Thomas VIGNAUD/CNRS Photothéque CHALLENGES IN TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION - GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Transcription

1 Thomas VIGNAUD/CNRS Photothéque CHALLENGES IN TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION - GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

2 IMPRINT Editors Pierre-Michel Forget Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle Catherine Reeb Sorbonne Université Jérémy Migliore Université Libre de Bruxelles Heike Kuhlmann KCS Kuhlmann Convention Service Concept, Layout and Cover roman.tschirf@gmail.com This book is available at ISBN: The respective authors are solely responsible for the contents of their contributions in this book. Printed on 00% recycled paper

3 LOCAL ORGANIZERS & SPONSORING INSTITUTIONS The organizing committee and the Society for Tropical Ecology would like to thank the following institutions, partners and sponsors for their support: TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome and Foreword Society for Tropical Ecology (Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.v., gtö) Merian Awards Local organizers and institutions Detailed conference program Plenary sessions Abstracts Public lecture Scientific talk sessions Abstracts Session 0 Tropical marine ecosystems in the Anthropocene Session 0 Mangroves functioning and management Session 0 Continental wetlands Session 04 Savanna functioning and dynamics Session 05 Diversification of African forests Session 06 Acoustic survey in tropical ecosystems Session 07 Advances in canopy science Session 08 Tropical trees ecology and evolution Session 09 Free session: Tropical diversity Session 0 Tropical soil ecology Session Molecular taxonomy and cryptic species in soils Session Tropical molecular ecology Session Tropical tree allometry Session 4 Tropical forest nutrient ecology Session 5 Altitudinal gradient Session 6 Ecology and taxonomy of tropical bryophytes Session 7 Manipulations of tropical food webs Session 8 Tropical networks Session 9 Free session: Frugivores, seed dispersal and forest regeneration Session 0 Tropical forests in space and time Session Climate change Session Remote sensing forest response to ENSO Session Rehabilitation of tropical forest landscapes Session 4 Resilient rural landscape for Rio de Janeiro Session 5 Human-modified tropical forests Session 6 Impact evaluation of forest certification Session 7 Future scenarios for the Congo Basin Session 8 Free session: Tropical ecology and conservation Scientific poster session Abstracts Information for participants Tropimundo Side event Miniforum COPED Institut de France Académie des Sciences Social events All about Paris Acknowledgements Index of participants

4 4 5 WELCOME AND FOREWORD WELCOME LOCAL ORGANIZERS Dear Friends, Colleagues, Participants, We are very pleased to welcome the European Conference of Tropical Ecology to France, at the International Center of Conference of Sorbonne Université (CICSU), in Paris s historic center. Until earlier this year, Sorbonne Université (SU) was better known as the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC, Paris 6). It was used to host the Laboratory of Tropical Botany successively led by Professor Raymond Schnell (9-999) and Professor Henri Puig (98- ). Under their dual leadership, efforts were made to develop studies on vegetation in tropical Africa and America. These studies aimed to create new dynamic approaches in tropical botany by integrating many disciplinary fields from soil biology to ethnology, especially when it comes to study the impact of human impact on natural resources, wood, nontimber forest products, wildlife and habitats overall. Such a switch from traditional plant biology was made possible because both Pr. R. Schnell and Pr. H. Puig were field scientists, close to native people depending on tropical shelter for their livelihood. Research was enabled by the proximity of the laboratories of the Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) at the Jardin des Plantes across the streets Cuvier and Buffon. They are better known today as Research Mixed Units (UMR) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, ex ORSTOM), at MNHN. These laboratories enabled dozens of PhD students in tropical botany at UPMC to attend educational courses by those eminent naturalists, botanist and zoologists, plant and animal taxonomists, anthropologists, ethnologists. Additionally, these students have been trained in the field, guided, facilitated and nurtured with experiences and lessons to prepare them for the future tropical ecologists they will become. These initial students were the humus upon which has indeed grown and matured the new generation of tropical ecologists at MNHN, CNRS, IRD, and universities (SU, UPEC, UA), today associated to organize this 4 th European conference of Tropical Ecology and the Annual meeting of the Society for Tropical Ecology. Meanwhile, we are also indebted to the Academicians of the Institut of France-Académie des Sciences and the Comité pour le Développement (COPED) - which have joined this conference and organized a side event (miniforum) on African tropical forests, continuing the initiative of our colleagues in Brussels last year who opened the way by having more sessions focused but not limited to tropical Africa. In this st Century, both SU and MNHN continue to contribute to the education and evolution of tropical botany, zoology and ecology through several Masters and PhD programs. Both institutes are members of the International Master Tropimundo, with which the Society of Tropical Ecology established a partnership following our last conference in Brussels in 07. Though Paris is not exactly tropical as a destination, the MNHN hosts one of the largest collections of tropical organisms globally, for instance at the newly renovated National Herbarium, the Zoothèque, and the Grande Galerie de l Evolution. The MNHN is also exhibiting live plants and animals at the tropical greenhouse and the Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes, and throughout the biozones of the Zoological Park of Paris. They all allow the participants to experience tropical sensations, the hot, dry and wet climatic conditions of the tropics, though warmer and hotter year after year, as well

5 6 7 as being able to meet with tropical flora and fauna of New Caledonia, Amazonia-French Guiana (Guyane), Central Africa, Madagascar, and Sahelian-Soudanian savannas. But, the tropical picture won t be complete if we ignore other habitats, which are too often neglected by terrestrial-focused tropical ecologists: such as mangroves and coral reefs, two other crucial components of tropical ecosystems around the green and blue belt. These tropical ecosystems must also to be studied, protected and conserved in territories and overseas departments of France, from the Caribbean islands, to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Given that, as for the rainforests, they also contribute to cool the climate and to provide services to billions of human beings, most of them leaving in as well as far from the tropics. The Society is thus honored to have been labeled as an event of the rd International Year of Coral Reef (IYOR08). In addition, we are also pleased that our conference has been chosen by the Institut Ecologie et Environnement (INEE) of the CNRS to officially launch the beautifully illustrated book Mangroves, une forêt dans la mer published by CNRS/ lecherchemidi. Likewise, the Society of Tropical ecology will welcome the participants for the conference dinner at the Tropical Aquarium of the Porte Dorée, surrounded by the colored diversity of both freshwater and marine ecosystems, and all the diversity of the coral reefs intra-muros in Paris. One does not do all the good he could when, having the faculty, he renounces to be useful to others. Is there a difference between vulgar stones and gems if we do not expose them to the light? The same is true of science: when it is shared with others, it grows up; and if a miserly master is satisfied with it for himself, it ends by escaping him. Be careful not to close your fountains with white water to your disciples.... Said Hildebert de Lavardin, bishop of Mans to Guillaume de Champaux master of the new Faculty in 09, now Sorbonne University. WELCOME SOCIETY FOR TROPICAL ECOLOGY (GTÖ) Dear participants, Welcome to this European Conference of Tropical Ecology under the title Challenges in tropical ecology and conservation - global perspectives. To bring together students and scientists, researchers of all ages interested in tropical ecology, was the idea when the Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie (Society for Tropical Ecology) gtö was founded in 987. Since then, our strong focus on ecological research has increasingly been combined with many aspects of conservation. And today, more than ever before, we face huge challenges both in ecology and in conservation. This is what the overarching topic of our 08 conference reflects. Challenges are there to be met, obstacles need to be overcome. So here at the Centre International de Colloques Sorbonne Université (CICSU) in Paris historic center, we will hear about and discuss new data, new findings, new results, new problems and finally good solutions. As you have seen in the program, we have a wide range of scientists presenting their research, and we have a wide range of students who (maybe) are presenting their work for the first time in front of a big, international auditory. We, as the organizers, are proud to have this mix and we do hope you like it too. It is my duty and privilege to thank our wonderful hosts, the Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle/Sorbonne Université/Académie des Sciences-COPED and the local organizing team under the leadership of Pierre-Michel Forget and Catherine Reeb. Enjoy this opportunity to meet colleagues, to discover new fields, new results, through the high diversity of sessions in a historical place of teaching and knowledge. I would also like to thank Heike Kuhlmann of KCS Kuhlmann Convention Service for her enthusiasm and efficiency in preparing this conference. Pierre-Michel Forget, Catherine Reeb, Eric Guilbert, and Elodie Boucheron-Dubuisson On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee: Jacques Gignoux, Sébastien Barot, Virginie Roy, Sandrine Grouard, Aude Lalis, Violaine Nicolas-Colin, Jérôme Sueur, Tarik Meziane, Malika Trouillefou, Colin Fontaine. Dear participants, take part, become actively involved in our discussions and in the work of our Society, the gtö. I wish us all a stimulating, successful conference. Again, welcome! Prof. Dr. Manfred Niekisch President of gtö

6 8 9 SOCIETY FOR TROPICAL ECOLOGY (GTÖ) SOCIETY FOR TROPICAL ECOLOGY (GESELLSCHAFT FÜR TROPENÖKOLOGIE E.V., GTÖ) The Society for Tropical Ecology promotes and communicates new and emerging knowledge among tropical ecologists to advance the understanding of tropical ecosystems and their protection. It is currently Europe s largest scientific association in this field of research with about 500 members. The aim of the Society for Tropical Ecology, which was founded in 987, is to further improve our understanding of all the aspects of tropical ecology. A primary means toward this scope is through the organization of annual international congresses, usually one week in February in Europe. Invited international plenary speakers contribute papers and discussions on selected themes of either outstanding universal topicality or of special relevance to up-to-date issues in tropical ecology in order to promote scientific exchange with the participants, many of which usually are students. The conferences provide an international platform for the exchange of scientific ideas and the establishment of collaborations between members and their guests. The gtö is especially dedicated to fostering junior research and equitable cooperation projects. SOCIETY FOR TROPICAL ECOLOGY (GTÖ) MERIAN AWARDS In 00 the gtö established the Merian Awards for the best contributions given by young scientists during the annual meeting. There are six Merian Awards annually, three for the best oral contributions and three for the best posters. ECOTROPICA the society s journal highlights these contributions by publishing the abstracts. The gtö has selected Maria Sibylla Merian as the patron of the award to commemorate her unique work as an outstanding artist and as the first female tropical naturalist who actually travelled to the tropics in order to study their fascinating diversity, in particular insects. She was the first scientist who recognized, and documented in her artistic work, that insects go through various developmental stages. This is particularly remarkable as the general public in her time still believed that, for instance, mosquitoes and caterpillars were generated in mud by the evil. Our vision: Understanding biodiversity and functions of tropical ecosystems drives decision making and management on all levels. Who is eligible and how to apply? Eligible candidates are students and PhDs who are members of the gtö and finished their dissertation less than three years ago. Our mission: Promoting the conservation and rehabilitation of tropical biodiversity and ecosystems through research and its application. The winners will be awarded during the closing ceremony on Thursday 9 th March 08, between 6:00 and 7:0 in the Auditorium. More information:

7 0 LOCAL ORGANIZERS AND INSTITUTIONS Virginie ROY Associate Professor UPEC, IEES, Créteil Sandrine GROUARD Associate Professor MNHN, ARCHEO, Paris Aude LALIS Associate Professor MNHN, ISYEB, Paris Pierre-Michel FORGET Conference Chair Professor MNHN, MECADEV, Brunoy Catherine REEB Conference Chair PRAG Sorbonne Université, ISYEB, Paris Elodie BOUCHERON- DUBUISSON Conference Co-Chair Associate Professor Sorbonne Université, ISYEB, Paris Violaine NICOLAS-COLIN Associate Professor MNHN, ISYEB, Paris Jérôme SUEUR Associate Professor MNHN, ISYEB, Paris Tarik MEZIANE Professor MNHN, BOREA, Paris Eric GUILBERT Conference Co-Chair Associate Professor MNHN, MECADEV, Paris Jacques GIGNOUX Research Director CNRS, IEES, Paris Sébastien BAROT Research Director IRD, IEES, Paris Malika TROUILLEFOU Associate Professor UA, BOREA, Pinte-à-Pitre Colin FONTAINE Researcher CNRS, CESCO, Paris Heike KUHLMANN Professional Conference Organizer KCS Kuhlmann Convention Service

8 INSTITUTIONS MUSÉUM NATIONAL D HISTOIRE NATURELLE INSTITUTIONS CNRS-INEE At the crossroads between Earth, Life and Human sciences, the Muséum focuses on nature and its relationship with the human race on a daily basis, and has done so for almost 400 years. The Muséum is steeped in history, yet at the heart of current affairs, and is also working for the future Environmental awareness and protecting the planet lie at the heart of contemporary debates. The Muséum is fully committed to these issues and occupies a position of reference thanks to its varied missions, which include basic and applied research, conservation and the expansion of its collections, education, expertise and the dissemination of knowledge. The Muséum is a research centre and draws on laboratory work and worldwide expeditions, a wide range of disciplines, outstanding collections and recognised expertise. Its mission is also to share knowledge, which it does through education and dissemination activities. With a clear objective - to make knowledge about the natural world accessible to everyone and to make as many people as possible aware of the importance of protecting our planet. Website: SORBONNE UNIVERSITÉ A new university with a centuries-old tradition, through the merger of UPMC and Paris-Sorbonne on st January, 08, bringing together Arts & Humanities, Medicine and Science & Engineering. Sorbonne University is thus a multidisciplinary and researchintensive university with world-famous origins. Continuing the humanist tradition of the Sorbonne, it is devoted to meeting the scientific challenges of the st century and spreading the knowledge created in its laboratories by its research teams and transmitted to its students and to society as a whole. Sorbonne University s three faculties in humanities, medicine and science each with the wideranging autonomy necessary to conduct its ambitious programs in both research and education The University s 5,500 students,,400 professor-researchers and,600 administrative and technical staff members who help it run every day contribute to a University that is diverse, creative, innovative, and with a global outlook. Website: At the interface of social, earth and life sciences, the CNRS Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) has developed an integrative approach to environmental sciences that aims to promote global ecology at every scale of time and space. INEE is a fundamental research institute that combines research with action, and contributes to the advancement of knowledge for sustainable development. INEE is highly active at the international level and takes part in the European Research Area. The Institute collaborates with teams on every continent, especially in biodiversity hotspots in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Its commitment to research in French Guiana has enabled it to build strong relationships in South America, with Brazil in particular. Five priority research themes: Biodiversity, evolution, adaptation; human impact on the environment: from modification to transformation; feedback of ecosystems on global change; coastal and marine environments: interactions and processes; functional ecology, analysis and management of ecosystem services. Website: IRD Scientific progress is necessary to further sustainable and human development: the IRD (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development) carries this conviction with it wherever it is present, and wherever it works with its partners. The IRD is a key French player on the international development agenda. It works based on an original model: equitable scientific partnership with developing countries, primarily those in the intertropical regions and the Mediterranean area. The IRD believes that only this model allows us to design solutions which are adapted to the challenges that humans and the planet are facing: pandemics, climate change, humanitarian and political crises, etc. Because development challenges are challenges for the whole planet. The IRD is an internationally recognised multidisciplinary organisation working primarily in partnership with Mediterranean and inter-tropical countries. Via its network and presence in fifty or so countries, it takes an original approach to research, expertise, training and knowledge-sharing, to the benefit of countries and regions that make science and innovation key drivers in their development. Website:

9 4 5 INSTITUTIONS COPED - INSTITUT DE FRANCE - ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES Infused with a spirit of close partnership with Africa on its creation in 997, the Standing Committee for Developing Countries (COPED) has gradually enlarged its scope of action to other regions of the world. Under the Presidency of Pierre Auger, Member of the Académie des Sciences, COPED embodies the determination of the Académie des Sciences to contribute through scientific development to solving major worldwide issues. Website: standing-committee-for-developing-countries-coped.html UNIVERSITÉ PARIS-EST CRÉTEIL The largest multidisciplinary university in Ile-de-France, the Université Paris-Est Créteil may be described as a bold yet successful enterprise: in little more than 40 years since its foundation in 970, UPEC has managed to establish itself both as a regionally grounded institution and an internationally oriented university. Only 0 minutes from the heart of Paris, UPEC stands out with its 0,000 square meter campus, its comprehensive programs and state-of-theart research. The university houses research centers, and 5 components, for a student population of 0,000. Website: UNIVERSITÉ DES ANTILLES The Université des Antilles (UA), one of the 0 French universities, is not located on the European continent but 7000 kilometres away from France. However, UA is particularly privileged as far as the original geographical context in which it evolves is concerned: it has 5 campuses on two different territories, namely Guadeloupe and Martinique which are known as DFA s (Départements Français d Amérique) Website:

10 6 7 DETAILED CONFERENCE PROGRAM Talks and Posters shaded in this background color are eligible for the Merian Award DETAILED PROGRAM SCHEDULE MONDAY, 6 MARCH 08 6:00 START OF REGISTRATION International Conference Center Sorbonne Université (CICSU) at Sorbonne University 8:00 OPENING CEREMONY - Auditorium 8:0 PLENARY TALK 0 - Alice HUGHES - Auditorium Importance of bats in the old world tropics and the threats to their future survival 9:0 LOBBY ICE BREAKER MIXING - CICSU

11 8 9 TUESDAY DETAILED PROGRAM SCHEDULE TUESDAY, 7 MARCH 08 08:0 PLENARY TALK 0 - Cécile FAUVELOT - Auditorium The world network of biosphere reserves: learning places for Sustainable development 09:0 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: TROPICAL MARINE ECO- SYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE (/) Malika RENE-TROUILLE- FOU, Sandrine GROUARD, Pierre-Michel FORGET S0: CONTINENTAL WETLANDS (/) Hery Lisy Tiana RANARIJAONA, Pete B. PHILLIPSON S05: DIVER- SIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS (/) Violaine NICOLAS-COLIN, Thomas COUVREUR S07: ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE (/) Julian DONALD, Louise ASHTON Room Auditorium :0 S0-O0: César RUIZ Combining metabarcoding and metabolomics to better understand the ecological success of Homoscleromorpha sponges in underwater caves 9:45 S0-O0: Malika RENE- TROUILLEFOU Isolation and characterization of bacteria with potential antibacterial activity associated to Porites astreoides, a dominant Caribbean coral species 0:00 S0-O0: Lou FROTTE Trophic changes during diadromous species migration: the contributions of fatty acids S0-O0: Fritz KLEINSCHROTH Tropical ecosystems in the water-energy-food nexus S0-O0: Pia PAROLIN Hydroelectric reservoirs influence tree physiology and endemism S0-O0: Mesfin DAMTEW Emergent macrophytes support zooplankton in a shallow tropical lake: a basis for wetland conservation S05-O0: Marie Claire VERANSO- LIBALAH Multiple shifts to open habitats in Melastomateae (Melastomataceae) congruent with the increase of African Neogene climatic aridity S05-O0: Adama FAYE Phylogenetics and diversification history of African Rattans (Calamoideae, Ancistrophyllinae) S05-O0: Josef BRYJA Forests of Southern Ethiopia - overlooked and endangered centre of African endemism S07-O0: Catherine WAITE UAS identification of scale and patterns of liana infestation in tropical forests, Malaysia S07-O0: J. Antonio GUZMÁN Q. Differences in leaf temperature between lianas and trees at the canopy of a lowland tropical forest S07-O0: Tobias JACKSON Tree architecture and wind-induced sway S09: FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY (/4) Catherine REEB, Eric GUILBERT S09-O0: Marianne ELIAS The drivers of diversification in neotropical mimetic clearwing butterflies S09-O0: Henry K. NJOVU Leaf traits mediate changes in insect herbivory along broad environmental gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania S09-O0: Clarissa MENDES KNOECHELMANN Impact of the leaf-cutting ant Atta opaciceps on plant community composition along a gradient of forest cover in the Caatinga dry tropical forest 0:5 S0-O04: Nicolas N. DUPREY Coral skeletal δ 5 N records reveal long-standing eutrophication of coastal coral reefs S0-O04: Norbert JUERGENS Fairy circles and wetland vegetation patches: why are there similar or even identical regular vegetation patterns in deserts and wetlands? 0:0 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTERS :00 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: TROPICAL MARINE ECO- SYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE (/) Malika RENE-TROUILLE- FOU, Sandrine GROUARD, Pierre-Michel FORGET S04: SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS (/) Jacques GIGNOUX, Sébastien BAROT S05-O04: Jérémy MIGLIORE Response of Afromontane forests to past environmental changes: new insights from Podocarpus trees using genomic tools S05: DIVER- SIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS (/) Violaine NICOLAS-COLIN, Thomas COUVREUR S07-O04: Marie TRONE Preliminary results from recording bats in the Peruvian rainforest canopy 5 meters above the forest floor S07: ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE (/) Julian DONALD, Louise ASHTON Room Auditorium :00 S0-O05: Sandrine GROUARD Chronology of west indian palaeofishery :5 S0-O06: Vincent VALLEE Assembly rules and long terms changes in ground fish communities functional diversity of the continental shelf off French Guiana :0 S0-O07: Chevallier DAMIEN The gulf stream frontal system: a key oceanographic feature in the habitat selection of the leatherback turtle? S04-O0: Jacques GIGNOUX current issues in savanna ecology S04-O0: Sarah KONARÉ Effects of mineral nitrogen partitioning on tree-grass coexistence in savannas S04-O0: Damian TOM-DERY Gas exchange and biomass allocation of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa c.f. Gaertn.) seedlings under increased CO, competition and water availability S05-O05: Arthur BOOM Diversification of the African genus tree Brachystegia S05-O06: Violaine NICOLAS-COLIN Small mammal diversification in the African Guineo-Congolian rainforest: a comparative phylogeographic survey S05-O07: Félicien TOSSO Phylogenetic patterns of diversification across ecological niches in the African tree genus Guibourtia S07-O05: Sarab SETHI Automated ecosystem monitoring in the canopy S07-O06: Stephanie LAW Vertical stratification of tropical ant assemblages: do ground ants restrict the foraging distribution of arboreal ants? S07-O07: Julian DONALD The role of Invertebrates and micro-organisms in facilitating nutrient cycling in the canopy S09-O04: Eckhard W. HEYMANN Myrmecovorie in neotropical primates S09: FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY (/4) Catherine REEB, Eric GUILBERT S09-O05: Christoph F. J. MEYER Functional recovery of Amazonian Bat assemblages following secondary forest succession S09-O06: Thierry HOUEHANOU Morphological traits variations of Afzelia africana SM. in relation to climatic condition and implication for species conservation in Benin S09-O07: Kenneth IRVINE Conservation planning for tropical freshwaters through a global alliance for freshwater life TUESDAY

12 0 :45 S04-O04: Cyntia SANTOS S05-O08: Vaclav GVOZDIK S09-O08: John GARCIA-ULLOA 5:5 S0-O04: Marie ARNAUD S04-O08: Aya Brigitte N'DRI S06-O04: Marie TRONE S08-O04: Myriam HEUERTZ S09-O: Marie DURY TUESDAY Mammalian herbivores along a native vegetation loss gradient in neotropical savanna Phylogeography of a leaf-litter frog reveals the history of the Lower Guinea and Congo rainforests :00 FREE LUNCH BREAK :0 PLENARY TALK 0 - Alexandra MUELLNER-RIEHL - Auditorium Plant radiations and floristic exchange across biodiversity hotspots in Asia 4:0 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: MAN- GROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGE- MENT (/) Tarik MEZIANE, Emma MICHAUD S04: SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS (/) Jacques GIGNOUX, Sébastien BAROT S06: ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS (/) Jérôme SUEUR, Alice C. HUGHES, Patrick A. JANSEN S08: TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (/) Joeri Sergej STRIJK, Damien Daniel HINSINGER Room Auditorium :0 S0-O0: Anne BOUSQUET- MELOU Metabolomic fingerprinting of eight mangroves species from Vietnam 4:45 S0-O0: Jean-Hude E. MOUDINGO Nypa fruticans wurmb (Arecaceae) peatland characterization in Cameroon s mangrove ecosystem 5:00 S0-O0: Jaime POLONIA Carbon stock in the Pacific and Caribbean Colombian mangroves S04-O05: Manfred FINCKH Frost in Afrotropical mid-altitude savannas - a neglected environmental filter S04-O06: Paulina ZIGELSKI Purgatories reveal the effects of fire and frost on geoxylic suffrutices and grasses in savannas S04-O07: Kouamé Fulgence KOFFI Effect of fire regime on the grass community of the humid savanna of Lamto (Ivory Coast) S06-O0: Monika KOSECKA Long-term multi-site acoustic monitoring of biodiversity in the Amazon under project providence S06-O0: Hervé GLOTIN Remote sensing for large scale bird monitoring in tropical forests S06-O0: Pablo BOLANOS Acoustic monitoring of resplendent quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno, a flagship bird species of Guatemala S08-O0: Juan P JARAMILLO- CORREA Temperate going (sub)tropical: reticulated adaptive evolution in firs (Abies, Pinaceae) from Central Mexico S08-O0: Ricardo SEGOVIA Non-tropical legacies on South American biogeography S08-O0: Lars CHATROU Parallel radiations in neotropical Annonaceae track Neogene upheaval of the South American continent Identifying global opportunities and risks for biodiversity from oil palm expansion S09: FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY (/4) Catherine REEB, Eric GUILBERT S09-O09: Dilce DE FATIMA ROSSETTI Unfolding long term disturbances of forest communities in Southwestern Amazonian lowlands S09-O0: Kingsly CHUO BENG Archives of natural history; tree of life constructed from a gram of soil using edna S09-O: Zolalaina ANDRI- AMANANTENA Analysis of the potentialities of Ambahiviky Raffia Palm in the Boeny region Enroot: an inexpensive, partially D printed minirhizotron to study fine root production in mangrove forest Seasonal changes in fire behaviour in a humid savanna of west africa 5:0 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTERS 6:00 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: MAN- GROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGE- MENT (/) Tarik MEZIANE, Emma MICHAUD S04: SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS (/) Jacques GIGNOUX, Sébastien BAROT Assessing Amazon river Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis / Sotalia fluviatilis) populations acoustically and visually S06: ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS (/) Jérôme SUEUR, Alice C. HUGHES, Patrick A. JANSEN Evolutionary history of tropical tree species complexes: species delimitation and adaptive genetic variation in the Bertholletia clade (Lecythidaceae) S08: TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (/) Joeri Sergej STRIJK, Damien Daniel HINSINGER Room Auditorium :00 S0-O05: Farid DAHDOUH- GUEBAS Three decades of planes, satellites and drones in monitoring and managing mangrove forests in Kenya, Sri Lanka and Malaysia 6:5 S0-O06: Anne CAILLAUD Linking science to policy and management: the French tropical wetlands network (pôle-relais zones humides tropicales) 6:0 S0-O07: Mirco WÖLFELSCHNEI- DER Changes in white mangrove leaf chemistry and subsequent ecosystem functions upon logging S04-O09: Jean- Christophe LATA Role of the biological control of N cycle on grass-trees competition and coexistence in savannas S04-O0: Tharaniya SRIKANTHASAMY Contrasted effects of grasses and trees on microbial N-cycling in an African humid savanna during the wet season S04-O: Nils-Christian SCHUMACHER Ant assemblages in a forest savannah mosaic in the Comoé national park (Ivory Coast) S06-O05: Frédéric BERTUCCI Passive acoustics reveals vocal dynamics of coral reef communities in Moorea island and Fakarava atoll, French Polynesia S06-O06: Branko HILJE Predicting bird species richness in tropical dry forests using acoustics S06-O07: Juan Sebastian ULLOA Causes and consequences of explosive breeding Amphibian communities revealed by remote sensors S08-O05: Louis SANTIAGO New hydraulic traits for characterizing drought resistance in Neotropical canopy trees and lianas S08-O06: Franck MONTHE Phylogenetic relationships in two African Cedreloideae genera (Meliaceae) reveal multiple rain/dry forest transitions S08-O07: Katharina B. BUDDE Species delimitation, hybridization and species habitat associations in the genus Symphonia (Clusiaceae) on Madagascar Distribution of Podocarpus latifolius/milanjianus from the last glacial maximum to 00 in Africa with the dynamic vegetation model CARAIB S09: FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY (4/4) Catherine REEB, Eric GUILBERT S09-O4: Chunfeng CHEN Spatio-temporal variations of carbon and nitrogen in biogenic structures of fungus-growing termites in the Xishuangbanna region S09-O4: Gbadamassi G.O DOSSA Factors determining fungal diversity and dynamics during wood decomposition across disturbance gradient in tropical mountainous forest TUESDAY

