DISSERTATION RESEARCH: What is the fate of a silent forest? The role of avian seed dispersal and insectivory in plant recruitment on Guam.

森林系统中的鸟类吃昆虫和水果，将种子散布在整个森林中。 如果鸟类对健康森林的运作至关重要，那么目前全球鸟类数量的减少可能会导致多米诺骨牌效应，导致全球森林的崩溃。 本研究旨在确定鸟类对森林群落的重要性，采用自然实验：研究比较了关岛和塞班岛、天宁岛和罗塔岛之间的种子传播和昆虫控制模式，关岛的所有鸟类都已被入侵的棕色树蛇从功能上消灭，而塞班岛、天宁岛和罗塔岛的鸟类种群相对健康。 所使用的技术将包括种子诱捕、增加种子和幼苗以模拟扩散，以及在有鸟和无鸟的成对地区进行实验（在那里使用网来阻止鸟类）。 这项研究解决了基本的生态问题，包括传播是否对确定森林树种多样性很重要，以及食虫鸟类是否可以控制森林系统中的昆虫种群。 鉴于森林产品每年为全球经济提供数千亿美元，而昆虫是最大的害虫和疾病载体，这项工作的结果将为地方到全球范围的管理提供信息。

Birds in forest systems eat insects and consume fruit, dispersing seeds throughout the forest. If birds are critical to the functioning of a healthy forest, then the current global decline in birds may lead to a domino effect, causing the breakdown of forests worldwide. This study aims to determine the importance of birds to forest communities using a natural experiment: the research compares patterns in seed dispersal and control of insects between the island of Guam, where all birds have been functionally extirpated by the invasive Brown Treesnake, and the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota, which have relatively healthy bird populations. Techniques used will include seed trapping, seed and seedling additions to simulate dispersal and experiments in paired areas with and without birds (where netting is used to keep out birds). The research addresses basic ecological questions including whether dispersal is important for determining forest tree species diversity and whether insectivorous birds can control insect populations in forest systems. Given that forest products provide hundreds of billions of dollars to the global economy each year, and insects are the largest pests and vectors of disease, the results from this work will inform management from local to global scales.