Natural Habitats of Sabah by Flemming T. Hansen

E:\ICZM Sabah Project FILING SYSTEM\International Advisors\Flemming TH\Natural habitat\Natural Habitatsof Sabah WWW.doc

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Natural Habitats of SabahFlemming T. Hansen1

ICZM Unit

January 1999

1 Mr. Flemming Thorbjørn Hansen holds a M.Sc. in Environmental Biology and Geography and is an advanced user ofGIS, databases, organisation of environmental data, systematical analysis and description of ecological systems(primarily aquatic), effects of environmental pollutants and nutrient enrichment on single organisms and ecologicalsystems, analysis of non-point pollution from rural and urban areas, and recreative and aestetic analysis related toenvironmental management. He is a full time employee in the Department of Environmental Informatics at VKI inDenmark. Mr. Flemming Thorbjørn Hansen has been attached to the ICZM Project in Sabah for a period of threemonths starting in mid October 1998 financed by DANCED.


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1 Introduction

The importance of the classification and mapping of natural habitats of Sabah has beenemphasized in the Sabah Coastal Zone Profile 1998. The knowledge of the condition anddistribution of natural habitats are necessary if the objective is to ensure an environmentalsustainable development. This note will present the recent progress in the classification andmapping of natural habitats in Sabah. It will provide an overview of existing data, their qualityand their use in the mapping of natural habitats. A detailed technical description on how toproduce the final habitat map from existing data is given in Appendix 1 (page 19). The work hasbeen based on a classification system proposed in the Sabah Coastal Zone Profile 1998. Howeverseveral adjustments and proposals will be considered as a result of inputs and ideas derived fromthe contributing departments and the ICZM unit. Comments on the present note from Mr.Christopher Pastakia are given in Appendix 2 page 27).

The conclusion up till now is that a reasonable amount of data exists, much of which is ofconsiderable quality, that enables the mapping of a large variety of natural habitats in wholeSabah, and particular the coastal zone. However some issues remain especially regarding the dataavailability and data sharing. No common agreement between departments has been established.Thus, it is an urgent need that these difficulties will be solved since the successfulness of thisscope relies on the contribution from all relevant departments.

Despite the scope of ICZM lies within the Coastal Zone of Sabah as defined by Task Force 1, thiswork has focused on the entire state of Sabah. This has been done since there is no reason toexclude data that already exist, and since the applicability of a habitat map exceeds the coastalzone. However, the first attempt to produce a ’complete’ habitat map should be addressed to thedistrict of Sandakan which has been chosen as a ’pilot’ area within the work of taskforce 5. Thus,apart from the existing data described here, data that needs to be acquired should focus primarilyon the Sandakan district.

Table 1 presents the classification system proposed in the Sabah Coastal Zone Profile 1998,including 6 major habitat “systems”, each divided into a number of classes and sub-classes.Appendix 3 (page 30) and Appendix 4 (page 32) present the definitions, as presented in the datadictionary, related to the major habitat “systems” and classes respectively, as described in table 1.

Since the species diversity and composition highly depends on the condition due to human and/ornatural disturbance, a condition index (1-3) is proposed to be applied to each of the habitat classesor sub-classes, where ever the data is available.

1 No or a minimum of disturbance by human activities and/or natural disasters, e.g.rainforest will be clearly stratified and mature, and show no signs of logging in the past orlarge scale forest fires, and coral reefs will be intact ( >75% hard corals alive) and notrevealing any damage. Supports a maximum variety of species characterizing the particularhabitat.

2 clearly affected by human activities and/or natural disasters, e.g. rainforest will betypical secondary forest clearly influenced by logging, large scale fires etc., reduced canopystratification, and coral reef will be clearly affected by fish bombing, siltation, storm eventsetc. but a patchy and ’sustainable’ distribution of living corals maintains (e.g. between 25 and75 % hard corals alive). Species diversity is markedly reduced and the relative proportion ofgeneralist organisms has increased.


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3 highly affected by human activities and/or natural disasters, e.g. natural vegetationwill consist of scrubs indicating recent clearings resulting from logging, fires etc., and coralreefs will be highly affected by fish bombing, siltation or storm events with no or only a fewliving corals left ( < 25 % hard corals alive ). These habitats support only a very limitedamount of species dominated by generalist organisms.

0 no information on the present condition available.

In the following an overview of the existing data are given for each of the 6 habitat systemsincluding data quality, scale, availability, definition of classes, proposals for adjustment etc.

Table 1: Sabah Coastal Habitat Classification

System Classes Sub-Class Sub-Class Sub-Class Sub-Class

Continental shelf

Islands

Rock bottom Bedrock bottom Rubble bottoms

Unconsolidated Bottom Gravel bottom Sand bottom Mud Bottom Organic bottom

Rocky Shore Bedrock shore Rubble shores

Unconsolidated Shore Gravel shore Sand shore Mud shore

Aquatic bed Agal beds Seagrass beds

Marine

Reef Coral Mollusc Worm

Channels Estuarine





Emergent Wetland Persistent (saltmarsh)

Scrub-scrub Wetland Mangrove scrub

Estuarine

Forested Wetland Mangrove forest

Channels Freshwater


Unconsolidated Bottom Gravel bottom Sand bottom Mud Bottom

Aquatic bed Algal Moss beds Vascular



Riverine

Emergent Wetland non-persistent

Rock bottom

Unconsolidated Bottom

Aquatic bed

Lacustrine

Rocky Shore


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Unconsolidated Shore


Emergent Wetland Persistent (typhaswamp)

Scrub-scrub Wetland freshwaterevergreen scrub

Palustrine

Forested Wetland freshwaterevergreen forest

Terrestrial Lowland DipterocarpForest


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2 Marine System

Table 2: Marine Habitat Classification System


Continental shelf

Islands





Aquatic bed Algae beds Seagrass beds

Marine

Reef Coral Mollusc Worm

The habitat classification of the of the marine system is based on the physical properties such asbottom and shore type, and a few very distinct type of communities such as coral reefs andseagrass beds. These classes are all related to the benthic communities (~ communities related tothe sea floor) and some additional classes may be important to consider. Data related to waterchemistry (nutrients, pollutants, productivity etc.), physical parameters (salinity, temperature,suspended material), water currents, etc. are needed to describe a few different marine habitatsrelated to the communities found in the open water zone (pelagic zone). Some high productiveopen water areas serve as feeding grounds for a number of marine mammals and commerciallyimportant fish species. Data on water quality also acts as an indicator for the present and futureconditions of the benthic communities.

A simple classification of the pelagic environment could include some or all of the followingparameters:

- 2 or 3 classes of yearly average surface temperatures from satellite images (e.g. AVHRRSPLIT satellite images). These will provide information on sheltered low water areas,stratified open water columns often nutrient limited, and areas with turbid waters with highnutrient input and thus, high productivity.

- 2 or 3 classes of yearly average pigment concentration in surface waters from satellite images(e.g. Nimbus 7 - CZCS image), providing information on areas with high planktonproductivity.

- 2 classes of yearly average salinity (ctd-measurements from ship) distinguishing betweenbrackish (estuarine) water and saline water. Brackish waters related to estuaries supportdistinct highly productive pelagic communities including a large variety of commerciallyimportant fish species.

- 3 classes of yearly average concentration of suspended materials (e.g. siltation) in the watercolumn, e.g. <5 mg/l, 5-30 mg/l and >30 mg/l. These data already exists for the west coast ofSabah (EIA) and will provide information on the light penetration inhibition in the watercolumn as well as an indirect measure of the present and future condition of the sea grass


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beds, coral reefs etc. It is possible to use satelite images (AVHRR) to estimate concentrationof suspended material (see reference 1 page 7-14 for general procedure).

