TROPICAL FOREST SYNERGY.

„ Members of the canopy tree family Dipterocarpaceae

dominate
„ Southeast Asian tropical forest.
„ Consist of 16 genera, over 500 species
Malay peninsula- 9 genera, 155 species
„ In some parts of Borneo, dipterocarps constitute as much as
70% of the canopy tree biomass
80% of the tallest tree canopy trees
„ Many dipterocarp species reproduce in a spectacular but
irregular manner called
„ ͚mass-fruiting͛: production of large numbers of single seed
fruits once every 3 to 4 years, with very little seed production
in the intervening periods.
„ More than 50 dipterocarp tree species dispersed seed within
1-to-2 month period every 3 to 4 years during ENSO events.
* ENSO: El-Nino-Southern Oscillation
A period change in the atmosphere and ocean of tropical
pacific region.
a warm surface current that usually appears around
Christmas in the Pacific off Ecuador and Peru and
disappears by the end of March, but every two to seven
years it persists for up to 18 months or more
„ The density of dipterocarps in Southeast Asian is
commercially and ecologically important.
„ Commercial logging of timbers as valuable source of plywood
„ Harvested dipterocarps constitute of the global plywood trade
 Dipterocarpus
(Keruing)
„ Basal quarter of fruit fused into calyx tube
„ 2 calyx lobes enlarged into wings but a few
species not
„ Thin cotyledons
„ First pair of leaves opposite
„ Leaves plicate, and remaining corrugated even
after being expanded
 Hopea
(Merawan)
„ 32 species
„ Fruit with two of the calyx lobes expanded
into wings
„ Cotyledons fleshy
„ Hypocotyl elongated
„ First to leaves opposite, but sometimes the
first 3 leaves and rarely the first 4 are ni a
whorl instead
 Parashorea
(Gerutu)
„ 3 species of tree
„ Unwinged with one cotyledon very large
„ Cotyledon divided into 2 hemispherical lobes
„ The large cotyledon forcing the fruit wall apart
„ The smaller cotyledon remaining adherent to
one of the lobes of large cotyledon
 Shorea
(Meranti, Balau)
„ 57 species of trees
„ Fruit with 3 of the persistent sepals developed
into wings
„ Cotyledons fleshy
 
 
 




 
 
 

„ Trees of the family dipterocarpaceae are widely distributed
in lowland rain forests of the Southeast Asian tropics.
„ This region has little seasonal weather variation, but yet the
dipterocarps have a unique rhythm of reproductive
phenology known as mass flowering/general flowering.
„ There is evidence that some meteorological cues, including
prolonged drought
strong solar radiation
tree nutritional status
abnormal temperature
triggers floral induction in dominant canopy trees
 
 


 
„ report:
flowering occurs in the 2nd quarter on the malay peninsula
and in eastern borneo
fourth quarter in south sumatera and western borneo
in contrast, flowering occurs in both the 2nd and 4th
quarters on the malay peninsula.
„ Why???
Annual pattern of rainfall and minimum temperature in
this region.
Strong relationship between mass flowering and ENSO
period
„ Borneo
„ Eastern malay peninsula
Triggered during the absence of El Nino episodes in the
focal forest.
„ El Nino episodes generally decrease rainfall but
increase average temperatures on the malay peninsula.
PHYLOGENY GENE IN SHOREA AND ITS CLOSELY
RELATED GENERA (DIPTEROCARPACEAE)
„ Incongruence of the Placement of
Neobalanorcarpus Between Nuclear And
Chloroplast Phylogenies
Neobalanocarpus '


was origionally described
as a species of Ballanocarpus and is confined to
the Malay Peninsula
Produces timber of good quality (Known as
͞chengal͟)
Rather close to Hopea by leaf morphology and
wood anatomy
„ The unique characteristic:
Linear anther in the flower and sub-equal short
woody fruit sepals
„ Obsure both generic and sectional affinity
„ Interesting features:
„ Irregular segregation of chromosome during
meiosis
„ 1st hypothesis:
„ Could have derived via hybridisation between
the ancestral lineage leading to white meranti
of shorea and that leading to Hopea
„ 2nd hypothesis:
„ Gene duplication also a potential cause of
phylogenetic incongruence
„ Occurred in stem lineage of clades I to VI
„ If it is true, at least 4 independent gene losses at
specific positions are necessary to explain the
topology.
„ Conclusion:
Favors the hypothesis of the hybrid origin of
Neobalanocarpus because:
„ Its cytological
„ Confusion about its affinity to Hopea and Shorea
 VERTERBRATE RESPONSES TO SPATION TEMPORAL
VARIATION IN SEED PRODUCTION OF MAST-FRUITING
DIPTEROCARPACEAE
¢
  



  
 








 



„ Reasons:
Dipterocarp mast fruiting is more extreme (longer intervals, tighter
fruit drop and strict mast fruiting) and is more highly synchronized
(across hundreds of species and widely dipersed sites).
Rapid germination is concurrent with fruit fall and optimal periods for
germination can be precisely quantified
Sympatric dipterocarp species possess seeds that vary greatly in mass.
Reproductive adults of many species occur across diverse soil types
along an altitudinal gradient and at many levels in the forest strata
Dipterocarp species are insect pollinated stagger flowering times
among species groups that share pollinations and the communitywide
reproductive response includes species andgenera that do not share
pollinators.
„ Dipterocarp seeds are exclusively wind or gravity
dispersed. Dipterocarp mast fruiting does not involve
complex interactions of vertebrates that destroy some
seeds but also provide dispersal services. Unlike:
Temperate oaks (X


)
Some pines (ë

)
Beech (Ê
)
„ Dipterocarps are not subjected to conflicting pressures
to produce seeds to maintain disperser populations.
Dipterocarp seeds are eaten only by predators that
impart directional (negative) selection, rather than the
more complex web of relationships (positive and
negative) found in temperate communities.
 Phylogeny of the tropical tree family
dipterocarpaceae
„ Origin and phytogeography of dipterocarps:
„ 1st hypothesis:
Dipterocarps originated on the Eurasian plate,
possibly in the Malesian region, and migrated
westward towards south Asia and Africa.
Based on the assumption that the high species
diversity of dipterocarps found in the far east is
associated with the origin of the family.
„ 2nd hypothesis:
Suggested that dipterocarps originated in
Gondwana.
One clade, comprising the sub- families
Monotoideae and Pakaraimoideae, extended its
range westward from Africa to south America.
The other clade, the subfamily Dipterocarpoideae,
migrated eastward through the Deccan plate,
entered the Eurasian plate, and diversified in the
Far Eastern region.