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
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