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Academic literature on the topic 'Rainforests'
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Journal articles on the topic "Rainforests"
1
M. J. S. Bowman, D., and J. C. Z. Woinarski. "Biogeography of Australian monsoon rainforest mammals: implications for the conservation of rainforest mammals." Pacific Conservation Biology 1, no. 2 (1994): 98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/pc940098.
Full textAbstract:
Monsoon rainforests form an archipelago of small habitat fragments throughout the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia. According to the definition of Winter (1988) the current monsoon rainforest mammal assemblage contains only one rainforest specialist mammal species (restricted to Cape York Peninsula), and is dominated by eutherian habitat generalists (murids and bats) that mostly occur in surrounding savannah habitats. The mammal assemblages in monsoon rainforests across northern Australia (Cape York Peninsula, Northern Territory and the Kimberley) are essentially regional subsets of the local savannah and mangrove mammal assemblages, and consequently share only a limited number of species in common (most of which are bats). The lack of rainforest specialists in northwestern Australia is thought to be due to: (i) the lack of large tracts (> 1 000 ha) of monsoon rainforest habitat; (ii) the possible substantial contraction of these habitats in the past; and (iii) the limited extent of gallery rainforests, such rainforests being important habitats for rainforest mammals in South American savannahs. Unfortunately it is not possible to identify the threshold of habitat area required to maintain populations of monsoon rainforest specialist mammal species because of an impoverished fossil record pertaining to the past spatial distribution of monsoon rainforests. The implications of the lack of a specialist mammal fauna in Australian monsoon rainforests for the future of heavily fragmented tropical rainforests elsewhere in the world is briefly discussed. It is concluded that the analogy of habitat fragments to true islands is weak, that rainforest plant species are less vulnerable to local extinction than mammals, that the loss of mammal rainforest specialists may not result in a dramatic loss of plant species, and that corridors of rainforest may be critical for maintenance of rainforest mammal assemblages in areas currently subject to forest clearance.
2
Lin, Meizhi, Qingping Ling, Huiqing Pei, et al. "Remote Sensing of Tropical Rainforest Biomass Changes in Hainan Island, China from 2003 to 2018." Remote Sensing 13, no. 9 (2021): 1696. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13091696.
Full textAbstract:
The largest area of tropical rainforests in China is on Hainan Island, and it is an important part of the world’s tropical rainforests. The structure of the tropical rainforests in Hainan is complex, the biomass density is high, and conducting ground surveys is difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Remote sensing is a good monitoring method for biomass estimation. However, the saturation phenomenon of such data from different satellite sensors results in low forest biomass estimation accuracy in tropical rainforests with high biomass density. Based on environmental information, the biomass of permanent sample plots, and forest age, this study established a tropical rainforest database for Hainan. Forest age and 14 types of environmental information, combined with an enhanced vegetation index (EVI), were introduced to establish a tropical rainforest biomass estimation model for remote sensing that can overcome the saturation phenomenon present when using remote sensing data. The fitting determination coefficient R2 of the model was 0.694. The remote sensing estimate of relative bias was 2.29%, and the relative root mean square error was 35.41%. The tropical rainforest biomass in Hainan Island is mainly distributed in the central mountainous and southern areas. The tropical rainforests in the northern and coastal areas have been severely damaged by tourism and real estate development. Particularly in low-altitude areas, large areas of tropical rainforest have been replaced by economic forests. Furthermore, the tropical rainforest areas in some cities and counties have decreased, affecting the increase in tropical rainforest biomass. On Hainan Island, there were few tropical rainforests in areas with high rainfall. Therefore, afforestation in these areas could maximize the ecological benefits of tropical rainforests. To further strengthen the protection, there is an urgent need to establish a feasible, reliable, and effective tropical rainforest loss assessment system using quantitative scientific methodologies.
