From: (Gary Paoli) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:39:39 +0700 Subject: [Mastwatch] Sumatra: Shorea platyclados Status: RO Dear all: An update from a recent short trip to Lamandau District in southeastern Central Kalimantan, about 2 hrs drive northwest of Pangkalan Bun. We did a very rapid survey of a mosaic of disturbed vegetation types including remnant forest patches (some a few 100 ha in size) in an area under development for oil palm. Elevation ranged from 80-300 m a.s.l., mostly well drained mineral soils, flat to hilly to steep terrain. Most of the remnant forest was logged over, but there were some small, somewhat steep sided hills (200-300 m elevation) that showed no signs of disturbance. The forest was full of fruit, with much of the non-dipterocarp elements already fully mature. Among the dipterocarps fruiting were: Dipterocarpus pachyphyllus, D. cornutus and D. oblongifolius; Shorea hopeifolia, S. parvifolia, S. cf parvistipulata and three other indet Shorea spp; one indet Hopea sp. In an adjacent area of intact freshwater swamp forest lining a network of interconnected lakes, there was a population of large (some >80 cm dbh) Shorea balangeran, with most trees in fruit, though small crops. A rough estimate based on non-systematic sampling is 50% of dipterocarp trees >50 cm some fruit present (c. 20% of crown), and about half of these were large crops, especially the Dipterocarpus spp. Notably, in forest remnant c. 15 ha in size along a slowing moving meandering river, there was a large population of Dipterocarpus tempehes with trees 40-60 cm dbh, but zero out of about 20 trees fruiting. Likewise in the same fragment was a decent but possibly sub-adult population of Parashorea cf lucida, none in fruit. This fragment was extremely isolated and surrounded by recently planted oil palm. A partial list of non-dipterocarps fruiting were Dyera (2 of 3 trees), Swintonia (7 of 7), Vouacanga (2 of 2), Chisocheton (1 of 1), Aglaia (2 of 2), Xylocarpus (1 of 1, in swamp forest), Polyalthia (3 of 3), Koompassia excelsa (roughly half of c. 20 trees), Strombosia javanica (1 of 1), 4-5 species of Knema and Myristica (7 of 10 trees total), one species of Syzygium (1 of 1), Octomeles sumatrana (1 of 1), and in the understorey Eurycoma longifolia (flowering). Reproductive status of non-dipts was much more variable, and I can?t put a reliable estimate on percentages fruiting. All in all, there's a lot of fruiting happening there. Cheers, Gary On Sun, Dec 13, :30 PM, Gabriella F wrote: > Dear All, > > In Sumatra (North Sumatra Province, Batang Toru, South of Lake Toba) at > 1000 m asl. Shorea platyclados has been in full fruiting now (see picture) > altitude there are few other dipterocarp species (Dipterocarpus > crinitus, Shorea acuminata also had fruit). But I'm not sure if one can > speak of 'masting'. We have only been doing phenology in this site for 1 > year. > > Next week I'll be heading to east Kalimantan and can then report on a > lowland forest there (Sungai Wain) where we have 12 years of phenology > studies ongoing. > > Best regards, > Gabriella Fredriksson > > * +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > Please send larger messages/attachments to my gmail account: > > > > The account get's clogged up quickly and will be > terminated in the near future. > > *Gabriella Fredriksson > > In Indonesia: > > PO Box 270 or PanEco-YEL > Balikpapan 76110 Jl. K.H. Wahid Hasyim No 51/74 > Kalimantan Timur Medan Baru > Indonesia Medan 20154 > www.beruangmadu.org Sumatra Utara > > Phone:+62-813-97822007 > > *In the Netherlands: > > *University of Amsterdam > Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)/Zoological Museum > Mauritskade 61 > PO Box 94766 > 1090 GT Amsterdam > The Netherlands > Tel +31-20-525-7181 > Fax +31-20-525-7238 > *(Co-Chair Sun Bear Expert Team IBA/BSG/IUCN)* > > _______________________________________________ > Mastwatch mailing list > > http://lists.phylodiversity.net/listinfo.cgi/mastwatch-phylodiversity.net > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From: (Cam Webb) Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 08:44:06 +0700 (WIT) Subject: [Mastwatch] Gunung Palung, West Kalimantan Status: RO Hi All, Visited Gunung Palung (110.112, -1.220) on 20-21 Jan. This is the same site I reported on in October. The spatial extent of the mast is just the freshwater swamp forest, lowland alluvial forest and hill forest on sandstone below 100 m. There is almost no fruiting on the granite hills above 100 m. The `juicy fruits' were beginning to peak in ripeness: huge crops of Alangium, several Mangifera, several Baccaureas, several Durio, and the animals were indulging. Saw 4 separate groups of orang utans in just one day. Lots of pigs with piglets. Several species of red meranti had progressed to mature fruits, although it seemed that, compared to expectations from the huge flower crops I saw in October, most trees did not have that much fruit: I estimated ca. 10 fruits per cubic metre of crown for, e.g., Shorea leprasula. From observations on the South side of the park (110.211, -1.361) on last Saturday, it may still be a week or two until the last of the dipterocarps drop. Scaphium macropodum, with large crops, has already dropped most of its fruit. Interestingly, all the Shorea laevis I saw on 20-21 Jan were flowering, not fruiting. Yesterday I visited the coastal hills S of Sukadana (109.966, -1.270; also in the park). The only common dipterocarp here is a Hopea (dyeri?) and this was not fruiting. However, a very common Palaquium had just finished dropping fruit and the forest floor was covered with germinating seeds. The durian foot of the hills have generally finished dropping fruits; it's been a huge season with prices down to USD 0.20 per fruit. Lots of dodol and tempoyak. All in all, my sense is that a lot of species are participating in this event, and it's definitely the biggest mast in five years or so. However, yet again, the dipterocarps may not have produced enough fruit to satiate their predators and create seedling carpets. I'll report back about seedling recruitment. Best, Cam