User:Nikh

Basidiomycota-Hymenomycetes bracket fungi! This is a commonly found type of fungi in Borneo. Some edible and cultivated as well as for medicinal purposes.

Animal mortalities on the highway in Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. (Nikh & Thasun).

Abstract

The increase in road networks throughout the world has brought about for a concern for the effects of vehicular traffic on flora and fauna. Development in any area generally leads to extensive road networks and subsequent traffic. The effects of such landscape changes can be dramatic on fragile habitats, such as the rainforests of the Borneo. This present study provides evidence of the impacts of vehicular traffic on the rainforest fauna of Lambir, Borneo. A total of 28 individuals of roadkilled animals (28 individuals/km), belonging to 9 orders were recorded. Chiropteran bats represented one third (36%, N=10) of the total number of individuals recorded. The Shannon Wiener Index for the diversity in rainy day: 0.66 and non rainy day: 0.23. ...read more...

How do hermit crabs choose the empty shells? (Nikh, Doni & Tim Tam).

Abstract

Unlike most crabs, the hermit crab have special protection behavior by hiding themselves inside a firm shell. Hermit crabs choose empty snail shells from many kind of shapes and colors. We want to know if there is any specific choosing pattern or it just choose randomly. In order to answer this question, 30 individuals of hermit crab on Gaya Island were chosen randomly and measured the wide of the thorax and their shell (diameter, wide, height, thickness of the first ring from dorsal perspective, and thickness of the first ring from lateral perspective). From all sample we got, all of them come from one species. One by one hermit crap was taken and we let them choose a shell from 30 options. T-test between normal distribution of shell choosing and the distribution of observation was carried out. The result show that there is a high correlation between the size of hermit crab and aperture area of the shell (p-value = 4.88e-08). In additional, hermit crabs choose their shell using specific pattern but not randomly (p-value=0.00627). Need more further study to identify which factor is more dominant on hermit crab shell choosing pattern. ...read more...

Directional Awareness of Basidiomycetes Fungi in Maliau Basin Conservation Area, Sabah, Malaysia. (Nikh, Marlee & Dyna).

Abstract

Basidiomycetes have specific mechanisms to release their spores. This spore mechanism is associated with the growth direction of the fruiting body. The fruiting body of this group always orient upward with cap over stem. Thus, we hypothesized that the fungi must have the direction awareness when we change the orientation of the substrate. In examining this hypothesis, we set 40 fungi's fruiting bodies in Maliau Basin to be changed 90^o in their position. Our results showed that there were no significance result in the association between the change in angle and stem type or morphotypes. However, nearly significant result was observed in one morphotype (Mor10). Additionally in morphotype 4, 80% of fruiting body caps changed direction. These results were probably a product of having too many morphotypes and too few individuals in each morphotype. Still, the patterns we did see were intriguing and further study will show these patterns hold true in many fruiting body types....read more...