- 3 classes of bathymetry intervals to locate shallow water areas and the continental shelf.These could include the 200 meters contour line to specify the continental shelf boundary anda 20-meter contour line to specify areas of shallow water. These are available as point datafrom paper maps 1:1,550,000 (China Sea, Southern Portion -Eastern Sheet). Can be acquiredfrom T&RPD or the admiralty. The latter may have more detailed information form someareas. For the west coast the bathymetry data is available as a data base file with coordinatesand depth values (//iczm/shoreline data/data/bathyxx.dbf) and can be readily displayed inArcView as a point theme. Another data source of bathymetry can be derived from 1:250,000topographic maps (Joined operation graphic, 1974) available from Dept of Survey andTopography, T&RPD and Mr. Tom Foster. These include 18 and 182-meter curves.

Depending on which data is included in a final habitat map, the resulting classes from obviousoverlaying maps (~ definitions!) should be considered carefully. Some areas may be ’consolidatedbottom’ as well as ’high primary production’ and could be put together in a combined subclass. Tomaintain the existing classification system, the information may instead be applied as a seperatecolumn (-s) as an additional information that is not necessarily shown as a distinct subclass on themap.

Only a very limited amount of data covering the marine system exists for the whole of Sabah. Theonly data available for whole Sabah is the location of coral reefs from Department of fisheriesand the location of "beaches", landform classification from dept of agriculture (1:250,000; 1975).The data on coral reefs at the moment is not up to date, but an ongoing survey recording thecondition and location of existing reefs are expected to be completed in a few years (Dept. offisheries). The 1:250,000 topographic maps (Joined operation graphic, 1974) available from Deptof Survey and Topography, T&RPD and Mr. Tom Foster provide a rough indication on thedistribution of coral reefs.

For the West Coast area however some of the data exists including type of shore, location ofseagrass beds, location and condition of coral reefs, bathymetry (depth values with coordinates),the amount of suspended material in the water (5 and 30 mg/l isolines), primary production andsalinity. These data was provided by the West Coast Regional EIA, Tom Foster, and can be foundin //iczm/shoreline data/ or acquired from Tom Foster. Data on salinity, primary production andsuspended material are based on model results.

Data on Seagrass and algae (seaweed) beds are available for some few local areas (some areas inSandakan and Darvel Bay) on the East Coast as well as data on the present condition of coralreefs.

The data on beaches is based on landform classification representing "areas with soil materialsunder marine influence". This definition includes unconsolidated shore types. There are somediscrepancies between the landform classification and the classification from EIA (West coastdata) although in general they are similar.

Data on shore type for whole Sabah can also be provided using Satellite images available fromfishery dept (Spot 20x20m and Landsat 30x30 images) making a rough distinguishing betweenconsolidated and non-consolidated shores. The existing mapping of the West Coast shore type(EIA), areas with estuarine wetlands (departments of forestry and agriculture) and groundtruething can be used to verify image classification. Also the 1:250,000 and 1:50,000 topographicmaps may provide information to distinguish between sandy shores, tidal flats and rocky shores.In 1999 new shore type data will be available for Sandakan area and perhaps for the rest of the


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East Coast of Sabah corresponding to the data already available for the west coast. The data willbe provided and monitored by the ICZM unit.

Regarding the reef classes "worm reef" and "mollusk reef" it should be considered if these arerepresented in the marine environment of Sabah. Areas with high densities of bivalves certainlyexists and are generally associated with high nutrient input, high plankton productivity, strongcurrents and shallow waters, and thus may be indirectly indicated by some of the parametersclassifying the marine pelagic environment as described above as well as the type of seafloor. Ifthese areas, or some of them, can be reckoned as mollusk reefs defined as a physical reef likestructure is questionable. The awareness of the existence of mollusk reefs has not been confirmedby the University of Sabah or the Department of Fishery.

"Worm reefs" since it has no commercial interest has not been identified by authorities ordescribed in the literature (to my knowledge). High densities of worms (mainly polychaetes) willmost often appear in soft bottom marine and estuarine areas with high input of organic material tothe sea floor. These areas are indirectly described by some of the parameters classifying themarine pelagic environment described above and information on the type of seafloor.

Some data on type of seafloor may be available from the federal Geological Department in Ipoh(Hydro-Geological office) but unfortunately a number of attempts to contact the office failed.Another source could be the oil companies Shell and Petronas but data may be confidential.


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3 Estuarine System

Table 3: Estuarine Habitat Classification System


Channels Estuarine





Emergent Wetland Persistent (salt marsh)

Scrub-scrub Wetland Mangrove scrub

Estuarine

Forested Wetland Mangrove forest

The estuarine system classification regarding bottom and shore type is identical to the marinesystem both regarding the definition and the availability of data is described under the MarineSystem.

Channels in the marine as well as in the estuarine environment comprise narrow structures withpermanent or frequently moving water. Such areas are for instance represented by narrow straitsbetween small islands and the mainland or by narrow inlets to sheltered bays or fjordscharacterized by a distinct and elevated current primarily due to tidal water movements. Theseareas provide a distinct habitat for a variety of animals including often a large quantity of filterfeeders (e.g. clams, mollusks). Data on the distribution and location of channels does not exist forSabah.

Estuarine wetlands in general are very productive areas often exceeding the productivity oflowland forests. It is especially important as nursing grounds for marine and estuarinecommercial fish species.

Maps on estuarine wetlands are available from Landform classification (agriculture dept;1:250,000; 1975), Forest classification (forestry dept; 1:50,000; aerial photographs) and LandCover mapping (Land & Survey; 1:100,000; 1997; radar satellite images). The classification fromforestry dept covers the areas within the jurisdiction of the forestry dept, which is most of theestuarine wetland areas in Sabah, and data are very detailed based on the dominance of severalclasses of species. Although data are quiet old the species classification may still apply to thepresent situation in areas, which has not been logged or exploited. However, the species zonationmay change over time at a considerable rate since the mangrove forests acts as sediment traps.This natural ’reclamation’ of land (some times as much as 100 meters seawards a year) alsochanges the salinity of the water environment that again determines the zonation of the mangrovespecies. It is therefore advisable to do some ground truething or studying recent aerialphotographs if a very detailed species-specific classification is chosen.

The Land Cover data from 1997 will provide the necessary information to update the forestclassification maps to exclude areas that has been exploited. Both the land form classification and


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the land cover maps supply data on the distribution of estuarine wetlands in state land areas.These data will not however provide information on different vegetation types.

Subclasses of Estuarine wetland can include the distinguishing between Nipah swamp andmangrove. Further classification of "mangrove" may be done on the basis of the average canopyheight characteristic of the different vegetation classes, thus distinguishing between forest andshrub mangrove (e.g. shrub mangrove defined as < 5 m canopy height). Shrub mangroverepresents either a distinct natural type of mangrove specific for areas with low freshwater inputor a regeneration state of a disturbed mangrove forest (natural/human disturbance). The mangrovespecies Arthrocnenum dominates the natural type of mangrove shrub.(2)

The present condition of estuarine habitats should be evaluated using Land Cover mapping (L&S;1:100,000; Radar Satellite images).


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4 Riverine System

Table 4: Riverine Habitat Classification System


Channels Freshwater


Unconsolidated Bottom Gravel bottom Sand bottom Mud Bottom

Aquatic bed Algal Moss beds Vascular



Riverine


The river system available at the moment as a digital format is unfortunate only a very roughmap. To improve the river mapping it is advisable to digitize rivers from other existing papermaps, for example the 1:250,000 topographic maps. This can be done very easily and rapidly.

The riverine system is primarily classified according to the physical properties of the riverbottom. Such data is not available at the moment but is highly desirable (see appendix 3 for arecommendation on how to perform a simple survey on substrate type of river bottoms).However, an indirect measure of the physical properties of the rivers exists, classifying theriverine system based on the topography that could be applied as a temporary river classification.Riverine habitats of Borneo has been classified into 4 main classes (3):

Montane streams - above 1,000 meters, cold water torrents, low species diversity,nutrient scarce environment, rare species.

