VEGETATION ANALYSIS OF A TYPICAL MANGROVE SWAMP──LAI CHI WO COAST OF HONG KONG

A vegetation analysis reveals that the Lai Chi Wo mangrove swamp in Hong Kong has 10 mangrove species comprising 76.9% of the total number of mangrove species in Hong Kong . This swamp is a mixed community dominated by Aegiceras corniculatum , Heritiera littoralis , Excoecaria agallocha , Kandelia candel, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza , with importance values of 37.88, 28.19, 14.33, 11.33 and 8.27 respectively. The community’s mangrove species diversity and evenness , as based on the Shannon-Wiener Function, were 1.44 and 62.01%, which were lower than those of the south su-tropical evergreen broad-leaf forest community but its ecological dominance (0.26) was higher. The correlation information field (CIF) method , a useful analytical method for complex forest community , was adopted in the present mangrove analysis . The species correlation information was : Aegiceras corniculatum (0.268) >Heritiera littoralis (0.250) >Kandelia candel (0.220)>Excoecaria agallocha (0.169 )>Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (0.101). The correlation information of the mangrove community was 1.008 .