Research and Conclusions

Rainforest Strata: Understory

Monitoring

The "Bible" of Monitoring

Critical Area

---

Rainforest Strata: Understory

Our original plan was to attempt to divide the rainforest into different strata, and then find ways to monitor each layer as a whole. Because of the amount of interaction between strata, and the complexity of each strata, that idea was trashed for being just as difficult and non-effective as monitoring the "whole" rainforest. However, I did manage to get a decent amount of information out of it... so here it is.

*The understory is the area between the ground and canopy of the rainforest. It is generally hot and humid, has a wide variety of flowering plants, some monkeys, and a lot of birds, butterflies, and other random flying things.
For some examples of understory butterflies, plants, and other insecty things, visit Dr. Blythe's Rainforest Education web site
*According to PBS's Science in the Rainforest, the understory only gets 2-5% of the sunlight that the canopy gets. Because of the high plant population and the lack of air circulation by wind, many understory plants rely solely on insects to pollinate.

Seriously Trying Now
Bird Data: (understory populations)
Cocha Cashu
Insectivore - 38 species, 11.5% of the bird population
< l2>Fruit eaters - 7 species, 2.1% of the population
omnivorous- 5 species, 1.5% of population
According to data from a different part of the same book (on Terra Firme rainforest, pg 225):
*Understory birds are mainly insectivorous
*In the Manaus area, approx. 31% of all birds banded belonged to mixed-species insectivorous flocks: groups of birds with 8-13 core species that together defend territories for a period of years.

Personal Reaction:
Attempting to stratify the rainforest fauna on vertical parameters isn't a good idea. Many animals move freely from one stratum to another, and there isn't consistency between various definitions of the different strata. For instance, one book I referenced said that the understory was the area directly above the ground, starting at the first tree branches. Another book referred to the understory as the area 50-60 feet above the ground. There's a big difference there.

List of species found in the " understory"
In Cocha Cashu - from pg 317 of 4 neotropical rainforests:
Marsupialia
Didelphidae
Micoureus cinerea
Marmosops noctivaga
Philander opossum


Primates
Cebidae
Aotus trivirgatus
Callicebus moloch
Cebus apella
Cebus albifrons

Callitrichidae
Cebuella pygmaea
Saguinus imperator

Rodentia
Sciuridae
Sciurus spadiceus
Sciurus ignitus
Sciurus sandborni
Muridae
Oligoryzomys microtis
Oecomys superans
Oecomys bicolor

Echimyidae
Echimys sp.
Mesomys hispidus

Other things to look at: (if I can find info in English)
Nepstad Report - something to do with how much land it requires for a viable patch of rainforest to survive. Info on Costa Rican rainforests... apparently they've put some sort of rainforest protection thing into effect... making large amounts of the rainforest into national parks and protecting them that way

Actually trying to sum up the understory (sorry this is so disorganized)
*The understory's environmental conditions are: humid, not a whole lot of sunlight, and warm
*The understory has a large amount of insects, rodents, and birds, and a mid-sized population of larger mammals. The "largest" mammals generally found in the understory of a Brazilian rainforest are carnivorous cats - occasionally jaguars. *Because the animals tend to be small, the understory doesn't have as much biomass as other strata of the rainforest.

---

Monitoring

Some information about monitoring the rainforest:
Amazon Life -Project SIWAM

Our second "project" was designed to determine what we meant as monitoring. It wasn't entirely successful, but here's the information I got from it.

*One possible way of measuring biodiversity is through satellite images. This website talks about measuring the biodiversity of an Indian forest through satellite images. I'm not sure I understand how they got their basic data on biodiversity though.
*This is another satellite image, this time of cattle farms near the city of Brasilia in the Brazilian state of Acre
*This paper is awesome!!! It explains how the Smithsonian Institution Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Program evaluated the levels of biodiversity in Gabon, Africa. First, they selected target areas that they thought would represent the various parts of the region. Then, they took old studies and organized the animals that had been seen in those areas. To cement the process, they then conducted field studies in the various areas, using teams they have specially trained. AWESOME!!!

What do we mean by monitoring? I think it means that we need to have a concrete way of collecting information on the animal populations of an area. One way I would suggest is to ask the natives to help. However, it would be important to train them to collect information correctly. I also think it is necessary to use satellite images to ensure that the plant life is not being destroyed, because that would destroy the animals. My current "plan of action" would be to:
1. Use current data to develop a database of species known to be in the rainforest. (Probably divide the rainforest into\different sections.)
2. Train rainforest natives on how we wish an on-site species evaluation to be done.
3. Get a current idea of the forest coverage by satellite.
4. Once a year, collect and process data from natives.
5. figure out what to do when something goes wrong.
This solution is somewhat old fashioned... I still think we would be better off using technology to monitor the rainforest, but I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for that. Obviously the water should be monitored for chemicals, pH, etc. etc., and same for the soil. One idea might be to try and use some sort of radio that can be put into food. Oh... what if we could make one that could monitor health, and then make sure we put it in a female. That could tell reproductive rates of certain animals. Also, it would tell when one animal ate another. How expensive and practical is it though?

It might also be possible to use some sort of video monitoring, although that would be difficult and complicated. (Do you need someone watching the videos 24 hours a day?? If not, how do you get good information off of it?)

Sorry about the rather random brainstorming... I still really think the food web idea would be good if we could make it work. Some way to monitor... oh. Could we monitor the amount of decomposition going on?? B/c if we can monitor the rate nutrients are being decomposed and then the rate they go back into the systems, then we have the rate of life living and dying. Again, it wouldn't do much for an individual species, but it would help to point out major problems. If more biomass is being decomposed than is growing, more things are dying than should be.

