Project title: The interplay of movement and landscape on population dynamics and species interactions of primates and plants.

 

Advisor: Dr. Milton Cezar Ribeiro. Co-advisor: Dr. Laurence Culot.

 

Abstract: Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are among the main causes of change in biodiversity patterns, which include shifts in population dynamics, interactions and ecological processes. Movement of organisms may either counterbalance habitat modification effects, providing flows of organisms among otherwise separated landscape units and linking individuals to populations and communities, or strengthen such effects, depending on physical and behavioral traits of animals and how these traits are affected by landscape variations. The aim of this project is to understand how animal movement and landscape structure influence population dynamics, interaction networks, and seed dispersal patterns using a landscape approach and focusing on primates and plants as model groups. More specifically, we want to investigate: (i) how primate behavioral traits affect their population survival and functional connectivity, in continuous and fragmented landscapes; (ii) how an endangered primate species, the golden lion tamarin, is affected by habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, in terms of demographic and genetic level responses; (iii) how habitat amount and the presence of long-distance seed disperser primates shape the structure of mutualistic interaction networks among primates and plants and the seed dispersal patterns, in Atlantic rainforest communities. To accomplish that, an ecologically scaled individual-based model, BioDIM Primates, will be used to simulate individual movement and interaction and merge a mechanistic modeling approach to data on primate and plant ecology.

 

Contact: bernardo_brandaum@yahoo.com.br

 

 

 

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