Seagrasses provide a range of marine ecosystem services. These include coastal protection, biodiversity, provision of food for various organisms, breeding and nursery habitats for many marine species, and carbon storage. Increasing anthropogenic pressures have contributed to the decline of seagrass habitats. Transplantation is one of the solutions to increase seagrass coverage and resilience. What is often overlooked, however, is the ability of this tropical ecosystem to attract and support faunal assemblages that may impinge on the success of the transplantation. A pilot study on seagrass transplantation at Gaya Island (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) was intended for observing its stability and species of fauna that develop association with this vegetation. The study covered the southwest and northeast monsoons. Mixed seagrass species were planted on approximately 50% of 30 m 2 transplantation areas. Monitoring of the planted seagrass was carried out in five phases (T1-T5) from September 2016 to April 2018. Weekly observations were made by SCUBA diving. Identification of associated fauna was done on the spot and was based on morphological characteristics. During the T1 (September to December 2016) the seagrass coverage was reduced to 41% due to strong waves generated by the northeast monsoon. However, the seagrass coverage increased ( 66 %) during the southwest monsoon (T2 - T4) in 2017. In early 2018 (T5), the seagrass coverage again reduced (about 18%) due to strong waves but recovered again at the end of the monitoring period (April 2018). A total of 30 species of fauna that were identified consisted of 9 resident and 21 non-resident species. Physical structure of transplanted seagrass created a microhabitat, and increased the food availability and abundance, which attracted many species of different trophic levels.
Stormwater runoff is recognized as a cause of water quality degradation because it may carry nitrogen (N) and other pollutants to aquatic ecosystems. Stormwater ponds are a stormwater control measure often used to manage stormwater runoff by holding a permanent pool of water, which reduces the peak flow, magnitude of runoff volume, and concentrations of nutrients and pollutants. We instrumented the outlet of a stormwater pond in an urban residential neighbourhood in Florida, United States to (1) investigate the concentration and composition of N forms during the summer rainy season (May to September 2016), and (2) determine the bioavailability of organic N in the stormwater pond with a bioassay experiment. A total of 144 outflow water samples over 13 storm events were collected at the outlet of the stormwater pond that collects runoff from the residential catchment. Samples were analysed for various inorganic N [ammonium (NH4-N), nitrate (NO3-N)], and organic N forms [dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and particulate organic nitrogen (PON)]. Flow-weighted mean concentration of total N (TN) in pond outflow for all collected storm events was 1.3±1.42 mg L-1, with DON as the dominant form (78%), followed by PON and NO3-N (each at 8%), and NH4-N (6%). In the bioassay experiment, organic N (DON+PON) was significantly decreased by 25-28% after 5 days of incubation, suggesting that a portion of the DON carried from the pond outflow to receiving water bodies may be bioavailable. These results suggest that efforts to mitigate stormwater N outflows from urban ponds should incorporate both inorganic and organic N in management plans.
Typhoons have devastating impacts across many Asian countries. Vietnam is presently one of the most disaster-prone nations. Typhoons regularly disrupt human lives and livelihoods in various ways and cause significant damage. Making efficient policy decisions to minimize the vulnerability of affected communities is crucial. This requires a deep understanding of the factors that make a society vulnerable to extreme events and natural disasters. An appropriate approach is integrating the three dimensions of hazard, exposure and sensitivity, and community adaptive capacity. However, the vulnerability and adaptive capacity response to typhoons within Vietnam is poorly investigated. Here, we develop a conceptual framework that incorporates 21 indicators to identify vulnerability and adaptive capacity (VAC) using geospatial techniques at regional scales, applied over Vietnam. We find large spatial differences in VAC and are able to identify the top-priority regions that need to enhance their adaptation to typhoons. The Southern Coastal area, South East and Red River Delta demonstrate high and very high vulnerability because of their physical features and the intensity of typhoons that frequently cross these parts of Vietnam. The lower Mekong Delta and Northern Coastal areas are vulnerable to typhoon-driven flood threats, in particular where compounded by sea-level rise. Our framework successfully identified the spatial distribution and different levels of VAC within acceptable limits of uncertainty. It can therefore serve as a template to tackle national issues in disaster risk reduction in Vietnam and assist in the development of suitable mitigation strategies to achieve sustainable outcomes.