Monitoring notes

website: http://www.mp1-pwrc.usgs.gov/monpop

notes:

chapter 2:

Background Tasks:

1. compile and review existing information
2. review upper level planning documents
3. identify priority species and/or populations
4. assess resources available for monitoring
5. determine scale
6. determine intensity of monitoring
7. review

Develop Objectives:
1. develop an ecological model
2. identify general management goals
3. select indicator
4. identify sensitive attribute
5. specify direction and quantity of change
6. specify time frame
7. develop management objective
8. specify management response
9. review management objective

---

Monitoring Methodology (qualitative)
1. design general methodology
2. design methods to reduce variability among observers
3. identify number of measurement units
4. determine arrangement of measurement units
5. design data sheet
6. determine monitoring frequency
7. describe likely data analysis techniques
8. identify necessary resources
9. develop a draft monitoring plan
10. review

Monitoring as a Pilot Study (as below, but evaluate completely after study)

Implement Monitoring
1. collect data
2. analyze data after each measurement cycle
3. evaluate monitoring

Report and Use Results
1. complete periodic reports
2. complete final analysis and report
3. circulate and/or publish report

---

chapter 3: Selecting among priorities
*look at other programs already in place. do they identify key species or areas?
*world wide conservation categories

extinct-last individual in the taxon has died
extinct in the wild - taxon survives only in captivity
critically endangered - extremely high risk of extinction in the near future
endangered - very high risk of extinction in the near future
vulnerable - faces a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future

Lower Risk

conservation dependent - taxa that are the focus of a continuing conservation effort, without which the taxa would qualify for one of the above within five years
near threatened - aren't conservation dependent, but are close to vulnerable
least concern - yeah, they pretty much are fine

Criteria for Species comparison
1. rank of endangered-ness
2. rarity(number of populations)
3. taxonomic distinctness
4. SENSATIVITY TO THREATS
5. known declines
6. extent of threats
7. immediacy of threats
8. importance of local populations
9. conflict (management vs. conservation actions and existing or alternative uses)
10. monitoring difficulty - nocturnal, predictable appearance?, accessible monitoring sites?
11. availability of management actions
12. recovery potential
13. public interest

For Population Comparison:
1. population size
2. population viability
3. populating location
4. habitat quality
5. unique habitat
6. previous information/monitoring/research
7. special management areas
8. other (see above list)

Location info about species and populations
*when finding, it will also gives you names of people and organizations to include in your project
*look in symposium proceedings, technical reports
Animals:
1. food habits
2. predators
3. competitors
4. breeding age
5. age at maturity
6. number of offspring produced annually
7. frequency of breeding
8. home range
9. population size (range, average)
10. annual variation
11. number and distribution of populations
12. productivity of populations
13. migratory patters
14. HABITAT
15. THREATS
16. TRENDS
17. MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
*Decide sampling universe - are you worried about all the populations, or just a few? does the sampling show that?
*LOW INTENSITY SAMPLING MAY BE DESIGNED AS A WARNING SYSTEM THAT TRIGGERS MORE INTENSIVE MONITORING

Selecting Intensity
1. presence or absences
2. estimates of population size (factors of 10)
3. site-condition assessment
4. estimation of demographic distribution
5. assessment of population condition
6. photopoints
7. photoplots
8. boundary mapping

Qualitative Assessment of Populations and Habitats
*Estimation of population size - try to keep monitoring techniques constant (do you count all individuals, or just those of reproducing age?. Also try using "classes" such as 1-4, 4-10, 11-30, with ranges getting larger as populations get larger.

Estimation of Population Conditions
1. number of individuals - stratification of individuals (age, gender, etc.)
2. evidence of activity (scat, nests, tracks, etc.)
3. Evidence of limiting agents (scarcity of food, water, predators, etc.)
4. habits associated with juvs, immatures, and adults

Habitat Monitoring
1. vegetation changes
2. exotic species
3. fire
4. flooding
5. slope movement
6. animal disturbances
7. mining
8. logging
9. domestic livestock grazing
10. off-highway vehicles
11. recreation
12. road construction or maintenance
13. weed control
14. condition of fences
15. signing
16. condition of road barriers

Photoplots
*can be used to measure species density over a small area of land, but not very accurate
*small area taken from a specific "bird's eye view"
*more effective when field time is small

Photopoints
*take the same picture over time, monitor changes

Video Photography
*good overview of the site, small field time, extensive analyzing time

Remote Sensing Techniques
*collection of data from a platform that doesn't touch the object of interest
*satellite imagery - good, but possibly not clear enough
*aerial photography - EXPENSIVE
*weatherproof cameras
*infrared beam counters triggered by animals passing by
*audio recording systems that activate regularly for short periods of time and record ambient sounds
*monitor frog populations (tape recording) via call-based indices of frog abundance.

Critical Area

For an ecosystem, there is no minimum area. The ecosystem will spread as far as it can, and any area below natural confines will hurt the ecosystem, as well as lower its diversity. However, in order to get some approximation, we decided to try and find the largest range of a single species. According to the CSG Species Accounts, population density for a Jaguar is one per 15 km^2. For a population to be genetically viable, population biologists predict that 500 individuals would have to live on one piece of land. (See Management 3.1.2.) That means the jaguar needs 7500 km^2 area to maintain a viable population without any outside assistance. That would be approx. 3000 mi^2.

email me!