Aparajita Datta

Faculty Member

Nature Conservation Foundation,
Eastern Himalaya Program,
India

aparajita@ncf-india.org

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Winner of the 2013 Whitley Award

Dr Aparajita Datta's love of nature and animals began in the classroom, inspired by the books of Gerald Durrell and James Herriot. Arriving at the Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh in North East India in 1995 to study the impact of logging on arboreal creatures including squirrels and primates, her attention was instantly captured by the charismatic hornbills and she went onto study them for her PhD. Source : whitleyaward.org).

• Hornbills as flagships for the Himalayan forests of Arunachal Pradesh at Whitley Fund for Nature
• Hornbill conservator Aparajita Datta gets Whitley Award at Times of India
• Indian hornbill conservator Aparajita Datta wins Green Oscar at DNAIndia
• Read that note 'Thank you and setting the record straight' by A. Datta about various press releases. (added 14 May)

Other Awards

Aparajita Dutta was announced as the recipient of 2009 Woman of Discovery Humanity Award by the New York based Wings World Quest for a lifetime dedicated to wildlife biology and her work in Namdapha Tiger Reserve. She was also awarded by the National Geographic Society as an Emerging explorer for 2010, which recognised "..14 trailblazers from around the world". (Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_Conservation_Foundation)

Oriental Pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) from India (Photo : c-a.akamaihd.net)

More about Aparajita Datta’s research project

"Understanding connections and interaction between animals and plants is the part of my work I find most exciting" A. Datta

(Source: nationalgeographic.com) 

Two decades on, Aparajita now leads a programme to conserve hornbills in the Indian Eastern Himalaya at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), an NGO established in 1996 to promote science-based wildlife conservation in India. Focussing on hornbills as a conservation flagship species, she is seeking to improve the status of the bird's populations outside protected areas by establishing models of community-based conservation. Aparajita is spreading knowledge of the needs of hornbills and their importance, as seed dispersers, in the maintenance of healthy forest ecosystems. (Source : whitleyaward.org)

Hornbills in arunachal pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh harbors some of the largest tracts of evergreen forests in north-east India. These virgin forests are home to five species of hornbills. Various body parts like the casque, tail and primary feathers and meat especially of the Great Hornbill form an important part of the local traditions of tribes. The impact of hunting on these hornbills is still poorly known in the state.

Hornbill nest adoption program

Hornbills in Arunachal Pradesh face significant threats from hunting and habitat loss. The last two decades has seen rapid loss of lowland forests around Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary in western Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India, which is a haven for hornbills. This has resulted in increased competition for nests amongst different hornbill species and decline in abundances at roost sites, which are now vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances. However, a considerably large forest area (> 1000 sq.km) still persists adjacent to Pakke WS harboring suitable hornbill habitat.

This project aims to involve the Ghora-Aabhe council comprised of village headmen of the local Nyishi community and Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department in finding nests in the Reserve Forests adjacent to Pakke WS. Local villagers will also be involved in regular monitoring and protection of nests.

Nests of all the four species of hornbills found in Pakke WLS, (the Great Hornbill, Wreathed Hornbill, Rufous-necked Hornbill and Oriental Pied Hornbill) are available for adoption. Till 2010, we had found 33 nests of hornbills which were mostly inside Pakke WS. In the 2011 breeding season, with the participation and interest shown by the Nyishi villagers, 9 new nests of three hornbill species (Great, Wreathed and Oriental Pied Hornbill) have been located and monitored in the Reserved Forests around Pakke WS.

Selected publications (see also List and Academia)

• Rodent seed predation: effects on seed survival, recruitment, abundance, and dispersion of bird-dispersed tropical trees Velho, Nandini; Isvaran, Kavita; Datta, Aparajita. OECOLOGIA (2012) 169: 995-1004. Abstract
• Effect of rodents on seed fate of five hornbill-dispersed tree species in a tropical forest in north-east India. Velho, Nandini; Datta, Aparajita; Isvaran, Kavita. JOURNAL OF TROPICAL ECOLOGY (2009) 25: 507-514 Abstract
• Dispersal modes and spatial patterns of tree species in a tropical forest in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. Datta, Aparajita; Rawat, G. S. TROPICAL CONSERVATION SCIENCE (2008) 1: 163-185. On line

Lucia Lohmann

Universidade de São Paulo
Instituto de Biociências
Departamento de Botânica
Rua do Matão, 277
05508-090, São Paulo, SP,
Brasil

Homepage

More about Lucia Lohmann’s research

Recent publications (see also List)

• Alcantara, S. & Lohmann, L. G. (2011) Contrasting phylogenetic signals and evolutionary rates in floral traits of Neotropical lianas. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 102, 378-390.
• Alcantara, S. & Lohmann, L. G. (2010) Evolution of floral morphology and pollination in Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae). American Journal of Botany, 97, 782-796.
• Angyalossy, V., G. Angeles, M.R. Pace, C.L. Dias-Leme, A.C. Lima, L.G. Lohmann & C. Madero-Vega. 2011. An overview on the anatomy, development and evolution of the vascular system of lianas. Plant Ecology and Diversity. (Published online; DOI: 10.1080/17550874.2011.615574).
• Calvente, A., Zappi, D. C., Forest, F. & Lohmann, L. G. (2011) Molecular phylogeny of tribe Rhipsalideae (Cactaceae) and taxonomic implications for Schlumbergera and Hatiora. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 58, 456-468.
• Calvente, A., Zappi, D. C., Forest, F. & Lohmann, L. G. (2011) Molecular phylogeny, evolution, and bioegography of South American epiphytix cacti. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 172, 902-914.
• Elith, J., Graham, C. H., Anderson, R. P., Dudik, M., Ferrier, S., Guisan, A., Hijmans, R. J., Huettmann, F., Leathwick, J. R., Lehmann, A., Li, J., Lohmann, L. G., Loiselle, B. A., Manion, G., Moritz, C., Nakamura, M., Nakazawa, Y., Overton, J. M., Peterson, A. T., Phillips, S. J., Richardson, K., Scachetti-Pereira, R., Schapire, R. E., Soberon, J., Williams, S., Wisz, M. S. & Zimmermann, N. E. (2006) Novel methods improve prediction of species' distributions from occurrence data. Ecography, 29, 129-151.
• Firetti-Leggieri, F., da Costa, I. R., Lohmann, L. G., Semir, J. & Forni-Martins, E. R.(2011) Chromosome Studies in Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae): The First Record of Polyploidy in Anemopaegma. Cytologia, 76, 185-191.
• Forzza, R. C., Baumgratz, J. F. A., Bicudo, C. E. M., Canhos, D. A. L., Carvalho, A. A., Coelho, M. A. N., Costa, A. F., Costa, D. P., Hopkins, M. G., Leitman, P. M., Lohmann, L. G., Lughadha, E. N., Maia, L. C., Martinelli, G., Menezes, M., Morim, M. P., Peixoto, A. L., Pirani, J. R., Prado, J., Queiroz, L. P., Souza, S., Souza, V. C., Stehmann, J. R., Sylvestre, L. S., Walter, B. M. T. & Zappi, D. C. (2012) New Brazilian Floristic List Highlights Conservation Challenges. Bioscience, 62, 39-45.
• Hendry, A. P., Lohmann, L. G., Conti, E., Cracraft, J., Crandall, K. A., Faith, D. P., Hauser, C., Joly, C. A., Kogure, K., Larigauderie, A., Magallon, S., Moritz, C., Tillier, S., Zardoya, R., Prieur-Richard, A. H., Walther, B. A., Yahara, T. & Donoghue, M. J. (2010) Evolutionary biology in biodiversity science, conservation, and policy: a call to action. Evolution, 64, 1517-1528.
• Kaheler, M., F. Michelangeli & L.G. Lohmann. 2012. Phylogeny of Lundia based on molecular and morphological characters. Taxon. 61(2): 368-380
• Lohmann, L. G. (2006) Untangling the phylogeny of neotropical lianas (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae). American Journal of Botany, 93, 304-318.
• Loiselle, B. A., Jorgensen, P. M., Consiglio, T., Jimenez, I., Blake, J. G., Lohmann, L. G. & Montiel, O. M. (2008) Predicting species distributions from herbarium collections: does climate bias in collection sampling influence model outcomes? Journal of Biogeography, 35, 105-116.
• Lorena, A. C., Jacintho, L. F. O., Siqueira, M. F., De Giovanni, R., Lohmann, L. G., de Carvalho, A. & Yamamoto, M. (2012) Comparing machine learning classifiers in potential distribution modelling. Expert Systems with Applications, 38, 5268-5275.
• Marquinez, X., Lohmann, L. G., Salatino, M. L. F., Salatino, A. & Gonzalez, F. (2009) Generic relationships and dating of lineages in Winteraceae based on nuclear (ITS) and plastid (rpS16 and psbA-trnH) sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 53, 435-449.
• Nogueira, A., Guimaraes, E., Machado, S. R. & Lohmann, L. G. (2012) Do extrafloral nectaries present a defensive role against herbivores in two species of the family Bignoniaceae in a Neotropical savannas? Plant Ecology, 213, 289-301.
• Olmstead, R. G., Zjhra, M. L., Lohmann, L. G., Grose, S. O. & Eckert, A. J. (2009) A molecular phylogeny and classification of Bignonicaeae. American Journal of Botany, 96, 1731-1743.
• Pace, M. R., Lohmann, L. G. & Angyalossy, V. (2009) The rise and evolution of the cambial variant in Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae) (vol 11, pg  465, 2009). Evolution & Development, 11, 757-757.
• Pace, M. R., Lohmann, L. G. & Angyalossy, V. (2011) Evolution of disparity etween the regular and variant phloem in Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae). American Journal of Botany, 98, 602-618.
• Sheth, S. N., Lohmann, L. G., Consiglio, T. & Jimenez, I. (2008) Effects of detectability on estimates of geographic range size in bignonieae. Conservation Biology, 22, 200-211.
• Sheth, S.N., L.G. Lohmann, T. Distler & I. Jiménez. 2011. Understanding bias in geographic range size estimates. Global Ecology and Biogeography. (Published online; DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2011.00716.x).
• Umaña, M.N., P.R. Stevenson, S. Alcantara & L.G. Lohmann. 2011. Bignonia corymbosa (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae): A plant who deceives their floral visitors. The International Journal of Plant Reproductive Biology 3(1): 15-22.

