EES seminar 6/17　17:00-

○研究院アワーのお知らせ (EES seminar)

6月17日17:00 – 18:00 にて環境科学院D101でEESセミナーを行います。
奮ってご参加ください。

Day and Time: 17 June 2019, 5:00 pm -6:00 pm
Place: D101
Speaker: Charles S. Vairappan (University of Malysia Sabah)

タイトル：DUNG BEETLE AND MAMMAL INTERACTION NETWORKS ACROSS A MULTI- USE LANDSCAPE IN SABAH

要旨：Habitat degradation caused by landscape change of the existing tropical rainforest due to human activities reduces species richness and diversity. Cascading functional consequences of these anthropogenic changes is poorly understood despite many studies on their impact. An important component of biodiversity loss is the extinction of ecological interactions.
It may stimulate local extinction of dependent and associated taxa leading to the disruption of ecosystem functioning. We investigated the cascading effects of these extinctions across a habitat gradient, focusing on the highly important interaction networks among mammals and dung beetles.
Networks were constructed across a habitat gradient from protected forest, through secondary and recently logged forests to agroforestry, mosaic plantation and oil palm in the UNDP-GEF multi-use project area in south-eastern Sabah. Networks were constructed for nine mammal dung types commonly found within the area: herbivores (1) bali cattle, (2) elephant,
(3) sambar deer; omnivores (1) human, (2) sun bear, (3) civet, (4) pig, (5) orang utan; carnivores (1) cat. Data were acquired to demonstrate how dung beetle ? mammal interaction networks changed across the land-use gradient.
Twelve transects were established across the land use gradient with pitfall traps baited with the different dung types. Although most dung beetle species were found to be fairly generalist across the different dung types, we found reductions in diversity and changes in the composition and abundance of dung beetles across the habitat gradient. There were corresponding changes in network structure across the gradient with a concurrent reduction in the diversity of interactions. This resulted in simplified networks in perturbed systems. This study highlights the importance of species change and their ecological interactions when ecosystems are modified.

—-
Tatsufumi Okino