Sons of David Foundation on Paulownia: May 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

Long-distance seed dispersal and hunting, an interview with Kimberly Holbrook

Jeremy Hance May 24, 2010


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As we are leaving the week focusing on biodiversity and the rapidly increasing speed of the extinction of the species, it may be important to explore the role of diverse species to p`rotect the evironment.  Scientists are just beginning to uncover the complex relationship between healthy biodiverse tropical forests and seed dispersers—species that spread seeds from a parent tree to other parts of the forest including birds, rodents, primates, and even elephants. By its very nature this relationship consists of an incredibly high number of variables: how abundant are seed dispersers, which animals spread seeds the furthest, what species spread which seeds, how are human impacts like hunting and deforestation impacting successful dispersal, as well as many others. Dr. Kimberly Holbrook has begun to answer some of these questions.

Performing her Masters works in Cameroon, Holbrook explained in an interview leading up to the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium, how she discovered that African forest hornbills spread seeds much further than expected.


"They have very large home ranges that varied between 925 hectares to more than 4,000 hectares. These home ranges are much larger than those reported for other African avian frugivores as well as all earlier estimates of African hornbill home ranges," Holbrook says, adding that "these two species of forest hornbill engage in landscape-scale movements travelling up to 290 kilometers over a two to three month period."

These findings are important because they show that hornbills are capable of carrying seeds incredible distances—i.e. long-distance dispersal—from parent trees, aiding forest diversity by carrying species to new areas. Think of the hornbills as the boats which carried the Polynesians from one far-flung island to another: without birds or other long distance dispersers a tree species could become stuck in an ecosystem 'island'.

"Long-distance dispersal is also fundamental to the spread and survival of plant populations and contributes to gene flow between populations," explains Holbrook. "Another advantage is that long-distance dispersers enable plant offspring to sample larger areas creating the opportunity to escape host-specific pathogens and reduce kin competition. Finally, long-distance dispersers may facilitate arrival of rare species and colonization to gaps, thus helping contribute to forest regeneration." Holbrook believes African hornbills travel such distances in order to follow fruiting trees.

On the other side of the world, Holbrook studied how human impacts affect seed dispersers and, in turn, the entire forest, including our impact on long-distance dispersals.

"In Ecuador I studied fruit removal and effective dispersal (or recruitment) distances at two sites that differed in hunting pressure. In the site with high hunting pressure, I found that significantly fewer numbers of large frugivores were visiting fruiting trees and that overall fewer seeds were removed from trees based upon seed trap data," Holbrook says.


She also found evidence that seeds traveled twice as far in the non-hunted sites, showing that intensive hunting targets the large fruit-eating species, such as big birds and primates, which are capable of carrying seeds the furthest.

"Seed dispersal is one of the many very important ecological processes that not only impact the ecology of forests and dispersers, but also the evolutionary relationships that exist there. For approximately 60-90 percent of tropical woody plant species, seed dispersal is a critical service essential for spread and survival," Holbrook says.

Despite the complexities of seed dispersal ecology, the lesson is quite simple: without seed dispersers, and especially long-distance marathon dispersers, the structure of the forest will change forever.

In a May 2010 interview with Kimberly Holbrook about the ecology of seed dispersal, the increasing importance of hornbills and toucans, the difficulties of estimating an economic value for seed dispersal, and human how hunting and deforestation impact successful dispersal.

How did you become interested in rainforest ecology?

Kimberly Holbrook: I first became interested in tropical forest ecology when I travelled for a year in Southeast Asia, India, and China. My first view of a rainforest was while travelling by ship up the west coast of Sumatra. I was completely captivated by the apparent diversity and complexity of the forest. Upon finishing my undergraduate degree, I took a volunteer position working with hornbills in Cameroon where I had my first opportunity to learn about the importance of ecological relationships in tropical forests. Given my interests in birds, plants, and seed dispersal, it made perfect sense to pursue plant-animal interactions in the tropics.

Any advice for students interested in studying rainforests?

