Kasawani Ibrahim

The study investigates the variation of spectral vegetation indices related to soil-line typically found in mangrove forest. This study carried out in the Kelantan Delta, Peninsular Malaysia by using soil-line based vegetation indices such as Perpendicular Vegetation Index (PVI), ...

Water lily (Nymphaeaceae antares) contains a vast array of phenolic compounds with important natural antioxidative properties that could inhibit the adverse effects of the reactive oxygen species produced in living things. These substances are complex in composition which requires a suitable extraction medium to exploit the phenolic compounds. This study was designed to determine the antioxidative properties in petal and stamen of water lily extracted using different extraction solvents namely ethyl acetate and 60% methanol. Antioxidant properties of the samples were determined using 2,2-diphenyl -1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, ferric thiocyanate (FTC) method, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and total tannin content (TTC) along with individual flavonoids content using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The yield of extract was found to be the highest in petals extracted with 60% methanol (4...

Tapai is one of the most popular traditional desserts in Malaysia and other Asian countries. Traditionally, tapai is wrapped in a rubber leaf to enhance the smell and increase its palatability. The study focused on identifying the yeasts present before and after the production of glutinous rice tapai wrapped in different rubber leaves clones, namely RRIM 2025, RRIM 2002, PB 260 and PB 350. The identification of the yeast was carried out using API 20C AUX test strips for all rubber leaves clones, glutinous rice tapai wrapped in RRIM 2025, RRIM 2002, PB 260, PB 350 and in a container (control). The results showed that Crytococcus laurentii, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa 2, Candida famata, Rhodotorula minuta were present in rubber leaf clones. While the yeasts that had been identified in tapai wrapped in rubber leaf were Candida guilliermondii, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa 2, Candida parapsilosis and Trichosporon mucoides and only C. guilliermondii was found in the container. The physical prope...

Water lily (Nymphaea antares) is one of the most valuable aquatic ornamental plants which has bright potential in the floriculture industry. It may be useful as an urban ecosystem and as a source of medicinal compounds. Due to its potential to become a new value-added product in the food industry, water lily (N. antares) was investigated in this study. Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine the nutritional content and antioxidant activity in water lily leaves and petioles with different pH extraction buffers. Water lily extract was obtained using three different pH extraction buffers, Tris buffer at pH 6.8, pH 7.1 and pH 7.8. The heat capacity of the extract was analysed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and different functional groups were identified using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Thermal denaturation of the leaves sample was detected at 81.84°C. The antioxidant enzymes activities including catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), polyphenol ...

Fakta Sains dan hubungannya dengan al-Quran adalah sangat berkait rapat. Pengetahuan yang jelas tentang wujudnya perkaitan Sains dan al-Quran dapat memupuk semangat cintakan ilmu dalam kalangan masyarakat Islam, selain mengukuhkan keimanan mereka kepada Allah.Kertas ini membincangkan pengalaman pengendalian program penghayatan ‘Cakna Sains Berteraskan Wahyu’ melalui perkongsian ilmu antara para penyelidik PPAL, UMT dengan pelajar sekolah Imtiaz yang terpilih.Program ini dijalankan berasaskan modul pengisian yang telah dibentuk sesuai dengan kepakaran penyelidik seperti slot ceramah, demonstrasi serta kuiz.Hasil pemerhatian ikut serta, serta respon yang diberikan pelajar melalui soalan kuiz dan perbincangan menunjukkan program perkongsian ini telah berjaya menarik minat pelajar menghayati kepentingan ilmu Sains secara Islamik.Perkongsian hasil penyelidikan yang dijalankan oleh para penyelidik PPAL berpandukan silibus pendidikan yang dipelajari oleh para pelajar sekolah Imtiaz turut m...

Abstract: Roadside trees provide benefits in the form of green landscape, human health, storm-water management, carbon storage and etc. However, they are potentially hazardous to their surroundings. Hence, there is a need to evaluate these trees as to whether they ...

The Peninsular Malaysia coastline, which is covered about 4,800 km in length, is rich by coastal resources and has an abundance of natural biodiversity. The development which occurred along the coastal lines have led to the host of problems such as increased erosion, siltation, and ...

This paper attempts to give information about the structure of mangrove distribution at Tok Bali, Kelantan in order to initiate for management and rehabilitation program. A study was conducted in July to November 2006 to determine the species composition, diversity index and ...

This study was conducted in Tok Bali, Kelantan and Setiu, Terengganu, Malaysia with the objectives to determine the spectral properties and to identify the significant wavelength in discriminating five mangrove species at different locations. The five mangrove species selected were Rhizophora apiculata, Brugiuera cylindrica, Avicennia alba), Heritiera littoralis) and Hibiscus tiliaceus.. In the Near Infra Red (NIR) region, the mean spectral reflectance of five mangrove species at Tok Bali showed that the highest reflectance was recorded by R. apiculata with 84% and the lowest was recorded by A. alba with 69% spectral reflectance, respectively. Meanwhile at Setiu, the highest reflectance was represented by H. littoralis with 81% and the lowest was B. cylindrica with 73%. Spectral reflectance of five selected mangrove species were statistically tested using canonical stepwise discriminant analysis of SPSS program. Fifteen wavelengths were produced in discriminating among five selected...

