FOREWORD FROM THE DIRECTOR OF BIOTROP
Indonesia located in the so call “Ring of
Fire” which refers to a series of a chain of volcanoes stretching from the west
to the east side of the archipelago. One can remember the fierce eruption of
Krakatoa, or the Tambora which brought catastrophic destruction of ecosystem,
live casualties as well as temporarily changed the weather.
Another active volcano located in Central
Java and Yogyakarta is the Merapi. Merapi comes from the word “Meru” which
means Mountain and “Api” or fire. The name Merapi signs that this mountain has
long eruption history. Since the 80-s
the mountain has erupted several times up until now, one can remember the 1984,
1994, 2006, 2010 were the big eruptions as well as other small scale eruptions.
Mount Merapi is unique, type of its eruption is now what volcanologist
recognize as the Merapi-type eruption which characterize by the collapse lava
dome at the summit and generates a huge pyroclastic flows/”nuees ardentes” that locals
called “Wedhus Gembel”.
There has been abundant research and
publication on the geological and hazard mitigation aspects of Merapi however
the knowledge about its ecosystem is scant, especially how ecosystem at high
elevation recovers following disturbance. The writer here has done a very good
job in elaborating the concept of ecological succession, a process that Mount
Merapi undergone and how it exists on Merapi, how plant communities interact
with each other and their environmental factors such as volcanic soils and then
tried to connect a link bet ween the ecological succession of Mount Merapi with
the concept of ecosystem resilience, alternative stable states and restoration.
Knowledge
gained from this study may also be relevant for other volcanoes in Asia, as
there may be similarities between the conditions on Mt. Merapi with other Asian
volcanoes in terms of the characteristics of volcanic activity, floristic
composition, environmental conditions and interaction between the biotic and
abiotic factors in the volcanic ecosystem such as for example, Mount Pinatubo
in the Philippines which share the similar”nuees
ardentes”.
As the Director of
SEAMEO BIOTRPOP I would be glad on publishing this book entitled “ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION ON VOLCANIC ECOSYSTEM OF MOUNT MERAPI INDONESIA AND
ITS IMPLICATION FOR RESTORATION” considering that this book
would fill the gap in the literature and therefore be very useful for the
scientific community. I congratulate the authors of this book and would highlight the continuing need and importance of
research on plant community succession on a volcanic terrain in Indonesia and
Asia in general.
Bogor, November
2013
No comments:
Post a Comment