The Influence of Drought on Tropical Rainforest Vegetation in Papua New Guinea

R. J. Johns

doi:10.2307/3673514

35,000-year-old sites in the rainforests of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00047104 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 68 (260) ◽

pp. 604-610 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Christina Pavlides ◽

Chris Gosden

Keyword(s):

Papua New Guinea ◽

Pacific Islands ◽

Tropical Rainforest ◽

New Guinea ◽

Northwest Pacific ◽

Open Site ◽

Early Settlement ◽

The World ◽

Cultural Layers ◽

New Britain

The growing story of early settlement in the northwest Pacific islands is moving from coastal sites into the rainforest. Evidence of Pleistocene cultural layers have been discovered in open-site excavations at Yombon, an area containing shifting hamlets, in West New Britain's interior tropical rainforest. These sites, the oldest in New Britain, may presently stand as the oldest open sites discovered in rainforest anywhere in the world.

Download Full-text

Description of six new species of Xenorhina Peters, 1863 from southern Papua New Guinea (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae)

Zoosystematics and Evolution ◽

10.3897/zse.97.59696 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 97 (2) ◽

pp. 355-382

Author(s):

Rainer Günther ◽

Stephen Richards

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Papua New Guinea ◽

Tropical Rainforest ◽

Habitat Preferences ◽

New Guinea ◽

Advertisement Calls ◽

High Rainfall ◽

Central Cordillera

We describe six new species of the microhylid frog genus Xenorhina from the southern slopes of Papua New Guinea’s central cordillera and adjacent lowlands, based on a combination of morphological (including osteology) and bioacoustic features. All of the new species are fossorial or terrestrial inhabitants of tropical rainforest habitats and belong to a group of Xenorhina having a single, enlarged odontoid spike on each vomeropalatine bone. Advertisement calls and habitat preferences are described for each species, one of which is amongst the smallest hitherto members of the genus. Description of these six species brings the total number of Xenorhina known to 40 and emphasises the importance of the high-rainfall belt that extends along the southern flanks of New Guinea’s central cordillera as a hotspot of Melanesian amphibian diversity.

Download Full-text

CARBON MANAGEMENT PROGRAM IN PAPUA REGION

JURNAL KEHUTANAN PAPUASIA ◽

10.46703/jurnalpapuasia.vol1.iss1.23 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Hendri

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Papua New Guinea ◽

Tropical Rainforest ◽

New Guinea ◽

Management Program ◽

Forest Area ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Carbon Management ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation

Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest tropical rainforest area, especially in Papua Island together with Papua New Guinea accounted the third largest tropical rainforests in the world, after the Amazon (336.7 million ha) and Congo (181.3 million ha). The total tropical rainforest area is 68.7 million ha contained Papua about 57% (39.2 million ha) and 43% (29.5 million ha) Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, deforestation rates in the few decades increased from 1.39 million ha in the period 1985 – 1997 and 0.6 million ha in the period 2000 – 2005. The direct impact of rapid LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change & Forestry) changes since 1980`s has accumulated critical land by 29.0% of forest area in West Papua and 31.4% of forest area in Papua. Climate change affected in Papua region due to rapid amount GHG`s emissions into the atmosphere by increasing average temperature about 0.7oC, minimum temperature (0.7oC) and maximum temperature (1.2oC) during period 1996 – 2005. Other effects of climate change the decreased rainfall up to 26% per month in the last decade, 50% reduced total agriculture productivity, expanded malaria diseases, and increased extreme condition such as drought with intensity of forest fire detected in Sorong due to inter-annual climate variability events, such as the El-Niño event and flood due to the La-Niña event. However, it is difficult task to build mitigation and adaptation planning in the region or local scale due to the lack information, the lack human resources, and local topography and phenomena. In that case, so far, no study has been conducted in Papua region to build mitigation and adaptation planning for carbon management. Therefore, this study tries to promote a carbon management program for help local government to solve forest environmental problems consideration of climate change.

Download Full-text

Survival rates of Rattus verecundus and Paramelomys platyops in a murid rich tropical rainforest of Papua New Guinea.

Pacific Conservation Biology ◽

10.1071/pc120026 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 26

Author(s):

Enock Kale ◽

Nathan Whitmore ◽

Andrew L Mack ◽

Debra D Wright

Keyword(s):

Papua New Guinea ◽

Small Mammal ◽

Threatened Species ◽

Tropical Rainforest ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Survival Rates ◽

New Guinea ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Mammal Species ◽

Parsimonious Model

Estimations of survival rates of small mammal populations that occur on the island of New Guinea are crucial for conservation and management strategies. Here, we used mark-recapture data in programme MARK to estimate apparent survival and detection of two murid species in a tropical rainforest in Papua New Guinea. The most parsimonious model allowed survival and recapture probability to vary by species. Across the two species, Rattus verecundus generally had lower survival rates, but higher recapture probabilities, whereas Paramelomys platyops had higher survival rates but lower recapture probabilities. Since many small mammal species that occur in New Guinea are already listed under the IUCN red list for Threatened Species, similar studies can be replicated targeting the threatened species to provide information to wildlife managers for management and conservation decision.

Download Full-text