13 TUESDAY 6:45 S0-O08: Simon CRAGG Lignocellulosic detritus in mangrove ecosystems is processed by a specialist guild of invertebrates and associated microbiota 7:00 S0-O09: Catherine FERNANDEZ Involvement of water soluble or volatile compounds from leaves of two mangroves Avicennia marina and Kandelia obovata in crabs attraction 7:5 S0-O0: Ann THORNTON S04-O: Amah AKODEWOU Effects of land use pattern on invasive plant diversity in Guinean savanna ecosystems of Togodo protected area, Togo S04-O: Hemant TRIPATHI Biodiversity response to land use in the African savanna woodlands: implications of heterogeneity between land use activities and taxonomic groups S06-O08: Karen ROWE Documenting species richness and acoustic activity patterns from soundscapes in a tropical biodiversity hotspot, Sulawesi, Indonesia S06-O09: Amandine GASC 8-years of research on the New Caledonian acoustic communities: summary and perspectives for biological conservation Direct and indirect responses to ENSO moderate community-based fisheries in Colombian Caribbean mangroves 7:0 PUBLIC LECTURE - Sebastian LOTZKAT - Auditorium Species revisited catching (up on) the cornerstones of biology S08-O08: Robert MUSCARELLA Global patterns in palm abundance TUESDAY

14 4 5 WEDNESDAY DETAILED PROGRAM SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY, 8 MARCH 08 08:0 PLENARY TALK 04 - Krista MCGUIRE - Auditorium Plant-microbial assembly across human land use gradients: implications for coexistence, scaling, and forest regeneration 09:0 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY (/) Jean-Christophe LATA, Luc ABBADIE S: TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY (/) Adeline FAYOLLE, Moses LIBALAH, Vincent MEDJIBE SIDE EVENT: MINIFORUM COPED (/) Pierre-Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET S6: ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES (/) Catherine REEB, Sanna HUTTUNEN Room Auditorium :0 S0-O0: Margot NEYRET Soil, landscape and land-use itinerary effects on non-cultivated plant communities and associated services in croplands of Northern Thailand 9:45 S0-O0: Johanna ROMERO ARIAS Diet composition analysis of tropical soil-feeding termites: African Apicotermitinae 0:00 S0-O0: Louise ASHTON Termites increase ecosystem resilience to drought in tropical rainforest S-O0: Adeline FAYOLLE State of the art on tropical tree allometry: practical implications for biomass/ carbon monitoring and ecological significance S-O0: Moses LIBALAH Integrating ecological predictors in a regional tree height-diameter model for Central Africa S-O0: Roman Mathias LINK Structural, functional and wood anatomical traits predict drought responses of Costa Rican tropical forest tree species SE-O00: Pierre AUGER, Pierre- Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET Welcome and introduction to the miniforum COPED SE-O0: Pulcherie BISSIENGOU Biogeography of Campylospermum Tiegh. and its center of diversity in tropical Africa SE-O0: Alain Didier MISSOUP Systematics and biogeography of Rodents from Afrotropical forests S6-O0: Robbert GRADSTEIN The tropical lowland cloud forest - an epiphyte hotspot S6-O0: Maaike Y. BADER Responses of tropical lowland bryophytes to experimental warming and co fertilization S6-O0: Sylvia MOTA DE OLIVEIRA Habitat specialization of Lejeuneaceae in the Amazon forest: the role of morphological and reproductive traits S8: TROPICAL NETWORKS (/) Colin FONTAINE S8-O0: Eike Lena NEUSCHULZ Mobility of avian frugivores determines their ability to switch to other plant resources in fragmented forests S8-O0: Ulmar GRAFE Specialization in antagonistic interaction networks: selective pressures on anuran calling in the presence of frog-biting midges S8-O0: Yannick KLOMBERG The importance of seasonality in organising an upper montane forest pollination network on Mt. Cameroon 0:5 S0-O04: Pedro Luiz SILVA DE MIRANDA Environmental controls of biome distribution in Bolivia and Brazil - dissecting the importance of soils, climate and fire S-O04: Le Bienfaiteur SAGANG TAKOUGOUM Volume-weighted average wood specific gravity improves aboveground biomass predictions in a semi-deciduous forest of Eastern Cameroon 0:0 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTERS :00 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S: MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS (/) Virginie ROY, Lise DUPONT S: TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY (/) Adeline FAYOLLE, Moses LIBALAH, Vincent MEDJIBE SE-O0: Christelle GONMADJE Biodiversity and conservation value of an Atlantic central African forest: the Ngovayang massif (Cameroon) SIDE EVENT: MINIFORUM COPED (/) Pierre-Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET S6-O04: Anna MEŽAKA Changes in the composition of epiphyllous communities with leaf age, host species and microclimate in a tropical lowland forest S6: ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES (/) Catherine REEB, Sanna HUTTUNEN Room Auditorium :00 S-O0: Micah DUNTHORN A large view of the small Protists in Neotropical rainforests :5 S-O0: Clément SCHNEIDER Megalothorax diversity: account of a neglected springtail widely distributed in the intertropical zone :0 S-O0: Shabnam TAHERI Complex taxonomy and global phylogeography of the well-known tropical earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus S-O05: Gauthier LIGOT The limited contribution of large trees to biomass dynamics in an old-growth tropical forest S-O06: Jean Francois BASTIN Variations of carbon stocks in tropical forest; combining views from the field and from remote sensing S-O07: Sruthi MOORTHY Comparison of LIDAR-derived liana biomass estimates with allometric estimates SE-O04: Stephan NTIE Patterns of evolutionary diversification among central African duikers (subfamily Cephalophinae) SE-O05: Brigitte NYIRAMBAN- GUTSE Canopy nutrient cycling in Afromontane tropical forests at different successional stages SE-O06: David KENFACK CTFS-forestgeo Africa program: an initiative towards the long-term monitoring of African forests S6-O05: Nicholas WILDING Taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of African Entosthodon (Funariaceae) S6-O06: Tinja PITKÄMÄKI Cloud water interception of epiphytic bryophytes in a Peruvian upper montane cloud forest: an experimental approach S6-O07: Eyvar Elias RODRIGUEZ QUIE Biomass and water-holding capacity of bryophytes along an elevational gradient on Baru volcano, Panama S8-O04: Daniel HUSANA Trophic structure in a tropical cave ecosystem: surface-subsurface ecosystem interaction and implications for conservation S9: FRUGIVORES, SEED DISPERSAL AND FOREST REGENERATION (/) Pierre-Michel FORGET S9-O0: Omer NEVO Is fruit odor an adaptation for Lemur seed dispersal? S9-O0: Natalia OCAMPO- PEÑUELA Four decades of forest loss in Borneo and its lasting effects on forest frugivores and seed dispersal S9-O0: Olivier BOISSIER Large tropical avian frugivores: a pantropical comparison of their diversity, seed dispersal and conservation status WEDNESDAY

15 6 7 WEDNESDAY :45 S-O04: Chantal POTEAUX A multidisciplinary approach to disentangle the cryptic diversity in ants of the Neoponera apicalis species complex :00 FREE LUNCH BREAK :0 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S: TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY (/) Pablo OROZ- CO-TERWENGEL, Ute RADESPIEL S4: TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY (/) Jürgen HOMEIER, Selene BAEZ SE-O07: Katharine ABERNETHY Scientific capacity building and the evidence base for change in Central African forests S5: ALTITUDI- NAL GRADIENT (/) Eric GUILBERT, Marianne ELIAS S6-O08: Eka A.P. ISKANDAR Climbing Mt. Gede up and down - insights into species richness and composition of epiphytic bryophytes S6: ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES (/) + S7: MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS (/) Catherine REEB, Sanna HUTTUNEN + Katerina SAM, Elina MÄNTYLÄ, Piotr SZEFER Room Auditorium :0 S-O0: Filippo BISCARINI Biostatistics applications for tropical (and non) plant and animal biology: a (meta)genomics perspective :45 S-O0: Pablo OROZCO- TERWENGEL Population genomics of wild Chinese rhesus macaques reveals dynamic demographic histories and local adaptation S4-O0: Andre VELESCU Biological vs. abiotic control of base metal budgets in a tropical montane forest in South Ecuador S4-O0: Juan F. DUEÑAS Nutrient inputs alter arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal assemblages in montane tropical forests of Southern Ecuador S5-O0: Yvonne TIEDE Beyond body size: consistent decrease of traits within Orthopteran assemblages with elevation S5-O0: Agnes DELLINGER Impact of pollinator shifts on mating systems and population genetic diversity in a Neotropical plant group S6-O09: Catherine REEB The MADBRYO project, a collaborative effort to enhance Malagasy Bryophytes knowledge S6-O0: Sanna HUTTUNEN Evolution of habitat preferences among Mosses (Bryophyta) S9-O04: Boris B. DEMENOU Gene dispersal and history of the colonization of the Dahomey Gap from the Cameroon Volcanic line by Guineo-Congolian flora SIDE EVENT: MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING (/) Pierre-Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING 4:00 S-O0: Heike PRÖHL Red versus blue versus green: molecular aspects of color polytypy in a poison frog 4:5 S-O04: Mohamed NEJI De novo transcriptome sequencing and comparative analysis of differentially expressed genes in Erythrophleum species under drought stress 4:0 S-O05: Simone SOMMER Immunological MHC supertypes and allelic expression: how low is the functional MHC variability in wild endangered Namibian cheetahs? 4:45 S-O06: Ute RADESPIEL Phylogeography and heterogeneous selection shape vomeronasal receptor diversity in mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) 5:00 S-O07: Brandet-Junior LISSAMBOU Species delimitation in the genus Greenwayodendron based on morphological and genetic markers reveal new species S4-O0: Daisy CÁRATE TANDALLA Ontogenic and trait-based responses of common tree species to altered nutrient availability in a tropical montane forest S4-O04: Selene BÁEZ Tree functional traits and nutrient limitation in an Andean elevation gradient S4-O05: Tobias FABIAN Sodium retention in the canopy of a tropical montane forest in South Ecuador S4-O06: Kerstin PIERICK Long-term litterfall dynamics in tropical montane forests in Ecuador: the impact of climate, altitude, and fertilization S4-O07: Jürgen HOMEIER Variation of tree leaf properties and folivory after continued nutrient addition in tropical montane forest of S. Ecuador S5-O0: Antonia MAYR Macro-ecological determinants of Halictine Bee-microbiomes S5-O04: William Douglas DE CARVALHO Traits that help bats conquering Neotropical mountains: lessons for the conservation of tropical forest animal diversity S5-O05: Laura SALAZAR Fern ecology along a tropical altitudinal gradient in Ecuador S5-O06: Paul CHATELAIN Altitudinal filtering and the evolution of Planthoppers (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha) on Mount Wilhelm (Papua New Guinea) S5-O07: Valeria GUZMAN-JACOB Diversity of vascular epiphytes along an altitudinal gradient in Veracruz, Mexico S7-O0: Vojtech NOVOTNY Experimental disruption of food webs in tropical rain forests S7-O0: Elina MÄNTYLÄ What to measure from plants in predator exclosure studies? S7-O0: Chris DAHL A cross-continental comparison of fruit-seed syndromes in the tropical rainforests of Panama, Thailand and Papua New Guinea S7-O04: Kirstie HAZELWOOD Comparing the mechanisms that generate seedling community composition in a diverse tropical ecosystem S7-O05: Katerina SAM Elevational patterns in predation, herbivore performance and herbivory in hostile and enemy free space MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING WEDNESDAY

16 8 9 5:5 S5-O08: Friederike GEBERT Predictors of species richness and community biomass of large mammals along elevational and land use gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro S7-O06: Piotr SZEFER Fungi, herbivores and predators can change the community structure of early successional stage of tropical forest MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUS- SION MEETING S MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS P0 Kenzy PEÑA-CARRILLO Use of acoustics for species delimitation in a Neotropical ant species complex S TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY P0 Matin MIRYEGANEH Transcriptomic responses of mangrove trees to different stressful environments P0 Thierry HOUEHANOU Genetic diversity and population structure of the threatened tree species Afzelia africana SM. and implication for the species conservation in Benin P0 Natalia SEVANE Evidence for rapid adaptation to the tropics in Creole cattle genomes 5:0 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTERS S TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY 6:00 ASSEMBLY OF MEMBERS GTÖ - AUDITORIUM / POSTER SESSIONS - CICSU P0 Adeline FAYOLLE The importance of tree allometry for local-scale variation in aboveground biomass S0 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT P0 Maki THOMAS Landscape genetic method to explain intra- and inter-island propagule transport of mangrove species S4 P0 Tian LI Evolution of aboveground biomass of dry tropical forest in the North-west coast of Madagascar in relation with human activities TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY S0 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS P0 Georges Simon ANDRIANASETRA Evolution of references about the knowledge of the ecology of tropical wetlands in the Indian Ocean P0 Zolalaina ANDRIAMANANTENA Contribution to the study of the Raffia areas in the Boeny region for sustainable management and enhancement S5 P0 P0 Susanne SPANNL Effects of moderate nutrient addition on tree physiological processes. The example of Alchornea lojaensis in Southern Ecuador Tobias FABIAN Sodium in a tropical montane forest in South Ecuador: demand of phyllosphere microorganisms and effects on decomposition ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT S04 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS P0 Anu VALTONEN Where do the Nsenene swarms come from? P0 Rogerio GRIBEL Factors controlling long-term savanna dynamics in the Campos de Humaitá, middle Madeira river region, Southwestern Brazilian Amazonia P0 Paula NIETO-QUINTANO Biomass stocks, spatial structure and floristic composition of savannas in the Bateke plateau P0 Katerina SAM Ecology of bird communities along an elevational tropical gradient in Papua New Guinea P0 Sébastien ALBERT Woody plants are fleshy-fruited in the lowlands: strong environmental gradients control fruit types on a high-elevation oceanic island S6 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES P0 Tinja PITKÄMÄKI Epiphytic bryophytes respond to changes in forest structure S05 P04 Olivier PAYS An experimental design to investigate the role of mammal community on forest dynamics in the Cerrado biome (Brazil) DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS S7 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS P0 Elaine CORREA Effects of macroconsumers on invertebrate feeding groups across a gradient of vegetation loss in tropical karst streams WEDNESDAY P0 Hippolyte NSHIMBA SEYA WA MALALE Structure and composition of forest of Brachystegia laurentii (De Wild.) Louis ex J. Léon. in the MAB Yangambi, in DRC S06 AUDIO AND VIDEO MONITORING P0 David C. SIDDONS Ecoacoustic surveys predict alpha and beta diversity in Southern Ecuadorian montane forest P0 Lefteris FANIOUDAKIS Deep networks tag the location of bird vocalisations on audio spectrograms S8 TROPICAL NETWORKS P0 Yannick KLOMBERG The role of UV reflectance in the pollination system of Hypoxis camerooniana on Mt. Cameroon S0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME P0 E-Ping RAU Dynamics and diversity of a subtropical forest in Fushan, Taiwan: simulation approach via the individual-based troll model WEDNESDAY S07 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE P0 Chris CHANDLER Spatial patterns of liana success in Malaysia S08 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION P0 Robert MUSCARELLA Habitat-specific edaphic controls on palm community phylogenetic structure in the Western Amazon P0 Volker RAFFELSBAUER Tree reaction to drought in a montane rainforest in Southern Ecuador P0 Sylvain SCHMITT Ecological genomics of niche exploitation and individual performance in tropical forest trees S0 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY P0 Sandrine SALMON Communities of Collembola on Réunion island: recolonization of habitats destroyed by lava flows and impact of exotic plant species P0 Ivete MAQUIA Bacterial diversity in three different fire incidence area in Mopane woodland of Limpopo national park P0 Marie DURY Simulating seed dispersal to reproduce past dynamics and distribution of African tropical trees S REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO P0 Doreen BOYD Towards landscape scale metrics of ENSO-induced tree mortality in primary and disturbed tropical forests via remote sensing P0 Edwin ZARATE Species distribution model for a micro-endemic Hummingbird with vegetation indices as a predictor of habitat structure S REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES P0 Casimir NEBESSE Challenges and risks of bushmeat exploitation at Kisangani region (DRC) P0 Martha LEDGER Where has the peat gone? Determining regional-scale carbon losses using INSAR from tropical peatlands S5 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS P0 Samuel ROBINSON Impacts of logging gaps on soil microbial diversity and function in Borneo

17 0 S8 P0 P0 P0 P04 P05 P06 P07 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION Nina FARWIG Supplementary food enhances the number of breeding pairs in a Cape Vulture colony Clarissa ARAÚJO MARTINS Multiple-taxa responses to land use changes in a Brazilian savanna landscape Nicholas WILDING Developing long-term monitoring of natural areas for a UNESCO world heritage site: study case of La Réunion Nicolas TEXIER A new tool for the conservation of the Gabonese flora: the threatened plant species of Gabon website Prescott MUSABA Bat hunting bodes human and forest health threat in Congo basin rainforest Dana VI HUSANA Ecological modelling of aggregation of parasite Acanthogyrus sp. in wild Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) Samendra SHERCHAN Quantitative assessment of Naegleria fowleri under climate change in lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana 8:0 CONFERENCE DINNER - Aquarium Porte Dorée WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY

18 THURSDAY DETAILED PROGRAM SCHEDULE THURSDAY, 9 MARCH 08 08:0 PLENARY TALK 05 - Tuyeni Heita MWAMPAMBA - Auditorium The story of charcoal: its effects on forests and its contribution to livelihoods in Mexico and Tanzania 09:0 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME (/) Andreas HUTH, Franziska TAUBERT, Rico FISCHER S: CLIMATE CHANGE (/) Eric GUILBERT S: REHABILI- TATION OF TROP- ICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES (/) Sven GÜNTER, Rizza Karen VERIDIANO, Nikolay AGUIRRE S5: HUMAN- MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS (/) Yit Arn TEH Room Auditorium :0 S0-O0: Hans VERBEECK Simulating the impact of lianas on the carbon cycle of tropical forests 9:45 S0-O0: Félicien MEUNIER Impact of hydraulic traits of lianas on their abundance: predictions from the vegetation model ED 0:00 S0-O0: Stephan A. PIETSCH Rain forest dynamics under different exploitation regimes 0:5 S0-O04: Andreas HUTH Productivity of the Amazon rainforest and the role of forest structure S-O0: Jean-François EXBRAYAT Climate change impact on carbon-sequestration potential of tropical rainforests S-O0: Matthias SCHLEUNING Should I stay or should I go? Projected changes in avian functional diversity on tropical mountains under climate change S-O0: Gwendolyn PEYRE Plant diversity hotspots and refuges in the tropical Andes S-O04: James MOLONEY Cyclones, fragmentation and bird assemblages: natural and human disturbances in a changing climate S-O0: Fatima C.M. PIÑA-RODRIGUES Does diversity really matter for the accumulation of above-ground biomass in dry forest rehabilitation? S-O0: Paul EGUIGUREN Carbon sequestration potential of secondary forest for landscape restoration at the Ecuadorian Amazon region S-O0: Marion RENNER Natural forest regeneration at Mt. Kilimanjaro S-O04: Alexandra MOREL Quantifying net primary productivity, potential poverty alleviation and forest conservation in an African forest-cocoa landscape S5-O0: Terhi RIUTTA Complete carbon budget in selectively logged and old-growth tropical forests in Borneo S5-O0: Yit Arn TEH Human modification alters the greenhouse gas balance of managed tropical peatlands in Northern Borneo S5-O0: Isabel JONES Where can we store most carbon? Using an 80-year chronosequence to identify drivers of carbon uptake in secondary forests S5-O04: Ulrike HILTNER Effects of selective logging on a production forest s succession of the Amazon: a simulation experiment SIDE EVENT: MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING (/) Pierre-Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING 0:0 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTERS :00 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions Chairs S0: TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME (/) Andreas HUTH, Franziska TAUBERT, Rico FISCHER S: CLIMATE CHANGE (/) Eric GUILBERT S: REHABILI- TATION OF TROP- ICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES (/) Sven GÜNTER, Rizza Karen VERIDIANO, Nikolay AGUIRRE S5: HUMAN- MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS (/) Yit Arn TEH Room Auditorium :00 S0-O05: Rico FISCHER High resolution analysis of tropical forest fragmentation and its impact on the global carbon cycle :5 S0-O06: Franziska TAUBERT Global patterns of tropical forest fragmentation :0 S0-O07: Mateus DANTAS DE PAULA Effects of fragmented forest degradation on the water cycle - insights from a forest simulation model :45 S0-O08: Marco VISSER Density-dependent regulation and density-independent limitation together determine the abundance of a common tree species S-O05: Elizabeth KEARSLEY Assessing the impact of lianas on tree growth in tropical forests S-O06: Alexandra-Jane HENROT Simulating present-day distribution of Podocarpus latifolius/milanjianus in Afromontane forests of Cameroon with the dynamic vegetation model CARAIB S-O07: Stefan JOZEFOWICZ Analysing the position of the Eastern Andean tree line with a mass transect sampling of satellite imagery S-O08: Kiswanto KISWANTO Deforestation and forest degradation trends in tropical rainforest S-O05 Junen WU Can intercropping with the world s three major beverage plants help improve the water use of rubber trees? S-O06: Darshanaa CHELLAIAH Impacts of oil palm plantation and riparian buffer quality on stream litter decomposition and bacterial colonization in Borneo S-O07: Catarina JAKOVAC Ecosystem services from large-scale restoration S-O08: Maholy RAVALOHA- RIMANITRA Restoring rainforest in Madagascar: are we planting enough trees for people and lemurs? S5-O05: Julia SFAIR Land-use change affects plant trait distribution in a seasonally dry tropical forest S5-O06: Dafydd ELIAS The impacts of logging on soil microbial diversity in tropical forests of Borneo S5-O07: Michael BOYLE Disturbance-induced microclimate change drives community shifts in rainforest ants after logging and conversion to oil palm S5-O09: Philip CHAPMAN Inter-annual dynamics and persistence of small mammal communities in a selectively logged tropical forest in Borneo SIDE EVENT: MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING (/) Pierre-Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING MINIFORUM COPED - DISCUSSION MEETING THURSDAY

