PUBS-SATREPSThe 3rd WORKSHOP
15-16 July 2023
@ Tsukuba International Congress Center

Mt. Tsukuba

ABSTRACTBOOK

●Venue
Conference Room: 1F 102, Tsukuba International Congress Center (EPOCHAL Tsukuba)
Address: 2-20-3 Takezoko, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0032, Japan
つくば国際会議場 （エポカルつくば） 住所: 茨城県つくば市竹園 2-20-3
https://www.epochal.or.jp/en/●Access to Tsukuba center (to TX Tsukuba station/Bus terminal)
From Tokyo Area: Tsukuba Express (TX)
Akihabara Station – (Rapid/about 45 min.) – Tsukuba Station
From Narita International airport: Kanto Tetsudo bus Narita Airport Terminal– (about 60 min.) – Tsukuba
Station Terminal

●Access to Tsukuba International Congress Center (EPOCHAL Tsukuba) from Tsukuba center-By walk
From the bus terminal, go up the escalator to the pedestrian path. Walk south approximately 800m along
the path. About 8 min on foot.
-By busTake a bus, Gakuen Minami Junkan(Gakuen South Circle, Bus No.CG) from the Bus Terminal at No. 4.
The bus comes every 30 min. Get off at Tsukuba Kokusai Kaigijyo (Tsukuba international congress center).
It will take about 2~3 min, 170 yen. (adult/one way).

●Venue Map

2023 PUBS-SATREPS workshop program*All times in Japan time (UTC +9).

Day 1: 15 July 2023
14:00-14:30

Opening remarks & Plenary
Takao Itioka
Professor, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies,
Kyoto University

14:30-17:10
Flash Talk
PLANT
01 Kaya Shimizu
02 Yayoi Takeuchi
03 Akira Ito
04 Jacqualine Henry
05 Tatsuhiro Ohkubo
06 Seiya Okuno
07 Iku Asano
FUNGI/MICROORGANISMS
08 Satoshi Yamashita
09 Hirotoshi Sato
10 Yuho Ando
11 Shirley Anak Chip
12 Holed Juboi
13 Mohd Farith Kota
BREAK (10 MINUTES)

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INSECT
14 Hasumi Kawagoe
15 Taisuke Kanao
16 Takeshi Yamasaki
17 Yoko Takematsu
18 Paulus Melang
VERTEBRATE
19 Kanto Nishikawa
20 Azroie Daniel
21 Yosuke Kojima
22 Manabu Onuma
SOCIAL SCIENCE
23 Shinya Numata
24 Susumu Takahashi
25 Asami Shikida
26 Masatomo Ogawa
27 Yuma Akaho
28 Ayumi Onuma
29 Kriskkumar Karunanidhi
17:10-17:15

Closing remarks for the first day of the workshop

18:30-20:30

Dinner2

Day 2: 16 July 2023
09:30-12:00

Progress from Master and PhD candidate students
Species diversity of phyllosphere fungi on leaves of Macaranga
species
Khairunnisa Othman
Research officer, Forest Department Sarawak / Master student,
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Biogeography of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi inhabiting thelowland forests
Ajuwin Lain
Research Officer, Sarawak Biodiversity Centre / Master Student
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Molecular Analysis of Ganoderma and Amauroderma Species in
the Tropical Rainforest of Sarawak, Borneo
Jamilah Hassan
Research Officer, Sarawak Biodiversity Centre / Master Student,
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
BREAK (10 MINUTES)
Progress Update on Temporal Trends in Populations of
Phytophagous Hemipteran Insect Species in a Bornean TropicalRainforest
Clement Het Kaliang
Conservation Officer, Sarawak Forestry Corporation / Doctoral Student,
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), Kyoto
University3

Bornean Clouded Leopard Project - a Progress Report
Voon Mufeng
Wildlife Officer, Sarawak Forestry Corporation / Doctoral Student,
Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo
Metropolitan University
12:00-14:00

Lunch Break

14:00-15:30

Progress from Postdocs
Progress and future plans of botanical research in PUBS:
biogeography and inventory work
Natsuki Komada
Postdoctoral researcher, Graduate School of Global Environmental
Studies, Kyoto University
Progress of researches on biodiversity science under PUBS
Takafumi Mizuno
Researcher, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto
University
Arrangement and database development of entomologicalcollection in Forest Department Sarawak
Koichi Arimoto
Postdoctoral researcher, Graduate School of Global Environmental
Studies, Kyoto University

