Techniques for the Study of Primate Population Ecology (1981) / Chapter Skim
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HABITAT DESCRIPTION AND SPECIMEN COLLECTION
HABITAT DESCRIPTION AND SPECIMEN COLLECTION
Pages 10-35
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From page 10... ...
The more detailed the habitat description, the more useful the census results. It is necessary to emphasize that habitat descriptions can be either highly quantitative or just qualitative without very much field measurement.
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From page 11... ...
A sketch of a vegetation profile along transect lines has proved to be useful in augmenting detailed notes. Composite habitat profiles for an entire study area have also been useful in summarizing the relationship between animal abundance (based on sightings or signs)
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From page 12... ...
1 8 Density estimates (censusing) 10 60 Crude Transect 1 6 10 10 20 20 Quadrat 1 6 10 14 Ecological 20 40 Transect 1 6 10 30 20 40 Quadrat 1 6 10 30 20 60 "Does not include travel time to study areas; assumes work on foot; assumes forested habitat and some trail construction; assumes some familiarity with identification of flora and fauna.
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From page 13... ...
A composite physiognomic habitat profile is a rapid way of summarizing which habitats support which species and whether all areas of available habitat are being exploited. The relative abundance of two primate species is shown for nine habitats in Java.
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FIGURE 3-2 Preliminary transect sample of vegetation types in a survey area.
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From page 15... ...
. The field worker need not be an expert botanist to compile quantitative floral data; however, in more detailed ecological studies, it is important to be familiar with the names of the com
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From page 17... ...
These are the trunk diameter at breast height (dbh) , tree height, and crown volume.
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From page 18... ...
It is usually expressed as a percentage. Two types of cover are usually measured: canopy cover and ground cover.
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From page 19... ...
Three methods frequently used to characterize vegetation are the strip, quadrat, and quadrant methods. Strip Method The strip method of vegetation analysis is commonly used by foresters and variations are used by primatologists (Dittus, 1977b; Struhsaker, 1976)
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From page 20... ...
For a discussion of quadrat sampling applied to sampling primate populations, see "Quadrat Censuses" in Chapter 4.
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From page 21... ...
In general, the aim is to identify the species, measure the distance from the sample point to the nearest tree, and record the dbh and the area of ground covered by the base of trees. In any transect sampling of this nature, the worker must establish at least 100 points that yield measurements for 400 trees.
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From page 22... ...
Figure 3-6 portrays the quadrant method. The relative density and relative dominance of different tree species can be calculated after the basal area of the trees and their densities are known.
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From page 23... ...
This information is especially important for evaluating the present and future status of primate populations. (See Neville et al.
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From page 24... ...
Canopies with lianas are represented by hatched areas on the profile. Identifications of tree species may also be labeled in these illustrations.
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From page 25... ...
,) of the rth species is calculated as Pf = Nt/Nt, and diversity H' = -- Ef=i p/lnpf, where In = natural logarithm to base e = 2.718 The measure of diversity takes into account both the number of tree species and their relative abundances.
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From page 26... ...
Average months of continuous drought are important; the longer the annual drought, the lower the annual plant productivity. The diversity of sympatric primate species clearly declines as the mean annual drought period increases over a range of geographic areas (Eisenberg, 1979)
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From page 27... ...
The diagrams illustrate the differences between the climates of a wet-zone cloud forest at Horton Plains, which averages 2,000 mm of rainfall annually (Rudran, 1973a) , and a coastal dry-zone forest at Batticaloa, which averages 1,699 mm of rainfall annually (McKay, 1973)
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From page 28... ...
. COLLECTING PLANT SPECIMENS There are two main reasons for collecting plants used by the animals one studies.
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From page 29... ...
Each specimen sent to a botanist or a herbarium should have the following data included: data collected, collector's full name and his catalog number for the specimen, locality from which the specimen was collected, habitat (e.g., forest, savanna, swamp) , and descriptive characteristics of the plant.
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From page 30... ...
In some areas you can leave it until it has dried and then take possession; but in others it must be taken promptly -- before it is removed by scavenging animals or birds. You can hang it from a tree to discourage vultures and small scavengers from dragging it away, but if it starts to fall apart, important parts may be lost.
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From page 31... ...
At the other extreme, deciduous species tend to be highly seasonal, and some renew their canopies only after a period of dormancy. These patterns are usually given operational definitions at each site.
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From page 32... ...
A tree species may maintain continuous activity of a particular phenophase through continuous production at certain sites, by asynchronous behavior between branches of an individual, or by asynchronous behavior between individuals in a population. As many as 27 types of reproductive patterns have been described for species of plants in a seasonal rain forest in Panama (Croat, 1975)
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From page 33... ...
. SATELLITE IMAGERY Satellite analysis of land resources has been an expanding area of study in forestry, agriculture, and geology since 1972, when the Earth Resources LANDSAT Satellites began transmitting data collected by multispectral optical sensors to ground receiving stations worldwide.
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From page 34... ...
Initial applications of satellite imagery to primate studies may be in classifying forest types and in detecting and monitoring habitat loss for forest primates through deforestation. NASA has recently published a volume on monitoring forest canopy in tropical countries using LANDSAT imagery.
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From page 35... ...
Tropical countries that have LANDSAT programs include Bolivia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand. Inquiries about the service offered and price lists for satellite images can be obtained from LANDSAT data distribution centers (see Appendix A)
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