Plant Diversity and Conservation Value of Ayer Hitam Forest, Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia

The Ayer Hitam Forest, a logged-over lowland mixed-dipterocarp forest in the State of Selangor covers an area of 1248 hectares. It is one of the remaining forests left in the Klang Valley besides the Bukit Nenas Forest in Kuala Lumpur. This forest has been leased to Universiti Putra Malaysia(UPM) in 1996 for 80 years for the purpose of education, research and extension. Since then various efforts have been taken to know the biodiversity it houses. Thus, a database on the plants of Ayer Hitam Forest was started in 1998. Several plots have been established and plant collections were made to achieve this and is still progressing. Results presented here are still preliminary. A total of 430 species of seed plants in 203 genera and 72 families occur here. 33 species offerns and fern-allies, 127 timber species, 29 fruit tree species and 98 species with medicinal values were recorded from this forest. Of these taxa, 20 species which are endemic to Peninsular Malaysia are found here, five being new records for Selangor. Although Ayer Hitam Forest is still regenerating, it is nevertheless a rich fragmented ecosytem that needs to be conseroed for future generations to come

The concept of 'NYAWA'

NYAWA in the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, means life. NYAWA is the acronym for Nature’s Yield and Wonders of Art and is meant to depict nature’s bountiful yield i.e. biodiversity and its various functions. Biodiversity as defined in the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992) is the variety of all forms of life ranging from the species, the genes it contains and ecosystems. Article 13 of CBD on Public Education and Awareness states this as one of its activities: Promote and encourage understanding of the importance of, and the measures required for, the conservation of biological diversity, as well as its propagation through media, and the inclusion of these topics in educational programmes. Malaysia is one of the 12 megadiversity countries in the World with 15,000 plant species, 290 mammals, 150,000 invertebrates, with insects being the largest group (e.g. butterflies-1200 species, moths-12,000 species), and 8,000 fishes (Latiff, 2008)

The Use of Medicinal Plant Species by the Temuan Tribe of Ayer Hitam Forest, Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia

Preliminary results of a study on the use of medicinal plant species by the indigenous people from the Temuan tribe at Ayer Hitam Forest are presented. Although this forest is surrounded by rapid socio-economic development, it is ironically a substantial pharmacopoeia for the Temuans. A total of 98 plant species with 140 different uses were recorded and they were grouped into seven methods of application namely drink, eat, chew, poultice, rub, bath and shampoo

A preliminary study on the distribution of fruit tree taxa at Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Selangor

An assessment on the fruit trees families Burseraceae, Sapindaceae and Meliaceae showed that 714 trees from 10 genera representing 26 species were identified in the 5-ha plot. Sixteen mother trees were identified and all are Burseraceae explaining the high populations compared to Sapidaceae and Meliaceae. Despite the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve being not fully recovered from the effects of previous logging activities, the diversity of fruit trees present is commendable in supplying food to different wildlife

Forest biodiversity: importance of species composition studies

The vision of the Malaysian National Policy on Biological Diversity 1998 which states "to conserve Malaysia's biological diversity and to ensure that its components are utilised in a sustainable manner for the continued progress and socio-economic development of the nation" indicates that Malaysian forests harbour a very large portion of the nation's biodiversity and that forests have an important role to play in the country's socio-economic development and environmental stability. Thus, the degradation of the nation's biological diversity would have grave repercussions on the economy, environment and people. In the forestry sector, biological diversity not only provides timber and non-timber goods but also numerous other ecological services such as environmental stability which includes carbon sequestration, maintenance of hydrological regimes and recycling of nutrients, besides providing a habitat for wildlife. Much of the nation's biological diversity has yet to be documented and strengthened with scientific investigations. Current forestry issues include deforestation, conservation, intensity of sampling, sustainable forest management, economic valuation of goods and services, carbon sequestration, payment for ecosystem services and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The applications of species composition studies are many, but those that are pertinent to forest biodiversity works include the determination of minimum sampling size in forest inventory as inventories are expensive and laborious in nature, the use of indices that are comparable between forests, consideration of minimum diameter for enumeration and measurement so as not to lose important information on biodiversity and estimation of biomass and carbon sequestration. The importance of predicting and enhancing forest regeneration is crucial to determine the next course of action by foresters in enriching the forests besides helping it to grow better and faster for future yields. There is currently an underestimation on pricing of our timbers. Putting the correct timber species in the correct groups will thus help to increase revenue for the state governments. To date, some conservation works in the country have ignored the importance of some details in ensuring the success of the conservation programmes. These include re-introduction programmes of wildlife species and extension or creation of wildlife corridors. The justification for keeping conservation areas in the country, which are mainly forested areas, and the actions to be taken for its safe protection requires fundamental information such as species composition. Such information can be converted to suit many facets of understanding that deals with the current forestry and environmental issues such as economic value, carbon storage capacity and payment for ecosystem service