15:30-16:30

Free time to discuss with each other

16:30-16:40

Closing remarks

4Species diversity of phyllosphere fungi on leaves of Macaranga species
Khairunnisa Othman1,2*, Hirotoshi Sato3, Takafumi Mizuno3, Usun Shimizu-Kaya4, Satoshi
Yamashita5, Hasumi Kawagoe3, Kanto Nishikawa2,3, Jamilah Hassan2,6, Ajuwin Lain2,6, Takao
Itioka2,3
Research and Development Division, Forest Department Sarawak, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, 2Graduate

1

School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 3Graduate School of Human andEnvironmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 4Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences,
Shimane University, Matsue, Japan, 5Centre for Diversity and Climate Change, Forestry and Forest ProductResearch Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, 6Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia*Corresponding Author: khairuno@sarawak.gov.my

Abstract: The accumulated leaf surface globally has approximately twice the land surface area,
harboring tremendous microbial species diversity with many beneficial effects on plants andenvironments. However, the phyllosphere microorganisms, including fungi on leaves, have not beenstudied in depth, especially in tropical rainforest areas, so far. Various factors, such as biogeography
and host plant species, have been reported to influence the species compositions of the phyllospherefungi community. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of location and host plant specieson the species composition of phyllosphere fungi community in Southeast Asian tropical rainforests.
The study focused on the phyllosphere of five Macaranga species at the two sites, Santubong
National Park and Lambir Hills National Park, and targeted internal transcribed spacer (ITS)
region by sequencing the amplicons with Illumina MiSeq. The high-throughput sequencing of thefungal ITS1 region identified 1,214 OTUs with 54,991 reads. The majority of phyllosphere fungi on
Macaranga sp. belong to the phylum Ascomycota with 85.6% of all sequences, followed byBasidiomycota with 12.6%, and unclassified with 1.8%. The results of NMDS and Permutational
Multivariate Analysis Variance (PERMANOVA) based on Raup-Crick index also showed that both
location and plant species had significant effects on the species composition of the phyllospherefungi community (p < 0.001 for location and p < 0.0001 for plant species). These results
suggest that the phyllosphere fungi communities exhibit variability in relation to locality and hostplant species. Some plausible factors, such as myrmecophytism (plant-ant attendance), leaf
characteristics, and environmental conditions of microhabitats, that may be associated with thesignificant effects will be discussed as well as what remains to be done for elucidating the factorsthat affect the differences in the future.
Keywords: Borneo, fungi diversity, phyllosphere microorganisms, tropical forests, Macaranga

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Biogeography of Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) Fungi Inhabiting the Lowland Forests
in Sarawak
Ajuwin Lain1,2*, Satoshi Yamashita3, Takafumi Mizuno4, Takao Itioka2,4 Kanto Nishikawa2,4, Jamilah
Hassan1,2, Khairunnisa Othman2,5, Hirotoshi Sato4
Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, Sarawak, Malaysia

1

2

Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan

Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Japan
4
Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan

3

Research and Development Division, Forest Department Sarawak, Sarawak, Malaysia

5*Corresponding author: ajuwin@sbc.org.my

Abstract: Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi involved in obligatory symbiosis with several major tree
families are invaluable to most forest ecosystems. Most studies on the ecology and biodiversity of
ECM fungi have focused on temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, we need to extend
our current knowledge about the biodiversity of ECM fungi in tropical rainforests to better
understand the global biodiversity of ECM fungi. To improve our understanding of species diversity
and endemism of ECM fungi inhabiting tropical rainforests in Sarawak, Malaysia, we aim tocompare the biogeography of ECM fungi and soil saprotrophic (SAP) fungi inhabiting tropicalrainforests in Sarawak. In this study, 288 root samples in total were collected in the Lambir Hills andSantubong National Parks. The internal transcribed spacer1 (ITS1) region of ribosomal RNA, thefungal barcode region, was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq. Then, 103 ECM and 106 SAP
operational taxonomic units (OTUs at the 97% sequence similarity level) were obtained. Using the
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), highly similar sequences (≥97% sequence similarityand ≥70% query coverage) with these queries were searched. The number of ECM and SAP OTUs
that were shared between this study and each country was counted. Using two-step binomial model,
the probability that each OTU obtained in this study is present in each country was estimated,
together with the deposition rates of ITS sequences in each country. ECM fungal OTUs were shown
to be highly present only in Southeast Asian countries. Furthermore, results indicated the presence ofDipterocarpaceae and annual precipitation strongly increased the probability of occurrence of ECM
OTUs, whereas temperature showed significant negative influences on the probability of ECM
occurrences. Unlike ECM, SAP fungi were distributed not only in Southeast Asia but also in distantareas, including Africa and South America. Moreover, the presence of Lithocarpus tree strongly
increased the probability of SAP OTUs occurrences whereas the distribution of the Dipterocarpaceae
tree negatively influences the occurrences. These findings highlight the endemism of the ECM fungiin tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia, presumably attributed to the strong host specificity of ECM
fungi.
Keywords: Ectomycorrhizal, Fungi, Tropical Forest, Sarawak