Marco Mello

Institute for Experimental Ecology,

Universität Ulm, Biologie 3

Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany

marco.mello@uni-ulm.de

Homepage

Website

More about Marco Mello's research

Recent publications (see also List)

Tatiana Lobato De Magalhaes

Homepage

More about Tatiana Lobato’s research

Nina Farwig

Philipps University of Marburg
Faculty of Biology
Dept. of Ecology - Conservation Ecology
Karl-von-Frisch Straße 8
D-35043 Marburg
Germany

farwig@biologie.uni-marburg.de

Homepage

• Small forest with big impact: fragmented rainforests maintain their ecological functionality
  

More about Nina Farwig’s research

Recent publications (see also List)

• Schleuning, M., N. Farwig, M. K. Peters, T. Bergsdorf, B. Bleher, R. Brandl, H. Dalitz, G. Fischer, W. Freund, M.W. Gikungu, M. Hagen, F. Hita Garcia, G. H. Kagezi, M. Kaib, M. Kraemer, T. Lung, C.M. Naumann, G. Schaab, M. Templin, D. Uster, J.W. Wägele, Katrin Böhning-Gaese (2011) Forest fragmentation and selective logging have inconsistent effects on multiple animal-mediated ecosystem processes in a tropical forest. PLoS ONE 6:e27785.
• Otieno, N.E., N. Gichuki, N. Farwig and S. Kiboi (2011) The role of farm structure on bird assemblages around a Kenyan tropical rainforest. African Journal of Ecology 49:410-417.
• Neuschulz, E.L., A. Botzat, and N. Farwig (2011) Effects of forest modification on bird community composition and seed removal in a heterogeneous landscape in South Africa. Oikos 120:1371-1379.
• Voigt, F.A., N. Farwig, and S.D. Johnson (2011) Interactions between the invasive tree Melia azedarach (Meliaceae) and native frugivores in South Africa. Journal of Tropical Ecology 27:355–363.
• Kirika, J.M., K. Böhning-Gaese, B. Dumbo and N. Farwig (2010): Reduced abundance of late-successional trees but not of seedlings in heavily compared with lightly logged sites of three East African tropical forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology 26: 533-546.
• Farwig, N., D. Bailey, E. Bochud, J.D. Herrmann, E. Kindler, N. Reusser, C. Schüepp and M.H. Schmidt-Entling (2009): Isolation from forest reduces pollination, seed predation and insect scavenging in Swiss farmland. Landscape Ecology 24: 919-927.

Photos (top and bottom) : Costal Scarp Forest in and around Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve embedded in agriculture. (© Nina farwig)

Tom Fayle

Laboratory of Tropical Ecology
University of South Bohemia
Branisovka 31370 05
Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

&

Forest Ecology and Conservation Group
Imperial College, London
Silwood Park Campus
Buckhurst Road, Ascot
Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK

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About Tom Fayle's study

I am interested in why we see certain assemblies of species at particular points in space and time, and what processes these communities of organisms mediate. Much of my work focuses on ant communities in SE Asia, although I am also interested in the ecology of epiphytic plants. During my PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, I investigated the factors determining ant species composition in epiphytic ferns, as well as working to understand the distributional ecology of the ferns themselves. I currently hold postdoctoral positions at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum, London. At Imperial College I am investigating the way that habitat fragmentation in Malaysian Borneo affects ant diversity and the ability of ant communities to mediate ecosystem processes in collaboration with the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems project (www.safeproject.net). I am also involved in assessing rates of termite-mediated wood decomposition on the SAFE project. At the NHM I work on constructing quantitative, spatially explicit below-ground food webs for ant predation on termites in Gabonese rainforest.

Recent papers

• Fayle T.M., Dumbrell A.J., Turner E.C & Foster W.A. (2011) Distributional patterns of epiphytic ferns are explained by the presence of cryptic species. Biotropica 43 (1) 6-7. Abstract
  
• Fayle T.M. & Manica A. (2010). Reducing over-reporting of deterministic co-occurrence patterns in biotic communities. Ecological Modelling 221: 2237-2242.
• Fayle T.M., Turner E.C., Snaddon J.L., Chey V.K., Chung A.Y., Eggleton P.E. & Foster W.A. (2010). Oil palm expansion into rain forest greatly reduces ant biodiversity in canopy, epiphytes and leaf litter. Basic and Applied Ecology 11: 337-345.
• Fayle T.M. & 27 co-authors (2010). A positive relationship between ant biodiversity (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and rate of scavenger-mediated nutrient redistribution along a disturbance gradient in a south-east Asian rain forest. Myrmecological News 14: 5-12.
• Edwards D.P., Ansell F.A., Woodcock P, Fayle T.M., Chey V.K. & Hamer K.C. (2010) Can the failure to punish promote cheating in mutualism? Oikos 119: 45-52.
• Fayle T.M., Chung A.Y.C., Dumbrell A.J., Eggleton P. & Foster W.A. (2009). The Effect of Rain Forest Canopy Architecture on the Distribution of Epiphytic Ferns (Asplenium spp.) in Sabah, Malaysia. Biotropica 41: 676-681.
• Turner E.C., Snaddon J.L., Fayle T.M. & Foster W.A. (2008). Oil Palm Research in Context: Identifying the Need for Biodiversity Assessment. PLoS ONE, 3: e1572.

