Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The rebuilding of an isolated rain forestassemblage: how disharmonicis the flora of Krakatau?

  • Published:
Biodiversity & Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The compositional balance of the flora of the Krakatau Islands, Indonesia, is examined in order to identify taxonomic and/or ecological groups which are under-represented in this recovering island ecosystem in relation to regional analogues and potential source areas in the Sunda Strait (Ujung Kulon and Sebesi Island). Interpretations are conditioned by the limited availability of comparative data, the uncertainty surrounding dispersal classifications, the problem of determining habitat suitability for missing elements, and thus the unsuitability of a formal statistical approach. Analysis by dispersal syndrome supports predictions that species with large, winged, wind-scattered propagules, or those with no particular dispersal potential, are under-sampled. However, some species with winged propagules have colonized, in most cases probably by thalassochory (sea-dispersal). Although zoochorous (animal-dispersed) trees and shrubs are well represented on Krakatau, those large-seeded species which are primarily dependent on dispersal by animals other than birds are under-represented. Large-seeded zoochores are probably highly dependent on two species of Ducula (large fruit-pigeons) for transport to Krakatau and their colonization has been relatively slow. Comparison with Christmas and Jarak Islands yields differing degrees of overlap for thalassochorous, zoochorous, and anemochorous (wind-dispersed) spermatophytes and for pteridophytes, interpretable in terms of dispersability and size of the respective species pools. Particular families and genera can be identified which are seemingly under-sampled on Krakatau, as can some which are over-represented in relation to the principal comparative site, the Ujung Kulon peninsular, West Java. The latter are mostly very small-seeded wind-dispersed epiphytic herbs (especially orchids). Ferns are also very well represented in relation to the West Javan source pool. It is concluded that the flora of Krakatau remains disharmonic, in a predictable fashion, although it is certainly becoming less so. The data provide empirical evidence for the abilities of particular functional guilds of rain forest plants to disperse across significant barriers: the implications of these findings are discussed in relation to current concerns with forest fragmentation in the tropics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews, C.W. (ed.) (1990) A monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean): physical features and geology, with descriptions of the fauna and flora. London: British Museum (Natural History).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashton, P.A. (1982) Dipterocarpaceae. Flora Malesiana Series I — Spermatophyta 9(2), 237–553.

    Google Scholar 

  • Backer, C.A. and Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C. (1963–1968) Flora of Java. Three volumes. Groningen, the Netherlands: N.V.P. Noordhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balgooy, M.M.J. van (1971) Plant-geography of the Pacific. Blumea 19,Suppl. 6, 1–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bawa, K.S. (1982) Outcrossing and incidence of dioecism in island floras. Amer. Nat. 119, 866–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Begon, M., Harper, J.L., and Townsend, C.R. (1986) Ecology. London: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bramwell, D. (ed.) (1979) Plants and Islands. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beusekom-Osinga, R.J. van (1977) Crypteroniaceae. Flora Malesiana Series I — Spermatophyta 8, 237–553.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M.B. (1994) Amazonian speciation: a necessarily complex model. J. Biogeogr. 21, 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M.B. and Colinvaux, P.A. (1990) A pollen record of a complete glacial cycle from lowland Panama. J. Veg. Sci. 1, 105–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M.B. and Rivera, R. (in press) Pollen dispersal and representation in a neotropical forest. Global Ecol. and Biogeog. Lett.

  • Bush, M.B. and Whittaker, R.J. (1991) Krakatau: colonization patterns and hierarchies. J. Biogeogr. 18, 341–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M.B. and Whittaker, R.J. (1993) Non-equilibration in island theory of Krakatau. J. Biogeogr. 20, 453–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M.B., Whittaker, R.J. and Partomihardjo, T. (1995) Colonization and succession on Krakatau: an analysis of the guild of vining plants. Biotropica 27, 355–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Compton, S.G., Ross, S.J. and Thornton, I.W.B. (1994) Pollinator limitation of fig tree reproduction on the island of Anak Krakatau (Indonesia). Biotropica 26, 180–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corner, E.J.H. (1988) Wayside trees of Malaya. 3rd edn, 2 vols, pp. 861. Kuala Lumpur: The Malayan Nature Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, P.A., Elmqvist, T., Pierson, E.D. and Rainey, W.E. (1992) Flying foxes as pollinators and seed dispersers in Pacific Island ecosystems. In Pacific Island Flying Foxes: Proceedings of an International Conservation Conference (D.E. Wilson and G.L. Graham, eds) pp. 18–23. Biological Report 90(23), July 1992. US Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J.M. (1975) Assembly of species communities. In Ecology and evolution of communities (M.L. Cody and J.M. Diamond, eds) pp. 342–444. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Docters van Leeuwen, W.M. (1923) On the present state of the vegetation of the Krakatau Group and of the Island of Sebesy. In Proceedings of the Second Pan Pacific Science Congress pp. 313–18. Melbourne, Australia: Australian National Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Docters van Leeuwen, W.M. (1936) Krakatau 1883–1933. Annales du Jardin botanique de Buitenzorg 46–47, 1–506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, A. (1908) The new flora of the volcanic island of Krakatau (Translated into English by A.C. Seward). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedler, P.L. and Jain, S.K. (1992) Conservation Biology: the theory and practice of nature conservation, preservation and management. London: Chapman & Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentry, A.H. (1991) The distribution and evolution of climbing plants. In The Biology of Vines (F.E. Putz and H.A. Mooney, eds) pp. 3–52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hommel, P.W.F.M. (1987) Landscape-ecology of Ujung Kulon (West Java, Indonesia). Privately published doctoral thesis, Wageningen.

