Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of Heterogeneous Landscapes on Habitat Selection, Dispersal, and Population of Dynamics of Tropical Small Mammals

许多研究表明，热带雨林的栖息地选择比温带地区更明显。资源的可获得性会影响动物对栖息地的选择及其分布，有许多栖息地选择模型可以预测个体如何分布，以及它们如何在不同质量的斑块中分散或移动。小型哺乳动物是研究和检验这一想法的理想对象。这项研究将利用秘鲁Cochu Cashu生物站的热带雨林，测试两种栖息地选择的替代模式，理想的自由和理想的专制分布，以及它们对栖息在资源丰富的树隙和可能不太适合的林下的小型哺乳动物的相关扩散模式。一项为期两年的诱捕计划与无线电遥测相结合，将用于评估三种小型哺乳动物在这两个栖息地内的健康成分和在两个栖息地之间的活动。食物补充实验将决定食物是否是栖息地选择的主要因素。这项研究的结果将引起进化生态学家的兴趣，并可能对森林保护区中小型哺乳动物的保护和管理产生影响。

9901993GainesMany studies have suggested that habitat selection in tropical rainforest is more pronounced than in temperate areas. The availability of resources can affect an animal's choice of habitat and its distribution and there are numerous model of habitat selection that predict how individuals are distributed and how they disperse or move through patches of various qualities. Small mammals are idea for studying and test this idea. This study will use the tropical rain forests at the Cochu Cashu biological station in Peru, to test two alternative models of habitat selection, ideal free and ideal despotic distribution, and their associated dispersal patterns for small mammals that inhabit resource rich treefall gaps and the potentially less suitable understory. A two-year trapping program coupled with radio telemetry will be used to assess fitness components within and movement between these two habitats in three species of small mammals. Food supplementation experiments will determine whether food is a major factor for habitat selection. Results of this study will be of interest to evolutionary ecologists, and may have implications for conservation and management of small mammals in forest reserves.