My Project Work at Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Topics:
1. Needle morphological variation within and among population of Pinus merkusii in Banda Aceh
By Rajendra K.C.
2. Variability of Age, Size and Quality traits of Pinus merkusii in Banda Aceh.
By Yunita Ibrahim

A) Collecting General Information
Soil condition, type,
Topography,
Elevation
Site Specific information regarding topography such as Slope (type, percentage), aspects, elevation, exposition, other locality factors etc.
Metereological information such as temperature, rainfall, distribution of rainfall, light condition, wind speed and direction, radiation, seismic data (if possible) etc.
Other vegetation: such as associated trees, horizontal and vertical competition with other species.
If possible, the wild life and birds found (?)
The human influence.

B) Sampling

 For the population, we should take six sites, each site at the distance of 20-30 kilometers. If this is not possible, then take the sites in different exposition such as slope aspects such as North, South or East-West in one area, e.g. a watershed or a mountain.

 Fifty trees at a site should be taken. The selection of first tree should be random, and then proceed at around to take 50 closest trees above 10 cm diameter. (exhaustive sampling). Make sure that collection of needles is feasible (height of trees) from most trees when selecting sites.

 Trees selected should be matured and should have potentially already started flowering (minimum diameter 10 cm).

 Six sites X 50 trees=300 trees above 10 cm dbh.

C) Twig collection:

We should collect the 4 twigs from each tree. And these twigs should be in 90° direction to each other. That means the crown circle should be estimated at first and then at all four expositions (i.e. North, South, East, West) should be taken and fully developed twigs should be cut. That twigs should not be shadowed. It should be accessible and also from light illuminating part of the tree.

i.e. 300 trees X 4 twigs= 1200 twigs.

Then these twigs should be numbered tree wise and taken into dwellings and measured the lengths at night. 5 needles (not the fascicle) from each twig should be taken and measured correctly.

The shapes of needles (selected 5) should be also considered. The researcher should take relative scale from 1 to 5 and provided scale. Scale 1 is for the straightest and 5 is the most curved one.

The length of twigs should be measured. For this the lengths should be measured from the apical bud (terminal bud) to the lowest part of twigs until where there is live (green) needles are available.

Take the sketch map of the site and the plot showing each tree. (This could be done by using Silva Compass and tape, or by GPS or also we could draw just the sketch of the site.

While taking the measurement and methods, the uniformity and unbiasness is the most important things to consider.

D) Materials collection and bringing for stomata density calculation and possibly DNA extraction (only for M.Sc. thesis):

For each tree, we need to take terminal buds with eight needles (Fascicles with 2 needles?) in Silica Gel. From each tree one robust twig should be taken for it.

To secure air tighting, we need to put around 10 grams of Silica in a plastic bag. And by clipping the above mentioned terminal buds and needles by cutting with sharp knife, we should put it into Silica Gel and make the bag closed. We should put the name of site and tree number in each bag for clear distinction afterward during analysis. (Do we need official letter or permission to bring these samples here?

We need to bring around 3 kg of Silica Gels and 350 pieces of plastic bags (50 as extra) and few gloves to handle it. (I have to collect it from institute in third week of October).

For another reasons, we need to take all four twigs of each tree (maximum ten) as per above mentioned specimens in Silica Gel. (I request the professor to answer me about these 10 numbers of tree, for all four twigs, are from each site or from whole site?). That means do we need 50 or 10 trees for whole study in this particular case? Only 10 trees in total!

If there is the possibility to collect the same quality and age cones from all trees, it would be great ideas to bring single from all tree.

E. For Quality assessment of Pinus merkusii:

 We need to take
 Diameter
 Height
 Shape of stem or stem forms (Straight to Curve)
Relative scaling from 1 to 5 independently by Yunita and me, and later on combined.
Damages seen in stem, bole, crown, etc.

F. Resin tapping:
To calculate the resin production by each tree, we need to make the incision in bark. The incision should not be very deep, it requires only up to the depth of sapwood (5 mm) from where resin used to come out.

The size of blaze would be 10 cm long X 5 cm wide. And the blaze in the bole should be made towards the lower parts and south aspects (changeable with solar directions or radiation!) so that maximum resin could be tapped.

The tapped tree should be photographed minutely. And, the produced resin should be collected and weighed in the uniform interval or lets say 2-5 days. These days should be same in all sites for comparison purposes. All the tree should be tapped and evaluated, if it isnot possible, then the maximum possible number should be tapped. If weighing is not possible, then the relative scale for production (1 to 5) is to be used. Uniformity should be maintained as the highest possible options.

The damages from pests and diseases should be noticed.

G. Materials required

 Silica Gel 3.5 kg
 Plastic bags 350 pieces
 Sharp Knife 1
 Field Tape 1 and Diameter tape
 Silva Compass
 Suunto meter for height measurement
 Measuring Scale
 Maps

H. Foreseeable limitation

 Availability of sites and accessibility of it.
 Find out the separate population (10-20 km distant in between).
 Duration
 Instruments availability.
 Legal or other restricting for import of leaf samples.
 Provision for wounding tree for resin tapping
(Your suggestions, comments for the improvement of the research regarding methology and any other things are highly expected and requested)