Indigenous Issues- Videos

Hello Everyone,

Before class on Tuesday please take a look at these two videos and come to class prepared to discuss.

The first video examines attempts to build a dam in peninsular Malaysia to provide water for the KL area and the second examines the effects of logging and oil palm plantations in Sarawak, Borneo.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4866537776960651262

http://whatrainforest.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/what-rainforest-the-film-now-online/

The articles provide a little more info about the topics

Rising to the Water Challenge
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2011/3/20/nation/8309079

http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/030309.irnjbic.pdf


Indonesia to set aside 45% of Kalimatan for conservation.

http://ccmin.aippnet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=837%3Aindonesia-to-set-aside-45-of-kalimantan-for-conservation&catid=28%3Aindonesia&Itemid=38

Powerpoint Presentations

Here are the links to the powerpoint presentation that I showed in class (so good it had to be divided into two parts)

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/malaysian-rainforests-and-indigenous-peoples-part-1


http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/malaysian-rainforests-and-indigenous-peoples-part-2

Tropical Rainforests

Rhett Butler's material about rain forests in his website Mongabay.com is fantastic, so it is a great place to start to learn more about this ecosystem. Before class on Tuesday please go to the Mongabay website (http://rainforests.mongabay.com/) and read the following sections.

World Rainforests
Rainforest Structure
Rainforest Biodiversity
Canopy
Forest Floor
Rainforest Waters

Poswerpoint Presentations

Here are links to a couple of powerpoint presentations that I made as part of the Malaysian Bat Education Adventure. I hope they provide a nice introduction to the topic.

Tropical Rainforests

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/tropical-rainforests-12072600

Deforestation

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/deforestation-12072424

Physical Environment, Geography, and History of SE Asia

Here is a link to my quick and dirty, definitely non-expert, view of how the physical environment and geography have helped to shape the history of SE Asia.

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/physical-environment-and-history-of-se-asia-11923636

Biodiversity Challenge: Temperate Zone Vs Tropics

Even though Texas is larger and contains more habitat diversity (measured by a greater number of ecosystems), Malsysia contains many more species than Texas. In fact, Malaysia is considered to be a "biodiveristy hotspot".

Why are there so many more species in Malaysia than in Texas? The answer probably has to do with a general phenomenon that scientists have been trying to understand for over two hundred years- the tropical temperate gradient in species richness. There have been over thirty hypotheses developed to explain this pattern and research and debate on the topic is continuing today.

Readings

More General
Latitudinal gradients in diversity- http://www.ecology.info/article.aspx?cid=10&id=69

Latitudinal gradients in species diversity- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitudinal_gradients_in_species_diversity

Thorough techical review
Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity: patterns, process, scale, and synthesis. Annula Review of Ecology and Systematics by Mike Willig, Dawn Kaufman, and Richard Stevens
http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/people/willig/Willig_pdf/120.%20Willig_etal_2003.pdf

Powerpoint Presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/9hVZHFohOJijx5