The impacts of large-scale, low-intensity fires on the forests of continental South-east Asia

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Baker ◽  
Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin ◽  
Andrew P. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Landscape Mosaic ◽  
Regional Forest ◽  
In Fire

South-east Asia’s tropical forests harbour high levels of species richness and endemism. In continental South-east Asia strong rainfall seasonality driven by the Asian monsoon lead to ground-fires during the dry season in most years. How these fires influence the region’s landscape mosaic of evergreen and deciduous forests and the biodiversity they support is poorly understood. In this paper we report on the impacts of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation-induced 1997–98 fires that burned across much of western Thailand. We compare fire effects in the three common regional forest types – seasonal evergreen (SEG); mixed deciduous (MDF); and deciduous dipterocarp – and use data from a 50-ha study plot to evaluate the impacts of fire on these forests. We found few differences among the forest types. The fires created more large gaps in MDF than the other forest types. The SEG experienced greater fire mortality in the smallest size classes, abundant resprouting, and showed some evidence of lagged mortality among larger trees. The resilience of the SEG to fire and lack of major differences in fire effects among the forest types suggest that infrequent landscape-scale fires may have little effect on biodiversity in the landscape mosaic of seasonal tropical forests of continental South-east Asia.

Parts of South-east Asia may adopt nuclear post-2030

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Energy Development ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
Renewable Energy Development

Significance It is the only country in South-east Asia with a large-scale nuclear plant, although this was never loaded with fuel. Other countries in the region have tentative plans to develop nuclear power programmes. Impacts The current absence of nuclear power programmes will help avert the diversion of capital from renewable energy development in the region. South-east Asian countries with small, non-power reactors, built for research, will try to maintain these facilities. Across the region, the need for electricity grid investment will increase as more decentralised generation sources are deployed.

Statistical Downscaling of daily extreme Sea Level with Random Forest: Examples from South-East Asia and the Baltic Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Bierstedt ◽  
Eduardo Zorita ◽  
Birgit Hünicke
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Extreme Sea Levels ◽  
The Baltic

<p>The coastlines of the Baltic Sea and Indonesia are both relatively complex, so that the estimation of extreme sea levels caused by the atmospheric forcing becomes complex with conventional methods. Here, we explore whether Machine Learning methods can provide a model surrogate to compute more rapidly daily extremes in sea level from large-scale atmosphere-ocean fields. We investigate the connections between the atmospheric and ocean drivers of local extreme sea level in South East Asia and along the Baltic Sea based on statistical analysis by Random Forest Models, driven by large-scale meteorological predictors and daily extreme sea level measured by tide-gauge records over the last few decades.</p><p>First results show that in some Indonesian areas extremes are driven by large-scale climate fields; in other areas they are incoherently driven by local processes. An area where random forest predicted extremes show good correspondence to observed extremes is found to be the Malaysian coastline. For the Indonesian coasts, the Random Forest Algorithm was unable to predict extreme sea levels in line with observations. Along the Baltic Sea, in contrast, the Random Forest model is able to produce reasonable estimations of extreme sea levels based on the large-scale atmospheric fields. An analysis of the interrelations of extreme sea levels in the South Asia regions suggests that either the data quality may be compromised in some regions or that other forcing factors, distinct from the large-scale atmospheric fields, may also be involved.</p>

Fire effects on the spatial patterns of soil resources in a Nicaraguan wet tropical forest

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent C. Blair
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Soil Heterogeneity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Vegetative Cover ◽  
Soil Resources ◽  
In Fire ◽  
The Impact

