Article

Suzika Juiling, Postgraduate of the Forestry Complex, Faculty Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: suzikajuiling@gmail.com
Scholena K. Leon, Graduate student of the Forestry Complex, Faculty Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: ms.lana128@gmail.com
Jamirus Jumian, Research Assistant, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: jamirus.jumian@sabah.gov.my
Sandy T.L. Tsen, Research Officer of Sandakan Herbarium, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); Postgraduate student of the Forestry Complex, Faculty Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: tsensandy@gmail.com
Yew Leung Lee, Postgraduate student of the Forestry Complex, Faculty Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: yewleung@gmail.com
Eyen Khoo, Senior Research Officer, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: Eyen.Khoo@sabah.gov.my
John B. Sugau, Head of Systematic Botany Section of Sandakan Herbarium, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: john.sugau@sabah.gov.my
Reuben Nilus, Senior Research Officer, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: Reuben.Nilus@sabah.gov.my
Joan T. Pereira, Senior Research Officer of Sandakan Herbarium, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: joan.pereira18@gmail.com
Alviana Damit, Research Officer of Sandakan Herbarium, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department (P.O.Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: Alviana.Damit@sabah.gov.my
Sasikumar Tanggaraju, Postgraduate student of the Forestry Complex, Faculty Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: bs14161036@alum.ums.edu.my
Peter O'Byrne, Orchid botanist (Tanjung Aru 88100 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: oberonia@gmail.com
Sukaibin Sumail, Project leader of nickel hyperaccumulator in plants of Kinabalu Park, Sabah Parks (P.O. Box 6, 89308 Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: skybyn@gmail.com
Handry Mujih, Head of Kinabalu Park Herbarium, Sabah Parks (P.O. Box 6, 89308 Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: hanrymujih@gmail.com
Colin R. Maycock, Associate Professor of the Forestry Complex, Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia); e-mail: colinr@ums.edu.my

Juiling S., Leon S.K., Jumian J., Tsen S., Lee Y.L., Khoo E., Sugau J.B., Nilus R., Pereira J.T., Damit A., Tanggaraju S., O'Byrne P., Sumail S., Mujih H., Maycock C.R. 2020. Conservation assessment and spatial distribution of endemic orchids in Sabah, Borneo. Nature Conservation Research 5(Suppl.1): 136–144. https://dx.doi.org/10.24189/ncr.2020.053

Electronic Supplement 1. Endemic orchids of Sabah used for analysis in the present study (Link)
Electronic Supplement 2. List of species used in SDM modelling with MaxEnt AUC value (Link)

Orchids are among the most threatened plants due to habitat loss and illegal harvesting for horticultural demands. Sabah is a centre of orchid diversity, with approximately 1300 species of which 250 orchid taxa are endemic to Sabah. In this study, we conducted an IUCN Red List assessment on 136 endemic species and used Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) to develop species distribution models for 47 species. The species distribution models were developed using presence-only data and six environmental predictors. The accuracy of the models were assessed using the area under the curve (AUC) and models with an AUC of higher than 0.8 stacked together to produce a species richness heatmap. We found that 83% of the researched species were threatened, of which 14 species were assessed to be Critically Endangered, eight species as Endangered and 93 species as Vulnerable. The heatmap shows that all of the species occurred within the Totally Protected Area (TPA) network in western Sabah. The heatmap highlighted the mid-altitude areas adjacent to the Kinabalu and Crocker Range parks and Ulu Sipitang regions as areas with a high species richness that were outside the TPA network. These areas are also important for the conservation of the majority of the species assessed as Critically Endangered and Endangered. Urgent conservation actions are needed to protect these species from extinction. The results from this work will be used as part of an intensive conservation action plan for threatened endemic orchids of Sabah and used to identify important plant areas currently not within the existing TPA network.

habitat loss, illegal harvesting, IUCN Red List status, MaxEnt, Orchidaceae, Protected Area, species distribution modelling, species richness

Received: 15.04.2020. Revised: 12.07.2020. Accepted: 25.08.2020.

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