Project title: Primate environmental and ecological equivalents among South-east Asia and the Neotropics: effects of anthropogenic disturbances.

 

Advisor: Dr. Laurence Culot. Co-advisor: Dr. Tommaso Savini.

 

Abstract:

The tropical forests of the world are biological, ecological and climatic entities with specific characteristics, yet with dramatic and subtle differences from one place to another. Each region of tropical forest has experienced different human impacts in the past and present, consequently affecting the communities of plants and animals of distinct evolutionary histories. These differences have significant implications for understanding the functioning of tropical forests, as well as for deciding how they should be studied, exploited, and preserved.

In the tropics, primates represent between 25% and 40 % of the frugivores biomass, reason why they are considered essential seed dispersers and excellent ecosystem engineers in the preservation and regeneration of woodlands. While the Neotropics and Asia present the highest primate species richness (171 and 119, respectively), the proportion of declining population is higher in Asia (95%) than in the Neotropics (63%)  and the drivers of primate extinctions slightly differ between these continents. Although Primates provide important ecosystem services, little is known about the consequences of their extinction on ecosystem functioning and even less whether these consequences differ between continents.

Working on a continental-spatial scale, this project aims to 1) compare the environmental characteristics of the forests of the Neotropics and southeast Asia harboring primates; 2) identify primate environmental and ecological equivalents; and 3) determine the effects of anthropic perturbations (habitat fragmentation and hunting) on primate species richness and functional diversity. To do that, we will carry out a biome modeling using bioclimatic, relief and landscape data, using data obtained of the environmental space, then using primate occurrence point data for each region, environmental and ecological comparison will be carry out to determine equivalents. Finally, we will calculate functional diversity indices based on a wide database of primate communities and functional traits and related them to landscape characteristics and hunting pressure.

 

Contact: silgague@gmail.com

 

 

 

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