Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:42:55.034Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The diversity of beetle assemblages in different habitat types in Sabah, Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

A.Y.C. Chung ,
P. Eggleton ,
M.R. Speight ,
P.M. Hammond  and
V.K. Chey
A.Y.C. Chung*
Affiliation:
PO Box 1407, Forest Research Centre, Forestry Department, 90715 Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
P. Eggleton
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
M.R. Speight
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK
P.M. Hammond
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
V.K. Chey
Affiliation:
PO Box 1407, Forest Research Centre, Forestry Department, 90715 Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
*
*Fax: 0060 89 531068 E-mail: artycc@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The diversity of beetle assemblages in different habitat types (primary forest, logged forest, acacia plantation and oil palm plantation) in Sabah, Malaysia was investigated using three different methods based on habitat levels (Winkler sampling, flight-interception-trapping and mist-blowing). The overall diversity was extremely high, with 1711 species recorded from only 8028 individuals and 81 families (115 family and subfamily groups). Different degrees of environmental changes had varying effects on the beetle species richness and abundance, with oil palm plantation assemblage being most severely affected, followed by acacia plantation and then logged forest. A few species became numerically dominant in the oil palm plantation. In terms of beetle species composition, the acacia fauna showed much similarity with the logged forest fauna, and the oil palm fauna was very different from the rest. The effects of environmental variables (number of plant species, sapling and tree densities, amount of leaf litter, ground cover, canopy cover, soil pH and compaction) on the beetle assemblage were also investigated. Leaf litter correlated with species richness, abundance and composition of subterranean beetles. Plant species richness, tree and sapling densities correlated with species richness, abundance and composition of understorey beetles while ground cover correlated only with the species richness and abundance of these beetles. Canopy cover correlated only with arboreal beetles. In trophic structure, predators represented more than 40% of the species and individuals. Environmental changes affected the trophic structure with proportionally more herbivores (abundance) but fewer predators (species richness and abundance) in the oil palm plantation. Biodiversity, conservation and practical aspects of pest management were also highlighted in this study.

Type
Review Article
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 90 , Issue 6 , December 2000 , pp. 475 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon. (1996) Annual report. Sabah Forestry Department.Google Scholar
Anon. (1999) Report on the progress towards the achievement of the ITTO year 2000 objective in Sabah. Sabah Forestry Department. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Basset, Y. & Kitching, R.L. (1991) Species number, species abundance and body length of arboreal arthropods associated with an Australian rainforest tree. Ecological Entomology 16, 391–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, V.K. & Southwood, T.R.E. (1983) Trophic diversity, niche breadth and generation times of exopterygote insects in a secondary succession. Oecologia 56, 220–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chai, D.N.P. (1997) Implementing sustainable forest management: problems, strategies and implications. pp. 35–46in Kugan, F. & Kollert, W. (Eds) Proceedings of the Seminar on Forest Sector Coordination towards Sustainable DevelopmentSabah Forestry Department.Google Scholar
Chey, V.K. (1994) Comparison of biodiversity between plantations and natural forests in Sabah using moths as indicators. D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Chey, V.K., Holloway, J.D. & Speight, M.R. (1997) Diversity of moths in forest plantations and natural forests in Sabah. Bulletin of Entomological Research 87, 371–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chung, A.Y.C. (1999) The diversity of Coleoptera assemblages in different habitat types in Sabah, Malaysia with special reference to herbivory. D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Davis, A.J., Huijbregts, J., Kirk-Spriggs, A.H., Krikken, J. & Sutton, S.L. (1997) The ecology and behaviour of arboreal dung beetles in Borneo. pp. 417–432in Stork, N.E., Adis, J. & Didham, R.K. (Eds) Canopy arthropods. London, Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Didham, R.K., Lawton, J.H., Hammond, P.M. & Eggleton, P. (1998) Trophic structure stability and extinction dynamics of beetles (Coleoptera) in tropical forest fragments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B 353, 437–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erwin, T.L. (1983) Beetles and other insects of tropical forest canopies at Manaus, Brazil, sampled by insecticidal fogging. pp. 59–75in Sutton, S.L., Whitmore, T.C. & Chadwick, A.C.(Eds) Tropical rainforest ecology and management. Oxford, Blackwell Scientific Publ.Google Scholar
Fox, J.E.D. (1973) A handbook to Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve. Sabah Forest Record No. 9. Sabah Forest Department.Google Scholar
Greenwood, S.R. (1987) The role of insects in tropical forest food webs. Ambio 16, 267–271.Google Scholar
Hambler, C. and Speight, M.R. (1995) Biodiversity conservation in Britain: science replacing tradition. British Wildlife 6, 137–147.Google Scholar
Hammond, P.M. (1990) Insect abundance and diversity in the Dumago-Bone National Park, North Sulawesi, with special reference to the beetle fauna of lowland rainforest in the Toraut region. pp. 197–254in Knight, W.J. & Holloway, J.D. (Eds) Insects and the rainforests of South East Asia (Wallacea). The Royal Entomological Society of London.Google Scholar
Hammond, P.M. (1992) Species inventory. pp. 17–39in Groombridge, B. (Ed.) Global biodiversity – status of the earth's living resources. WCMC, London, Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Hammond, P.M. (1994) Practical approaches to the estimation of the extent of biodiversity in speciose groups. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B 345, 119–136.Google Scholar
