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A Revised Conservation Assessment of Dipterocarps in S abah
Author(s) -
Maycock Colin R.,
Kettle Chris J.,
Khoo Eyen,
Pereira Joan T.,
Sugau John B.,
Nilus Reuben,
Ong Robert C.,
Amaludin Nazahatul A.,
Newman Mark F.,
Burslem David F.R.P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
biotropica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1744-7429
pISSN - 0006-3606
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2011.00852.x
Subject(s) - iucn red list , habitat , ecology , dipterocarpaceae , habitat destruction , conservation status , ecological niche , occupancy , geography , environmental niche modelling , vegetation (pathology) , forestry , agroforestry , biology , medicine , pathology
Borneo has experienced a rapid decline in the extent of forest cover, which has reduced the amount of habitat available for many plant and animal species. The precise impact of habitat loss on the conservation status of dipterocarp trees is uncertain. We use three contrasting techniques, the extent of occurrence, area of occupancy and ecological niche models derived using maxent , in conjunction with a current land‐use map of S abah, to derive estimates of habitat loss and infer a regional IUCN R ed L ist conservation status for 33 S abah dipterocarp species. Estimates of habitat loss differed significantly according to the methods employed and between species on different habitat types. Proportion of habitat loss determined from the ecological niche models varied from 21 percent for S horea micans to 99.5 percent for D ipterocarpus lamellatus . Thirty‐two of the 33 dipterocarp species analyzed in this study would have their S abah populations classified as T hreatened (equal to a habitat loss of > 30%) under the A 2 IUCN R ed L ist criterion. Dipterocarps that occur in lowland forests have experienced greater habitat loss than upland/lower montane or ultramafic species. In addition, species with the lowest predicted area within their historic distributions had the highest proportion of habitat lost, which provides a rationale for targeting conservation effort on the species with narrow distributions. We recommend the ecological niche modeling approach as a rapid assessment tool for reconstructing species’ historic distributions during conservation assessments of tropical trees.