GROUND COVER PLANTS DIVERSITY IN MANDIANGIN HILL FOREST AREA WITH A SPECIAL PURPOSE OF SOUTH KALIMANTAN PROVINCE, INDONESIA

Abstract

ULM's Special Purpose Forest Area (KHDTK) has an area of 1,617 ha. Areas included in the ULM KHDTK are Bukit Besar, Mandiangin Hill, Pamaton Hill, Pandamaran Hill, each of which has a different altitude. Ground cover plants diversity studies have been carried out at Mandiangin Hill within several elevations. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze the distribution and abundance of ground cover plants (2) to analyze the Important Value Index for ground cover plants and (3) to identify the diversity index of ground cover plants. The research method used is vegetation analysis through purposive sampling to get the Important Value Index (INP), the Species Diversity Index (H’), Evenness Index (e), Community Similarity Index (IS) and the effect of altitude on the number of species. The results showed that the highest INP value for ground cover plants from all altitudes was dominated by Rumput minyak (Brachiaria humidicola), (H’) score of the level of ground cover plants at all heights is moderate, the value (e) is almost evenly distributed, the value of (IS) is low, and the ANOVA test shows no significant difference between the effect of altitude on the number of species found in the study area.

Keywords

• ground cover plants
• altitude
• species diversity