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Final Report






Initial | Fragmentation | Amphibians | Bats | Monitoring | SIVAM

Original Plan #1

Our original plan was to attempt to divide the rainforest into different strata, and then find ways to monitor each layer as a whole as an indicator. Because of the amount of interaction between strata, and the complexity of each strata, that idea was trashed as being just as difficult and non-effective as monitoring the "whole" rainforest.

Bird Data:
Cocha Cashu
Insectivore - 38 species, 11.5% of the bird population
Fruit eaters - 7 species, 2.1% of the population
omniverous- 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.

Other things to look at:
Nepstad Report - something to do with how much land it requires for a viable path 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

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

Second Project: Not Quite as Unsuccessful

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.

Assessing Biological Value

During my research at the library, I have found some information from the National Research Council that had the five basic criteria that assesses biological value. According to the National Research Council:
  • Richness - the number of species or habitat in a given area. A region with more species per unit area is given a higher value.
    Ex. Tropical forest have higher conservation priority than an adjacent tropical dry forest with less richness of species.
  • Endemism - the narrowness of distribution of species in an area. A region with many endemic species have a higher value than a region with fewer endemic species. Endemics are the species that are prevalent in or peculiar to an area.
    Ex. Madagascar which has 80% of plant species found nowhere else in the world has high priority.
  • Rarity - the rarity of species in a region. A region with rare species is given a higher value.
  • Ecosystem Services - The importance of the natural habitat or resident single species capable of influencing ecosystem function for various services of importance to humans.
    Ex. Forested watershed that is a source of public water has higher conservation value.
  • Protected Status - The relative protection of species that already exists determines the value of a species or habitat.

All in all, species do not all have equal value when it comes to biodiversity management and conservation, and we must come up with the species that will best represent the health of the Amazon rainforest as a whole.

(Source: National Research Council, et al. Perspectives on Biodiversity: Valuing its Role in an Everchanging World. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999.)

Insects as Indicator Species

We had been considering using insects as bioindicators, but had somewhat shied away from it because it seemed so difficult. This article agreed with our conclusion, stating that selecting and testing insects as bioindicators is difficult. It also says that there are very few examples of ecologists being able to use insects as reliable bioindicators for conservation and planning.

McGeoch, Melodie A. (1998). "The Selection, Testing, and Application of Terrestrial insects as bioindicators". Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 73(2), 181-201.