Seline Meijer

PhD Student
University College Dublin (UCD) and World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
Chitedze Agricultural Research Station
PO Box 30798
Lilongwe 3, Malawi

Email: s.meijer@cgiar.org or seline_meijer@hotmail.com

Seline's profile - Her profile at WWF

More about Seline Meijer's study

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and suffers from high levels of poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation. High population pressures have increased farming intensity and agricultural expansion, which is contributing to deforestation. Declining soil fertility and crop yield seriously challenge the ability of farmers to meet their livelihood needs, causing poverty and food insecurity. The effects of climate change, such as increased droughts and floods, exacerbate these problems. Agroforestry, where trees are planted on farms, has the potential to address these issues. Studies have shown that agroforestry can benefit farmers’ livelihoods by increasing crop yield, income and food security, support biodiversity conservation by providing habitat and reducing deforestation, and mitigate the effects of climate change by storing carbon. However, despite these benefits the adoption of agroforestry has remained relatively low. This study aims to understand the role of farmers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to agroforestry and environmental degradation in the decision making process of agroforestry adoption in Malawi. In particular, it will examine if agroforestry activities can reduce farmers’ incentive to cut down trees in the natural forest, hence reducing deforestation. (Photo : Advising farmers about agroforestry)

This study will use a combination of household surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions as primary data collection methods. In addition, aerial photographs will be analysed for changes in land use over time in the study areas using GIS software and meteorological data is collected to analyse changes in rainfall patterns. (Photo : Village nursery with tree seedlings)

Recent publications

• Meijer S.S. (2011) On the biogeography of biogeographers. Frontiers of Biogeography 3: 39-40.
• Meijer S.S., Whittaker, R.J. & Borges P.A.V. (2011) The effects of land-use change on arthropod richness and abundance on Santa Maria Island (Azores): unmanaged plantations favour endemic beetles. Journal of Insect Conservation 15: 505-522.
• Meijer S.S., Holmgren M. & Van der Putten W.H. (in press) Effects of plant-soil feedback on tree seedling growth under arid conditions. Journal of Plant Ecology.
• Van der Waal C., Kool A., Meijer S.S., Kohi E., Heitkönig I.M.A., de Boer W.F., van Langevelde F., Grant R.C., Peel M.J.S., Slotow R., de Knegt H.J., Prins, H.H.T. & de Kroon H. (2011) Large herbivores may alter vegetation structure of semi-arid savannas through soil nutrient mediation. Oecologia 165: 1095-1107.

(All photos © S. Meijer)

John Kricher

Professor of Biology
Wheaton College
26 East Main Street
Norton, MA 02766

Homepage

Photos (© John Kricher)

About John Kricher's studies

John has conducted Earthwatch-sponsored research on migrant birds on their wintering grounds in Belize and is the author of over 100 papers and articles in scientific journals, magazines, and newspapers.  His most recent book, The Balance of Nature: Ecology’s Enduring Myth, was published by Princeton University Press in spring of 2009. He has also authored Galapagos: A Natural History, published in hard-cover by Smithsonian Institution Press in 2002 and in soft-cover by Princeton University Press in 2006.  Other books include A Neotropical Companion, and three ecology field guides (Eastern Forests, Rocky Mountain and Southwestern Forests, California and Pacific Northwest Forests) in the Peterson series.  His widely used book, A Neotropical Companion has been translated into Spanish through the Birders' Exchange Program of the American Birding Association. He has also done two recorded lecture series, one on dinosaurs and one on ecology, published by Modern Scholar.  He has just completed a textbook, Tropical Ecology, that was published by Princeton University Press in Spring 2011.

John is a Fellow in the American Ornithologists Union and has served as president of the Association of Field Ornithologists, president of the Wilson Ornithological Society, and president of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, and has been a member of the boards of directors of the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, the New Jersey Audubon Society, and the American Birding Association.  He is currently on the Council of the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

John has led trips to many places including Cape May, Block Island, coastal New England, Arizona, the Pacific Northwest, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Panama, and Trinidad.  He has lectured for Linblad Tours of the Galapagos Islands, for Society Expeditions trips to Venezuela, Brazil, and Indonesia, and for Glacier Bay Cruise Lines in Alaska.

John and his wife Martha Vaughan divide their time between Pocasset, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod and Sunbury, Georgia.

Mealy parrot, yellow-crowned amazon,
and dusky headed parrots licking at a clay lick in Ecuador. (© John Kricher)

Liza Comita

Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
The Ohio State University
318 W. 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1293
Email
Homepage

More about Liza Comita’s research

Liza Comita is a plant ecologist interested in the mechanisms driving patterns of diversity, dynamics, and species distributions in both pristine and human-altered forests. Her current research focuses on the regeneration ecology of tropical tree species and how spatial and temporal variation in regeneration dynamics act to maintain diversity and determine species abundance and composition within and across plant communities. She utilizes long-term field studies of forest dynamics combined with statistical techniques, such as maximum likelihood methods, spatially-explicit neighborhood analysis, and hierarchical Bayesian models, to produce insights into the processes driving regeneration and structuring diverse ecological communities. Her primary field site is Barro Colorado Island, Panama, where she has been monitoring seedlings dynamics over the past decade. 

Other recent publications

• Comita, L. S., H. C. Muller-Landau, S. Aguilar and S. P. Hubbell. 2010. Asymmetric density dependence shapes species abundance in a tropical tree community. Science 329: 330-332. Read more
• Comita, L. S., J. Thompson, M. Uriarte, I. Jonckheere, C. D. Canham, and J. Zimmerman. 2010. Interactive effects of land use history and natural disturbance on seedling dynamics in a subtropical forest. Ecological Applications 20: 1270-1284.
• Comita, L. S. and B. M. J. Engelbrecht. 2009. Seasonal and spatial variation in water availability drive habitat associations in a tropical forest. Ecology 90: 2755-2765.
• Comita, L. S. and S. P. Hubbell. 2009. Local neighborhood and species' shade tolerance influence survival in a diverse seedling bank. Ecology 90: 328–334.
• Jones, F. A. and L. S. Comita. 2008. Neighborhood density and genetic relatedness interact to determine fruit set and abortion rates in a tropical tree. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275: 2759-2767.
• Comita, L. S. and G. R. Goldsmith. 2008. Impact of research trails on seedling dynamics in a tropical forest. Biotropica 40: 251–254.
• Engelbrecht, B. M. J., L. S. Comita, R. Condit, S. P. Hubbell, T. Kursar, and M. Tyree. 2007. Drought sensitivity shapes species distribution patterns in tropical forests. Nature 447: 80-82.

José Manuel V. Fragoso

Stanford University Biology
Gilbert Hall Stanford,
CA 94305, United States

Homepage

Blog

• Read J, Fragoso J, Silvius K, Luzar J, et al. (2010) Space, Place, and Hunting Patterns among Indigenous Peoples of the Guyanese Rupununi Region. Journal of Latin American Geography 9(3): 213-243. Abstract

• Rainforests, wildlife preserved by indigenous spiritual beliefs by Keith Rozendal, special to mongabay.com - November 15, 2010

About Joe Fragoso's studies

Despite important advances in international commitments to biodiversity conservation and protected area creation, economic, social and policy drivers continue to rapidly convert tropical ecosystems in an unplanned, unregulated manner. I am interested in identifying natural- and social science-based approaches to the maintenance of ecosystem function in landscapes inhabited and utilized by humans as a means of altering policies that drive biodiversity loss. Since I first began research and conservation efforts in the tropics, my research trajectory has moved from a focus on the ecology of tropical ungulates to increasingly broader research projects incorporating seed dispersal dynamics, indirect interactions between ungulates and insects, plant community ecology, direct and indirect impacts of humans on food webs and ecological communities and the sociology and economics of human societies in the tropics.