Offshore Onna Village, Okinawa Island, Japan, there is a large and densely covered coral assemblage of free-living mushroom corals (Scleractinia: Fungiidae) on a reef slope at depths from 20 m to 32 m, covering an area of approximately 350 × 40 m2. From previous research, it is known that migration distances of mushroom corals may depend on coral shapes, coral sizes, substrate, and bottom inclination. However, until now there have been no published examples of regular Fungiidae movement and behavior from typhoon-exposed coastlines, such as those in the western Pacific Ocean. Our surveys across three years offshore Onna Village show that mushroom corals always move in down-slope direction from shallow to deeper reef zones. The results indicated that mushroom corals migrated faster in autumn than in other seasons, and that oval-elongate fungiids, and particularly those with a smooth underside, migrated more quickly than species with other shapes. Surprisingly, we observed a negative relationship between the presence of typhoons and migration rates. We also observed active migration by fungiid individuals to escape situations in which they were threatened to become overgrown by Acropora corals, or when they needed to escape from burial underneath coral debris.
This data article is constructed using avian (bird) counts from a recently identified trail in Kenyir rainforest, East Peninsular Malaysia. Avian chirps and naked eye visual were simultaneously used to locate the birds. After visual binocular and digital image inspection, identification of avian species were carried out using reference books. Data tabulation are divided by monsoon seasons and months before interpret using Shannon and Evenness indices. The highlights like feeding guilds, nativity, iconic species and statuses in the wild are presented with the data to increase its value. Within these, a total of 457 avian individuals from 36 avian family groups were recorded from which, 25 of these avian species occur as near threatened, vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered in the wild. Having these, the tabulated data becomes a calendar for seasonal availability of avian species which considers the 1.0 km trail suitable for bird watching, scientific study and ecotourism purposes.
Cameron Highland is a popular tourist hub in the mountainous area of Peninsular Malaysia. Most communities in this area suffer frequent incidence of debris flow, especially during monsoon seasons. Despite the loss of lives and properties recorded annually from debris flow, most studies in the region concentrate on landslides and flood susceptibilities. In this study, debris-flow susceptibility prediction was carried out using two data mining techniques; Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) and Support Vector Regression (SVR) models. The existing inventory of debris-flow events (640 points) were selected for training 70% (448) and validation 30% (192). Twelve conditioning factors namely; elevation, plan-curvature, slope angle, total curvature, slope aspect, Stream Transport Index (STI), profile curvature, roughness index, Stream Catchment Area (SCA), Stream Power Index (SPI), Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) and Topographic Position Index (TPI) were selected from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data. Multi-collinearity was checked using Information Factor, Cramer's V, and Gini Index to identify the relative importance of conditioning factors. The susceptibility models were produced and categorized into five classes; not-susceptible, low, moderate, high and very-high classes. Models performances were evaluated using success and prediction rates where the area under the curve (AUC) showed a higher performance of MARS (93% and 83%) over SVR (76% and 72%). The result of this study will be important in contingency hazards and risks management plans to reduce the loss of lives and properties in the area.
Natural disasters may lead to infectious disease outbreaks when they result in substantial population displacement and exacerbate synergic risk factors (change in the environment, in human conditions and in the vulnerability to existing pathogens) for disease transmission. We reviewed risk factors and potential infectious diseases resulting from prolonged secondary effects of major natural disasters that occurred from 2000 to 2011. Natural disasters including floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, tropical cyclones (e.g., hurricanes and typhoons) and tornadoes have been secondarily described with the following infectious diseases including diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections, malaria, leptospirosis, measles, dengue fever, viral hepatitis, typhoid fever, meningitis, as well as tetanus and cutaneous mucormycosis. Risk assessment is essential in post-disaster situations and the rapid implementation of control measures through re-establishment and improvement of primary healthcare delivery should be given high priority, especially in the absence of pre-disaster surveillance data.
