Forest Edge Effects on the Behavioral Ecology of L\u27Hoest\u27s Monkey (Cercopithecus lhoesti) in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Forest edges are associated with forest edge effects that result from changes in physical features of the habitat, predator species and number, and prominence of human activities and other disturbances that can have direct or indirect impact on the distribution, ecology, and fitness of forest plant and animal species. I conducted a literature review on edge effects on primate species and came up with a classification of primate species in three general categories thriving, sensitive and resilient species to edge effects based on behavioral and demographic responses. In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, edge effects followed non-monotonic patterns (wave-like) most likely due to the additive influence of edge effects, the history of logging in the area, and the persistent human activities and other disturbances. Such edge effects were more detectable in vegetation canopy cover and density and distribution of pioneer plant species whose dominance could increase or decrease up to 400 m from the park boundary towards the interior of the forest. Such distance, however, can vary considerably depending on variables examined. L\u27Hoest\u27s monkeys living along the edge of the Bwindi forest did not appear to be more affected behaviorally by edge effects than an interior group. Both groups spent relatively equivalent amount of time on major behavioral activities such as feeding, travelling and resting. Socializing was significantly less in the edge group compared with the interior group and that is likely to have a detrimental effect on the edge group cohesion. A correlation was found between the abundance of plant food species and the amount of time l\u27Hoest\u27s monkeys spent feeding on these plant food species along the forest boundary while monkeys of the interior group fed on different items regardless of their abundance. The edge group had also a larger home range than the interior group especially because they expanded it during crop raiding or feeding on native vegetation in fallows outside the park. Crop raiding was a very risky activity during which l\u27Hoest\u27s monkeys experienced fatal confrontations with local farmers. Although early work suggested that forest edges were beneficial to wildlife, this study has concluded that forest edges in Bwindi can be ecological traps or sink areas for the edge-resilient l\u27Hoest\u27s monkey species whose edge groups rely on immigration from the interior forest groups to survive and cope with disturbances and threats associated with forest edges

Forest Edge Effects on the Behavioral Ecology of L\u27Hoest\u27s Monkey (Cercopithecus lhoesti) in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Forest edges are associated with forest edge effects that result from changes in physical features of the habitat, predator species and number, and prominence of human activities and other disturbances that can have direct or indirect impact on the distribution, ecology, and fitness of forest plant and animal species. I conducted a literature review on edge effects on primate species and came up with a classification of primate species in three general categories thriving, sensitive and resilient species to edge effects based on behavioral and demographic responses. In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, edge effects followed non-monotonic patterns (wave-like) most likely due to the additive influence of edge effects, the history of logging in the area, and the persistent human activities and other disturbances. Such edge effects were more detectable in vegetation canopy cover and density and distribution of pioneer plant species whose dominance could increase or decrease up to 400 m from the park boundary towards the interior of the forest. Such distance, however, can vary considerably depending on variables examined. L\u27Hoest\u27s monkeys living along the edge of the Bwindi forest did not appear to be more affected behaviorally by edge effects than an interior group. Both groups spent relatively equivalent amount of time on major behavioral activities such as feeding, travelling and resting. Socializing was significantly less in the edge group compared with the interior group and that is likely to have a detrimental effect on the edge group cohesion. A correlation was found between the abundance of plant food species and the amount of time l\u27Hoest\u27s monkeys spent feeding on these plant food species along the forest boundary while monkeys of the interior group fed on different items regardless of their abundance. The edge group had also a larger home range than the interior group especially because they expanded it during crop raiding or feeding on native vegetation in fallows outside the park. Crop raiding was a very risky activity during which l\u27Hoest\u27s monkeys experienced fatal confrontations with local farmers. Although early work suggested that forest edges were beneficial to wildlife, this study has concluded that forest edges in Bwindi can be ecological traps or sink areas for the edge-resilient l\u27Hoest\u27s monkey species whose edge groups rely on immigration from the interior forest groups to survive and cope with disturbances and threats associated with forest edges

MASTREE+: Time-series of plant reproductive effort from six continents.

Significant gaps remain in understanding the response of plant reproduction to environmental change. This is partly because measuring reproduction in long-lived plants requires direct observation over many years and such datasets have rarely been made publicly available. Here we introduce MASTREE+, a data set that collates reproductive time-series data from across the globe and makes these data freely available to the community. MASTREE+ includes 73,828 georeferenced observations of annual reproduction (e.g. seed and fruit counts) in perennial plant populations worldwide. These observations consist of 5971 population-level time-series from 974 species in 66 countries. The mean and median time-series length is 12.4 and 10 years respectively, and the data set includes 1122 series that extend over at least two decades (≥20 years of observations). For a subset of well-studied species, MASTREE+ includes extensive replication of time-series across geographical and climatic gradients. Here we describe the open-access data set, available as a.csv file, and we introduce an associated web-based app for data exploration. MASTREE+ will provide the basis for improved understanding of the response of long-lived plant reproduction to environmental change. Additionally, MASTREE+ will enable investigation of the ecology and evolution of reproductive strategies in perennial plants, and the role of plant reproduction as a driver of ecosystem dynamics

Structural and floristic typology of the forests in the forest-savanna mosaic of the Lopé National Park, Gabon

Background and aims – The Lopé National Park in Gabon, recently added to the UNESCO world heritage list, presents a mosaic of forest and savanna that dynamically changes. Conserving this landscape requires an understanding of the forest dynamics. This study aims at defining a forest typology at Lopé in relation with its dynamics. Methods – Floristic and structural characteristics for 265 tree species belonging to 55 families were measured in 258 sampling plots in the Lopé National Park. Multivariate analysis of these data was used to partition the sampling plots into groups on the basis of their floristic or structural characteristics. Key results – Five structural forest types and six floristic forest types were identified. This typology showed that the forests in the forest-savanna mosaic of Lopé organize themselves along a gradient of forest recovery, from young forests to mature forests. Typical pioneer species are associated with the youngest forest stages. The gradient on the species also corresponds to a geographical gradient on the sampling plots, associated with features like altitude, rocks, or hydrography. Conclusions – Five forest types were defined on the basis of species abundances. The snapshot of forest types characterizes a dynamic process of forest regeneration

Home-range Use by a Large Horde of Wild Mandrillus sphinx

The predicted relationship between home-range size and group mass in primates developed by Clutton-Brock and Harvey (1977) has proved extremely robust in describing the use of space by most primate species. However, mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) are now known to have an extreme group mass in the wild, far larger than that of the species used originally to generate that relationship, and so it was unknown whether this relationship would be robust for this species. We investigated the home-range size and use of a wild horde of ca. 700 mandrills in Lopé National Park, Gabon, using radiotelemetry. The total area the horde used over a 6-yr period [100% minimum convex polygon (MCP)] was 182 km2, including 89 km2 of suitable forest habitat. Mandrills used gallery forests and isolated forest fragments with high botanical diversity far more intensively that the continuous forest and completely avoided savanna and marsh. Peeled polygons and fixed kernel contours revealed multiple centres of use, with the horde spending more than half its time in <10% of the total documented range, typical of a frugivore using a patchy environment. Home-range size and internal structure varied considerably between years, but total home range fitted the predicted relationship between group mass and home range size, despite being an outlier to the dataset. We discuss the conservation implications of the species' space requirements, in light of current pressures on land use in their range