Kimberly Holbrook: My first bit of advice is to go to the rainforest!! Get a job—even if it is to volunteer—or take a tropical ecology field course so you can have an idea of what the environment is like. It will also give you a chance to start thinking about the kinds of questions you might develop as a student. I think that the best way to find out what kinds of organisms and ecological interactions are most interesting is through direct experience.


Seed dispersal is one of the many very important ecological processes that not only impact the ecology of forests and dispersers, but also the evolutionary relationships that exist there. For approximately 60-90% of tropical woody plant species, seed dispersal is a critical service essential for spread and survival. For countless animal species, tropical tree fruits provide the necessary food and nutrition to survive and reproduce. Figs, for example, are especially important in providing food, often during non-fruiting seasons when other food sources are unavailable or much reduced. Other fruits such as those in the Myristicaceae (nutmegs) and Lauraceae (avocados) families provide high quality lipid-rich nutrition, crucial for many rainforest animals.

What is the 'seed shadow'? How do you determine this for fruit-eating species like hornbills?

Kimberly Holbrook: The seed shadow is the spatial distribution or pattern of seeds that are dispersed from fruiting plants. Determining where in the landscape that the next generation will establish, the seed shadow can vary greatly depending on the dispersal mechanism that a particular plant species relies upon. Technically, a seed shadow is a representation of the dispersal pattern generated by all visiting frugivores. To determine a specific frugivore-generated seed shadow, as I have done with hornbills and toucans, you would need to collect data on animal movements and on seed retention times. Animal movement patterns are usually estimated using radio telemetry and seed retention can be calculated with captive feeding trials where regurgitation and/or defecation times are measured. These two types of data are then combined to tell us the probability of the frugivore dispersing a seed to a particular distance. The result is a two dimensional curve showing probability of seed deposition plotted against distance dispersed.



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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Collapsing Biodiversity is a 'Wake-up Call for Humanity'

Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
May 10, 2010


Tags: , , , , , A joint report released today by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) finds that our natural support systems are on the verge of collapsing unless radical changes are made to preserve the world's biodiversity. Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ahmed Djoghlaf, called the bleak report "a wake-up call for humanity."

The report is the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3). Employing scientific assessments and 110 government reports, the report confirms that governments around the world have failed in their 2002 pledge to reduce biodiversity loss by this year. Instead, the five biggest causes behind biodiversity loss—habitat destruction, over-exploitation of resources, pollution, invasive species, and climate change—have either worsened or stayed the same.

"We need a new vision for biological diversity for a healthy planet and a sustainable future for humankind," Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, said.


In addition the report warns that several ecosystems are heading toward tipping points from which they may never recover. Due to a combination of climate change, deforestation, and fires, the Amazon rainforest may change irrevocably; while coral reefs are being pounded by overfishing, warmer waters, and ocean acidification; finally freshwater ecosystems like lakes and rivers are losing biodiversity and abundance due to nutrient runoff.

"Business as usual is no longer an option if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet," Djoghlaf said.

Officials are increasingly comparing the current biodiversity crisis to the global economic meltdown of 2008-2009, stating that while governments moved quickly to tackle the economic crisis they have responded languidly to the many threats to the world's environmental systems. These systems underpin the human economy by providing food, clean water, pollination, pest control, buffers from natural disasters, medicine, and carbon sequestration to name a few of their natural goods, known to researchers as 'ecosystem services'.

"For a fraction of the money summoned up instantly to avoid economic meltdown, we can avoid a much more serious and fundamental breakdown in the Earth’s life support systems," write the report's authors.

Yet, Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the UNEP, says that "many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life forms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems from forests and freshwaters to soils, oceans and even the atmosphere."


The report calls on governments to begin considering biodiversity when taking action. Governments should directly address the causes behind biodiversity loss including consumption, demographic changes, and trade. Ending harmful subsidies is also suggested.

"To tackle the root causes of biodiversity loss, we must give it higher priority in all areas of decision-making and in all economic sectors," says Ban Ki-Moon.

Ending biodiversity loss will help in the fight against poverty and hunger, while improving human health, security, and wealth for the current and future generations, according to the report.

