Abstract
A quantitative comparison of pteridophytes diversity in small scales was conducted among regions of Malaysian tropical, Taiwan and Ryukyu subtropical and Japanese temperate forests. Accumulating number of pteridophytes on 25 cubes of 5 m × 5 m × 5 m was about 55, 30, 20 and 10 spp. in the warm temperate, subtropical, cool temperate and tropical forests floor, respectively. Among different habitats near Kuala Lumpur, the highest gamma-diversity (26 spp. / 40 cubes of 5 m × 5 m × 5 m) was found at Semangkok natural tropical forest and the lowest was (12spp. / 40 cubes) on oil palm trunks. The highest beta-diversity was 7 on 10 yrs forest gap at Pasoh, the lowest was 2 on oil palm trunks. Alpha-diversity represented by mean number of species per cube was the highest as 6.5 at natural forest floor at Semangkok and the lowest as 2.4 at forest gap at Pasoh.
Space more than 20 cubes of 10 m × 10 m × 10 m and 5 cubes of 20 m × 20 m × 20 m showed the higher accumulating number of pteridophytes species at natural forest than those of other artificially disturbed habitats. Pronounced tropical natural forest consists of highest bio-diversity (especially tall trees) wide range of forest is necessary for the maintenance of the high phytodiversity of pteridophytes in Malay archipelago, since pteridophytes flora is poor in small scales.