Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST), Bondo, Kenya.
Laikipia University (LU), Nyahururu, Kenya.
PLoS One. 2024 Aug 7;19(8):e0307887. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307887. eCollection 2024.
Orchidaceae is one of the most diverse and widespread groups of flowering plants. Despite their immense ecological and socio-economic value, their spatial distribution across forest disturbance gradient is not well understood, particularly in tropical montane forests. This study assessed the influence of forest degradation on orchid species richness and abundance in West Mau Forest, Kenya. Stratified systematic sampling was adopted across three different disturbance regimes consisting of relatively intact forest, moderately disturbed forest and highly degraded forest. A total of five orchid species were recorded from nine host-tree species. The intact forest had seven host tree species with five orchid species. The moderately degraded forest had four host-tree species with two orchid species, while the highly degraded forest that had no orchids. Polystachya confusa was the most abundant orchid species (600.0±227.9 clumps ha-1) followed by Bulbophyllum sp (340.0±112.2 clumps ha-1), Chamaeangis sp (300.0±115.5 clumps ha-1), Aerangis sp (200.0±57.7 clumps ha-1) and Tridactyle sp (100.0±0.0 clumps ha-1). The results of this study indicate that forest degradation reduces orchid species diversity in tropical montane forests. They also show that orchids are bioindicators of forest degradation status.
兰科植物是开花植物中最多样化和分布最广泛的群体之一。尽管它们具有巨大的生态和社会经济价值，但它们在森林干扰梯度上的空间分布情况尚未得到很好的理解，特别是在热带山地森林中。本研究评估了森林退化对肯尼亚西部毛森林兰花物种丰富度和丰度的影响。采用分层系统抽样方法，在相对完整的森林、中度干扰的森林和高度退化的森林三种不同干扰状态下进行了采样。从 9 种寄主树种中记录到 5 种兰花。完整的森林有 7 种寄主树种和 5 种兰花。中度退化的森林有 4 种寄主树种和 2 种兰花，而高度退化的森林则没有兰花。多穗兰（Polystachya confusa）是最丰富的兰花物种（600.0±227.9 丛/公顷），其次是球花兰（Bulbophyllum sp）（340.0±112.2 丛/公顷）、剑兰（Chamaeangis sp）（300.0±115.5 丛/公顷）、白蝶兰（Aerangis sp）（200.0±57.7 丛/公顷）和三叉兰（Tridactyle sp）（100.0±0.0 丛/公顷）。本研究结果表明，森林退化降低了热带山地森林中兰花的物种多样性。它们还表明，兰花是森林退化状况的生物指标。
