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      Land use conversion from peat swamp forest to oil palm agriculture greatly modifies microclimate and soil conditions

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          Abstract

          Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis) agriculture is rapidly expanding and requires large areas of land in the tropics to meet the global demand for palm oil products. Land cover conversion of peat swamp forest to oil palm (large- and small-scale oil palm production) is likely to have negative impacts on microhabitat conditions. This study assessed the impact of peat swamp forest conversion to oil palm plantation on microclimate conditions and soil characteristics. The measurement of microclimate (air temperature, wind speed, light intensity and relative humidity) and soil characteristics (soil surface temperature, soil pH, soil moisture, and ground cover vegetation temperature) were compared at a peat swamp forest, smallholdings and a large-scale plantation. Results showed that the peat swamp forest was 1.5–2.3 °C cooler with significantly greater relative humidity, lower light intensities and wind speed compared to the smallholdings and large-scale plantations. Soil characteristics were also significantly different between the peat swamp forest and both types of oil palm plantations with lower soil pH, soil and ground cover vegetation surface temperatures and greater soil moisture in the peat swamp forest. These results suggest that peat swamp forests have greater ecosystem benefits compared to oil palm plantations with smallholdings agricultural approach as a promising management practice to improve microhabitat conditions. Our findings also justify the conservation of remaining peat swamp forest as it provides a refuge from harsh microclimatic conditions that characterize large plantations and smallholdings.

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          The relationship between leaf area index and microclimate in tropical forest and oil palm plantation: Forest disturbance drives changes in microclimate

          Highlights • Microclimate was monitored in primary forest, logged forest and oil palm plantation. • There were strong relationships between leaf area index and diurnal climate. • Logged forest is up to 2.5 °C warmer on average than primary forest. • Oil palm plantations are up to 6.5 °C warmer on average than primary forest. • Forest disturbance led to desiccation of the air near the forest floor.
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            An expert system model for mapping tropical wetlands and peatlands reveals South America as the largest contributor

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              The cooling efficiency of urban landscape strategies in a hot dry climate

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ
                PeerJ Inc. (San Diego, USA )
                2167-8359
                14 October 2019
                2019
                : 7
                : e7656
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Forest Management, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia , Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
                [2 ]Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Product, Universiti Putra Malaysia , Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
                [3 ]Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia , Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
                [4 ]School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia , Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
                [5 ]British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery , Thetford, United Kingdom
                [6 ]Biodiversity Unit, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia , Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6926-6099
                Article
                7656
                10.7717/peerj.7656
                6796957
                31632845
                260ad810-e9e7-48e2-b95b-0ec82555abf3
                © 2019 Anamulai et al.

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

                History
                : 13 November 2018
                : 10 August 2019
                Funding
                Funded by: Putra Graduate Initiative Grant (IPS) from University Putra Malaysia
                Award ID: GP-IPS/2016/9513900
                This research was funded by Putra Graduate Initiative Grant (IPS) from University Putra Malaysia (Grant No: GP-IPS/2016/9513900). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Ecosystem Science
                Climate Change Biology
                Environmental Impacts
                Forestry

                soil characteristics,smallholding,conservation,plantation,southeast asia

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