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Title:	Species distribution modelling of Anurans on Langkawi Island, Peninsular Malaysia
Authors:	Nur Johana Johari (P68020)
Supervisor:	Norhayati Ahmad, Prof. Dr.
Keywords:	Anura -- Malaysia Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia
Issue Date:	3-Sep-2019
Description:	Conservation of amphibians, especially rare and endemic species, can only work with an understanding of their habitat requirements and spesies distribution. However, information on both is still poor or incomplete. A study of amphibians on Pulau Langkawi was conducted to identify diversity, microhabitat requirements and the potential distribution mapping using the GIS. A total of 49 sampling locations were selected and divided into seven habitat types: agriculture (AG), coastal area (CL), forest (FT), lake (LK), fisherman village near estuarine mangrove (FVM), riparian forest (RF) and river (RV). A total of 775 anurans are recorded from 23 species in all six families in Peninsular Malaysia. Dicroglossidae is the dominant family with 8 species and 476 individuals. The most dominant habitat is AG with 156 individuals, 75% of which are Fejervarya cancrivora and F. limnocharis. However, FT has 18 species, while RF has 16 species. Two major habitats, namely FT and RF belong to the forest group (JSI=0.70), while AG, CL, PD, MG and RV belong to non-forest groups (JSI=0.62). Both groups have a similarity index of 37%. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has resulted in various relationships among microhabitat parameters based on horizontal position, vertical position, and substrate. The first two axes of habitat parameters accounted for 77.8% of the total variation, representing the diversity of non-forest species in axis 1, and forest species on axis 2. Habitat parameters for the horizontal positions yield the first two axes, which account for 71.6% variation, indicating that the majority of anuran species are close to water body. All of these component principles contribute to almost all variability and show eigenvalues greater than 70%, thus demonstrating that dimension reduction has been successful. Temporal and spatial taxonomic diversification analyzed in PRIMER 6 software, explains that this and previous studies have no significant difference between each other at 95% confidence interval. Whereas for spatial studies, only FT has the highest AvTD (Average Taxonomic Distinctness) value and the lowest value for VarTD (Variation in Taxonomic Distinctness). Map of habitat suitability for amphibians on Langkawi Island shows two major habitat types, namely forest (nine species), non forest (five species) and an overlap between forest and non forest habitats (nine species). The most effective environmental variables in influencing the anuran distribution on Langkawi Island are distance from water source, land use and altitude. Suitability maps of frog habitats show a good model performance as the AUC (Area Under Curve) values for all models are more than 0.76. These maps of habitat prediction of frogs encompass a wider area than what had been covered in the field surveys. The largest habitat predicted is shown by Limnonectes macrognathus, which is 192.6 km2 or 40.3% of the total land area of Langkawi Archipelago, while the smallest is that of Chalcorana labialis with 3.1 km2 (0.6%). Many amphibian species in forest habitats have a broad distribution because about 325.3 km2 or 67.4% of the total land area on Langkawi Archipelago is covered by forests. These research findings can help exploit potential for development and conservation, helping to prevent conflicts between environmentally sensitive areas and areas to be developed for tourism.,Certification of Master's/Doctoral Thesis is not available,Ph.D.
Pages:	352
Call Number:	QL668.E2N835 2019 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Science and Technology / Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi

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