DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Do mesoherbivores drive Neotropical rainforest understory insectivorous bird declines by limiting availability of preferred foraging microhabitat?

论文研究：中食草动物是否通过限制首选觅食微生境的可用性而导致新热带雨林林下食虫鸟类的减少？

• 批准号: 1010952
• 负责人: Thomas Sherry
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: Tulane University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2012-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1010952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Do; mesoherbivores; drive

Tropical birds are highly vulnerable to forest fragmentation, and declines are often attributed to the direct effects of decreased habitat size. However these birds have nearly disappeared from some large forest fragments, but persist in smaller nearby reserves. Mechanisms other that habitat size proposed to account for these declines (food-limitation, dispersal-limitation and nest predation) also fail to explain the puzzling patterns observed in several tropical forests. The proposed research investigates a new, alternative hypothesis to account for bird declines in large habitat patches that has three key components: (1) understory insectivorous birds prefer to forage in dense woody vines called lianas; (2) collared peccaries suppress liana densities, and (3) loss of suitable habitat and, consequently, bird populations correspond with peccary densities. The study will test the three components of this hypothesis in central Panama, where both focal bird populations and lianas have increased while peccary densities remain low.Results from this project have immediate conservation applications in reserves across Central America. The graduate student involved is bilingual and plans to engage local land owners and managers in Panama in the project. Outreach to local communities will include bird identification and bird banding demonstrations. Undergraduate students from groups typically underrepresented in science will also be trained through participation in this research.

热带鸟类极易受到森林破碎化的影响，其数量下降通常归因于栖息地面积缩小的直接影响。然而，这些鸟类几乎从一些大型森林碎片中消失，但仍然存在于附近较小的保护区中。除了栖息地大小之外，提出的解释这些下降的机制（食物限制、扩散限制和巢穴捕食）也无法解释在几个热带森林中观察到的令人费解的模式。拟议的研究调查了一种新的替代假设，以解释大型栖息地斑块中鸟类数量的减少，该假设具有三个关键组成部分：（1）林下食虫鸟类更喜欢在茂密的木质藤本植物（称为藤本植物）中觅食； (2) 项圈西貒抑制藤本植物密度，(3) 适当栖息地的丧失，因此鸟类数量与西貒密度相对应。该研究将在巴拿马中部测试这一假设的三个组成部分，那里的重点鸟类数量和藤本植物均有所增加，而西貒密度仍然较低。该项目的结果可立即应用于整个中美洲的保护区。所涉及的研究生会说双语，并计划让巴拿马当地的土地所有者和管理者参与该项目。向当地社区的推广活动将包括鸟类识别和鸟类环志示范。来自科学界通常代表性不足的群体的本科生也将通过参与这项研究接受培训。