No evidence of carbon storage usage for seed production in 18 dipterocarp masting species in a tropical rain forest.

Most canopy species in lowland tropical rain forests in Southeast Asia, represented by Dipterocarpaceae, undergo mast reproduction synchronously at community level during a general flowering event. Such events occur at irregular intervals of 2-10 years. Some species do not necessarily participate in every synchronous mast reproduction, however. This may be due to a lack of carbohydrate resources in the trees for masting. We tested the hypothesis that interspecific differences in the time required to store assimilates in trees for seed production are due to the frequency of masting and/or seed size in each species. We examined the relationship between reproductive frequency and the carbon accumulation period necessary for seed production, and between the seed size and the period, using radiocarbon analysis in 18 dipterocarp canopy species. The mean carbon accumulation period was 0.84 years before seed maturation in all species studied. The carbon accumulation period did not have any significant correlation with reproductive frequency or seed size, both of which varied widely across the species studied. Our results show that for seed production, dipterocarp masting species do not use carbon assimilates stored for a period between the masting years, but instead use recent photosynthates produced primarily in a masting year, regardless of the masting interval or seed size of each species. These findings suggest that storage of carbohydrate resources is not a limiting factor in the masting of dipterocarps, and that accumulation and allocation of other resources is important as a precondition for participation in general flowering.

Biodiversity conservation values of fragmented communally reserved forests, managed by indigenous people, in a human-modified landscape in Borneo.

This study explored the conservation values of communally reserved forests (CRFs), which local indigenous communities deliberately preserve within their area of shifting cultivation. In the current landscape of rural Borneo, CRFs are the only option for conservation because other forested areas have already been logged or transformed into plantations. By analyzing their alpha and beta diversity, we investigated how these forests can contribute to restore regional biodiversity. Although CRFs were fragmented and some had been disturbed in the past, their tree species diversity was high and equivalent to that of primary forests. The species composition of intact forests and forests disturbed in the past did not differ clearly, which indicates that past logging was not intensive. All CRFs contained unique and endangered species, which are on the IUCN Red List, Sarawak protected plants, or both. On the other hand, the forest size structure differed between disturbed and intact CRFs, with the disturbed CRFs consisting of relatively smaller trees. Although the beta diversity among CRFs was also high, we found a high contribution of species replacement (turnover), but not of richness difference, in the total beta diversity. This suggests that all CRFs have a conservation value for restoring the overall regional biodiversity. Therefore, for maintaining the regional species diversity and endangered species, it would be suitable to design a conservation target into all CRFs.

Macrosolen bidoupensis (Loranthaceae), a new species from Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, southern Vietnam.

Macrosolen bidoupensis Tagane & V.S.Dang, sp. nov. (Loranthaceae) is newly described from Bidoup Nui Ba National Park in Lam Dong Province, southern Vietnam. The new species is characterized by small broadly elliptic to circular leaves, sessile to short petioles, slightly cordate to rounded leaf bases, 4-5 pairs of lateral veins and a basally green corolla tube. An illustration, a summary of DNA barcoding of the plastid genes rbcL and matK, and a key to the species of Macrosolen in Vietnam are provided.

Garcinia hopii (Clusiaceae), a new species from Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, southern Vietnam.

A new species, Garcinia hopii H.Toyama & V.S.Dang is described from Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, southern Vietnam. This species is similar to Garcinia hendersoniana Whitmore but differs from that species in having larger leaves, clustered pistillate flowers, a greater number of sterile anthers and a larger stigma of young fruits. A description, preliminary conservation assessment, illustration, photographs and DNA barcodes of the new species are provided, as well as an updated key to Garcinia sect. Hebradendron in Indochina.

A new species of Eustigma (Hamamelidaceae) from Hon Ba Nature Reserve, Vietnam.

A new species of Hamamelidaceae, Eustigma honbaense H.Toyama, Tagane & V.S.Dang, sp. nov., is described from Hon Ba Nature Reserve, Vietnam. This species is similar to Eustigma oblongifolium Gardner & Champ., but differs from it in having entire leaves, longer infructescences, capsules with a longer apical part and seeds with a larger hilum. A description, preliminary conservation assessment, illustration and photographs of the new species are provided, as well as an updated key to the genus Eustigma.

Soils on exposed Sunda shelf shaped biogeographic patterns in the equatorial forests of Southeast Asia.