Application of remote sensing techniques for mangrove mapping and monitoring is increased and recognized for sustainable management of the resources to the country. Over the past few decades, the emergence of several vegetation index (VI) on remotely sensed data has certainly give significant impacts on mapping of the natural resources such as mangrove. On the other hand, the vegetation index (VI) has been used over last decade for the most suitable vegetation index in remote sensing studies. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of the several VI’s for mapping mangrove area using Landsat TM data. Each VIs can differentiate the mangrove classes based on their reflectance characteristics. In general the mangrove area was classified into five classes namely Avicennia, Avicennia-Sonneratia, Acanthus-Sonneratia, Mixed Sonneratia and Mixed Acrostichum. Results from several indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Infrared Percentage Vegetation Index (IPVI), Different Vegetation Index (DVI), Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), Perpendicular Vegetation Index (PVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI) were compared and evaluated. It was found that SAVI performed the best followed by MSAVI, NDVI, PVI, IPVI, RVI and DVI with accuracies of 79.17%, 78.89%, 74.44%, 74.44%, 72.22%, 69.17% and 69.17% respectively.

Keywords: remote sensing, vegetation indices, performance, mangrove, mapping.

The Peninsular Malaysia coastline, which is covered about 4,800 km in length, is rich by coastal resources and has an abundance of natural biodiversity.  The development which occurred along the coastal lines have led to the host of problems such as increased erosion, siltation, and loss of coastal resources and the destruction of the fragile marine habitat.  In order to conserve the depleting coastal resources, the changes due to development and associated activities must be monitored.  This paper was intended to detect changes of coastal area in Setiu Lagoon, Terengganu and to provide future database in coastal management studies.  Analysis was carried out using GIS platform and the results of coastal change were disseminated in digital format which can be used for conducting further geographic analysis.  The results showed that from 1980 to 2004, the movement of sand spit was about 7.0 m/year for shoreline length and 0.8 m/year for the small islands.  This study emphasized that the critical areas were found around the estuary (river mouth) and islands were eroded slowly due to the waves, current and dominant winds actions during monsoon loaded.  The other factor was due to depletion of the mangrove forest areas.  It is therefore necessary to monitor coastal zone changes because the importance of environmental parameter, storm impact prevention and human disturbance.

Keywords: GIS, coastal, change detection, erosion and Setiu Lagoon.

ABSTRACT
A study was conducted at Kelantan Delta to identify mangrove forest types based on vegetation index (VI) approach. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of different atmospheric based corrected VI, derives from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite. Four indices were used, namely the Global Environmental Monitoring Index (GEMI), Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index (ARVI), Modified Aerosol Free Vegetation Index Mid-Infrared (Modified AFRIMIR) and Modified Aerosol Free Vegetation Index Shortwave-Infrared (Modified AFRISWIR). A total of five main mangrove forest types, namely Avicennia, Avicennia-Sonneratia, Mixed Acrostichium, Achantus-Sonneratia, and Mixed Sonneratia were recorded during field investigation and the performances of different VI were analyzed using Spatial-Modeller in ERDAS Imagine Environment. Results showed that the indices range for Modified AFRISWIR was found to be well separated into five classes. It was found that the SWIR is very sensitive to liquid water content and therefore has the potential as the best index to recognize the mangrove classes. With an accuracy of 79.33% which is higher than the unsupervised classification (72.67%), this index should be recommended to reduce atmospheric noise to well recognize the mangrove species classes.

Problem statement: Sensing, mapping and monitoring the rain forest in forested regions of the world, particularly the tropics, has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years as deforestation and forest degradation account for up to 30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions and are now included in climate change negotiations.  Approach: We reviewed the potential for air and spaceborne hyperspectral sensing to identify and map individual tree species measure carbon stocks, specifically Aboveground Biomass (AGB) and provide an overview of a range of approaches that have been developed and used to map tropical rain forest across a diverse set of conditions and  geographic areas.  We provided a summary of air and spaceborne hyperspectral remote sensing measurements relevant to mapping the tropical forest and assess the relative merits and limitations of each. We then provided an overview of modern techniques of mapping the tropical forest based on species discrimination, leaf chlorophyll content, estimating aboveground forest productivity and monitoring forest health.  Results: The challenges in hyperspectral Imaging of tropical forests is thrown out to researchers in such field as to come with the latest techniques of image processing and improved mapping resolution leading towards higher precision mapping accuracy.  Some research results from an airborne hyperspectral imaging over Bukit Nanas forest reserve was shared implicating high potential of such very high resolution imaging techniques for tropical mixed dipterocarp forest inventory and mapping for species discrimination, aboveground forest productivity, leaf chlorophyll content and carbon mapping.  Conclusion/Recommendations: We concluded that while spaceborne hyperspectral remote sensing has often been discounted as inadequate for the task, attempts to map with airborne sensors are still insufficient in tropical developing countries like Malaysia. However, we demonstrated this with a case study focused on a mixed hill dipterocarp forest in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and discuss the work in the context of reducing uncertainty for carbon monitoring and markets.

