All Creatures Great and Small # 24
Peat
Peat exsists along the coastal areas of both Borneo and Sumatra. Peat is formed when conditions do not allow further plant material decay. During dry conditions, peat easily catches fire, and the fire causes further global warming. This paper studies how sea-level rise and climate change has affected the peat ecosystem since 20,000 years ago.DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16131
New Species
A new species of croaker (sciaenid fish) from the east Malaysian waters of Sabah and Sarawak have been made known to the science community. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5116.3.5
Another New Species
The diving beetle, a little known species from Sarawak, has been made known to the western world. The discovery was made in the Kelabit Highlands. doi: 10.15560/18.2.285
Kelian River
The Kelian River ecosystem is the subject of this study which uses Loop analysis. Pristine habitats upstream, followed by a gold mine in the centre and finally, human interactions downstream are the subject of this analysis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecocom.2022.101000
Humans and Plasmodium knowleski
“This systematic review aims to highlight and summarize studies describing human behaviours and activities that expose humans to mosquito bites.” https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063675
Bananas
Everything you could want to know about bananas and more is available in chapter two of this book.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01802-6 {Genomic Resistant Fruit Crops}
And More New Species
Three new species of geckos have been made known to science. They were found in the karst region of Sarawak. DOI: 10.11646/ZOOTAXA.5120.1.1
Pan Borneo Highway
The pros and cons of the highway are discussed in this interesting article. http://www.scienceijsar.com
Tax Evasion
83% of the over 2.1 million companies registered,they pay no income tax in Malaysia. Urgent attention is needed to curb further leakage. Transparency and Attitude towards Tax Evasion doi.org/10.24191/ijsms.v7i1.17786
Flowering Plants
Fossils of flowering plants have been discovered in a Brunei collection. The fossils show that flowering plants dominated the early Pliocene area (5.3-2.6 million years ago). It has been thought that flowering plants became dominant 20 million years ago, but very few fossils have been found to confirm it. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12949
And another new species
A remarkable new species of Ardisia has been made known to science from the Imbak Canyon in Sabah. Described as a massive large-leafed specimen, it also has leaves that come off the stem pointing upwards at an angle. doi: 10.18942/apg.202113
Soil Fungus
Soil fungus diversity and community composition using “Illumina sequencing”(identifies DNA and places them in a nucleic acid chain) are covered in this paper. This article presents one of the most detailed studies of soil fungi in Borneo. https://doi.org/10.3390/IECD2022-12350
New Mosquito Species
A new mosquito species has been made known to the world of science. Topomyia (Suaymyia) puehensis Miyagi, Toma and Okazawa, was named for the researchers who found it. It was discovered in Pueh Sarawak. DOI: 10.7601/mez.73.7
Sharks
There is one species of spade nose shark that lives in the Indian Ocean( Scoliodon macrorhynchos) and another(S. laticaudus) that lives in the Pacific ocean. They are separate sharks divided by the Malay Peninsula. The species of spade nose shark that lives in the South China Sea and the waters of Indonesia and Malaysia remain unknown.
Sarawak Archaeology
Klirieng posts (burial posts) located in the Klirieng river have been the subject of protection by the Sarawak government. The posts are thought to be of the Punan/ Beketan community.
Tall House among the Melanau
There are only two traditional houses left in Sarawak, with one, a replica at the Sarawak Cultural Village, while the other is at Kampong Sok. This paper analyzes the changes to the Tall House over the years. The results indicate the Tall House is hybrid a of the Tall House combined with an Iban longhouse, and later, Malay influences were added. This is quite an interesting article. DOI: 10.26418/ijeas.2022.2.1.55-72
Tourism
An exciting book on all facets of international tourism is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6428590
The Kedayan Calendar
Kedayan people live in Brunei and parts of Sarawak. They developed a calendar which governed behaviour according to natural things. For example, the stars determined agricultural activities such as the clearing of land for padi cultivation and the moon told them when to hunt, fish and forage. When the Pleiades was first sighted in May, the rice fields were cleared. As the Pleiades reached the top of the sky (June), the slashing and burning of the fields should have been completed. The knowledge of this calendar has been replaced by modern means, and only a few elderly know its value. Quite an interesting read if you can plow through the verbiage. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine volume 18, Article number: 33 (2022)
Map of Pine trees in Borneo
A computer made map of pine trees in Borneo has been constructed by the University in Switzerland. See the maps at the bottom of the Swiss article.doi:10.1111/nph.18158
Absorption Spectrum
It is essential to include the absorption spectrum in collecting surface water data. The range adds more information about where the river, estuary and sea come together. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment volume 194, Article number: 370 (2022)
Climate Change Borneo
A drier and warmer climate can be expected with the continued deforestation of Borneo. Changes in the land affect the properties of clouds that form over it. Deforested areas are associated with diffused clouds, smaller cloud particles and thin high clouds. The area also causes a low release of moisture into the environment by plants. Journal of Infrastructure Planning and Engineering (JIPE), Volume 01, Issue 01, April 2022, pp. 33 – 37
More Peat
Dissolved material from the land to the sea via rivers has dramatically increased, causing a decrease in the amount of light that diffuses through the oceans. This affects the plants and animals that live in the sea. These results are caused by the decrease in peatlands in Borneo. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi5688
Orangutan
Today, only about 20% of the orang hutan habitat remains in the region in the lowland alluvial forests along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. They have been supplanted by oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations. However, 25 plots of land within these plantations have food and shelter for the remaining orangutan. The following farming myths have threatened these plots. The myths include a)good farming practices mean the exclusion of wild life. b)
orangutans seen in these plantations must be rescued by people c)moving of orangutans to other areas. Industrial farmers must be aware these are just myths, and steps should be taken to destroy these myths. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-022-00288-w