The vegetation and flora along an altitudinal transect through tropical forest at Mount Korobaba, Fiji

Abstract

Mt Korobaba, near Suva, Fiji, is a steep breccia cone 422 m high, covered by largely unmodified tropical forest. Fifteen percent of the indigenous vascular flora of Fiji was recorded from 15 plots, in a transect located to encompass the marked physiognomic variation in these forests. Agglomerative classifications of floristic and abun- dance data for the tree, sapling, shrub, herb, and dependent synusiae indicated five strong, but inter- grading, types. The major forest types vary struc- turally from a multi-layered forest, with emergents up to 35 m and a rich development of epiphytes and climbers, to a 4-14 m tall broken-canopied scrub, poor in epiphytes and climbers. The forests along the transect show evidence of continuous regeneration. The 'massenerhebung' effect on the Mt Korobaba forests appears to be associated with soil shallowness and exposure to strong winds, as does much of the variation in the vegetation.