Regeneration of Degraded Lowland Dipterocarp Forest: Elephants as Seed Dispersal Agent

The pattern of forest structure changes is crucial to identify the leading ecological processes and future forest composition after disturbance. Hulu Terengganu, Malaysia was subjected to the development of a hydroelectric power plant. After the dam development, three forest habitat types were identified i.e. lowland dipterocarp remnants, secondary and isolated island forests. After one year, all trees were monitored in 39 units of 5 m × 5 m sample plots. In January 2017, forest edge had the highest number of individuals with 134 records from 36 families, 58 genera and 72 species compared to the ridge with 89 individuals (eight families, nine genera and 11 species) and islands recorded 59 individuals (nine families, 15 genera and 20 species). Forest edge also showed the highest density with 6700 ind./ha from 0.02 ha sample plots compared to the ridge (1780 ind./ha) in 0.05 ha and islands (1395 ind./ha) in 0.04 ha. Despite the difference in floral composition, these habitats had the same dominant species that of Macaranga tree species. In 2018, the number of plant individuals for all three habitats were slightly reduced. We suspected, elephants affected the regeneration processes. We recorded plants germinated from wild elephant dungs consisted of 32 species belonging to 15 families. Five species were considered as the most preferred plants by elephants. The regenerated tree species from our sample plots matched with the germinated seeds from the elephant dungs. In conclusion, forest regeneration at Hulu Terengganu was closely related with wildlife activities.