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Molecular Analysis of Ganoderma and Amauroderma Species of the TropicalRainforest of Sarawak, Borneo
Jamilah Hassan1,2*, Hirostoshi Sato3, Takafumi Mizuno3, Takao Itioka2,3, Kanto Nishikawa2,3,
Khairunnisa Othman2,4, Ajuwin Lain1,2, Satoshi Yamashita512Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, Sarawak, Malaysia

Graduate School of Global and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan
3
4

Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan

Research and Development Division, Forest Department Sarawak, Malaysia
5

Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan*Corresponding Author: milah@sbc.org.my

Abstract: Ganoderma australe (Polyporaceae) is one of the dominant fungal species in the tropical rainforestof Borneo Island. A previous study conducted in Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Borneo, revealed that thisspecies contained at least six genetic types. The genetic types of G. australe observed in the two areas are expected
to differ from each other due to its wide distribution in Borneo and the different environmental conditions between
northeastern and western Sarawak. Amauroderma subrugosum (Polyporaceae) is phylogenetically closely related toGanoderma and widely distributed in Borneo. As seen in G. australe, this species also exhibits highly variable
fruiting bodies. Therefore, it is suggested that A. subrugosum contains multiple genetic types in this species. In thisstudy, we aimed to record the genetic types of both G. australe and A. subrugosum with their morphological andecological traits. G. australe sensu lato, A. subrugosum sensu lato, and some Ganoderma species were studied inthree national parks in Sarawak: Santubong, Kubah (western area), and Lambir Hill (northeastern area). The decay
stage and diameter of fallen logs from which fungal fruiting bodies appeared were recorded. The size of the pores
and length of the tube of fruiting bodies were measured and recorded in the laboratory. Molecular experiments wereconducted to obtain phylogenetic information. Ganoderma is the most common polypore fungus collected, followedby Amauroderma and others. In the phylogenetic tree analysis, which contains several Ganoderma species and A.
subrugosum, A. subrugosum was grouped into a single genetic type. As for Ganoderma, it has been divided andclassified into seven types. A phylogenetic tree that focuses on the phylogenetic relationship within G. australe
reveals that G. australe was classified into four genetic types: type 1, type 2, type 3, and type 5. All genetic types of
G. australe fruiting bodies frequently appear in the intermediate stages (stage 3) of decayed wood from small andmedium-sized (diameter) fallen trees or logs. In this study, no novel genetic types of G. australe were observed, andseveral genetic types were not observed in A. subrugosum. All genetic types of G. australe were found in the northeast(Lambir Hills) and west (Kubah, Santubong) areas of Sarawak, suggesting that these genetic types are widelydistributed across Sarawak. Further study is needed to reveal the mechanisms that drive speciation and maintaingenetic diversity in G. australe and the mechanisms that prevent speciation in A. subrugosum.

Keywords: Ganoderma, Amauroderma, Sarawak, Borneo

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Progress Update on Temporal Trends in Populations of Phytophagous
Hemipteran Insect Species in a Bornean Tropical Rainforest
Clement Het Kaliang1,2*, Takafumi Mizuno2,Takao Itioka2
Sarawak Forestry Corporation, Kuching, Sarawak; 2Kyoto University, Kyoto

