LTREB renewal: Long term population and community responses to landscape dynamics by birds in Amazonian old growth, fragmented, and secondary forest

自20世纪70年代以来，巴西亚马逊流域玛瑙斯附近的森林碎片生物动力学项目提供了一个研究环境，包括小块雨林、活跃和废弃的农业区，以及大片未受干扰的雨林。该项目建立在对森林碎片中鸟类种群动态的20年研究的基础上，该研究侧重于景观变化如何影响鸟类的丰度、分布和社会组织。在接下来的五年里，美国和巴西的研究人员将研究森林鸟类是否能像在未受干扰的森林中一样，在碎片和废弃的森林地区生存和繁殖。通过被动捕获、标记和释放鸟类，研究人员将量化存活、繁殖活动、短暂性和特定年龄的丰度。这些数据将允许对大量林下鸟类的次生生长和碎片的价值进行迄今为止最详细的评估。全群落技术还将用于评估样地间的物种丰富度、生物量和社会相互作用。热带雨林供养着数量多得不成比例的物种。热带地区人口的增加和农业的扩张助长了森林砍伐，尽管许多森林被砍伐的地区随后被遗弃。由于这种砍伐和放弃的循环，许多热带物种的长期生存将取决于它们利用森林碎片和再生森林的能力。本研究结果将有助于确定片段和次生生长维持生物多样性的能力。该项目将继续通过巴西和美国学生直接参与研究以及通过开发新的领域和教育材料来建设他们的能力。

Since the 1970s, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, near Manaus in Amazonian Brazil, has provided a research setting that includes small patches of rainforest, active and abandoned agricultural areas, and a large expanse of undisturbed rainforest. This project builds on a 20-year study of avian population dynamics in forest fragments that has focused on how changes to the landscape have affected bird abundance, distribution, and social organization. Over the next five years, US and Brazilian researchers will examine whether or not forest birds can survive and reproduce as well in fragments and abandoned deforested areas as they do in undisturbed forest. Using passive capture, mark, and release of birds, the investigators will quantify survival, breeding activity, transience, and age-specific abundance. These data will permit the most detailed assessment to date of the value of secondary growth and fragments to a large number of understory birds. Whole-community techniques will also be used to assess species richness, biomass, and social interactions across plots. Tropical rainforests support a disproportionately high number of species. Increasing human populations and agricultural expansion in the tropics fuel deforestation, although many deforested areas are subsequently abandoned. Because of this cycle of cutting and abandonment, the long-term persistence of many tropical species will depend on their capacity to use forest fragments and regrowth forest. Results from this study will help to determine the ability of fragments and secondary growth to maintain biodiversity. The project will continue to build capacity of both Brazilian and US students through their direct involvement in the research and through the development of new field and educational materials.