International Research Fellow Awards Program: Boundary Analysis of Mammal Densities in Protected, Pastoral and Agropastoral Landscapes in Western Tanzania

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

0076213CoppolilloThe International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will provide Dr. Peter Coppolillo with support for twenty-four months to work with Dr. Simon Mduma at the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre in Tanzania.The goal of this project is to understand the factors limiting species' distributions in semi-natural habitats. The researchers will examine the effects of livestock grazing intensity (resource competition), human presence (interference competition), wood cutting (habitat modification), and landscape change from cultivation (fragmentation). Specifically, they will structure sampling using a boundary model, which examines transitions between landscape units (protected, pastoral and agropastoral areas). Data will be analyzed using multiple logistic regression and principal components analysis. This work will provide an important observational basis for understanding the effects of semi-natural matrix habitat on protected areas. This will help disaggregate the factors affecting large mammal distributions and identify key variables for future experimental investigation. Results will provide insights helpful to protected area management and for community-based conservation.Dr. Mduma is director of the Serengeti Biodiversity Program (SBP) located in Arusha, Tanzania. The location of this project, the Rukwa Valley is an ideal site because of its local salience and because it will provide important ecological data on an underrepresented ecosystem, Miombo woodlands. ***