Flora composition and diversity in Mount Sibela Educational Forest, South Halmahera, North Maluku

Abstract The Gunung Sibela Educational Forest is part of the nature reserve located on Bacan Island, North Maluku. Flora research in this location is still very limited, therefore this research was carried out as database support for area management. The purpose of this study was to describe the composition and diversity of flora in the Gunung Sibela Educational Forest. Data collection was carried out in block 332 by making 25 plots measuring 20 m × 20 m each. We recorded the number of individuals of each species, also height and diameter specifically for trees in each growth phase. There were 40 plant species from 25 families, dominated by Neolamarckia macrophylla in tree phase (71.95%), Celtis sp. in poles (41.87%) and saplings (22.55%), and Aglaia sp. in seedlings (33.02%). The diversity index was on moderate categories on trees (2.93), poles (2.93) and seedling (2.47), and high on saplings (3.05). The richness index was high on trees, poles, saplings (6.58, 5.18, 6.05 respectively), and moderate on seedlings (3.61). While the evenness index shows the number of individuals for trees, poles, saplings and seedlings tend to be evenly distributed (0.82, 0.93, 0.89, 0.89 respectively). Overall of this study is the composition of the vegetation in Gunung Sibela Educational Forest contains 40 species of plants and the diversity of species is classified as moderate, and evenness and species richness are classified as high. This indicates that the condition of the vegetation in the research location of the Gunung Sibela Educational Forest is in good condition.