Capitalising on a mass fruiting event to assess the long-term sustainability of rainforest remnants.

为养活快速增长的人口，同时保持生态系统服务和减少生物多样性损失的要求，导致迫切需要设计更可持续的农业景观。这在东南亚尤其重要，那里的油棕种植园正在取代高度多样化的热带雨林。目前可持续种植油棕榈（食用植物油的重要来源）的政策要求在种植园内保留雨林碎片。然而，这些森林片段可以继续支持高生物多样性，保持其生存能力，并随着时间的推移再生的假设以前没有得到过检验。因此，可持续性的主要标准之一基本上是未经测试的，并形成了这个建议的基础。东南亚雨林是独一无二的，主要是由龙脑香科树木不规则地繁殖（间隔从1年到许多年），但在大规模的结果事件同步。这些不可预测的大规模结果事件之一最近在婆罗洲开始，并提供了一个难得的机会，研究在雨林片段的龙脑香果繁殖。龙脑香树是东南亚雨林生态系统的重要组成部分，因此任何影响龙脑香树的变化都可能对雨林生物多样性产生重大影响。我们最近的数据显示，没有dipterocarps幼苗在小森林片段，即使成熟dipterocarps是存在的，提出了一个严重的问题，繁殖失败的dipterocarps片段。最近发起的大规模结果事件为我们提供了一个机会，探索潜在的机制，导致繁殖失败和/或招聘失败的森林残留物。该项目的主要目标是：（1）研究森林破碎化如何影响龙脑香果的繁殖，（2）将繁殖率与森林破碎化引起的生物和非生物变化（改变小气候，栖息地质量，捕食）联系起来，（3）评估龙脑香果物种是否对森林破碎化的影响同样敏感。拟议的工作将首次调查热带农业景观中森林残余的长期可行性。该项目将解决有关在改变的非生物和生物条件下龙脑香树繁殖的基本问题，并为决策者产生具有相当实际价值的结果。它将成为未来新研究的基础，重点是了解栖息地退化和破碎化对生物多样性的影响，并有助于科学证据，为制定有效的保护和可持续发展战略的辩论提供信息。

The requirement to feed a rapidly increasingly human population whilst maintaining ecosystem services and reducing biodiversity losses has led to an urgent need to design more sustainable agricultural landscapes. This is particularly relevant in SE Asia where oil palm plantations are replacing hyper-diverse tropical rainforest. Current policies for the sustainable cultivation of oil palm (an important source of edible vegetable oil) require the retention of rainforest fragments within plantations. However, the assumption that these forest fragments can continue to support high biodiversity, maintain their viability, and regenerate over time has not previously been tested. Thus one of the primary criteria for sustainability is essentially untested, and forms the basis of this proposal.SE Asian rainforests are unique in being dominated by Dipterocarpaceae trees which reproduce irregularly (at intervals from 1 to many years) but synchronously in mass fruiting events. One of these unpredictable mass fruiting events has recently been initiated on Borneo, and provides a rare opportunity to study dipterocarp reproduction in rainforest fragments. Dipterocarp trees are a vital component of rainforest ecosystems in SE Asia, and hence any changes that affect dipterocarps are likely to have considerable knock-on impacts for rainforest biodiversity. Our recent data show an absence of dipterocarp seedlings in small forest fragments even when mature dipterocarps are present, raising a serious concern of reproductive failure of dipterocarps in fragments. The recently-initiated mass fruiting event provides us with an opportunity to explore potential mechanisms leading to reproductive failure and/or recruitment failure in forest remnants. The main objective of this project is to: (1) examine how forest fragmentation affects dipterocarp reproduction, (2) relate reproductive rates to biotic and abiotic changes arising from forest fragmentation (altered microclimates, habitat quality, predation), and (3) assess whether dipterocarp species are equally sensitive to impacts of forest fragmentation. The proposed work will provide the first investigation of the long-term viability of forest remnants in tropical agricultural landscapes. The project will address fundamental questions about reproduction in dipterocarp trees under altered abiotic and biotic conditions, as well as producing results of considerable practical value for policy makers. It will form the basis for new research in future focussed on understanding the impacts of habitat degradation and fragmentation on biodiversity, and contribute to scientific evidence to inform the debate on developing effective conservation and sustainability strategies.