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Scheffers, Brett R., Ben L. Phillips, William F. Laurance, Navjot S. Sodhi, Arvin Diesmos, and Stephen E. Williams. "Increasing arboreality with altitude: a novel biogeographic dimension." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280, no. 1770 (2013): 20131581. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1581.
Full textAbstract:
Biodiversity is spatially organized by climatic gradients across elevation and latitude. But do other gradients exist that might drive biogeographic patterns? Here, we show that rainforest's vertical strata provide climatic gradients much steeper than those offered by elevation and latitude, and biodiversity of arboreal species is organized along this gradient. In Philippine and Singaporean rainforests, we demonstrate that rainforest frogs tend to shift up in the rainforest strata as altitude increases. Moreover, a Philippine-wide dataset of frog distributions shows that frog assemblages become increasingly arboreal at higher elevations. Thus, increased arboreality with elevation at broad biogeographic scales mirrors patterns we observed at local scales. Our proposed ‘arboreality hypothesis’ suggests that the ability to exploit arboreal habitats confers the potential for larger geographical distributions because species can shift their location in the rainforest strata to compensate for shifts in temperature associated with elevation and latitude. This novel finding may help explain patterns of species richness and abundance wherever vegetation produces a vertical microclimatic gradient. Our results further suggest that global warming will ‘flatten’ the biodiversity in rainforests by pushing arboreal species towards the cooler and wetter ground. This ‘flattening’ could potentially have serious impacts on forest functioning and species survival.
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Menkhorst, KA, and JCZ Woinarski. "Distribution of mammals in monsoon rainforests of the Northern Territory." Wildlife Research 19, no. 3 (1992): 295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/wr9920295.
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The mammal fauna of 50 patches of monsoon rainforest in the Northern Territory, Australia, was surveyed. No mammal species is restricted to this habitat, and most of the region's marnmal fauna uses it at least occasionally. Mammal species composition within monsoon rainforests undergoes substantial variation along an extensive environmental gradient reflecting moisture condition and rockiness. For most mammal species, variation in abundance among patches was related more to the position of the patch on this environmental gradient than to patch size or extent of disturbance. Disturbance was positively correlated with the richness and abundance in quadrats of three taxonomic groupingsrodents, 'other' native species, and all native species (other than bats)-and negatively correlated with richness and abundance of macropods. Compared with surrounding (open forest and savanna woodland) vegetation, monsoon rainforests have few grazing herbivores and small granivorous rodents, but more species that eat fleshy fruits and seeds from woody plants. The mammal fauna of monsoon rainforests in the Northern Territory is similar to that of monsoon rainforests of the Kimberley (to the west) but unlike that of wet tropical rainforests in Cape York (to the east). These differences, and the current impoverishment of the mammal fauna of the Northern Territory monsoon rainforest, are attributable to historical processes and the current small area of this highly fragmented monsoon rainforest estate. Three bat species may be important for pollination and dispersal of monsoon rainforest plants.
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Reichel, H., and AN Andersen. "The Rainforest Ant Fauna of Australia's Northern Territory." Australian Journal of Zoology 44, no. 1 (1996): 81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo9960081.
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An ant survey of Northern Territory (NT) rainforests, which occur as numerous small and isolated patches within a predominantly savanna landscape, yielded 173 species from 46 genera. The richest genera were Polyrhachis (22 species), Pheidole (21 species), Rhytidoponera (12 species) and Monomorium (12 species). Seven genera represented new records for the NT: Discothyrea, Prionopelta, Machomyrma, Strumigenys, Bothriomyrmex, Turneria and Pseudolasius. The most common ants were Generalised myrmicines, particularly species of Pheidole and Monomorium, and Opportunists such as species of Paratrechina, Tetramorium, Odontomachus and Rhytidoponera. This is also the case in rainforests of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Of NT rainforest species, 59% have Torresian (tropical) affinities, which is only slightly higher than in Kimberley rainforests (48%). However, the NT harbours a far higher proportion of specialist rainforest species (27 v. 9%), including many more with arboreal nests (13 v. 5% of total species). Many of the rainforest specialists are of considerable biogeographic interest, with a substantial number having disjunct distributions in the NT and Queensland (and often also New Guinea) A small number represent the only known Australian records of south-east Asian species. Interestingly, very few species appear to be endemic to NT rainforests, with a previously unrecorded species of Aphaenogaster being a probable exception. The NT rainforest fauna also includes several introduced species, with at least one (Pheidole megacephala) posing a serious conservation threat.
