Forest composition, regeneration and DNA barcoding

Danau Girang Field Centre collaborated with Dr Natasha de Vere from the National Botanic Garden of Wales, UK. Using DNA barcoding to investigate forest composition and regeneration in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, the project investigated the resilience of the forest within the Sanctuary to reductions in patch size, increases in fragmentation and the effects of changing composition of animals involved in pollination, dispersal, and predation.

The project compared the richness, diversity and phylogenetic composition of adult and sapling communities over a range of forest types represented within permanent rainforest plots that have been established in the vicinity of the field centre. An open-access DNA barcode reference library was created to assist with the identification of adult and sapling trees and to allow the future investigation of plant-animal interactions.