19 4 5 :00 FREE LUNCH BREAK :0 PARALLEL SESSIONS Sessions S0: TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME (/) S: REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO (/) S4: RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO (/) S6: IMPACT EVALUATION OF FOREST CERTIFICATION (/) + S7: FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE CONGO BASIN (/) S8: FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION (/) 4:5 S0-O: Olga TURKOVSKA Forest age structure assumptions within global forest model. Brazil case study 4:0 S0-O: James MARGROVE S-O04: Chris CHANDLER Spatial patterns of liana success in Malaysia S-O05: Patrick JANSEN S4-O04: Lorena Valeria GUZMÁN WOLFHARD Promoting connectivity in Rio de Janeiro state: corridors for linking private protected areas S4-O05: Dietmar SATTLER S7-O0: Jean François BASTIN Functional shifts within Central African rainforests S7-O0: Claude GARCIA S8-O04: James MOLONEY Land-use change and conservation in North-east Thailand S8-O05: Nicole PONTA Chairs Andreas HUTH, Franziska TAUBERT, Rico FISCHER Mark CUTLER Claudia RAEDIG, Udo NEHREN Marion KARMANN, Franck TROLLIET + Claude GARCIA, Jean-François BASTIN, Fabien QUETIER Pierre-Michel FORGET, Catherine REEB Elevation gradients shape tree distributions in tropical forests Responses of Neotropical forest mammals to an extreme El Niño event Bioengineered rehabilitation of degraded land using native plant species - a case study from Southeast Brazil Playing the game: defining indicators for intact forest landscapes in the Congo basin Hunting in times of change: indigenous strategies in the Colombian Amazon Room Auditorium :0 S0-O09: Jean-François EXBRAYAT Model-data fusion to retrieve terrestrial ecosystem functional properties from satellite observations :45 S0-O0: Fabian Jörg Fischer Above, around and among trees: integrating individual-based modelling and remote sensing data for ecological inference about tropical rainforests 4:00 S0-O: Matteo PARDINI S-O0: Mark CUTLER Monitoring tropical forest resilience: the potential of EO to monitor long-term change across forest landscapes S-O0: Geertje VAN DER HEIJDEN Do extreme weather events cause liana proliferation? Using UAVs to track changes in tropical forest canopy composition over time S-O0: Marion PFEIFER S4-O0: Claudia RAEDIG An introduction to INTECRAL (integrated eco technologies and services for a sustainable rural Rio de Janeiro) project S4-O0: Augusto PIRATELLI Agroecosystem management in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil): reconciling agricultural production and bird conservation S4-O0: Carl- Friedrich GAESE S6-O0: Marion KARMANN Need, challenges and opportunities to evaluate the impact of forest management certification: the case of the forest stewardship council S6-O0: Alain KARSENTY Certification of tropical forests: from impact assessment to political economy? S6-O0: Davy FONTEYN S8-O0: Ángela ARISTIZÁBAL- BOTERO Using UAVs and photogrammetry for ecological analysis in temporary rock pools of Colombian Guiana shield S8-O0: Melanie DAMMHAHN What makes rats successful invaders on Madagascar? S8-O0: Jo KINGSBURY 4:45 S0-O4: Yunxia WANG Mapping tropical disturbed forests in Mato Grosso through Landsat surface reflectance time-series analysis 5:00 S0-O5: Christopher PHILIPSON Carbon recovery of logged forests 5:5 S0-O6: Maurice LEPONCE Variation in space and time of ant distribution among ground layers in an Ecuadorian premontane forest S4-O06: Silke LICHTENBERG Potentials for the conservation and the economic use of the threatened Brazilian national tree Paubrasilia echinata Lam. within Rio de Janeiro state S7-O0: Stephan A. PIETSCH Critical cycles of resilience for land use in the Congo basin S7-O04: Claude GARCIA What will happen to the forests of the Congo basin, how and why THURSDAY Describing -D structure of tropical forests from radar acquisitions: potentials, challenges, and links to ground and LIDAR measurements From remotely sensing tropical human-modified landscapes to monitoring progress towards AICHI and SDG targets Saving small scale sugarcane farmers in the state of Rio de Janeiro: a development study of a harvesting technology A biodiversity assessment between protected and managed forests in Southeastern Cameroon Threatened birds, dynamic habitats and disturbance processes - conservation ecology in one of the worlds most understudied savanna ecosystems 5:0 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTERS 6:00 CLOSING CEREMONY, MERIAN AWARDS AND FAREWELL - AUDITORIUM THURSDAY

20 6 7 PLENARY SESSIONS ABSTRACTS PLENARY TALK 0 Monday 6 th March Plenary talk 0-8:0 - Auditorium IMPORTANCE OF BATS IN THE OLD WORLD TROPICS AND THE THREATS TO THEIR FUTURE SURVIVAL Alice Hughes MONDAY Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, CN, ach_conservation@hotmail.com With over 0 described species bats make up around ¼ of known mammal species, and often exceed 50% of mammal species in tropical ecosystems. However, the challenges associated with bat research have hindered our understanding of even basic information of the distribution and ecology of many species. Furthermore the role of bats in terms of ecosystem service provision both in maintaining ecosystems and in providing economically valuable services has never been approached systematically and we have little appreciation of the true value of these services and the roles these species play in some systems. Here we assay and map the distribution and diversity patterns of bats across the old world, and review the roles and contributions of bats ecologically and economically. We present the state of knowledge, discuss the novel methodologies being used to quantitatively and qualitatively understand these systems and interactions, and highlight the work of researchers across the Old-world tropics. We also review the threats and challenges to bats across the tropics, and the implications of species loss as well as discussing ongoing priorities for bat research and conservation.

21 8 9 PLENARY TALK 0 PLENARY TALK 0 Tuesday 7 th March Plenary talk 0-8:0 - Auditorium Tuesday 7 th March Plenary talk 0 - :0 - Auditorium SPATIAL SCALES OF DISPERSAL IN THE TROPICS: WHY AND WHEN DO THEY MATTER? PLANT RADIATIONS AND FLORISTIC EXCHANGE ACROSS BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS IN ASIA Cécile Fauvelot, Alexandra Muellner-Riehl, UMR ENTROPIE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Nouméa, NC, cecile.fauvelot@ird.fr Leipzig University, Leipzig, DE, muellner-riehl@uni-leipzig.de Laboratoire d Océanographie de Villefranche, Sorbonne Université, Villefranche-sur-mer, FR German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (idiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, DE TUESDAY The effect of habitat disturbance on genetic and demographic viability of species has become an important issue over recent decades. The fragmentation of continuous suitable habitat, often related to disturbance, leads to patchily distributed populations that can be both demographically and genetically modified. Small and geographically isolated habitat patches, for example, contain small populations and communities so that both alleles and species are expected to be lost due to the effect of drift. Immigration may counter this effect and introduce new genes and/or species. Dispersal among habitat patches is therefore one of the key factor for population recoveries following disturbance. More generally, dispersal is a crucial process that counterbalances independent evolutions of local populations and/or population size reductions observed in metapopulations. Population connectivity refers to the extent of connection among local populations of a species. Population connectivity comes in two forms: evolutionary (genetical) connectivity and demographic (ecological) connectivity. The first is concerned with genetic variations among different populations. This can be informative when considering long-term (evolutionary) and large-scale biogeographic dispersal patterns of organisms and can be useful to assess the genetic uniqueness of populations in the context of biodiversity conservation. In contrast, demographic connectivity involves the extent of linkage that occurs among nearby local populations due to the exchange of individuals. In the marine environment, this connectivity occurs primarily through the dispersal of larvae. The theoretical framework of population genetics offers the possibility to infer population connectivity and estimate the spatial extent of larval dispersal, above all for sessile organisms. Identifying sources of propagules to be protected are critical needs for managers who are increasingly operating under the implicit assumption that climate change and other human-related disturbances are unlikely to improve in the short term. In my talk, I will focus on two fundamental aspects of plant biodiversity patterns in Asia: plant radiations and floristic exchange - and their underlying causes. I will concentrate on two geographic regions of high global conservation priority. First, the Tibeto Himalayan region (THR), including the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau, the Himalaya, and the biodiversity hotspot known as the Mountains of Southwest China ; and second, Southeast Asia (SE Asia), including the biodiversity hotspots of Indo-Burma, Sundaland, the Philippines, and Wallacea. Hotspots of biodiversity are often associated with areas that have undergone recent tectonic/orogenic activity. Yet, the origin and evolution of these hotspots remain poorly understood. Until recently, for regions like the THR, most studies invoked orogenesis as the main driving force for the radiation of plants in mountains. The role of climate oscillations and key opportunities as well as key innovations as contributors to the establishment of high levels of mountain biodiversity was often neglected. By providing a review of recent studies conducted by my working group as well as other authors, I will conclude that the underlying causes for plant radiations in mountains are likely to be multi-faceted. Rather than geomorphological processes themselves, the interaction of lineage-specific traits, complex geological settings and/or climatic modifications providing key opportunities are drivers of mountain biodiversity. More generally, the new mountain-geobiodiversity hypothesis proposes that three boundary conditions are required to maximize the impact of mountain formation and surface uplift on regional biodiversity patterns in mountainous regions and are key for the origination of mountain biodiversity hotspots. For Southeast Asia, I will likewise summarize insights gained from recent work, and show how the geological and biological evolution of this large and biodiverse region were closely interlinked, resulting in the Malesian floristic interchange with strong dispersal asymmetries among differently adapted lineages. TUESDAY

22 40 4 PLENARY TALK 04 PLENARY TALK 05 Wednesday 8 th March Plenary talk 04-8:0 - Auditorium Thursday 9 th March Plenary talk 05-8:0 - Auditorium PLANT-MICROBIAL ASSEMBLY ACROSS HUMAN LAND USE GRADIENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR COEXISTENCE, SCALING, AND FOREST REGENERATION THE STORY OF CHARCOAL: ITS EFFECTS ON FORESTS AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO LIVELIHOODS IN MEXICO AND TANZANIA Krista McGuire Tuyeni Heita Mwampamba University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, US, kmcguire@uoregon.edu Institute of Ecosystems and Sustainability Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Morelia, MX, tuyeni@iies.unam.mx Plant-microbial interactions are frequently implicated in the WEDNESDAY maintenance of plant diversity patterns. However, we still lack a predictive understanding of the mechanisms by which plantmicrobial communities are assembled across multiple spatial scales, the extent to which they function in the coexistence of diverse tropical tree communities, and how they respond and recover from human disturbance. In this talk I will highlight several ongoing studies from my lab in the Neotropics and Southeast Asia evaluating plant-microbial assembly across human land use gradients. In particular, I will focus on work testing the following hypotheses: () Individual tree species have distinctive physical, chemical, phenological, and biological properties that create unique zones of influence, which result in distinct microbial signatures, () putative differences in microbial communities across tree species zones of influence result in different functional potentials for microbially-mediated biogeochemical cycling processes, and () historical land use is a strong modifier of microbial signatures which has the potential to modify microbially-mediated coexistence mechanisms. Together, results from our various projects demonstrate that soil disturbance from human land use can have rapid and persistent impacts on soil microbial communities with important implications for tree coexistence and forest regeneration trajectories. Charcoal production is a grossly misunderstood driver of ecosystem change in the tropics whose story is both intriguing and complex. As the primary cooking energy for millions of urban and peri-urban households and food vendors in sub-sahara Africa, but also in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, charcoal consumption is predicted to grow in response to growing population and increasing rates of rural-to-urban migration in these regions. Produced primarily from natural forests by small-scale producers usually operating illegally, charcoal is often reported as the direct driver of deforestation and forest degradation. Policy measures to curb production and interventions to reduce its consumption (e.g. efficient cookstove programs) have, for the most part, failed. A dive into the socio-political, cultural and socio-ecological contexts in which charcoal is produced and consumed reveals a messy knot of high economic stakes, multiple and conflicting stakeholder objectives, complex ecological interactions, and, highly variable outcomes for forests and forest-dependent livelihoods. Using social and ecological data and experiences obtained primarily from Mexico and Tanzania, I will unravel this knot to show how the outcomes for forests and forest-related ecosystems services, and charcoal s contribution to livelihoods, shift and change depending on the context. Cultural preferences, concepts of modernity, and forest management logic are extremely influential processes that have previously been overlooked. Depending on how they play out, charcoal production is sometimes the best option there is for maintaining and protecting forests and securing rural livelihoods. Understanding the context can help with designing the most suitable interventions not only for charcoal, but for similar challenges facing tropical ecosystems today, such as bushmeat consumption and trade in endangered species. THURSDAY

23 4 4 PUBLIC LECTURE PUBLIC LECTURE Tuesday 7 th March Elisabeth Kalko Memorial Public lecture - 7:0 - Auditorium SPECIES REVISITED CATCHING (UP ON) THE CORNERSTONES OF BIOLOGY Sebastian Lotzkat Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt, DE, lotzkat@yahoo.com The age of discoveries is not over quite the contrary, when talking about biological species one may say that it has only just begun! New species are discovered day by day, and never before have so many species been described each year. TUESDAY Using the example of Central American amphibians and reptiles, this colourful talk will take us through the adventure of species exploration: from the founding fathers of past centuries to today s students, from muddy camps in moisture-dripping rainforests to dusty collections in honourable institutions, from really-never-seen to just-never-recognized species. And while we re at it, we will take this opportunity to simply celebrate the astonishing diversity and breathtaking beauty of Neotropical salamanders, lizards, frogs, and snakes!

24 44 45 SCIENTIFIC TALK SESSIONS ABSTRACTS

25 46 47 SESSION 0 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM ADAPTATION AND EVOLUTION TO ANTHROPISATION: FROM FISHERIES TO HOLOBIONT PERSPECTIVES S0-O0 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE COMBINING METABARCODING AND METABOLOMICS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ECOLOGICAL SUCCESS OF HOMOSCLEROMORPHA SPONGES IN UNDERWATER CAVES César Ruiz, Thierry Perez, Olivier Thomas Chairs: Malika RENE-TROUILLEFOU, Sandrine GROUARD, Pierre-Michel FORGET Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d Ecologie marine et continentale, Marseille, FR, Contact: malika.trouillefou@univ-antilles.fr cesar.ruiz@imbe.fr National University of Ireland Galway, Marine Biodiscovery, School of Chemistry, University Road, TUESDAY Tropical ecosystems are not only terrestrial, but also marine: estuaries, mangroves, coral reefs, seagrasses, underwater caves, deep benthic bottoms, etc. At the scale of the intertropical belt, these ecosystems are characterized by their great fragmentation, especially in oceanic archipelagic environments. Moreover, the interactions between these marine environments and human populations are extremely diverse, depending on the societal contexts and the various uses that the populations make of them. In this context, this fragmentation of coral reefs and other marine ecosystems are facing dramatic regressions. The dynamics of marine ecosystems are now constrained by anthropogenic pressures that lead to rapid changes in both their physical and chemical components. Moreover, the seasonal, decadal and secular variability of oceanographic conditions are associated with the global climate change. These major modifications of the environmental conditions require the organisms to adapt and/or migrate in order to respond to changes in abiotic parameters. Several approaches can be developed in this session: marine diversity, marine ecosystems, associated anthroposystems, and anthropic uses and actions. Knowledge of old situations (of the order of a few millennia or of a few tens of millennia) may be relevant to calibrate the processes in progress. How has the dynamics of biological processions under climatic and anthropic constraints at the scale of a few millennia and centuries? Galway, IE Underwater caves are original habitats of ecological interest. Indeed, they can be considered extreme due to marked physical gradients such as light, hydrodynamics and food availability which make them good mesocosms of deep sea ecosystems. Underwater cave ecosystems were mostly studied in the few places of the Mediterranean Sea, often focusing on specific taxonomic groups. Overall, those studies revealed similar faunistic traits and ecological functioning. Homoscleromorpha sponges are well represented in underwater caves, and some species can be cave-exclusive. However, very little is known about the factors explaining their ecological success in such a constraining environment. We hypothesized that the microbiome and/or metabolome of these sponges may confer adaptation capability. On a large collection of samples from Mediterranean and Caribbean submarine caves, we undertook metabarcoding and metabolomic fingerprinting analyses to identify putative patterns in microbial and chemical diversity that may be related to sponges ecological habit. Some of these patterns seem to be explained by the taxonomy of the sponge and/ or the geographical area, so these two approaches can be used in integrative taxonomy. More interesting, we have found that ecological traits like habitat occupation inside caves (semi-obscure, obscure) or species distribution can be explained by the presence of particular microbial groups or the production of exclusive metabolites. Our results seem to confirm our former hypothesis, however the functional role of those microorganisms and metabolites must be analyzed to understand their contribution to the adaptation of Homoscleromorpha sponges to marine caves. TUESDAY 09:0 Merian Award Applicant

26 48 49 S0-O0 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BACTERIA WITH POTENTIAL ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY ASSOCIATED TO PORITES ASTREOIDES, A DOMINANT CARIBBEAN CORAL SPECIES Salim Arkam, Florent Baud, Yolande Bouchon-Navaro,, Pascal Jean Lopez,, Céline Zatylny- Gaudin 4, Claude Bouchon,, Malika René-Trouillefou (speaker), S0-O0 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE TROPHIC CHANGES DURING DIADROMOUS SPECIES MIGRATION: THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF FATTY ACIDS Lou Frotté, Alexandre Bec, Fanny Perrière, Sébastien Cordonnier, Etienne Bezault, Dominique Monti Université des Antilles - UMR BOREA, Pointe-à-Pitre, GP, lou.frotte@univ-antilles.fr Université Clermont Auvergne - LMGE UMR CNRS 60 / GRET GDR CNRS 76, Aubière, FR UMR BOREA, CNRS-708 MNHN Sorbonne Université UCN IRD-07 Université des TUESDAY 09:45 Antilles, GP, malika.trouillefou@univ-antilles.fr LabEx CORAIL, Perpignan, FR UMR BOREA, CNRS MNHN Sorbonne Université UCN IRD-07 UA, Paris, FR 4 UMR BOREA, CNRS-708 MNHN Sorbonne Université Université de Caen Normandie IRD- 07 UA, Caen, FR When considering the general decline of reef corals in the Lesser Antilles during the last decades, Porites astreoides, among all coral species, became one of the most largely distributed and abundant species on those reefs. Such resilient and adaptive potential of that species might be explained by a microbiome composition, which helps to protect them under changing environmental conditions or compromised health. In the present study, culturable associated bacteria communities, from the coral mucus and tissues were investigated. A total of 4 bacterial strains were isolated from Porites astreoides collected around Guadeloupe reefs, among which independent isolates were identified using both morphological characteristics and 6S rdna sequence analyses. Phylogenetic analyses based on coral bacteria 6S rdna sequences indicated that 5 genera of 4 Phyla have been distinguished and Vibrionaceae represented the dominant culturable genus. Metabolic tests (antibiogram and antimicrobial tests) applied to 4 of the culturable bacteria revealed a moderate sensitivity to four antibiotics tested (oxytetracyclin, penicillin, streptomycin and ampicillin). Moreover, 4 pure clones isolated from Photobacterium rosenbergii, Pseudomonas plecoglossicida, and Vibrio vulnificus strains exhibited a strong activity against the growth of the marine pathogen Vibrio splendidus. By producing antimicrobial metabolites, these bacteria strains might protect Porites astreoides against infestation by invasive microbes and pathogens. Our results reveal within the microbial flora of the Caribbean dominant coral species Porites astreoides, the existence of culturable beneficial bacteria species that might play a role in their outstanding fitness and their resilience when compared to other coral species. These findings could contribute to the coral microbial-therapy new area and to the discovery of promising sources of bioactive molecules from marine microorganisms. In the Caribbean islands, the freshwater macrofauna is predominantly constituted of diadromous fish and crustacean species. In the rivers of this region, the most common life cycle is amphidromous, defined by a reproduction in river, a downstream passive larval transport followed by a marine dispersal, and finally an upstream migration at juvenile stages. The growth of these organisms takes place in freshwater habitats, both during their migration and when sedentarized all along the river. We studied freshwater food consumption through lipids analyses of the five most abundant fish and crustacean species (Gobiidae, Palaemonidae and Atyidae) in one river representative of Caribbean islands volcanic functional type, in Guadeloupe. The study of the fatty acids assesses the food sources in various habitats and also the nutritional quality of the species diets. For comparison, adult and juvenile stages for each species were analysed. Preliminary results underline higher availability in essential fatty acids in upstream habitats than in downstream ones. These results give rise to the question of the food nutritional quality being a driving force for the upstream migrations of diadromous species. TUESDAY 0:00

27 50 5 S0-O04 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE CORAL SKELETAL Δ 5 N RECORDS REVEAL LONG-STANDING EUTROPHICATION OF COASTAL CORAL REEFS Nicolas N. Duprey, David M. Baker,, Tony X. Wang 4, Taihun Kim,, Philip D. Thompson,, Alfredo Martinez-Garcia, Daniel M. Sigman 4, Gerald H. Haug Department of Climate Geochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute), Hahn-Meitner-Weg, Mainz, DE, n.duprey@mpic.de School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, CN Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, CN S0-O05 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE CHRONOLOGY OF WEST INDIAN PALAEOFISHERY Sandrine Grouard, Sophia Perdikaris, Dominique Bonnissent, Nidia Espindola Rodrigues Lourdou Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle, Dept Homme Environnement, UMR 709 Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique, Paris, FR, grouard@mnhn.fr University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dept Anthropology, Lincoln Nebraska, US Direction des affaires culturelles de Guadeloupe, Ministère de la Culture, Basse-Terre, GP 4 UMR 8096 Archéologie des Amériques (ArchAm), Paris, FR 4 Department of Geosciences, Guyot Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, US The Antilles archipelago is an exceptional example of continental Amerindian populations adapting to an insular environment, with many interisland exchanges due to highly effective naval technology. Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Caribbean contain a significant amount of well-preserved vertebrate remains (fish, turtles, snakes, lizards, birds, mammals), where ichthyological remains predominate at a majority of sites. However, the importance of different marine ecosystems had varied in each Pre-Columbian culture. The selection of captured marine species (sea turtles, manatees, monk seals, cetaceans, fish) indicates that fishing grounds and techniques also changed according to the various periods. TUESDAY 0:5 Anthropogenic pressure on tropical shorelines is increasing globally, with dramatic consequences for coral reef ecosystems; eutrophication, in particular, is becoming a major threat to coral reefs worldwide. Yet, understanding the causes and the consequences of nutrient enrichment on coral reefs remains challenging due to a lack of long-term water quality datasets, which hampers the establishment of environmental baselines and thus the application of adequate mitigation policies. Definition of these baselines is critically needed to identify the sources of nutrients present in coral reefs and understand how these nutrients might have changed the ecosystem over time. The natural abundance of nitrogen isotopes in coral skeleton-bound organic matter (CSδ 5 N) is a promising tool to identify nitrogen (N) sources and to track their changes over time. Until now, such studies were prevented by the lack of adequate methodology, mainly due to the low N content in coral skeleton. A recent study provided a sensitive and precise method for analyzing CSδ 5 N (Wang et al., 05), paving the way for a new field of investigation. Here we measure CSδ 5 N records from notoriously eutrophied locations, i.e., Guam USA (56 years) and Hong Kong SAR (50 years), to characterize the eutrophication history at these locations. In both cases CSδ 5 N records significant changes in the N sources on decadal to centennial scales, in response to increasing human activities. The two records show that sewage-derived N has been present at these locations for more than 50 years. Although these records come from locations that are clearly impacted by nutrient enrichment today, their eutrophication history suggests that a range of coastal reefs across the globe may have been under eutrophication stress for half a century. Based upon 890,000 fish remains recovered and identified from 90 Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Lesser Antilles (including St Martin, Barbuda, Antigua, the archipelago of Guadeloupe and Martinique) since 994, a palaeofishery chronology can be determined using the composition of the faunal spectrum and the animals size. The earliest Archaic Age populations exploited seagrass meadows and lagoons near coral reefs. Later, the first settlers of the Ceramic Age exploited all the ecosystems (deep water channels, rocky bottoms, coral reefs, sandy bottoms, seagrass, mangroves, foreshore). The Late Ceramic Age populations implanted their villages closer to the coasts and satellites islands were colonized. Some villages were highly specialized on certain species, e.g. surgeon fish, parrot fish, sea turtles. Indeed, coral reef fish became increasingly important in subsistence through time. Finally, fish sizes decreased over time but fishing technology did not change. TUESDAY :00

28 5 5 S0-O06 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE ASSEMBLY RULES AND LONG TERMS CHANGES IN GROUND FISH COMMUNITIES FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY OF THE CONTINENTAL SHELF OFF FRENCH GUIANA S0-O07 TROPICAL MARINE ECOSYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE THE GULF STREAM FRONTAL SYSTEM: A KEY OCEANOGRAPHIC FEATURE IN THE HABITAT SELECTION OF THE LEATHERBACK TURTLE? Vincent Vallée, Fabian Blanchard Ifremer Guyane, Fisheries Biodiversity Unit, Cayenne, GF, vincent.vallee@ifremer.fr Chevallier Damien, Yvon Le Maho (speaker), Philippine Chambault, Benoît de Thoisy, Simon Benhamou, Alberto Baunadona 4 CNRS-Université de Strasbourg, IPHC UMR 778, Strasbourg, FR, yvon.lemaho@iphc.cnrs.fr For more than two decades, describing and understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of fish communities has been subject to increasing attention from scientists. Such dynamics are crucial for ecosystem functioning and productivity which provide goods and ecosystem services. Fishing and climate change have undisputable effects on species ecology and functions but are often difficult to disentangle insofar as two forcing variables could have the same effects on an indicator. Moreover, works on dynamics of fish communities focused mainly on temperate and boreal ecosystems. In recent years, progress has been made in the application of species traits to assess the functional diversity of fish communities. The traits based approach has been shown to be effective and sensitive to describe variation in functional diversity and to determine assembly rules governing communities. Association Kwata, 6 avenue Pasteur, BP 67, Cayenne, GF Centre d Étude Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, CNRS, Montpellier, FR 4 Sorbonne Université, Université Paris 06, CNRS-IRD-MNHN-IPSL Laboratory, Paris, FR TUESDAY :5 We used the trait-based approach, with ecological and morphometrical traits, and functional diversity indices to describe dynamics in the functional structure of the fish communities of the French Guiana continental shelf, a tropical zone characterized by a significant increasing of SST and a declining fishing pressure. Our study is based on datasets from surveys conducted from 99 to 07 using a bottom shrimp trawl between 0 and 60 m depth. Firstly, comparing the functional richness of the fish communities to values obtained from a null model enabled us to identify the relative importance of the assembly rules in recent years (niche filtering hypothesis vs limiting similarity hypothesis). We secondly analyzed the ground fish communities spatio-temporal structure and functional diversity over this period. Subtropical species occurring at the upper limit of their thermal range are disfavored with warming waters provoking potential changes in the fish communities structure. The consequences of such alterations are discussed. Although some associations between the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea and the Gulf Stream current have been previously suggested, no study has to date demonstrated strong affinities between leatherback movements and this particular frontal system using thorough oceanographic data in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions. The importance of the Gulf Stream frontal system in the selection of high residence time (HRT) areas by the North Atlantic leatherback turtle is assessed here for the first time using stateof-the-art ocean reanalysis products. Ten adult females from the Eastern French Guianese rookery were satellite tracked during post-nesting migration to relate () their horizontal movements to physical gradients (Sea Surface Temperature (SST), Sea Surface Height (SSH) and filaments) and biological variables (micronekton and chlorophyll a), and () their diving behaviour to vertical structures within the water column (mixed layer, thermocline, halocline and nutricline). All the turtles migrated northward towards the Gulf Stream north wall. Although their HRT areas were geographically remote (spread between 80 0 W and 8 45 N), all the turtles targeted similar habitats in terms of physical structures, i.e. strong gradients of SST, SSH and a deep mixed layer. This close association with the Gulf Stream frontal system highlights the first substantial synchronization ever observed in this species, as the HRTs were observed in close match with the autumn phytoplankton bloom. Turtles remained within the enriched mixed layer at depths of 8.5 ± 7.9 m when diving in HRT areas, likely to have an easier access to their prey and maximize therefore the energy gain. These depths were shallow in comparison to those attained within the thermocline (8.4 ± 5.6 m) while crossing the nutrient-poor subtropical gyre, probably to reach cooler temperatures and save energy during the transit. In a context of climate change, anticipating the evolution of such frontal structure under the influence of global warming is crucial to ensure the conservation of this vulnerable species. TUESDAY :0