Upland streams - 100 - 1000 meters, cool-water torrents, great diversity ofaquatic insects,

Lowland rivers/streams - below 100 meters, very rich fauna including importantcommercial fish species.

Freshwater tidal rivers - tidal influence, rich riparian vegetation, rich fauna, importantbreeding sites for estuarine fish.

This classification including the three former classes can be applied using the 1044 meterscontour line from PDM (Planning Development and Management) to locate montane streams. Arough distinction between lowland rivers and upland streams can be performed using the coastalzone inland boundary (200 feet ~ 66 m). It may however be more adequate to the 200 feetcontour lines from topographic maps (1:250,000) available from Department of Survey andTopography, T&RPD and Tom Foster using the 400 feet contour line instead. An indicator of theextension of freshwater tidal rivers can be retrieved by classifying the river parts within the tidalswamps as tidal rivers (Mangrove forest mapping, Landform mapping). To ensure that most ofthe existing tidal rivers are included in the mapping the oldest available data on tidal swampsshould be included for this purpose so that a minimum of tidal rivers will be excluded from theclassification due to recent exploitation and destruction of tidal swamps.


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An alternative way of classifying the river system is to use the existing data from Landformmapping (Dept of Agriculture; 1:50,000) and to classify the rivers system depending on theaverage slope of the surrounding land. It is necessary however to consider how the landformclassification definitions suite the river classification described above before choosing thisapproach. The landform mapping includes ‘meander belts’ which may represent a distinctriverine habitat as well.

No data are available of the distribution of riverine aquatic beds. It is questionable if ‘moss beds’exists as a distinct habitat in Sabah. The presence of weed beds however in river swamps andriver lakes is well documented for Indonesian Borneo (3). Macro algae often contributesignificantly to the primary production in the upland rivers of Borneo, but the existence anddistribution of algae beds in the rivers of Sabah needs to be confirmed.

Riverine wetlands mainly comprise areas frequently, though not persistently, flooded by riverwater. Information on riverine wetlands is to some extend available covering the whole of Sabahfrom the landform classification (dept of agriculture; 1:50,000). This classification includes floodplains as well as meander belts that represent areas that have been affected by frequent flooding.These areas probably include areas with a geological history of frequent flooding which do notnecessarily persist today. Thus, ground truething is advisable to monitor the actual distributionand location of this habitat. As a supplement the maps provided by DID covering flood proneareas of Sabah can be used as a rough guideline to locate riverine wetlands.

The present condition of riverine habitats is highly determined by the amount of suspendedmaterial, e.g. siltation, in the river water as well as the physical regulation of the river channel.Some data on siltation is available from a number of sampling stations and presented in the‘Water resources master plan, Negeri Sabah’ from certain localities. These data describe 3 classesthat can be used as a condition index.

<25 mg/l (~ condition index 1)

between 25 and 100 mg/l (~ condition index 2)

>100 mg/l (~ condition index 3)

Model output data on suspended material in the river mouth of some major rivers on he westcoast is available from the west coast EIA (Tom Foster) as well.

Riverine non-persistent wetlands are generally covered with forest and the present condition ofthese areas can be acquired from Dept of Forestry (Forest classification), Dept of Agriculture(LU) and Dept of Land & Survey (Land cover). For more details on these maps see TerrestrialSystem.

A distinct type of riverine habitats in Borneo is the 'Black water streams' which are streamsdraining peat swamps and heath forests and is characterised by acidic water and support a numberspecies specially adapted to this particular environment, including surface breading fish. Streamswithin and deriving from peat swamps and heath forest can be classified as potential black waterstreams as long as more precise data is not available.


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5 Lacustrine System

According to the definition of lacustrine systems it includes freshwater habitats with a depth ofmore than 2 meters e.g. ponds, dammed river channels etc. This is a precise definition and caneasily be applied to conditions in Sabah. There is no data on the existence of such habitats inSabah. However, there might be some minor lacustrine habitats in especially the meander beltsincluding enclosed river channels isolated from the meandering river as well as some minor lakeswithin the rivers system e.g. the Oxbow lake in Sukau, Sandakan district.


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6 Palustrine System

Table 5: Palustrine Habitat Classification System


Emergent Wetland Persistent (typhaswamp)

Scrub-scrub Wetland Freshwater evergreenscrub

Palustrine

Forested Wetland Freshwater evergreenforest

The palustrine system includes all non-tidal wetlands and deepwater habitats dominated by acover (more than 30%) of trees, shrubs, emergent, mosses or lichens; and similar tidal wetlandswhere the haline salinity is less than 0.5%. The system has the following characteristics: (i) areasof less than 8 ha (20 acres); (ii) wave-formed unconsolidated shores or bedrock are lacking; (iii)the deepest depth at low water is less than 2 m (6.6’); and (iv) haline salinity is less than 0.5%." --- It is questionable if this definition suites the palustrine freshwater habitats of Sabah, and it isadvisable to consider a modification, especially the definition on size (<8 ha) since peat swamps(which I reckon as palustrine?) in Sabah covers some large areas.

Data on freshwater habitats apart from the riverine and lacustrine wetlands is available from theland form classification that includes the distribution of "freshwater swamps/peat swamps" inSabah (1:50,000). The exact definition of this landform class needs to be confirmed. Swamps onBorneo in general are covered by forest and the state of the forest, as for the terrestrialenvironment, can be determined by using the recent data on areas damaged by fires ( WWF,1998, 1:500,000), land use data (agriculture, 1991, 1:50,000) and land cover data (land andsurvey, 1997, 1:100,000).

For the major peat swamp area close to Kuala Penyu, the largest in Sabah, which was damagedseverely by the fires in 1997-98 detailed studies of the state of the peat swamp forest may exist.


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7 Terrestrial System

The habitat classification system in Table 1 (page 3) is based on a proven wetland classificationsystem. Thus, for the terrestrial system there has been no distinction between different habitatclasses. Here we propose a number of habitat classes which has been described thoroughly in“The ecology of Kalimantan” by MacKinnon a.o and which are suitable for Sabah. Thisclassification comprise the following classes (3):

1) Lowland Rainforest

2) Lower montane Rainforest

3) Upper montane Rainforest

4) Heath forest (kerangas)

5) Iron wood forest

6) Forest on ultra basic rocks

7) Limestone habitats

Except for the two classes “heath forest” and “iron wood forest”, data describing these differentterrestrial habitats actually exists when combining data from several sources, including recentdata on the condition of the natural vegetation. Data on the distribution of forested areas (ornatural vegetation) is available from agricultural departments land use classification (1991;1:50,000; based on aerial photographs), Land & Survey Department’s land cover mapping (1997;1:100,000; based on radar satellite images) and Forestry Department’s forest classification(1:50,000). All these data together provides an almost complete, updated and quiet detailedmapping of the distribution of areas with natural vegetation within the terrestrial and semiterrestrial environment of Sabah. However some problems have to be solved. The land cover datafrom Land & Survey Department has to be provided and the land use data from Department ofAgriculture has to updated due to some classification errors. Another problem to be aware of isthe difference in the mapping scales of the land use maps and the land cover maps. This meansthat data on very small forest/vegetation fragments in the land use maps cannot be updated usingthe land cover maps and thus may give an incorrect impression of the present situation.