Antioxidative Responses of Tree Species in Ayer Hitam Forest, Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia

Antioxidative responses of eight tree species namely Atrocarpus elasticus, Endospermum diadenum, Vitex pinnata, Pellacalyx axillaris, Garcinia atroviridis, Gironniera nervosa, Bouea Oppsitifolia and Callerya atropurpurea were determined from samples collected from both the interior and fringe forest regions of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve. These antioxidative responses measured include the extent of oxidative deterioration of cellular membrane lipids as well as the concentrations of ascorbate and a-tocopherol, two important endogeneous antioxidants. All eight species showed significant differences in the extent of oxidative deterioration between the interior and fringe forest regions where generally higher levels of membrane lipid peroxidation or oxidative deterioration were observed in samples from the fringe forest regions except for V pinnata and G. nervosa. Concentrations of a-tocopherol were also found to be generally higher in the fringe forest regions except for V.pinnata and G. nervosa. Ascorbate concentrations were however found to be higher in all the tree species sampled from the fringe forest. This thus indicates higher levels of stress conditions with respect to oxidative stress manifested l7y higher levels of disturbance in the fringe forest regions. While G. atropurpurea may represent a good and sensitive indicator species in determining stress conditions in the forest, V pinnata and G. nervosa may represent tree species that are efficient in minimising oxidative deterioration in stress conditions

Forestry education in Malaysia: trends and challenges

The expansion of the forestry sector in Malaysia and the importance of forest for its biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services requires the development of human capital at both technical and professional levels. The relevance of forestry education in the country, its trends and challenges are herein discussed

Ornithophily

Pollination is a process where pollen grains are transferred from the stamens (male part) to the stigma (female part) of the flower; if it happens on the same plant it is called self pollination or if on another plant of the same species it is termed cross pollination. Pollination, however, is an accidental process that happens when animals such as bees, flies, wasps, moths, butterflies, bats, ants, beetles, and birds forage for food such as pollen and nectar from the flower. It also happens when the wind blows the pollen to the stigma of flowers. Wind pollinated flower are usually dull, small, without petals, and unscented. On the other hand, those flowers pollinated by animals are usually brightly-coloured and attractive, has a good amount of nectar or has a strong scent which can be sweet or foul smelling

Proteomics and bamboo research

Bamboo, being one of the fastest growing plants needs only between 3 and 4 years to mature before they are ready for harvesting and utilization. This makes bamboo the best possible alternative to replace timber in the future. As a result, bamboo has been the focus of research in recent years. Currently, there is a growing demand for thicker walled and rapidly growing bamboo from the industry due to its mechanical strength, high durability and uninterrupted as well as sustainable supply. However, the information on the physical, mechanical and chemical properties for different bamboo species and age-groups is rather limited. In the current Omics era, ‘Proteomic Analysis’ has now become one of the basic technologies to obtain essential information of the biological systems. Proteomics is a powerful tool to study the global changes in protein synthesis in response to environmental stimuli as well as during development. At present, we are performing the proteomics studies on various commercially important known species of bamboo to understand the molecular mechanisms of rapid growth as well as thick wall lumen. This will help us to better understand the growth characteristics and physical properties of bamboo at molecular level by identifying the novel proteins associated with the production of thick wall and rapidly growing culms of bamboo. We believe that the present proteomics study shall provide a new dataset and the gene screening list, which will be a useful resource for future genetic as well as genomic studies for the development of high quality bamboo cultivars

Spore Micromorphology and Anatomy of the Fern GenusHistiopterisJ. Sm. (Dennstaedtiaceae) in Peninsular Malaysia

More recent classifications used mainly morphological data when Histiopteris was included as one of the genera in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. A study on spore micromorphological and anatomical studies of Histiopteris J. Sm. from Peninsular Malaysia was undertaken to provide spore micromorphological and anatomical information of the stipes, lamina and rhizomes for the genus. These information would become the source of reference and comparison for other members within the family Dennstaedtiaceae and would deem necessary in future classification considerations of Histiopteris when similar studies are carried out for all genera of the Dennstaedtiaceae in the near future