| "Droughts
in evergreen rainforests of Southeast Asia"
by
Dr. Wolfgang L. Werner
South Asia Institute
University of Heidelberg,
Germany
Friday 29th August 2003: 7.00pm - 8.30pm
Auditorium (3rd floor), Geylang East Community
Library
How to get there
Nearest MRT Station : Aljunied
Buses : SBS 80, 155 (along Geylang East Central)
SBS 40, 62, 63, 100, 158 (along Aljunied Road)
SBS 2, 13, 21, 26, 51 (along Sims Avenue)
See
map
Abstract
Evergreen rain forests are characterized by plenty of rainfall throughout
the year. Nevertheless these plant communities are quite frequently
exposed to a scarcity of rainfall. Rainforests can manage with such
"intermediate disturbances". But severe droughts cause serious
damage to rainforests. This includes increased mortality of trees, negative
O/C ratio and fire. Such droughts occurred always before with very long
intervals. But now they seem to become more frequent in recent decades.
Severe droughts are mostly connected with strong ENSO (El Nino) anomalies.
While forests could survive droughts and fires more
easily as there was enough space and time for regeneration, plants and
animals do not survive long in the process of forest fragmentation and
selective logging disturbance regeneration. Forest fragments and selectively
disturbed forests are now under threat because of the frequent occurrence
of severe droughts. Ecological impacts of droughts in evergreen rain
forests in SE Asia will be demonstrated and discussed.
Biography of Speaker
Wolfgang Werner is associate professor for biogeography and
tropical ecology at South Asia Institute of University of Heidelberg,
Germany, and presently visiting professor at Center for Development
Research at University of Bonn. Most of his career he worked in and
about montane forests of tropical Asia. His doctoral thesis was on cloud
forests of Sri Lanka and his second thesis for professorship on Pinus
in Thailand. He has been visiting professor in various German universities,
but also in Harvard University and ITB, Bandung.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
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