To distinguish between different habitat types several approaches is possible. The classificationof forested areas can be derived from the land use mapping which classifies the areas with naturalvegetation into 3 groups, prim/secondary forest, scrub forests and unspecified clearings. Areaswith primary forest can be extracted using the data on the location of virgin jungle reserves,protected areas and possibly parks, available from department of forestry. Thus, it is possible todistinguish between 4 stages of areas with natural vegetation depending on the influence byhuman/natural activities such as logging, fires etc. This is extremely valuable as an index of thepresent conditions of the habitats. In addition, satellite data (based on spot images) showing areasdamaged by forest fires in 1997-1998 (Burned scares maps BSM) is available from WWF inKota Kinabalu (1:500,000) for the whole Sabah (WWF has to be contacted before the BMS datais applied). All these data together comprise a very up to date information on the condition anddistribution of existing areas with natural vegetation.

According to (3) the rainforests for Borneo can be classified into lowland (0-800 m), lowermontane (800-1500m) and upper montane rainforest (>1500 m). The contour lines available from


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PDM (Planning Development and Management ) can be applied. The elevation intervals are 1000feet and the 3 classes of rainforest can be defined, approximately as described above, as forest inthe elevation intervals 0-2000 (696 m) feet, 2000 – 4000 (1396 m) feet, and above 4000 feet. Thisis a very rough estimate of the distribution and location of the 3 different classes of forest.However, the transition from one class to the next is theoretical and is difficult, if not impossible,to locate. Thus, a more accurate contour map will not necessarily improve this classification. Theclassification will, however, be very useful to provide an indication on where to expect significantdifferences in the type of habitat.

Certain conditions related to the soil material such as soils derived from ultra basic rocks orlimestone bedrocks provide the basis for very distinct types of forest habitats (3). The soilclassification of Sabah available from department of agriculture (1:250,000; 1975) distinguishesbetween different parent materials, i.e. the geological formations, including limestone and ultrabasic rocks. This classification can be applied to delimit forested areas on limestone or ultra basicrocks from other habitat types.

The character of forests on ultra basic rocks is highly variable ranging from quiet species diversedipterocarp forests to less species diverse forests similar to the structure and physiognomy ofheath forests (3). In Kinabalu Park above 2400 meters the forest on ultra basic rocks show adramatic decrease in canopy height and a very low species diversity (3).

Forests on limestone bedrocks support high species diversity, especially among plants, and oftenpresents a high level of plant, and probably invertebrate, endemism. Apart from unique plant andanimal communities, limestone bedrocks in some cases develop cave systems, which supportsunique faunal communities including endemic invertebrates (3). The best source of thedistribution of caves in Sabah may be Sabah Museum since caves most often providearcheological evidences of human history.

Heath forests or Kerangas are found on soils derived form siliceous parent materials. These soilsare highly acidic, commonly coarsely textured and free-draining (3) resulting in a limited capacityto store and supply nutrients. In Sabah heath forest is often found on dip slopes in hilly country,where sandstone beds lie close to and parallel to the surface (see ref 3 for original reference). Theforest has a low uniform single layered canopy formed by the crowns of large saplings and smallpoles. This forest type can be readily identified by because of its pale tone and fine texture usingaerial photographs. Known canopy heights can vary greatly between ca. 5 –40 meters. Heathforest supports less species than the lowland dipterocarp forest but can still be regarded as aspecies rich habitat although species diversity may vary greatly. Production is generally low. Theregeneration of cleared heath forest has not been documented although some geological recordsmay indicate that regeneration can occur but over a very long period of time. Some data may existin the Dept of Forestry.

Data on iron wood forest does not exist but does represent a distinct ecological habitat in thespecies diverse lowland rainforest.

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Class Sub-class Data provider Table/Column Cond Definition

Primary forest Forestry Fr/Virgin jungle reserveand parks

1 Dipterocarp forest in lowland areas (0 – 696 meters above sea level) with no or a minimum ofdisturbance by human activities. Has not been logged. High species diversity, high productivity,stratified canopy, typical canopy height 25-45 m (emergents up to 65 m).

Agriculture Land Use / Secondaryforest

Land & Surv. Land Cover/?

Secondaryforest

Forestry Fr/Commercial forest

2 Dipterocarp forest in lowland areas (0 – 696 meters above sea level) clearly disturbed by humanactivities such as logging. Intermediate species diversity, high productivity, reduced canopystratification, reduced canopy height.

1) Lowlandrainforest*

Othervegetation

Agriculture Land Use / scrub forest -unspecified clearings

3 Recently cleared (logging, fires etc.) dipterocarp forest in lowland areas (0 – 696 meters abovesea level), with vegetation less than 5 meters, low species diversity. Prodtivity ???.

Primary Forestry Fr/Virgin jungle reserveand parks

1 Dipterocarp, oak and/or chestnut forest in lower montane areas (696-1392 meters above sealevel) with no or a minimum of disturbance by human activities. Has not been logged. Highspecies diversity, high productivity, stratified canopy. Typical canopy height 15-33 m(emergents up to 45 m).

Agriculture Land Use / Secondaryforest

Land & Survey Land Cover/?

Secondary


2 Dipterocarp, oak and/or chestnut forest in lowland montane areas (696-1392 meters above sealevel) clearly disturbed by human activities such as logging. Reduced species diversity, highproductivity, reduced canopy stratificationc, reduced canopy height.


2) Lowermontanerainforest*

Othervegetation

WWF WWF / fire scars

3 Recently cleared (logging, fires etc.) dipterocarp, oak and/or chestnut forest in lower montaneareas (696 - 1396 meters above sea level), with vegetation less than 5 meters, low speciesdiversity. Prodtivity ???.

3) Uppermontanerainforest

Primary Forestry Fr/Virgin jungle reserveand parks

1 Includes Ericaceous forest as well as sub alpine vegetation in upper montane areas (>1392meters above sea level) with no or a minimum of disturbance by human activities. Has not beenlogged. Typical canopy height between 1.5 - 18 m (emergents 15 -26 m).


Class Sub-class Data provider Table/Column Cond Definition


Land & Survey Land Cover/?

Secondary


2 Includes Ericaceous forest as well as sub alpine vegetation in upper montane areas (>1392meters above sea level) clearly disturbed by human activities such as logging. Reduce canopyheight.


Othervegetation

WWF WWF / fire scars

3 Recently cleared (logging, fires etc.) ericaceous forest or sub alpine vegetation in uppermontane areas (>1392 meters above sea level.

Same as for class 1 to 34) Forest onultra basicrocks

Agriculture

Soil map / ultra basicrocks (parent material)

1-3 Forests on soil derived from ultra basic rocks. Highly variable habitats ranging from speciesdiverse dipterocarp forests to less species divers forests similar in structure to heath forests.Some forests (e.g. 2400 m. on Mt. Kinabalu) with dominance of very few species of trees(Dacrydium gibbsiae, Leptospermum recurrum) and ferns. High variability in productivity,canopy height and species diversity.

Same as for class 1 to 3Limestoneforest

Agriculture

Soil map / limestone bedrock (parent material)

1-3 Forest on limestone bed rock characterized with a rich flora and a high level of plant andprobably invertebrate endemism. Can be divided into lowland, lower montane and uppermontane limestone forested similar to class 1 -3 representing different plant communities.

5) Limestonehabitats

Limestonecaves

1-3 Support unique faunal communities including endemic invertebrate species.

6) Heathforest(Kerangas)

?? ?? 1-3 Forest found on soils derived from siliceous parent materials, highly acidic, commonly coarselytextured and free draining. Low species diversity, low productivity

7) Iron woodforest

?? ??

E:\ICZM Sabah Project FILING SYSTEM\International Advisors\Flemming TH\Natural habitat\NaturalHabitats of Sabah WWW.doc

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8 References

1) Janssen L.L.F. and Allewijn R., "EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing and GIS forcoastal zone management", Rijkswaterstaat Survey Department, 24-26 october 1994.(available from T&RPD)

2) Tomascik T., Mah A.J., Nontji A., Moosa M.K., "The Ecology of the Indonesian Seas- Part I & II:", The Ecology of Indonesia Series Volume VII & VIII, Periplus Edition,Singapore, 1997

3) MacKinnon K., Hatta G., Halim H., Mangalik A., "The ecology of Kalimantan -Indonesian Borneo", The Ecology of Indonesia Series Volume III , Periplus Edition,Singapore, 1997

4) "Water Resources Master Plan, Negeri Sabah", 1994.


