The Functional Side of Diversity: Effects of Environmental Conditions and Human Disturbance on Tropical Forest Mammal Communities

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dc.contributor.advisorBeaudrot, Lydia
dc.creatorGorczynski, Daniel
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-01T20:17:20Z
dc.date.created2023-08
dc.date.issued2023-07-13
dc.date.submittedAugust 2023
dc.date.updated2023-09-01T20:17:20Z
dc.description.abstractBiodiversity provides many benefits to humans, but human activity is rapidly driving the loss of biodiversity, particularly in the tropics. Relevant species characteristics such as body size and diet, known as traits, provide insight into the biological roles of diverse species in an ecosystem. Little is known about the trait diversity of large mammals in tropical rainforests because of the reclusive nature of these species but increasing our knowledge can provide important information about critical ecosystem functions performed by mammals. In addition, many tropical mammals are currently endangered, threatening the persistence of their ecological functions. To address this pressing issue in this dissertation, I investigate how environmental and anthropogenic conditions affect mammal trait diversity in tropical rainforests around the world. This work overcomes prior data limitations by using data from the largest tropical forest remote camera monitoring network in the world. I assess the ecological drivers of trait diversity at an unprecedented scope and scale by coupling these data with cutting-edge remote sensing techniques. First, I found that mammal trait diversity remained constant over the course of a decade within a Costa Rican national park surrounded by a human dominated landscape, potentially due to high functional redundancy among this mammal community. Second, in a global comparison of 15 tropical forest national parks, I found that trait diversity was higher in parks where the amount of healthy plant growth was higher, while human-induced extinctions reduced trait diversity and therefore degraded ecosystem functions. Third, I investigated how microhabitat characteristics affected species trait diversity in a national park in Tanzania and revealed that higher forest floor habitat surface area was associated with increased mammal trait diversity, and that carnivorous and social species showed preference for higher habitat surface area. Finally, in a global analysis of species spatial overlap, I identified that species with similar traits were more likely to co-occur in the presence of high human density, suggesting that human presence is altering the spatial distribution of ecosystem functions in protected areas, potentially leading to changes in species interactions and increased extinction risk. Together, this dissertation reveals the importance of functional traits for understanding environmental and anthropogenic effects on biodiversity and identify factors that structure the critical ecological roles of mammals in tropical rain forests.
dc.embargo.lift2024-02-01
dc.embargo.terms2024-02-01
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationGorczynski, Daniel. "The Functional Side of Diversity: Effects of Environmental Conditions and Human Disturbance on Tropical Forest Mammal Communities." (2023) Diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/115254.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/115254
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.
dc.subjectMammals
dc.subjectTropical ecology
dc.subjectFunctional traits
dc.subjectCommunity assembly
dc.subjectRemote Sensing
dc.subjectConservation
dc.subjectRainforest
dc.subjectNational Park
dc.subjectCamera Traps
dc.titleThe Functional Side of Diversity: Effects of Environmental Conditions and Human Disturbance on Tropical Forest Mammal Communities
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialText
thesis.degree.departmentEcology and Evolutionary Biology
thesis.degree.disciplineNatural Sciences
thesis.degree.grantorRice University
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
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