Species and Population Management
The Species and Population Management area (SPM) is to develop a multidisciplinary research program that addresses significant questions in Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation issues that provide conservation solutions for the management of species and populations. The SPM is particularly focused on management of exotic species that impact native flora and fauna and, close the knowledge gap on rare and endangered species in the Caribbean. Our goals are consonant with the mission of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation (CATEC), which addresses key issues for the conservation of regional and global biodiversity. Student research training is a fundamental component of our program, and represents one of the long-term impacts of the SPM.The strong partnership between our program and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) has become a model of collaboration between academia and government. The SPM and CATEC have placed the University of Puerto Rico in the national and international conservation arena, as students and fellow researchers have collaborated with other institutions and participated prominently in regional meetings, working groups, and workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Furthermore, SPM has enabled researchers to pursue funding opportunities to strengthen its applied research and capacity building mission.
OBJECTIVE
During its first five years, SPM focused on the effects of biological introductions of global relevance: introduced feral ungulates and Africanized bees. The first component studied the effects of goat and pig herbivory on depression forest communities in Mona Island. The second component studied the effects of Africanized bees on pollination and reproductive success of an endangered tree species. Knowledge developed from these studies has made significant positive impacts on management strategies by local and federal conservation agencies, namely the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
GOAL
The Species Population Management Group is committed to support and facilitate collaborations. To pursue this goal, we will plan research activities that induce research experiences between students and specialists within the SPM, researchers from other CATEC thrust areas, UPR, and from international research institutions and conservation organizations. The SPM area has strong horizontal interactions with the other areas of CATEC (MEEG and EPF). For instance, newly proposed research on the diversification of Tabebuia will coordinate with a population genetics study of a widespread Tabebuia species by MEEG and an ecophysiological study by EPF.
OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
Islands stand out as top targets in the conservation agendas worldwide, because the vulnerability of their remarkable biota implies massive loss of global diversity. Invasive species are one of the two major factors contributing to this vulnerability, second only to habitat destruction. Due to the potential of invasive species to adversely impact biodiversity on insular systems, there is an urgent need for research that permits the design and implementation of adequate management strategies. This urgency is exacerbated by the impending scenario of global climatic change, which is expected to be disproportionately large in islands. Actions to harness climatic change require strong scientific data to assess evolutionary and ecological processes assertively.
This call to action is of special relevance for the Caribbean Island Biodiversity Hotspot, a region rated among the top most biologically diverse regions on Earth. Despite the relatively limited extension, this hotspot comprises 12,000 species of plants, comparable in diversity and uniqueness to other areas better known to the public, like the Hawaiian Islands, the Galápagos, or Madagascar. The region also contains a striking diversity in animal groups the reptiles: 2% of the total reptilian fauna on Earth. This remarkable diversity resides in and area of rapid-increasing human societies that are inducing permanent landscape transformations, and massive introductions of invasive species. In addition, the Caribbean is not exempt from climatic change, a plight that is well documented for the region. The extensive Knowledge gaps on the impact of these threats to the long-term coping capacity of the native plant and animal populations in this biodiversity hotspot are, however, alarming.
KEY GOALS OF THE SPECIES AND POPULATION MANAGEMENT AREA:
This proposal asks for funds for research efforts of the Species and Population Management Subgroup (SPM) that will strengthen management of invasive and native species in island ecosystems. Based on our strong past achievements, the SPM looks to engage into more complex questions in a synergistic fashion, several of which aim to have direct implications to the Caribbean and consequently, other tropical island systems. During the previous funded period, the SPM developed two projects on the impact of two types of invasive faunal elements of world-wide relevance: feral ungulates and Africanized bees. Results generated from these studies have become pivotal to design management strategies of the Mona Island Wildlife Reserve, and to guide recovery actions of the highly endangered Caribbean tree species. The present proposal expands SPM action by targeting:
1) Factors that promote invasibility of plants, and their impact to the population dynamics of the native and endangered flora;
2) Population Viability Analyses of two Caribbean reptiles on the verge of extinction;
3) Patterns of diversification of an economically-important Caribbean tree group.
