Abstract:
Species diversity decreases with increasing elevation and land-use intensity. These are the two most well-known biodiversity patterns. However, we know little about their interactive effects. During my previous postdoctoral fellowship at the Czech Academy of Sciences, my colleagues and I designed two studies to better understand how these two well-known biodiversity patterns interact with each other and shape bird community assembly. In this seminar, I will present the results of these two studies.
- In the first study, I explored the relationship between bird species’ abundances and their elevational range sizes in the tropical island nation of Sri Lanka. Positive abundance–range size relationship is an ecological rule that may explain the vulnerability of island endemics. According to this rule, species that have small range sizes will also have low abundances – a double threat. However, in a classic hypothesis formulated by Robert MacArthur back in 1972, he suggested that island endemics will have higher abundances than non-endemics because endemics are well adapted to the island’s conditions and species richness on islands are lower than mainland systems. In this talk, I will test MacArthur’s hypothesis first, and then determine if land-use change disrupts such adaptions by endemic species.
- In the second study, I will explore the interactive effects of elevation and land-use on bird functional diversity. In the Western Ghats – Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot, high elevation forests are naturally fragmented by grasslands and periodically disturbed by frost. Therefore, I hypothesized that birds in this elevation gradient may naturally be adapted to disturbance and fragmentation. In this talk, I will test my hypothesis by comparing the effects of land-use change on bird functional diversity at low, middle, and high elevations.
I will further discuss the conservation applications of my studies by using them to: a) identify species most at the risk of extinction, and b) help design optimal agricultural landscapes that benefit both people and wildlife outside protected areas.
Speaker: Dr. Rachakonda Sreekar
Affiliation: National University of Singapore
Time: April 19, 2022
Venue: 瞩目会议平台 会议 ID：135 871 8714 会议密码 PWD：666666
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会议 ID：135 871 8714
会议密码 PWD：666666
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