Effect of Fungus-Growing Termite on Soil CO2 Emission at Termitaria Scale in Dry Evergreen Forest, Thailand

Termites are one of the major contributors to high spatial variability in soil respiration. Although epigeal termite mounds are considered as a point of high CO2 effluxes, the patterns of mound CO2 effluxes are different, especially the mound of fungus-growing termites in a tropical forest. This study quantified the effects of a fungus-growing termite (Macrotermes carbonarius) associated with soil CO2 emission by considering their nesting pattern in dry evergreen forest, Thailand. A total of six mounds of M. carbonarius were measured for CO2 efflux rates on their mounds and surrounding soils in dry and wet seasons. Also, measurement points were investigated for the active underground passages at the top 10% of among efflux rates. The mean rate of CO2 emission from termitaria of M. carbonarius was 7.66 µmol CO2/m2/s, consisting of 2.94 and 9.11 µmol CO2/m2/s from their above mound and underground passages (the rate reached up to 50.00 µmol CO2/m2/s), respectively. While the CO2 emission rate from the surrounding soil alone was 6.86 µmol CO2/m2/s. The results showed that the termitaria of M. carbonarius contributed 8.4% to soil respiration at the termitaria scale. The study suggests that fungus-growing termites cause a local and strong variation in soil respiration through underground passages radiating out from the mounds in dry evergreen forest.

Predicting the distributions of Pouteria adolfi-friederici and Prunus africana iconic tree species under current and future climate change scenarios in Ethiopia

The distributions of the potential adaptive ranges of iconic plant species are not yet fully known especially in regions such as Ethiopia where high climatic variability and vegetation types are found. This study was undertaken to predict the distributions of the potential suitable habitats of Pouteria adolfi-friederici and Prunus africana tree species under the current and two future climate scenarios (i.e., RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 in 2050 and 2070) using MaxEnt software (version: 3.4.4.). Eleven less correlated environmental variables (r<0.7) were identified and used to make the prediction models. Elevational shifts of the highly suitable habitats, effects of elevation, solar radiation and topographic position in relation to the current and future climatic scenarios on the habitats were statistically analyzed using independent t-test and linear model. Under all climate scenarios, we found a decrease in the proportion of areas of highly suitable habitats for both study species. High potentials of suitable habitats for Pouteria adolfi-friederici are predicted to be confined to southwest, west central and south parts of Ethiopia in fragmented moist afromontane forest patches, while it is in the southwest and west central parts of Ethiopia for Prunus africana . On basis of vegetation types of the country, potential suitable habitats for Pouteria adolfi-friederici are predicted to occur in moist evergreen forest, dry evergreen forest and grassland complex and Combretum-Terminalia woodland vegetation types. Whereas, moist evergreen forest, dry evergreen forest and grassland complex and riverine vegetation types are predicted to comprise potential suitable habitats for Prunus africana, showing considerable spatial dynamics. Overall, our results suggest that the strategies deem to design biodiversity conservation should take into account the dynamics of the suitable niches of different species under different future climate scenarios.

Diversity, traditional uses and conservation status of Zingiberaceae in Udorn Thani Province, Thailand

Saensouk P, Saensouk S. 2021. Diversity, traditional uses and conservation status of Zingiberaceae in Udorn Thani Province, Thailand. Biodiversitas 22: 3083-3097. Southeast Asia is recognized as the center of Zingiberaceae distribution with Thailand is among the important regions. Nonetheless, a comprehensive study in a regional context that investigates the biological aspects of the family is lacking. This study aimed to determine the diversity, distribution, ecology, conservation status, and traditional uses of the family Zingiberaceae in Udorn Thani Province, northeastern Thailand. In total, three tribes, nine genera, 47 species of Zingiberaceae were identified during a botanical survey between January and December 2020 in Udorn Thani. Curcuma and Kempferia were the most diverse genera with nine and eight species, respectively, followed by Zingiber as the third most diverse genus with seven species and Alpinia as the fourth most diverse genus with six species. While the genera Etlingera and Hedychium were the least diverse with each containing just one species. For all Zingiberaceae species, the flowering period was found between March and September, while the fruiting period was found between May and October. Zingiberaceae was found with the greatest frequency in five ecosystem types, namely cultivated areas, deciduous dipterocarp forest, mixed deciduous forest, dry evergreen forest and river basin. Twenty-one species were reported as rare species in research area, i.e. Boesenbergia baimaii, B. isanensis, Kaempferia picheansoonthonii, and K. udonensis. It was revealed that the traditional uses of many Zingiberaceae species from villagers in Udorn Thani Province were most frequently used for medicine, food, ornamentals, rituals, spices, perfume and cosmetics. Rhizomes, roots, pseudostems, young inflorescences, inflorescences, young leaves, leaves and fruits were the parts of this plant used.

Exploring the bacterial community composition of soil from a tropical dry evergreen forest in Tamil Nadu, India

Metagenomics is a cutting edge omics technology that has been employed in various fields including novel product discovery, diagnostics, and pollutant monitoring. 16S metagenome amplicon sequencing is used for understanding the microbial diversity from various environments. Forest ecosystems have been known for the discovery of novel bacteria and also bacteria that produces novel compounds that are pharmaceutically and industrially relevant. In this study we try to show the bacterial community structure of the soil obtained from a tropical evergreen forest in India. We use 16s metagenomics sequencing and then follow it up with various analysis like alpha diversity analysis, to find out the dominant bacterial species found in these soils. Actinobacteria was found to be the most copmmonly found bacterial phylum followed by proteobacteria, firmicutes, chloroflexi, acidobacteria, verrucomicrobia, bacteroidetes, gemmatimonadetes, nitospirae and other unclassified organisms. Further studies can elucidate on the discovery of novel compounds from these bacteria.

Endemic Vascular Plants from the Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu, Southern India

Intensive botanical survey was done more than two decades on Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest from four coastal districts viz. Cuddalore, Kancheepurm, Nagai and Villupuram of Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Pondicherry. A total of 87 protected (hillocks, reserve forest) and unprotected (sacred groves, unclassified vegetation) sites were regularly studied from five districts. From this study 82 endemic taxa were enumerated. In addition 25 endemic species were added for the analysis through literature screening and herbarium consultation from 10 Coromandel coastal districts of Tamil Nadu. In all 107 species were recorded, among them 19 are trees, 18 shrubs, 9 climbers and 61 herbs. Distribution of these endemic species were analysed and categorised into endemic to the country, peninsular India, southern India, Eastern and Western Ghats, state and district level. Interestingly the study found that some endemic species were disjunctly distributed in between districts, states, ghats, climatic regimes and bioregions. The disturbance, threat status and conservation measures of few endemic and IUCN red listed species were also studied and discussed.