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Appendix 1: GIS procedures using ArcView 3.0a

The data availability described in the previous enables the mapping of a number of naturalhabitats of Sabah. These will be listed below. Numbers in brackets indicate the conditionindex if available. A * indicate that the data only exist for some areas in Sabah. Data based onland use data, especially the condition index data for the terrestrial habitats, will cover mostparts of Sabah and the coastal zone except a few minor areas.

Marine System

Continental shelfIslandsCoral Reefs (1-3*)Sandy shores

BathymetryMuddy shores*Rocky shores*

Estuarine System

Sandy shoresMuddy shores ~ tidal flatsRocky shores(Mangrove scrub)Mangrove forestNipah swamp*Unspecified Estuarine wetland

Riverine system

Montane streamsUpland streamsLowland rivers/streamsFreshwater tidal rivers’Black water’ riversRiverine wetland (~ flood plains and meander belts)(1-3)

Palustrine system

Peat swamp forest / freshwater swamps (1-3)

Terrestrial system

Lowland rainforest (1-3)Lower montane rainforest (1-3)Upper montane rainforest (1-3)Forest on ultra basic rocks (1-3)Limestone forest (1-3)Limestone caves


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Customizing ArcView project

The complete habitat map will consist of a number of different themes both polygon themesas well as polyline and point themes. Polygons, lines and point cannot be merged together inone theme, so the habitat map has to be prepared in a view consisting of several themes.

Several GIS procedures have to be done to create and extract data. This includes the use of anumber of avenue scripts. To ease the working procedures the ArcView project should first becustomized creating a new menu named for example ’Special tools’ that refers to the differentavenue scripts.

Before customizing the project load the avenue scripts by opening the "script" window andclick on "new". Then select "load text file" from the "script" menu and select a file from the/coastal zone/text/avenue scripts/favorites and activate the "compile"-button on the top of thescreen. Rename the script name from "script1" to a name representing the function of thescript, for example "intersect themes". Choose "new" in the script window and load a newavenue script. The scripts used are:

Cvtplply (converts line to polygon)Expclean (clean poly line)Genfeat (generalizes features)Clipthm (clip theme with theme)Intrsect (intersect themes)Mrgthems (merges themes)

Customizing your ArcView project is done by choosing "customize" in the "project" - menu.Choose "new menu" and double click on "label" in the table below to name the new menu"special tools". Click on "new item" to create a new menu item and double click on the"label" to name the new item corresponding to the desired avenue script, for example"intersect" or "make buffer". Double click on "click" and select the desired avenue script fromthe list. Repeat the "new item" procedure for each script. Close the customizing window. Nowthe menu is visible and by clicking on each of the items each script can be activated.

The attribute tables

Several themes will be made producing the habitat map. All attribute tables have to beidentical, i.e. having the same number of fields ( ~ columns), the same field definition (~string 16, number 5, etc.) and field names. Fields are added to a new or existing table usingthe "add field" from the "edit" menu. All tables should have the following fields:

Shape - this field is automatically generatedh_class (string, 20) - habitat class name e.g. ’upland river’h_subclass (string, 20) - habitat sub-class name e.g. ‘rock bottom’condition (number, 4) - 1, 2, 3 or 0.name (string, 20) - name of river if availableremarks (string, 30) - any important remarks

'Field type' and 'Field width' has to be specified for each field as given in the brackets.

Marine system

Classifying the marine system

The marine system including the estuarine areas can be defined as in the Sabah Coastal ZoneProfile, i.e. the marine area within the EEZ-boundary and the coast line. This file has been


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prepared and can be found in //coastal zone/gis/sabah/natural habitats/’ named ‘Marinehabitats’ and includes islands and the sea area. Sea area is represented by 1 polygon. Furtherclassification is needed.

Coral reefs

Open //iczm/shoreline data/maine themes/corals.shp’ and //iczm/fisheries/corals.shp.

These themes has to be put together with the ‘Marine habitats’ theme using the followingprocedure:

Make a copy of each theme using ‘convert to shape file’ named ‘fish_coral’ and ‘shore_coral’and prepare the attribute tables as described above. For the ‘shore_coral’ however, don’tdelete the fields ‘live_coral’ and ‘dead_coral’ and ‘location’.

Open attribute tables for each theme, select all, and click on the field ‘h_class’ in the table.Use ‘calculate’ from the ‘theme’ menu and write the text “coral reef” in the white text box.Remember citation marks.

For the ‘shore_coral’ apply a condition index (1-3):

1: >75 % live hard corals2: 25 – 75 % live hard corals3: < 25 % live hard corals

‘theme’ menu and choose (~double click) on the field ‘location’ in The %-numbers iscalculated from the 2 fields ‘live_coral’ and ‘dead_coral’. Add a new field “percent” anddefine as 'number, 4' and use ‘calculate’ to calculate the %-number with the equation:100*([live_coral]/([live_coral]+[dead_coral]))

Use ‘query’ from the ‘theme’-menu to select ‘percent’>75. Click on the ‘condition’ field,click on ‘calculate’ from the ‘theme’ menu, and add the number 1 in the white text box. 1 isnow added to the selected records. Now select ‘percent’<75 OR ‘percent’>25 and repeat theprocedure adding a 2 to the white text box. Finally select ‘percent’<25 and repeat theprocedure and add 3 to the white text box. Now a condition index has been applied. Delete thefields ‘dead_coral’ and ‘live_coral’. Update the field ‘name’ with the names of coral reefsfrom the field ‘location’ by clicking on the field ‘name’ in the table, click on ‘calculate’ in thethe list and press OK. Delete the field ‘location’. Save.

1. Make a copy of the two themes named ‘fc_copy’ and ‘sc_copy’2. Make each copied theme editable, select all, and union all polygons3. Merge ‘sc_copy’ and ‘fc_copy’ to a new theme ‘sc_fc’. It is important to merge the

two themes in the given order.4. Make ‘sc_fc’ editable, select, substract and save.5. Select ‘condition’=0 using a query to extract fishery data not within the data from

shoreline, ‘convert to shape file’ and name the file ‘fc_temp’.6. ‘Intersect’ the file ‘fc_temp’ with ‘fish_coral’ to create a new file ‘fc_split’.7. Now ‘merge ‘sc_fc’ with ‘marine habitats’ in a new file ‘temp1’8. Make ‘temp1’ editable, select all, substract and save.

Now the coral reefs have to be split into unique polygons.

1) ‘Intersect’ the file ‘them1’ with ‘shore_coral’ to generate ‘temp2’

2) ‘Intersect’ the file ‘them2’ with the ‘fc_split’ to generate ‘marine habitats_new’

3) Now the table has to be edited to delete columns from the intersection themes. Makesure the ‘condition’ field to be kept in the final table is updated with the values from the


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‘condition’ field originating from the ‘shore_coral’ theme. Update by clicking on the fieldname to be updated in the table, click on ‘calculate’, choose (~ double click) on the field‘condition’ from the list that contains the conditions values, and press OK. Also updatethe field ‘name’ that should be kept in the final table with the corresponding field ‘name’containing names of some of the coral reefs.

4) Save ‘marine habitat_new’ as ‘marine habitat’ to be the new table.

When data on bottom substrate, sea grass beds, primary production etc. is available, the sameprocedure has to be applied. It is important to ensure that the addition of new polygons orthemes to an existing theme must be performed so that each polygon in the end is independentand not unionised. Each polygon must be represented by a unique record in the attribute tablemaking it possible to add data to each polygon related to condition, name, subclass etc.

