LTREB renewal: Long term population and community responses to landscape dynamics by birds in Amazonian old growth, fragmented, and secondary forest

自1970年代以来，巴西亚马逊河马瑙斯附近的森林碎片生物动态项目提供了一个研究环境，其中包括小片雨林、活跃和废弃的农业区以及大片未受干扰的热带雨林。这个项目建立在对森林碎片中鸟类种群动态的20年研究的基础上，该研究的重点是景观的变化如何影响鸟类的丰度、分布和社会组织。在接下来的五年里，美国和巴西的研究人员将研究森林鸟类是否能够像在未受干扰的森林中一样，在碎片和废弃的砍伐地区生存和繁殖。通过被动捕获、标记和释放鸟类，研究人员将量化生存、繁殖活动、瞬变和特定年龄的丰度。这些数据将使迄今为止对大量林下鸟类的二次生长和碎片的价值进行最详细的评估。整个群落技术也将被用来评估物种丰富度、生物量和跨地块的社会互动。热带雨林支持的物种数量高得不成比例。热带地区不断增加的人口和农业扩张助长了森林砍伐，尽管许多被砍伐的地区随后被遗弃。由于这种砍伐和废弃的循环，许多热带物种的长期持久性将取决于它们利用森林碎片和再生森林的能力。这项研究的结果将有助于确定碎片和次生生长维持生物多样性的能力。该项目将通过巴西和美国学生直接参与研究和开发新的领域和教育材料，继续建设他们的能力。

Since the 1970s, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, near Manaus in Amazonian Brazil, has provided a research setting that includes small patches of rainforest, active and abandoned agricultural areas, and a large expanse of undisturbed rainforest. This project builds on a 20-year study of avian population dynamics in forest fragments that has focused on how changes to the landscape have affected bird abundance, distribution, and social organization. Over the next five years, US and Brazilian researchers will examine whether or not forest birds can survive and reproduce as well in fragments and abandoned deforested areas as they do in undisturbed forest. Using passive capture, mark, and release of birds, the investigators will quantify survival, breeding activity, transience, and age-specific abundance. These data will permit the most detailed assessment to date of the value of secondary growth and fragments to a large number of understory birds. Whole-community techniques will also be used to assess species richness, biomass, and social interactions across plots. Tropical rainforests support a disproportionately high number of species. Increasing human populations and agricultural expansion in the tropics fuel deforestation, although many deforested areas are subsequently abandoned. Because of this cycle of cutting and abandonment, the long-term persistence of many tropical species will depend on their capacity to use forest fragments and regrowth forest. Results from this study will help to determine the ability of fragments and secondary growth to maintain biodiversity. The project will continue to build capacity of both Brazilian and US students through their direct involvement in the research and through the development of new field and educational materials.