The marked biogeographic difference between western (Malay Peninsula and Sumatra) and eastern (Borneo) Sundaland is surprising given the long time that these areas have formed a single landmass. A dispersal barrier in the form of a dry savanna corridor during glacial maxima has been proposed to explain this disparity. However, the short duration of these dry savanna conditions make it an unlikely sole cause for the biogeographic pattern. An additional explanation might be related to the coarse sandy soils of central Sundaland. To test these two nonexclusive hypotheses, we performed a floristic cluster analysis based on 111 tree inventories from Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo. We then identified the indicator genera for clusters that crossed the central Sundaland biogeographic boundary and those that did not cross and tested whether drought and coarse-soil tolerance of the indicator genera differed between them. We found 11 terminal floristic clusters, 10 occurring in Borneo, 5 in Sumatra, and 3 in Peninsular Malaysia. Indicator taxa of clusters that occurred across Sundaland had significantly higher coarse-soil tolerance than did those from clusters that occurred east or west of central Sundaland. For drought tolerance, no such pattern was detected. These results strongly suggest that exposed sandy sea-bed soils acted as a dispersal barrier in central Sundaland. However, we could not confirm the presence of a savanna corridor. This finding makes it clear that proposed biogeographic explanations for plant and animal distributions within Sundaland, including possible migration routes for early humans, need to be reevaluated.

Pollen morphology of the genus Skimmia (Rutaceae) and its taxonomic implications.

Pollen morphology of the genus Skimmia was studied. Of six species of the genus, five species were investigated by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Pollen grains of Skimmia had striate to striate-reticulate sculpture and variable aperture number (3-7), and these characters differed from even the phylogenetically closest relatives such as Dictamnus and Casimiroa which have 3-colporate pollen grains with reticulate exine. In Skimmia laureola, pollen dimorphism is suggested in the aperture number in accordance with the floral system. Pollen grains of Skimmia japonica, a morphologically very variable species, were extensively surveyed covering its whole distribution area. The grains were also striate to striate-reticulate, and the exine sculpture was not different between varieties. However, the aperture number of S. japonica showed a geographical variation ranging from 4 to 6; in Sakhalin, Hokkaido, most part of Honshu and Taiwan, grains with 4-5 apertures were dominant, while in the southern part of Japan, including the Ryukyu Islands and the Izu Islands, those with 5-6 apertures were common.

Karyotypic analysis of Skimmia japonica (Rutaceae) and related species.

A karyotypic analysis of three species of Skimmia (Rutaceae) in East Asia was performed that examined 88 individuals from 53 localities. Chromosome numbers of S. japonica, S. reevesiana and S. arisanensis were 2n=30, 31, 32 (=30+0-2B), 2n=60 and 2n=60, respectively. The chromosome number of S. arisanensis was reported for the first time. All species had a large chromosome pair or quartet (the first pair or quartet) with a median-submedian centromere in the karyotype. In S. japonica the arm ratio of this first pair was considerably variable and showed a geographical pattern. In the northern half of the distribution range, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and part of Kyushu, the arm ratio was 1-1.2, while in the southern half, part of Kyushu, Ryukyu and Taiwan, the arm ratio was very variable and ranged from 1.2 to 2.4. In S. japonica the first pair was sometimes rather heteromorphic; however, the heteromorphism was not related to sex of the plant.

A comparative study on the anatomy and development of different shapes of domatia in Cinnamomum camphora (Lauraceae).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Domatia are small organs usually found in the axils of major veins on the underside of leaves and, although they have received wide attention from ecologists, few detailed reports exist on their anatomy or development. This study is focused on the domatia of Cinnamomum camphora (Lauraceae) and is the first comparative study on the anatomy and development of the different shapes of domatia within a single plant. METHODS: Four types of domatia in C. camphora leaves were observed on paraffin sections under a microscope. KEY RESULTS: The domatia consisted of six histological parts: the upper epidermis, the upper mesophyll tissue, spongy tissue, the lower mesophyll tissue, the tissue filling the rim opening, and the lower epidermis. They differed from the non-domatial lamina mainly in the cell structure of the upper and lower mesophyll tissue and the rim tissue. Differences in domatium shapes were mainly associated with differences in the structure of the upper mesophyll and in the number and size of the rim tissue cells. Differences in the development of domatium types were observed in terms of initiation timing, differentiation of the upper mesophyll cells and degree of rim tissue development. CONCLUSIONS: In domatia, active anticlinal division in the lower mesophyll cells, as compared with the upper mesophyll cells, was coordinated with dynamic growth of rim tissue cells and resulted in cavity formation. The anatomical or developmental differences among the four types of domatia were related to the positions of the domatia within a leaf. In terms of the ecological implications, the major anatomical difference between the domatia used by herbivorous and carnivorous mites was in the development of the rim tissue.

Irregular droughts trigger mass flowering in aseasonal tropical forests in asia.

