Doctoral Dissertation Research: Is Habitat Change a Cause of Demographic Collapse for the Milne-Edwards Sifaka?

环境变化可以增加或减少灵长类动物食物的丰富度、可用性和质量。然而，关于栖息地干扰对灵长类动物种群的影响，科学界得到了相互矛盾的结果。本研究旨在研究栖息地干扰对马达加斯加拉诺马法纳国家公园（RNP）大型热带雨林狐猴Milne-Edwards狐猴（Propithecus diadema edwardsi）生态和行为的影响。本项目将综合运用多种研究方法，对原始林和受干扰林点内的鼠尾草种群之间的差异进行研究：1)食物种类的可得性和丰度；2)动物密度；3)饮食选择和化学成分；4)活动预算和范围模式；5)社会结构和行为。这项为期一年的研究将证明哪些资源对丙古动物的生存是重要的，以及该分类单元采用的最大化生存和繁殖成功的策略。目前，科学文献中很少有关于生境干扰对动物种群影响的比较研究。然而，由于栖息地的干扰和破坏正在以迅速加速的速度改变森林，了解和预测这些变化的影响的能力将塑造世界生物多样性的未来。鉴于其庞大的体型和缓慢的生活史，准确的种群密度估计和了解栖息地干扰影响的能力将是未来保护和管理计划的关键，也是许多其他热带森林物种生存的关键。由于RNP是一种自然实验，通过它来研究栖息地变化的影响，本项目收集的数据将有助于评估文献中提出的许多关于栖息地干扰的理论论点，并增加我们对动物与其环境之间关系的理解。该项目将为马达加斯加国家公园管理局（ANGAP）提供急需的关于森林和动物群落如何应对栖息地变化和森林再生的信息。这些信息将有助于马达加斯加境内保护区的选择和管理，并为评估这些地区的健康状况提供新的信息。狐猴密度的数据将有助于改进狐猴种群的估计，因为这个项目的估计将考虑到栖息地的干扰程度。这些数据对保护工作至关重要，因为这些数据将提醒ANGAP和国际社会注意高风险地区。该项目还将扩大当地开展科学研究和保护教育项目的能力，因为10名当地研究助理和4名马达加斯加研究生将积极参与该研究项目。

Environmental changes can increase or decrease primate food abundance, availability, and quality. Yet, the scientific community has received conflicting results as to the effect that habitat disturbance has on primate populations. This study will investigate the effects of habitat disturbance on the ecology and behavior of a large-bodied rainforest lemur, the Milne-Edwards sifaka (Propithecus diadema edwardsi) in Ranomafana National Park (RNP), Madagascar. Using a combination of methodologies, this project will investigate how: 1) food species availability and abundance, 2) animal densities, 3) diet selection and chemical content, 4) activity budgets and ranging patterns, and 5) social structure and behavior differ between groups of Propithecus within primary and disturbed forest sites. This year-long study will demonstrate which resources are important for Propithecus survival, the strategies that this taxon employs to maximize survival and reproductive success. Currently, the scientific literature contains very few comparative studies addressing the effects of habitat disturbance on animal populations. However, as habitat disturbance and destruction are altering forests at a rapidly accelerating pace, the ability to understand and predict the impact of these changes will shape the future of the world's biodiversity. Given their large body size and slow life history, accurate population density estimates and the ability to understand the effects of habitat disturbance will be key to future conservation and management plans, and the survival of Propithecus and many other tropical forest species. As RNP represents a natural experiment, through which to study the effects of habitat change, the data collected during this project will help to evaluate many of the theoretical arguments on habitat disturbance that have been proposed in the literature and increase our understanding of the relationship between animals and their environments.This project will provide Madagascar's National Park Service (ANGAP) with much needed information on the ways that forests and animal communities respond to habitat change and forest regeneration. Such information will be useful in the selection and management of protected areas within Madagascar, and provide new information with which the health of these areas can be assessed. Data on lemur densities will help to refine lemur population estimates, as estimates in this project will take level of habitat disturbance into account. Such data are vital to conservation efforts, as these data will alert ANGAP and the international community to high risk areas. This project will also expand local capacity to conduct scientific research and conservation education programs, as ten local research assistants and four Malagasy graduate students will participate actively in the research program.