Floods occur when a body of water overflows and submerges normally dry terrain. Tropical cyclones or tsunamis cause flooding. Health and safety are jeopardized during a flood. As a result, proactive flood mitigation measures are required. This study aimed to increase flood disaster preparedness among Selangor communities in Malaysia by implementing a Health Belief Model-Based Intervention (HEBI). Selangor's six districts were involved in a single-blinded cluster randomized controlled trial Community-wide implementation of a Health Belief Model-Based Intervention (HEBI). A self-administered questionnaire was used. The intervention group received a HEBI module, while the control group received a health talk on non-communicable disease. The baseline variables were compared. Immediate and six-month post-intervention impacts on outcome indicators were assessed. 284 responses with a 100% response rate. At the baseline, there were no significant differences in ethnicity, monthly household income, or past disaster experience between groups (p>0.05). There were significant differences between-group for intervention on knowledge, skills, preparedness (p<0.001), Perceived Benefit Score (p = 0.02), Perceived Barrier Score (p = 0.03), and Cues to Action (p = 0.04). GEE analysis showed receiving the HEBI module had effectively improved knowledge, skills, preparedness, Perceived Benefit Score, Perceived Barrier Score, and Cues to Action in the intervention group after controlling the covariate. Finally, community flood preparedness ensured that every crisis decision had the least impact on humans. The HEBI module improved community flood preparedness by increasing knowledge, skill, preparedness, perceived benefit, perceived barrier, and action cues. As a result, the community should be aware of this module. Clinical trial registration: The trial registry name is Thai Clinical Trials Registry, trial number TCTR20200202002.
Never in the history of modern Malaysia, the general population at all levels are being threatened by food security. Food becoming less available and more expensive. Many factors, both long- and short-term, have contributed to the shortage. At a global level, available data seems to indicate that we have been consuming more than what we produce. Then came the shortfall in global rice production caused by the impact of climate change such as the widespread drought in India and China in 2002, typhoons in the Philippines in 2006, and the major flooding in Bangladesh in 2007. This was followed by the returns of pests such as planthoppers, and the various virus diseases transmitted particularly at regions with growing seasons having abnormally higher temperatures caused by climate change. Since the crisis started, scientists particularly breeders all over the world were requested to strengthen and upgrade the breeding program and facilities for the development of new varieties with increased tolerance to drought, flooding, and salinity as well resistant to insects and diseases. An important pre-requisite for such activities is the free flow of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (pgrfa). The adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has drastically slowed down the movement of many plant genetic resources and this has threatened the future supply of food. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resource for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA or the Treaty) is a global reaction to the rising tide of measures taken by many governments as a result CBD to extend their sovereign control over genetic resources. Many countries felt that those measures are inappropriate for food and agricultural crop genetic resources. The Treaty on the other hand recognizes that access and benefit sharing for agricultural biodiversity must be treated differently from the way it is generally treated under CBD. This paper discusses some of the key points and provisions from the treaty and some issues arising from its negotiation and future implementation in Malaysia.
Over the last century, the earth’s climate has changed. It is a serious global, long-term problem which involves complex interactions. A lot of evidence suggests that most of the observed factors contributing to the crisis over the last 50 years can be attributed to human activities. Malaysia has always been vulnerable to extreme climatic events such as typhoons, floods and drought. We expect climate change to exacerbate these vulnerabilities. To ensure, that our water resources will always be secure and ready for use. We need to create awareness in the public and the policy makers so that they will acknowledge that the climate change issue is real. They also need to accept that actions to adapt with our vulnerabilities should be immediately put in place. We can do this by integrating the various sector policies and securing the participation of all stakeholders in Malaysia and other countries.