Hammond, P.M. (1995) The current magnitude of biodiversity. pp. 113–138in Heywood, V.H. & Watson, R.T.Global biodiversity assessment. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holland, J.M. and Thomas, S.R. (1997) Quantifying the impact of polyphagous invertebrate predators in controlling cereal aphids and in preventing wheat yield and quality reductions. Annals of Applied Biology 131, 375–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D.H. (1987) Insect diversity of a Costa Rican dry forest: why keep it, and how?. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 30, 343–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jongman, R.H.G., Ter Braak, C.J.F. & Van Tongeren, O.F.R. (1995) Data analysis in community and landscape ecology. 299 pp. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, M. & Coker, P. (1997) Vegetation description and analysis – a practical approach. 363 pp. New York, John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J.F. & Newton, A.F. (1995) Families and subfamilies of Coleoptera (with selected genera, notes, references and data on family-group names). pp. 779–1092in Pakaluk, J. & Slipinski, S.A. (Eds) Biology, phylogeny, and classification of Coleoptera: papers celebrating the 80th birthday of Roy A. Crowson. Warszawa, Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN.Google Scholar
Lawrence, W.T. (1996) Plants: the food base. pp. 17–52in Reagan, D.P. & Waide, R.B.(Eds) The food web of a tropical rainforest. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lowman, M.D. & Morrow, P.A. (1998) Insects and their environment: plant. pp. 290–316in Romoser, W.S. & Stoffolano, J.G. Jr. (Eds) The science of entomology. Boston, McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Magurran, A.E. (1988) Ecological diversity and its measurement. 179 pp. London, Croom Helm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawdsley, N.A. (1994) Community structure of Coleoptera assemblage in a Bornean tropical forest. PhD thesis. University of London.Google Scholar
Mawdsley, N.A. & Stork, N.E. (1997) Host-specificity and the effective specialization of tropical canopy beetles. pp. 104–130in Stork, N.E, Adis, J. & Didham, R.K. (Eds) Canopy arthropods. London, Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
McNeely, J.A., Gadgil, M., Leveque, C., Padoch, C. & Redford, K. (1995) Human influences on biodiversity. pp. 711–822in Heywood, V.H. & Watson, R.T. (Eds) Global biodiversity assessment. UNEP, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Payne, J. (1997) Potential benefits of retaining forests in Malaysian plantations. Paper presented at the Workshop on Forests in Plantations, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 9 October, 1997.Google Scholar
Piggot, C.J. (1990) Growing oil palms: an illustrated guide. 152 pp. Malaysia, The Incorporated Society of Planters.Google Scholar
Pimm, S.L. (1991) The balance of nature? 434 pp. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pimm, S.L., Lawton, J.H. & Cohen, J.E. (1991) Food web patterns and their consequences. Nature 350, 669–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, P.W. (1997) Insect ecology. 874 pp. London, John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Rajaratnam, R. (1997) Sabah Biodiversity Conservation Project, Malaysia: identification of potential protected areas component, estate surveys, June–August, 1996. Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development, Sabah, Malaysia. Report presented at the Workshop on Forests in Plantations, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 9 October, 1997.Google Scholar
Sabah Agriculture Department (1995) Estimated hectareages by crops, Sabah 1995.Google Scholar
Sabah Agriculture Department (1998) The agricultural crop sector in Sabah. Website: http:// www. sabah gov.my/ministries/maf/features.htm.Google Scholar
Sabah Forestry Department (1999) Map showing forest reserves and other forest land in Sabah.Google Scholar
SPSS (1997) SPSS release 8.0 for Windows. Chicago, SPSS Inc.Google Scholar
Stork, N.E. (1987) Guild structure of arthropods from Bornean rainforest trees. Ecological Entomology 12, 69–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tan, R.G.S. (1998) Commercial viability of timber as a plantation crop – the Sabah Softwoods experience. The Planter 74, 137–153.Google Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F. (1986) Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67, 1167–1179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F. (1998) CANOCO version 4.0. Centre for Biometry Wageningen, Wageningen, the Netherlands.Google Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F. & Verdonschot, P.F.M. (1995) Canonical correspondence analysis and related multivariate methods in aquatic ecology. Aquatic Sciences 57, 153–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M.B., Wratten, S.D. & Sotherton, N.W. (1991) Creation of ‘island’ habitats in farmland to manipulate populations of beneficial arthropods: predator densities and emigration. Journal of Applied Ecology 28, 906–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M.B., Wratten, S.D. & Sotherton, N.W. (1992) Creation of ‘island’ habitats in farmland to manipulate populations of beneficial arthropods: predator densities and species composition. Journal of Applied Ecology 29, 524–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ti, T.C. (1997) The forestry sector in the economic development of Sabah. pp. 19–33in Kugan, F. & Kollert, W. (Eds) Proceedings of the Seminar on Forest Sector Coordination towards Sustainable DevelopmentSabah Forestry Department.Google Scholar
Usher, M.B. (1995) A world of change: land-use patterns and arthropod communities. pp. 372–399in Harrington, R. & Stork, N.E. (Eds) Insects in a changing environment. London, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ward, P.S. (1987) Distribution of the introduced Argentine ant (Iridomyrmex humilis) in natural habitats of the lower Sacramento Valley and its effects on the indigenous ant fauna. Hilgardia 55, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, T.C. (1990) An introduction to tropical rainforests. 226 pp. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.C. (1997) Tropical forest disturbance, disappearance, and species loss. pp. 55–70in Laurance, W.F. & Bierregaard, R.O. Jr. (Eds) Tropical forest remnants: ecology, management, and conservation of fragmented communities. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar