DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Do mesoherbivores drive Neotropical rainforest understory insectivorous bird declines by limiting availability of preferred foraging microhabitat?

论文研究：中食草动物是否通过限制首选觅食微生境的可用性而导致新热带雨林林下食虫鸟类的减少？

• 批准号: 1010952
• 负责人: Thomas Sherry
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: Tulane University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2012-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1010952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Do; mesoherbivores; drive

Tropical birds are highly vulnerable to forest fragmentation, and declines are often attributed to the direct effects of decreased habitat size. However these birds have nearly disappeared from some large forest fragments, but persist in smaller nearby reserves. Mechanisms other that habitat size proposed to account for these declines (food-limitation, dispersal-limitation and nest predation) also fail to explain the puzzling patterns observed in several tropical forests. The proposed research investigates a new, alternative hypothesis to account for bird declines in large habitat patches that has three key components: (1) understory insectivorous birds prefer to forage in dense woody vines called lianas; (2) collared peccaries suppress liana densities, and (3) loss of suitable habitat and, consequently, bird populations correspond with peccary densities. The study will test the three components of this hypothesis in central Panama, where both focal bird populations and lianas have increased while peccary densities remain low.Results from this project have immediate conservation applications in reserves across Central America. The graduate student involved is bilingual and plans to engage local land owners and managers in Panama in the project. Outreach to local communities will include bird identification and bird banding demonstrations. Undergraduate students from groups typically underrepresented in science will also be trained through participation in this research.

热带鸟类非常容易受到森林破碎化的影响，其数量减少往往是由于栖息地面积缩小的直接影响。然而，这些鸟类几乎从一些大型森林片段中消失，但在附近较小的保护区中仍然存在。其他机制，栖息地的大小，提出这些下降（食物限制，扩散限制和巢捕食）也无法解释在几个热带森林中观察到的令人困惑的模式。拟议的研究调查了一个新的替代假设，以解释鸟类在大型栖息地斑块中的下降，该斑块有三个关键组成部分：（1）林下食虫鸟类喜欢在称为藤本植物的密集木质藤本植物中觅食;（2）有领野猪抑制藤本植物密度，以及（3）失去合适的栖息地，因此，鸟类种群与野猪密度相对应。该研究将在巴拿马中部测试这一假设的三个组成部分，在那里，重点鸟类种群和藤本植物都有所增加，而野猪密度仍然很低。参与的研究生会讲两种语言，并计划让巴拿马当地的土地所有者和管理者参与该项目。对当地社区的外联活动将包括鸟类识别和鸟类环志示范。来自科学领域通常代表性不足的群体的本科生也将通过参与这项研究进行培训。