First record of non-flying mammalian contributors to pollination in a tropical montane forest in Asia

This study aims to identify the flower visitors of Mucuna thailandica (Fabaceae), endemic plant species in montane forests in Thailand, to determine their potential pollinators. The genus Mucuna produces papilionaceous flowers and has an explosive flower-opening step. Explosive opening rapidly exposes stamens and pistil from keel petals and releases pollen. The flower of this species depends completely on animals to perform this step, essential for pollination success. Using a camera trap survey, we revealed that non-flying mammals, such as squirrels (Callosciurus sp.) and masked palm civets (Paguma larvata), opened flowers explosively. Thus, these mammals contribute to the pollination of M. thailandica. This is the first report of non-flying mammals contributing to pollination in montane forests in tropical Asia.

Climate change promotes transitions to tall evergreen vegetation in tropical Asia

Vegetation in tropical Asia is highly diverse due to large environmental gradients and heterogeneity of landscapes. This biodiversity is threatened by intense land use and climate change. However, despite the rich biodiversity and the dense human population, tropical Asia is often underrepresented in global biodiversity assessments. Understanding how climate change influences the remaining areas of natural vegetation is therefore highly important for conservation planning. Here, we used the adaptive Dynamic Global Vegetation Model version 2 (aDGVM2) to simulate impacts of climate change and elevated CO₂ on vegetation formations in tropical Asia for an ensemble of climate change scenarios. We used climate forcing from five different climate models for representative concentration pathways RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. We found that vegetation in tropical Asia will remain a carbon sink until 2099, and that vegetation biomass increases of up to 28% by 2099 are associated with transitions from small to tall woody vegetation and from deciduous to evergreen vegetation. Patterns of phenology were less responsive to climate change and elevated CO₂ than biomes and biomass, indicating that the selection of variables and methods used to detect vegetation changes is crucial. Model simulations revealed substantial variation within the ensemble, both in biomass increases and in distributions of different biome types. Our results have important implications for management policy, because they suggest that large ensembles of climate models and scenarios are required to assess a wide range of potential future trajectories of vegetation change and to develop robust management plans. Furthermore, our results highlight open ecosystems with low tree cover as most threatened by climate change, indicating potential conflicts of interest between biodiversity conservation in open ecosystems and active afforestation to enhance carbon sequestration.

Investigation of Termite Attack on Cultural Heritage Buildings: A Case Study in Aceh Province, Indonesia

Surveys of the conditions of termite attack were conducted in two regencies, Pidie and Greater Aceh, Aceh Province, Indonesia (40 houses in each location). Interviews were also conducted with home owners to collect data on the building history; culture, such as daily life in the house; the frequency and intensity of termite attacks; and traditional knowledge for avoiding and/or suppressing termite attacks. We found that 51% of traditional houses were infested by two termite species: Coptotermes gestroi and Nasutitermes matangensis. The lower parts of traditional houses were frequently attacked and severely damaged by termites. Previous land use and the ages of the traditional houses affected the intensity of the termite attacks. Several measures for avoiding and/or suppressing termite attacks on cultural heritage buildings are also proposed.

Thirty-one new species of the spider genus Leclercera from Southeast Asia (Araneae, Psilodercidae)

Thirty-one new species of the genus Leclercera Deeleman-Reinhold, 1995 from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand are described: L.mianqiusp. nov. (♂♀), L.thamsangensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.yandousp. nov. (♂♀), L.thamkaewensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.xiangbabangsp. nov. (♂♀), L.jianzuiyusp. nov. (♂♀), L.yamaensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.banensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.dumuzhousp. nov. (♀), L.suwanensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.maochongsp. nov. (♀), L.shanzisp. nov. (♀), L.duandaisp. nov. (♂♀), L.hponensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.lizisp. nov. (♂), L.xiaodaisp. nov. (♀), L.yanjingsp. nov. (♀), L.ekteenensissp. nov. (♂), L.zhamensissp. nov. (♂), L.sanjiaosp. nov. (♀), L.selasihensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.paiensissp. nov. (♀), L.yuanzhuisp. nov. (♀), L.zanggaensissp. nov. (♀), L.aniensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.renqinensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.shergylaensissp. nov. (♂♀), L.pulongensissp. nov. (♂), L.tudaosp. nov. (♂♀), L.duibaensissp. nov. (♂), and L.jiazhongensissp. nov. (♂♀). Types are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IZCAS) in Beijing.

