Vegetation of the Sigatoka sand dunes, Fiji

Abstract

The vegetation of the Sigatoka sand dunes in Viti Levu, Fiji, consists of forest dominated by native trees and shrubs, coastal communities dominated variously by native and introduced species, and grassland dominated by introduced species. The near-coastal and inland forest are discriminated by numerical analysis as are three non-forest communities. The dunes are edaphically and climatically capable of supporting a complete cover of native closed-forest. However, this formation has been drastically reduced in area by firing, cutting, grazing, and the instability of the parabolic dune system in the high-energy coastal environment. The closed-forest may be eliminated if the present pattern of use of the area continues or if the full area of the dunes is used for mining of magnetite. The destruction of the closed-forest would be unfortunate as it has high nature conservation value.