North Rupununi, Central Guyana (© Tropicalbio.org)

I now use a complex systems approach to understand interactions, feedbacks and uncertainty in coupled systems, and maintain two core research programs: 1. Scale-dependent interactions and feedbacks in food webs involving large ungulates (including consequences of defaunation and other system impacts by humans); and 2. Significance of human cultural practices and policy contexts for biodiversity dynamics in coupled natural-human systems. My interest in integrating ecological, cultural, political and economic perspectives in conservation efforts in Brazil led to the development of a large-scale interdisciplinary research initiative funded by the US National Science Foundation. This project uses hunting and vertebrate population dynamics as a model system through which to understand the feedbacks between indigenous cultures undergoing socio-economic transitions and their natural environment. Relying on the tools of ecological, social, geographic and mathematical sciences, this research explicitly seeks to both describe ecological dynamics and inform conservation, development and human rights policy at local, national and international levels. The project has recently expanded through a collaboration with the Guyanese NGO Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, and the securing of funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation focused on capacity building and research initiatives with indigenous peoples and the Guyanese government in preparation for REDD and the management of ecosystem services.

Some key references

• Fragoso, J.M.V., Bodmer, R.E. and Silvius, K.M. 2004. Wildlife conservation and management in South and Central America: multiple pressures and innovative solutions. In People in Nature: wildlife conservation in South and Central America, Ed by KM Silvius, RE Bodmer and JMV Fragoso, pp. 1-8. New York: Columbia University Press.

Other links of interest

• Are vertebrate abundance patterns in the Amazon a reflection of the cultural practices of Indigenous peoples? by Jose Manuel V (Joe) Fragoso - Plenary at ATBC2008
• The abundance and diversity of vertebrate frugivores at lanscape levels in Amazonia by José Manuel V. Fragoso, L. Flamarion Oliviera, Kirsten Silvius, Jane Read - Plenary talk at FSD2010

Richard T. Corlett

Professor

Chinese Academy of Sciences,

中国科学院西双版纳热带植物园

Menglun,

Yunnan 666303,

China

Homepage

Recent Article in BIOTROPICA -Volume 43 ( January 2011)

More about Richard Corlett’s research

My obsession with the gray literature started while I was working on my recent book, The Ecology of Tropical East Asia, when it became apparent that the formally published scientific literature on this region represented only a fraction (< 10%?) of the information buried in gray-literature reports from NGOs, government agencies, and consultants, or in unpublished dissertations and theses. More recent work in the region’s peat swamp forests has reinforced this impression: no other ecosystem has had so much written about it in so many inaccessible places! I am currently trying to identify partners, from NGOs, government departments, and my own university, to look into general ways of making this type of information more accessible. Please insist that your own institution puts at least abstracts of dissertations and theses on-line, and that any gray-literature reports you are involved with are properly archived and easily accessible through the Internet. My real research involves terrestrial ecology and biodiversity conservation in tropical East Asia, rain forest biogeography, plant-animal interactions, urban ecology, invasive species, and the impacts of climate change.

Other recent publications

• Corlett, R.T. and R.B. Primack (2011) Tropical Rainforests: An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison. Second Edition. Wiley, UK, In Press.
• Corlett, R.T. (2010) Megafaunal extinctions and their consequences in the tropical Indo-Pacific. In: Haberle, S.G., J. Stevenson & M. Prebble (eds) Terra Australis 32: Altered Ecologies: Fire, Climate and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes. ANU E-Press, Canberra, pp. 117-131.
• Corlett, R.T. (2009) The Ecology of Tropical East Asia. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Other links of interest

• Hunting across Southeast Asia weakens forests' survival, An interview with Richard Corlett by Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com - November 08, 2009
• Frugivory in tropical forests: what don't we know and why do we need to know it? Plenary talk at FSD2010.org

Jessica Deichmann

Research Associate
Rapid Assessment Program
Conservation International
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22202
jessiedeichmann@gmail.com

(Photo : Jessica Deichmann in the field with Phyllomedusa tarsius frog the BDFFP)

New Article in BIOTROPICA

About Jessica Deichmann's Study

My current research interests are fairly broad and lie in tropical amphibian ecology, ecosystem ecology and conservation biology.  Although our understanding of primary productivity in tropical forests has increased leaps and bounds over the last decade, very little work has been done on trophic cascades in tropical terrestrial systems.  Within this framework, I am especially interested in how geomorphology and primary productivity are manifested at higher trophic levels within tropical forests.  This article to be published in Biotropica focuses on one phase of research on the effects of primary productivity and geomorphology on leaf litter herpetofauna communities – specifically their abundance, biomass and species richness – within the forests of the Amazon Basin. (Photo:  juvenile Pristimantis sp. © Jessica Deichmann)

Our work shows that underlying geomorphologic differences across Amazonia are important drivers of herpetofauna biomass, abundance and potentially species richness, and this may be true for other taxa as well.  This knowledge is incredibly important for conservation strategies which must consider compensating for reduced biomass on ancient soils through increased reserve size, particularly as forest fragmentation escalates. 

As a herpetologist working in lowland systems, I have also become interested in disease ecology and the drivers of amphibian decline in lowland tropical areas.  Recent evidence suggests that enigmatic amphibian decline, previously thought to be primarily a montane phenomenon in the Neotropics, is also affecting lowland populations.  Current evidence is contradictory, however, much more information is needed to determine if enigmatic lowland decline is a widespread trend in the Neotropics and what the factors causing decline in lowland forests might be. (Photo:  Coleodactylus amazonicus © Jessica Deichmann)

Jessica Deichmann's Field Sites

Key Papers

• Deichmann, J. L., G. B. Williamson, A. P. Lima and W. A. Allmon.  2010.  A note on amphibian decline in the Neotropical lowlands.  Biodiversity and Conservation
  19:3619-3627.
• Deichmann, J. L., J. Boundy, and G. B. Williamson.  2009.  Anuran artifacts of preservation: 25 years later.  Phyllomedusa 8(1):51-58.
• Deichmann, J. L., W. E. Duellman, and G. B. Williamson.  2008.  Predicting biomass from snout-vent length in New World frogs.  Journal of Herpetology 42(2): 238-245.

Enyaloides laticeps (© Jessica Deichmann)

Websites of interest.

• Conservation International - RAP Biodiversity Survey Network
• Organization for Tropical Studies Graduate Courses

Marco Pizo

Zoology Department
Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Instituto de Biociências, 13506-960,
Rio Claro-SP, BRAZIL

Email

Homepage

Forthcoming Article in BIOTROPICA - Early View

More about Marco Pizo's studies

Marco Pizo is an ecologist interested in frugivory and seed dispersal, with emphasis on frugivorous birds. With fieldwork conducted at the Brazilian Atlantic forest and the Pantanal wetlands of central Brazil, my recent research includes the ecology of seed dispersal in human-modified habitats, such as urban and rural areas. In these areas my studies aim to identify the key species responsible for the movement of seeds within and among forest fragments and urban parks. (Photos : fruits of Erythroxylum deciduum, Erythroxylaceae - left; fruits of Casearia sylvestris, Salicaceae - right. (© Marco Pizo).

Key recent publications :

• Jacomassa, F. A. F. e M. A. Pizo. 2010. Birds and bats diverge in the qualitative and quantitative components of seed dispersal of a pioneer tree. Acta Oecologica 36: 493-496.
• Gasperin, G. e M. A. Pizo. 2009. Frugivory and habitat use by thrushes (Turdus spp., Turdidae) in a suburban area in south Brazil. Urban Ecosystems 12:425–436.
• Pizo, M. A. e M. Almeida Neto. 2009. Determinants of fruit removal in Geonoma pauciflora, an understory palm of neotropical forests. Ecological Research 24: 1179–1186.
• Rother, D. C., R. R. Rodrigues e M. A. Pizo. 2009. Effects of bamboo stands on seed rain and seed limitation in a rainforest. Forest Ecology and Management 257: 885-892.
• Complete Publication List    

Leonel Lopez-Toledo

Ph D, postdoctoral
Division of Applied Plant Ecology
Institute for Conservation Research
San Diego Zoo Global, Ca, USA

Email

Website

Forthcoming Article in BIOTROPICA - Early View

• Conservation Assessment of Guaiacum sanctum and Guaiacum coulteri: Historic Distribution and Future Trends in Mexico by Leonel López-Toledo, Constantino Gonzalez-Salazar, David F.R.P. Burslem and Miguel Martinez-Ramos. Abstract.

