Woodland Ecosystem -The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve Field Study Geography Woodland Ecosystem -The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve Field Study Yip Ching Yi Chan Hao Yan

Foreword The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve has a good environment with fresh air, rich diversity of plant species, trees with special characteristics of roots and leaves, etc. This powerpoint would show you more details of them! Enjoy in the nature!

Introduction of The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve It is a forest reserve located on the road between Tai Po and the Chinese University of Hong Kong It is Hong Kong's largest secondary forest It holds good stands of mature plantation and native trees.

Details Of Our Field Study Date: 16th January, 2010 Weather: - temperature: 18 C - light intensity: intense - relative humidity: 55% - wind speed: low Start now!

This is a herb which can be used to make herbal tea. There are many plants in The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, most of them are useful. Now, let’s introduce these plants to you! This is a herb which can be used to make herbal tea. Its flowers are white, but now we cannot see the flowers because it is not the season they grow!

They are Archidendron clypearia which belong to Mimosaceae .

They are Lemmaphyllum microphyllum They are Lemmaphyllum microphyllum. They intercrescence on trunks or rocks.

They are Rubus reflexus. There are fluff on the surface of leaves, and stings at the bottom of leaves.

Tree species This is Liquidambar formosana which originated in Hong Kong. Height: the maximum is 40m - Uses: trunk :make dried mushrooms Resin :medicine Woods :building. Leaves :feed saturniid -In summer: the leaves are yellow -In winter: the leaves are red -The leaves smell sweet if we shutter them!

This is Ficus microcarpa, which is evergreen.

Layered Structure Five layered structures in the forest: 1.Emergent layer 2.Canopy layer 3.Understory 4.Shrub layer 5.Forest floor

Relationship between layered structure and light intensity With the higher layer, more light intensity received.

Relationship between layered structure and light intensity Little sunlight reaches the ground layer.

This tree belongs to emergent layer. Buttress roots are always growing sideways from trees. These give increased stability and also bring surface nutrients to their trees. Buttress roots help trees to remain standing, and overcome the challenges of high winds or soft unstable ground. In forest like Tai Po Kau’s, buttress roots are relatively small but in tropical forests they can reach 10 metres or more.

Epiphytes Epiphytes live attached to trees, they do not live from trees in the regard, parasites are fundamentally different, they actually tap into the body of trees or other plants, seeking nutrients by taking them from the host tree or plant.

Climbers They are named Climbing Entada which are climbers. They are woody plants that start at ground level. They climb along the trees to reach the canopy where they will spread from tree to tree to get as much sunlight as possible.

There are many animals in The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve too! They are termite, the greatest decomposers. Do you know what they were doing? They were destroying the wood! The huge hole is the destruction made by termite!

Simplified Nutrients cycle Biomass Soil Litter

Those white areas are Lichans. Other learnings Those white areas are Lichans. Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic association of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner, usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium.

Annual growth rings The concentric circles show how old the tree was when it died. This is because each tree ring shows one fast growing season, which in Hong Kong is the hot, wet summer. Every year the tree adds another outer woody layer.

Reflection During the trip, we found that there are so many plant species in the forest, they are special and useful, which we have never seen them before, we learned a lot! On the other hand, we were excited that we could understand more about what we had learnt from the books in the trip, such as layered structure of trees. The resources in the forest are treasures, we have to protect them, and not to destroy them!

Thank you so much for watching! The End. Thank you so much for watching!