Malays. Appl. Biol. (2020) 49(1): 159–171 THE ASSOCIATION OF TREE SPECIES DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE WITH THE SOIL EDAPHIC FACTOR IN A LARGEST TROPICAL RECREATIONAL FOREST OF TERENGGANU, PENINSULAR MALAYSIA KHAIRIL MAHMUD1*, KHAIRULAKWA, H.2, NUR FATIHAH, H.N.2, NORNASUHA, Y.2, KHANDAKER, M.M.2, MOHD IZUAN EFFENDI HALMI3, NOOR-AMALINA, R.4 and WAN JULIANA, W.A.5,6 1Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia 2Faculty of Bioresources and Food Industry, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Tembila Campus, 22200 Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia 3Department of Land Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia 4Faculty of Health Science, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 5Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia 6Institute of Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia *E-mail:
[email protected] Accepted 12 June 2020, Published online 30 June 2020 ABSTRACT A study was conducted to investigate the association between tree species composition with soil edaphic factor in Chemerong Recreational Forest, the largest recreational forest in Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia. Two types of forest were chosen which are riparian forest and inland forest. Four plots with the dimension of 50 m × 20 m each were established with two plots at each forest type with total study site of 0.4 ha. A total of 1158 trees (>1 cm diameter) from 263 species, 125 genus and 50 families were recorded.