DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Integrating Ecology and Evolution to Infer Hierarchical Processes Structuring Slender-snouted Crocodile Populations in Central Africa

该项目正在整合田野和遗传技术，以提高我们对驱动中非鳄鱼种群结构和持久性的生态和进化过程的理解。将来自独立遗传标记的信息与关于鳄鱼活动和栖息地使用的无线电遥测数据相结合，将使我们能够区分历史景观特征(例如河流水文、山脉)和当代人类驱动的土地覆盖变化对细长鼻子鳄鱼分布和现状的影响。面对快速的环境变化，专注于生物多样性的研究不能再局限于范围。这项研究超越了这一挑战，在多个空间和时间尺度上研究了与保护相关的鳄鱼生态和进化。这个项目将对我们理解中非生物多样性的进化做出重大贡献。对野生鳄鱼种群演化的更多了解将有助于管理工作，并提供对历史景观特征(现代鳄鱼出现在化石记录中时形成的)、相对较新的气候周期和现代人类威胁(如过度捕捞和栖息地丧失)之间相互作用的独特认识。鼻子细长的鳄鱼是世界上最不为人所知的鳄鱼，这项研究最终将使它的管理程序成为可能。这项研究正在通过与加蓬当地学生进行能力建设，促进加蓬新保护区的发展和对高度濒危鳄鱼的管理战略，立即为保护中部非洲的野生动物作出重大贡献。

This project is integrating field and genetic techniques to improve our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary processes driving population structure and persistence in the crocodiles of Central Africa. Combining information from independent genetic markers with radio telemetry data on crocodile movement and habitat use will allow us to differentiate between the effects of historic landscape features (e.g. river hydrology, mountain ranges) and contemporary, human-driven land cover change on the distribution and current status of slender-snouted crocodiles. In the face of rapid environmental change, research focusing on biodiversity can no longer afford to be narrow in scope. This study transcends this challenge by examining the conservation-relevant ecology and evolution of crocodiles at multiple spatial and temporal scales.This project will contribute significantly to our understanding of the evolution of biodiversity in Central Africa. An increased understanding of the evolution of wild crocodilian populations will both facilitate management efforts and provide a unique realization of the interaction between historic landscape features (which were forming when modern crocodiles appear in the fossil record), relatively recent climatic cycles, and modern anthropogenic threats like overharvesting and habitat loss. Slender-snouted crocodiles are the least known crocodilian in the world and this study will finally enable management programs for it. This study is contributing significantly and immediately to the conservation of wildlife in Central Africa through capacity-building with local Gabonese students and facilitation of the development of new protected areas and management strategies for highly threatened crocodiles in Gabon.