Study of recovery process after the Great Fire of tropical rain forest - Second survey in the Kutai National park. East Kalimantan.

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A large area of humid tropical forest of the East Kalimantan was burnt over in a forest fire in 1983, after an extraordinarily long spell of desiccation for about 11 months. In the very heart of the burnt areas lies the Kutai National Park, where once developed a magnificent, well-matured Dipterocarpus forest of lowland hills, which still is the only protected area of lowland forest of this type in the whole Kalimantan. This project is a second phase of long termed survey program, aiming at the study and recording the recovery process of the wet tropical forest ecosystem after the unusual ecological event of big forest fire. The first phase survey (led by Prof.H.Tagawa, Kagoshima University) was undertaken in 1986.In the field survey of 1992-1993 fiscal years, the present condition of the 10th year after the fire were monitored in respect to vegetational succession, soil insect fauna, and Primates and other mammalian fauna and ecology of key species. Orangutans, an object of key conservation issues in the area, was studied as wall. Followings are the outlines of the research activities, done in August and December-February survey periods : 1) Four permanent quadrats were set in a small drainage in the center of the park, two of which were non- or slightly fire affected stands. Inventory of the trees above 130cm tall was made with marking on individual trees. 2) Beside this drainage, a forest of fairly good condition and another heavily disturbed one were selected for setting wide study plots of over 200ha with survey transects. Mammalian fauna, distribution a density of Primates were studied. 3) Ecological studies of some frugivorous mammals were made using telemetry. 4) A transect and a quadrat were set to evaluate seed dispersal from stands of surviving rain forest trees. 5) Made a set of small quadrats on the side-slope of newly constructed road to record the early successive phase.