  • Hommel, P.W.F.M. (1990) Ujung Kulon: landscape survey and land evaluation as a habitat for the Javan rhinoceros. ITC Journal 1990–1, 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howe, E.F. (1984) Implications of seed dispersal by animals for tropical reserve management. Biol. Conserv. 30, 261–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, M. (1981) The tropical rain forest: a first encounter. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kartawinata, K. and Apandi, A. (1977) Checklist of plant species on the Peucang Island (Ujung Kulon Nature Reserve, West Java). Berita Biologi 2, 13–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellman, M. (1996) Redefining roles: plant community reorganization and species preservation in fragmented systems. Global Ecol. Biogeog. Lett. 5, 111–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leighton, M. and Leighton, D.R. (1983) Vertebrate responses to fruiting seasonality within a Bornean rain forest. In Tropical rain forest: Ecology and management (S.L. Sutton, T.C. Whitmore and A.C. Chadwick, eds) pp. 181–196. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, B.A. (1974) The forest flora of Christmas Island. Commonw. For. Rev. 53, 19–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Partomihardjo, T., Mirmanto, E. and Whittaker, R.J. (1992a) Anak Krakatau's vegetation and flora circa 1991, with Observations on a decade of development and change. GeoJournal 28, 233–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partomihardjo, T., Mirmanto, E., Riswan, S. and Whittaker, R.J. (1992b) Ecology and distribution of Nibung (Oncosperma tigillarium) within the Krakatau Islands, Indonesia. Principes 36, 7–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pijl, L. van der (1957) The dispersal of plants by bats (Chiropterochory). Acta Bot. Neerl. 6, 291–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pijl, L. van der (1982) Principles of dispersal in higher plants. 3rd edition. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridley, H.N. (1930) The dispersal of plants throughout the world. Ashford, England: Reeve.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, D.W. (1981) Tropical frugivorous birds and their food plants: a world survey. Biotropica 13, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steenis, C.G.G.J. van (1965) Concise Plant Geography. In Flora of Java, volume 2, General part (C.A. Backer and R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink, Jr, eds) pp. 1–72. Groningen: N.V.P. Noordhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tackaberry, R. and Kellman, M. (1996) Patterns of tree species richness along peninsular extensions of tropical forests. Global Ecol. Biogeog. Lett. 5, 85–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tagawa, H., Suzuki, E. and Partomihardjo, T. (1986) A list of plant species collected from the Krakatau islands and adjacent areas, Indonesia. Mem. Kagoshima Univ. Res. Center S. Pac. 7, 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, I.W.B. (1996) Krakatau: the destruction and reassembly of an island ecosystem. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, I.W.B., New, T.R., Zann, R.A. and Rawlinson, P.A. (1990) Colonization of the Krakatau islands by animals: a perspective from the 1980s. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 328, 131–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, I.W.B., Partomihardjo, T. and Yukuwa, J. (1994) Observation on the effects, up to July 1993, of the current eruptive episode of Anak Krakatau. Global Ecol. Biogeog. Lett. 4, 88–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, I.M. (1996) Species loss in fragments of tropical rain forest: a review of the evidence. J. Appl. Ecol. 33, 200–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiher, E. and Keddy, P.A. (1995) Assembly rules, null models, and trait dispersion: new questions from old patterns. Oikos 74, 159–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitmore, T.C. (1984) Tropical rain forests of the Far East. 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.J. and Bush, M.B. (1993) Dispersal and establishment of tropical forest assemblages, Krakatau, Indonesia. In Primary Succession on Land. (J. Miles and D.W.H. Walton, eds) pp. 147–60, Special Publ. series of the B.E.S. No. 12. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.J. and Jones, S.H. (1994a) The role of frugivorous bats and birds in the rebuilding of a tropical forest ecosystem, Krakatau, Indonesia. J. Biogeogr. 21, 689–702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.J. and Jones, S.H. (1994b) Structure in re-building insular ecosystems: an empirically derived model. Oikos 69, 524–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.J., Bush, M.B. and Richards, K. (1989) Plant recolonization and vegetation succession on the Krakatau islands, Indonesia. Ecol. Monogr. 59, 59–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.J., Bush, M.B., Partomihardjo, T., Asquith, N.M. and Richards, K. (1992a) Ecological aspects of plant colonization of the Krakatau Islands. Geojournal 28, 201–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.J., Walden, J. and Hill, E.J. (1992b) Post-1883 ash fall on Panjang and Sertung and its ecological impact. Geojournal 28, 153–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyatt-Smith, J. (1953) The vegetation of Jarak Island, Straits of Malacca. J. Ecol. 41, 207–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB, UK

    ROBERT J. WHITTAKER & STEPHEN H. JONES

  2. Herbarium Bogoriense, Jalan Ir. H. Juanda 22, Bogor, 16122, Indonesia

    TUKIRIN PARTOMIHARDJO

Authors
  1. ROBERT J. WHITTAKER
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. STEPHEN H. JONES
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. TUKIRIN PARTOMIHARDJO
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

WHITTAKER, R.J., JONES, S.H. & PARTOMIHARDJO, T. The rebuilding of an isolated rain forestassemblage: how disharmonicis the flora of Krakatau?. Biodiversity and Conservation 6, 1671–1696 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018335007666

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018335007666

Search

Navigation