1*Corresponding Author: hethk70@gmail.com

Abstract: Insect populations show various patterns in their temporal fluctuation in response to various
environmental factors, such as climatic features and patterns, and ecological factors, such as phenology
of vegetation, abundance, and biomass of other organisms that interact with the insect population, life
history as adaptive responses to the factors. In particular, climatic conditions often significantly
influence seasonal and temporal patterns in temporal population fluctuation in insects. Therefore,seasonal patterns in the climatic conditions are known to be tightly associated with the seasonality influctuation patterns of insect populations inhabiting habitats in subtropical, dry, temperate, andsubarctic zones, where the climate conditions show clear seasonal patterns. However, seasonality intemporal population patterns has not been fully understood in tropical rainforest areas, where theseasonal patterns in climatic conditions are rather weak. So far, studies on the seasonality in temporal
population patterns have been limited only for some insect taxa in the Neotropics and Chrysomelidae,
Scarabaeidae, Passalidae, and the giant honeybee in the Southeast Asian tropics. In this study, weinvestigate the seasonality in the temporal patterns of population fluctuation for phytophagous insects
and several cicada species, based on specimens that were collected by monthly light-trapping foralmost seven years from 1993 to 1999 in a tropical rainforest at Lambir Hills National Parks. At current
progress, we selected the following ten cicada (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) species with >100 individuals
as our target species: Purana sp., Nelcyndana tener, Orientopsaltria phaeophila, O. maculosa,Dundubia vaginata, D. rufivena, Platylomia spinosa, Pomponia spp., Abroma maculicollis, andPurana guttulavis. Most of the species shows non-seasonal temporal patterns, neither responding to
the general flowering events. Of the 10 species, only Dundubia vaginata showed a clear seasonalpattern, while the other cicada species did not show seasonal patterns and most of them constantly
occur irrespective of calendar month almost throughout the study period. These results suggest thatmost cicada species don't have clear seasonal life cycles in the tropical rainforest areas in the Southeast
Asian tropics, which is likely to be quite different from the seasonal pattern shown in some hemipteraninsects in the Neotropics.
Keywords: Bornean, Cicada, life history, population, seasonal pattern, temporal8

Bornean Clouded Leopard Project - A Progress Report
Voon Mufeng1,2,*
SARAWAK FORESTRY CORPORATION

1

Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University

2*Corresponding Author: voonm@sarawakforestry.com

Abstract: The largest predator on the Borneo Island is the Bornean Clouded Leopard (Neofelis diardi
borneensis), a subspecies described in 2011, along with the Batu-Sumatran subspecies (Neofelis diardi
diardi). The N. diardi borneensis is native to Borneo and is distinctly different from its mainland cousin
Neofelis nebulosa. Unlike N. nebulosa, the Bornean Clouded Leopard is still understudied andalthough researchers have started to look into the spatial ecology and genetics aspects of the species,
there are still a lot of research gap that needs to be bridged urgently, with the subspecies currently listed
as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. This paper outlined the progress of the on-going research done atPulong Tau National Park, Bario, Sarawak. The field work was conducted from 16 April to 21 May
2023 with a total of 49 camera traps installed. Set up of the camera traps follow the Spatially Explicit
Capture-Recapture (SECR) design, where each camera trap station has two camera traps on the left
and right side of the trail. The camera traps will be left to run for 90 nights before shifting to different
locations to expand the trapping area. With this project, we hope to subsequently obtain sufficient
empirical data that can be used to advocate for better management decision for the protected areas andits surrounding forests.

Keywords: Bornean Clouded Leopard, progress9

Progress and future plans of botanical research in PUBS: biogeography andinventory work
Natsuki Komada1*
Kyoto University

1*Corresponding Author: caerulea2818@gmail.com (email)

Abstract: The presentation focuses on the progress and outcomes of floristic field surveys conducted
as part of the Survey on Biodiversity at Protected Areas in Sarawak (SBPS) under the Project on
Development of Management Systems for Multiple Utilization of Biodiversity in the TropicalRainforests at the Protected Areas in Sarawak (PUBS). The surveys were conducted at Lambir, Niah,
Santubong, and Similajau National Parks between August 2022 and May 2023, to accumulate
biogeographic information on the plants found in the tropical rainforests of Sarawak region. The
presentation outlines the number of collected specimens and future plants, as well as noteworthy
characteristics of certain plant species.
In addition to the explanation of biogeography and inventory work, I introduce the studies on
the diversity and ecology of epiphytes as introduction of my research works so far. Vascular epiphytes(hereafter epiphytes) grow non-parasitically on other plants. I have sought to elucidate the compositionand host tree utilization patterns of epiphytes in a lowland tropical rain forest in Lambir Hills National
Park in Borneo (hereafter Lambir). I compared the number of species and the component percentage
of each epiphyte taxon, among 11 sites from the Southeast Asian tropics, Afrotropics, and Neotropics.
The results suggested that the epiphyte flora of Lambir is characterized by, for instance, the highest
diversity of Apocynaceae and Moraceae. As ecological studies, I examine the relationships between
epiphyte species richness and the abundance and diameter at breast height (DBH) of host trees. The
results indicate that number of epiphyte species and number of epiphyte individuals both increase
exponentially with DBH. The greatest increase was observed in trees with DBH > 40 cm. In addition,
approximately half of all epiphyte species recorded in this study were observed exclusively on trees
with DBH > 60 cm.
Keywords: canopy, ecology, epiphytes, plant diversity, taxonomy

