Although botanical and ecological research and information form the principal foundation of the entire project, AABP team members have focused on investigations that involve plants, forest ecology, wetland ecology, tapir ecology and distribution, moth diversity and distribution, fungus diversity and ecology, bird diversity, and more. Through this work the AABP team has produced a uniquely large and well-organized dataset about the organisms and ecosystems of one of the most biologically diverse and vast tropical wilderness areas on the planet, the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru. All of these data are being organized and shared through the Atrium Biodiversity Information System, designed and deployed at BRIT during 2005-2007.
The diversity of projects being carried out under the umbrella of the AABP at BRIT was made possible by a $2.3 million grant from the Moore Foundation during 2003-2007. Through the duration of this grant, more than 50 people were supported and worked on the project between Texas and Peru. The talent and knowledge of these people ranged from leading scientists to students, collaborating scientists to Peruvian research assistants.
The three-year grant from the Moore Foundation will end with the close of 2007. The AABP team and BRIT staff and board have helped to develop plans for the transition of the project into 2008, and beyond. Based on decisions made about the program and the program budget, the research program will now focus on four important components.
The four components that will drive this research program in the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru are: botanical exploration, ecological investigations, mammal ecology and conservation, and horticulture and agricultural research.
Botanical exploration will continue with support from the National Science Foundation Biotic Surveys and Inventories funding program during 2007-2011. The total amount of funding currently available for four years of intensive botanical exploration is $450,000. The botanical exploration will be carried out in new and remote regions of the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru. Field work will begin in December 2007, with bases in Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru, and Quince Mil, Cusco, Peru. A base in Puerto Maldonado has been established and is the site of the BRIT nursery. A new base will be established at Quince Mil. This is a strategic site for several reasons: it is located within a pluvial forest ecoregion, the plant diversity of these pluvial forests in the upper Amazon of southeastern Peru have never been studied, and the small community of Quince Mil has remained isolated for decades and only now, with the encroachment of the international transoceanic highway, the area is under potential threat. We, BRIT, have the opportunity to document the plants and ecosystems in the area before the threat hits. With the knowledge and understanding we gather, we hope to contribute to conservation plans for the region. It is clear that an accurate understanding of the flora will be invaluable for conservation planning and management.
All plant collections and images from the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru are available to BRIT board and staff, as well as to the scientific and conservation community, and the general public. See http://atrium.andesamazon.org. There are more than 20,000 color images of tropical plants from Peru and Costa Rica, and more than 15,000 individual plant collections in the Atrium Digital Herbarium.
Ecological investigations will be continued in conjunction with botanical exploration. The team will use a standard quantitative transect methodology to sample tree diversity at hundreds of sites in the study region. These transects, combined with botanical data, allow deep analysis of the ecosystems of the region. Expanded ecological investigations will complement botanical exploration in new regions of the upper Amazon, in pluvial forests and lower Andean montane forests around Quince Mil. Transects will be used to quantify the variation and distribution of tree species diversity in forests of the region.
The overall synthesis between the ongoing botanical exploration and ecological investigations of BRIT in Peru will lead to a floristic and ecological treatment of the entire region, with comparisons between the most well-collected areas and detection of the gaps, or those areas that remain unexplored, such as the new remote field sites where the BRIT team will be working in the upper Amazon of southeastern Peru.
Mammal ecology and conservation will continue into late January and February under the direction of Mathias Tobler. The results of this ongoing project are remarkable. In the three years that this project has been active, a total of 10 tapirs have been captured and collared in the region of Madre de Dios, with focus on the Los Amigos River watershed, where Janovec and team have also been conducting botanical and ecological studies. The information from these 10 tapirs, their diets, their movements and distribution, and their use of habitats, will lead to a number of important scientific publications in the coming year. The information is also available to conservation programs and organizations working to plan and manage conservation areas, such as the Los Amigos Conservation Area and Biological Station.
Tobler has also served as a principal investigator on a large motion-sensor camera trap network in Madre de Dios. This work is being carried out in collaboration with the WWF AREAS project in the region. The results of two camera trapping grids add to the powerful dataset of the mammal ecology and conservation research of BRIT and collaborators. With the images and data from the camera trap grid, Tobler and collaborators are able to calculate the diversity, abundance, and distribution of large mammals such as jaguars, cougars, tapirs, peccaries, deer, anteaters, and others. On top of these two camera trap grids, Mathias and his team of two Peruvian research assistants have been monitoring mammal activity along transects through the Peruvian rainforest, during the day and night. In these recent transects Mathias and team have been observing and monitoring monkey populations to calculate diversity, abundance, density, and distribution of up to 10 monkey species, as well as many other mammals. These transects are an important addition to the mammal research because they allow monitoring of mammals that are often not captured in the motion-sensor camera trap grids, such as the monkey species that live in the forest canopy.
Horticulture, agriculture, and forestry research originally focused on the collection and propagation of potential ornamental plants from the Amazonian region of southeastern Peru. A nursery was established and is now thriving in Puerto Maldonado after two years of operation. However, the original research focus on potential ornamental plant species native to the region has expanded to encompass all native plants from the region. This broadened focus has led to a rapidly growing native tropical plant nursery in Puerto Maldonado, as well as a greenhouse at the national agriculture university of Peru, La Molina University in Lima.
The diversity of plants being grown at the Puerto Maldonado nursery and in the Lima greenhouse now numbers more than 300 plant species. There are plants of all forms growing in the nursery, including trees, shrubs, herbs, lianas, vines, ferns, and even epiphytes. The team has been focused during the last six months of 2007 on the collection and germination of seeds of native Amazonian trees, and now thousands of individuals of more than 100 species are being grown in the nursery in Puerto Maldonado. The new focus on tree species has already led the BRIT team in Peru toward reforestation experiments on private land in and around Puerto Maldonado. The collection of seeds integrates well with ongoing botanical exploration in the region.
Agricultural research includes experimental organic production of several varieties of tomatoes in a large greenhouse built by the AABP team and Boris Zlatar. The 250 tomato plants being cultivated will fruit in early 2008 so a report will be provided.
This research will continue with more focus on agricultural and forestry research, and continued horticultural research in collaboration with Zlatar of Puerto Maldonado. The project will be supported by small grants, when available, and personal investments by Janovec, Zlatar, and other team members.