The report will be a focal point for the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit in October, which will be attended by all 193 parties of the CBD. One of the world's largest economies, the United States, is not a member. The only other political entities that have not ratified the treaty are the Vatican and Andorra.

In spite of the report, business continues as usual worldwide with, for example, New Zealand attempting to push through a plan to allow mining in protected areas; US congress proposing to give 85,000 acres of old-growth temperate rainforest to a logging company in Alaska; Brazil moving ahead on its controversial Belo Monte dam that would flood 500 square miles of rainforest; and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) failing to protect a single marine species in its most recent meeting.

"Humanity has fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity or that it is somehow peripheral to our contemporary world: the truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050," says Steiner.


(05/04/2010) Most people who are trying to change the world stick to one area, for example they might either work to preserve biodiversity in rainforests or do social justice with poor farmers. But Dr. Ivette Perfecto was never satisfied with having to choose between helping people or preserving nature. Professor of Ecology and Natural Resources at the University of Michigan and co-author of the recent book Nature’s Matrix: The Link between Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty, Perfecto has, as she says, "combined her passions" to understand how agriculture can benefit both farmers and biodiversity—if done right.


Similar to this effort is The Enoch Olinga College (ENOCIS) Panama project New Era Farms located in the Republic of Panama which reforests with paulownia and teaches peoples of extreme poverty alternate uses of their farms to increase their income. For more information on this project you might read www.paulownianow.org



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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Second Annual Forest Carbon Offsetting Report Results

Tags: , , , , , , ,    Climatebiz and EcoSecurities


A source in DUBLIN, Ireland has stated — when it comes to purchasing carbon offsets, a growing number of companies are thinking -- and acting -- about forestry projects as a desirable type of offset to invest in.


The results come from the second annual Forest Carbon Offsetting Report, produced by EcoSecurities with Conservation International, The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance, ClimateBiz and the Norton Rose Group.


The report, which focuses on corporations' attitudes towards carbon offsets from forestry projects, found positive attitudes toward forest offset projects from 80 percent of respondents, up from 58 percent in 2009.


"Forestry has always been at the center of international climate change negotiations," said Paul Kelly, the CEO of EcoSecurities. "It's hugely encouraging to see that despite the lack of clarity which still surrounds impending regulation the majority of survey respondents have a very positive attitude to forestry and are actively seeking ways to reduce GHGs and mitigate climate change through forest carbon offsets."


Some of the key findings include: 



  • Positive attitudes towards forest carbon offsetting have increased in the past year, with nearly 80% of respondents having a ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ attitude compared to only 58% in 2009;

  • In particular, the most significant change in attitude was from Europe where 84% of participants claim to have a ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ attitude compared to 36% in 2009;

  • Participants highlighted the most important factor when purchasing forest carbon offsets are carbon standards (89%), closely followed by project location (84%), project type (80%) and the projects’ ability to generate additional community and biodiversity benefits (83% & 77% respectively);

  • Reforestation with native species (89%) and avoided deforestation (78%) were rated the most desirable types of forestry project;

  • South America (74%) was the most sought-after region from which to purchase forest carbon credits;

  • The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards were the two most popular carbon standards (73% and 64% respectively).


"Forestry promises to be a powerful and cost-effective tool in the fight against climate change," said ClimateBiz Managing Editor, Matthew Wheeland. "Corporate offset buyers recognise this potential, and show little sign of declining enthusiasm for forestry, despite the regulatory uncertainty."



"Many of these findings accord with our experience of what is happening on the ground with early stage investment in this important sector," said Andrew Hedges, a partner at the Norton Rose Group, adding, "particularly the emergence of VCS and CCBA as the preferred combination of standards."


EcoSecurities, Conservation International, Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), ClimateBiz and the Norton Rose Group collaborated to find out what more than 157 global, multinational and regional organizations think about forestry and forest carbon offsetting projects.


The findings come at an important time for the Carbon offset market, and are particularly relevant to New Era Farms as they are developing forestry Carbon offset projects in Central America. For more information on carbon credit investment and how to spot a scam you might refer to PanAmerican Properties web site  www.paulowniapanama.org



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