Landscape ecology of lemurs in Madagascar

马达加斯加狐猴的景观生态学

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-05336
• 负责人: Lehman, Shawn
• 金额: $ 1.53万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=657140
• 关键词: Landscape; ecology; lemurs; Madagascar

A question of fundamental importance to ecology is understanding how plant and animal communities respond to deforestation processes (forest loss, forest fragmentation, and edge effects). Forests are becoming increasingly fragmented in many parts of the world, which result in edge habitats comprising a greater proportion of each fragment. For the lemurs of Madagascar, these issues are of particular ecological interest and conservation concern because humans have transformed most of the primary forests to grassland on the island. Although conceptual models have been developed to predict how animal communities will change due to forest loss and fragmentation, there are few empirical tests of the associated hypotheses on tropical mammals, let alone for arboreal primates, such as lemurs. My students and I propose to focus our research on the landscape ecology of two diurnal frugivores (Eulemur fulvus and Eulemur mongoz), one diurnal folivore/frugivore (Propithecus coquereli), two nocturnal folivores (Lepilemur edwardsi and Avahi occidentalis), and three nocturnal omnivores/frugivores (Microcebus ravelobensis, Microcebus murinus, and Cheirogaleus medius) at the fragment and landscape levels in and around Ankarafantsika National Park in northwest Madagascar. We will conduct our field research in six 3,000-4,000 ha fragmented forest landscapes. First, we will test hypotheses from species-area relationships, metapopulation models, and the species-fragmented area relationship to determine how landscape processes influence species richness. Species-area relationships predict that larger areas will contain more species. In metapopulation dynamics, patch occupancy reflects a dynamic relationship between extinction rates, which decrease with increasing area, and colonization rates, which decrease with increasing isolation. The newly proposed species-fragmented area relationship combines metapopulation dynamics with species-area relationships to predict how extinction risk influences species richness in highly fragmented landscapes.  Second, we will test an alternative hypothesis on how habitat amount influences species richness at the landscape level. This model holds that the number of species across sample fragments of the same size should increase with the total amount of habitat in the `local landscape' of each sample site, irrespective of extinction-colonization dynamics. The research that my students and I conduct is fundamental to a better understanding of the ecology of lemur populations in human-modified landscapes. Our research will also be amongst the first to collect and analyze data from primates at a landscape scale; most research has been on only a few groups of a species in and around one research site.

生态学的一个基本重要问题是了解植物和动物群落如何应对森林砍伐过程（森林损失，森林破碎化和边缘效应）。 在世界许多地方，森林正变得越来越支离破碎，导致边缘生境在每个森林片断中所占比例越来越大。对于马达加斯加的狐猴来说，这些问题具有特殊的生态利益和保护问题，因为人类已经将岛上的大部分原始森林转变为草原。 虽然已经开发了概念模型来预测动物群落将如何因森林丧失和破碎化而发生变化，但很少有关于热带哺乳动物的相关假设的经验测试，更不用说树栖灵长类动物，如狐猴。 我和我的学生提议把研究重点放在两种昼行食果动物的景观生态学上（Eulemur fulvus和Eulemur mongoz），一种昼夜食叶/食果动物（Propithecus coquereli），两种夜间食叶动物（Lepilemur edwardsi和Avahi octagentalis）和三种夜间杂食动物/食果动物（Microcebus ravelobensis，Microcebus murinus，和Cheirogaleus medius）在马达加斯加西北部的Ankarafantsika国家公园及其周围的碎片和景观水平。 我们将在六个3000 - 4000公顷的零散森林景观中进行实地研究。 首先，我们将测试假设从物种面积的关系，集合种群模型，和物种破碎化的区域关系，以确定景观过程如何影响物种丰富度。 物种-面积关系预测，较大的面积将包含更多的物种。 在集合种群动态，补丁占用反映了灭绝率之间的动态关系，随着面积的增加而减少，殖民化率，随着隔离度的增加而减少。 新提出的物种破碎化面积的关系相结合的集合种群动态与物种面积的关系，以预测灭绝风险如何影响物种丰富度在高度破碎的landscapes. Second，我们将测试一个替代假设栖息地数量如何影响物种丰富度在景观水平。 这个模型认为，物种的数量在相同大小的样本片段应增加的栖息地在每个采样点的“当地景观”的总量，无论定居定居动态。 我和我的学生进行的研究是更好地理解狐猴种群在人类改造景观中的生态学的基础。 我们的研究也将是第一个收集和分析灵长类动物在景观尺度上的数据;大多数研究都是在一个研究地点及其周围的几个物种群体上进行的。