CRB: Population Viability of Tropical Forest Vertebrates

CRB：热带森林脊椎动物的种群活力

• 批准号: 9000486
• 负责人: David Woodruff
• 金额: $ 24.04万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-06-01 至 1994-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9000486&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CRB; Population; Viability; Tropical; Forest

Habitat destruction and fragmentation in tropical forests are the single largest threat to the planet's biodiversity. The roles of genetic and demographic factors in the extinction of small populations in fragmented habitat patches are understood in theory but poorly documented empirically. To test existing theory and to improve techniques of biodiversity conservation, the investigators will develop a new method of monitoring population viability in recently fragmented populations. Specifically, they will conduct population viability analyses of rat, tree shrew, and other small mammal populations in small rainforest patches of different sizes during the first six years following isolation. These habitat patches were all isolated in 1987 when the creation of the Chiew Larn reservoir flooded a forested valley in the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand, and created 165 islands. Demographic changes in selected populations will be monitored by seasonal live-trapping as will levels of genetic variation, inbreeding and gene flow. The study is novel in that the genetic changes will be monitored at the DNA sequence level with DNA obtained non-invasively from plucked hair. This study will contribute to our basic understanding of evolutionary biology and ecology in a number of ways. It will provide among the first sequence-level data on variation in a number of nuclear and mitochondrial genes in several free- ranging mammal species. It will also provide one of the first cases where both genetic and ecological aspects of population viability are monitored in the critical first 20 generations following insularization. In addition, the study promises to contribute to conservation biology in three significant ways. First, the development of the genetic monitoring technique based on non-invasive sampling of DNA from hair will have wide applicability. Second, the demonstration that population viability can be monitored in common small mammals should lead to improved management practices for rarer and more endangered species. Finally, the lessons learned from this study in Thai forest fragments should be applicable to biodiversity conservation elsewhere in the tropics.

热带森林栖息地的破坏和破碎化是对地球生物多样性的最大威胁。 遗传和人口因素在支离破碎的栖息地斑块中小种群灭绝中的作用在理论上已经被理解，但在经验上却很少有记录。 为了检验现有理论并改进生物多样性保护技术，研究人员将开发一种新方法来监测最近分散的种群中的种群生存能力。 具体来说，他们将在隔离后的前六年内对不同大小的小型雨林斑块中的老鼠、树鼩和其他小型哺乳动物种群进行种群生存力分析。 1987 年，当 Chiew Larn 水库的建立淹没了泰国 Khlong Saeng 野生动物保护区的一个森林山谷时，这些栖息地全部被隔离，并形成了 165 个岛屿。 将通过季节性活体诱捕来监测选定种群的人口变化以及遗传变异、近亲繁殖和基因流动的水平。 这项研究的新颖之处在于，将通过从拔下的毛发中非侵入性地获取 DNA，在 DNA 序列水平上监测基因变化。 这项研究将以多种方式有助于我们对进化生物学和生态学的基本理解。 它将提供关于几种自由放养的哺乳动物物种中许多核和线粒体基因变异的首批序列水平数据。 它还将提供首批在岛屿化后关键的前 20 代中对种群生存力的遗传和生态方面进行监测的案例之一。 此外，该研究有望在三个重要方面为保护生物学做出贡献。 首先，基于非侵入性毛发DNA采样的基因监测技术的发展将具有广泛的适用性。 其次，证明可以监测常见小型哺乳动物的种群生存能力，这应该会导致对稀有和濒危物种的管理实践得到改进。 最后，从泰国森林碎片研究中汲取的经验教训应适用于热带其他地区的生物多样性保护。