6
Kantvilas, G., P. W. James, and S. J. Jarman. "Macrolichens in Tasmanian Rainforests." Lichenologist 17, no. 1 (1985): 67–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0024282985000081.
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Abstract96 macrolichens, including 12 new records, are reported for cool temperate rainforests in Tasmania. These species belong mainly to the austral cool temperate element. A descriptive account of the lichen floras from five major rainforest communities is given. Field observations suggest that substrate and light are the most important ecological factors affecting the distribution of lichens in rainforest. Although most species are widespread in Tasmania, large-scale disturbance and the fragmentation of rainforest stands is seen as a threat to their survival.
7
Houston, Wayne A., and Alistair Melzer. "Dry rainforests have a distinct and more diverse assemblage of epigaeic invertebrates than eucalypt woodlands: implications for ecosystem health monitoring." Pacific Conservation Biology 18, no. 2 (2012): 133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/pc120133.
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Dry rainforests have a disproportionately higher diversity of plant species than the eucalypt woodlands that dominate Australian landscapes. While several endemic vertebrate species have been found in dry rainforests, their values for invertebrate fauna are relatively poorly known. Epigaeic invertebrates of four patches of dry rainforests in Queensland were annually compared to those of nearby eucalypt woodlands using pitfall traps between 1998 and 2002. Dry rainforests had significantly greater Order-level richness, lower dominance, fewer invertebrates and a different assemblage. Invertebrate composition was characterized by typically shelter- or moisture-requiring taxa, such as earwigs, pseudoscorpions, gastropods, millipedes, isopods, Diplura and Symphyla. This may reflect the greater prevalence of moister microhabitats in dry rainforests in comparison to woodlands. Coinciding with several years of low dry season rainfall, invertebrate abundance declined in dry rainforests but not woodlands, indicating that dry rainforest epigaeic fauna may be more sensitive to reduced soil moisture compared with woodland fauna. This may reflect differences of some taxa in evolutionary lineage or the mediation of vegetation phenology and differences in drought susceptibility of the two vegetation types. Importantly, the study provides evidence that faunal assemblages of drier rainforests may be more vulnerable to tipping points associated with droughts and changing rainfall regimes than nearby woodlands. Furthermore, it demonstrated the importance of including a range of vegetation types in any long-term monitoring programs and that an understanding of ecological responses to environmental drivers is critical to interpreting data. The relatively greater sensitivity of dry rainforest biota to droughts compared with woodlands indicates that it could provide a regional “control” for this effect.
8
Howard, Marion, Hilary Pearl, William J. F. McDonald, Yoko Shimizu, Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava, and Alison Shapcott. "Assessment of the Diversity, Distinctiveness and Conservation of Australia’s Central Queensland Coastal Rainforests Using DNA Barcoding." Diversity 15, no. 3 (2023): 378. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d15030378.
