Peter S. Ashton Sarawak fieldwork papers, 1963-1968
Peter S. Ashton (Author)
This collection comprises part of Peter Ashton's research archive. All of the materials are from field work in Sarawak, Malaysia during 1963-1968. This collection contains plot maps, tree data, fire images and publications, plots and charts, and field books related to Ashton's Sarawak fieldwork. In the 1960's, Ashton was a botanical researcher in the forest service of Sarawak, then a state in northern Borneo island, which is now part of Malaysia. His job was to document the tree species occurring in the rain forests, ultimately for management for timber production. This was done in two ways: first, by collecting specimens, many of them stored in the Harvard University Herbaria; and second, by laying out plots, which were grouped in clusters (lettered A-N) across the state. There were 105 plots in all and each plot was 1 1/2 acres. Plots were sited at 13 localities representing the diversity of geology throughout lowland Sarawak. Each plot had some 200 trees censused by Ashton and his colleagues. Collections were made, sorted by family, genus and species, and their particulars documented in this collection. Data in this collection corresponds to the species reference collection of fallen leaf ecological vouchers, in the Harvard University Herbaria, which are attached to cards and ordered by family and numbered species on separate cards. The species are in turn by lettered site (sites thus lettered indicated in a map, figure 3.9 in chapter 3 in "On the forests of tropical Asia: lest the memory fade") filed in the Harvard University Herbaria
Archival Material, English, 1963