jeff Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Bonjour may be a new section: ecology of environments?Indeed, to understand how to grow these plants in my opinion, it is very important to know the areas where they live [eg in what climate, what height, what hygrometry (frequencies and abundances of rain), what temperature, what the accompanying Plant, etc] I do not see a topic to talk about. Especially, people were 'in situ' and I think can bring us lots of information. jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Bonjour may be a new section: ecology of environments? Indeed, to understand how to grow these plants in my opinion, it is very important to know the areas where they live [eg in what climate, what height, what hygrometry (frequencies and abundances of rain), what temperature, what the accompanying Plant, etc] I do not see a topic to talk about. Especially, people were 'in situ' and I think can bring us lots of information. jeff And Good day from me. This is a complex subject. Much detail is covered in my book under the various types of myrmecophytes. I expect very few members can add much of real value. My field experiences permit only a limited understanding of the yearlong climates that some myrmecophytes grow in. Indeed, there are so many variables that the subjects of local climate, environment and ecology are probably best kept under the headings of particular species. But even then, particular climate comments may not apply to particular clones of widespread species such as Lecanopteris sinuosa that inhabits quite a range of altitudes, rainfalls and phorophyte soil types. Another reason why accurate collection records can be very important if only for newer imports. After some generations, plants cultivated from seed may have evolved to cope with conditions imposed by their cultivators, so for commercially obtained plants, perhaps the best advice can be supplied by the suppliers. I know from personal experiences that prior studying of available climate data of areas I intended to visit did not exactly match the areas realities. For example, the dry season on Cape York Peninsula myrmecophyte habitats was not as dry as I expected. However, areas without ant-plants, indeed without any epiphytes at all, were much drier, thus were very subject to bush fires, a vital habitat modifier. Yet the dry season in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea was far drier than what I had expected. Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea (and elsewhere) are also subject to the vagaries of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather event, a subject of much importance to field workers. Understanding ENSO should help understanding the needs of many myrmecophytes and it is a subject that greatly influences my planned travels. For many ant-plant habitats accurate climate data is not available, so one can only acquire a certain feel of what it may be. And there is another not so subtle hint here. Regards. D. And of course photographs often provide hints of the environment if only what it is like when the photo was taken, in my examples in a dry season. They sometimes provide examples of other nearby epiphytes as well such as orchids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff Posted February 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2015 merci DERRICK in fact I'm looking for example pictures on the 2 circles on both sides of the wallace line, that passes between BALI and LOMBOK. have you some idea on all these lines : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted February 2, 2015 Report Share Posted February 2, 2015 Jeff. I don't understand what you mean about pictures??? Sundaland ( Asian fauna) is west of the Wallace line and Sahulland (Australasian fauna) is east of the Lydekker line with smaller Wallacea (mixed fauna) the region between that was never connected to a continental plate (it sometimes includes the Philippines because most of it was also never connected to a continental plate thus it also has unique fauna.) Generally flora is more easily dispersed over water than fauna. Explanations in my forthcoming book. Much of this area's flora is united as the Malesian Floristic Province. Each bio-geographical region has differing myrmecophytes with further inter-regional variations. Lots more detail in Wikipedia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted February 3, 2015 Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 Also this thread would be best placed under "Ant Plants - general information, literature and links." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff Posted February 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 Bonjour merci for these informations by these pictures I would like to have an idea of the flora encountered ; one hand on Java -Bali part with rain forests and mountain forestsother shares on the Lesser Sundas part with deciduous forests we often talk about completely different landscape jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Wistuba Posted February 3, 2015 Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 I am a bit reluctant since I do not wish to spread info over too many sub-forums but decided to give it a try - the thread has been moved to the new "Ecology" forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted February 3, 2015 Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 This subject needs a book to provide the necessary background. It involves plate tectonics and its consequent biological history starting as far back as the ancient massive continents of Laurasia and Gondwanaland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurasia Crucial to understanding the gradual biotic changes along the Malay/Indonesian archipelago, one needs to know the ancient history of Continental Australia which includes small parts of present day Indonesia (e.g. Aru island) and possibly Timor Island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_%28continent%29 Especially read the geology and biogeography chapters. Sahulland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahul_Shelf Sundaland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundaland The differences between the biota on either sides of the various lines on your map are primarily the result of the historic evolution of what were in the ancient past, widely-separated ecosystems. NOT because of major climatic differences in the modern world. As Australasia moved closer to Asia over many many millennia, it eventually permitted some biotic mixing in regions between. A classic example is Sulawesi Island where Australasian Cuscus and Asian Monkeys share forest canopies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscus Some possibly practical details that may have some bearing as regards the higher prevalence of hydnophytes in New Guinea as compared to Sundaland is that Monkeys were never part of those ecosystems, but Indonesian migrants have now very stupidly introduced Macaques to West Papua (used sensu lato). Also Eurasian Woodpeckers have not managed to fly down the archipelago. So for example, they are not responsible for the holes often seen in Bornean hydnophytums. Pictures may say a thousand words but if they are to do so more effectively, then those of us that visit hydnophyte etc., habitats should perhaps explain more of what our individual images mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff Posted February 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Bonjour merci ANDREAS , for this new rubrique merci DERRICK for the answer jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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