The complexity of the coastal environment and the advent of climate change cause coastal erosion, which is incontrovertibly a significant concern worldwide, including Peninsular Malaysia, where, the coast is threatened by severe erosion linked to anthropogenic factors and monsoonal wind-driven waves. Consequently, the Malaysian government implemented a mitigation plan using several coastal defence systems to overcome the coastal erosion problem. This study assesses coastal erosion management strategies along a monsoon-dominated coasts by evaluating the efficacy of coastal protection structures against the coast. To this end, we analysed 244 km of the coastline of Terengganu, a federal state located on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Due to a higher frequency of storms and the ensuing inception of high wave energy environments during the northeast monsoon (relative to southwest monsoon), the study area is the most impacted region in Malaysia with regard to coastal erosion. Fifty-five (55) coastal defence structures were detected along the Terengganu coastline. The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) was utilised to compute changes in the rate statistics for various historical shoreline positions along the Terengganu coast to assess the efficacy of the defence structures. Additionally, this study acquired the perception of the existing coastal management strategies through an interview session with the concerned stakeholders. The rate statistics revealed the effectiveness and impact of the coastal defence structure on the coastline. Assessing the functionality of the coastal defence structures shed light on the present scenario of coastal erosion management. Greater efficacy and lower impact of coastal defence structures are prescribed for coastal erosion management strategies across the monsoon-dominated coast.
Analysis of observed Indian Summer Monsoon precipitation reveals more increase in extreme precipitation (in terms of its magnitude) over south India compared to north and central India during 1971-2017 (base period: 1930-1970). In the future, analysis of precipitation from the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment indicates a southward shift of precipitation extremes over South Asia. For instance, the Arabian Sea, south India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia are expected to have the maximum increase (~18.5 mm/day for RCP8.5 scenario) in mean extreme precipitation (average precipitation for the days with more than 99th percentile of daily precipitation). However, north and central India and Tibetan Plateau show relatively less increase (~2.7 mm/day for RCP8.5 scenario). Analysis of air temperature at 850 mb and precipitable water (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) indicates an intensification of Indian Ocean Dipole in future, which will enhance the monsoon throughout India. Moisture flux and convergence analysis (at 850 mb) show a future change of the direction of south-west monsoon winds towards the east over the Indian Ocean. These changes will intensify the observed contrast in extreme precipitation between south and north India, and cause more extreme precipitation events in the countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.
In summer 2010, a massive bloom appeared in the middle (16-25°N, 160-200°E) of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) creating a spectacular oasis in the middle of the largest oceanic desert on Earth. Peaked in June 2010 covering over two million km2 in space, this phytoplankton bloom is the largest ever recorded by ocean color satellites in the NPSG over the period from 1997 to 2013. The initiation and mechanisms sustaining the massive bloom were due to atmospheric and oceanic anomalies. Over the north (25-30°N) of the bloom, strong anticyclonic winds warmed sea surface temperature (SST) via Ekman convergence. Subsequently, anomalous westward ocean currents were generated by SST meridional gradients between 19°N and 25°N, producing strong velocity shear that caused large number of mesoscale (100-km in order) cyclonic eddies in the bloom region. The ratio of cyclonic to anticyclonic eddies of 2.7 in summer 2010 is the highest over the 16-year study period. As a result of the large eddy-number differences, eddy-eddy interactions were strong and induced submesoscale (smaller than 100 km) vertical pumping as observed in the in-situ ocean profiles. The signature of vertical pumping was also presented in the in-situ measurements of chlorophyll and nutrients, which show higher concentrations in 2010 than other years.
Mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change at regional level require downscaled projection of future climate states. This paper examined the possible changes of future climate extremes over Malaysia based on the IPCC SRES A1B emission scenario. The projected changes at 17 stations were produced by bias correcting the UKMO PRECIS downscaling simulation output. The simulation expected higher probability of rainfall extreme occurrences over the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia during the autumn transitional monsoon period. In addition, possible early monsoon rainfall was projected for certain stations located over East Malaysia. The simulation also projected larger increase of warm temperature extremes but smaller decrease of cold extremes, suggesting asymmetric expansion of the temperature distribution. The impact of the elevated green house gases (GHG) is higher in the night time temperature extremes as compared to the day time temperature extremes. The larger increment of warm night frequencies as compared to the warm day suggests smaller diurnal temperature ranges under the influence of higher greenhouse gases. Stations located in East Malaysia were projected to experience the largest increase of warm night occurrence.
