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Asian Journal of Plant Sciences

Year: 2005 | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 144-148
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Authors

A.A. Nuruddin

Lili Tokiman

Keywords

Research Article

Air and Soil Temperature Characteristics of Two Sizes Forest Gap in Tropical Forest

A.A. Nuruddin and Lili Tokiman
This study was conducted to characterize soil temperatures at three depths in two gap sizes and to relate soil temperatures with other microclimatic parameters. This study was conducted at Air Hitam Forest Reserve, Puchong, Selangor from September to December 1997. Two gap sizes were chosen; large (500 m2) and small (180 m2). Continuous measurement on soil and air temperature and solar radiation were made for seven days. Due to availability of only one data logger, measurements of both gaps could not be made simultaneously. Measurement of soil temperature at three depths were made at the center of the gap while measurement of soil temperatures along a transect were made at 5 cm depth. The result shows that mean soil temperatures at 1, 5 and 10cm in the large gap were 25.51, 25.5 and 25.45°C, respectively. The mean soil temperatures in the small gap at 1, 5 and 10 cm were 25.26, 25.50 and 25.33°C, respectively. The soil temperatures were higher in the gap and change progressively to the edge of the forest. Simple linear regression analyses of soil temperature at three different depths and air temperature were made using the large and small gap data. In both gaps, there were strong relationship between 1 cm soil temperature and air temperature with R2 of 0.96 for large gap and 0.65 for small gap. A linear relationship was found with R2=0.57 between soil temperature of 1 cm depth and solar radiation in the large gap. This study concludes that the air temperature is the best variable to predict the soil temperature.
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