More about Leonel Lopez-Toledo's study

Leonel Lopez-Toledo is a plant ecologist currently in a postdoctoral position at the Division of Applied Plant Ecology within the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research in the US.

Leonel Lopez-Toledo is interested in modeling the distribution of endangered tree species to identify areas for protection, sustainable management and restoration. Additionally, Leonel Lopez-Toledo is interested in the population patterns and the demographic effects of current practices of harvesting timber and non-timber forest products from tropical Mexico.  Through these studies Leonel Lopez-Toledo has been able to contribute information for sustainable programs of exploitation.

The research presented in this article emerged as a real concern from the Mexican Scientific authority of CITES (CONABIO).  Given the intensive use of Guaiacum sanctum in Central America and some countries in the Caribbean, it was suspected that the species might be in similar situation in Mexico, as currently it is the only country managing and exporting this timber. Thanks to our research we know the species is not endangered as in other countries and there are large tracts of forest containing the species, especially in the Yucatan Peninsula. We have also evaluated the effects of timber harvesting in several areas of Yucatan Peninsula and have provided several recommendations to improve its management. Thanks to our research the species is still listed in CITES-Appendix II and was not transferred to Appendix-I, as it was proposed years ago. In this way communities from Yucatan Peninsula still can benefit from forest management. Demographic and population dynamics studies are still ongoing and soon we will have strong information to propose a sustainable management of the species.

Other links of interest

• International Expert Workshop on CITES Non-Detriment Findings
• Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP)
• Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas - Áreas Protegidas Decretadas

Laurence Culot

Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho,
Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro,
Departamento de Ecologia.
Av. 24A, 1515, Laboratorio de Biologia da Conservação
Bela Vista 13506-900 - Rio Claro, SP - Brasil

Bio

Recent article in Biotropica

• Tamarins and Dung Beetles: An Efficient Diplochorous Dispersal System in the Peruvian Amazonia (pages 84–92) by Laurence Culot, Darren J. Mann, Fernando J. J. Muñoz Lazo, Marie-Claude Huynen and Eckhard W. Heymann

About Laurence Culot's study

As a zoologist, I was getting rapidly interested by plant – animal interactions, and more specifically by seed dispersal by primates. In my research, I use the behavior as a tool to better understand the ecological processes in which primates are involved. The study of primary seed dispersal by primates pushed me to get interested by each phase of this multi-steps process. I broadened my research field to dung beetle behavior and their role as secondary seed dispersers and to the more botanical aspect of seed germination and seedling emergence. I’m particularly interested by Neotropical primate species from the smallest ones (Callitrichidae: Saguinus fuscicollis (left) Saguinus mystax (right), Leontopithecus chrysopygus), to the largest ones (Atelidae:  Alouatta clamitans, Brachyteles arachnoides). After my PhD research in the Amazonian forest in Peru, I’m now working in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest where I aim at determining the defaunation effect on plant-animal interactions, and more specifically on primate seed dispersal.

Key references

• Culot L, Huynen M-C, Gérard P, Heymann EW. 2009. Short-term post-dispersal fate of seeds defecated by two small primate species (Saguinus mystax and Saguinus fuscicollis) in the Amazonian forest of Peru. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 25:229-238.
• Culot L, Muñoz Lazo FJJ, Huynen M-C, Poncin P, Heymann EW. (2010). Seasonal variation in seed dispersal by tamarins alters seed rain in a secondary rainforest. International Journal of Primatology, 31(4):553-569.
• Culot L, Mann D, Muñoz Lazo FJJ, Huynen M-C, Heymann EW. (2011). Tamarins and dung beetles: an efficient diplochorous dispersal system for forest regeneration. Biotropica 43: 84-92. Abstract
• Muñoz Lazo, FJJ, Culot L, Huynen M-C, Heymann EW. (in press) Effect of tamarin resting patterns (Saguinus fuscicollis and Saguinus mystax) on the spatial distribution of seeds and seedling recruitment. International Journal of Primatology.

José Nuñez-Miño

Email

Project Website

(Photo : © Philip Bethge of Der Spiegel magazine)

• The Caribbean's wonderfully weird (and threatened) mammals, an interview with Jose Nunez-Mino by Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com - January 18, 2010

About  José Nuñez-Miño's studies

José works for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT) running a Darwin Initiative funded project in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) doing research with the aim of conserving the last two endemic non flying land mammals on the Island: the hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus), Right photo) and hispaniolan Hutia (Plagiodontia aedium, left photo). The project is a collaboration between four institutions, two from the Dominican Republic (Sociedad Ornitologica de la Hispaniola and the Dominican Republic National ZOO) and two from the UK (DWCT and the Zoological Society of London) and EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct & Globally Endangered) of existence). There is very little known about our two study species, both are currently listed by the IUCN as endangered. We are establishing some baseline data on their current distribution, habitat association, primary threats and phylogenetics. The project also involves a lot in country capacity building and educational/outreach work. (Photos: © José Nuñez-Miño)

José’s (Photo. © Sabrina Martins) route to becoming a Tropical Ecologist and Conservation Biologist was a far from traditional one. Although his first degree was in Life Sciences (University of Westminster) he then disappeared into the world of business for 15 years although maintained active in conservation as a volunteer. José then went on to do a part-time masters in Environmental Science at Birkbeck College (London) followed by a second full-time Masters in Forest Protection and Conservation at Imperial College (Silwood Park Campus). He worked in Honduras for six years with Operation Wallacea during which time me completed a PhD (University of Oxford) in biodiversity indicators and conservation priorities. José’s research interests are in applied conservation science.

Reference (articles from PhD are forthcoming)

• Cloud forest, Planet Earth, 24-25, Summer 2008

María del Carmen Ruiz-Jaén

PhD Candidate
Biology Department and The Neotropical Environment Option
McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1
maria.ruizjaen@mail.mcgill.ca

Homepage

(Photo : María del Carmen Ruiz-Jaén planting  trees along the Panama Canal Watershed. © M. C. Ruiz-Jean)

Recent Article in BIOTROPICA - November 2010

Tree Diversity Explains Variation in Ecosystem Function in a Neotropical Forest in Panama (pages 638–646) by Maria C. Ruiz-Jaen and Catherine Potvin

More about María del Carmen Ruiz-Jaén's study

While species diversity conditions ecosystem functioning in natural communities like grasslands, the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) in complex and hyperdiverse ecosystems like tropical forests is still unclear.  The Neotropics host a disproportionate amount of biodiversity and tropical forests are believed to store as much as 40% of terrestrial carbon. Thus, I would like to answer the following questions using two tropical forests in Central Panama:

2. How different measures of diversity (species or function) explain tree carbon stocks? Different effects of diversity on ecosystem function will depend on how diversity is measured. For example, due to species redundancies, functional diversity, rather than richness, might affect ecosystem function in tropical forest, since alpha diversity in the tropics is on average 247 species per ha (individuals > 1 cm DBH).

3. How these relationships change with different spatial scales?

4. Can we extrapolate the results of BEF found in experimental plantations to natural forests? Linking tree diversity to carbon storage can provide further motivation to conserve tropical forests and to design carbon-enriched plantations.

