Spatial pattern of adult trees and seedling survivorship in Pentaspadon motleyi in a lowland rain forest in Peninsular Malaysia
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Tropical rain forest
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Floristics
Forest reserve
Secondary forest
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The goal of this long-term research has been to assess the relationship between annually measured tree performance and microsite conditions for nine canopy and emergent tree species in old-growth lowland tropical rain forest. The study site, the La Selva Biological Station in northeast Costa Rica, is tropical wet forest (annual mean precipitation 4 m; annual mean temperature 26°C). We used unbiased selection criteria to assemble a sample of >2000 individuals of these species in all size classes except small seedlings. We annually assessed diameter and height growth as well as stem condition and indices of crown lighting and forest structure. These data cover the period 1983–1993, and the study is ongoing as of 1999. To our knowledge the data represent the longest-running and most highly quality-controlled measurements that combine annual tree growth and mortality with associated microsite conditions in tropical forests. The data provide the most detailed insight currently available into how environmental conditions interact with past performance and ontogenetic potential in tropical rain forest trees. The focus on an annual time step allows resolution of important aspects of regeneration that are obscured or not measurable with longer inter-census intervals. The data have been used to study the nature and diversity of tropical tree life-history patterns; relationships among microsite, growth, and survival; the effects of physical damage on regeneration; ecophysiology of saplings; the ecological role of very large trees in old-growth forest; and interannual variations in tree growth.
Microsite
Forest dynamics
Tree canopy
Tropical vegetation
Shade tolerance
Basal area
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A high number of tree species, low density of adults of each species, and long distances between conspecific adults are characteristic of many low-land tropical forest habitats. I propose that these three traits, in large part, are the result of the action of predators on seeds and seedlings. A model is presented that allows detailed examination of the effect of different predators, dispersal agents, seed-crop sizes, etc. on these three traits. In short, any event that increases the efficiency of the predators at eating seeds and seedlings of a given tree species may lead to a reduction in population density of the adults of that species and/or to increased distance between new adults and their parents. Either event will lead to more space in the habitat for other species of trees, and therefore higher total number of tree species, provided seed sources are available over evolutionary time. As one moves from the wet lowland tropics to the dry tropics or temperate zones, the seed and seedling predators in a habitat are hypothesized to be progressively less efficient at keeping one or a few tree species from monopolizing the habitat through competitive superiority. This lowered efficiency of the predators is brought about by the increased severity and unpredictability of the physical environment, which in turn leads to regular or erratic escape of large seed or seedling cohorts from the predators.
Seed predation
Seed dispersal syndrome
Temperate forest
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A new, lowland species of the Ingerophrynus biporcatus group is described from the Endau-Rompin National Park in southern, peninsular Malaysia, Johor. It is unique in various aspects of morphology and color and is the third, new herpetological species discovered and described from this region of the Malay Peninsula since 2005. This suggests that the biodiversity of this part of southern Malaysia may be significantly underestimated and underscores the importance of continued field research in these lowland forests which are currently being logged and converted to oil palm plantations.
Malay peninsula
Peninsula
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Tropical rain forest
Tropical forest
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Natural regeneration
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Trait
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Tropical rain forest
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A preliminary survey of abundance and species richness of galling insects on dipterocarps was conducted in the forest canopy and forest floor of the Pasoh Forest Reserve in Peninsular Malaysia. At least 120 individuals and 13 sorts of galls were collected from canopy crowns of 15 of 26 dipterocarp trees (10 species) surveyed. In contrast, only one individual coccoid gall was found on the forest floor, despite careful searches of about a hundred seedlings, saplings, and young trees. This result shows that galls on dipterocarps are concentrated in the forest canopy, where young shoots suitable for gall induction and development are abundant. Although insect inhabitants obtained from the galls were not numerous, most of the galls were supposed to have been induced by dipteran or hymenopteran insects, and the rest proved to have been caused by beesoniid coccoids (Homoptera). This study suggests that dipterocarps harbor diverse galling insect species, of which the main domain is in the forest canopy.
Forest floor
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