DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Modeling Bird and Bat Mediated Pest Control Services Across Costa Rican Countryside

在世界范围内，农业生产正在迅速扩大。除了侵占森林外，工业化农业还将传统的几种作物和点缀树木的农场转变为一种单一作物的广阔田野。野生动物通常在传统的低强度景观中生存，但在集约化种植园中消失。这些物种中的许多物种通过捕食破坏性的害虫在农业生态系统中发挥着关键作用。咖啡是仅次于石油的第二大交易量商品，而一种小型甲虫--咖啡浆果害虫(Hypothenemus Hampei)--是其最具破坏性的害虫。这个项目调查了传统上散布在哥斯达黎加咖啡种植园的本土树木和小片森林的丧失是否影响了蝙蝠和鸟类对咖啡浆果害虫的控制。该项目利用新的分子方法检测从哥斯达黎加咖啡种植园采集的蝙蝠和鸟类粪便样本中的咖啡浆果害虫。在确定哪些鸟类和蝙蝠种类捕食浆果害虫后，将开发虫害控制模型，以确定农民有望从蝙蝠和鸟类中介的虫害防治中获益最大的地点和条件(例如附近的树木覆盖量)。虫害控制如何随着农业实践的变化而变化仍不清楚，目前还不可能预测未来的虫害法规。这项研究试图通过开发一个模型来解决这些缺点，该模型预测农业扩张和集约化对病虫害控制的后果。这一模型最终将被整合到一个建模平台：生态系统服务和权衡的综合估值(投资)。投资将协助保护组织、土地管理者、政府和公司评估“生态系统服务”--人类从生态系统中获得的利益，转化为资源决策。因此，该项目的成果有可能相对较快地纳入实际决策。为了达到这一点，将在科学期刊和学术论坛以及公共媒体上广泛传播调查结果。此外，该项目将涉及本科生和当地的现场助理，他们将参与多个方面的研究，包括合作和口头报告。

Across the world, agricultural production is rapidly expanding. Besides encroaching into forests, industrial agriculture transforms traditional farms of several crops and interspersed trees into vast fields of a single type of crop. Wildlife often persists in the traditional, low-intensity landscapes, but disappears in intensive plantations. Many of these species serve a pivotal role in agricultural ecosystems by consuming damaging insect pests. Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil, and a small beetle, the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), is its most damaging pest. This project investigates whether the loss of native trees and small forest patches, traditionally interspersed throughout Costa Rican coffee plantations, affects the control of coffee berry borer by bats and birds. The project utilizes novel molecular methods to detect the coffee berry borer in bat and bird fecal samples collected from Costa Rica coffee plantations. After identifying which bird and bat species eat the berry borer, a pest-control model will be developed to identify the sites and conditions (e.g. amount of nearby tree cover) under which farmers would expect to benefit most from bat- and bird-mediated pest control. How pest control changes with changing agricultural practices remains unclear, and forecasting future pest regulation is not currently possible. This research seeks to address these shortcomings by developing a model that predicts the consequences of agricultural expansion and intensification for pest control. This model will be integrated eventually into a modeling platform: Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST). InVEST will assist conservation organizations, land managers, governments, and corporations in evaluating "ecosystem services" -- the benefits that humans derive from ecosystems, into resource decisions. Thus, results from this project have potential to be incorporated into practical decisions relatively quickly. To build to this point, findings will be communicated broadly, in scientific journals and academic forums, as well as through public media. Additionally, the project will involve undergraduate students and local field assistants, who will become involved in multiple aspects of research, including co-authorship and oral presentations.