Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of Heterogeneous Landscapes on Habitat Selection, Dispersal, and Population of Dynamics of Tropical Small Mammals

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9901993GainesMany studies have suggested that habitat selection in tropical rainforest is more pronounced than in temperate areas. The availability of resources can affect an animal's choice of habitat and its distribution and there are numerous model of habitat selection that predict how individuals are distributed and how they disperse or move through patches of various qualities. Small mammals are idea for studying and test this idea. This study will use the tropical rain forests at the Cochu Cashu biological station in Peru, to test two alternative models of habitat selection, ideal free and ideal despotic distribution, and their associated dispersal patterns for small mammals that inhabit resource rich treefall gaps and the potentially less suitable understory. A two-year trapping program coupled with radio telemetry will be used to assess fitness components within and movement between these two habitats in three species of small mammals. Food supplementation experiments will determine whether food is a major factor for habitat selection. Results of this study will be of interest to evolutionary ecologists, and may have implications for conservation and management of small mammals in forest reserves.