Special features of tropical heath forest: facts and myths

抄録

Contrary to conventional wisdom or hypotheses following from it, there were no differences in water use rate, vulnerability to embolism, maximum rooting depth of sapling-sized plants, or basal area increment of trees in a dipterocarp forest and a tropical heath forest. There is strong anecdotal evidence for water use partitioning in heath forest leading to strikingly different susceptibilities to drought-induced mortality among species. Good management of heath forest sites requires the maintenance of closed canopy over large areas and protection from fire and whatever else might destroy the surface organic layer.