The pollination system of the widely distributed mammal-pollinated Mucuna macrocarpa (Fabaceae) in the tropics

Although the pollinators of some plant species differ across regions, only a few mammal-pollinated plant species have regional pollinator differences in Asia. Mucuna macrocarpa (Fabaceae) is pollinated by squirrels, flying foxes, and macaques in subtropical and temperate islands. In this study, the pollination system of M. macrocarpa was identified in tropical Asia, where the genus originally diversified. This species requires "explosive opening" of the flower, where the wing petals must be pressed down and the banner petal pushed upward to fully expose the stamens and pistil. A bagging experiment showed that fruits did not develop in inflorescences (n = 66) with unopened flowers, whereas fruits developed in 68.7% of inflorescences (n = 131) with opened flowers. This indicated that the explosive opening is needed for the species to reproduce. Four potential pollinator mammals were identified by a video camera-trap survey, and 78.3% and 60.1% of monitored inflorescences (n = 138) were opened by gray-bellied squirrels (Callosciurus caniceps) and Finlayson's squirrels (C. finlaysonii), respectively, even though more than 10 mammal species visited flowers. Nectar was surrounded by the calyx, and the volume and sugar concentration of secreted nectar did not change during the day. This nectar secretion pattern is similar to those reported by previous studies in other regions. These results showed that the main pollinators of M. macrocarpa in the tropics are squirrels. However, the species' nectar secretion pattern is not specifically adapted to this particular pollinator. Pollinators of M. macrocarpa differ throughout the distribution range based on the fauna present, but there might not have been no distinctive changes in the attractive traits that accompanied these changes in pollinators.

Spongispora temasekensis, a new boletoid genus and species from Singapore

Dipterocarp forests are a typical and widespread type of vegetation in tropical lowlands of southeast Asia that harbor a high diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi, including boletes. Based on molecular and morphological characters, a unique bolete found in Singapore associated with the dipterocarp Hopea odorata was proven to represent a new species in the proposed new genus Spongispora. Phylogenetic analyses of five loci indicate that Spongispora is nested in the subfamily Leccinoideae of the Boletaceae, most closely related to an inclusive clade of Leccinum, Leccinellum, Octaviania, Rossbeevera, and Turmalinea. However, genetic distances between Spongispora and genera in Leccinoideae are mostly higher than that between any two known genera in this subfamily, which supports the proposal of a new genus. Spongispora temasekensis is characterized by a whitish to pale yellow hymenophore that stains brown where injured, coarsely reticulate stipe, interwoven trichodermial pileipellis, and broadly elliptical to ovoid basidiospores with sponge-like ornamentation perforated by irregular clefts, cracks, and warts under scanning electron microscopy. Morphological descriptions, illustrations, and comparisons with allied taxa are made, and a key to the genera of the subfamily Leccinoideae is provided.

A decadal inversion of CO2 using the Global Eulerian-Lagrangian Coupled Atmospheric model (GELCA): sensitivity to the ground-based observation network

We present an assimilation system for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) using a Global Eulerian-Lagrangian Coupled Atmospheric model (GELCA), and demonstrate its capability to capture the observed atmospheric CO₂ mixing ratios and to estimate CO₂ fluxes. With the efficient data handling scheme in GELCA, our system assimilates non-smoothed CO₂ data from observational data products such as the Observation Package (ObsPack) data products as constraints on surface fluxes. We conducted sensitivity tests to examine the impact of the site selections and the prior uncertainty settings of observation on the inversion results. For these sensitivity tests, we made five different site/data selections from the ObsPack product. In all cases, the time series of the global net CO₂ flux to the atmosphere stayed close to values calculated from the growth rate of the observed global mean atmospheric CO₂ mixing ratio. At regional scales, estimated seasonal CO₂ fluxes were altered, depending on the CO₂ data selected for assimilation. Uncertainty reductions (URs) were determined at the regional scale and compared among cases. As measures of the model-data mismatch, we used the model-data bias, root-mean-square error, and the linear correlation. For most observation sites, the model-data mismatch was reasonably small. Regarding regional flux estimates, tropical Asia was one of the regions that showed a significant impact from the observation network settings. We found that the surface fluxes in tropical Asia were the most sensitive to the use of aircraft measurements over the Pacific, and the seasonal cycle agreed better with the results of bottom-up studies when the aircraft measurements were assimilated. These results confirm the importance of these aircraft observations, especially for constraining surface fluxes in the tropics.

Schismatoglottis and Apoballis (Araceae: Schismatoglottideae): A new example for the significance of pollen morphology in Araceae systematics

Pollen characters in Araceae accord well with recent DNA-based phylogenies, and here we provide a new example of "compass needle" quality in Araceae on the basis of two closely related genera, Schismatoglottis and Apoballis. All investigated Schismatoglottis pollen is psilate (smooth pollen surface) with calcium crystals covering the pollen surface. By contrast, pollen of species transferred to recently resurrected Apoballis (Apoballis acuminatissima and A. mutata) is distinctively echinate (spiny). A unique layer covers the endexine of Schismatoglottis, and the whole pollen surface of Apoballis. Our findings strongly suggest that "Schismatoglottis" species with echinate pollen fall into the genus Apoballis. Moreover, all schismatoglottid taxa perform spathe movements during anthesis to control the movement of pollinators. The spathe movements of Apoballis acuminatissima clearly differ from those known in Schismatoglottis species, and indeed are so far unique for the entire family. This, together with differences in floral odour is strongly suggestive of differences in pollination ecology between the genera Schismatoglottis and Apoballis.