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.
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.
Long-term (21-30 years) erosional responses of rainforest terrain in the Upper Segama catchment, Sabah, to selective logging are assessed at slope, small and large catchment scales. In the 0.44 km(2) Baru catchment, slope erosion measurements over 1990-2010 and sediment fingerprinting indicate that sediment sources 21 years after logging in 1989 are mainly road-linked, including fresh landslips and gullying of scars and toe deposits of 1994-1996 landslides. Analysis and modelling of 5-15 min stream-suspended sediment and discharge data demonstrate a reduction in storm-sediment response between 1996 and 2009, but not yet to pre-logging levels. An unmixing model using bed-sediment geochemical data indicates that 49 per cent of the 216 t km(-2) a(-1) 2009 sediment yield comes from 10 per cent of its area affected by road-linked landslides. Fallout (210)Pb and (137)Cs values from a lateral bench core indicate that sedimentation rates in the 721 km(2) Upper Segama catchment less than doubled with initially highly selective, low-slope logging in the 1980s, but rose 7-13 times when steep terrain was logged in 1992-1993 and 1999-2000. The need to keep steeplands under forest is emphasized if landsliding associated with current and predicted rises in extreme rainstorm magnitude-frequency is to be reduced in scale.
The aim of this study was to determine the accumulation of settling particles in coral reefs of Peninsular Malaysia. Settling particles were collected from the coral reefs of Port Dickson, Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Tioman, Pulau Redang and Pulau Tinggi from 2005 to 2008. The average total settling particles in Pulau Langkawi and Port Dickson was 49.8 mg/cm2/day, while for Pulau Tioman, Pulau Redang, and Pulau Tinggi was 3.5 mg/cm2/day. The results showed that accumulations rate in west coast were higher than east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. However, Pulau Tioman in the east coast received high accumulations rate of settling particles in certain times of the year due to sediment resuspension at shallow reefs caused by high energy seasonal yearly wave and monsoon.
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.
This study investigated the spatial pattern and trends of the daily rainfall data in Peninsular Malaysia based on seasonal rainfall indices. Five rainfall indices which describe the main characteristics of rainfall, the total amount of rainfall, frequency of wet days, rainfall intensity, extreme frequency, and extreme intensity, were employed in this study. The statistics of rainfall indices were calculated in terms of their means for four regions in Peninsular Malaysia for the period 1975 to 2004. The findings indicate that the southwest monsoon had the greatest impact on the western part of the Peninsula, particularly in characterizing the rainfall pattern of the northwest region. During this season, the northwest region could be considered as the wettest region since all rainfall indices tested are higher than in other regions of the Peninsula. Otherwise, the northwest region is denoted as the driest part of the Peninsula during the northeast monsoon period. The northwest region is less influenced by the northeast monsoon because of the existence of the Titiwangsa Range, which blocks the region from receiving heavy rainfall. On the other hand, it is found that the lowlands areas such as the eastern part of the Peninsula are strongly characterized by the northeast monsoonal flow. Based on the results of the Mann-Kendall test, as the trend of the total amount of rainfall and the frequency of wet days during the southwest monsoon decrease at most of the stations, the rainfall intensity increases. In contrast, increasing trends in both the total amount of rainfall and the frequency of wet days were observed at several stations during the northeast monsoon, which give rise to the increasing trend of rainfall intensity. The results for both seasons indicate that there are significantly decreasing trends in the frequency of wet days during the extreme events for most of the stations on the peninsula. However, a smaller number of significant trends was found for extreme intensity.
This study attempts to trace changes in the wet spells over Peninsular Malaysia based on the daily rainfall data from 32 selected rainfall stations which include four sub-regions; northwest, west, south and east, for the period of 1975 to 2004. Six wet spells indices comprising of the main characteristics (maximum, mean, standard deviation), the persistency of two consecutive wet days and the frequency of the short and long duration of wet spells will be used to identify whether or not these indices increase or decrease over Peninsular Malaysia during the monsoon seasons. The study indicates that the eastern areas of the peninsula could be considered as the wettest areas since almost all the indices of wet spells over these areas are higher than over the other regions during the northeast monsoon (NE). The Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test revealed that almost all of the stations located in the eastern areas of the peninsula exhibited a positive trend in the mean, variability and persistency of wet spells indices during the NE monsoon, while a negative trend was observed during the southwest monsoon (SW) in these areas. Moreover, these indices showed a positive trend, and at the same time a decreasing trend was observed in the frequency of the long wet spells in most stations located over the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia during the SW monsoon for the period of 1975 to 2004.
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.