Dissertation Research: The Effect of Seed Dispersal by Bats on Population Dynamics of a Canopy Tree in a Spatially Explicit River Meander Landscape

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9901928Horvitz & Beck-KingThis study investigates the effects of seed dispersal by bats and river meander succession on the population dynamics of a timber tree, Calophyllum brasiliense, in the Manu Biosphere Reserve of Amazonian Peru. As a river meanders, a system of ridges and depressions develops that creates new open soil areas. A spatially structured landscape may favor a particular type of seed dispersal system. This study will combine field data and modeling to investigate the role of bats as dispersal agents: do they confer advantage by distance (colonization) or by the specificity of seed deposition (directed dispersal)? Field studies will investigate: (1) spatial relationships of habitat types and rate of new habitat creation by the river; (2) recruitment requirements, rates of survival, growth and reproduction of C. brasiliense, in study plots of differing habitat types; (3) seed deposition patterns created by bats, including direct observations and radio telemetry. The benefit that bats provide to large-seeded tropical tree species has never been thoroughly studied, even though many large-seeded tropical trees depend on bats to disperse their seeds. Tropical rainforest dynamics driven by river meanders have received much less study than tree-fall gap dynamics, although river meanders may be a predominant cause of successional processes throughout the Amazon basin. Understanding dispersal, recruitment and demography of C. brasiliense will have applications to its exploitation as a sustainable timber resource.