Monszunerdő a thaiföldi Huai Kha Khaeng erdőrezervátumban
English: Monsoon forest in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand. Title: The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: Asia and the Pacific Identifier: conservationatla91coll (find matches) Year: 1991 (1990s) Authors: Collins, N. M. , Sayer, J. A. , Whitmore, T. C. Subjects: Publisher: IUCN Contributing Library: UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge Digitizing Sponsor: UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: Thailand The Forests Lowland rain forest, shown on Map 27.1, comprises both evergreen and semi-evergreen formations. Evergreen rain forest occurs in the extreme south of peninsular Thailand, near the Malaysian frontier. This is the northern fringe of the great Malesian rain forests, which reach their northern limit at a line from Kangar to Pattani. This also occurs in the Chantaburi pocket, an isolated patch in the south- east, on the wet western slopes of the Cardamom Mountains. Thailand's rain forests are rich in Dipterocarpaceae and other species associated with the forests of Malesia, but they also contain species with Chinese and Himalayan affinities. Many species from these major centres of plant diversity have their northern and southern limits respectively at the Isthmus of Kra. Semi-evergreen rain forest is Thailand's main forest formation. Its boundary with evergreen rain forest is fairly well known in the peninsula (see Whitmore, 1984), although not in the Chantaburi pocket where a complex mosaic results from the locally variable rainfall, soil and aspect. Monsoon forest m Huai Klici Khaetig Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand. WWF / H. Jungius Text Appearing After Image: Heath forest once occurred on some sandy soils in the south-east peninsula, but has now been degraded to open grass and shrublands. Limestone with characteristic vegetation, occurs as karst towers in the south peninsula to about 9"N, and as islands off the south-west coast. There are also extensive limestone mountains in the north- west, and also to the west, north to c. 15°N latitude. Good examples of karst limestone vegetation are found in Ao Phangnga and Khao Sam Roi Yot National Parks and the Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary. Freshwater swamp forest must once have existed along the major rivers, but it has now been entirely cleared to make way for irrigated rice cultivation. Swamp forests were the home of Schomburgk's deer (Cervus schomburgki), which became extinct in the 1930s. The only comparable formations to survive are the Melaleuca and Alsioma forests around Thale Noi in Phattalung Province, Bang Nara in Narathiwat Province in the southern part of the peninsula and the Pa Phiu Non-Huntmg Area. This last is still extremely species-rich, and comprises 80 sq. km of peat swamp forest. Beach forest with its typical Indo-Pacific flora, fringes sandy coasts of the mainland and offshore islands, but is now much altered by settlement and tourist development. Montane forests in Thailand are difficult to define and map because distribution is dependent upon locally complex climatic and topographic variations. In Map 27.1 they have been delimited by a 914 m (3000 ft) contour. Montane forests contain strong temperate elements and are typically dominated by species of Castanopsis, Lithocarpus and Quercus. The higher forests at Khao Yai, at only 14'30'N, contain the Himalayan species Belula alnmdes. Such tempe- rate species become more frequent to the north, where Aceraceae, Lauraceae, Magnoliaceae and Rosaceae are abundant. Open stands of Pinus kesiya and P. merkusii occur as a fire climax formation on sandy soils on the hills of the north. A particularly good example occurs in the Phu Kradeung National Park and is visited by many thousands of people each year. Deciduous monsoon formations were once much more extensive than rain forests, but have been widely deforested. The northern monsoon forests include commercially important teak, found mainly on well-drained soils derived from igneous rocks, and thriving under a regime of occasional ground fires which clear the undergrowth. Extensive dry deciduous woodlands with some dipterocarp con- tent also occur in the north and east but this open canopied formation has not been included in Map 27.1. Forest Resources and Management Table 27.1 is a summary of FAO data for forest cover of Thailand. FAO Rome estimated total natural forest cover at 156,750 jq. km in 1980 and predicted 137,800 sq. km by 1985 (FAO/UNEP, 1981; FAO, 1988). FAO Bangkok made a re-evaluation in 1987 and found slightly higher results for 1985 of 149,050 sq. km, but predicted 135,000 sq. km for 1990 (FAO, 1987). All these figures include open- canopied deciduous dipterocarp forests in northern Thailand, and it is of interest to note that this formation makes up a gradually larger proportion of the total (e.g. FAO (1987) shows 45 per cent open canopy forest in 1980 but 56 per cent in 1990). Table 27.2, based on Map 27.1, is derived mainly from 1985 data see Map Legend for details). It shows almost 107,000 sq. km of tropical moist forest in rain and monsoon forest formations. Open canopy dry dipterocarp forests have been excluded, but in the original maps about 43,000 sq. km of this formation was shown. The total for all forests is thus about 150,000 sq. km, in close agreement with the FAO assessment for 1985 (FAO, 1987). However it should be noted that there is some disparity between the totals for the open and closed canopy formations, with Map 27.1 showing more of the closed canopy rain and monsoon forests than FAO (1987) data would suggest. 223 Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.