Assessment of soil properties on Nepenthes ampullaria density in tropical lowland forest: a case study in Imbak Canyon, Sabah, Malaysia

Identifying the appropriate soil properties and plants association are important to the success of sustainable forest management projects. A study on the relationship between soil properties and Nepenthes ampullaria in primary lowland tropical forest was conducted in Imbak Canyon Conservation Area (ICCA), Sabah, Malaysia. Here we assessed the soils properties in relation to the density of N. ampullaria and its association with other plants. A total of 30 plots of 10 x 10 m were established and six soil samples per plot were analyzed for their pH value, soil moisture, soil organic matter and trace element. A survey on other plants associated with N. ampullaria was conducted within the sample plots. All plants associated with the N. ampullaria found in the mixed dipterocarp forest, primary forest where the soils was acidic and poor in nutrient content. Families of plant found associated with N. ampullaria were higher in Annonaceae, Dipterocarpacea, Myrtaceae, Phyllanthaceae, Meliaceae and followed by other family in smaller quantity. These plants show well adaptation to the poor soils of their environment. We found the lowland primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon habitats provide a unique natural micro-habitat within the forests and the opportunity to better identify the role of soil ecosystem function in tropical soils

A Review of Etlingera coccinea (Blume) S. Sakai and Nagam (Zingiberaceae) on Achievement of Producing an Essential Oil and Medicinal Properties in Sabah, East Malaysia

The wild ginger, Tuhau, E. coccinea is a plant species from Etlingera genus and Zingiberaceae family. This study is focused on a reviewed paper reported on the extraction method used to derive essential oils and the overview of the published data regarding medicinal properties of Etlingera coccinea spp. The search was performed in several databases such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, SpringerLink, and Research gate and also Google Scholar. The following keywords were used individually and or in combination “E. coccinea” and “Tuhau”. This article highlights the extraction techniques used to derive the essential oil of E. coccinea and also provide briefly overview of the medicinal properties from the data in recent literature

Chemical composition of essential oil from Etlingera coccinea (Blume) S. Sakai & Nagam in Kadamaian, Kota Belud, Sabah

Etlingera coccinea (Blume) S. Sakai & Nagam is a member of Zingiberaceae family. It is commonly known as ‘Tuhau’ in Sabah, Malaysia and consumed as a local delicacy and used as a traditional remedy for stomachache, food poisoning, and gastric problems. The plant has been reported to have bioactive properties such as anticancer, antioxidant and antibacterial. Due to the high demand for this bioactive compound in national and international markets, chemical profiling of leaves, stems and rhizomes from E. coccinea was carried out. Eight germplasms were collected from Trail 1 (Kg. Gensurai) and Trail 2 (Kg. Melangkap Noriou) and submitted to the hydrodistillation process to obtain the essential oil before analysing with GC-MS. From the result obtained, a total of 85 compounds were found and 26 of these were terpenoid compounds. There are several classes of compound present in different parts of E. coccinea, such as, monoterpene, sesquiterpene, alcohol, aldehyde, alkane, alkene, ketones, fatty acids derivatives, esters, amines as well as norterpene. Most of the compounds found in E. coccinea are monoterpenes at 18 compounds, followed by alcohols (14 compounds), alkanes and alkenes (12 compounds), sesquiterpenes (8 compounds), aldehydes (7 compounds), ketones, fatty acid derivatives, esters (4 compounds), and lastly, amine and norterpene, one compound each. However, total terpenoids from all plant parts from both sites were less than 50% of total abundance. Only the rhizome part from site 2 showed the highest terpenoid abundance (43.34%). Hence, the identified compounds from the study could be expended for large-scale profiling to obtain higher yields of important constituents

Dung beetles as hydrological engineers: effects of tunnelling on soil infiltration

