Forest and forest succession in Hong Kong, China

Abstract

Hong Kong is on the northern margin of the Asian tropics. The original forest cover was cleared centuries ago but secondary forest has developed since 1945 at many sites protected from fire and cutting. There are also older forest patches maintained behind villages for reasons of 'feng shui', the Chinese system of geomancy. All plants >2cm dbh were identified and measured in forty-four 400-m2 plots. Detrended correpondence analysis showed a floristic continuum, with the motane sites (>500m) most distinct and some overlap between lowland post-1945 secondary forest and the feng shui woods. The 30-40 year-old secondary forest is dominated by Persea spp. Montane forest is similar but lacks several common lowland taxa of tropical genera and includes more subtropical taxa. The feng shui woods have the most complex structure and contain some tree species not found in other forest types. Their origin and history is obscure but we suggest that both planting and selective harvesting have had a role in their current species composition.