29 54 55 SESSION 0 S0-O0 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT METABOLOMIC FINGERPRINTING OF EIGHT MANGROVES SPECIES FROM VIETNAM MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT IN A CHANGING WORLD Anne Bousquet-Mélou, Virginie Baldy, Tan Dao Van, Stéphane Greff, Jean-Rémi Malachin, Gérald Culioli, Catherine Fernandez Chairs: Tarik MEZIANE, Emma MICHAUD Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d Ecologie, Marseille, FR, anne.bousquet-melou@imbe.fr Contact: meziane@mnhn.fr Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, VN Laboratoire Matériaux Polymères Interfaces Environnement Marin, Toulon, FR Mangrove forests are some of the world s most valuable coastal ecosystems. Their TUESDAY ecological importance has been increasingly highlighted such as providing food sources, shelter, breeding grounds and nursery habitats for local faunal communities and organisms from adjacent coastal ecosystems. The trees are highly productive and the whole habitat provides important ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling at a global scale, maintaining food sources, coastal stabilization, and enhancing recreation activities that ultimately benefit local populations. However, these intertidal forests despite being highly resilient and able to provide some coastal defence from climate and human impacts such as sea rise level, changing in weather pattern, urban pollution and aquaculture development, are increasingly destroyed due to an excessive need of these services. To better protect this unique ecosystem and help implementing none destructive practices, this session will gather studies that deal with () a functional role of every aspects that lead to sustainable ecosystem services, () the development of innovative methods for characterizing and quantifying key processes behind the mangrove services, and () the application of this know-how into management and restoration practices. Mangroves are tropical forest ecosystems where species are adapted to live in an extremely changing environment as they occur exclusively in intertidal zones. Although their functioning is still misunderstood, they are of special interest for the numerous ecosystem services they provide among which the production of molecules of interest, particularly used in traditional medicine. These molecules, known as secondary metabolites, regulate the interactions between organisms of these ecosystems. They are considered like the ultimate expression of metabolome, and they have key role in allelopathic processes. The surrounding plant species, but also the soil organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi and invertebrates), are under constant pressure of this production which influence the quality of the environment. The aim of this study is to characterize the metabolomic fingerprinting of eight mangrove species from the Northern Vietnam: Avicennia marina, Kandelia obovata, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, Sonneratia apetala, Sonneratia caseolaris, Aegiceras corniculatum, Lumnitzera racemosa, and Rhizophora stylosa, and identify specific markers of these species. Analysis with UHPLC-QToF, in both negative and positive modes, revealed a chemical proximity in agreement with phylogeny, between the three species of the Rhizophoraceae family producing some quercetin derivatives like rutin and between the two species of the genus Sonneratia, with gallic acid derivatives. TUESDAY 4:0

30 56 57 S0-O0 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT S0-O0 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT NYPA FRUTICANS WURMB (ARECACEAE) PEATLAND CHARACTERIZATION IN CAMEROON S MANGROVE ECOSYSTEM CARBON STOCK IN THE PACIFIC AND CARIBBEAN COLOMBIAN MANGROVES Alejandra Monsalve, Jaime Polonia (speaker), Paula Sierra, Jhoanata Bolivar Jean-Hude E. Moudingo,, Gordon Ajonina,, Didier Dibong,4, Minette Tomedi Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, CO, acmonsalver@unal.edu.co INVEMAR, Santa Marta, CO South Pole Group, Medellín, CO Département de Biologie des Organismes Végétaux, Faculté des Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, CM, m_ekindi@yahoo.fr Cameroon Wildlife Conservation Society Mouanko, Littoral Region-Cameroon, Douala, CM TUESDAY 4:45 Département d Aquaculture, Institut des Sciences Halieutiques, University of Douala, Douala, CM 4 Department of Geosciences and Environment, Faculty of Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, CM Nypa fruticans, a plant originally from East Asia, was introduced to Nigeria in 906 and is spreading across Cameroon mangrove block. Focusing especially on Nypa fruticans ecological niche is necessary to better understand this invasive character, especially because data on its invadability are not available. The main objective of this study, carried out from April to August 07, is to characterize (water and soil environment) the ecological niche of Nypa across Cameroon mangrove. Eight treatments amongst which stands with Nypa or mixed with (Nypa pure Nypa and Rhizophora, Nypa and Avicennia and Nypa, Rhizophora and Avicennia) and the three others with no Nypa (Rhizophora pure, Avicennia pure and Rhizophora and Avicennia). Water parameters were measured in situ at two levels of depth with the Hanna Hi 989 multi-parameters while soil sample were analysed in the laboratory. The results showed that the Nypa palm is present in all mangrove blocks with heights ranging from.5 to 6 m while Rhizophora and Avicennia are up to 5 m. We identified current invaded areas and found that water salinity, turbidity, temperature, ph and DO, soil ph varied significantly with stands and with depth across the three mangrove blocks. Some of the parameters don t varied significantly with treatments nor with depth. We recommend Nypa palm destructive sample so as to establish possible correlations between soil-water parameters and plant nutrient concentrations. Merian Award Applicant Mangroves are well known for their high rate of carbon accumulation. However, they are threatened by deforestation and degradation, which in turn generate high greenhouse gas emissions. An effective alternative for mitigation of climate change can be protection and restoration of mangroves, as well as to include them in mitigation strategies, such as REDD projects. Since mangroves are ecologically diverse within the same climatic zone, coastal geomorphology and hydrological processes influence the chemical and physical conditions of their soils, as well as the structural development of their vegetation and, consequently, on the carbon storage capacity of their different compartments. Therefore, it is essential to quantify the ecosystems carbon stock. This study estimated the carbon stock of Cispatá and Málaga bays (Colombian Caribbean and Pacific, respectively). Carbon stock in above ground biomass, roots, necromass (standing dead trees and debris) and soil (first 45 cm of deep) were calculated, as well as their relationship with the soil physicochemical characteristics. The total carbon stock varied between 6.4 ± 6.9 for the Pacific coast, and 5. ± 80. Mg.C.ha - for the Caribbean. The soil was the main compartment, representing more than 60 % of the carbon stock in both littorals. It was also the one with the greatest variability, with means of 4. and 47.4 Mg.C.ha - for the Pacific and Caribbean, respectively. At a more local level, the highest carbon stock was associated to the lower N concentration. Nevertheless, higher root carbon stocks were associated with the high N, Ca and Mg concentrations. We found greater allocation to the root biomass at the expense of the aboveground compartment when soil nutrients where less availability. These results reaffirm that the protection of mangroves is one of the key in climate change mitigation strategies, however, carbon stock estimates should take into account the great variability of these forests. TUESDAY 5:00

31 58 59 S0-O04 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT ENROOT: AN INEXPENSIVE, PARTIALLY D PRINTED MINIRHIZOTRON TO STUDY FINE ROOT PRODUCTION IN MANGROVE FOREST S0-O05 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT THREE DECADES OF PLANES, SATELLITES AND DRONES IN MONITORING AND MANAGING MANGROVE FORESTS IN KENYA, SRI LANKA AND MALAYSIA Marie Arnaud, Andrew Baird, Paul J. Morris, Angela Harris, Jonathan J. Huck Leeds University, Leeds, UK, gymasa@leeds.ac.uk University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Farid Dahdouh-Guebas,, Behara Satyanarayana,, Viviana Otero, Monika Ruwaimana,, Ruben Van De Kerchove 4, Nico Koedam, Richard Lucas 5 Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE, fdahdouh@ulb.ac.be Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, BE Mangroves are amongst the most carbon-dense ecosystems in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, MY the world. The major input of organic carbon into mangrove soil 4 Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Mol, BE seems likely to come from fine roots. However, our knowledge of 5 University of New South Wales, Sydney, AU fine root production in mangroves is severely limited, due in large TUESDAY 5:5 part to the inherent difficulty of measuring such subterranean processes. Measurement techniques for fine root production are time consuming, expensive, and often destructive. Minirhizotrons offer a non-destructive alternative to quantify fine root production and enable high-frequency in situ monitoring with little disturbance after an initial settling period. However, commercial minirhizotron systems are often prohibitively expensive. We present Enroot, an inexpensive, easy to build and partially D printable minirhizotron. The cost of the new minirhizotron is less than 50 euros per unit, approximately one hundredth of some commercial systems. Enroot has been designed specifically for use in mangrove ecosystems, including in remote locations. Enroot is light, waterproof and uses a narrow minirhizotron tube that can fit between stilt-roots. The D-printing files required to manufacture the instrument are freely available. Once printed, assembly of the pieces requires less than 0 minutes. Since the rise of remote sensing, the monitoring and management of mangrove forests world-wide has been aided. In this presentation, we provide a zoom from historic aerial photography, over spaceborne imagery, up to state-of-the art Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone technology. Using case-studies from Kenya, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, we provide an overview of the challenges of () identification of mangroves trees, () pinpointing functional degradation of forest patches, and () estimating/ calculating reliable silvimetric indices. Overcoming these three challenges are paramount in successful (remote sensing-based) mangrove management. TUESDAY 6:00 We tested Enroot in laboratory mesocosms, and compared the instrument to theoretical characteristics of commercial systems. Enroot provides accurate imagery, is effective in flooded soil conditions, and is highly customizable. Enroot provides an effective, low-cost tool for repetitive, non-destructive sampling of root production in mangrove. Although we focused primarily on root production, like other minirhizotron systems Enroot also has applications to measuring root morphology, rooting depth or root mortality. Enroot also represents an opportunity for the inhabitants of mangrove ecosystems to monitor the sequestration of carbon in local soils with relatively little training or expense, and may therefore provide a powerful tool for citizen science in the developing world. Merian Award Applicant

32 60 6 S0-O06 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT LINKING SCIENCE TO POLICY AND MANAGEMENT: THE FRENCH TROPICAL WETLANDS NETWORK (PÔLE-RELAIS ZONES HUMIDES TROPICALES) Anne Caillaud, Alain Pibot, Alain Brondeau S0-O07 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT CHANGES IN WHITE MANGROVE LEAF CHEMISTRY AND SUBSEQUENT ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS UPON LOGGING Mirco Wölfelschneider,, Moirah Paula Machado de Menzes, Ulf Mehlig, Véronique Helfer, Martin Zimmer IUCN France, Paris, FR, anne.caillaud@uicn.fr Conservatoire du Littoral, Basse-Terre, GP Conservatoire du Littoral, Paris, FR Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung (ZMT), Bremen, DE, mirco.woelfelschneider@leibniz-zmt.de Universität Bremen, Bremen, DE Universidade Federal do Pará, Campus Bragança, Bragança, BR Although there is a large consensus today on the value of TUESDAY 6:5 mangroves and the ecosystem services they provide, significant losses continue to occur in French overseas territories. Mangrove ecosystems continue to be the object of scientific studies, but there is still a major disconnect between latest scientific findings on this ecosystem (in fields such as geomorphology, ecology, botany, chemistry and oceanography), operational management and policy decisions. In addition, the administrative and scientific silos that tend to appear between terrestrial and marine ecosystems negatively affect decisionmaking and management for this intertidal habitat. In this context, the French Tropical Wetlands Network (Pôle-relais zones humides tropicales), a national initiative coordinated by IUCN France and the Conservatoire du Littoral, aims to advocate enhanced protection of mangroves and other wetlands in French overseas territories through information sharing, capacity building, technical support and awareness raising at all levels in a complex governance context. This presentation will present current obstacles in the regulatory context, and the Network s strategy to revert the decline of mangroves in French overseas territories, including: efforts to reduce inefficiencies of administrative and regulatory measures leading to further destruction of mangroves: development of public policy decision support tools, development of reliable and operational descriptors and indicators, support to adopt better urban planning practices; capacity building strategies for managers, urban planners, decision-makers, rangers and public prosecutors; and success stories in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Mayotte and New Caledonia. Current mangrove loss trends highlight the urgent need to go beyond knowledge acquisition on this ecosystem and to guide efforts to adopt ambitious management measures through innovative and practical approaches that deliver tangible outcomes for mangroves. With human populations rapidly increasing in coastal mangroverich regions, the number of people dependent on mangrove resources is rising. No-take policies are no longer a feasible solution to protect and preserve mangroves for future generations. Hence, there is an urgent need for well-conceived management plans. Communities along the coastline of North Brazil practice a traditional form of selective mangrove-logging involving the White Mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa). The felled trees of this species have the ability to regrow, thus this activity is often considered as sustainable resource-use and is therefore under less stricter regulation. However, its subsequent ecological impacts have yet to be investigated. This study, conducted in the Reserva Extrativista (RESEX) on the Ajuruteua peninsula (PA, Brazil), investigated how the regrowth process of the White Mangrove influences leaf chemistry and subsequent herbivory. In the first phase, leaf samples from trees at different stages of regrowth were analysed for carbon, nitrogen and phenolics content, precipitationcapacity and leaf toughness. This provided an understanding of the chemical dynamics in regard to herbivore defences. Results show significant changes in the leaf nitrogen content and toughness throughout tree regrowth. Increased levels of nitrogenous compounds and toughness in regrowing trees shortly after cutting align with decreased feeding activity of herbivores. These patterns recede quickly whilst the regrowth proceeds. A second phase is currently underway using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to gain a more detailed insight into the chemical composition of potential defence compounds. Overall, preliminary results support the assumption that selective logging is a sustainable resource-use with a comparably low impact on surrounding ecosystem functioning. Merian Award Applicant TUESDAY 6:0

33 6 6 S0-O08 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT S0-O09 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT LIGNOCELLULOSIC DETRITUS IN MANGROVE ECOSYSTEMS IS PROCESSED BY A SPECIALIST GUILD OF INVERTEBRATES AND ASSOCIATED MICROBIOTA INVOLVEMENT OF WATER SOLUBLE OR VOLATILE COMPOUNDS FROM LEAVES OF TWO MANGROVES AVICENNIA MARINA AND KANDELIA OBOVATA IN CRABS ATTRACTION Simon Cragg Catherine Fernandez, Virginie Baldy, Tan Dao Van, Roxane de Rodez-Bénavent, Magali Proffit, Anne Bousquet-Mélou University of Portsmouth, Institute of Marine Sciences, Portsmouth, UK, simon.cragg@port.ac.uk Mangrove forests are one of the main sources of vascular plant detritus for coastal waters. Such detritus differs from the particulate organic carbon that originates in the water column, being characterised by lignocellulose, a polymer complex of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. The complex is recalcitrant (resistant to enzyme activity), but is converted by specialist fauna and microbiota to labile oligomers that then join fluxes and sinks of organic carbon within, and adjacent to, mangrove ecosystems. Processing of leaf and small detritus is well characterised in a range of ecosystems, but processing of large woody detritus is not. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d Ecologie, Marseille, FR, catherine.fernandez@imbe.fr Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, VN Centre d Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier, FR TUESDAY 6:45 Woody detritus ranges in size from whole trees to twigs and wood flakes, with the larger components being initially colonised by wood boring molluscs of the family Teredinidae and by isopod crustaceans (families Limnoriidae and Sphaeromatidae). Borers remove up to 70 % of the original biomass and as their tunnelling progresses, bacteria and fungi colonise tunnel walls, eventually becoming the dominant processors once as the wood disintegrates. Borers play a crucial role in the breakdown of large woody detritus that accounts for approximately half of the detrital input in undisturbed mangrove forests. Exemplar ecosystems demonstrate the ecological implications of the processing of lignocellulosic mangrove detritus. A proper understanding of mangrove detrital processing is essential for a mangrove-related response to the REDD+ initiative. Most of mangrove primary production consists of mangrove leaves and available to consumers after senescence and breakdown. Herbivorous crabs are possibly among the most important actors in the nutrient cycle and the forest structure, and thus by cutting tree leaves into pieces, digesting them or burrowing them. Given the high content of specialized metabolites of mangroves, and the ability of these molecules to be transmitted by air or water, crabs can probably detect remotely the chemical signals released by the leaves. Current knowledge does not allow us to know whether specialized metabolites have a clear role in the choice of mangrove species consumed or in the preference of green leaves over senescent leaves. We don t also know what type specialized metabolite crabs are attracted by: volatile molecules or water-soluble molecules? We tested the feeding preferences of Perisesarma bidens between leaves from two common Vietnamese mangrove tree species (Avicennia marina and Kandelia obovata) and of two phenological stages (green and senescent). In addition, it was tested if crab electivity differed when chemical cues were mediated by air or water. This was done on the one side with the use of two-choices feeding essays and on the other side with attraction tests, both aquatic and aerial. TUESDAY 7:00 We observed that S. bidens crabs preferred to consume K. obovata rather than A. marina, and had no preference for green or senescent leaves. Moreover, it seems that crabs are not attracted by the smell of Kandelia leaves or those of A. marina and are not attracted by the taste of K. obovata leaves but rather rejected by that of A. marina. In the water attraction tests, crabs are more likely to move to seawater rather than A. marina macerates. We concluded that crabs could be repulsed by water-soluble compounds rather than volatile ones.

34 64 65 S0-O0 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT DIRECT AND INDIRECT RESPONSES TO ENSO MODERATE COMMUNITY-BASED FISHERIES IN COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN MANGROVES Ann Thornton, Martin Solan, Jasmin Godbold, Mario Rueda, Luisa Espinosa, Carmen Lacambra, Carlos Villamil, Piran White 4 University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, a.thornton@soton.ac.uk INVEMAR, Santa Marta, CO Grupo Laera, Bogotá, CO 4 University of York, York, UK TUESDAY 7:5 The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) creates fluctuations in temperature and precipitation throughout the Pacific region. The direct effect on mangroves from El Niño and La Niña events has been widely studied. However, the cumulative impacts of multiple environmental factors are often assumed rather than explicitly demonstrated yet these can have important repercussions for system dynamics and services. Only by identifying and managing these controllable effects can we potentially increase mangrove resilience to unpredictable sudden-onset environmental events? We show how direct and indirect effects of ENSO on other environmental drivers within the mangrove system moderates the vital artisanal fisheries relied upon by local communities for food and income. Changes in air temperature (a key ENSO indicator) had a direct negative effect on overall fish catch (kg) and fishing effort. However, air temperature had a direct positive effect on catch weight of freshwater fish yet a negative effect on catches of freshwater/brackish species. Indirect effects from ENSO on catch weight and species diversity were evident through direct effects of air temperature and precipitation on salinity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen and nutrients.

35 66 67 SESSION 0 S0-O0 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS IN THE WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS ECOLOGY OF CONTINENTAL WETLANDS IN THE WORLD Fritz Kleinschroth Chairs: Hery Lisy Tiana RANARIJAONA, Pete B. PHILLIPSON ETH, Zürich, CH, klfritz@ethz.ch Contact: hranarijaona@gmail.com The water-energy-food nexus is a conceptual tool for achieving TUESDAY This international conference is intended to exchange on both the ecology of the flora and fauna of the continental wetlands of the world: ethnoecology, systematics, ecology, biology, threats, direct and indirect wetland values, biological invasions, conservation and climate change. The aim is to mobilize and federate stakeholders concerned with the ecology of Indian Ocean wetlands, specifically lentic environments (lakes, marshes, ponds, ponds, swamp forests) and lotic environments (rivers, streams...). The ecology and systematics of the continental aquatic flora (macrophytes, macroscopic and/or microscopic algae), and that of the continental aquatic fauna (fish, birds, turtles, crocodiles...) will be treated. Also, the ecological dynamics of wetlands, followed by remote sensing, and restoration will be addressed. These wetlands are reservoirs where human derives his resources and has been operating for thousands of years. Also, threats to wetlands due to the potential impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate change will be highlighted. All this for the purpose of conserving and sustainably managing the tropical wetlands of the Indian Ocean. And finally, ecology and communication on wetlands will be important to be treated in order to improve them. The aim is to make exchanges between specialists and highlight the experiences on the tropical ecology of the Indian Ocean. These exchanges may lead to the development of projects in partnership. sustainable development. Water, energy and food are equally essential for human wellbeing, but especially in the face of climate change, the distribution of limited water resources between differing demands and across borders is becoming increasingly challenging. With a low degree of electrification and a growing need for food, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa particularly depend on the availability of sufficient water resources for their development. There are striking trade-offs between irrigation agriculture and hydropower production, as both require dams to store water resources during the dry season. However, such river regulations also have important implications for environmental flows and ecosystems services demanded by downstream communities that depend on fisheries and the availability of clean water. We analyzed the importance of ecosystem functioning within the water-energy-food nexus for the catchment of the Zambezi River. We developed an environmental values map of rivers and riparian habitats based on aquatic species richness, habitat types and potential connectivity-needs for migrating fishes and other water-dependent species. We combined this environmental values map with () a layer of potential threats from infrastructure development such as dams and roads, () water quality, indicated by invasive floating vegetation and () streamflow information from a hydrological model, calculating water availability and flows. The spatially explicit combination of environmental values and predicted hotspots of change serves to suggest measures to avoid, reduce and mitigate impacts from development on the landscape scale. This will contribute to a decision analytic framework evaluating large-scale investments in projects such as hydropower stations and industrial agriculture under different socio-economic and climatic scenarios. TUESDAY 09:0 Merian Award Applicant

36 68 69 S0-O0 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS HYDROELECTRIC RESERVOIRS INFLUENCE TREE PHYSIOLOGY AND ENDEMISM Pia Parolin, Leandro Ferreira University of Hamburg, Hamburg, DE, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belém, BR S0-O0 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS EMERGENT MACROPHYTES SUPPORT ZOOPLANKTON IN A SHALLOW TROPICAL LAKE: A BASIS FOR WETLAND CONSERVATION Mesfin Damtew,, Demeke Kifle, Ludwig Triest Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ecology and Biodiversity, Brussels, BE, mdamtew@vub.be Haramaya University, Environmental Health Science, Harar, ET In Amazonia, river damming to provide energy from hydroelectric reservoirs turns rivers into huge lakes which flood the original vegetation. The vegetation suffers from strong impacts of fragmentation, i.e. microclimatic changes, desiccation from wind, and altered rainfall patterns. This leads to high tree mortality and shifts in floristic composition. Addis Ababa University, Zoological Sciences, Addis Ababa, ET TUESDAY 09:45 We analyze short-term responses in artificial islands of the Tapajós, Xingu and Tocantins Rivers in Amazonia in plot pairs of 5 40 m on 7 islands of varying sizes (8-00 hectares). The plot pairs comprised one plot 0 m from the margin and one more than 00 m from the margin. No significant differences of tree density, basal area, density of regeneration and canopy cover were found between island border and interior in the sampled islands in the Tucuruí dam reservoir. This gives evidence that the whole islands and not merely the borders are heavily affected by abiotic changes. Alterations of species composition, richness and diversity occur, and the original species are substituted even in the central area of 00 ha islands. On the long run the woody vegetation is heavily affected and forests lose diversity and are shifted towards more open vegetation forms. With only six out of 74 species occurring in three inventories of adjacent river systems, the majority of woody species was restricted to each one of the rivers, indicating a high degree of local endemism. Different species occupy similar environmental niches, alternative designs of equal fitness occur in similar environments, making these fragile ecosystems of pioneering formations highly valuable. Conservation plans must consider the complementarity of species when decision on where to place conservation units are taken. If this is not considered for conservation strategies, the original biodiversity will be lost irreversibly, and it is impossible to compensate for it in other places. The littoral zone of freshwater lakes, comprising macrophyte vegetation, is of high ecological and socioeconomic importance, and influences the structure and function of biological community. Understanding the biodiversity value of littoral zones of lakes is a priority for aquatic biodiversity conservation and land/water management. However, less emphasis has been given to biotic interactions and refugia within wetlands bordering tropical African lakes, compared to the many researches focusing on monitoring open water. The present study investigates the role of the littoral zone of a shallow freshwater tropical rift lake (Ziway, Ethiopia), dominated by two emergent macrophytes, on zooplankton community structure. We hypothesized that the wetland vegetation serves as a preferred microhabitat for zooplankton communities. To test this hypothesis, a lake with substantial coverage of emergent macrophytes was monitored monthly from January to August 06. The monitoring included measurements of onsite physical-chemical parameters, collection of zooplankton and water samples for biological and chemical analysis. Sites for replicate sampling were selected within habitats of macrophyte vegetation (Typha latifolia and Phragmites australis) and the open water part of the lake. Typha latifolia and Phragmites australis were found to be home of more dense and diverse zooplankton community than the open water. However, during the period of higher flood levels and vegetation loss, the density of crustacean zooplankton became significantly reduced within the patches of macrophytes. From biodiversity conservation perspective, the preservation of an albeit small fringe of macrophytes patches in the littoral zones of lakes is an integral part of protection of the whole lake. However, a rapid degradation of wetland vegetation by human activities is a real threat to these riparian lake ecosystems and the biota it supports. TUESDAY 0:00

37 70 7 S0-O04 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS FAIRY CIRCLES AND WETLAND VEGETATION PATCHES: WHY ARE THERE SIMILAR OR EVEN IDENTICAL REGULAR VEGETATION PATTERNS IN DESERTS AND WETLANDS? Norbert Juergens University of Hamburg, Hamburg, DE, norbert.juergens@t-online.de TUESDAY 0:5 Regularly spaced circular patches without vegetation in the grasslands at the Namib Desert margin (the famous fairy circles ) caused an interesting scientific debate regarding their causation. One campus assumes that feedbacks based on competition for scarce resources among neighbouring plants alone can create spatial patterns at a much larger spatial scale. A second campus assumes that the regular spatial patterns are caused by competition for food among neighbouring colonies of social insects that actively manipulate cycling of biomass, nutrients, and minerals close to the colony center. Based on a decade of data collection, the presentation reviews new evidence regarding the flow of water (infiltration, percolation, lateral flow), minerals and biomass and the inhibition of social insect activity. In tropical wetlands the opposite contrast is observed: There are patches of vegetation within a surrounding matrix of less or no vegetation. These vegetation patches show the same spatial patterns as the desert fairy circles. The presentation will propose a holistic harmonized hypothesis encompassing the pattern formation in extremely dry and extremely wet conditions.

