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.

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.

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.

An estimate of above-ground carbon stock in tropical rainforest on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
Arison Arihafa ◽  
Sebastian Dalgarno ◽  
Ezra Neale
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Carbon Stock ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Stock Assessment ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Carbon Accounting ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Tropical Region ◽  
Emission Mitigation

Forest carbon emission mitigation schemes seek to protect tropical forest, combat effects of climate change, and offer potential cash and development opportunities. Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) projects based on a foundation of accurate carbon stock assessment provide such an opportunity for Papua New Guinea. The objective of this study was to quantify the carbon stock of the central forests of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, and identify factors that underpin any observed variation within it. We employed the Winrock Standard Operating Procedures for Terrestrial Carbon Measurement for plots and associated measurements. In 75 variable-radius nested plots (total area = 14.4 ha), we assessed above-ground and total carbon stock of stems ≥5 cm diameter at breast height via general linear models in a model-selection framework. The top models described variation in average carbon stock at 95% lower and upper confidence interval in above-ground biomass solely in terms of forest type: primary hill forest 165.0 Mg C ha–1 (148.3–183.7, n = 48), primary plain forest 100.9 Mg C ha–1 (78.0–130.6, n = 10) and secondary hill forests 99.7 Mg C ha–1 (80.9–122.9, n = 17). To a lesser extent, above-ground carbon stock increased with slope and varied idiosyncratically by the nearest village. Our estimates are comparable with published studies for Papua New Guinea and the wider tropical region. These data should strengthen pre-existing knowledge and inform policies on carbon accounting for REDD+ projects in the region.

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.

scholarly journals Producers' Well-Being and Natural Resource Extraction: The Eaglewood Trade in Papua New Guinea

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-43
Author(s):  
Nicolas Gerber ◽  
Anik Bhaduri
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Existence Value ◽  
Natural Resource Extraction ◽  
Consumption Choices ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Stock Depletion ◽  
The Impact

We illustrate how natural resource dependent and isolated communities manage their forest stock. Our model is based on field observations of the Eaglewood trade in Papua New Guinea. Using a dynamic model of household utility maximization and simulations, we analyze the impact of variations in the (monopsonistic) resource price on the households’ consumption choices and their allocation of effort across depletive and nondepletive activities. The stock of forest is embedded directly in the households’ utility function (existence value) and in their (nonseparable) production and consumption functions. We show that poverty (in production assets) does not inevitably lead to stock depletion.

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