Game Vertebrate Densities in Hunted and Nonhunted Forest Sites in Manu National Park, Peru

Manu National Park of southern Peru is one of the most renowned protected areas in the world, yet large-bodied vertebrate surveys conducted to date have been restricted to Cocha Cashu Biological Station, a research station covering <0.06 percent of the 1.7Mha park. Manu Park is occupied by >460 settled Matsigenka Amerindians, 300-400 isolated Matsigenka, and several, little-known groups of isolated hunter-gatherers, yet the impact of these native Amazonians on game vertebrate populations within the park remains poorly understood. On the basis of 1495 km of standardized line-transect censuses, we present density and biomass estimates for 23 mammal, bird, and reptile species for seven lowland and upland forest sites in Manu Park, including Cocha Cashu. We compare these estimates between hunted and nonhunted sites within Manu Park, and with other Neotropical forest sites. Manu Park safeguards some of the most species-rich and highest biomass assemblages of arboreal and terrestrial mammals ever recorded in Neotropical forests, most likely because of its direct Andean influence and high levels of soil fertility. Relative to Barro Colorado Island, seed predators and arboreal folivores in Manu are rare, and generalist frugivores specializing on mature fruit pulp are abundant. The impact of such a qualitative shift in the vertebrate community on the dynamics of plant regeneration, and therefore, on our understanding of tropical plant ecology, must be profound. Despite a number of external threats, Manu Park continues to serve as a baseline against which other Neotropical forests can be gauged.

The Critically Endangered black crested gibbon Nomascus concolor on Wuliang Mountain, Yunnan, China: the role of forest types in the species' conservation

The Critically Endangered black crested gibbon Nomascus concolor of China, Laos and Vietnam is threatened by deforestation and habitat destruction but there have been no studies of how it uses its forest habitat, probably because of the typically rugged t

子午岭辽东栎天然林土壤种子库研究

结合野外调查与室内试验对子午岭辽东栎天然林的种群生长状况,枯落层种子库,不同坡位土壤种子库物种组成、数量特征、生活型及其与地上植被的相似性进行了较为系统的研究。结果表明:(1)试验萌发鉴定出的幼苗共有24种,隶属于16科,其中多年生草本和落叶灌木物种比例最高,分别占种子库物种总数的58.33%和12.5%;(2)整个子午岭天然辽东栎林土壤种子库总密度为12 761.44粒/m2,种子主要分布在枯枝落叶层和0-2.5 cm土层中,其中,辽东栎种子密度为752.5粒/m2,占整个样地土壤种子库总密度的5.89%,表明辽东栎种子萌发能力很差,该林分群落天然更新缓慢。(3)子午岭天然辽东栎林的下坡位物种多样性指数较其它坡位高,但各个样地物种多样性指数均高于对照;(4)天然辽东栎纯林的种群生长状况良好,树龄均为成年树种;(5)方差分析表明:辽东栎的胸径、地径在不同坡位之间均具有显著性差异(P>0.05);(6)相关分析表明:枯枝落叶层厚度,重量与土壤种子库密度之间具无显著相关性(P<0.05)。