Social media video featuring the project.
Projeto Avifauna nos fragmentos de Alta Floresta - MT
Talitha da Cunha Pires
The project will further understanding of the effects of landscape changes on local extinction rates of bird species in Alta Floresta, an area of fragmented forest at the southern frontier of the Amazonian "arc of deforestation". It will create a research database to inform biodiversity conservation in the Amazon.
Onychorhynchus coronatus.
Habitat loss and fragmentation are major causes of species extinctions globally. Species extinctions tend not to occur instantaneously, but to lag behind habitat destruction. The number of species yet to disappear in a disturbed area is known as the "extinction debt". The project will: investigate how the bird community in Alta Floresta has responded to almost ten years of deforestation; contribute to understanding of extinction rates; provide data showing the importance of private forest reserves in the preservation of the bird community; and raise awareness amongst landowners of their role in biodiversity protection. This will assist biodiversity conservation in the region.
Surveys will be conducted at 31 sites using mist-net captures, point counts, and visual and sound recordings. These surveys will replicate those performed in a 2004 study in the same areas, thus providing an accurate temporal comparison of bird community composition. This will effectively assess and document local bird species’ extinction rates, identify species committed to extinction, and those species for whom a window of opportunity to avoid extinction remains. This is important to guide local conservation efforts, as well as contributing to a body of data for the estimation of the time lag between habitat destruction and species extinction. Patterns of extinction in forest fragments will also be modeled to inform biodiversity conservation in the Amazon.
In addition, the project will also use satellite imagery to monitor landscape change between 1980 and 2013 in order to assess potential relationships between the onset of intense deforestation and changes in bird richness. Outreach, based on the project’s scientific findings, will be delivered direct to individual landholders (collectively responsible for more than 75,000 hectares) and to the wider community via the two NGOs operating in the region. It will also take the form of user-friendly interpretations of the bird surveys, and activities such as school visits, contacting local media and making a YouTube video summarising the findings.