To locate the Continental shelf boundary bathymetry data must be digitized to cover thewhole of Sabah. Using a digitizing table this will not be very labor intensive. Use the rough1:1,550,000 sea map available at T&RPD and digitize the points and add the valuescorresponding to the points. For the west coast these data already exists in the file//iczm/shoreline data/data/bathyxx.dbf. This file can be viewed in ArcView by choosing the'table' window in the ArcView project. Click 'Add' and open the file. Now open a new 'View'and click on 'add event theme' from the 'view' menu. Pick the table from the list and select'N1' as 'x-field' and 'N2' as 'y-field'.

Estuarine system

The estuarine open water

To distinguish between estuarine and marine bottom, bed and open water habitats data onsalinity is needed although this is not available at the moment. When available marine coastalareas with a lowered salt content should be classified as estuarine areas. Classification shouldbe added to file ‘Marine habitats’ and ‘class’ should be named for example ‘estuarineconsolidated bottom’ and 'marine consolidated bottom'.

The esturarine wetlands

The estuarine wetlands, mainly mangrove, exceeds inland across the coastal water, andtherefore cannot be classified within the table ‘Marine habitats’.

Open the table //iczm/forest/mangrove_type. Save a new copy as “Estuarine wetland habitats”using ‘convert to shape file’. Add the fields described above in “The attribute tables”. Deleteall other fields except ‘mgtype’.

Select ‘mgtype’=2 OR ‘mgtype’=8 using a query to select Nipah swamp. Open the table.Click on the ‘mgtype’ field, use ‘calculate’ from the ‘field’ menu and write the text “nipahswamp” in the white text box. Selected fields are now named “nipah swamp”. Save selectedrecords using ‘convert to shape file’ and name I “Nipah”. Click on the ‘switch selection’-button and repeat the procedure but with the text “mangrove forest” and name the new file“Mgr”.

Open ‘//coastal zone/gis/sabah/landform/tidal swamps_landform.shp’ and save a copy using‘convert to shape file’ and name it “unsp”. Delete all fields in the attribute table except‘shape’ and add the fields as described above. Select all fields and add the text “Unspecifiedmangrove” to the field ‘habitat class’ using ‘calculate’ command.

Now the 3 maps (nipah, mgr, unspec_mgr) have to be put together in 1. Since the mapsoverlap the following procedure must be followed to exclude overlaps.


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1) Make a copy of each of the 3 themes named nipah_c, mgr_c and unsp_c.2) For each copied theme select all and ‘union’ all polygons.3) Merge ‘nipah_c’ and ‘unsp_c’ to a new file ‘nipah+unsp’4) Make ‘nipah+unsp’ editable, select all, ‘substract’ polygons and save5) Merge ‘mgr’ and ‘nipah+unsp’ to a new file ‘mnu’6) Make ‘mnu’ editable, select ‘mangrove forest’ and ‘unspecified mangrove’ from the

‘habitat class’ field, substract polygons and save.7) To split unionized polygons use ‘intersect’ command to intersect ‘mnu’ with ‘nipah’ to

make a new theme ‘temp1’. Then intersect ‘temp1’ with ‘Mgr’ to make a new theme‘temp2’.

8) Open the table of ‘temp2’ and delete columns added from ‘mgr’ and ‘nipah’ during the‘intersect’ procedure. Make sure the ‘habitat class’ field include the 3 habitat classes.

When available the Land Cover map from Land & Survey Department should be used toupdate the ‘Estuarine wetland habitats’ map, to exclude recent exploited areas as well asapplying a condition index depending on the condition of the forest cover.

Riverine system

River system

The river system available from dept of forestry is only including major rivers and isincomplete. A more complete river map can be digitized from 1:500,000 maps available fromT&RPD. This shouldn’t take more than a day. If the existing river system map from forestryis applied, select "river-id" = 610000 and "convert to shape file". This excludes the includedcoast line.

The attribute table related to the ArcView river shape file should be prepared or modified asdescribed earlier. Names of some of the rivers are given in the forestry river file in the field‘name’.

Lowland, upland and montane rivers

Converting contour lines into polygons

Create a polygon representing the >1044 meter above sea level by opening the AutoCAD file“//iczm/basemaps/contour.dxf”. Remember to activate the “CadReader” extension in theproject menu “extensions” in the “file”-menu. Query for “layer”=1044M and ‘convert toshape file’. To transform contour lines into polygons use “convert line to polygon” from thenew menu after making the theme active. You will be asked if you want “to force closure”.This converts all lines to polygons but often the created polygons are wrong which will bevery obviously indicated by long strait lines. Therefor, if the result is not acceptable edit theline theme and make sure that the poly lines are properly snapped2 together and try to do theconversion again. If the result is still not acceptable after several approaches, it might help torun the script “generalize features” which delete small dangling notes ( small line segments‘sticking’ out). You will have specify maximum length of notes to be deleted. This procedurewill reduce the quality of data so take care. Name the resulting file “cont1044poly.shp”. Adda new field to “cont1044poly.shp” called “elevation” and give all the records the same value,for example “1044”. Save the file.

2 To enable snapping click on the ’properties’-command in the ’theme’-menu. Click on ’editing’ and mark the field’general snapping’. Set snapping tolerance to for example 200 meters but if the snapping result is not satisfactoryenter a smaller tolerance.


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Classifying lowland, upland and montane rivers

From the ’//iczm/iczm_general/ICZM2’ polygon shape file use a query to select ’layer’ =’border’ and ’layer’ = ’away’ representing 0-66 and >66 meters above sea level and ’convert toshape file’. The resulting polygon file (overlay theme) is used to ’intersect’ the river shape file(intersect theme) to create a new line theme ‘temp river 1’. Intersect ‘temp river 1” with‘cont1044poly” to create a new line theme ‘River habitat’.

Now it is time to reclassify the ‘River habitat’. Make sure the table is editable. Open table of‘River habitat’ and make a query to select ‘border’ from the ‘layer’ – field. Use ‘Calculate’and select the field “habitat” from the list and write “Lowland river” in the white text box, -citation marks are necessary. Now the selected rivers (between 0 and 66 meters above sealevel) will get the habitat class “lowland river”. Make a new query for ‘layer’=’away’ andrepeat the procedure using the habitat class name “Upland river”. Make a third query for‘elevation’=’1044” and repeat the procedure using the habitat class name “Montane river”.

After completion delete all field (~ columns) except the 6 fields mentioned above.

Tidal rivers and blackwater streams

Classifying tidal rivers

Open a new view. Open ‘River habitat’ theme, ‘//iczm/forest/mangrove_type.shp’ and‘//coastal zone/gis/sabah/natural habitats/tidal swamps_landform.shp’. Make ‘river habitat’editable and select manually river poly line located within the mangroves/tidal swamps. Openthe attribute table and add the text “Tidal river” to the selected records using ‘calculate’ fromthe ‘field’-menu. Select the field ‘habitat class’ and write “tidal river” in the white text box.

Alternatively, open the ‘mangrove habitat’ map (see below) and ‘select all’. Make the ‘Riverhabitat’ active. Use the ‘select by theme…’ command in the ‘theme’ –menu. Choose‘intersect’ and ‘mangrove habitat’ in the dialog box. This will select all river lines within themangrove polygons including lines which begins within the polygone but proceeds outsidethe mangrove areas. To avoid this error, it may be necessary to edit the ‘River habitat’ themeby ‘splitting’ lines either manually where mangrove polygons intersect the river lines or byusing the ‘intersect’ command. Using the ‘intersect command’ it will be necessary to edit thenew intersecting theme by deleting the fields which have been added to the table.

Classifying black water streams

The same procedure as for ‘tidal rivers’ can be applied. The ‘peat swamp’ theme (see underpalustrine system below) is used instead of the ‘tidal swamps’ themes.