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Progress of researches on biodiversity science under PUBS
Takafumi Mizuno1,2*
1

Kyoto University, 2Japan International Cooperation Agency*Corresponding Author: mizuno.takafumi.2x@kyoto-u.ac.jp

Abstract: Biodiversity studies are one of main subjects and a foundation of the other subjects in PUBS
(the project on development of management systems for multiple utilization of biodiversity in thetropical rainforests at the protected areas in Sarawak). To promote greater understanding of entire
biodiversity in Sarawak we have conducted field work in several national parks and also are conducting
studies using specimens collected before this project. In these studies, we plan to obtain DNA datafrom a massive number of samples with next generation sequencing (NGS) technology that have been
installed in Sarawak. In this presentation I will show progress of two ongoing studies.
The topic of the first study is mutualistic relationship between Crematogaster ants and myrmecophytic
Macaranga where the plants provide ants with foods and nest site, in return, the ants protect their hostplants from herbivory. Although the Crematogaster-Macaranga system have been well studies, hostrange of the ants and variation of the host range among sites are still unclear mainly due to difficultyin morphological species identification of the Crematogaster ants and lack of sample collection frommultiple sites. I conducted species identification of Crematogaster ants inhabiting several Macaranga
species from multiple national parks based on DNA data obtained by NGS and will show the results.
The topic of the second study is population dynamics of Carabid beetles. Population dynamics
of insects in aseasonal tropical rainforest in Sarawak have been studied using leaf beetles, passalid
beetles and scarab beetles collected by monthly light-trapping for over six years in Lambir Hills
National Park. However, population dynamics of predatory insects such as Carabidae have never been
investigated. I have been sorting Carabid beetles collected by the same light traps since I joined thisproject. In this presentation I will show the pattern of Carabidae’s population dynamics, effect of mass
flowering and severe drought on the population dynamics, and response of Carabidae’s population
dynamics to population dynamics of other insects studied in previous researches.
Keywords: Crematogaster - Macaranga mutualism, NGS, population dynamics, Carabidae

11Arrangement and database development of entomological collection
in Forest Department Sarawak
Kôichi Arimoto1*
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University

1*Corresponding Author: elateridbeetle@gmail.com

Abstract: Insects account for more than half of the species described in the animal kingdom and asignificant proportion of the biodiversity on Earth. Borneo has one of the oldest rainforests in the world,
containing a concentrated number of insect-diverse and endemic species. Recent entomologicalcollection in Borneo has been built in Forest Department Sarawak, Kuching, with well over 100,000
pinned specimens and numerous unmounted specimens in alcohol, many of which were collectedduring regular surveys using light traps and Malaise traps in Lambir Hills National Park, Miri sincethe 1990s. The collection is useful for understanding not only the Borneo entomo-fauna but seasonal
and annual population dynamics of insects, however, it is inconvenient to use because specimen
arrangement is not complete. As the first task, I picked out elaterid beetles from the unorganized pinned
specimen and prepared 20 new specimen boxes for sorting to species level. I was able to find someundescribed species, rare species, for which only a few specimens exist in the world, and many
specimens of the common species without continuous distributional records among about 10,000
specimens. Consequently, the importance of the collection was reemphasized for understanding insect
species diversity in Borneo. In order to further enhance the usefulness of the collection, theunorganized specimens need to be sorted into families and some to the generic and species level. In
this presentation, valuable species found in my short-term research will be introduced. In addition,
future plans for specimen maintenance and the construction of a database of entomological collection
will be presented.

Keywords: Insects, Lambir Hills National Park, new species, species diversity

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