General flowering is a community-wide masting phenomenon, which is thus far documented only in aseasonal tropical forests in Asia. Although the canopy and emergent layers of forests in this region are dominated by species of a single family, Dipterocarpaceae, general flowering involves various plant groups. Studying proximate factors and estimating the flowering patterns of the past and future may aid our understanding of the ecological significance and evolutionary factors behind this phenomenon. Here we show that this phenomenon is most likely triggered by irregular droughts based on 10 years of observations. In the aseasonal forests of SE Asia, droughts tend to occur during transition periods from La Niña to El Niño, which results in an irregular 6-7-yr cycle involving a dry period with several droughts and a wet period without droughts. The magnitude of a flowering event also depends on the timing of droughts associated with the El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) cycle, with the largest events occurring after an interval of several years with no flowering. Because most plant species can only reproduce successfully during large flowering events, changes in the ENSO cycle resulting from global warming, may have serious ramifications for forest regeneration in this region.

Phylogenetic analysis of Asian Symplocos (Symplocaceae) based on nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences.

Thirty species and one variety of Symplocos (Symplocaceae), including all taxa distributed in Japan, were phylogenetically analyzed with DNA sequence data. The evolution of morphological characters is discussed on the basis of the phylogenetic relationships obtained. All species were Asian, except one, S. austromexicana, from Mexico. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and two intergenic spacer regions, between trnL and trnF, and between trnH and psbA of chloroplast DNA were used. The topologies of trees obtained from ITS and the chloroplast intergenic spacers are largely congruent. S. sonoharae, the representative of the subgenus Symplocos in Asia, was sister to all other species. The position of the American species, S. austromexicana, which also belongs to the subgenus Symplocos, was not well resolved. The phylogenetic tree based on combined sequence data largely supports the monophyletic origin of the infrageneric sections proposed earlier. However, the phylogenetic relationship between them is not well resolved, probably due to rapid diversification. The section Palura, a deciduous group, is well defined in the DNA analysis, suggesting its independent status in the genus Symplocos. In spite of their morphological divergence, the three endemic species of the Bonin Islands are monophyletic. The occurrence of curved seeds seems to be homoplastic, scattered over the phylogenetic tree without showing a particular infrageneric relationship.

Correlation between distyly and ploidy level in Damnacanthus (Rubiaceae).

Somatic chromosomes were observed in 661 individuals of 14 taxa, nine species and five varieties, of Damnacanthus (Rubiaceae). Chromosome numbers are reported for the first time for 13 taxa. Diploid (2n = 22) and tetraploid (2n = 44) counts were obtained. Distyly is reported for the first time for four species, D. angustifolius, D. henryi, D. labordei, and D. officinarum. A strong correlation exists between chromosome number and occurrence of distyly. Regardless of taxa in Damnacanthus, distylous populations are diploid, and monomorphic populations are tetraploid. Flowers of the monomorphic populations observed have a long style and short stamens with few exceptions. Polyploidization may have caused the breakdown of distylous to monomorphic flowers. In D. indicus, leaves from the tetraploid populations tend to be larger than those from the diploid populations. Populations of tetraploid D. indicus were distributed in more northern areas than those of the diploid. Three types of sympatric distribution were found for the varieties of D. indicus in Japan: diploid and tetraploid, two diploids, and two tetraploids. Based on the present chromosome number study, the taxonomy of the varieties of D. indicus should be revised.

Distyly and pollen dimorphism in Damnacanthus (Rubiaceae).

We document distyly in Damnacanthus (Rubiaceae) and investigate pollen morphology in the genus. Within nine taxa in Japan (four species, four varieties and one form), five show distyly. Non-distylous taxa of Damnacanthus always have a long style and short stamens. We examined the pollen morphology of all taxa of Damnacanthus in Japan. The pollen grains of Damnacanthus are 3- to 5-orthocolporate or sometimes loxocolporate. Polymorphic pollen is sometimes observed even within a single flower. Pollen dimorphism is associated with distyly; pollen grains from short-styled (thrum) flowers are significantly larger than those from long-styled (pin) flowers, and the muri are smooth in pin flowers whereas the pollen grains of thrum flowers have minute granules on the top and/or on the sides. In non-distylous taxa, in which the style is longer than stamens, the muri are always provided with minute granules. Interestingly, the pollen grains with granules in the non-distylous taxa contrast with the pollen of the distylous taxa, because granulate pollen grains are found only in thrum flowers. Although Damnacanthus is a stenopalynous genus, the number of colpi is useful for delimiting taxa. Based on palynological characters, we conclude that Damnacanthus should be revised.