This paper attempts to give information about the structure of  mangrove distribution at Tok Bali, Kelantan in order to initiate for management and rehabilitation program. A study was conducted in July to November 2006 to determine the species composition, diversity index and above-ground biomass in 15.8 ha Mixed Mangrove Forest.  A transects forest profile length of 30 meter and 20 plots were established, a Diameter Breast Height (DBH) and height were measured and recorded, and also diversity index and above-ground biomass were determined.  A total of 10 species consisting of nine exclusive and one non-exclusive mangrove were recorded.  The common species found were Sonneratia alba (1,170 trees/ha, 330 saplings/ha and 22,680 seedlings/ha) followed by Ceriops decandra, Excoecaria agallocha, Avicennia alba, Bruguiera cylindrica, B. sexangula, Rhizophora apiculata, Aegiceras corniculatum, Nypa fruticans and Derris trifoliata. From the results an average of 595 trees/ha, 598 saplings/ha and 646 seedlings/ha represented a moderate good condition and regeneration potential.  Total above-ground biomass was 2664.57 kg/ha and S. alba also recorded the highest because the of wide range of diameter and height.  Mangrove trees showed total average of species richness (S) was 8.0,  eveness (E) was 0.793 and diversity (H’) was 1.603.

Wetland cover mapping is very important in identifying its areal extent and the rate of change over time. This study aims to map the areal extent and its rate of change in Kuala Terengganu district which covers approximately 4,690.65 hectares. Three LandsatTM images, which dated on 15th October 1998, 14th July 2002 and 15th August 2005 were used in digital image processing by using a RGB band combination of 4, 5, and 2. The overall classification accuracies for the 1998, 2002 and 2005 images were 74.55, 82.42 and 90.91 percent, respectively. The United State Geology Survey (USGS) Classification Scheme was used to determine the wetland and the images were independently classified and total areas of wetland cover were compared between different dates of imageries. Surprisingly, there was an unexpected significant increase (from 102.35 to 381.35 ha) in the areal extent of wetlands in a seven year period of 1998 to 2005 with a rate of change of 0.84% increase per year.  This study implies that the integration of remote sensing and  Geographical Information System (GIS) may provide a useful tool for temporal studies in wetland cover and its rate of change in Kuala Trengganu district.

This study was conducted in Tok Bali, Kelantan and Setiu, Terengganu, Malaysia with the objectives to determine the spectral properties and to identify the significant wavelength in discriminating five mangrove species at different locations.  The five mangrove species selected were Rhizophora apiculata, Brugiuera cylindrica, Avicennia alba, Heritiera littoralis and Hibiscus tiliaceus.  In the Near Infra Red (NIR) region, the mean spectral reflectance of five mangrove species at Tok Bali showed that the highest reflectance was recorded by R. apiculata with 84% and the lowest was recorded by A. alba with 69% spectral reflectance, respectively.  Meanwhile at Setiu, the highest reflectance was represented by H. littoralis with 81% and the lowest was B. cylindrica with 73%.  Spectral reflectance of five selected mangrove species were statistically tested using canonical stepwise discriminant analysis of SPSS program. Fifteen wavelengths were produced in discriminating among five selected mangrove species at both locations.  Student t-test showed that there were no significant differences between spectral reflectance of mangrove species at Tok Bali and Setiu (P=0.345, P=0.778, P=0.753 and P= 0.513 greater than 0.05).  These spectral signatures were also influenced by several factors such as cloud cover changes, atmospheric condition, leaf internal structure and chlorophyll content.  This study therefore implies that individual mangrove species have a unique spectral reflectance and can be easily identified and mapped with a narrow contiguous wavelength bands in the NIR region.

The increasing application of remote sensing for mangrove mapping and monitoring is practically for sustainable management of the resources to the country. Over the past few decades, the emergence of several vegetation index (VI) on remotely sensed data has certainly give significant impacts on mapping of the natural resources such as mangrove. On the other hand, the vegetation index (VI) has been used over last decade for the most suitable vegetation index in remote sensing studies. In this study, the performance of the several VI’s were assess for the mapping of mangrove area using Landsat TM data. Each VIs can differentiate the mangrove classes based on their reflectance characteristics. In general the mangrove area was classified into five classes namely Avicennia, Avicennia-Sonneratia, Acanthus-Sonneratia, Mixed Sonneratia and Mixed Acrostichum. Results from several indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Infrared Percentage Vegetation Index (IPVI), Different Vegetation Index (DVI), Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), Perpendicular Vegetation Index (PVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI) were compared and evaluated.