38 7 7 SESSION 04 S04-O0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS CURRENT ISSUES IN SAVANNA ECOLOGY TUESDAY UNDERSTANDING SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS TO PREDICT THEIR FUTURE Chairs: Jacques GIGNOUX, Sébastien BAROT Contact: jacques.gignoux@upmc.fr Savannas are tropical biomes covering about 5 % of continental surfaces. They host a very diverse flora and fauna. They host large human populations, especially in Africa, that highly depend on natural resources, soil fertility and biodiversity. Savannas are also fragile ecosystems that depend on the coexistence between C4 grasses and trees and that can quickly be turned into woodlands by bush encroachment that is due to diverse mechanisms (from the increase in the atmospheric CO concentration to changes in fire regimes and various human activities). In turn, tree-grass coexistence depends on complex interactions between fires, herbivores, climate and human activities. The goal of this session is to present various results from all relevant ecological and environmental sciences (from population dynamics to ecosystem ecology, evolution and environmental humanities, from soil microorganisms to large mammals) that allow predicting the future of savannas. Will savannas persist? What proportion of their biodiversity may disappear? Will the functioning, e.g. carbon storage or soil fertility, of savannas change? What is the future of human populations inhabiting savannas? Local and global studies and all approaches, from field observation to lab experiments and modelling are welcomed. Jacques Gignoux Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES), Paris, FR, jacques.gignoux@upmc.fr Savannas are increasingly acknowledged as important and valuable ecosystems. They occupy ~0 % of global land surfaces, 85 % of the global land area burnt, host an important and spectacular biodiversity, and constitute a significant income for many countries through tourism and ranching. Despite this importance, they are under threat, mainly because of a poor knowledge of their extent and functioning. For long they were considered as degraded forests or croplands ignoring that most of them are ancient ecosystems that appeared at least 5 million years ago. They are subject to high economic pressure, being easy to transform either to cropland or to tree plantations, and being found in parts of the world where human population growth is fastest. Savanna science faces the double challenge of the ecological complexity of these systems and of the deep transformations they are currently undergoing. The complexity is due to the many interacting functional groups found in savannas: grasses, trees, grazers, browsers, predators, soil engineers. The balance between these groups is under the control of climate, fire regime and human activities, making the understanding and prediction of changes in ecosystem dynamics very difficult. The transformations currently observed are bush encroachment and/or afforestation, clearing and conversion to cropland, heavy poaching of emblematic species, changes in fire regimes and changes in rainfall regimes. TUESDAY :00 I attempt here to prioritize the hottest issues in savanna ecology with regards to their current global situation. I identify 6 urgent issues motivated by threats on savanna ecosystems and 5 unresolved scientific problems specific to savannas.

39 74 75 S04-O0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS EFFECTS OF MINERAL NITROGEN PARTITIONING ON TREE- GRASS COEXISTENCE IN SAVANNAS Sarah Konaré Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Paris, FR, S04-O0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS GAS EXCHANGE AND BIOMASS ALLOCATION OF SHEA (VITELLARIA PARADOXA C.F. GAERTN.) SEEDLINGS UNDER INCREASED CO, COMPETITION AND WATER AVAILABILITY Damian Tom-Dery, Christoph Reisdorff, Kai Jensen Biocenter Klein Flottbek, Applied Plant Ecology, University Hamburg, Hamburg, DE, TUESDAY :5 Coexistence between trees and grasses in savannas is generally assumed to be due to a combination of partial niche separation for water acquisition and disturbances impacting the demography of trees and grasses. We propose a new mechanism of coexistence solely based on the partitioning of the two dominant forms of soil mineral nitrogen (N), ammonium (NH 4 +) and nitrate (NO -). We built a mean-field model taking into account the capacity of grasses and trees to influence nitrification fluxes as well as their relative preferences for NH 4 + versus NO -. Two models were studied: a first where nitrification only depends on the quantity of NH 4 + and a second where nitrification also depends on tree and grass biomasses. Consistently with coexistence theories, our results show that taking these two forms of mineral N into account may allow coexistence when trees and grasses have contrasted preferences for NH 4 + or NO -. Moreover, coexistence is more likely for intermediate nitrification rates. Assuming that grasses inhibit nitrification while trees stimulate it, as observed in the Lamto savanna, Côte d Ivoire, the most realistic case of coexistence would be when grasses prefer NH 4 + and trees NO -. Partitioning of mineral N is a stabilizing coexistence mechanism that would act in interaction with already described mechanisms based on disturbances by fire and herbivores. This mechanism virtually applies to any savanna but should be thoroughly tested through empirical studies and new models taking into account spatial heterogeneity in nitrification rates. damian.tom-dery@uni-hamburg.de The Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn.) is a major parkland species occurring across the Africa Savanna belt from East to West. Its fruits, butter, and products from Shea butter play a key role in the Sustainable Development Goals of poverty eradication, hunger elimination, and gender equity. Abiotic and biotic interactions play a pivotal role in shaping parklands because they influence vital processes like photosynthesis, transpiration and biomass production. We measured gas exchange of Shea seedlings grown under ambient and increased atmospheric CO (eco ), with and without grass competition and under different water availabilities in greenhouse chambers. We hypothesized that eco will increase seedling growth in Shea via increases in photosynthetic parameters and that grass competition decreases the assimilation rate of Shea resulting in reduced growth. Increased CO caused a 0 % (p < 0.00) increase in maximum light-saturated photosynthesis (Asat), % (p < 0.00) increase in intrinsic water use efficiency, % (p < 0.00) increase in stem mass fraction (SMF) and % (p = 0.006) reduction in transpiration rate. Grass competition significantly reduced Asat by 9 % (p < 0.00), maximum electron transport rate by % (p < 0.00) and SMF (p < 0.00) by 9 %, with corresponding reduction in all biomass parameters, but a significant 6 % (p < 0.00) increase in C/N ratio. Interactive effects were recorded for maximum electron transport rate, dark respiration, stomatal conductance, CO compensation point and leaf area ratio. Photosynthesis under eco was positively influenced while transpiration was reduced leading to increased growth of Shea. Conversely, grass competition negatively affected photosynthesis, Shea growth and biomass. The control of grasses in the early stages of Shea development is therefore recommended. TUESDAY :0 Merian Award Applicant

40 76 77 S04-O04 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS S04-O05 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS MAMMALIAN HERBIVORES ALONG A NATIVE VEGETATION LOSS GRADIENT IN NEOTROPICAL SAVANNA FROST IN AFROTROPICAL MID-ALTITUDE SAVANNAS - A NEGLECTED ENVIRONMENTAL FILTER Cyntia Santos,, Fábio Roque, Olivier Pays, Pierre-Cyril Renaud Manfred Finckh, Paulina Zigelski, Marion Stellmes, Rasmus Revermann Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, BR, cyntiasantos7@yahoo.com.br Universitè de Angers, Angers, FR TUESDAY :45 The Cerrado is a new economic development frontier for agribusiness worldwide. In the last 0 years deforestation has reached 46 % creating a landscape made by a mosaic of preserved natural vegetation and agricultural matrix. This deforestation dynamic has an impact especially for mammalian herbivores. We expected that herbivores that are more dependent on forest resources (such as fruits) would be more sensitive to native vegetation loss. We selected sampling sites of 5,000 hectares each, ranging from 9 to 90 % native vegetation cover in the Bodoquena Plateau, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. We carried out mammal surveys using camera trappings between April 06 and November 07. In each sampling site, we installed 5 cameras, spaced about 900 meters, during at least consecutive days during rainy and dry seasons. Our preliminary results indicate that composition of the herbivore community is impacted by the loss of native vegetation. At species level, small body mass herbivore occurrence rate is significantly negatively impacted by natural vegetation loss as well as specialized diet species. We believe that larger species with good dispersal capacity can use the most favorable environments in the agricultural matrix to maintain some connectivity, while small and specialized species, require areas with better native vegetation structure. According to the composition of the species in the NMDS based on Jaccard distances, two main group of species are detected: () common species that occurred in almost all landscapes, such as Tapirus terrestris, Peccary tajacu, Mazama gouazoubira, Mazama americana and Dasyprocta azara, and () sensible species, such as Cuniculus paca and Tayassu pecary, that occurred mainly in landscapes dominated by native vegetation. Managing connectivity in this landscape can play a crucial role and underscores the importance of understanding how land use planning is occurring in the Cerrado for a better biodiversity conservation strategy. Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, DE, manfred.finckh@uni-hamburg.de Institute of Geographical Sciences, Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, DE Current reviews of the factors shaping the forest - savanna transition focus mainly on C4 grass - fire feedback and tree shade-fire suppression, with a secondary line of reasoning discussing the role of large herbivores for the evolution and maintenance of dry tropical grasslands. Frost, however, has so far been widely neglected by researchers looking at the forest grassland dynamics in tropical landscapes. This is especially surprising since frost events reliably occur in the mid-altitudes of southern and south-central Africa. We will present evidence that frost acts as a strong environmental filter in Afrotropical suffrutex-grasslands of the Zambezian phytoregion. Data from western and central Angola show frequent frost events (up to > 0 frost nights p.a.) occurring in the dry season between mid-may and early September. Typically, night frosts start at about midnight and peak immediately before sunrise and result from thermal radiation during the cloud-free dry season. These repeated frost events cause topkill of woody plant species with their origins in the tropics, but are too short to penetrate the topsoil or dense grass tufts so that buds of suffrutices and meristematic tissues of grasses remain protected from critically low temperatures. While fires are frequent in the Angolan highlands, there is an astonishing lack of evidence for natural fires in the area and fire seasonality is inversely placed to potential natural ignition events. Similarly, landscape patterns in terms of natural forest-grassland distribution are inversely located to spatial logics of fire dominated landscapes, but correspond perfectly to drain lines (and thus frost distribution) of cold air in the hilly landscapes of the Angolan plateau. Since frost occurrence in the Angolan highlands is closely linked to the influx of cool dry air during the dry season, it can be assumed that frost events have been stronger, more frequent and further distributed during the cold periods of the quaternary (with lower global mean temperatures and generally drier atmospheric conditions). Functional traits of Afrotropical suffrutex-grassland biota which serve to avoid temperature stress are generally considered as fire traits but can similarly be regarded as evolutionary responses to frequent frost events rather than to sporadic natural fire events. TUESDAY 4:0

41 78 79 S04-O06 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS PURGATORIES REVEAL THE EFFECTS OF FIRE AND FROST ON GEOXYLIC SUFFRUTICES AND GRASSES IN SAVANNAS S04-O07 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS EFFECT OF FIRE REGIME ON THE GRASS COMMUNITY OF THE HUMID SAVANNA OF LAMTO (IVORY COAST) Paulina Zigelski, Manfred Finckh, Fernanda Lages Biozentrum Klein Flottbek, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, DE, ISCED Huíla Lubango, Lubango, AO Kouamé Fulgence Koffi,, Aya Brigitte N Dri, Jean-Christophe Lata, Souleymane Konaté, Tharaniya Srikanthasamy, Marcel Konan, Sébastien Barot Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR, fulkoffi@yahoo.fr Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, CI Recurrent fires are a characteristic feature of savannas and shape the pattern of grasslands and woodlands. The impact of fires on savanna trees is well studied; however, there has been less attention on aspects like the seasonal timing of fire or the dynamics of the open, grass covered parts of these ecosystems beyond their role for fuel loads. In many cases the seemingly grassy areas are intermingled with a diversity of shrubs or geoxylic suffrutices, resprouting readily after fire. The mixture of life forms with their different flammability influences fire intensities, patchiness and associated microclimatic conditions before and after burning. Thus, changing fire regimes (e.g. cessation of burning or different seasonal timing) will probably cause shifts in phenological development stages, species and life form composition, and vegetation structures. TUESDAY 4:45 Although fires occur ubiquitously in savannas, it is challenging to quantify the impact of fire (and effects of fire exclosures) on tropical grasslands. Nevertheless, such analyses are urgently needed to understand current and future effects of fire and subsequent changes in microclimate on tropical grassy biomes, particularly since growing human populations will increase the pressure on these ecosystems. Thus, in the dry season 07 we started a systematic burning experiment ( purgatory ) at two sites in Angolan suffrutex - grasslands allowing us to compare the effects of early and late season fires and fire exclusion on vegetation structure, subsequent differences in microclimatic conditions due to changes in vegetation height and cover, and species composition and performance. Here, we present first results comparing the responses of different grass and suffrutex species to the burning treatments. We show that burning triggers resprouting in both life forms, whereby resprouting of suffrutices is enhanced with increasing fire damage. Furthermore, solely woody species are affected by frost damages in these open habitats, irrespective of the burning treatment. While meristematic tissues of perennial grasses are well protected by dense tufts against night frost, fresh shoots of suffrutices are vulnerable to frost damage. Particularly when older shoots and grass cover have been burned away, early regrowth of woody species gets killed by late dry season frost. The persistence of humid savannas requires frequent fires. However, the impact of fire on perennial grass communities that constitute the main source of fuel is largely unknown. This study assesses the impact of four fire treatments after three years: early fire, midseason fire, late fire and no-fire treatment, on the grass communities of Lamto savanna, Ivory Coast. We described grass communities on replicated 5 m 5 m or 0 m 5 m plots of each fire treatment. There was a non-significant trend for lower densities and smaller tussocks in the late fire. Mid-season fire had the highest proportion of large tussocks (circumference above 50 cm) and holed tussocks (tussocks with an inner space deprived of tiller). All grass characteristics (density, circumference, proportion and probability of having holed tussocks) varied with the species. Andropogon canaliculatus and Hyparrhenia diplandra were the most abundant of the 9-grass species and had the largest tussocks and the highest proportion of holed tussocks. Brachiaria brachylopha, Hyparrhenia smithiana, Sorghastrum bipennatum and Schizachrinum platiphylum were the less abundant species, with the lowest proportion of holed tussocks and the smallest tussocks. Loudetia simplex was the third most abundant species but was very rare in no-fire plots. The distribution of tussock circumferences is right skewed and dominated by small tussocks. The proportion of holed tussocks strongly increases with tussock circumference which could lead to tussock fragmentation. Taken together, this study allows deriving preliminary hypotheses on the impact of fire on the demography of savanna grasses and their coexistence. TUESDAY 5:00 Merian Award Applicant

42 80 8 S04-O08 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS S04-O09 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS SEASONAL CHANGES IN FIRE BEHAVIOUR IN A HUMID SAVANNA OF WEST AFRICA ROLE OF THE BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF N CYCLE ON GRASS- TREES COMPETITION AND COEXISTENCE IN SAVANNAS Aya Brigitte N Dri Jean-Christophe Lata University Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, CI, ndri.brigitte@yahoo.fr Department Community Diversity & Ecosystem Functioning, iees-paris Laboratory Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR, jean-christophe.lata@upmc.fr Fire is important for the maintenance of African savanna ecosystems, particularly humid savanna. Despite the importance of fire behaviour to understand its ecological effects, few studies have documented fire behaviour and its determinants in humid West African savannas. TUESDAY 5:5 We analyzed fire behaviour in the Guinean savanna of Lamto (Ivory Coast) during a 4-year-field experiment. Nine 0.5 ha plots were burnt annually to determine the rate of spread and fire intensity. Fuel characteristics and weather conditions were measured to assess their impact on fire behaviour. The fire regimes tested only depended on the burning season: early (EF), mid-season (MF), and late (LF) fires. The productivity of African savannas can be as high as that of tropical forests while they are extremely constrained by fire, strong seasonality and low-nutrient soils. Twenty-five years of studies in African savannas showed that one plant strategy could partially explain this high productivity paradox. Perennial grasses (Poaceae) can inhibit nitrification through root-exuded molecules. By limiting nitrate production, these ecosystems are more conservative for nitrogen (N), being less prone to leaching/denitrification losses. This ability also likely explains the invasiveness of African Poaceae following their introduction for pasture in South America and Australia. TUESDAY 6:00 Over the 4 years, understory grass height, total fresh fuel load and its moisture contents had higher values in EF than in MF and LF. The rate of spread and intensity of MF (0.4 ± 0.0 m.s - and 90 ± 740 Kw.m - ) and LF (0. ± 0.0 m.s - and 4 ± 48 Kw.m - ) were significantly higher than those of EF (0.04 ± 0.0 m.s - and 46 ± 5 Kw.m - ). Fuel moisture content and air humidity were generally the best predictors of fire behaviour. Thus, the generally reported higher impact of late fires on trees is not due to a higher fire intensity in the studied West African humid savanna. We suggest that the impact of late fires is due to trees being in a more sensitive phenological stage, and to a longer time of exposure to lethal temperatures (> 60 C) at this season. These data provide important insights into fire behaviour in the Guinean savanna-forest mosaic ecoregion, informing fire management. Besides Poaceae, savannas also include trees and shrubs. Their coexistence often appears difficult to explain, as trees seem well able to exclude Poaceae through light or nutrient/ water competition. We suggest that one of the reasons for coexistence could be a functional niche divergence for N cycle control, leading to a -speed savanna functioning: Poaceae biologically inhibit nitrification and therefore contribute to close the N cycle, while trees stimulate it from mineralization to (de)nitrification, contributing to open the N cycle by producing more N O (GHG gas). Savannas provide worldwide important ecosystem services in regions of very high human population growth. Among the major global problems they are facing, increased CO, fire suppression and afforestation for C market will induce a functional shift of savannas towards a more open, less conservative N cycle under increasing woody cover. The promotion of increased N O emissions can potentially offset carbon gains stored by afforestation. In the future, it would be very important to compare different savanna types, and the respective impact of grasses and trees on the N cycle to predict the evolution of savannas submitted to global changes and the evolution of the services they provide, e.g. climate regulation and soil fertility for agriculture.

43 8 8 S04-O0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS S04-O SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS CONTRASTED EFFECTS OF GRASSES AND TREES ON MICROBIAL N-CYCLING IN AN AFRICAN HUMID SAVANNA DURING THE WET SEASON ANT ASSEMBLAGES IN A FOREST SAVANNAH MOSAIC IN THE COMOÉ NATIONAL PARK (IVORY COAST) Nils-Christian Schumacher, Erik T. Frank, Karl Eduard Linsenmair Tharaniya Srikanthasamy, Sébastien Barot, Brigitte Aya N Dri, Kevin Tambosco, Jean- Christophe Lata University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, DE, nils-christian.schumacher@stud-mail.uni-wuerzburg.de TUESDAY 6:5 Sorbonne Université-iEES-Paris, Paris, FR, tharaniya.srikanthasamy@upmc.fr African humid savannas are highly productive ecosystems where grasses and trees coexist despite very low soil fertility. Earlier results suggest that their high productivity is at least partially due to the ability of perennial tussock grasses to influence nitrogen (N) cycling and that trees likely have a contrasted influence on N cycling. Hence this study assessed the impact of savanna grass and tree species on soil nitrification processes and the underlying nitrifying archaeal and bacterial communities. During the long-wet season, we sampled soil in the Lamto savanna (Ivory Coast - West Africa) under the dominant perennial grass species (Hyparrhenia diplandra) the dominant tree species (Crossopteryx febrifuga) and in patches of soil without vegetation (hereafter bare soil patches). We combined measurements of the abundances of the functional genes (DNA) of nitrification (amoa) and the transcripts of these genes (RNA) nitrification enzyme activities (NEA) and soil physico-chemical characteristics. The NEA was higher under trees than under grasses and in bare soil patches, and was higher in these patches than under grasses. The abundance of ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) followed the same pattern whereas, for the transcript, no difference was found. The abundance of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was higher under grasses and trees than in bare soil patches, but their transcript was under the limit of detection. Our results suggest that grasses inhibit nitrification while trees stimulate nitrification. The differences between the abundances of the transcripts of AOA and AOB nitrifying genes suggest that AOA are strongly involved in nitrification in this savanna. Overall, these results suggest that grasses and trees create a strong heterogeneity in N cycling in the studied savanna. The underlying plant-soil feedbacks likely influence tree-grass dynamics. These feedbacks should be taken into account to predict savannas N budget and their emissions of N O at a time when savannas and the tree-grass equilibrium is threatened by many factors. Savannahs and forests cover most of tropical terrestrial landscapes. This ecosystem provides a high species richness and biodiversity. Biodiversity is strongly influenced by natural and anthropogenic habitat fragmentation. For this study, the West African Comoé National park was investigated for ant diversity, with savannah as surrounding matrix, a continuous gallery forest and forest islands as an example for natural fragmented habitat. Samples of ants in the leaf-litter, soil and tree trunk were taken by using Winkler traps, soil excavation and honey baits respectively with five sites in savannah and gallery forest and 6 sites in forest islands. In total 96 species from 5 genera were collected. While habitats did not differ in species richness, turnover in composition of ant assemblages between the different habitats was highly significant. Communities of the gallery forest and forest islands were more related to each other when compared to the savannah. Subterranean and tree trunk samples had a lower species richness over all habitats compared to the leaf litter. Likely impacts on different composition in ant assemblages are regular bush fires, solar radiation, temperature and humidity. Concerning habitat heterogeneity, our study suggests not a higher α-diversity for more complex habitats but β-diversity shows that habitats clearly differ in their ant community. For every habitat, indicator species could be detected. For land-use and park management in the Comoé National park all three habitats need to be conserved to preserve a high γ-diversity. Merian Award Applicant TUESDAY 6:0

44 84 85 S04-O SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS EFFECTS OF LAND USE PATTERN ON INVASIVE PLANT DIVERSITY IN GUINEAN SAVANNA ECOSYSTEMS OF TOGODO PROTECTED AREA, TOGO S04-O SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS BIODIVERSITY RESPONSE TO LAND USE IN THE AFRICAN SAVANNA WOODLANDS: IMPLICATIONS OF HETEROGENEITY BETWEEN LAND USE ACTIVITIES AND TAXONOMIC GROUPS Amah Akodewou,,, Johan Oszwald 4, Sêmihinva Ben Akpavi, Laurent Gazull, Koffi Akpagana, Valéry Gond AGROPARISTECH, Paris, FR, Hemant Tripathi, Casey Ryan, Catherine Parr Department of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK CIRAD, Montpellier, FR TUESDAY 6:45 Laboratoire de Botanique et Ecologie Végétale, Université de Lomé, Lomé, TG 4 Université Renne - UFR Sciences sociales, Rennes, FR Tropical natural ecosystems host a very diverse flora and fauna and are key ecosystems for global climate and biogeochemical regulation. Unfortunately, in West African landscapes, large areas of savanna and forest have been progressively replaced or fragmented by crops. These dynamics promote the spread of many invasive plants representing on the one hand, a real and growing threat for many conservation areas and on the other hand, a serious problem for agricultural production. Similarly, Togodo Protected Area, a crucial habitat for many vulnerable and endangered species in Togo, is submitted to important threats by human disturbance which promote the establishment and development of invasive plants. The eradication of invasive plants already established over a large area is rarely possible. Thus, understanding and predicting the invasive success of plants is one of the major concerns of the ecology of invasive plants. In order to evaluate the relations between current land use patterns and invasive plant diversity and abundance, first, a typology of landscape elements was defined based on the heterogeneity of the environment (forests, savannas, fallows, oil palm and teak plantations, crops). Then, in each identified landscape element, the dominant plant species have been identified. A total of botanical surveys including: 7 in crops, 4 in fallows, 7 in palm plantations, in teak plantations, 8 in savannas and 7 in forests. As results, 78 dominant plant species including (7.4 %) invasive or potentially invasive were recorded. In terms of diversity, fallows (5 species) and crops (5 species) contain more dominant invasive species, unlike teak plantations and forests dominated by only 4 and 5 species respectively. Among the most common dominant invasive species, Panicum maximum Jacq. and Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M.King & H.Rob. dominate all types of landscape elements while other species such as Acmella oleracea (L.) R.K.Jansen and Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq. dominate only one type of landscape element. Our results show that fallows are most susceptible to invasion and Panicum maximum Jacq. and Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M.King & H.Rob are the most invasive species in our site. This is fundamental for predicting the future and for the restoration of these very useful ecosystems for biodiversity as well as for the population of the area. Land use change and intensification is a leading cause of degradation and deforestation and, consequently, habitat modification and biodiversity loss across the globe. However, the understanding of global biodiversity-land use discourse is geographically and taxonomically biased and restricted to land use end-points (e.g. forest to cropland). In this study, therefore, we examined the effects of selective logging and agriculture expansion on trees and mammal communities in the savanna woodlands of southern Africa, an underrepresented ecosystem in the global biodiversity datasets. We used a single-season spatial comparison of two chronosequences, indicating a selective logging-led charcoal production and agriculture expansion-led fragmentation intensity gradient in the mopane and the miombo woodlands of Mozambique, respectively. We examined the individual species-level (occurrence) and community-level (alpha diversity - species richness, beta diversity - turnover and nestedness) responses of tree and mammal communities as function of land use intensity. With charcoal production intensity, the species richness reduced by % and 8.5 %, while in response to agriculture expansion, it declined by 4 % and 5 % for trees and mammals respectively. In addition, the species richness of trees underwent linear decline, while that of mammals showed non-linear response. With increasing charcoal production intensity, the species turnover of trees decreased (-9 %), whereas that of mammals increased (98 %). In case of agriculture expansion, the turnover of trees increased (5 %) and that of mammals declined (-7 %). This study shows that species richness primarily reduces in response to land use pressures. However, there are caveats - taxonomic heterogeneity in patterns of species richness, betadiversity and individual species responses should be taken in to consideration. Despite losing species, not all communities underwent a total biodiversity decline. Mammal communities in high intensity charcoal production and tree communities in response to agricultural expansion increased in beta diversity. This underlines that loss of species richness does not always lead to biotic homogenization and biodiversity response differs between taxonomic groups and land use activities. Merian Award Applicant TUESDAY 7:00 Merian Award Applicant