River water condition

Condition index can be applied for some rivers. Data from ‘Water resources master plan,Negeri Sabah 1994’ show a map with 3 classes of suspended matter {high (>100 mg/l),medium (25-100 mg/l), low (<25 mg/l)} in river water at several station. A roughclassification can be applied to some river systems assuming that the suspended materialconcentration at a station is representative for the river all the way down stream to the sea orto the next station that indicate a different suspended material level. If no data exist of acertain part of the river leave a ‘0’. The 1-3 condition index represents low-high suspendedmaterial concentration.

Riverine wetlands

Classifying floodplains and meander belts


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Open the file ‘//coastal zone/gis/sabah/landforms/floodplains_landform.shp’. Edit the attributetable so that it has the same fields (~ columns) as for the ‘River habtitat’ and rename it to‘Floodplain’ by using the ‘convert to shape file’ - command. Select all and apply the name'Riverine wetland' to the Column 'Habitat class'. Apply the name 'Floodplain' to the column'Habitat sub-class'.

Open the file ‘//coastal zone/gis/sabah/landforms/meander belts.shp’. Edit the attribute tableso that it has the same fields (~ columns) as for the ‘River habtitat’ and rename it to ‘Meanderbelt’ by using the ‘convert to shape file’ - command. Select all and apply the name 'Riverinewetland' to the Column 'Habitat class'. Apply the name 'Meander belt' to the column 'Habitatsub-class'.

Use the command 'Merge themes' from the menu 'special tools' and select 'floodplain habitat'from the list, click OK and select 'meander belt habitat' from the list, click OK. Then click'Cancel' and name the output file 'Meander&floodplain habitat'. The 2 themes are then mergedtogether in one. If any problems occur make sure the two themes to merge have identicalattribute tables including number of fields, name of fields and definition of fields (string 16,number 10 etc.). Number of records does not have to match.

Condition index 1-3 is added depending on the state of the forest/vegetation cover. 'Intersect'the 'Meander&Floodplain habitat'' with the 'Terrestrial habitat' map (see below) which alreadyinclude a condition index for the forest cover. Name the new theme 'Riverine wetland habitat'.Open its attribute table and 'start editing'.

Delete fields derived from the 'terrestrial habitat' map except the field 'condition index' whichcontains values 1, 2, 3 or 0. Now the these values have to be copied to the empty 'condition'field. Click on the field name of the field that has to contain the condition index, click on'calculate' from the 'field' menu, select the 'condition' field with the index values from the list,click OK and condition indexes have been copied to the empty 'condition' field. Delete thefield holding the original index values. Any remarks from any of the 2 'remarks' fields shouldbe put together in one. Some of the riverine wetlands will be classified as ‘wetlands’ in theland use maps, and will not provide a condition index. So those areas will have a conditionindex ‘0’ indication no data on condition available.

Terrestrial System

The following maps are needed:

Frsa (field ‘Frlab’= 1, 6 and 7 ~ protection areas, virgin jungle reserves and parks)

LU_forest (field ‘discript’=6/7C, 6/7S, 7C, 7C/6, 7F, 7FC, 7S, 7S/6)

Land Cover (veg_type='natural vegetation')

Cont696poly

Cont1396poly

Limestone (Soilmap: par_materi=3)

Ultrabasic rocks (Soilmap:par_materi=7)

Burned scars map (BSM from WWF - needs to be converted to a vector map andgeoreferenced)

Before this mapping can be properly generated the land use map needs to be updated for someclassification errors, the land cover maps have to be provided and the Burned scars imagemap has to be given the correct geographical coordinates and transformed to a vector map.


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1) Select the land cover map class ’natural vegetation’ using a query and ’convert to shapefile’ creating a new file "lc_forest" and prepare the attribute table as described above butkeep the field ’Veg_name’.

2) Select the land use classes corresponding to natural vegetation (field ‘discript’=6/7C,6/7S, 7C, 7C/6, 7F, 7FC, 7S, 7S/6) using a query and 'convert to shape file' creating a newfile "lu_forest". Prepare the attribute tabel as described above but keep the field 'discript'.

3) For 'lu_forest' add the condition index '2' to the field 'condition' for the discript-class '7F'and apply the condition index '3' for the discript-class 7FC, 7S, 7S/6, 6/7C, 6/7S, 7C,7C/6. Add the condition index by selecting the discript-classes using a query, click on thefield name of the 'condition' field in the table, click on calculate' in the field-menu andwrite the condition index in the white text box.

4) For 'lc_forest' add the condition index '2' to the field 'condition' for the veg_name-classes'swamp forest', 'wetland forest' and 'dry land forest'. Add the index '3' to

5) the field 'condition' for the 'veg_name' classes 'lalang' and 'cleared land'. Add conditionindex as described for 'lu_forest'.

6) Make a copy of each theme and name them "lc_c" and "lu_c" and delete the fields'discript' and 'veg_name'.


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Appendix 2: Additional notes from ChristopherPastakia

This note is compiled as a clarification to the concepts provided by Mr. Flemming Hansenin his note: Natural habitats of Sabah, Dec. 1998.

There are only three levels in the present classification system for Sabah, as shown in Figure1 (below). The sub-classes in the present system all have the same ranking, and there is nolimit placed on the number of Classes or Sub-Classes, provided each can be uniquely defined.

Figure 1: Present classification hierarchy

The refinement of the sub-classes by a condition value can be incorporated if the Condition isplaced as an index below each sub-class (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Present classification hierarchy, adding Condition index


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The Classification is based on the hydro-morphology of the habitat defined. Maintaining thisbase for habitat definition is critical for the expansion of the classification to cover pelagicand terrestrial ecosystems.

Hydro-morphological classification means the consideration of the aquatic environment, aswell as the bottom structure over which the water is found. Both contribute to the ecosystemtherein, and neither can be neglected.

Where the aquatic environment is the same throughout a Class (eg: the Pelagic Class) the sub-classes may be based on the bottom structure only.

In some cases habitats will not be found, or have not yet been identified as falling intoparticular sub-classes. An example of this is the sub-class "worm reefs". Some polychaeteworms do form casts that form reefs in some waters. If these reefs do not exist in Sabah, thenthey can be omitted from the classification at this time. If ever found in the future they can beproperly re-incorporated. This will apply as a principle to all sub-classes.

Within the estuarine system ground truthing of mangrove swamps might well be necessary (itis certainly desirable). If definitions are developed for the separation of mangrove forest,scrub and Nipah, then the definitions for these sub-classes must be made and clearly show thedistinctions between them.

The definition of "channels" in the estuarine class would be the same as for "channels" in theriverine system. Here the distinction between the systems would be primarily on salinity.

I am very concerned about the suggestions on riverine habitats to change this classification, asthese suggested classes/sub-classes are not based on hydromorphology. The habitats of riversare very dependent on the substrate (indeed in Europe this was suggested as a universal formof river classification way back in the late 1970’s). The fact that knowledge of the riverbottoms does not exist, cannot justify fitting a classification to data, rather than data to aclassification. I would suggest that what is needed here is work to determine the bottoms ofthe river stretches. Although a large task in terms of the geographic scope, this can be done ina very elementary way. I suggest using a traditional lead line, with a tallow-filled dimple,which will pick up some of the substrate when the lead lands on the bottom. This (inSandakan) could be another project under the qualitative monitoring programme.

Please note that ’blackwater streams’ are not unique to Borneo. They have been far morestudied and detailed in Africa and South America, and are natural systems where coastal peatswamps occur. From my personal experience I would suggest that the rivers may be placed ina separate sub-class, up to the point where they lose acidity and clarity (the two seem to gotogether). Peat swamps can be either forms of Emergent Wetland or Scrub-scrub Wetland,depending on the hydraulic drainage regime of the area.