Anthropogenic wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent in wet tropical forests. This trend follows that of other anthropogenic disturbances, which are now acute and widespread. Fires pose a potentially serious threat to tropical forests. However, little is known about the impact of unintended forest fires on below-ground resources in these ecosystems. This study investigated the influence of fires on the distribution and variability of soil resources on two sets of 50×50-m burned and unburned plots in a Nicaraguan rain forest. Samples were collected at 5-m intervals throughout each plot as well as subsamples at 50-cm intervals. Geostatistical techniques as well as univariate statistics were used to quantify the spatial autocorrelation and variability of selected nutrients (N, P and K), carbon and standing leaf litter. Most variability in this forest was spatially dependent at a scale of 30 m or less. However the average range of autocorrelations varied greatly between properties and sites. Burning altered soil heterogeneity by decreasing the range over which soil properties were autocorrelated. Overall the average patch size (range) for nitrogen was reduced by 7%, phosphorus by 52%, potassium by 60% and carbon by 43%. While phosphorus and leaf litter increased in the burned plots compared to unburned plots, potassium was not different. Nitrogen and carbon did not display a consistent pattern between burning regimes and this may be explained by variation in fire intensity. Leaf litter measurements did not correlate with measured soil nutrients within plots. Observed changes in the burned forest were likely a result of both the intensity of burning and change in vegetative cover between the time of the fires and soil sampling.

Unravelling proximate cues of mass flowering in the tropical forests of South-East Asia from gene expression analyses

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (19) ◽  
pp. 5074-5085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suat Hui Yeoh ◽  
Akiko Satake ◽  
Shinya Numata ◽  
Tomoaki Ichie ◽  
Soon Leong Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Mass Flowering ◽  
Gene Expression Analyses ◽  
Proximate Cues

scholarly journals Impacts of logging on density-dependent predation of dipterocarp seeds in a South East Asian rainforest

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1582) ◽  
pp. 3246-3255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bagchi ◽  
Christopher D. Philipson ◽  
Eleanor M. Slade ◽  
Andy Hector ◽  
Sam Phillips ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Seedling Survival ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Neotropical Forests ◽  
Conspecific Density

Much of the forest remaining in South East Asia has been selectively logged. The processes promoting species coexistence may be the key to the recovery and maintenance of diversity in these forests. One such process is the Janzen–Connell mechanism, where specialized natural enemies such as seed predators maintain diversity by inhibiting regeneration near conspecifics. In Neotropical forests, anthropogenic disturbance can disrupt the Janzen–Connell mechanism, but similar data are unavailable for South East Asia. We investigated the effects of conspecific density (two spatial scales) and distance from fruiting trees on seed and seedling survival of the canopy tree Parashorea malaanonan in unlogged and logged forests in Sabah, Malaysia. The production of mature seeds was higher in unlogged forest, perhaps because high adult densities facilitate pollination or satiate pre-dispersal predators. In both forest types, post-dispersal survival was reduced by small-scale (1 m 2 ) conspecific density, but not by proximity to the nearest fruiting tree. Large-scale conspecific density (seeds per fruiting tree) reduced predation, probably by satiating predators. Higher seed production in unlogged forest, in combination with slightly higher survival, meant that recruitment was almost entirely limited to unlogged forest. Thus, while logging might not affect the Janzen–Connell mechanism at this site, it may influence the recruitment of particular species.

scholarly journals The Relationship between the Wintertime Cold Extremes over East Asia with Large-Scale Atmospheric and Oceanic Teleconnections

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Yang ◽  
Naru Xie ◽  
Meng Gao
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Teleconnection Patterns ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cold Extremes

The influence of large-scale teleconnection patterns, Western Pacific (WP), Arctic Oscillation (AO) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), on the minimum surface air temperature (Tmin) anomalies and extremes over East Asia during the boreal winter from 1979 to 2017 were investigated by the composite analysis in terms of atmospheric and oceanic processes. The relationship between the Tmin and the geopotential height at 500 hPa (Z500) as well as sea surface temperature (SST) were first examined. Then we explored and estimated the contribution of the teleconnection patterns to the occurrence of extremely cold days and months quantitatively, and discussed other key factors in relation to the cold extremes. The WP and AO patterns play an important part in the prevalence of significant Tmin variability, whereas the effect of ENSO is relatively weak. Most of the cold extremes tend to appear in the negative phase of teleconnections, while there some extremes that occur in the opposite phase. In addition, the extreme months are more related to the preferred phase of the dominant pattern when compared to days. We conclude that the daily extremes are primarily triggered by the local-synoptic atmospheric circulations embedded in the large-scale teleconnection patterns, while the monthly extremes have a closer relationship with these low-frequency patterns.

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