Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Agricultural University, Wageningen, 1987. / Summaries in English and Dutch. Includes vita. Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-169).

Tropical forests have been studied by community ecologists since the earliest days of the field because of their diversity and complexity and much of the theory behind community assembly has been developed in the tropics. However, the processes that act to assemble species in tropical forest across a very fine scale are still poorly understood. This study investigates community structure in 20ha area of hyper diverse tropical rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. In order to examine community phylogenetic structure, I reconstructed a molecular phylogeny for all species in the study site using DNA barcoding loci. From this, I calculated phylogenetic diversity metrics for each community and then used a null model to compare observed phylogenetic diversity with that which would be expected if communities were randomly assembled with respect to phylogeny. The analyses showed that communities are more closely related than predicted by the null model. I also collected species functional trait data and showed that species assemblages and community weighted mean trait values correlate with environmental gradients on the plot. I also compared functional diversity to data simulated from null models. This showed that communities are on average more functionally similar than predicted at random. Finally, I performed a multivariate analysis with environmental, spatial, phylogenetic and trait data from communities across the plot. The analyses recovered an elevational and soil gradient that correlated strongly with community composition. Species occupying different ranges along this gradient had differing trait values and were phylogenetically distinct. These analyses demonstrate that even fine scale environmental variation is influential in assembling communities over a small area of forest. A soil nutrient gradient is consistently recovered that correlates with topography, suggesting that soil nutrient distribution is mediated by the downslope movement of water leaching soils on ridge tops and leading to accumulation of nutrients in valleys. This gradient is associated with species compositional variation and also with community weighted mean functional traits, indicating that the environment is influencing species distributions even over very small areas. Communities were both functionally and phylogenetically clustered, adding further support to this conclusion.

The tropical rainforest has interested ecologists for hundreds of years because of its vast species diversity. The distribution and establishment of trees is related to soil properties and rootassociated microorganisms. The coexistence of hyper-diverse plant communities in tropical rainforests has resulted in associations being formed with belowground communities, mycorrhizas (particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), ectomycorrhizas (ECM)) and root associated bacterial communities. The rapid deforestation in Southeast Asia is causing the loss of the dominant and important tree species belonging to the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is important to understand whether different host species in the same environment maintain mycorrhizal and bacterial diversity, especially mycorrhizas with a restricted host range. In this study, I examine the ecology of mycorrhizas and bacteria associated with Dipterocarpaceae and also the plant community as a whole. The aim of this project is to understand the effect of host properties (e.g. species, size), soil factors (e.g. nutrient concentrations) and spatial factors on mycorrhizal fungi and bacterial diversity and community structure. The research took place in two Centre for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) plots in Malaysia: Pasoh Forest Reserve (in Negeri Sembilan) and Danum Valley Conservation Area (in Sabah). Molecular protocols and a modern technique, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), were adopted to quantify mycorrhizal and bacterial loads in tropical plants. ITS1 and ITS2 regions were used for ECM, 18S rRNA were used for AM, and 16S rRNA were used for bacteria. Mycorrhizas and bacteria present in the roots of Dipterocarpaceae from 60 individual plants belonged to 25 species within 6 genera were traced and sampled in 2015. To my knowledge, this study is the first attempt to study root-associated bacteria across multiple species within a single family, Dipterocarpaceae. Dipterocarpaceae's species was found to significantly influence root bacteria. Analyses showed that mycorrhizal communities are similar on the host, unlike the null model. Dipterocarpaceae was previously believed to solely host ECM, but this study disproves this. This study shows that Dipterocarpaceae can have dual colonization, as it iv can also associate with AM fungi. One soil core of 10 cm × 10 cm × 7.5 cm were collect randomly in three subplot and further divided at 2.5 cm each slice into 75 individual 'microcubes' of 2 cm × 2 cm × 2.5 cm depths enumerates a total of 192 fine root samples. Multivariate analysis revealed that AM fungi tend to associate with non-dipterocarp (as well as unidentified families) while ECM fungi tend to associate with dipterocarps. Data was also collected on host attributes, plant size, and root density. Dipterocarpaceae size does not influence the distribution of mycorrhizal or bacterial communities. The root density reduces as depth increases. Therefore, root density does have a significant influence on mycorrhizal community structure. The diversity of ECM and AM fungal communities within cubes decreased significantly with depth (p < 0.001), whereas the mycorrhizal communities did not change across horizontal distances within cubes. To investigate whether there is a relationship between belowground communities and soil properties, soil macro and micro nutrients were examined and a multivariate analysis was performed. The results showed that communities of belowground (mycorrhizal and bacterial) species correlate with soil parameters. Spatial scale also had an effect on community assembly, independent of environmental variation. These results demonstrate that mycorrhizal fungal communities can vary substantially over very fine spatial scales, and that the distribution of roots from different species do not reflect their proximity aboveground. This study clearly demonstrates the widespread presence of mycorrhizal fungi and root associated bacteria in tropical rainforest plants.