45 86 87 SESSION 05 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN RAIN FOREST BIODIVERSITY: CHALLENGES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH S05-O0 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS MULTIPLE SHIFTS TO OPEN HABITATS IN MELASTOMATEAE (MELASTOMATACEAE) CONGRUENT WITH THE INCREASE OF AFRICAN NEOGENE CLIMATIC ARIDITY Marie Claire Veranso-Libalah,, Gudrun Kadereit,, Robert D. Stone Stone, Thomas L.P. Couvreur 4 Chairs: Violaine NICOLAS-COLIN, Thomas COUVREUR Contact: vnicolas@mnhn.fr Institut für Molekulare und Organismische Evolutionsbiologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, DE, mario_clario@yahoo.ca Institut für Molekulare Physiologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, DE School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, ZA Tropical African rain forests are one of the most species rich biomes on the planet. Yet this diversity is threatened by ongoing climate change and human actions. Understanding the origin and diversification of this biome will play a key role in its conservation over time. It will be important to bring together data from both animals and plants, which all too often are not integrated. The growing body of biogeographic and macro-evolutionary studies focusing on tropical African forests, the generation of large DNA sequence datasets via NGS, the increasing availability of synthetic datasets of species distributions and molecular data, an increasingly sophisticated set of available predictor data (e.g. spatially explicit models of past climate) are now enabling us to adopt a comparative perspective on biodiversity evolution in the region. 4 IRD, DIADE, University Montpellier, Montpellier, FR TUESDAY The aim of this symposium will be to synthetize macro-evolutionary studies of both animal and plant African rain forest centered clades. The symposium will bring together earlycareer and established researchers working on African rain forest biodiversity in general. African Melastomateae (Melastomataceae) comprise c. 85 species occurring in both closed and open habitats including primary, secondary and gallery forests, humid and dry savannas, and woodlands. As such, Melastomateae present an opportunity to test hypotheses about the evolution of African vegetation in response to increased aridification. Based on an extensive sampling of New and Old World Melastomateae using two nuclear and three plastid markers we reconstructed the biogeographic and habitat history of the clade. In addition, we tested for shifts in diversification rates especially in relation to adaptation to new habitats. Divergence times were estimated in BEAST based on three calibration priors. Biogeographic history was reconstructed under a dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis model implemented in BioGeoBEARS. The ancestral habitat of African Melastomateae was estimated using maximum likelihood and stochastic character mapping approaches. Finally, shifts in diversification rates were identified using BAMM. Melastomateae dispersed from South America to Africa during the Late Oligocene (~8 Ma) with subsequent dispersals to Madagascar and SE Asia during the Middle and Late Miocene (~6 Ma and ~, Ma respectively). The ancestral African Melastomateae were adapted to closed habitats. At least shifts to open habitats were inferred mainly occurring during the Middle Miocene or Pliocene. BAMM analyses estimated a net diversification rate (r) of 0. species/ma (95 % quartile = ) for African Melastomateae. Speciation (λ) and net diversification rates (r) gradually increased during the Neogene with a sharper increase after 4 Ma. None of the habitat shifts led to a significant increase in diversification rates. Long-distance dispersal from South America during the Early Miocene explains the origin of African Melastomateae. The inferred adaptation to open habitats from an ancestrally closed habitat is congruent with the Neogene increase of aridity across Africa. Adaptation to open habitats during the Neogene is an important driver of African plant diversity, but is not always followed by increased diversification rates. TUESDAY 09:0

46 88 89 S05-O0 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS S05-O0 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS PHYLOGENETICS AND DIVERSIFICATION HISTORY OF AFRICAN RATTANS (CALAMOIDEAE, ANCISTROPHYLLINAE) FORESTS OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA - OVERLOOKED AND ENDANGERED CENTRE OF AFRICAN ENDEMISM Adama Faye, Jean-Christophe Pintaud, William J. Baker, Yves Vigouroux, Bonaventure Sonké, Thomas L.P. Couvreur,,4 Josef Bryja, Leonid A. Lavrenchenko, Radim Sumbera, Yonas Meheretu 4 Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, CZ, bryja@brno.cas.cz A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, RU Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, CZ Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, FR, adamafae@gmail.com Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK Département des Sciences Biologiques, Laboratoire de Botanique systématique et d Ecologie, Université de Yaoundé I, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Yaoundé, CM 4 Botany Section, Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Darwinweg, Leiden, NL 4 Department of Biology, Mekelle University, Mekelle, ET TUESDAY 09:45 Even though African Rain Forests (ARF) display high levels of local species diversity and endemism, they are known to contain fewer plant species than both the Neotropics and Asia. This disparity has been suggested as a result of important extinction events that occurred during the climatic history of Africa (Oligocene-Eocene and Pliocene periods). African palms display a marked lower species diversity when compared to the two other rain forest areas. Here, we used African rattans (subtribe: Ancistrophyllinae), one of the most diverse palms clades in Africa to test the impact of past mass extinction events on the evolution history of this clade. We reconstructed a nearcomplete, dated species-level phylogenetic tree for Ancistrophyllinae using plastid and nuclear markers. Ancistrophyllinae diversified during the Eocene with most species originating during the late Miocene after 0 Mya. This result is in agreement with several other studies suggesting a pre-pleistocene origin of the extant African flora. African rattans have undergone a constant diversification rate punctuated by one or several important extinction events during the first part of the Cenozoic with most species diversity accumulating during the late Miocene and Pliocene. These results highlight that the diversity of ARF has been affected mainly by ancient extinction events. Biodiversity of African rainforests has been intensively studied. This is especially true for geographically large-scaled Guineo-Congolian forests as well as for the geographically much more restricted montane forests of Eastern Africa (Albertine Rift, Kenyan Highlands, Eastern Arc Mountains, etc.), known for their very high level of endemism. On the other hand, there are relatively small isolated rainforests laying outside the main distribution of African forests (e.g. in Angola or Ethiopia), whose biodiversity and biogeographical relationships are understudied. In the frame of our biodiversity research of small terrestrial mammals in Eastern Africa, we collected new material from two most important forest areas in Ethiopia (Harena forest in Bale Mountains and forests in south-western part of the country) and analysed biogeographical relationships of local mammalian fauna using phylogenetic approaches. We found numerous endemic taxa living in this unique ecosystem - majority of them are specialized lineages within endemic Ethiopian clades, but there are also taxa, whose sister lineages are distributed either in montane forests of Eastern Africa or even in lowland forests in the Congo basin. Ethiopian forests can be thus considered as an additional center of African endemism requiring urgent conservation action, because of very rapid increase of human population and extremely high level of deforestation in the country. TUESDAY 0:00

47 90 9 S05-O04 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS S05-O05 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS RESPONSE OF AFROMONTANE FORESTS TO PAST ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES: NEW INSIGHTS FROM PODOCARPUS TREES USING GENOMIC TOOLS DIVERSIFICATION OF THE AFRICAN GENUS TREE BRACHYSTEGIA Arthur Boom, Jérémy Migliore, Dario Ojeda Alayon, Esra Kaymak, Pierre Meerts, Olivier J. Hardy Jérémy Migliore,, Anne-Marie Lézine, Olivier J. Hardy Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire d Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Paris, FR, jeremy.migliore@ulb.ac.be Université Libre de Bruxelles, Evolutionary Biology and Ecology (EBE), Brussels, BE Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, BE, arthboom@ulb.ac.be Department of Ecology and Genetics, Oulu University, Oulu, FI Past climatic fluctuations in Africa impacted dramatically the different biomes compositions and distribution in Africa and have probably played a role in the diversification of species trough different mechanisms. To understand how these climate variations contributed to the diversification of species and biomes shift, it is proposed here to take interest the African tree genus Brachystegia. This genus is represented in the tropical rainforest with seven species, but is also well represented in the so called miombo woodlands, with at least 0 species. Understanding the diversification of this genus can give us insight in the landscape evolution. TUESDAY 0:5 Afromontane forest is one of the most threatened habitat in Africa, referred to as the Afromontane archipelago, as their fragmented distribution above m elevation in the Tropics is analogous to a series of sky islands. Although some Afromontane enclaves are widely discontinuous, they share similar plant communities which are often distinct from the surrounding lowland regions and characterized by the Podocarpaceae conifers. According to palaeoecology, the story of these forests seems closely linked to Plio-Pleistocene climate oscillations with a maximum expansion of montane elements during phases of cool and dry conditions. However, the role of climate as motor of evolution of trees is difficult to assess, and there is still much uncertainty regarding the evolutionary imprints left by successive past forest fragmentation events on the diversification of Podocarpus populations. Phylogeography can thus be a key proxy to study the response of trees to past climate changes, since genetic lineages bear the signal of past range dynamics and population size fluctuations (e.g. population bottlenecks, expansion, and/or migration). The study here takes advantage of Illumina sequencing to obtain phylogenies () based on the full chloroplast sequence, and () based on several nuclear genes. The nuclear sequences are obtained with the use of already developed baits for Detarioideae, and target 8 nuclear genes for a total of 59, bp. Here, the consistency of the two preliminary phylogenies will be discussed. TUESDAY :00 Genomic data were developed using high throughput sequencing tools from both capture of chloroplast genomes and genotyping of nuclear DNA microsatellites on an extensive sampling, covering the patchily distribution of Podocarpus latifolius/milanjianus, in central and eastern Africa. The high level of polymorphism detected (400 SNPs along ca bp of plastomes) provides a detailed phylogeographical signal to infer the evolutionary history of populations. There is a clear genetic differentiation between central and eastern African mountain ranges, with key elements about potential migration corridors. However, we detect past extensive gene flows from Cameroon to Angola and from Kenya to Mozambique that could be used to track the response of vegetation belts to past climate changes, and to compare to palaeoecological reconstructions.

48 9 9 S05-O06 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS SMALL MAMMAL DIVERSIFICATION IN THE AFRICAN GUINEO-CONGOLIAN RAINFOREST: A COMPARATIVE PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC SURVEY S05-O07 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS PHYLOGENETIC PATTERNS OF DIVERSIFICATION ACROSS ECOLOGICAL NICHES IN THE AFRICAN TREE GENUS GUIBOURTIA Violaine Nicolas Museum National d Histoire Naturelle, UMR ISYEB 705, Paris, FR, violaine.colin@mnhn.fr Félicien Tosso, Jean-Louis Doucet, Kasso Daïnou, Adeline Fayolle, Alain Hambuckers, Charles Doumenge, Honoré Agbazahou, Piet Stoffelen 4, Olivier J. Hardy 5 TUESDAY :5 The African Guineo-Congolian rainforest constitutes the second largest block of rainforest on earth, and it hosts a remarkable biodiversity. Understanding the evolutionary processes responsible for this high species richness has fascinated biologists for decades and remains a highly debated topic today. Two main hypotheses for Pleistocene divergence have been proposed and adapted for Africa: Pleistocene forest refugia and riverine barriers. When interpreted through available palaeo-environmental frameworks, phylogeographical studies of habitat-specialist species are especially useful to test alternative hypotheses of diversification. Even more instructive are the comparisons of phylogeographical patterns in several species sharing the same biogeographical regions. In this talk we review recent phylogeographical studies focusing on terrestrial small mammal (rodents and shrews) species inhabiting the lowland African rainforest. This review shows that both Pleistocene forest refugia and riverine barriers explain diversification across a variety of taxa, and that small differences between sibling species in habitat requirements can lead to completely different phylogeographic patterns. This review also highlights the limitations of previous studies, and which kind of studies should now be conduct to further test alternative diversification hypotheses. Central African Forests, TERRA Teaching and Research Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, BE, dnftosso@uliege.be UR SPHERES, Behavioral Biology, University of Liege, Liège, BE Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Montpellier, FR 4 Herbarium, Botanic Garden Meise, Meise, BE 5 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Unit, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, BE Adaptive evolution is thought to be a major driver of organism diversification but the link between phenotypic traits and environmental niche remains little documented in tropical trees. Moreover, the respective roles of phylogenetic inertia and convergent evolution in shaping environmental niche and phenotypic trait similarity among related plant taxa is not well understood. Indeed, a correlation between species traits and species environmental niche among a sample of species may result from () convergent evolution if different environmental conditions have selected different sets of traits, or () phylogenetic inertia if niche and morphological differences between species are simply function of their phylogenetic divergence, in which case the trait-niche correlation does not imply any direct causal link. The aim of this study is to understand the relationships between environmental niche divergence and morphological divergence among congeneric species while accounting for phylogenetic inertia. This issue was addressed with the timber tree genus Guibourtia Benn. (Leguminosae, Detarioideae) which contains African species occupying various forest habitat types, from rain forest to dry woodlands, with different climate and soil conditions. To this end, we combined morphological data with recent ecological niche modelling and used a highly resolved plastid phylogeny of the African Guibourtia species. First, we demonstrated phylogenetic signals in both morphological traits (Mantel test between phylogenetic and morphological distances between species: r = 0.4, p = 0.0) and environmental niches (Mantel test between phylogenetic and niche distances between species: r = 0., p = 0.05). Second, we found a significant correlation between morphology and niche, at least between some of their respective dimensions (Mantel s r = 0., p = 0.0), even after accounting for phylogenetic inertia (Phylogenetic Independent Contrast: r = 0.69, p = 0.08). This correlation occurred between some leaflet and flower traits and solar radiation, relative humidity, precipitations and temperature range. Our results demonstrate the convergent evolution of some morphological traits in response to climatic factors in congeneric tree species and highlight the action of selective forces, along with neutral ones, in shaping the divergence between tropical plants. TUESDAY :0

49 94 95 S05-O08 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF A LEAF-LITTER FROG REVEALS THE HISTORY OF THE LOWER GUINEA AND CONGO RAINFORESTS Vaclav Gvozdik,, Matej Dolinay,, Daniel M. Portik 4,5, Zoltan T. Nagy 6,7, Eli Greenbaum 8, Jos Kielgast 9, Gabriel Badjedjea Babangenge 0, David C. Blackburn, Breda M. Zimkus, Mark-Oliver Rödel 7, Michael F. Barej 7, Ange-G. Zassi-Boulou, Rayna C. Bell 4, Matthew K. Fujita 4, Adam D. Leaché 5 south-western Congo forests. We detected fine-scale phylogeographic structuring in most of the main lineages, which comprise up to 7 lineages. A genome-wide SNP dataset partly supports the mitochondrial structure, however, with some mitochondrial lineages evaluated as representing panmictic populations as based on detected gene flows, likely upon secondary contacts of populations expanding from forest refugia. Department of Zoology, National Museum, Prague, CZ, vaclav.gvozdik@gmail.com Institute of Vertebrate Biology, CAS, Brno, CZ Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Brno, CZ 4 Department of Biology, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, US TUESDAY :45 5 Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Arizona, Tucson, US 6 Joint Experimental Molecular Unit, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, BE 7 Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, DE 8 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, US 9 Department of Biology, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, DK 0 Department of Ecology and Aquatic Biodiversity Resources, Biodiversity Monitoring Centre, University of Kisangani, Kisangani, CD Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, US Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, US National Research Institute of Exact and Natural Sciences, Brazzaville, CG 4 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, US 5 Department of Biology and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, US Selecting an appropriate model species can also provide insights into the history of the ecosystem inhabited by the species. We have studied a lowland rainforest leaf-litter frog from Central Africa, Phrynobatrachus auritus, to infer its evolutionary history and the history of the Congolian and Lower Guinean forests using mitochondrial and genome-wide DNA sequence data. Unexpectedly high number of geographically restricted mitochondrial lineages have been detected, suggesting existence of numerous forest refugia during climatically drier periods when the rainforests were fragmented. The highest genetic variation was detected in () the central Congo Basin south of the Congo River with the identification of several divergent lineages, suggesting the importance of this area as a diversification center. Further major phylogeographic units were detected in () the northern and eastern Congo Basin, () north-western Congo Basin and northern Gabon, (4) Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests, (5) coastal Gabon, and (6) southern Gabon/

50 96 97 SESSION 06 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS: NEW INSIGHTS AND NEW CHALLENGES S06-O0 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS LONG-TERM MULTI-SITE ACOUSTIC MONITORING OF BIODIVERSITY IN THE AMAZON UNDER PROJECT PROVIDENCE Monika Kosecka,, Serge Zaugg,, Mike van der Schaar,, Emiliano Ramalho, Michel Andre, Chairs: Jérôme SUEUR, Alice C. HUGHES, Patrick A. JANSEN Contact: Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB), Technical University of Catalonia, Vilanova i la Geltru, Barcelona, ES, monika.kosecka@upc.edu The Sense of Silence Foundation, Vilanova i la Geltru, Barcelona, ES Monitoring animal diversity is a key challenge of tropical ecology, as getting reliable information on species ecology in a standardised manner across space and time is challenging. Furthermore, the rarity of some species and challenging landscapes and ecosystems can make direct observations and captures difficult. Yet understanding species distributions, their populations and their movements and the communities or landscape they belong to is essential information to not only understand their ecology bit also to ensure they are adequately protected into the future. Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá, Bairro Fonte Boa, Tefé, BR TUESDAY However, recent non-invasive techniques based on audio and video autonomous sensors open the possibility to sample tropical environments over large areas and long-time periods in a consistent and reliable manner. Such digital data acquired remotely and automatically returns valuable information on animal behaviour, animal distribution, animal community composition, and even landscape structure. In this session, we will report the most recent finding in terms of audio and video monitoring and discuss about the possible challenges in terms of data collection, sampling design, supervised and unsupervised automatic identification of species, and ecological indices. We will also show that these data can be used as an attractive media to raise public awareness about tropical diversity and conservation. We will aim to conclude the session with a presentation of the integration of these different types of techniques to obtain a holistic understanding of the potential of these technologies. Project Providence is an international collaboration between the Mamirauá Institute of Sustainable Development (Coordinator, Brazil), The Sense of Silence Foundation (Spain), the Federal University of Amazonas (Brazil) and CSIRO (Australia) that is developing automated animal detection sensors, called Providence nodes, to monitor biodiversity under the canopy of the Amazon forest in real-time and at an unprecedented scale. Traditional wildlife survey methods, e.g. transect sampling or camera traps, are inefficient in detecting most tropical species and are both expensive and complex to deploy over large areas and long-time spans. Providence nodes will permanently detect and classify species automatically through acoustic and visual sensors. The nodes will be radio linked, making use of WiFi, LoRa, or satellite communication. Providence is planned in three phases, which will see the deployment of an increasing number of data collecting stations. Providence phase is currently underway and it aims at demonstrating the viability of the project by deploying ten nodes as a proof of concept in the Várzea Floodplain Forests of Central Amazonia. The second phase will extend the number of nodes to a hundred, covering over million hectares inside the Mamirauá reserve. The final third phase will oversee the deployment of over a thousand Providence nodes throughout the whole Amazon forest. The Providence bioacoustics approach is taking advantage of LIDO ( com), a real-time data analysis system that was initially developed for ocean acoustic applications by the LAB. The LIDO system allows automatic detection of acoustically active species on Providence nodes and in phase it is expected to be able to classify approximately 0 species, including birds, bats, dolphins, frogs, primates, cats, and other mammals. The automated real-time processing of audio streams is based on machine learning methods while the post-processing to obtain the final time-series (e.g. per-species presence indicators) is based on statistical methods that account for prediction errors. Taken jointly, these indicators inform on acoustically active species composition at a fine temporal scale and can be formally combined to provide biodiversity indices. TUESDAY 4:0 The project is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

51 98 99 S06-O0 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS S06-O0 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS REMOTE SENSING FOR LARGE SCALE BIRD MONITORING IN TROPICAL FORESTS Hervé Glotin,, Hervé Goeau, Willem-Pier Vellinga 4, Robert Planque 4, Marie Trone,5, Alexis ACOUSTIC MONITORING OF RESPLENDENT QUETZAL PHAROMACHRUS MOCINNO, A FLAGSHIP BIRD SPECIES OF GUATEMALA Joly 6,7 Pablo Bolanos,, Thierry Aubin, Jérôme Sueur Aix Marseille Université, Université de Toulon, CNRS, ENSAM, LIS UMR CNRS, Toulon, FR, Museum National d Histoire Naturelle, Paris, FR, pablo.bolanos@edu.mnhn.fr glotin@univ-tln.fr CNRS, Paris, FR BRILAAM STICAmSud, France, Perú, Chile, Iquitos, PE TUESDAY 4:45 IRD, UMR AMAP, Montpellier, FR 4 Xeno-Canto Foundation, NL 5 Valencia College, Kissimmee, US 6 Inria ZENITH team, Montpellier, FR 7 LIRMM, Montpellier, FR Monitoring the faunal biodiversity of tropical rainforests is critical to evaluating their resiliency to global changes. Visual assessments of species are challenging due to the cryptic behavioral repertoires and camouflaging patterns exhibited by many species, as well as the visually impairing forest vegetation. Auditory estimations are complicated by a single species producing an assortment of calls under varying conditions. Moreover, soundscapes are composed of multiple species. We report on the synergistic application of soundscape audio recording techniques, human birder expertise, and deep learning machine learning algorithms developed during the international BirdCLEF 07 challenge. Previous BirdCLEF challenges used rainforest short soundscape recordings made in Colombia in conjunction with known bird calls collected via the crowd sourced website, Xeno-Canto, to aid in the development of species identification algorithms. New audio recordings were made by our team by placing 4 microphones (sample rate 96 khz, 4-bit) 5 meters above the ground in an undeveloped region of the Peruvian Amazon near the Napo River in 06 and 07. Subsequently, these recordings were annotated by a professional bird guide who indicated the sex of the caller and its behavioral significance. These recordings were then used in the BirdCLEF 07 machine learning challenge, with the goal of improving automated counts of rainforest species based upon real remote auditory sensing. New algorithms were developed to solve these soundscape recordings resulting in improved mean average precision rates as depicted in lifeclef/07/bird. Details of the variety of the models and results are shown, demonstrating the rapid increase of the accuracy of the model even for 500 species, but still in need of some improvements for complex soundscape tasks. The Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno is a neotropical bird included in the IUCN red list of threatened species. This bird is an important seed disperser and is the center of the past and present Mayan culture. The observation of P. mocinno is challenging due to its rarity and its elusive behaviour. Moreover, its cultural importance precludes capture and manipulation. The number of individuals is unknown, in part due to a lack of a reliable monitoring method. In order to track the remaining populations for appropriate conservation, we developed an acoustic method using autonomous recorders and machine learning technics. We first recorded sounds with six autonomous recorders positioned in a protected area in Guatemala during February 06 and 07. We conducted propagation experiments of vocalizations of P. mocinno in its habitat, the cloud forest, to measure the detection range of the recorders. We also determined the composition of the bird community occurring in the same frequency range, and identified the vocalizations of other species that could generate false positive detections. We developed an automatic detection system using cross correlation that was assessed with manual identifications in a ground truth dataset. The results indicate that acoustics is an effective method to track the populations of P. mocinno in the fields. This non-invasive method can be easily applied to other Guatemala populations and other countries. Such monitoring data should clarify ecological questions to support management decisions. TUESDAY 5:00 We thank Explorama Lodges, CONAPAC & STICAmSud for their support.