Smithsonian Tropical Research institute, Republic of Panama.

(Photos: Above : María del Carmen Ruiz-Jaén measuring soil depth at Fort Sherman ; Right : Forest structure at Sherman showing Palms and Eudicots. © María del Carmen Ruiz-Jaén)

Valéry Gond

Geographer, remote sensing
Forest ecosystems goods and services (research unit 105)
Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD)
34398, Montpellier, France

Photo: Valery Gond taking GPS measurement in French Guiana (© Cécilia Leduc)

Recent article

• Habitat fragmentation and the desiccation of forest canopies: A case study from eastern Amazonia by Gaël Briant, Valéry Gond, Susan G.W. Laurance. Biological Conservation 143, issue 11, page 2763-2769. November 2010.

Valery Gond's study

Valéry Gond is a geographer specialized in remote sensing processing. He worked on European temperate forest and Western African savannas during his PhD and as a Post-Doc. He now focuses on tropical rainforest since he worked in French Guiana for five years. For the last ten year, he has been working for the Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD, France) and is associate professor at Laval University (Canada). His researches focused on forest spatial pattern characterisation using trees functioning or stand structure. He is involved also in the determination of human impact on forest by determining particular activities (mining, logging, agriculture). He is working both in Amazonian and in Central Africa. He regularly publishes in remote sensing and applied forestry reviews. Photo: French Guiana canopy forest (© Valéry Gond).

• More references here
• Other projects in Central Africa Makala - CoForChange

Patricia Balvanera

Website : Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services

Personal page at Aldo Leopold Leadership Program

ESA Focus on Ecologists

Recent Article in BIOTROPICA (Early View)

• Distribution Patterns of Tropical Dry Forest Trees Along a Mesoscale Water Availability Gradient by Patricia Balvanera, Sandra Quijas and Alfredo Pérez-Jiménez

About Patricia Balvanera's study

I have been working in the tropical dry forest for the last 16 years. I am interested in the ecological processes underlying the maintenance of their high diversity, the anthropogenic impacts on both plant diversity and the related ecosystem functioning, as well as the social and ecological processes that drive management decisions and the provision of services to a suite of stakeholders.

Jérôme Orivel

Senior scientist, CNRS
UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane
Campus Agronomique
Kourou, French Guiana

jerome.orivel@ecofog.gf

UMR Ecofog webpage

Former Homepage Lab

Recent  article in BIOTROPICA

• Host-Specific Myrmecophily and Myrmecophagy in the Tropical Coccinellid Diomus thoracicus in French Guiana (pages 622–629) by Amélie Vantaux, Olivier Roux, Alexandra Magro, Nathan Tene Ghomsi, Robert D. Gordon, Alain Dejean and Jérôme Orivel

About Jérôme Orivel's study

Jérôme Orivel's research interests focus on the adaptations of insects, particularly ants, to the characteristics and changes of their environment and their contribution to the dynamics of biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems. His main research projects are currently centred on the evolutionary ecology of ant/plant mutualisms and on the biology of invasive ant species in their native range.

These researches are combining fieldwork and chemical, behavioural and molecular ecology approaches to obtain a global understanding of the evolution and persistence of interspecific interactions. His main study sites are located in French Guiana and he recently joined the UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane in Kourou, French Guiana. (Photo right: Jérôme Orivel measuring vegetative traits of ant-plants at the Nouragues Research Station, French Guiana. © Jérôme Orivel))

The little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, is the focal species of his research on invasive ants. It is one of the most successful invasive species, now present in nearly all tropical regions. Within its native range (i.e. tropical Central and South America), W. auropunctata displays both non-dominant populations, and high-density populations that severely affect the functioning of some ecosystems. Two characteristics seem potentially relevant in explaining the ecological dominance of some W. auropunctata populations within its native range. First, native populations have been shown to display either a haplodiploid reproductive system that is traditional in Hymenopterans, or an unusual clonal reproductive system. Second, due to the increase of human activities in the native range of the species, W. auropunctata populations are increasingly found in contact with human-modified habitats. (Photo  left: a little fire ant nest with a queen and workers. © Jérôme Orivel)

During field samplings, larvae of ladybirds were frequently encountered inside the nests. The study of the biology of these larvae highlighted that it is a specialized parasite of the little fire ant. Besides documenting a new case of myrmecophily in Coccinellids, such results can have further importance in the identification of the regulating factors of this ant species in its native range and/or in the potential existence of mechanisms underlying this specificity. Both perspectives are of interest in the control of the invasive populations of the little fire ant. (Photo right: larva of the myrmecophilous ladybird, Diomus thoracicus, a specialist parasite of the little fire ant brood (See Vantaux et al., Biotropica (2010). © Jérôme Orivel)

Recent publications (on the little fire ant):

• Fournier D., Estoup A., Orivel J., Foucaud J., Jourdan H., Le Breton J. & Keller L. 2005. Clonal reproduction by males and females in the little fire ant. Nature, 435: 1230-1234.
• Grangier J., Le Breton J., Dejean A. & Orivel J. 2007. Coexistence between Cyphomyrmex ants and dominant populations of Wasmannia auropunctata. Behavioural Processes 74: 93–96.
• Le Breton J., Orivel J., Chazeau J. & Dejean A. 2007. Unadapted behaviour of native dominant ant species during the colonization of an aggressive invasive ant. Ecological Research, 22: 107-114.
• Le Breton J., Dejean A., Snelling G. & Orivel, J. 2007. Specialized predation on Wasmannia auropunctata by the army ant Neivamyrmex compressinodis. Journal of Applied Entomology, 131: 740-743.
• Foucaud J., Fournier D., Orivel J., Delabie J.H.C, Loiseau A., Le Breton J., Kergoat G.J. & Estoup A. 2007. Sex and clonality in the little fire ant. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24:2465-2473.
• Orivel J., Grangier J., Foucaud J., Le Breton J., Andrès F.X., Jourdan H., Delabie J.H.C., Fournier D., Cerdan P., Estoup A., Facon B., Dejean A. 2009. Ecologically heterogeneous populations of the invasive ant Wasmannia auropunctata within its native and introduced ranges. Ecological Entomology, 34:504-512.
• Foucaud J., Orivel J., Fournier D., Delabie J.H.C., Loiseau A., Le Breton J., Cerdan P. & Estoup A. 2009. Reproduction system, social organization, human disturbance and ecological dominance in native populations of the little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata. Molecular Ecology, 18:5059-5073.
• Foucaud J., Estoup A., Loiseau A., Rey O. & Orivel J. 2010. Thelytokous parthenogenesis, male clonality and genetic caste determination in the little fire ant: new evidence and insights from the lab. Heredity, 105: 205-212.
• Foucaud, J., Orivel J., Loiseau A., Delabie J.H.C, Jourdan H., Konghouleux D., Vonshak M., Tindo M., Mercier J.L., Fresneau D., Mikissa J.B., McGlynn T., Mikheyev A.S., Oettler J. & Estoup A. 2010. Worldwide invasion by the little fire ant: routes of introduction and eco-evolutionary pathways. Evolutionary Applications, doi:10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00119.x.
• Vantaux A., Roux O., Magro A., Tene Ghomsi N., Gordon R.D., Dejean A. & Orivel J. 2010. Host-specific myrmecophily and myrmecophagy in the tropical coccinellid Diomus thoracicus. Biotropica, 42: 622-629.