This study examines how deforestation in Malaysia is framed as an economic issue fought out in the political arena using cultural codes as an entry point to examining the political tensions of contemporary Malaysia. Three themes recur throughout this work. The first theme concerns the centrality of resources in Malaysia's colonial and post-colonial political economy. The second theme concerns the displacement of the anxieties of national and cultural survival onto the contests over economic rights. And the third theme is the way collective memories 'flesh out' contemporary contests between the state and civil society. In the sense that the three themes are inter-related, this study traces the twinned construction, and opposition, of the two central ideas: of 'nature' in the form of the rainforest and 'race' in the guise of nation. In keeping with the role of memory in present-day social and political engagements, this study weaves both archival and contemporary material to trace the construction of the history, imagery and vocabulary that have been mapped onto the physical space of the rainforest. I explore the production of the cultural codes through this mapping process that are then used to articulate the contests over the rainforest. These codes are the consequence of negotiations that reflect the unstable alliances and inconsistent identities of contemporary Malaysia, and they are the legacies, albeit translated, of colonialism. In retracing the contests over and about the forests, I hope to shed some light on why Malaysians made, and continue to make, decisions that appear to work against them. The decisions affecting the fate of the rainforest reflects choices made about the kind of society Malaysians live with. Hence, the three core chapters of this study examine military, political/cultural and economic contests and negotiations surrounding the birth of the Malayan/Malaysian nation-state through their impacts on the rainforest. By acknowledging how much of Malaysia's contemporary politics is its colonial legacy, I hope to highlight the trade-off we have made between limited political engagement and development. To accept that we cannot protect basic rights as the price of economic success is to continue to live within the racist framework of colonialism that human rights are only for some humans.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1974. / Bibliography: leaves 322-332. / xvii, 332 leaves ill. (some col.), maps

Thesis (Ph.D.) - James Cook University, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Appendices: leaves 216-231, [3] Bibliography: leaves 197-215.

Thesis (doctoral)--University, Göttingen, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-131).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1993. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [27-28]).

Orientador: Valdemir Antonio Rodrigues / Banca: Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra / Banca: Maurício Ranzini / Resumo: A pesquisa foi realizada na microbacia hidrográfica experimental B, com área de 36,68 ha, pertencente ao Laboratório de Hidrologia Florestal Eng. Agr. Walter Emmerich, localizado no Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar - Núcleo Cunha/SP. Para caracterizar a fitofisionomia da vegetação e sua evolução foi elaborado o mapeamento para os anos de 1962, 1977, 1997 e 2009, com base na interpretação de fotografias aéreas e ortofoto digital colorida e, posteriormente, espacializados em base cartográfica digital utilizando-se o Sistema de Informações Geográficas (SIG) ArcGis 9.3. Avaliou-se em termos quantitativos a entrada e saída de água, via precipitação e deflúvio ao longo dos anos hídricos de 1987 a 2008, e assim foi possível estimar a evapotranspiração real anual pelo método do balanço hídrico. xv O mapeamento da vegetação da microbacia indicou treze fitofisionomias, sendo que foi possível observar principalmente a evolução de sete delas: D1 - porte arbóreo alto, com estrutura de dossel uniforme; D2 - porte arbóreo alto, com estrutura de dossel desuniforme; D4 - porte arbóreo baixo a médio, com estrutura de dossel uniforme; D8 - porte arbóreo médio, com estrutura de dossel uniforme, P - pasto; Vs1 - porte arbóreo alto, com estrutura de dossel desuniforme (capoeirão) e Vs4 - clareira. O balanço hídrico médio para os vinte e dois anos da série apresentou precipitação, deflúvio e evapotranspiração real de 1.856,3 mm (100%), 1.354,38 mm (72,96%) e 501,92 mm (27,04%), respectivamente. Para cada processo hidrológico verificou-se uma grande oscilação dos dados anuais. A precipitação e o deflúvio mostraram uma tendência negativa, sendo mais acentuada para o último processo. Já para a evapotranspiração real a tendência foi positiva. As variáveis precipitação e deflúvio anuais apresentaram alto valor do coeficiente de determinação ... / Abstract: The survey was carried out in the experimental catchment B, with an area of 36.68 ha, belonging to the Eng. Agr. Walter Emmerich Forest Hydrology Laboratory, located in Serra do Mar State Park - Core Cunha / SP. To characterize the physiognomy of the vegetation and its evolution was developed mapping for the years 1962, 1977, 1997 and 2009, based on an interpretation of aerial photographs and digital color orthophoto, after spatialized in digital cartographic base by using the Geographical Information System (GIS) ArcGIS 9.3. To in quantitative terms evaluate the input and output of water via precipitation and runoff of the water years 1987 to 2008, and thus estimate the annual actual evapotranspiration by water balance method. The vegetation mapping of the xvii watershed indicated thirteen vegetation types, and it was possible to observe the evolution of mainly seven: D1 - arboreal high, structure with uniform canopy; D2 - arboreal high, with uneven canopy structure; D4 - low to medium-sized arboreal, structure with uniform canopy; D8 - arboreal average, structure with uniform canopy; P - pasture; Vs1 - sized arboreal high, with uneven canopy structure (brushwood) and Vs4 - glade. The medium water balance for the twenty-two years of the series presented precipitation, runoff and evapotranspiration of 1,856.3 mm (100%), 1,354.38 mm (72.96%) and 501.92 mm (27.04%), respectively. For each hydrological process there was a large variation in annual data. Rainfall and runoff showed a negative trend, being more pronounced in the last case. As for the real evapotranspiration trend was positive. The variables annual precipitation and runoff presented a high coefficient of determination (r² = 0.8356), indicating a good linear relationship. Thus, the results showed that natural regeneration of vegetation is affecting water production, therefore, with increasing real evapotranspiration ... / Mestre