ong, P.S.
Habitat description remains an essential tool because of its usefulness in environmental and wildlife management. The need to provide a more informative habitat description the Philippines is pressing because habitat loss threatens its biological diversity. This sought to differentiate three pre-selected habitats, namely, the pine area, lower montane forest, and agriculture area, in a pine forest fragment and to describe the overall structure of the landscape created by the three habitats. In each habitat type, 40 habitat variables were collected and analyzed. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) resulted in 29 variables that differed significantly among the pre-selected habitats and rejected the null hypothesis that the three habitats did not differ. The set of variables associated with each pre-selected habitat suggested each habitat resembled a pine forest, regenerating montane forest, and agricultural habitat, respectively. The principal component analysis showed a high variation in the characteristics of the three types based on the habitat variables, suggesting that the landscape formed by he three habitats was highly heterogeneous. A gradient of temperature and degree of broad-leaf tree cover was evident across the three habitats; these variables may be used as a measure of levels of habitat quality. The present study highlights the importance of using physical conditions and many vegetation characteristics in habitat description studies as these provide more information about the character and quality of habitats.
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