Full textAbstract:
Globally threatened dry rainforests are poorly studied and conserved when compared to mesic rainforests. Investigations of dry rainforest communities within Australia are no exception. We assessed the community diversity, distinctiveness and level of conservation in Central Queensland coastal dry rainforest communities. Our three-marker DNA barcode-based phylogeny, based on rainforest species from the Central Queensland Coast, was combined with the phylogeny from Southeast Queensland. The phylogenetic tree and Central Queensland Coast (CQC) community species lists were used to evaluate phylogenetic diversity (PD) estimates and species composition to pinpoint regions of significant rainforest biodiversity. We evaluated the patterns and relationships between rainforest communities of the biogeographical areas of Central Queensland Coast and Southeast Queensland, and within and between Subregions. Subsequently, we identified areas of the highest distinctiveness and diversity in phylogenetically even rainforest communities, consistent with refugia, and areas significantly more related than random, consistent with expansion into disturbed or harsher areas. We found clear patterns of phylogenetic clustering that suggest that selection pressures for moisture and geology were strong drivers of rainforest distribution and species diversity. These results showed that smaller dry rainforests in Central Queensland Coast (CQC) represented areas of regional plant migration but were inadequately protected. To sustain species diversity and distribution under intense selection pressures of moisture availability and substrate type throughout this dry and geologically complex region, the future conservation of smaller patches is essential.
9
McGregor, Russell. "Making the Rainforest Aboriginal: Tindale and Birdsell’s foray into deep time." Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Culture 10 (December 2016): 9–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.17082/j.2205-3239.10.2016-02.
Full textAbstract:
In the late 1930s Norman Tindale and Joseph Birdsell identified the inhabitants of the North Queensland rainforests as a distinct race of Indigenous Australians. This classification was a keystone of their attempted reconstruction of the deep past of Australia. According to their narrative, the Aboriginal inhabitants of the rainforests were relicts of the first human occupants of Australia, refugees from later waves of Aboriginal invaders who seized all but the most inhospitable parts of the continent. From the outset, Tindale and Birdsell’s argument was burdened with serious problems, both in the qualities they attributed to rainforest people and in their representation of the rainforest environment as a ‘refuge’. While Tindale and Birdsell’s racial theorising and historical speculations drew some supporters, they failed to win general academic acclamation and by the 1970s were quite thoroughly discredited. Yet the category ‘rainforest Aboriginal’ survived, disengaged from the reconstruction of Australia’s past that had inspired it and anchored instead to the distinctive economy of rainforest subsistence, instantiated in a unique material culture. This paper takes Tindale and Birdsell’s relict-race representation of rainforest Aboriginal people as the starting point in an exploration of how European people represented the Aboriginal inhabitants of the North Queensland rainforests over roughly a hundred years, from the 1870s to the 1970s.
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Tejada, Julia V., John J. Flynn, Pierre-Olivier Antoine, Victor Pacheco, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, and Thure E. Cerling. "Comparative isotope ecology of western Amazonian rainforest mammals." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 42 (2020): 26263–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007440117.
Full textAbstract:
Closed-canopy rainforests are important for climate (influencing atmospheric circulation, albedo, carbon storage, etc.) and ecology (harboring the highest biodiversity of continental regions). Of all rainforests, Amazonia is the world’s most diverse, including the highest mammalian species richness. However, little is known about niche structure, ecological roles, and food resource partitioning of Amazonian mammalian communities over time. Through analyses of δ13Cbioapatite, δ13Chair, and δ15Nhair, we isotopically characterized aspects of feeding ecology in a modern western Amazonian mammalian community in Peru, serving as a baseline for understanding the evolution of Neotropical rainforest ecosystems. By comparing these results with data from equatorial Africa, we evaluated the potential influences of distinct phylogenetic and biogeographic histories on the isotopic niches occupied by mammals in analogous tropical ecosystems. Our results indicate that, despite their geographical and taxonomic differences, median δ13Cdietvalues from closed-canopy rainforests in Amazonia (−27.4‰) and equatorial Africa (−26.9‰) are not significantly different, and that the median δ13Cdietexpected for mammalian herbivores in any closed-canopy rainforest is −27.2‰. Amazonian mammals seem to exploit a narrower spectrum of dietary resources than equatorial African mammals, however, as depicted by the absence of highly negative δ13Cdietvalues previously proposed as indicative of rainforests (<−31‰). Finally, results of keratin and bioapatite δ13C indicate that the predictive power of trophic relationships, and traditional dietary ecological classifications in bioapatite-protein isotopic offset expectations, must be reconsidered.