Lacustrine derives from the Latin lacus meaning lake or pond, and palustrine from the Latinpalus: a marsh. I suggest that these two systems be re-defined so that Lacustrine covers allpermanent, deep (more than 2 metres),non-flowing, bodies of freshwater (including reservoirsand ponds); and Palustrine covering all permanent or seasonally inundated, shallow (less than2 m), non-flowing, bodies of freshwater. I agree that there is then no need to worry about thesurface area of the water body. Again, in my experience the habitat is better defined by depththan by area.

I fully agree with using the classification for the Terrestrial system from the ’Ecology ofKalimantan’. Here the hydrology would be freshwater, so the morphology becomes thedistinguishing factor, and this is done in this particular classification. Again, beware trying to


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fit the classification to data. If the data is needed, it can be collected over time, and theclassification will still be valid (even with a number of ’gaps’ at present).


Appendix 3: Definitions of major ecosystems

System Definition

Marine The marine system consists of the ocean overlying the continental shelf and the associated shores, including the splashzone, which are exposed to the action of tides, waves and currents. Salinities are in excess of 30%, except in marine areasinfluenced by the flows from estuary mouths. The plants and animals that exist in the marine system are affected by thefollowing main factors; (i) the degree of exposure to wave action; (ii) the nature of the substrate; (iii) the amplitude of thetides; and (iv) temperature (which is a function of latitude and ocean currents).

Estuarine Deepwater tidal habitats and their adjacent tidal wetlands which have access to the open ocean (if only sporadically) and areat least partly diluted by freshwater runoff. The Estuarine system encompasses estuaries and lagoons, as well as offshoreareas of continuously diluted seawater. Estuarine areas are dominated by halophytes.

Riverine The Riverine system includes all wetlands and deepwater habitats contained within a channel, with two exceptions: (i)wetlands dominated by a cover of trees, shrubs, emergents, mosses or lichens, and (ii) habitats with a haline salinity of morethan 0.5%. The floodplain that extends from the river is not considered part of the Riverine, but part of the Lacustrine orPalustrine systems.

Lacustrine The Lacustrine system includes wetlands and deepwater habitats with the following characteristics; (i) situated in atopographic depression or a dammed river channel; (ii) with less than 30% cover from trees, shrubs, emergents, mosses andlichens; (iii) more than 8 ha (20 acres) in area or, if less, the shores are of bedrock or wave-formed unconsolidatedsubstrate. Lacustrine systems have deepest depths at low water of more than 2 m (6.6’) and haline salinity is always lessthan 0.5%.

Palustrine The Palustrine system includes all non-tidal wetlands and deepwater habitats dominated by a cover (more than 30%) oftrees, shrubs, emergent, mosses or lichens; and similar tidal wetlands where the haline salinity is less than 0.5%. The systemhas the following characteristics: (i) areas of less than 8 ha (20 acres); (ii) wave-formed unconsolidated shores or bedrockare lacking; (iii) the deepest depth at low water is less than 2 m (6.6’); and (iv) haline salinity is less than 0.5%.

Terrestrial



Appendix 4: Habitat classification and definitions

System Map classi-fication

Classes Definition

M1 Continental shelf That portion of the coastal and marine land that is permanently inundated with seawater, and forms the underseaboundary strip between the land and the deep ocean.

M2 Islands A permanent land mass that is completely, surrounded by water and in no way joined to another larger land mass,characteristically small in size (i.e. not large enough to constitute a continental land mass - the exceptions beingAustralia and Antarctica). Islands include small exposed rocks, cays, and atolls.

M3a Rock bottom The bottom of wetland and deepwater habitats that is composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% ormore) and with a plant cover of usually less than 30%.

M3b UnconsolidatedBottom

Bottom of wetlands and deepwater habitats formed from unconsolidated substrates, viz.: cobbles, gravel, sand,mud or organic soils.

M4a Rocky Shore The bottom of wetland and deepwater habitats that is composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% ormore) and with a plant cover of usually less than 30%.

M4b Unconsolidated Shore Shores formed from unconsolidated substrates, viz.: cobbles, gravel, sand, mud or organic soils.

M5 Aquatic bed These are wetlands and deepwater habitats in all systems, dominated by plants that grow principally on or belowthe surface of the water for most of the growing season.

Marine

M6 Reef Reefs are ridge- or mound- like structures formed by the colonisation and growth of sedentary invertebrates, inthe marine and estuarine systems. Frequently these areas contain more dead skeletal material than living matter.Reefs may be submerged or intermittently exposed. Once permanently exposed they become atolls or cays, andsmall islets.

E1 Channels An open conduit either naturally or artificially created which periodically or permanently contains moving water.Estuarine

E1 Rock bottom The bottom of wetland and deepwater habitats that is composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% ormore) and with a plant cover of usually less than 30%.



Classes Definition

E1 UnconsolidatedBottom


E2a Rocky Shore Shores composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% or more) .

E2b Unconsolidated Shore Shores formed from unconsolidated substrates, viz.: cobbles, gravel, sand, mud or organic soils.

E3 Emergent Wetland Wetland that undergo periodic, though maybe prolonged, covering by water, and which are dominated by erect,rooted hydrophytes (but not mosses and lichens). All systems provide examples of these wetlands.

E4 Scrub-scrub Wetland Scrub-scrub wetlands include all systems except the sub-tidal areas of the marine and estuarine systems, whichare dominated by a cover of woody shrubs. These areas are often transitional areas before the development offorest.

E4 Forested Wetland Wetland characterised by a cover of forest, found in all water systems, but rarely in Marine and Lacustrine.

R1 Channels An open conduit either naturally or artificially created which periodically or permanently contains moving water.

R1 Rock bottom The bottom of wetland and deepwater habitats that is composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% ormore) and with a plant cover of usually less than 30%.

R1 UnconsolidatedBottom


R1 Aquatic bed These are wetlands and deepwater habitats in all systems, dominated by plants that grow principally on or belowthe surface of the water for most of the growing season.

R2 Rocky Shore Shores composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% or more) .

R2 Unconsolidated Shore Shores formed from unconsolidated substrates, viz.: cobbles, gravel, sand, mud or organic soils.

Riverine

R3 Emergent Wetland Wetland that undergo periodic, though maybe prolonged, covering by water, and which are dominated by erect,rooted hydrophytes (but not mosses and lichens). All systems provide examples of these wetlands.

LacustrineL Rock bottom The bottom of wetland and deepwater habitats that is composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% or

more) and with a plant cover of usually less than 30%.



Classes Definition

L UnconsolidatedBottom


L Aquatic bed These are wetlands and deepwater habitats in all systems, dominated by plants that grow principally on or belowthe surface of the water for most of the growing season.

L Rocky Shore Shores composed primarily of bedrock, boulders, stones (75% or more) .

L Unconsolidated Shore Shores formed from unconsolidated substrates, viz.: cobbles, gravel, sand, mud or organic soils.

L Emergent Wetland Wetland that undergo periodic, though maybe prolonged, covering by water, and which are dominated by erect,rooted hydrophytes (but not mosses and lichens). All systems provide examples of these wetlands.

P1 Emergent Wetland Wetland that undergo periodic, though maybe prolonged, covering by water, and which are dominated by erect,rooted hydrophytes (but not mosses and lichens). All systems provide examples of these wetlands.

P2 Scrub-scrub Wetland Scrub-scrub wetlands include all systems except the sub-tidal areas of the marine and estuarine systems, whichare dominated by a cover of woody shrubs. These areas are often transitional areas before the development offorest.

Palustrine

P2 Forested Wetland Wetland characterised by a cover of forest, found in all water systems, but rarely in Marine and Lacustrine.

TerrestrialF1 Lowland Dipterocarp

ForestNon-wetland habitats characterised by the dominance of dipterocarp deciduous trees, on a dry and drainingsubstrate.

Education

Natural Habitats of Sabah by Flemming T. Hansen