This study investigates the southwest monsoon circulation and temperature along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia by using the Regional Ocean Modeling System at 9 km resolution. The simulated circulation shows strong northward flowing western boundary currents along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia with maximum speed of approximately of 0.6-0.7 ms-1. The western boundary current, that extends to a depth of about 35 m, continues flowing northward up to approximately 7oN where it changes direction eastward. The circulation along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia is also characterized by two anti-cyclonic eddies. Furthermore, an elongated of cooler sea surface temperature that stretches along the coast was also simulated. The existence of this cool SST pattern is associated with coastal upwelling process due to localized lifting of isotherms near the coast as a response to the southerly-southwesterly wind stress along the coast during the southwest monsoon.
Due to the increase in consumer interest, mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia) extract is being produced in several forms including dry powder. One of the methods that can be used to produce dry powder is spray drying. This study was done to determine the physical properties of powdered mengkudu extract produced by spray drying from different sections of the spray-dryer. Mengkudu extract at 50% (v/v) dilution was spray-dried using two levels of feed flow rate (350 mL/hr and 475 mL/hr) and inlet air temperature (170oC and 190oC). Spray dried mengkudu extract from the cyclone and colletion sections of the spray dryer was collected and analyzed for amount produced, moisture content and colour. No significant interaction between feed flow rate and inlet air temperature used was observed for all parameters measured. Inlet temperature used did not show any significant effect on amount of production. However, increasing the inlet air temperature from 170oC to 190oC did produce lower moisture content for samples from the cyclone but no significant difference for samples from the collection bottle, while lowering the degree of redness of samples from the collection bottle, while lowering the degree of brightness for samples from both cyclone and collection sections of the spray-dryer. Feed flow rate used did not produce any significant effect on all parameters measured.
This study was carried out during the period 1989-2011. The following areas were included: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Climax tropical forest and anthropogenically transformed ecosystems, including those damaged by the chemical warfare program of the United States in Vietnam, were investigated. Some regularities in the structure dynamics and functioning of forests ecosystems under a tropical monsoon climate have been revealed. The principles of classification of tropical forests have been elaborated. The major results of investigation of the tropical monsoon forests in Vietnam are given.
A new type of cyclone design configuration called MR-deDuster, which contains multi cyclone, has been developed.
A theoretical study had been carried out to evaluate and predict the performance of a MR-deDuster. In this paper, a
comparative study was done to investigate the performance of MR-deDuster with other conventional cyclones in terms
of collection efficiency and pressure drop. The performance of MR-deDuster was measured by its collection efficiency
based on the particle size distribution of activated carbon. It was found that MR-deDuster is able to collect as high as
94% of PM10 which is high comparing with many other conventional cyclones. In addition, the pressure drop of the unit
is relatively low compared to the other cyclones which highlight the ability of the unit to capture the fine particle at low
pressure drop.
This paper provides an overview of the current available scientific knowledge pertaining to climate change and climate variability over Malaysia. Malaysia is situated in the western part of the Maritime Continent of the Southeast Asian region. Hence, regional climate change and climate variability over this region are of central importance to the understanding of climate change in Malaysia. The latest regional climate downscaling study indicates that, depending on the emission scenario, the mean surface temperature over Malaysia would increase by 3-5oC by the end of the 21st century. The mean precipitation is projected to decrease (increase) during Northern Hemisphere winter (summer). However, future variabilities associated with regional phenomena such as the monsoon, El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) are largely unknown. Current knowledge on the intensity and frequency of future extreme events (drought and flood) is limited. This is also the case for regional sea level rise and long-term changes in regional seas, especially in the southern region of the South China Sea. We conclude that knowledge gap in the science of climate change over Malaysia and the surrounding region remains wide.