On the Web

• CNRS Portal : Days in the canopy in Panama

G. Bruce Williamson

Professor of Tropical Ecology,
Dept. of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808
&
Professor Credenciado,
Coordenação de Pesquisas em Ecologia, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia,
Manaus, Amazonas, BR

btwill@lsu.edu

Homepage

[Bruce is former Biotropica Curator]

Recent article in BIOTROPICA

• Age-Dependent Radial Increases in Wood Specific Gravity of Tropical Pioneers in Costa Rica (pages 590–597) by G. Bruce Williamson & Michael C. Wiemann

About Bruce Williamson's study

The Pioneers Project of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) is focused on tropical forest regeneration, the functional traits of trees, and the land use patterns that interact with natural processes to determine local species assemblies and successional trajectories.  One trait, wood specific gravity (SG), is a powerful predictor of plant growth rates, trunk strength properties and tree survival rates because it measures the allocation of biomass per unit volume to support.  Tropical pioneer species exhibit exceptionally low wood specific gravities, less than one-third the SG of mature forest species.  Furthermore, pioneers produce even lower SG wood as juveniles, leaving them at greater risk of structural failure; subsequently, SG increases into adulthood, achieving greater stability later in life. 

In tropical wet forests,  pioneers such as Ochroma, Cecropia and Trema, increase wood SG 2-3 fold from saplings to adults.  Recently we suggested that this radial variation in wood SG is regulated by tree age, not by tree size, during development (Williamson & Wiemann 2010, Biotropica 42:590-597).  Age versus size dependence has significant consequences for standing biomass estimates, forest regeneration rates, and tropical plantation forestry.

In our studies of succession, we share cross-site collaborations with groups  working in Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil, in order to determine generalities and differences across the neotropics.  What trends are shared and what patterns are unique in tropical successions?  (see www.neoselvas.org)

Relevant publications

• Williamson, G.B., & M.C. Wiemann.  2010.  Age-dependent radial increases in wood specific gravity of tropical pioneers.  Biotropica 42: 590-597. Abstract.
• Williamson, G. B., & M. C. Wiemann.  2010.  Measuring wood specific gravity...correctly.  American Journal of Botany 97: 519-524.
• R.C.G. Mesquita, K. Ickes, G. Ganade, & G.B. Williamson.  2001.  Alternative successional pathways following deforestation in the Amazon Basin.  Journal of Ecology 89:528-537.
• Castro, F. de, G.B. Williamson, & R. Moraes de Jesus.  1993.  Radial variation in the wood specific gravity of Joannesia Princeps: the role of age and diameter.  Biotropica 25: 176-182. JSTOR
• Rueda, R., & G.B. Williamson.  1992.  Radial and vertical wood specific gravity in Ochroma pyramidale (Cav. ex Lam.) Urb. (Bombacaceae).  Biotropica 24: 512-518. JSTOR
• Wiemann, M.C., & G.B. Williamson. 1989. Radial gradients in the specific gravity ofwood in some tropical and temperate trees. Forest Science 35: 197-210.
• Wiemann, M.C., & G.B. Williamson. 1989. Wood specific gravity gradients in tropical dry and montane rain forest trees. American Journal of Botany 76: 924-928.

Websites

• NeoSelvas Group
• Forest Products Lab, Center for Wood Anatomy Research
• Pioneers Project at BDFFP
• Lessons from Amazonia: The Ecology and Conservation of a Fragmented Forest by R. O. Bierregaard, Jr., C. Gascon, T. E. Lovejoy, & R. Mesquita, Editors

Navjot S. Sodhi (1962-2011)

Department of Biological Science
National University of Singapore
14 Science Drive 4
Singapore 117543

(Photo : Conservation Ecology Laboratory)

Navjot S. Sodhi was a Professor of Conservation Ecology at the National University of Singapore. An editor of Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, and Animal Conservation, Navjot received his Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

He has written/edited several books/monographs such as Southeast Asian Biodiversity in Crisis (2006, Cambridge University Press), Tropical Conservation Biology (2007, Blackwell) and Conservation Biology for All (2010, Oxford, UK).

A recipient of the National Geographic Society grants, Navjot has also spent time at Harvard as Bullard Fellow and Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellow, where he was an adjunct associate.

• Navjot Sodhi, ATBC councillor (2010-2011)
• The Loss of Our Council Member, Professor Navjot Sodhi
• Memorial Fund for Dr. Navjot Sodhi
• Conservation of Tropical Birds, an edited volume by Navjot S. Sodhi, Cagan H. Sekercioglu, Jos Barlow and Scott Robinson.
• Conservation Biology for All, an edited volume by Navjot S. Sodhi and Paul R. Ehrlich.

Cagan Hakki Sekercioglu

Assistant Professor

Department of Biology

The University of Utah

Utah's Global Change & Ecosystem Center

Cagan Sekercioglu’s work integrates research on bird ecology, conservation and biogeography with community-based bird conservation, habitat restoration, ornithological education, and capacity-building He has compiled the most comprehensive database on the ecology of world’s birds and is among the most cited 1% of scientists of the past decade in ecology and environmental science. For his bird conservation efforts, Dr. Sekercioglu received the 2008 Whitley Gold Award for grassroots conservation from HRH Princess Anne of the United Kingdom. Sekercioglu has visited over 60 countries on all continents to study and photograph birds and has seen more than half the bird species of the world in the wild.

• Mongabay.com's Interview
• Conservation of Tropical Birds - Sodhi, Sekercioglu, Barlow & Robinson
• Winged Sentinels: Birds and Climate Change - Wormworth & Sekercioglu
•  KuzeyDoga

Harald Beck

Curator of the Mammal Museum
Department of Biological Sciences
Towson University
Towson, MD 21252 USA

hbeck@towson.edu

Homepage

Personal Page at Townson University

Mongabay.com's Interview : How the overlooked peccary engineers the Amazon, an interview with Harald Beck by Jeremy Hance - September 20, 2010

• Estación Biológica Cocha Cashu, Peru

More about Harald's Beck

Harald Beck's primary research interests include mammal-plant interaction, multi trophic-level interactions, and ecosystem engineering. His main study sites are located within the Peruvian Amazonas. He has worked on the effects of natural disturbances such as treefall gaps on small mammal community and diversity. Employing long-term exclosure experiments he quantified the consequences of seed predation by mammals of different body sizes. More recently, he has focused on the impacts of peccaries on the seedling and fern communities. (Peccaries on river bank at Cocha Cashu. © Harald Beck).

In addition, Harald Beck is testing if peccary function as ecosystem engineers by creating and maintaining wallows, terrestrial water bodies which could be crucial breeding and foraging habitats for invertebrate and vertebrate taxa. (Identification of fishes from wallows. © Harald Beck).

Together with his graduate students he is interested in a wide range of research topics. For example, with Jim Bressette, they are investigating the tropic cascading effects of high deer densities in Virginia. With Chara Batchelder, they are evaluating how Lyme disease spreads within mammal populations across Maryland. In collaboration with Caitlin Graff they are quantifying the mammalian communities in stormwater retention ponds and the effects of the surrounding land use.

Students working in a wallow at the field station Cocha Cashu. © Harald Beck

Recent key papers

• Beck, H., P. Thebpanya, & M. Filiaggi. 2010. Do Neotropical peccary species(Tayassuidae) function as ecosystem engineers for anurans? Journal of Tropical Ecology 26:407-414.
• Paine, C.E.T. & H. Beck. 2007. Seed predation by Neotropical rainforest mammals increases diversity in seedling recruitment. Ecology 88:3073-3087.
• Beck, H. 2006. A review of peccary-palm interactions and their ecological ramifications across the Neotropics. Journal of Mammalogy 87:519-530.