52 00 0 S06-O04 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS ASSESSING AMAZON RIVER DOLPHIN (INIA GEOFFRENSIS / SOTALIA FLUVIATILIS) POPULATIONS ACOUSTICALLY AND VISUALLY S06-O05 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS PASSIVE ACOUSTICS REVEALS VOCAL DYNAMICS OF CORAL REEF COMMUNITIES IN MOOREA ISLAND AND FAKARAVA ATOLL, FRENCH POLYNESIA Marie Trone,,, David Bonnett,,4, Gerald Blakefield,,4, Valentin Gies,5,6,7, Valentin Barchasz,5,6,7, Julie Patris,,6,8, Randall Balestriero,6,9, Pascale Giraudet,6,8, Franck Malige,6,8, Hervé Glotin,6,7,8 Frédéric Bertucci,, Noémie Jublier, Katy Maratrat, Laurent Ballesta, David Lecchini,4, Eric Parmentier Valencia College, Kissimmee, US, mtrone@valenciacollege.edu Conservacion de la Naturaleza Amazonica del Peru, A.C., Iquitos, PE BRILAAM STICAmSud, France, Perú, Chile, Iquitos, PE 4 Engineer, retired, Seattle, US 5 Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, IMNP UMR, Marseille, FR Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l Environnement, USR78, Moorea, PF, fred.bertucci@gmail.com Laboratoire de Morphologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Liège, BE Andromède Océanologie, Carnon-Plage, FR 4 Laboratoire d Excellence «CORAIL», Paris, FR 6 EADM MADICS CNRS, Marseille, FR TUESDAY 5:5 7 SMIOT, Université de Toulon, Toulon, FR 8 Aix Marseille Université, Université de Toulon, CNRS, ENSAM, LSIS UMR 796, Marseille, FR 9 Rice University, Houston, US Two species of dolphins (Inia geoffrensis / Sotalia fluviatilis) inhabit the Amazon River watershed. These populations are difficult to visually assess due to the opaque waters and flooded forests in which they live, as well as the morphology and behavior exhibited by these unique aquatic mammals. As a result, both species are listed as data deficient by the IUCN. Thus, these dolphins lack endangered species status and consequently international protection, despite increasing anthropogenic threats. Our research team has been working to develop robust methods to assess river dolphin populations using visually-supplemented, acoustical methods. Underwater portable arrays housing between 4 and 7 hydrophones have been used in conjunction with a high capacity digital analog converter, JASON DAQ ( JASON DAQ is capable of sampling at MHz on 4 channels simultaneously to assess dolphin positions relative to the array using time delay of arrivals of the dolphin acoustical signals. These data are supplemented with simultaneous video recordings, and sightings are documented using customized code on a tablet. Furthermore, side scan sonar has been occasionally used to obtain collateral data regarding dolphin size and relative position. Data have been collected in the Peruvian Amazon using these techniques from 04 to 07. Based upon a subset of our data, 5 differing methods of acoustically counting dolphins have been ascertained. In addition, dolphin acoustic frequencies as high as 00 khz have been documented. Finally, twin inverted pulses are commonly recorded, as well as frequency-modulated clicks. Possible explanations for these findings are suggested. Limitations of this work are discussed, as well as avenues for future research. Although passive acoustics have allowed to identify and follow the calling activity of many species, only few studies address sound production within an entire community, and on a long term basis. We investigated sound production within two coral reef ichthyologic communities in French Polynesia by using automated audio recorders in Moorea Island and Fakarava atoll. We identified a total of 8 and 57 different types of sounds respectively. Some calls dominated during day-time while others did it during nighttime. Acoustic features of co-occurring sound types significantly differed at the spectral level, optimizing communication within a biologically rich and dense environment. The combination of nycthemeral activity and specialization in the use of the frequency spectrum has already been reported in insects, frogs, birds or mammals but rarely in fishes. In addition, site specific differences in acoustic activity were observed and may be linked to seasonal changes. Overall, these results illustrate the diversity of sounds in coral reefs and further demonstrate the potential of passive acoustics to monitor biodiversity and its possible implication in management strategies. However, while the acquisition of such dataset is now easy, the development of tools such as automatic detection algorithms and appropriate indices to rapidly assess diversity are needed to speed-up the analysis of longer term surveys. TUESDAY 6:00 We thank Explorama Lodges, CONAPAC, STICAmSud, & Dolphin Communication Project for their financial support.

53 0 0 S06-O06 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS S06-O07 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS PREDICTING BIRD SPECIES RICHNESS IN TROPICAL DRY FORESTS USING ACOUSTICS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF EXPLOSIVE BREEDING AMPHIBIAN COMMUNITIES REVEALED BY REMOTE SENSORS Branko Hilje, Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa Juan Sebastian Ulloa,, Thierry Aubin, Diego Llusia,, Philippe Gaucher, Antoine Fouquet, Élodie Courtois, Jérôme Sueur Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, CA, hiljerod@ualberta.ca Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB UMR 705 CNRS-MNHN- EPHE, Muséum national d Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR, juan.ulloa@mnhn.fr Equipe Communications Acoustiques, UMR 997 Neuro-PSI-CNRS, Université Paris Sud, Orsay, FR Laboratoire Ecologie, Evolution, Interactions des Systèmes Amazoniens, USR 456 CNRS, Université TUESDAY 6:5 Birds are highly sensitive to habitat transformation caused by human activities such as logging, cattle ranching, and agriculture, and species that inhabit forests are particularly affected by land use change. In tropical forests, vegetation structure and floristic species composition are two important predictors of bird species richness and diversity. As a result, older forests provide a greater structural complexity than young forests due to a higher availability of perches for singing and displays during the breeding season, more nesting and roosting sites, a greater protection from predators, and more stable microclimatic conditions. On the other hand, the floristic composition is important for fruit and seed-eating bird species. Tropical dry forests (TDFs) in the neotropics hold a high diversity of flora and fauna, and several species of birds have distribution ranges restricted to this ecosystem. However, TDFs are highly threatened by human activities and most of its original extension has been converted to other land uses. Nevertheless, some countries have experienced dry forest recovery in the past decades due to changes in their economies and conservation policies, that is the case of Costa Rica, which has the largest protected TDF in Central America. The TDF there is a mix of old growth forest with forests from different successional stages that recovered mostly from cattle ranching activities in the past. Few studies have evaluated bird species richness in TDFs and they are focused on landscape characteristics at a broad scale. In this study, we evaluated the influence of forest structure on bird species richness at a fine scale in dry forests in Costa Rica. We used acoustic recording techniques for bird species richness data collection, identification, and analysis. We used the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI) as well as manual bird identification to obtain information on acoustic and species richness. We demonstrated that acoustics are reliable techniques for predicting bird species richness in TDFs. We generated hot zones maps for bird species richness and avian acoustic complexity based on dry forest structural characteristics. Hot zones maps are important tools for predicting bird species richness in dry forests in Costa Rica, but they can also be implemented at a larger scale for the neotropical dry forests extent. They can be useful instruments for bird species conservation efforts in dry forests throughout the neotropics. de Guyane, Cayenne, GY Amphibian communities are endangered by several threats, including habitat loss, diseases and pollution. These threats are even more pronounced for communities which breed in limitedresource areas during an extremely brief period. This is the case of neotropical explosive breeding species which adult populations emerge massively in small ponds for only a few days. These populations constitute very peculiar communities that need to be accurately monitored and studied for appropriate conservation planning. Using automated remote sensors, we collected for the first time acoustic and environmental data simultaneously and regularly in five ponds during four months in French Guiana. We assessed changes in the acoustics of the communities before and during explosive breeding events and confronted these changes with environmental variables. During the survey period we detected in each pond two explosive breeding events lasting between 4 and 70 hours. Rain of the 48 preceding hours was identified as the most important abiotic factor predicting the emergence of these events. Even if a common pool of species co-occurred in the different sites, the sites presented high diversity within and between explosive breeding communities. The frequency dispersion and the acoustic diversity of the explosive breeding communities were lower than those of the communities preceding the explosive breeding events. The diversity and spatiotemporal dynamics of these communities seem therefore to be unique and call for their preservation. The use of acoustic sensors appears as a suitable method for tracking explosive breeding species and might offer new possibilities to support future conservation decisions. TUESDAY 6:0 Merian Award Applicant

54 04 05 S06-O08 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS DOCUMENTING SPECIES RICHNESS AND ACOUSTIC ACTIVITY PATTERNS FROM SOUNDSCAPES IN A TROPICAL BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT, SULAWESI, INDONESIA S06-O09 ACOUSTIC SURVEY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS 8-YEARS OF RESEARCH ON THE NEW CALEDONIAN ACOUSTIC COMMUNITIES: SUMMARY AND PERSPECTIVES FOR BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION Karen Rowe,, Mohammad Irham,4, Tri Haryoko,4 Amandine Gasc,, Jérôme Sueur, Jeremy Anso 4, Laure Desutter-Grandcolas, Hervé Jourdan 4 Museums Victoria, Melbourne, AU, karowe@museum.vic.gov.au University of Melbourne, Parkville, AU Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Bogor, ID 4 Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Bogor, ID Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Marseille, FR, amandine.gasc@ird.fr Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d Ecologie marine et continentale, Aix-en-Provence, FR Museum National d Histoire Naturelle, Paris, FR 4 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Nouméa, NC The Indonesian Archipelago, which includes more than 7,000 TUESDAY 6:45 islands, is one of the most biodiversity-rich and unique tropical regions in the world. In particular, Sulawesi is the largest island within the Wallacean Biodiversity Hotspot, representing a unique blend of Asian-origin, Australian-origin, and endemic species. Yet rapid, landscape-scale habitat loss, land conversion, and expanding human populations threaten the long-term persistence of wildlife within Sulawesi and Indonesia more generally. Understanding the scale of these threats is challenging, in part due to gaps in our knowledge of the distributional dynamics of species along ecological gradients as well as the geologically and topographically complexity of the Indonesian landscape. Autonomous audio recorders provide a low-cost opportunity to gather spatially and temporally comprehensive data on the presence of individual species. Furthermore, the recorded soundscapes can provide information on species diversity, through the calculation of acoustic biodiversity indices, which can ultimately aid in our understanding of shifting patterns of biodiversity in the face of change. We explored the use of audio recorders and acoustic indices to document patterns of biodiversity across a species richness gradient (elevation) on multiple mountain ranges within Sulawesi. Specifically, we discuss how well acoustic biodiversity indices matched observational records for birds as species richness declined with elevation. We also document the diurnal and spatial patterns of acoustic activity (frogs, birds, and insects) both within and among sites. Our results suggest that documenting species via soundscape analyses can provide novel insights into our understanding of shifting biodiversity patterns, as well as highlighting the benefits and challenges of acoustic monitoring within species-rich and acoustically complex communities. Understanding the composition and dynamics of animal communities is of high importance for tropical conservation. Tropical acoustic communities could be monitored and analysed thanks to autonomous field recorders and appropriate analytic methods. We conducted a long-term research on acoustic communities in New Caledonia based on the collection of environmental recordings, the inventory of the biological sounds recorded, and the calculation of acoustic diversity indices. Results showed a clear diel pattern in acoustic activity with higher values at night, a detectable acoustic signature for animal communities differing in composition, and a gradual change in acoustic composition overnight. Focusing on crickets, the results also demonstrated a clear dominance of this group in the New Caledonian nocturnal soundscapes. Each habitat harbored a specific acoustic cricket community related to specific environmental attributes including vegetation height, daily variation of humidity and temperature. The presence of W. auropunctata, an invasive ant, was significantly associated with a lower cricket acoustic activity and species richness at night. Of the 9-species of crickets detected, four nocturnal species were identified as indicator of non-invaded forests and preforests. Similar conclusions have been found through fast calculation of acoustic diversity indices. This work supports the use of acoustic in monitoring large protected area as an alternative method to detect disturbances such as invasion by exotic species. TUESDAY 7:00

55 06 07 SESSION 07 S07-O0 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE UAS IDENTIFICATION OF SCALE AND PATTERNS OF LIANA INFESTATION IN TROPICAL FORESTS, MALAYSIA BIODIVERSITY IN THE TREETOPS: NOVEL METHODS TO EXPLORE CANOPY ECOLOGY Catherine Waite, Richard Field, Geertje van der Heijden, Doreen S. Boyd University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, Chairs: Julian DONALD, Louise ASHTON Contact: TUESDAY Rainforest canopies are one of the most diverse habitats on the planet, providing a home to a large number of plant and animal species adapted to the unique conditions found at the top of the trees. The role of the canopy as an interface between the earth s vegetation and the atmosphere means that this habitat is also critically important in influencing global climate, carbon and nitrogen cycles. Whilst scientific studies of these ecosystems are increasing as a result of advances in canopy access techniques, they nonetheless remain difficult environments within which to perform scientific research. In this session, we aim to discuss how novel tools can help us to elucidate the patterns and processes which characterise these unique habitats, in order to better understand their functioning when faced with the twin threats of habitat destruction and climate change. Across the world s tropical forests, recent increases in woody vine (liana) abundance is dramatically altering carbon dynamics: reducing carbon accumulation and long-term storage by enhancing tree mortality and reducing growth by up to 84 %. Also, lianas rely on trees for support, and therefore allocate a higher proportion of biomass to foliage production over carbon-dense stems, reducing net above-ground carbon uptake by ~76 %/year. This has important impacts for climate change but, despite this, lianas are chronically understudied in tropical forest ground-based censuses due to the time-consuming nature of surveying them. Satellite and airborne mapping and monitoring studies have occurred, but are limited by relatively coarse spatial and temporal resolutions, cloud obscuration, and high costs. Resultantly, data is lacking on the scale and impacts of recent liana proliferation. UAS imaging may provide an affordable, accessible tool to map and monitor lianas at higher spatial and temporal resolutions than possible with ground-based censuses, while overcoming the limitations associated with airborne and satellite techniques. TUESDAY 09:0 Combining UAS and ground-based censuses in two areas of Malaysian tropical forest, this research investigates whether liana load (estimated as % crown cover) can be accurately distinguished using UAS imagery. It aims to assess the viability of UASs as tools for mapping and monitoring lianas in tropical forests, while providing information on the extent and spatial patterning of liana infestation. The ability to repeatedly and accurately map lianas is crucial for analysing and quantifying their effects on forest function, and helps uncover mechanisms behind their proliferation, as a continued increase may further reduce tropical forest carbon storage and sequestration, endangering the future of the tropical carbon sink. Preliminary results indicate strong, positive correlations (R ranging from 0.7 to 0.9, n = 0). Merian Award Applicant

56 08 09 S07-O0 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE S07-O0 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE DIFFERENCES IN LEAF TEMPERATURE BETWEEN LIANAS AND TREES AT THE CANOPY OF A LOWLAND TROPICAL FOREST TREE ARCHITECTURE AND WIND-INDUCED SWAY Tobias Jackson, Alexander Shenkin, Andy Burt, Mat Disney, Kim Calders, Yadvinder Malhi J. Antonio Guzmán Q., G. Arturo Sánchez-Azofeifa, Benoit Rivard Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, tobias.jackson@ouce.ox.ac.uk Department of Geography, University College London, London, UK Center for Earth Observation Sciences, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University CAVElab Computational & Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, BE of Alberta, Edmonton, CA, antguz06@gmail.com The motion of trees in the wind is intricately linked with the architecture of tree crowns. Recent advances in terrestrial laser scanning allows us to map the D structure of trees at the plotscale for the first time. These D model trees allow us to extract architectural measures such as mean branching angle and angular asymmetry of the crown, which were previously impossible to measure in large or medium-sized trees. We exploit these advances to explore the shapes and patterns found in tree crowns and what they may tell us about mechanical constraints on tree growth and competition between neighbouring crowns. TUESDAY 09:45 Leaf temperature (Tleaf) is one of the leading factors that can affect the physiological processes on leaves such as photosynthesis and respiration. Currently, there is a growing interest in including lianas in productivity models due to their increasing abundance and their detrimental effects on net primary productivity in tropical environments. Therefore, understanding the differences of Tleaf between lianas and trees is important for future of forest on whole ecosystem productivity. Here we hypothesize that the presence of lianas affects the displayed leaf temperature (Td = Tleaf - ambient temperature) of their host trees, and leaves of lianas and their host trees exhibit differences in Td. These hypotheses were addressed measuring the Tleaf of several species of lianas and their host trees canopy of the Parque Natural Metropolitano, Panama. The estimations of Td were conducted during wet and dry seasons in ENSO and non-enso years using thermal cameras and local meteorological stations. Our results suggest that close to midday, the presence of lianas does not affect the Td of their host trees; however, lianas tend to have higher values of Td than their hosts across seasons, in both ENSO and non-enso years. Although lianas and trees tend to have a similar physiological-temperature response, our models suggest that differences in Td could lead to significant differences in the estimation of photosynthesis and respiration. Therefore, future models should thus consider differences in leaf temperature between these life forms in order to achieve robust predictions of productivity. In the second part of this work, we extract the resonant frequencies of trees using a finite element approach. This fundamental frequency determines how the tree will respond to wind forcing and therefore how likely it is to suffer wind damage. The arrangement of higher order resonant frequencies within a tree can contribute significantly to its overall damping efficiency. This arrangement of higher order resonant frequencies is determined by crown architecture, meaning that some trees can dissipate dangerous sway energy more efficiently due to their architecture. We quantify this relationship between resonant frequencies and crown architecture using multivariate analysis, and explore its implications for canopy science. TUESDAY 0:00 Merian Award Applicant

57 0 S07-O04 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE S07-O05 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM RECORDING BATS IN THE PERUVIAN RAINFOREST CANOPY 5 METERS ABOVE THE FOREST FLOOR AUTOMATED ECOSYSTEM MONITORING IN THE CANOPY Sarab Sethi, Robert Ewers, Nick Jones, Lorenzo Picinali Marie Trone,,, Valentin Gies,4,5,6,7, Valentin Barchasz,4,5,6, Pascale Giraudet,5,7, Hervé Glotin,5,6,7 Imperial College London, London, UK, s.sethi6@imperial.ac.uk Valencia College, Kissimmee, US, mtrone@valenciacollege.edu Conservacion de la Naturaleza Amazonica del Peru, A.C., Iquitos, PE BRILAAM STICAmSud, France, Perú, Chile, Iquitos, PE 4 Aix Marseille Université, Université de Toulon, CNRS, IMNP UMR, Marseille, FR 5 EADM MADICS CNRS, Marseille, FR 6 SMIOT, Université de Toulon, Toulon, FR Automated methods of monitoring ecosystems provide a costeffective way to track changes in natural system s dynamics across temporal and spatial scales. Whilst much work has been done on automated analyses, methods of recording and storing data captured from the field still require significant manual effort. TUESDAY 0:5 7 Aix Marseille Université, Université de Toulon, CNRS, ENSAM, LSIS UMR 796, Marseille, FR Rainforest canopies have been described as the last biological frontier on the planet due to the difficulty of accessing this diverse habitat. The vertical stratification of bat populations from the ground to above the canopy of any forest type has been little investigated. Here, we introduce an open source, inexpensive, fully autonomous ecosystem monitoring unit for capturing and remotely transmitting huge amounts of data from field sites over long time-periods. Due to the unique challenges of deploying technology in the extreme environmental conditions of the tropical rainforests of Borneo, we mount the devices in the canopy. Having surveyed the existing methods, we show how our system can outperform comparable technologies for fractions of the cost. TUESDAY :00 In July of 06 and 07 bats were recorded in the Peruvian Amazon at various heights above the rainforest floor up to 5 meters, via platforms secured to trees in an undeveloped patch of rainforest near the Napo River. Recordings were made an hour before sunset, at midnight, and an hour before sunrise on various nights. A pyramidal array consisting of 4 microphones sensitive to 50 khz were directed upwards away from the forest floor during recordings. This array was connected to a high capacity digital analog converter, JASON DAQ ( JASON DAQ is capable of sampling at MHz on 4 channels simultaneously, although the bats were sampled at 500 khz. We have deployed a network of acoustic monitoring units across a fragmentation experiment (SAFE) located in Sabah, Borneo, which should provide continuous metrics of biome health over the course of a year. Using the same hardware design, we also have installed long duration time lapse cameras high in the canopy to capture a birds eye view of the process of converting logged forest to oil palm. We provide full details of the hardware s potential capabilities, our network deployed at SAFE, and insights into the challenges faced whilst installing networks of monitors across a varying landscape. Paired with appropriate automated analysis techniques, this system could provide spatially dense, near real-time, continuous insights into ecosystem and biodiversity dynamics for a low cost. The data from these high-frequency recordings allow for the reconstruction of bat flight paths and flight speed analyses, as well as enhancing bat behavioral studies. Bats were detected using this system. Limitations and future applications of this system are discussed. For example, bioacoustical data can be assessed in conjunction with automated climatic sensors positioned in the same locations. We thank Explorama Lodges, CONAPAC & STICAmSud for their financial support.

58 S07-O06 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE S07-O07 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE VERTICAL STRATIFICATION OF TROPICAL ANT ASSEMBLAGES: DO GROUND ANTS RESTRICT THE FORAGING DISTRIBUTION OF ARBOREAL ANTS? THE ROLE OF INVERTEBRATES AND MICRO-ORGANISMS IN FACILITATING NUTRIENT CYCLING IN THE CANOPY Julian Donald Stephanie Law, Kate Parr, Dr Matthew Spencer, Dr Paul Eggleton University of the West of England Bristol / Evolution et Diversité Biologique, Toulouse, FR, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, stephanie.law@liverpool.ac.uk Natural History Museum, London, UK julesdonald@gmail.com Suspended soils provide a key source of nutrients in rainforest canopies, and as such are home to a diverse community of plants, invertebrates and microorganisms. Understanding how these communities of organisms can coexist is challenging, in particular at the top of trees. TUESDAY :5 In tropical rainforests ants dominate arthropod fauna in their ecological impact, diversity and abundance. Primary tropical rainforest is vertically stratified into the forest floor, understory and canopy. A growing body of research has shown that the distribution of ant species in tropical rainforest corresponds with this vertical stratification. Ants are abundant in all strata yet species distributions between ground and canopy ants show little overlap, with many species occupying only one strata. Community structure of ants within a stratum has been explained by habitat complexity, associated microhabitat specialisations and by competitive interactions. However, reasons behind the existence of vertical stratification and differences between strata are less comprehensive. This research aims to look at how removing competitive interactions influences vertical stratification. We quantified the contribution that ground foraging ants have on the vertical stratification of ant species above the ground. We investigated this using a novel, largescale manipulative field experiment in an old growth tropical rainforest in Malaysian Borneo where ground ants had been suppressed in treatment plots. By eliminating a whole assemblage of ants and the associated competitive interactions the degree to which it influences the composition of other ant assemblages can be determined. In order to survey vertically, baited traps were placed at 5 m vertical intervals from the ground to the canopy on emergent trees in each experimental plot (4 ant suppression and 4 control plots). Species richness, ant abundance and assemblage composition were compared between suppression and control plots. Suppression of ground ants significantly impacted ant abundance and species richness in the canopy. This talk will present a manipulative experiment performed in the canopies of Danum Valley in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. By using the bird s nest fern (Asplenium nidus) as a natural microcosm, and tracing enriched isotopes through this system, the work presented here sheds new light on the role of invertebrates in facilitating decomposition, and influencing microbial activity far from the forest floor. This presentation will demonstrate how laboratory sorting of invertebrates, extraction of microorganisms, and tracing of isotopically enriched carbon revealed trends in the interactions between different constituents of rainforest canopy decomposer communities. TUESDAY :0

59 4 5 SESSION 08 LINKING ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF TROPICAL TREE BIODIVERSITY Chairs: Joeri Sergej STRIJK, Damien Daniel HINSINGER Contact: jsstrijk@gxu.edu.cn TUESDAY Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution - Theodosius Dobzhansky (97). The interactions between Ecology and Evolution are widely recognized in explaining patterns of biodiversity (e.g. biogeography), but evolutionary forces are also more and more demonstrated as a driving process influencing ecology of species (e.g. through niche shifts or conservatism, hybridization, etc.) (Eiserhardt et al. 07). Conversely, Ecology informs Evolutionary studies and allows to delineate complex patterns (e.g. Silva et al. 06). Currently, most ecological studies consider evolutionary relationships as a noise parameter, and therefore many models simply remove it to estimate ecological traits or parameters. In others, only relatively short-term evolution, e.g. since the last maximal glaciation, are considered. However, especially in long-living plants, larger temporal scales can usually better reflect the ecosystems assemblages than only recolonization patterns (Yu et al. 07), or identify past events of hybridizations (e.g. Hinsinger et al. 04), making phylogenetic and phylogenomic tools especially valuable in combination with ecological data. References cited: Eiserhardt W. L., Couvreur T. L. P., Baker W. J. (07). Plant phylogeny as a window on the evolution of hyperdiversity in the tropical rainforest biome. New Phytologist, doi: 0./ nph.456 Hinsinger D., Gaudeul M., Couloux A., Bousquet J., Frascaria-Lacoste N. (04). The phylogeography of Eurasian Fraxinus species reveals ancient transcontinental reticulation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 77: -7. doi:0.06/j.ympev Silva I. A., Sfair J. C., van Melis J., Weiser V. L., Martins F. R. (06). Does phylogeny have a role in the liana-phorophyte interaction in tropical forests?. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics,, 4-. Yu X.-Q., Gao L.-M., Soltis D. E., Soltis P. S., Yang J.-B., Fang L., Yang S.-X., Li D.-Z. (07). Insights into the historical assembly of East Asian subtropical evergreen broadleaved forests revealed by the temporal history of the tea family. New Phytologist, 5: doi:0./nph.468 Tropical biodiversity is among the highest on emerged lands, characterized by a great heterogeneity supporting diverse and complex ecosystems as well as providing ecological services for one third of the world s population. However, both Ecology and Evolution of these ecosystems remain poorly known. Studies of speciose tropical taxonomic groups are hampered by extensive geographic ranges, lack of diagnostic morphological characters and limited success of traditional molecular markers. This is visible in the fragmented knowledge on the evolutionary history, genetic diversity and ecological functioning of widespread, key plant families of tropical ecosystems. We aim at highlighting the major contribution evolutionary studies can provide for ecologist, and to help new ideas and methods to studies the interaction between Ecology and Evolution in tropical ecosystems.

