2. • Why study biodiversity?
• Why research in Peru and the Amazon?
• Why study at the Manu Learning Center (MLC)?
• What projects are going on at the MLC?
• What happens to the data?
• How do the results contribute to conservation and
useful information for the area?
• How does volunteers being here help crees?
Welcome to crees’ research program
3. Why study biodiversity?
• Global biodiversity crisis, caused mainly by human action: deforestation, global
warming and unsustainable uses.
• This has an impact on human societies, especially in the one that depends more
directly from their ecosystems.
• We do not know yet how many species exist, estimations are between 5 to 15
million species.
• Regional and local extinctions of species have a big impact in ecosystem
functioning and in the services human societies take from them.
• Huge gaps in knowledge, too many uncertainties: endemism, forest
fragmentation, species persistence in disturbance habitats.
4. Why study biodiversity?
• The most up-to-date estimate of deforestation rates for closed tropical forest is
10.5 million hectares per year.
• Tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented. This points to the need for
greatly expanded research on the management of small populations.
• Species loss can also be slowed by enhancing the conservation of biodiversity in
disturbed habitats.
• As with the need for rapid biological inventories, there is a pressing need for
research to identify resource management techniques that will better meet
conservation needs under the constraints of logging or rural agriculture.
5. Peru? The Amazon?
Mammal species
in Central and
South America
Worldwide threats to mammals
• The Amazon rainforest covers more than 60% of
Peruvian territory, more than in any other
country, save Brazil.
• The Amazon is a key area for the health of the
planet.
• Amazing diversity, still largely unknown. Threats
to many species and ecosystems.
• An area facing big social and environmental
problems, challenges and threats.
6. Taxonomy
Species in the
world
Species in Peru
Species in the
Peruvian
Amazon
Species at the
MLC
Peru vs. world
(Percent)
Peruvian
Amazon
vs. Peru
(Percent)
Amphibians 7,277 583 +320 63 8 55
Birds 10,324 1,879 806 483 19 44
Flowering plants
(Angiosperms)
263,537 17,144 7,372 - 7 43
Ferns
(Pteridophyta)
10,000 1,000 700 - 10 70
Mammals 4,629 467 293 63 10 63
Butterflies
(Lepidoptera)
16,000 3,366 2,500 +300 21 74
Fish (river fish) 8,411 900 697 - 11 77
Reptiles 9,831 445 200 74 4.5 45
7. Why at the MLC?
• The MLC is located in the buffer zone of Manu
National Park and very close to the core of the
park.
• The reserve has a unique location at the
foothills of the Andes, running down into the
lowlands.
• A protected reserve in an area of relatively
high disturbance.
• A unique place to study the effects of
regenerating forest.
• The reserve contains some rare and
threatened species from a wide variety of
taxonomic groups.
8. Research the value of regenerating forests.
Study carbon and biomass cycles in regenerating
forests.
Monitor the activity of macaws and parrots and the
impact of tourism.
Provide opportunities to researchers all around the
world to come to Manu and carry projects on crees
lines of research.
Provide opportunities to local Cusco students to come
to the MLC to learn field research methodologies and
learn English.
Conservation research projects’ goals
9. In collaboration with Glasgow University.
The majority of the world’s remaining tropical forests have had their structure
and underlying functions disrupted by human impacts.
The potential conservation value of the regenerating forests remains
controversial.
Multi-taxa assessment: butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, birds and large
mammals.
We compare the diversity in regenerating forests to the one in primary
forests.
Biodiversity value of
regenerating forests
10. Birds
• Blue-headed macaw project – A threatened species.
Early morning counts of parrots visiting the MLC clay lick.
• Provides data on disturbances from tourists at the colpa –
important for management decisions.
• Mist netting and morning transect surveys assess the abundance
and distribution of bird species in the forest.
11. Predators and their prey ……
• Methods – Camera trapping, early morning transects,
• These methods allow us to survey a wide array of rainforest mammals, secretive
animals, those that use trails, large animals and small.
• Camera traps are extremely useful in identifying individuals too!
12. Herpetology work
• Methods – Pitfall trapping , Visual
Encounter Surveys (100m long
transects – sets of 5 in each habitat
type) and Incidentals (anything you
see or find).
• Good indicators of habitat type and
quality.
• Reptiles – under researched.
• Field guides for the MLC and the
region.
13. Butterflies
• Banana and fish baited traps and butterfly
transects to focus on Nymphalidae butterflies at
different levels of the forest canopy.
• Produce a field guide for the MLC and the region.
• Understand butterfly communities in different
habitat types, a good indicator group.
14. • Vegetation mapping to tie in with animal based projects: These can be rapid assessments of
current forest states.
– Canopy coverage
– Leaf litter depth
– Canopy heights
– Herb and shrub layers
– Dominant species or groups
• Biomass research: - Much more long-term to see how the forest changes over years …… not
weeks or months.
– Tree phenology – selected trees that we inspect to see if fruiting, in seed, dying, etc.
– Leaf fall traps – Selected forest types around the reserve have traps which catch leaves
that we then weigh and sort.
– Canopy photos – Photographs of changes in canopy coverage in different areas of the
reserve.
Plants and trees
15. What happens to the data?
• Clear and accurate data entry is key to being able to analyse the data we collect. Data
analysis itself can take time to prepare but is much easier when effectively stored.
• Often researchers have come to the MLC to conduct projects, taken away their data,
analyzed it and published findings or at least written up reports.
• It is hoped that as we grow we can collect data directly for crees and build up a list of
projects with products that have a wider impact for the local region of Madre de Dios
and tropical forests in general around the world.
• Scientific publications that help with management
guidelines of reserves like the MLC and others.
• Field guides – useful to students, other researchers,
tourists and guides.
16. • Gather information to tell us about the value of
regenerating tropical forest, of which very little is
known; this can be shared with the wider scientific
community when published in high profile
conservation journals.
• Make management decisions to protect or enhance natural wonders such as the
mammal and parrot clay licks for tourists and volunteers to enjoy without causing,
or minimizing any potential impacts.
• To produce tangible useable field guides for other researchers, tourists, students
and guides.
• Train both volunteers and Peruvian staff in biological techniques.
• Training of Peruvian staff and students in English language.
What can we achieve?
17. How do volunteers help crees?
• You work hard with projects that simply could not
be done without your efforts.
• We want to get you involved, in:
- the labour,
- the data input,
- learning as much as possible about the
rainforest and its conservation
- and helping our staff to learn English.
• Please put your all in when you are here and you
will get the most from the project once you have
finished.
