Doctoral Dissertation Research: The effects of forest habitat modification on hunting and prey abundance

博士论文研究：森林栖息地改变对狩猎和猎物丰度的影响

• 批准号: 2116570
• 负责人: Sean Downey
• 金额: $ 3.15万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-15 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2116570&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; effects; forest

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The world’s rainforest ecosystems are hotspots of global biodiversity and have extensive histories of occupation by Indigenous peoples as locations for customary agriculture and subsistence foraging and hunting. With these reservoirs of biodiversity now showing signs of decline, we require a better understanding of how human-influenced forests can both support Indigenous livelihoods and sustain diverse floral and faunal communities. While human use and modification of rainforests has historically been thought of as a potential driver of species loss, recent research suggests that forest mosaics created by human activities harbor a substantial degree of habitat diversity and novel foraging opportunities that may benefit animal and plant communities. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation project is to study the relationship between customary agricultural practices and subsistence hunting to understand how these practices impact local faunal and floral diversity in a neotropical rainforest. In addition to training a doctoral student in anthropological science, the research helps local stakeholders manage natural resources and generalize these insights so they can be used to develop management designs that incorporate local practices to prevent wildlife loss. The central research question of this dissertation project is whether the human-influenced forests that are created by customary agriculture can support populations of wild game and enable sustainable harvests of wild game by subsistence hunters. The researchers test whether and how human disturbance precludes or facilitates resource conservation. Integrating theory and methods from human behavioral ecology, wildlife management, and community ecology, this research documents hunter movements and harvest returns and links them to patterns of wildlife abundance along a disturbance gradient created by customary agricultural practices. The researchers use semi-structured interviews and participant observation to ethnographically contextualize the social and ecological dimensions of customary agriculture and subsistence hunting. By studying how humans and wildlife select and use habitat in a mosaic of cultivated, secondary, and climax forest, this study contributes theoretical insights about the mechanisms for sustainable harvest of wild game species and the coexistence of ecological communities with human communities. Rather than study hunting and farming as distinct forms of human-environment relations, this study conceptualizes these practices as key parts of an integrated socioecological system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117 - 2）资助。世界雨林生态系统是全球生物多样性的热点，有着土著人民作为传统农业和生计觅食和狩猎地点的广泛历史。随着这些生物多样性的储存库现在显示出下降的迹象，我们需要更好地了解人类影响的森林如何既能支持土著生计，又能维持多样化的动植物群落。虽然人类对雨林的利用和改造历来被认为是物种丧失的潜在驱动力，但最近的研究表明，人类活动创造的森林马赛克具有很大程度的栖息地多样性和新的觅食机会，可能有利于动物和植物群落。这个博士论文项目的目的是研究传统的农业实践和生存狩猎之间的关系，以了解这些做法如何影响当地的动物和花卉多样性在新热带雨林。除了培训人类学博士生外，该研究还帮助当地利益相关者管理自然资源，并推广这些见解，以便用于开发结合当地实践的管理设计，以防止野生动物损失。本论文项目的中心研究问题是，由传统农业创造的人类影响的森林是否可以支持野生动物的种群，并使野生动物的可持续收获的生存猎人。研究人员测试人类干扰是否以及如何排除或促进资源保护。整合人类行为生态学、野生动物管理和社区生态学的理论和方法，本研究记录了猎人运动和收获回报，并将其与野生动物丰富度的模式联系起来，沿着由传统农业实践产生的干扰梯度。研究人员使用半结构化访谈和参与者观察，以民族志的背景下的社会和生态方面的习惯农业和生计狩猎。通过研究人类和野生动物如何选择和利用栖息地的镶嵌种植，次生和顶极森林，这项研究有助于野生动物物种的可持续收获和生态社区与人类社区共存的机制的理论见解。这项研究不是将狩猎和农业作为人类与环境关系的不同形式进行研究，而是将这些实践概念化为综合社会生态系统的关键部分。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。