Book

• Linking Amazon Forest Dynamics with Mammalian Diversity
  
  

Book Chapters

For pictures & videos follow the link:

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0920-hance_beck.html

Kimberly Williams-Guillén

Acting Assistant Professor
University of Washington Bothell
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Box 358530
18115 Campus Way NE
Bothell, WA 98011-8246
Phone (425) 352-5410

Recent Article in BIOTROPICA - September 2010

Effects of Agricultural Intensification on the Assemblage of Leaf-Nosed Bats (Phyllostomidae) in a Coffee Landscape in Chiapas, Mexico (pages 605–613) by Kimberly Williams-Guillén and Ivette Perfecto

More about Kimberly Williams-Guillén's study

My main research interests involve the role of matrix habitats (the disturbed, human-managed areas that surround primary habitat) in biodiversity conservation in the Neotropics. I focus on mammalian diversity and its ecological function in agricultural systems in Central America. Since 2006 I have been working with a research group from the University of Michigan in Finca Irlanda, a shade coffee plantation in southern Mexico, where I have studied bat diversity and ecosystem function.  (Photo : Kim Williams-Guillén (center right) and Bat Conservation International’s Merlin Tuttle (center left) admire a male spectral bat (Vampyrum spectrum) captured during a workshop on bat study methods conducted for Nicaraguan researchers in April 2008.  ©  Paula Tuttle.)

My research considers both the relationship between agricultural management intensity on bat assemblage structure, and the effects of bat predation on arthropod populations and levels of herbivory in agroecosystems.  My current research in Mexico focuses on the use of arboreal roosts by bats in shade coffee, and on the use of molecular methods to describe the diets of insectivorous bats in these agroforestry systems. (Photo : The common big-eared bat, Micronycteris microtis, plays an important role in limiting insect populations found on coffee plants.  These insectivorous bats hunt by snatching prey like katydids and caterpillars directly from leaves and the ground.  These “foliage-gleaning” bats are particularly sensitive to intensification in coffee plantations, and are not found in plantations with very low shade cover. © Kim Williams-Guillén)

I received my Ph.D. in 2003 from New York University.  For my dissertation, I studied the ecology of mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) living in a shade coffee plantation in Mombacho Volcano, Nicaragua.  This research demonstrated that shade coffee plantations serve as core habitat for these forest-adapted mammals. (Photo : A diverse shade coffee plantation in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico.  The maintenance of a structurally and taxonomically diverse tree canopy in traditional shade coffee systems provides habitat for native biodiversity, facilitates dispersal between patches of undisturbed habitat, supports ecosystem functions such as predation on pest insects within the coffee plantations, dampens the effects of extreme weather events, and provides additional income for coffee producers.  © Kim Williams-Guillén)

From June 2003 to July 2004, I was a postdoctoral researcher for the Saint Louis Zoo, based in Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in northern Nicaragua.  I collaborated with indigenous Miskito and Mayangna residents in Bosawás to study the population status and subsistence hunting of large mammals and birds. I am a research scientist with Paso Pacífico, an NGO dedicated to conservation of Nicaragua’s remaining fragments of tropical dry forest. I am working with Paso Pacífico to develop long-term biodiversity monitoring and conservation programs for wildlife in the highly fragmented landscape of southwestern Nicaragua. 

Bats have a bad reputation in Latin America, thanks to the presence of vampire bats; many people are surprised to learn of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bats, such as seed dispersal, pollination, and pest control.  Environmental education in local communities, such as this informal “bat day” at a primary school located in a coffee plantation, provide a venue for sharing research results with local stakeholders. Photo by Kim Williams-Guillén.

As of October 2010 I also serve as a subject editor for BIOTROPICA.

Krista McGuire

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Barnard College,
Columbia University
3009 Broadway, New York, U.S.A.

Contact

Homepage

Krista McGuire and Black-handed Spider Monkey Ateles geoffroyi on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. (© Krista McGuire).

About Krista McGuire's study

Krista McGuire studies the factors that structure the composition and function of terrestrial soil fungi in tropical forest ecosystems and how these relationships are impacted by global change. Soil fungi cycle the majority of plant-derived compounds through the ecosystem, but we know little about their diversity and biogeography. This is particularly true in tropical rain forests, where the majority of scientific research is focused on plants and other macroscopic taxa.  (Stinkhorn fungus from dipterocarp forest in Sarawak, Malaysia. © Krista McGuire).

There are three major facets to Krista McGuire's research:

• investigating how ectomycorrhizal fungi influence tree diversity patterns in low versus high-diversity forest;
• studying the local and global factors that influence microbial biogeography, microbial community composition, and ecosystem function; 
• evaluating how these patterns and processes are impacted by global changes such as deforestation and climate change.

Much of Krista McGuire's work has been conducted in Guyana, but current projects include field sites across the isthmus of Panama and the dipterocarp forests of Malaysia. (Patamona Amerindian in Guyana holding ectomycorrhizal fungi. © Krista McGuire).

In addition to tropical field work, Krista McGuire is also interested in issues related to women in science. In tropical ecology, women experience unique barriers associated with the rigors of tropical field work. In some countries, there are also cultural obstacles that may prevent single females from successfully and safely leading field expeditions.

As a member of the gender committee, Krista McGuire hopes to bring more awareness to this topic and work within the ATBC to find productive solutions to some of these problems.

Monodominant Dicymbe corymbosa (Caesalpiniaceae) tree in rain forest of Guyana. (© Krista McGuire).

Susan G. W. Laurance

Tropical Leader in Rainforest Ecology
Senior Lecturer
School of Marine and Tropical Biology
James Cook University
Cairns Qld 4878

Recent paper

• Habitat fragmentation and the desiccation of forest canopies: A case study from eastern Amazonia by Gaël Briant, Valéry Gond, Susan G.W. Laurance. Biological Conservation 143, issue 11, page 2763-2769. November 2010.

More about Sue Laurance's study

Susan Laurance is a landscape ecologist interested in the spatial patterns of species and communities across natural and human-disturbed landscapes. Her research focuses on both ecological processes and traits of individual species, in order to understand which species are vulnerable to extinction in disturbed environments. She has studied the effects of habitat fragmentation, wildlife corridors, roads, logging and climate change on plant and wildlife communities in a variety of tropical environments. Susan began her career in Australian rainforests but has lived and worked since 1996 in Brazil, Panama, and Mauritius. She is a former postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Brazil’s Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (Photo below) and a current member of the executive council of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.

Photo : Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Central Amazonia, Brasil. © Tom Lovejoy.

Daniel H. Janzen

Professor of Biology
Thomas G. and Louise E. DiMaura Term Chair
Department of Biology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

BIOTROPICA SPECIAL SECTION: 2010 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF BIODIVERSITY

Hope for Tropical Biodiversity through True Bioliteracy (pages 540–542) by Daniel H. Janzen

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About Dan Janzen's Study

Why do caterpillars eat the species of plants they eat? Why do parasitoids (wasps and flies) eat the species of caterpillars they eat? And why are they so choosy in a complex dry forest, rain forest and cloud forest in northwestern Costa Rica called Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG)? I have long pursued these questions because I am curious about answers to them. But the answers, and the research processes themselves, also have very broad application to how one may use the biodiversity of a large and complex conserved tropical wildland without destroying it - in other words, biodiversity development.

How can we insure that serious samples of tropical wildlands, and all of their biodiversity, are still with us centuries from now? Through non-destructive use of lands explicitly allocated to this land use; they need to pay their bills to society. But to use biodiversity without damage requires detailed natural history knowledge, tracking of demography, and ecosystem-level understanding. And to use requires users and open iterative communication with them.

Read More

• National System of Conservation Areas in Costa Rica (SINAC)
• Guanacaste National Park in Costa Rica
• The Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF)
• "Insects That Can't Beat Them Scare Them" by Sean B. Carroll from The New York Times.
• "A Simple Plan to ID Every Creature on Earth" by Gary Wolf from Wired Magazine.

Illustrations: 100 caterpillars: portraits from the tropical forests of Costa Rica by Jeff C. Miller, Daniel H. Janzen, and Winifred Hallwachs. 2010. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press ; 100 Butterflies and Moths: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica by Jeff C. Miller, Daniel H. Janzen, and Winifred Hallwachs. 2007. Harvard University Press; Costa Rican Natural History by Daniel H. Janzen (Editor). 1983. University of Chicago Press. Book cover of Molecular Ecology Resources Special Issue, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.