Ant Species Diversity, Distribution, and Community Composition in Different Forest Types in Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Yombai ◽  
Petr Klimes ◽  
Paul Dargusch ◽  
Aloysius Posman ◽  
Ondrej Mottl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
The Impact

Previous studies have provided important scientific information on ant species richness and composition relating to the effects of elevation, sampling approaches, stratification, and forest succession. Yet, they have primarily focused on single sites or regions. Knowledge of ant ecology should also include the impact of disturbance in various forest types. Tuna baiting and hand collection methods were used to investigate diversity and community composition of ants in 16 sites sampled across Papua New Guinea, in both disturbed and pristine forest, at heights ranging from 28 to 2,728 m above sea level. We found 176 species as a result of exposing 320 tuna baits and traversing 72 hand-searched plots. Baiting samples were strongly dominated by a few common species, while the hand-collecting captured more species per plot. The Chao 2 richness estimator for both methods predicted undersampling of the local community. As expected, ant species diversity and richness significantly decrease with increasing elevation. We observed, on average, greater species diversity of ground-dwelling ant communities in disturbed compared to undisturbed forests. The effect was not significant using multivariate randomisations, since the same species dominated both forest classes. The unexpected pattern of ant species richness being locally higher in the disturbed sites is driven by our sampling of undisturbed communities at all elevations, but sampling of the disturbed communities only up to 1,600 m above sea level. Hence, future studies should consider more locations, aiming ideally for an equal sampling effort to capture disturbance stage and elevation.

Disturbance Impacts of Logging on Ground Herbaceous Plant Species Richness, Diversity, and Composition of Lowland Rainforest of Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Penniel Lamei ◽  
Fabio Attorre ◽  
Riccardo Testolin ◽  
Michele De Sanctis ◽  
Ruth Turia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Herbaceous Plant ◽  
Herbaceous Layer ◽  
Lowland Forest ◽  
P Type ◽  
The Impact

The impact of logging activities on species richness, diversity, and composition of the ground herbaceous layer of the lowland forest of Papua New Guinea was analyzed. Data from the first multipurpose National Forest Inventory were collected in 52 plots from logged and unlogged low altitude forest on plains and fans (P) and forest on uplands (H) in Madang, West New Britain and Central Provinces. The abundance of 10,609 ground herbaceous plants classified in 174 species from 103 genera and 35 families. Based on importance values, Arecaceae was the dominating family in both logged and unlogged P forest type, while Urticaceae and Arecaceae were dominating respectively in logged and unlogged H forest type. At species level, Donax canniformis and Elatostema beccarii are dominating the P type, and Elatostema novoguineensis and Selaginella durvillei the H type. Analysis of species richness, diversity, and composition showed significant differences between the two types with the H type being richer and more diverse than P type. No differences emerged between logged and unlogged of both types, indicating that the current intensity of disturbance does not seem to have a significant impact on the ground herbaceous layer. Since herbaceous species are an important component of the tropical forest diversity, further inventories must be conducted along a wider elevation gradient to make these results more robust and better observe species turn over patterns and beta diversity.

scholarly journals Butterflies as potential bioindicators of primary rainforest and oil palm plantation habitats on New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G Miller III ◽  
John Lane ◽  
Randy Senock
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Oil Palm Plantation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Britain

Our research team worked with Nakanai land-holders in Papua New Guinea to perform the first survey of butterflies in the Lake Hargy caldera of West New Britain Province. Methods included modified Pollard transects quantifying sampling effort based on aerial netting and visual observations, as well as traps baited with fermenting fruit. Results were compared with surveys on the adjacent Hargy Oil Palm plantation. Our sampling yielded 312 specimens representing 73 species; of these, 50 were limited to primary rainforest, 12 to oil palm plantation and 11 species occurred at both sites. Four species are newly recorded for New Britain, including one potentially invasive species on Citrus. Singleton specimens made up the largest abundance class in the data set, representing 34% of records in primary rainforest. Sixty-two percent of the butterfly taxa recorded are regionally endemic to the Bismarck island chain or to New Britain in particular. Calculated levels of similarity between sites ranged from 0.151 to 0.262, suggesting the oil palm and rainforest habitats supported highly distinct species assemblages. Although rapid assessment data such as these are necessarily limited in scope, they can still aid in documenting the impact on biodiversity from conversion of primary tropical rainforest to oil palm monoculture.

scholarly journals The Impact of a Filariasis Control Program on Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. e1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriol Mitjà ◽  
Raymond Paru ◽  
Russell Hays ◽  
Lysaght Griffin ◽  
Nedley Laban ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Control Program ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals ‘Food is life’: Documenting the politics of food in Melanesia

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Ceridwen Spark
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Population Management ◽  
Creative Performance ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Papua ◽  
The Impact

In this article, I discuss two recent examples of women’s filmmaking in Melanesia. The documentaries are Tanah Mama (2014), focused on West Papua and Café Niugini (2015), set in Papua New Guinea. Both films explore and represent food in profoundly different ways. Here, I consider their respective depictions of food, demonstrating that Tanah Mama represents food as sustenance while Café Niugini renders food as ‘cuisine’ through the ‘creative performance’ of cookery. Nevertheless, and as I argue, both documentaries reflect the filmmakers’ interest in representing issues associated with food in the Pacific, including the importance of Indigenous access to land, population management, gender roles and the impact of changing cultural values on food consumption and health.

scholarly journals 'Desecration' in a Place of Refuge

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Glazebrook
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Refugee Population ◽  
Irian Jaya ◽  
International Border ◽  
The Impact

In this paper I explore two related questions: how does a particular site come to be perceived as sacred, and what is the impact of the destruction of something sacred when it occurs in a place of ‘refuge’? This study is situated on the island of New Guinea, in the experiences of West Papuan people from the Indonesian Province of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), living as refugees across the international border in Papua New Guinea. The inquiry is grounded in two instances involving a refugee population in a place of refuge. The first instance involves the burning of a church built by a refugee congregation, and the second involves the large-scale occupation by a refugee population of another people’s land. A doubling effect is intended here. Forced migration can simultaneously render refugees vulnerable to the violence of others, and in the process of resettlement, refugees may have no real choice but to engage in actions that violate the land of others.

Unravelling the conundrum of river response to rising sea-level from laboratory to field. Part II. The Fly-Strickland River system, Papua New Guinea

Sedimentology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 1657-1686 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY PARKER ◽  
TETSUJI MUTO ◽  
YOSHIHISA AKAMATSU ◽  
WILLIAM E. DIETRICH ◽  
J. WESLEY LAUER
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
River System ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Rising Sea Level
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