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Asplenium nidus is an abundant epiphytic fern of tropical rain forests in the Old World, where it plays an important ecological role in the forest canopy as host to diverse arthropod communities. We investigated the factors that determine the distribution and abundance of A. nidus in the canopy of an aseasonal lowland dipterocarp forest at Pasoh Forest Reserve, Malaysia. We found that A. nidus was more abundant in the understory, and on hosts with smooth bark and relatively flat branch angles. Ferns were found on a wide diversity and size range of host taxa. However, both host taxa and host diameter at breast height had a significant effect on A. nidus occupancy. Asplenium nidus had an aggregated spatial distribution at all scales within the study area. Spatial aggregation at larger scales appears to be driven by habitat preference, as A. nidus abundance was positively associated with swampy areas and negatively associated with hilly areas. At smaller scales, limited dispersal of their wind-dispersed spores most likely explains the aggregated distribution. Larger individuals occurred higher in the canopy and were more common in the hilly area. Thus, the distribution of A. nidus may represent a trade-off between the availability of suitable microsites for establishment in the understory and better growth conditions higher in the canopy. However, A. nidus is known to comprise a complex of cryptic species, and future studies should incorporate molecular techniques to elucidate the potential role of speciation in explaining these patterns. Abstract in Malaysian is available at

We conducted a study on the feeding habits of dholes in the Baluran National Park, Indonesia. Scat analysis was employed to identify the prey consumed. In total, 54 scats were collected across the park during the dry season of 2013 and analyzed to identify the prey of this species; at least 20 prey species were identified. Ungulates are the most important prey, estimated to contribute more than 95 % of the biomass consumed by dholes in BNP. Efforts to ensure availability of ungulates and to secure habitat will be the key to the dhole's conservation in Java.

Abstract. Prihandi DR, Nurvianto S. 2022. The role of urban green space design to support bird community in the urban ecosystem. Biodiversitas 23: 2137-2145. The increase in human population due to urbanization causes the expansion of urban areas that threatens forest lands to be lost and makes a serious threat to its biodiversity. Along with changes in the landscape due to urbanization, open green space is an alternative solution to maintaining biological diversity in urban areas. However, various types of open green spaces were developed following certain objectives of landscape management that potentially have different effects on biodiversity. This research aimed to identify the role of various open green spaces designs on bird biodiversity. Birds can be a good indicator of environmental quality because birds are a type of animal that can move in different habitat types and habitat areas and are often used as an indicator of habitat quality in urban areas. Bird observation was conducted using the point count method, while the environmental conditions were recorded using the nested and protocol sampling method. Those data were collected in five different open green spaces of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Province. Species diversity shows the diversity of species in a bird community in a certain area using the Shanon-Wiener index. Bird communities were also analyzed using rarefaction analysis. This analysis was used to standardize the species abundance in each type of green open space to estimate the ideal species richness of open green space from the different number of samples. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the value of diversity, richness, and relative abundance of bird species among five different types of open green space. We used Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) to visualize the bird's response toward environmental gradients. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was employed to determine the effect of the environmental factors on the diversity of bird species. The result showed that different types of urban green spaces have different richness and relative abundance of bird species. We found 5925 individual birds from 40 species in five different types of open green spaces. The garden was the type of open green space with the highest bird species diversity. Of the many variables taken, the slope and the number of vehicles per minute affected the diversity of species. Those two variables were also negatively correlated with the diversity of bird species in the five types of open green spaces. The number of vehicles causes noise and pollution, which causes a decrease in bird populations. Flat slopes can also help birds get food, such as seeds on a flat surface. Creating more gardens for public and private spaces becomes an alternative solution to enhance bird diversity in the urban area.

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