1. In June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro the political leaders and scientists discussed climate change at the convention and in 2002 they did again at Johanesburg. Mr Al Gore wrote a book and did a documentary on it and yet there are so many sceptics about the issue.
2. For Malaysia which does not have melting snow caps and whose temperature remains almost constant everyday and everyweek the common people find it almost difficult to comprehend about climate change. Although in the last decade the weather, the flood, the drought have been playing havoc ...are they due to climate change?
3. I was informed by orthinologists like Dr. Pan of FRIM that lowland and open-country birds have been observed on higher grounds especially at Gunung Jerai. Somehow these species sensed the temperature at higher altitude is similar to theri habitat at lower altitude. I have been informed there awas a study just published in foreign journal that moths at Gunung Kinabalu have been ascending some hundreds of meters higher ....again these lepidopterans must have sensed similar change of temperature.
4. For plants, I argued, it is not easy to monitor the upward distribution of the tropical lowland species as their diaspores are not dispersed upwards. Perhaps the diaspores of lowland ferns and bryophytes are being dispersed by warmer air current to higher altitudes. For ecologists it is so challenging to monitor the changes in mangrove and peat swamp forests composition to detect possible impacts of climate change on biodiversity.
5. The base-line data for the plants are available ....it requires some students of MS and PhD to monitor the possible changes like that of the birds and moths. I proposed the 50-ha plots at Pasoh, Lambir and the recent one at Danum could be the filed labs for this kind of investigation. We need some funds and guide-lines to implement this.
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Salam.
Fenomena perubahan iklim dan pemanasan global memang menarik perhatian masyarakat sedunia termasuk Malaysia. Di dalam bulan Februari ini, cuaca panas dengan suhu yang agak tinggi dan hujan yang kurang telah menjadi isu di media massa yang telah mengaitkannya dengan fenomena pemanasan global walaupun ia perkara biasa setiap tahun.
Kajian kesan perubahan iklim ke atas tumbuhan perlu dijalankan untuk menentukan sama ada ia memberi kesan terhadap komposisi dan kepelbagaian spesies tumbuhan di dalam hutan. Pada pendapat saya, mungkin kesannya lebih nyata pada hutan-hutan klimaks iklim yang berbeza kerana dipengaruhi altitud seperti hutan pergunungan Ericaceous, hutan montane-oak laurel dan hutan subalpin.
Saya pernah terbaca yang mengenai pokok Dacrydium comosum (famili Podocarpaceae) yang terdapat di puncak gunung Pine Tree Hill, Pahang (1456 m). Pada zaman kolonial, terdapat beberapa individu pokok tersebut yang dianggap sebagai pokok pine (pokok pine adalah dari genus Pinus. jika tidak silap saya, pokok pine tidak tumbuh secara semulajadi di Semenanjung Malaysia) di temui di gunung Pine Tree Hill. Walau bagaimanapun, pada masa sekarang hanya tinggal satu individu pokok tersebut yang masih hidup di puncak gunung. Ada pendapat yang mengatakan peningkatan suhu menyebabkan spesies pokok Dacrydium comosum tidak dapat mengekalkan kemandiriannya di gunung tersebut. Mungkin hal ini boleh dikaitkan dengan fenomena perubahan iklim.
Wassalam.
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