International Research Fellow Awards Program: Beetle and Bird Biodiversity Under Different Coffee Cultivation Regimes in Central Veracruz, Mexico

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0076201GordonThe 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. Caleb E. Gordon with 12 months of support to work with Dr. Juan Francisco Ornelas at the Instituto de Ecologia in Xalapa, Mexico.Dr. Gordon will investigate biodiversity persistence under five coffee cultivation systems in Veracruz, Mexico. He will sample birds and beetles as biodiversity indicators in cultivation systems ranging from low to high alteration of the original forest. The potential compatibility between the cultivation of a major cash crop and native biodiversity represents an important opportunity to develop management plans that satisfy both the socioeconomic needs of developing nations and the needs of biological conservation. To design such plans, it is necessary to understand the effects of different coffee cultivation strategies on biodiversity.Central Veracruz is an ideal arena to examine this question of biodiversity persistence under different coffee cultivation regimes, as it is one of the country's major coffee production centers and has a high level of diversity. Dr. Ornelas has expertise in bird ecology, natural history, and vocalization.