Quantitative assessment of Sabah endemic species using species distribution modelling

• Main Author: Mohd Najeh Ramdzany Mohd Salehuddin
• Format: Undergraduate Final Project Report
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/5905/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

Sabah is one of the states in Malaysia that are rich in forests together with Sarawak and other state in Malaysia. Dipterocarps are one of the main forest that is available in Sabah since this type of tree are found easily anywhere in Sabah's forest. The dipterocarps tree was the source of timber as the trees are used in the making of the timber-based products. There are about 183 dipterocarp species recorded and some of the species are endemic to the Sabah's state only. The endemic tree species studied in this thesis were the Dipterocarpus lamellatus and Shorea kudatensis. Several factors need to be considered for both of the tree, where it depends on the type of soil and climate event that occur in the area. A lot of research has been done to pinpoint the distribution of species and one of the research is by using the ecological niche modelling. Two software was used in this experiment that is the MAXENT and DIVA-GIS. Both of this software were used to calculate the possibilities of endemic species distribution. MAXENT program requires a data distribution of species and climate layers that affect the rate of distribution of an endemic species. DIVA-GIS is used to manipulate the map and identify the distribution of endemic species studied. The result obtains from the manipulation of maps would be used in habitat loss percentage calculation for both Dipterocarpus lamellatus and Shorea kudatensis. Methods to identify the conservation status of a species is done by comparison with status issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The results produce from the calculations obtain showed that about 98.8 % Dipterocarpus lamellatus species and 81.6 % Shorea kudatensis species have been identified as critically endangered. A specific action should be taken to ensure the survival of endangered species. Among the actions that can be taken is to create a site for the conservation of endangered species and to use the ability of software to detect the type of land suitable for this species and replanting the tree.