New dataset of foliicolous lichens on leaves of five major species of Dipterocarpaceae in INIKEA forest rehabilitation plot of Borneo

Rehabilitation of degraded forest is being intensified in Borneo, effort by the INIKEA Rehabilitation Project in Luasong (Sabah) has resulted in healthy growth of native timber species to Borneo. Slow growth rate of Dipterocarps has been attributed to presence of biofoulers on its leaves and herbivory. Therefore, an investigation was conducted to document the coverage and distribution of foliicolous lichens on the leaves of five common timber species Dipterocarpus conformis, Dryobalanops lanceolate, Dryobalanops keithii, Shorea ovalis, and Shorea fallax, planted during this project in 2008. Colonization of foliicolous lichen on timber species was seen to exist in two distinct pattern; leaves of genus Shorea showed surface colonization of 28–29%, while genus Dipterocarpus and Drybalanopsis exhibited a lesser coverage of 15–18%. A total of 32 species belonging to nine families were recorded during the course of this study. Lichen diversity was higher on leaves of Dipterocarpus conformis and Shorea ovalis as compared to the other three species. In addition, nine new records of foliicolous lichens were isolated, identified and their descriptions are presented here.


a b s t r a c t
Rehabilitation of degraded forest is being intensified in Borneo, effort by the INIKEA Rehabilitation Project in Luasong (Sabah) has resulted in healthy growth of native timber species to Borneo. Slow growth rate of Dipterocarps has been attributed to presence of biofoulers on its leaves and herbivory. Therefore, an investigation was conducted to document the coverage and distribution of foliicolous lichens on the leaves of five common timber species Dipterocarpus conformis, Dryobalanops lanceolate, Dryobalanops keithii, Shorea ovalis, and Shorea fallax, planted during this project in 2008. Colonization of foliicolous lichen on timber species was seen to exist in two distinct pattern; leaves of genus Shorea showed surface colonization of 28e29%, while genus Dipterocarpus and Drybalanopsis exhibited a lesser coverage of 15e18%. A total of 32 species belonging to nine families were recorded during the course of this study. Lichen diversity was higher on leaves of Dipterocarpus conformis and Shorea ovalis as compared to the other three species. In addition, nine new records of foliicolous lichens were isolated, identified and their descriptions are presented here.

Data
The data described in this article consists of diversity and new records of foliicolous lichens found growing on the leaves of major Dipterocarps in forest replantation area in INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project. Species Demo Plot is a permanent plot in INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project that was established in 2008. The plot consists of more than 20 species of Dipterocarps that was planted randomly in 34 straight lines with 36 individuals per line thus creating a complex dipterocarps forest. The growth rate of replanted Dipterocarps has been a major concern and often biofoulers on their leaves have been attributed to the lack of sunlight and increase in herbivory [1]. A total of five most commonly planted Dipterocarps are Dipterocarpus conformis, Dryobalanops lanceolate, Dryobalanops keithii, Shorea ovalis, and Shorea fallax. These five species are native species in this area prior to the logging and forest fire that destroyed the remaining forest in 1980 [2]. Since rehabilitation efforts were initiated via INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project (funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation) in 2008, timber species have survived and grown, to the extent that their degree of biofouling could be established. Therefore, we embarked to investigate the diversity and coverage of foliicolous lichen on the leaves of five major Dipterocarps planted in this program. Here, we report the diversity of foliicolous lichens and new records of nine species of lichen on the leaves of five Dipterocarps planted in this project.

Coverage and diversity of foliicolous lichen on leaves of five major dipterocarps
A total of 10 individual trees were randomly identified for each of the five species (n ¼ 10), from each tree a total of 20 matured leaves were collected randomly and their surface lichen coverage was evaluated. Two distinct data sets were taken; 1) percentage of lichen coverage, and 2) lichen Specifications composition based on its family and species. Table 1 describes the data obtained as to the percentage of coverage and percentage of nine major family of lichen found on the surface of the five-timber species investigated. Table 2 describes the lichen composition at species level in each of the timber species investigated in this study. Data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis and it was apparent that Dipterocarpus conformis and Shorea ovalis exhibited the most diverse lichen on their leave surface, 2.72 and 2.28 of Shanon-Weiner Index, while Drybalanops lanceolate, Drybalanops keithii and Shorea fallax exhibited an index of 1.63, 2.03 and 2.04, respectively. Similar, findings were also shown in the PCoA analysis as shown in Fig. 1 where Dipterocarpus conformis and Shorea ovalis exhibited a dense aggregation of lichens as compared to the other three species.
As can be seen from Fig. 2, S. ovalis and D. conformis have much more close relationship in terms of similarities of lichen present compared to S. fallax. Species abundance is also higher in S. ovalis and D. conformis thus showing that the distribution of the lichen species much dominant in these 2 dipterocarps species.

Description of new lichen records specimens
Out of the 32 species of lichen identified [3] from the leaves of five major timber species, it became apparent that nine species are new records in Sabah, Borneo Badimia polillensis (Vain.) Vedza -Thallus continuous, usually max at 40 mm, verrucose, bluish to greyish grey. Apothecia rounded, 0.4e0.8mm diameter, disc plane, orange to pinkish with slightly translucent; thin margin, slightly prominent. Asci 38e60 x 7e12 mm. Ascospore from ellipsoid to fusiform, 3-septate, some with constriction at septa and some without, 13e16 x 2e5 mm, colorless.
Chemistry: not tested. Distribution of this species has been recorded in Pantropics and South East Asia.
Chemistry: not tested. Distribution of the species is pantropically and abundance in the rain forest understory but also occurring in more open microsites.

Sampling location
The site is located at the southeast area of Sabah, in the Kalabakan Forest Centre (app. lat 4 36 0 N, long 117 14 0 E) in Tawau district. The area is the typical lowland tropical rain forest as the natural vegetation with landscape of hills and valleys at a range from 300 to 700 m above sea level. (See Fig. 3)

Microscopic evaluation
Species Demo Plot is a permanent plot in INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project that was established in 2008. The plot placed with more than 20 species of Dipterocarps that was planted randomly in a straight line of 34 with 36 individuals per line thus creating a complex dipterocarps forest. Shorea ovalis (SKE) that were one of the most planted dipterocarps and examined the presence of foliicolous lichens that colonized the surface of the leaves. The samples were brought back to the lab by placing the samples inside a cool box with ice to prevent from drying. The morphological characteristics of the lichens including the characteristics of thallus and reproductive structures, colour, size and shape were examined using compound microscope (Olympus CX41) while the microscopic examination on anatomy focusing on the shape of ascosphore inside the ascus(i) and the type of phycobiont was

Statistical analysis
The diversity of the lichens on each dipterocarps species was analyzed using Shannon-Weiner diversity index.
Where H' is a measurement of diversity and Pi is the frequency of species ith on each dipterocarp. PAST (Paleontological Statistics) version 3.15 was used to calculate the Shannon-Weiner index. The product is summed across species and multiplied by À1. Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) was used to explore and to visualize similarities or dissimilarities of the diversity of lichen. By using SPSS 25 software, we were able to correlate the lichen composition to the Dipterocarp sp. substrate.