Dissertation Research: A Test of Metapopulation Incidence Function Parameters: Comparison of Predictions from Census Data and from Experimental Data

9901928 Horvitz&Amp；Beck-Kin本研究调查了蝙蝠传播种子和河流曲折演替对秘鲁亚马孙马努生物圈保护区用材树Calophyllum brasiliense种群动态的影响。当河流蜿蜒流过时，形成了一个山脊和洼地系统，形成了新的开阔土壤区域。空间结构的景观可能有利于特定类型的种子传播系统。这项研究将结合现场数据和模型来调查蝙蝠作为传播剂的作用：它们是通过距离(殖民)还是通过种子沉积的特殊性(定向传播)来提供优势？实地研究将调查：(1)栖息地类型的空间关系和河流创造新栖息地的速度；(2)在不同栖息地类型的研究小区中，巴西梭子蟹的补充需求、存活、生长和繁殖率；(3)蝙蝠创造的种子沉积模式，包括直接观测和无线电遥测。蝙蝠对大种子热带树种的益处从未被彻底研究过，尽管许多大种子热带树木依靠蝙蝠来散布种子。尽管河流曲折可能是整个亚马逊流域演替过程的主要原因，但由河流曲折驱动的热带雨林动态比树木砍伐林隙动态得到的研究要少得多。了解巴西松材线虫的扩散、补充和人口统计学将有助于将其作为一种可持续的木材资源进行开发。

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.