Author(s)

Yoshimasa Kumekawa^1,2*, Matheus Kilmaskossu³, Makito Mori², Akira Miyazaki², Katsura Ito², Ryo Arakawa², Tatsuya Fukuda², Hubertus Matanubun³, Yoshinori Yamamoto²

¹The United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Ehime University, Kochi, Japan.
²Faculty of Agriculture, Kochi University, Kochi, Japan.
³Papua State University, Manokwari, Indonesia.

The variation in solar environments during succession in sago forests is thought to affect the growth of many plant species. To clarify the pattern of plant colonization in sago forests at various successional stages, we constructed eleven 10 m × 10 m quadrats in different solar conditions in sago forests, measured and calculated the relative illumination intensity, collected all plant species in these quadrats, and used two chloroplast gene sequences—the rbcL gene of ferns and the trnL intron of angiosperms to molecularly identify them. The number of ferns increased while the number of herbaceous species decreased during the process of succession. Moreover, the number of woody species was not significantly correlated with the relative light intensity. Based on these results, it can be concluded that woody species colonized and grew at various successional stages but herbaceous species and ferns did the same in the early and late successional stages, respec-tively, in the sago forest.

Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), Plant Species, Sago Palm

Kumekawa, Y. , Kilmaskossu, M. , Mori, M. , Miyazaki, A. , Ito, K. , Arakawa, R. , Fukuda, T. , Matanubun, H. and Yamamoto, Y. (2014) Changes in Plant Species during Succession in a Sago Forest. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 5, 3526-3534. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2014.524369.