1. Soil infiltration capacity determines the partitioning of precipitation into infiltration and overland flow and is therefore an important soil hydrological characteristic. Water infiltration through soil is facilitated by macropores created by roots and soil macrofauna. In clay-rich soils, such as those of the tropical forests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, most infiltration occurs via these preferential flow pathways. 2. We evaluated the effects of dung beetle tunnelling on infiltration and macropore creation (depth and width of the flow pathways) in tropical forest soils in Sabah. Using mesocosms, we applied three treatments (i) soil-only, (ii) dung-only, (iii) dung + dung beetles, and measured saturated hydraulic conductivity (i.e., the steady-state infiltration rate) after 0, 5 and 10 days, and assessed depth and width of infiltration pathways by applying a blue dye tracer. 3. The steady-state infiltration rate increased in the presence of dung beetles, though differences among treatments were only statistically significant after 10 days. After 5 days of dung beetle presence, infiltrated water had reached a greater depth than the control mesocosms without beetles. However, there were no differences in the width of infiltration pathways among treatments. 4. These results reveal the important, but under studied roles of dung beetles on soil hydrological functioning, that may have consequences for nutrient cycling and plant productivity. Further, our findings indicate that the novel application of an established hydrological method—blue dye tracer—can provide interesting and reliable results for macrofauna–soil interaction studies.ISSN:0307-6946ISSN:1365-231

Dung beetles as hydrological engineers: effects of tunnelling on soil infiltration

1. Soil infiltration capacity determines the partitioning of precipitationinto infiltration and overland flow and is therefore an important soil hydrologicalcharacteristic. Water infiltration through soil is facilitated by macropores created byroots and soil macrofauna. In clay-rich soils, such as those of the tropical forests ofSabah, Malaysian Borneo, most infiltration occurs via these preferential flow pathways. 2. We evaluated the effects of dung beetle tunnelling on infiltration and macroporecreation (depth and width of the flow pathways) in tropical forest soils in Sabah. Usingmesocosms, we applied three treatments (i) soil-only, (ii) dung-only, (iii) dung+dungbeetles, and measured saturated hydraulic conductivity (i.e., the steady-state infiltrationrate) after 0, 5 and 10 days, and assessed depth and width of infiltration pathways byapplying a blue dye tracer. 3. The steady-state infiltration rate increased in the presence of dung beetles, thoughdifferences among treatments were only statistically significant after 10 days. After5 days of dung beetle presence, infiltrated water had reached a greater depth than thecontrol mesocosms without beetles. However, there were no differences in the width ofinfiltration pathways among treatments. 4. These results reveal the important, but under studied roles of dung beetles on soilhydrological functioning, that may have consequences for nutrient cycling and plantproductivity. Further, our findings indicate that the novel application of an establishedhydrological method–blue dye tracer–can provide interesting and reliable results formacrofauna–soil interaction studies

Biodiversity consequences of long-term active forest restoration in selectively logged tropical rainforests

Forest restoration figures prominently on climate action plans, both in the public and private sector. Restoration has the potential to enhance forest recovery and carbon storage, yet could cause unanticipated alterations of forest biodiversity and functioning. In particular little is known about the long-lasting effects of active forest restoration. We therefore evaluated the effects of such management on adult trees and seedlings of actively restored forest to comparable areas where forest regenerated naturally. We investigated a forest site in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo that is recovering from selective logging between 1981 and 1991. Some of the area has been left to naturally regenerate, and some areas have been actively restored for production purposes between 1994 and 2004 through climber cutting and enrichment-planting of exclusively indigenous tree species. We hypothesized that active forest restoration affects forest diversity and composition negatively (i.e., reduction in diversity and presence of pioneer species), and that the silvicultural interventions had long-lasting effects (i.e., higher density of species that were planted, fewer climbers). Surprisingly, our findings suggest that active forest restoration promoted the recovery of adult tree species diversity, expressed as Shannon Diversity Index, and in particular promoted rare species. In actively restored plots, the number of adult individuals of tree species that were planted was enhanced, and the density of liana seedlings was reduced, demonstrating that these silvicultural interventions were effective and had long-lasting effects on the forest structure. Nevertheless, we could not detect differences in the number of seedlings of species that were planted nor in the density of adult lianas between actively restored and naturally regenerating forest sites. We also did not find differences in the species diversity of seedlings, but we observed a compositional shift in the species community for seedlings that were younger than one year. Furthermore, we did not detect a difference between actively restored and naturally regenerating forest plots in the abundance of the present tree guilds (i.e., pioneer or late-succession species) for neither adult trees nor seedlings, as all of our forest plots were dominated by late-succession species. Our results show that active forest restoration can promote species diversity and highlight that active forest restoration focusing on biomass production does not need to adversely affect biodiversity. This work emphasizes the potential of active forest restoration on biodiversity and potentially other key ecosystem functions which are needed to be restored in order to mitigate climate change and the current ecological crisis

