A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ

Rattans are one of the most unique and economically important plants for most tropical countries. There is however, a lack of interest in the specific study of the rattan spines. In this paper, we tested a new hypothesis concerning the functional role of rattan spines. We proposed that rattan spines...

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Main Authors: Nik Fadzly, Asyraf Mansor, Rahmad Zakaria, Syed Ahmad Edzham
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2014
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7251/1/02_Nik_Fadzly.pdf
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author Nik Fadzly,
Asyraf Mansor,
Rahmad Zakaria,
Syed Ahmad Edzham,
author_facet Nik Fadzly,
Asyraf Mansor,
Rahmad Zakaria,
Syed Ahmad Edzham,
author_sort Nik Fadzly,
collection UKM
description Rattans are one of the most unique and economically important plants for most tropical countries. There is however, a lack of interest in the specific study of the rattan spines. In this paper, we tested a new hypothesis concerning the functional role of rattan spines. We proposed that rattan spines also serve as a visual deterrent against herbivores or seed predators. In our proposed method we used an Imaging software, ImageJ, to measure the spine area of four species of rattan (Calamus insignis, Myrialepis schortechinii, Plectocomiopsis geminiflorus and Calamus caesius) from two different orientations (root to shoot and vice versa). Our results showed that rattan spines were very heterogeneous and highly variable between different species. One common trait that the rattan spines share is that spine area measurements of shoot to root (ShR) are larger than root to shoot (RH) orientation. We propose that the downwards spine angle might be specifically designed to discourage climbing leaf and seed predators.
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spelling ukm.eprints-72512016-12-14T06:43:31Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7251/ A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ Nik Fadzly, Asyraf Mansor, Rahmad Zakaria, Syed Ahmad Edzham, Rattans are one of the most unique and economically important plants for most tropical countries. There is however, a lack of interest in the specific study of the rattan spines. In this paper, we tested a new hypothesis concerning the functional role of rattan spines. We proposed that rattan spines also serve as a visual deterrent against herbivores or seed predators. In our proposed method we used an Imaging software, ImageJ, to measure the spine area of four species of rattan (Calamus insignis, Myrialepis schortechinii, Plectocomiopsis geminiflorus and Calamus caesius) from two different orientations (root to shoot and vice versa). Our results showed that rattan spines were very heterogeneous and highly variable between different species. One common trait that the rattan spines share is that spine area measurements of shoot to root (ShR) are larger than root to shoot (RH) orientation. We propose that the downwards spine angle might be specifically designed to discourage climbing leaf and seed predators. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2014-07 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7251/1/02_Nik_Fadzly.pdf Nik Fadzly, and Asyraf Mansor, and Rahmad Zakaria, and Syed Ahmad Edzham, (2014) A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ. Sains Malaysiana, 43 (7). pp. 973-976. ISSN 0126-6039 http://www.ukm.my/jsm/
spellingShingle Nik Fadzly,
Asyraf Mansor,
Rahmad Zakaria,
Syed Ahmad Edzham,
A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ
title A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ
title_full A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ
title_fullStr A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ
title_full_unstemmed A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ
title_short A view from a different angle: investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals’ visual point of view using imageJ
title_sort view from a different angle investigating the significance of tattan spines from a small mammals visual point of view using imagej
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7251/1/02_Nik_Fadzly.pdf
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