The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia

Logging and forest conversion to oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia have resulted in the formations of numerous small isolated forest fragments scattered within or surrounding converted habitat landscapes. Although large areas have been affected, little is known about their impacts on the native...

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Main Author:	Tung, Siaw Ean
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	QL700-739.8 Mammals
Online Access:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
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id	my-ums-ep.42056
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-ums-ep.420562024-12-16T02:45:39Z The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia 2020 Tung, Siaw Ean QL700-739.8 Mammals Logging and forest conversion to oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia have resulted in the formations of numerous small isolated forest fragments scattered within or surrounding converted habitat landscapes. Although large areas have been affected, little is known about their impacts on the native small mammal fauna. By using standardised grid trapping techniques and Generalised Linear Mixed-Effects modelling (GLMM), the species richness, abundance and diversity of the small mammals at ten forest fragment sites i.e. five in selectively logged forest fragments (12-88 ha) and five in unlogged forest fragments (45-3529 ha), were compared with four continuous forest sites i.e. two in continuous selectively logged forest and two in continuous unlogged primary forest (>800000 ha) in the lowland areas in eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The objectives were to assess the effects of logging and forest fragmentation on aspects of community structure of the small mammals. Additionally, the effects of fragment size, degree of isolation as well as aspects of forest quality were also investigated. Non-matrix Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) plot was used to discern the small mammal assemblage composition by forest type treatments. In general, unlogged forests had significantly higher small mammal species richness and diversity compared to that of logged forests. Irrespective of the forest conditions, significantly fewer species but higher abundance of small mammals were recorded in forest fragments compared to continuous forests. In terms of species composition, forest fragments (both logged and unlogged) were dominated by common and widespread species, whereas rare species were more represented in the continuous forest sites. The effects of forest isolation and forest quality on the small mammals’ community were not significant. Overall, the present study revealed the negative effects of logging and forest fragmentation on the small mammal community. However, forest fragments are still valuable for conserving many common native species of small mammals that are adapted to living in disturbed forest. Given that converted habitats, such as oil palm plantations, and other disturbed landscapes are generally species poor in terms of the native small mammal fauna, retaining forest fragments within or surrounding converted habitat landscapes may mitigate the loss of local biodiversity resources to some extent. 2020 Thesis https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/ https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/1/24%20PAGES.pdf text en public https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/2/FULLTEXT.pdf text en validuser masters Universiti Malaysia Sabah Institut Biologi Tropika dan Pemuliharaan
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
collection	UMS Institutional Repository
language	English English
topic	QL700-739.8 Mammals
spellingShingle	QL700-739.8 Mammals Tung, Siaw Ean The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
description	Logging and forest conversion to oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia have resulted in the formations of numerous small isolated forest fragments scattered within or surrounding converted habitat landscapes. Although large areas have been affected, little is known about their impacts on the native small mammal fauna. By using standardised grid trapping techniques and Generalised Linear Mixed-Effects modelling (GLMM), the species richness, abundance and diversity of the small mammals at ten forest fragment sites i.e. five in selectively logged forest fragments (12-88 ha) and five in unlogged forest fragments (45-3529 ha), were compared with four continuous forest sites i.e. two in continuous selectively logged forest and two in continuous unlogged primary forest (>800000 ha) in the lowland areas in eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The objectives were to assess the effects of logging and forest fragmentation on aspects of community structure of the small mammals. Additionally, the effects of fragment size, degree of isolation as well as aspects of forest quality were also investigated. Non-matrix Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) plot was used to discern the small mammal assemblage composition by forest type treatments. In general, unlogged forests had significantly higher small mammal species richness and diversity compared to that of logged forests. Irrespective of the forest conditions, significantly fewer species but higher abundance of small mammals were recorded in forest fragments compared to continuous forests. In terms of species composition, forest fragments (both logged and unlogged) were dominated by common and widespread species, whereas rare species were more represented in the continuous forest sites. The effects of forest isolation and forest quality on the small mammals’ community were not significant. Overall, the present study revealed the negative effects of logging and forest fragmentation on the small mammal community. However, forest fragments are still valuable for conserving many common native species of small mammals that are adapted to living in disturbed forest. Given that converted habitats, such as oil palm plantations, and other disturbed landscapes are generally species poor in terms of the native small mammal fauna, retaining forest fragments within or surrounding converted habitat landscapes may mitigate the loss of local biodiversity resources to some extent.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Tung, Siaw Ean
author_facet	Tung, Siaw Ean
author_sort	Tung, Siaw Ean
title	The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
title_short	The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
title_full	The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
title_fullStr	The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed	The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
title_sort	value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in sabah, malaysia
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
granting_department	Institut Biologi Tropika dan Pemuliharaan
publishDate	2020
url	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42056/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
_version_	1818611443491143680

The value of forest fragments within or surrounding oil palm plantations and disturbed landscapes for terrestrial mammal conservation in Sabah, Malaysia

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