Dung beetles as hydrological engineers: effects of tunnelling on soil infiltration

Soil infiltration capacity determines the partitioning of precipitation into infiltration and overland flow and is therefore an important soil hydrological characteristic. Water infiltration through soil is facilitated by macropores created by roots and soil macrofauna. In clay-rich soils, such as those of the tropical forests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, most infiltration occurs via these preferential flow pathways. We evaluated the effects of dung beetle tunnelling on infiltration and macropore creation (depth and width of the flow pathways) in tropical forest soils in Sabah. Using mesocosms, we applied three treatments (i) soil-only, (ii) dung-only, (iii) dung + dung beetles, and measured saturated hydraulic conductivity (i.e., the steady-state infiltration rate) after 0, 5 and 10 days, and assessed depth and width of infiltration pathways by applying a blue dye tracer. The steady-state infiltration rate increased in the presence of dung beetles, though differences among treatments were only statistically significant after 10 days. After 5 days of dung beetle presence, infiltrated water had reached a greater depth than the control mesocosms without beetles. However, there were no differences in the width of infiltration pathways among treatments. These results reveal the important, but under studied roles of dung beetles on soil hydrological functioning, that may have consequences for nutrient cycling and plant productivity. Further, our findings indicate that the novel application of an established hydrological method—blue dye tracer—can provide interesting and reliable results for macrofauna–soil interaction studies

Evaluation on the potential of hot spring as nature tourism attraction in Lojing Highlands, Kelantan, Peninsula Malaysia

Natural hot springs are a common occurrence in Malaysia. These natural hot springs occur when water seeps into the earth and is heated by magma and pressure causes the water to rise again as a heated pool or hot springs. Some locals believe that these natural hot springs have curative effects and can cure skin ailments such as rashes, pimples and fungi infections. Whether this is true or not remains to be scientifically proven, but these places have become a magnet for tourists and those seeking healing. Some of Malaysia's natural hot springs have developed into modern tourists' attractions with shops, rest houses, restaurants and changing rooms built nearby to accommodate visitors who are interested by this natural phenomenon and the best example is the Poring Hot Springs, in Ranau, Sabah. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to briefly highlight the potential of Lojing's hot springs as nature tourism attraction for the state of Kelantan. This paper provides a broad insight into the demand for services and facilities, location and characteristics of Lojing's geothermal and natural mineral water resources, the opportunities available to expand and establish new facilities and an indication of the success of Sabah's developments with the potential to be replicated in Lojing. Based on the content analysis done using Leximancer, it is apparent that Lojing's hot spring requires intervention in terms of strategies that aimed at increasing tourist satisfaction. It is suggested that the theme "leisure" to be concentrated as the pull factor for Lojing hot spring-based tourism

Orchid resilience : A case of a logged-over forest in Sabah, Malaysia

Taliwas River Conservation Area (TRCA) is a lowland dipterocarp forest located 36km from Lahad Datu town. The area was logged in the 1970s by forest concessions and was treated with silvicultural practices for restoring ecosystems and conserving biodiversity. TRCA is one of the earliest logged forest that been treated with silvicultural activities and enriched with dipterocarps trees. This study was aimed to evaluate the species diversity of orchids in treated logged-over forest of TRCA. Convenience sampling was conducted due to the orchids’ sporadic distribution pattern. The orchids were photographed and all morphological features were documented for further identification. A total of 45 species were identified to their respective genera, with 16 genera recognised as epiphytic orchids, three as terrestrial, one as lithophyte and one as climber. From this study, orchid species was shown to be remarkably resilient in logged forest, through their advance morphological features such as pseudobulb, seed dormancy and epiphytic growth habit. The results from this study can be used as baseline data to support conservation and development plan of the Taliwas logged-over forest area