DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Modeling Bird and Bat Mediated Pest Control Services Across Costa Rican Countryside

在世界范围内，农业生产正在迅速扩大。除了侵占森林，工业化农业将传统的几种作物的农场和点缀的树木转变为单一作物的广阔田地。野生动物通常在传统的低密度景观中存在，但在密集的种植园中消失。这些物种中有许多在农业生态系统中发挥着关键作用，它们消耗有害昆虫。咖啡是仅次于石油的第二大贸易商品，而一种小甲虫，咖啡浆果蛀虫（Hypothenemus hampei），是其最具破坏性的害虫。该项目调查了传统上散布在哥斯达黎加咖啡种植园中的原生树木和小森林斑块的损失是否会影响蝙蝠和鸟类对咖啡浆果蛀虫的控制。该项目利用新的分子方法来检测从哥斯达黎加咖啡种植园收集的蝙蝠和鸟类粪便样本中的咖啡果蛀虫。在确定哪些鸟类和蝙蝠物种吃浆果蛀虫后，将开发一个害虫控制模型，以确定农民期望从蝙蝠和鸟类介导的害虫控制中获得最大利益的地点和条件（例如附近树木覆盖量）。虫害控制如何随着农业实践的变化而变化仍不清楚，目前还不可能预测未来的虫害管制。本研究旨在通过开发一个模型来预测农业扩张和集约化对害虫控制的后果，以解决这些缺点。该模型最终将集成到一个建模平台：生态系统服务和权衡综合评估（InVEST）。InVEST将协助保护组织、土地管理者、政府和公司评估“生态系统服务”-人类从生态系统中获得的利益，并将其纳入资源决策。因此，该项目的结果有可能相对较快地纳入实际决策。为了实现这一目标，将在科学期刊和学术论坛以及通过公共媒体广泛传播研究结果。此外，该项目将涉及本科生和当地的现场助理，他们将参与研究的多个方面，包括合著和口头陈述。

Across the world, agricultural production is rapidly expanding. Besides encroaching into forests, industrial agriculture transforms traditional farms of several crops and interspersed trees into vast fields of a single type of crop. Wildlife often persists in the traditional, low-intensity landscapes, but disappears in intensive plantations. Many of these species serve a pivotal role in agricultural ecosystems by consuming damaging insect pests. Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil, and a small beetle, the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), is its most damaging pest. This project investigates whether the loss of native trees and small forest patches, traditionally interspersed throughout Costa Rican coffee plantations, affects the control of coffee berry borer by bats and birds. The project utilizes novel molecular methods to detect the coffee berry borer in bat and bird fecal samples collected from Costa Rica coffee plantations. After identifying which bird and bat species eat the berry borer, a pest-control model will be developed to identify the sites and conditions (e.g. amount of nearby tree cover) under which farmers would expect to benefit most from bat- and bird-mediated pest control. How pest control changes with changing agricultural practices remains unclear, and forecasting future pest regulation is not currently possible. This research seeks to address these shortcomings by developing a model that predicts the consequences of agricultural expansion and intensification for pest control. This model will be integrated eventually into a modeling platform: Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST). InVEST will assist conservation organizations, land managers, governments, and corporations in evaluating "ecosystem services" -- the benefits that humans derive from ecosystems, into resource decisions. Thus, results from this project have potential to be incorporated into practical decisions relatively quickly. To build to this point, findings will be communicated broadly, in scientific journals and academic forums, as well as through public media. Additionally, the project will involve undergraduate students and local field assistants, who will become involved in multiple aspects of research, including co-authorship and oral presentations.