60 6 7 S08-O0 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION S08-O0 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION TEMPERATE GOING (SUB)TROPICAL: RETICULATED ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION IN FIRS (ABIES, PINACEAE) FROM CENTRAL MEXICO NON-TROPICAL LEGACIES ON SOUTH AMERICAN BIOGEOGRAPHY Ricardo Segovia, Kyle Dexter Juan P Jaramillo-Correa, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Luis E. Eguiarte, Jorge Cruz-Nicolás, Eréndira González, Gustavo I. Giles-Pérez, Norberto Martínez-Méndez, Erika Aguirre-Planter School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, segoviacortes@gmail.com TUESDAY 4:0 Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Ecology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, MX, jaramillo@ecologia.unam.mx Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad, Mexico City, MX Tropical trees embody an evolutionary dichotomy: they are outcrossing long-lived taxa with a predominant position on the ecosystem, which favours the retention of ancestral polymorphisms and evolutionary stasis; but they also evolve in highly heterogeneous environments that prompt isolation by distance, and disruptive selection, which facilitates species divergence. We studied this dichotomy on a temperate genus Abies (firs), which in North America spanned into tropical latitudes ~5 Ma and then underwent a relatively rapid diversification. While most modern populations are secluded into the highlands (~000 m asl), firs can grow as low as,500 m asl in the western parts of the Transmexican Volcanic Belt (TVB; central Mexico), which implies a role for adaptive divergence. By concentrating on the A. religiosa - A. flincki - A. jaliscana complex, distributed along the TVB, we first compared environmental and phenotypic variation. Models suggested that populations on the eastern (A. religiosa) and western (A. flincki - A. jaliscana) parts of the TVB had different niches. Eastern stands also had shorter and thicker needles than the western ones, and this variation was correlated with the mean annual temperature (r = 0.57; P = 0.59; A. religiosa and A. flincki) started some ~ Ma, while several cycles of contractions and expansions (with secondary contact in the central TVB) shaped the more recent stands. Tests for selection provided further evidence of adaptive divergence, particularly for two genes within the clade leading to A. flincki. Since their arrival in the tropics, firs have been evolving through a continuum process in which adaptation, genetic drift and introgression act across various temporal and spatial scales, blurring traditional taxonomic boundaries. Recent studies have shown unexpected relationships between clade age and diversity along latitudinal and elevational gradients in tropical and temperate South America. In addition, more phylogenetic diversity than expected given species richness has been documented for temperate forests and high elevation forests in the tropical Andes. These evidences likely reflect the influence of an ancient, rich and extratropical palaeoflora of Gondwanan ancestry on South American biogeography. In this study, we explore the phylogenetic consequences of historical processes shaping the modern composition of communities in relatively cold environments of South America. We hypothesize that modern assemblages in these environments are formed by a mix between tropical lineages that have recently evolved cold tolerance and an early differentiated extratropical biota, with lineages preadapted to non-tropical environments. Our approach is based on quantifying lineage diversity (LD), measured as the standardised effect size of phylogenetic diversity, of >5000 tree communities distributed across the continent. If communities from modern temperate and high elevation environments include both old extratropical lineages and recently arrived descendants from tropical lineages, LD should be higher than in the tropical lowlands, which would only have tropical lineages. This would be opposite to the pattern expected from species richness, which is highest in tropical lowlands. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the historical biogeography of South America, including the influence of extratropical lineages, to explaining present-day patterns in the distribution of evolutionary diversity across the continent. TUESDAY 4:45

61 8 9 S08-O0 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION PARALLEL RADIATIONS IN NEOTROPICAL ANNONACEAE TRACK NEOGENE UPHEAVAL OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENT Lars Chatrou, Paul Maas, Rutger Wilschut, Heleen Melchers-Sharrott 4, Michael Pirie 5 Wageningen University, Biosystematics group, Wageningen, NL, lars.chatrou@wur.nl Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, NL Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, NL 4 Omgevingsdienst Haaglanden, The Hague, NL 5 Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Institut für Spezielle Botanik und Botanischer Garten, Mainz, DE S08-O04 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF TROPICAL TREE SPECIES COMPLEXES: SPECIES DELIMITATION AND ADAPTIVE GENETIC VARIATION IN THE BERTHOLLETIA CLADE (LECYTHIDACEAE) Myriam Heuertz, Quentin Jehanne, Katharina B. Budde, Henri Caron,, Niklas Tysklind, Caroline Scotti-Saintagne, Erwan Guichoux 4, Jean-François Molino 5, Daniel Sabatier 5, Veronica El Mutjar 6, Alain Franc, Pauline Garnier-Géré, Stéphanie Mariette INRA, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, FR, myriam.heuertz@inra.fr INRA, Kourou, FR INRA, Avignon, FR Much of the immense present day biological diversity of Neotropical rainforests originated from the Miocene onwards, a period of geological and ecological upheaval in South America. We assess the impact of the Andean orogeny, drainage of lake Pebas, and closure of the Panama Isthmus on two clades of tropical trees (Cremastosperma, c. spp.; and Mosannona, c. 4 spp.; both Annonaceae). TUESDAY 5:00 Phylogenetic inference revealed similar patterns of geographically restricted clades and molecular dating showed diversifications in the different areas occurred in parallel, with timing consistent with Andean vicariance and Central American geodispersal. Ecological niche modelling approaches show phylogenetically conserved niche differentiation, particularly within Cremastosperma. Niche similarity and recent common ancestry of Amazon and Guianan Mosannona species contrasts with dissimilar niches and more distant ancestry of Amazon, Venezuelan and Guianan species of Cremastosperma suggesting that this element of the similar patterns of disjunct distributions in the two genera is instead a biogeographic parallelism, with differing origins. The results provide further independent evidence for the importance of the Andean orogeny, the drainage of Lake Pebas, and the formation of links between South and Central America in the evolutionary history of Neotropical lowland rainforest trees. 4 Plateforme Genome Transcriptome Bordeaux, Bordeaux, FR 5 UMR AMAP, Montpellier, FR 6 INTA, San Carlos de Bariloche, AR Tropical tree species complexes harbour closely related species that display shared alleles and that are difficult to delimit using phylogenetic approaches. Such species complexes arise when lineage sorting is slow due to large effective population sizes typical in trees, when diversification is accompanied by interspecific gene flow, or due to a combination of both processes. The concerned species are often difficult to distinguish morphologically due to high phenotypic trait variation. The large intraspecific variation typical of tree species complexes promotes adaptive processes, suggesting that species complexes are important in the diversification of tropical tree biodiversity. The evolutionary histories of these systems remain however poorly understood. We here investigated the evolutionary history of tropical tree species complexes by examining the phylogeny and population genetic processes in sympatric taxa of the Bertholletia clade (Brazil nut clade, Lecythidaceae) in French Guiana. We sampled 9 individuals belonging to 6 tree species of the Bertholletia clade and sequenced them at nine plastid, eight mitochondrial and 4 putative nuclear loci derived from double-digest restriction site associated DNA sequencing (ddrad-seq). Phylogenetic methods recovered the expected large sub-clades within the Bertholletia clade, but genetic clustering methods were needed to delimit species within these clades. Some common species such as Eschweilera coriacea, harboured several sympatric gene pools, indicative of hitherto undescribed cryptic species. Outlier detection methods revealed that few single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were strongly diverged among gene pools, whereas a significant portion of SNPs was more shared than expected a priori in sympatric populations. The local pattern of allele sharing pointed to hybridization, rather than incomplete lineage sorting. Taken together, our results suggest that hybridization is important for adaptive evolution in tropical tree species complexes. TUESDAY 5:5

62 0 S08-O05 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION NEW HYDRAULIC TRAITS FOR CHARACTERIZING DROUGHT RESISTANCE IN NEOTROPICAL CANOPY TREES AND LIANAS Louis Santiago,, Mark De Guzman, Aleyda Acosta-Rangel University of California, Riverside, US, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PA S08-O06 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS IN TWO AFRICAN CEDRELOIDEAE GENERA (MELIACEAE) REVEAL MULTIPLE RAIN/DRY FOREST TRANSITIONS Franck Monthe, Jérôme Duminil, Gael Bouka,4, Jérémy Migliore, Boris Demenou, Marius Ekué 5, Charles Doumenge, Doyle Mckey 6, Bernd Degen 7, Olivier J. Hardy Université Libre de Bruxelles, Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Bruxelles, BE, Recent drought events throughout the tropics have caused elevated mortality and new tools are needed to predict responses of tropical trees to future drought. However, predicting drought responses of tropical trees is complicated by high species diversity and relatively little available data. We measured hydraulic conductivity, xylem vulnerability curves, sapwood pressure-volume curves, and wood density on emergent branches of 5 common liana and tree species from French Guiana and Panama. Our measurements were stratified across a broad range of wood density. Our main objective was to understand how coordinated hydraulic traits lead to drought resistance strategies. TUESDAY 6:00 Hydraulic conductivity was related to capacitance, sapwood water content and turgor loss point, and other drought avoidance traits, but not to xylem cavitation resistance. Wood density was correlated with sapwood pressure-volume traits, forming an axis of hydraulic strategy variation. We show for the first time that Amazonian and Central American liana and tree species vary along an axis of hydraulic strategy variation determined by wood density, hydraulic conductivity, capacitance and turgor loss point. This stands in contrast to findings in many other vegetation types that show hydraulic strategy variation along the cavitation resistance versus hydraulic conductivity trade-off. The lack of this tradeoff among the Neotropical trees and lianas in this study supports the idea of diminishing selection on xylem cavitation resistance as moisture availability increases. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, FR CIRAD, Unité Forêts et Sociétés, Campus international de Baillarguet, Montpellier, FR 4 Laboratoire de Botanique et écologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville, CG 5 Bioversity International, s/c IITA, BP 008, Yaoundé, CM 6 Université Montpellier, Centre d Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, UMR CNRS 575, Montpellier, FR 7 Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics, Grosshansdorf, DE Establishing phylogenetic relationships allows investigating how species diversity has evolved in various ecosystems. The genera Entandrophragma and Khaya contain tree species distributed in different African biomes (lowland rain forest, lowland dry forest, mountain forest), allowing to examine how (single or multiple events) and when the processes of diversification led to biome transitions. Based on the sequencing of plastid genome (pdna: c. 60,000 bp) and ribosomal DNA (rdna: c. 7,000 bp) and habitat characteristic data for each species, we have: () reconstructed phylogenetic relationships between species and estimated the dates of divergence between the main lineages, and () reconstructed ancestral states regarding biome preferences. The globally consistent phylogenetic tree topologies obtained with both markers in Entandrophragma show five main clades that are quite consistent with previously-defined sections based on reproductive characters of flowers. By contrast, in Khaya, pdna and rdna show divergent topologies, possibly due to a more recent diversification involving incomplete lineage sorting and/or recurrent hybridization events. Two major periods of diversification were highlighted: one for Entandrophragma species during the Oligo- Miocene, and a second, during the Pleistocene, concerned both genera at the intraspecific level for Entandrophragma and at the interspecific level for Khaya. These different diversification periods coincide with three major biomes shifts in Entandrophragma. The first habitat transition from rain to dry forests occurred during the Oligo-Miocene and two other transitions were inferred during the Pleistocene, one from rain forest to dry forest and another from rain forest to high altitude mountain forest. TUESDAY 6:5

63 S08-O07 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION S08-O08 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION SPECIES DELIMITATION, HYBRIDIZATION AND SPECIES HABITAT ASSOCIATIONS IN THE GENUS SYMPHONIA (CLUSIACEAE) ON MADAGASCAR GLOBAL PATTERNS IN PALM ABUNDANCE Robert Muscarella, Thaise Emilio, Henrik Balslev Katharina B. Budde, Sanna Olsson, Paloma Torroba-Balmori, Santiago C. González-Martínez, João Loureiro, Stéphan Rakotonandrasana 4, Andriamalala Rakotondrafara 4, Isabel Sanmartín 5, Myriam Heuertz Aarhus University, Aarhus, DK, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, UK Palms (Arecaceae) are an iconic and diverse group that provide myriad ecosystem services in tropical forests. For example, palms account for 7 of the top 0 hyperdominant tree species of the Amazon. While previous work has examined global patterns of palm diversity, we currently lack a quantitative global analysis of palm abundance patterns. Given the many morphological and physiological differences between palms and dicotyledonous trees, the responses of these groups to environmental change drivers are likely to differ. As a result, a better understanding of palm dominance will help identify knowledge gaps and ultimately improve the predictive ability of global vegetation models. TUESDAY 6:0 INRA/ Université de Bordeaux, Cestas, FR, katharina-birgit.budde@u-bordeaux.fr INIA Forest Research Centre, Madrid, ES University of Coimbra, University of Coimbra, Center of Functional Ecology (CFE), Coimbra, PT 4 CNARP, Department of Ethnobotany and Botany, Antananarivo, MG 5 Real Jardín Botánico-CSIC, Plant Evolutionary Biology, Madrid, ES Tropical rainforest tree genera often comprise multiple closelyrelated species occurring in sympatry but the genetic mechanisms that explain such sympatric coexistence are poorly understood. Inter-specific hybridization has been proposed as a key mechanism in the maintenance of highly diverse communities, potentially retarding the (local) extinction of rare species and also allowing the sharing of beneficial genetic variants across species borders. The genus Symphonia (Clusiaceae) diversified on Madagascar, where ca. 0 endemic species have largely overlapping ranges. Symphonia species are difficult to distinguish morphologically because of trait variation within species, poorly defined species boundaries and scarcity of discriminant characters for species delimitation. We set out to test the role of hybridization in shaping patterns of genetic variation and species delimitation of the genus Symphonia in Madagascar. We sampled over 400 trees from three regions in eastern Madagascar, where hybridization among multiple species of the genus is expected to take place, genotyped them at 0 nuclear SSRs (nussrs), as well as sequenced the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region in a representative subsample. A phylogeny was built from ITS sequences and we used genetic clustering approaches on blind samples (i.e., without using morphology) for taxon delimitation using nussrs. We then examined the spatial distribution of genetic clusters and assessed the hybridization history of the genus in Madagascar. We discovered three major gene pools in Symphonia, which were sub-structured into minor gene pools that could be assigned to potential species. Gene pools occurred frequently in sympatry, suggesting a role of hybridization in maintaining high genetic diversity in the genus. Flow cytometry and nussr scoring identified three tetraploid and ten diploid species. Clustering analysis was congruent with morphological characters in S. clusioides, S. eugenioides, S. microphylla, and S. nectarifera, but did not support other described taxa such as S. fasciculata, S. sessiliflora and S. louvelii. Overall, we found evidence for hybridization and introgression between multiple species and a habitatspecific distribution of sympatric clusters in several locations. Using a dataset of >,000 globally-tropical forest plots distributed, we quantified () relative abundance of arborescent palms versus dicot trees across regional, continental, and global scales, and () how relative abundance of arborescent palms is related to abiotic variables. We show that arborescent palm abundance is extremely lower in the African and Asian tropics compared to Neotropical sites. We then examined spatial variation in palm abundance considering evolutionary, biogeographical, and ecological hypotheses, and use statistical models to examine relationships between palm abundance and plot-level environmental covariates. We introduce some novel hypotheses regarding the dominance of the arborescent palm life form in the New World. Merian Award Applicant TUESDAY 6:45

64 4 5 SESSION 09 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY Chairs: Catherine REEB, Eric GUILBERT Contact: catherine.reeb@mnhn.fr S09-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY THE DRIVERS OF DIVERSIFICATION IN NEOTROPICAL MIMETIC CLEARWING BUTTERFLIES Marianne Elias, Nicolas Chazot,, Melanie McClure, Florence Prunier, André Freitas, Keith Willmott 4 Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (CNRS, MNHN), Paris, FR, elias@mnhn.fr University of Lund, Lund, SE University of Campinas, Campinas, BR 4 University of Gainesville, Gainesville, FR TUESDAY Ithomiine butterflies (Nymphalidae: Ithomiini), also known as clearwing butterflies because of the partially transparent wings of most species, form a highly diverse tribe of ca. 90 species that occupy neotropical forests. All species have chemical defenses and are engaged in Müllerian mimicry: co-occurring species converge in wing colour pattern, thereby advertising predators of their unpalatability. TUESDAY 09:0 We generated a dated species-level phylogeny of the entire tribe to investigate temporal and spatial patterns of speciation and extinction, and to assess the role of geological and ecological factors in the diversification of the group. We found that the geological dynamics of the Andean and upper Amazon regions had a considerable impact on the diversification of ithomiine butterflies during the Miocene, when the upper Amazon became flooded with water (Pebas system). The Pebas system likely triggered extinctions in lowland lineages, while the concomitant rise of the Andes promoted speciation in montane lineages, which form a highly diverse clade, the coregroup (80 % of ithomiine extant species). The retreat of the Pebas during the late Miocene then further promoted speciation in the core group, via the colonization of newly available lowland habitats. A closer examination of ecological factors shows that shifts in altitudinal niche and mimicry pattern have driven speciation in the core group, but such shifts remain relatively rare. Patterns of diversity-dependent speciation also suggest that several genera in the core-group have undergone adaptive radiation, perhaps driven by larval hostplant shifts. The role of other traits, such as wing transparency, is currently being investigated. The combination of a highly dynamic geological history with intrinsic ecological traits have therefore largely contributed to the diversity of ithomiine butterflies.

65 6 7 S09-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY S09-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY LEAF TRAITS MEDIATE CHANGES IN INSECT HERBIVORY ALONG BROAD ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENTS ON MT. KILIMANJARO, TANZANIA IMPACT OF THE LEAF-CUTTING ANT ATTA OPACICEPS ON PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION ALONG A GRADIENT OF FOREST COVER IN THE CAATINGA DRY TROPICAL FOREST Henry K. Njovu,, Marcell K. Peters, David Schellenberger Costa, Roland Brandl 4, Michael Kleyer, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter Clarissa Mendes Knoechelmann, Felipe Fernando Siqueira, Rainer Wirth, Inara Leal Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Wuerzburg, Am Hubland, Wuerzburg, DE, hnjovu@mwekawildlife.ac.tz College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka, Moshi, TZ Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, DE 4 Department of Ecology, Animal Ecology, University of Marburg, Marburg, DE University of Kaiserslautern, Plant Ecology and Systematics, Kaiserslautern, DE, cmk_bio@yahoo.com.br Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Departamento de Botânica, Recife, BR TUESDAY 09:45 Climate, primary productivity, and plant functional traits are key predictors of leaf herbivory but their direct and indirect contributions to community-level herbivory are not well understood along broad climatic gradients. Here we analyzed patterns and drivers of insect leaf herbivory in plant communities along extensive elevational and land use gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We estimated standing leaf herbivory, climate, net primary productivity (NPP) and plant leaf traits (specific leaf area, CN and NP ratios) on 55 study sites in natural and anthropogenic habitats along a 060 m elevation gradient on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Leaf herbivory ranged from 5 % to.5 % and showed a unimodal pattern in natural habitats but a strongly contrasting bimodal pattern in anthropogenic habitats. Path analyses suggest that the variation in leaf herbivory was driven by changes in leaf CN and NP ratios which were closely linked to changes in NPP. Our study elucidates the strong role of leaf nutrient stoichiometry and its linkages to climate and energy for explaining the variation in leaf herbivory along broad climatic gradients. Furthermore, the study suggests that climatic changes and nutrient inputs in the course of global change may alter leaf herbivory and consequently energy and nutrient fluxes in terrestrial habitats. The Brazilian Caatinga is a dry tropical forest with pronounced seasonality, vast areas of which are subjected to high levels of habitat loss in combination with livestock production, timber harvesting, and extensive firewood collection. In the ecological context of human-modified landscapes dominated by communities of earlysuccessional plants, generalist herbivores commonly proliferate, such as leaf-cutting ants. Recently, we have demonstrated that leaf-cutting ants also benefit drastically from anthropogenic disturbances in the Caatinga. However, while it is well known that these ants negatively affect seedling recruitment in rainforests and savannas, their impacts on dry forest regeneration has been completely neglected. This study aims to investigate how plant recruitment and community composition is affected by leaf-cutting ants along a gradient of forest cover in the Catimbau National Park in Buíque, PE, Brazil. For this, we chose fifteen nests of Atta opaciceps located in landscapes with forest cover ranging from 8.7 % to 87 %. For each nest, three sampling areas were established: () nest mound, () foraging area, i.e., the area where ants were foraging in the night before data collection, and () control area, established 0 m away from the foraging area. The communities of vascular plants < m height were recorded at -month intervals using four randomly placed -m plots in each sampling area. We found that foraging areas were most species rich (4 species across 85 individuals), followed by nest mounds (5 species, 547 individuals) and control area ( species, 46 individuals). Overall, the most represented families were Malvaceae (0.6 %), Euphorbiaceae (8.8 %), and Convolvulaceae (8.5 %), thus resembling the Caatinga dry forest in general. The results indicate that leaf-cutting ants may act as biotic filters that influence forest regeneration via herbivory and ecosystem engineering as demonstrated for rain forests. Ongoing research activities will address the temporal dynamics of ant impacts on community assembly and explore both the importance of forest cover and the potential role of these ants for the successional trajectory experienced by human-modified Caatinga. TUESDAY 0:00 (Edital Universal-CNPq, PELD-CNPq, APQ-FACEPE, PRONEX-FACEPE, PROBRAL CAPES-DAAD)

66 8 9 S09-O04 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY S09-O05 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY MYRMECOVORIE IN NEOTROPICAL PRIMATES Nadja Isabel Risch Ferreira, Eckhard W. Heymann (speaker) FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY OF AMAZONIAN BAT ASSEMBLAGES FOLLOWING SECONDARY FOREST SUCCESSION Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Göttingen, DE, eheyman@gwdg.de Fábio Z. Farneda,,, Ricardo Rocha,,4, Adrià López-Baucells,,5, Erica M. Sampaio 6, Jorge M. Palmeirim,, Paulo E. D. Bobrowiec, Carlos E. V. Grelle, Christoph F. J. Meyer (speaker),,7 Ants represent a large proportion of the invertebrate biomass in Amazonian forests and are preyed upon by a broad spectrum of vertebrates, mainly specialized birds (various families) and the anteaters (Myrmecophagidae), but also by opportunistic predators like primates. Here we review the relevance of ants in the diet of Neotropical primates (Platyrrhini). Predation on ants has been reported from 5 out of 04 species, representing 7 of the 9 genera from all five families of extant platyrrhines. The proportion of ants in the prey of Neotropical primates ranges from < % to almost 70 %, with a non-linear relation between primate body mass and the proportion of ants in the prey. It is highest in medium-sized (~-4 kg), but low in small and large platyrrhines. Members from genera of ants (representing 7 subfamilies of Formicidae) are preyed upon by primates, including tree-living and terrestrial ants that are mainly social foragers, and genera with and without chemical defence. While myrmecovorie by Neotropical primates is unlikely to exert any selective pressures on ants, it may be a significant source of protein for several primate species. TUESDAY 0:5 Department of Ecology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, BR Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, National Institute for Amazonian Research and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Manaus, BR Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, PT 4 Metapopulation Research Centre, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FI 5 Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences, Granollers, ES 6 Department of Animal Physiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, DE 7 School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, UK, c.f.j.meyer@salford.ac.uk Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, followed by land abandonment. Despite the importance of regenerating secondary forests for tropical biodiversity conservation, studies of temporal effects of matrix regeneration on species responses in fragmented landscapes are scarce. Here, we used an Amazonian wholeecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how changes in matrix quality over time through secondary forest regeneration affect bat assemblages from a functional perspective. TUESDAY :00 We found that forest regeneration in the matrix positively affected functional α diversity, as well as species- and community-level functional uniqueness, reflecting an increase of species that perform different ecological functions in secondary forest over time. According to functional trait composition, animalivorous species showed the clearest signs of recovery associated with matrix regeneration. Consequently, between-period differences in functional β-diversity were highest in secondary forest compared to fragments and continuous forest, determined mainly by trait gains. However, ~0 years of secondary forest regeneration were not sufficient for the functional recovery of bat assemblages to levels observed in continuous forest. Restoring degraded habitats while protecting primary forest will be an important strategy for safeguarding high functional diversity of bats and their vital contributions to ecosystem functioning in fragmented tropical landscapes.

67 0 S09-O06 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY S09-O07 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS VARIATIONS OF AFZELIA AFRICANA SM. IN RELATION TO CLIMATIC CONDITION AND IMPLICATION FOR SPECIES CONSERVATION IN BENIN CONSERVATION PLANNING FOR TROPICAL FRESHWATERS THROUGH A GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR FRESHWATER LIFE Kenneth Irvine, William Darwall, Anthony I. Dell, Sonja Jähnig 4, Jonathan M. Jeschke 4, Michael T. Monaghan 4, Olaf Weyl 5 Thierry Houehanou,,, Kathleen Prinz 4, Frank Hellwig 4, Achille Assogbadjo,, Jens Gebauer 5, Romain Glele Kakaï IHE Delft, Delft, NL, k.irvine@un-ihe.org IUCN, Cambridge, UK National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC), Washington, US 4 Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin, DE 5 South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown, ZA Laboratory of Ecology, Botany and Plant Biology; Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, Parakou, BJ, thierryhouehanou@gmail.com Laboratory of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Abomey Calavi, Abomey Calavi, BJ Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d Estimations Forestières, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d Abomey Calavi, Abomey Calavi, BJ 4 Institute for Ecology and Evolution, Department for Systematic Botany with Hausknecht Herbarium and Botanical Garden, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, DE 5 Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems with Special Focus on Horticulture, Faculty of Life Sciences, Rhine- Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kleve, DE TUESDAY :5 Morphogenetic variation assessment across population species ranges is known to benefit selecting of superior populations and individual tree and motivate also conservation concerns. Thus, this study aims to () assess how far extent morphological traits of the threatened tree species A. africana are mediated by climate condition and () highlight which climatic variables interact with morphological traits. Twelve morphological traits based on fruits, seeds, and leaves were assessed across three different climatic conditions in Benin: wetter, transitional and drier areas. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess the effect of climatic gradient and the climatic variables that drive the morphological traits. Results showed that wetter area had greater values of fruit length, width, thickness and weight; higher values of seed length, thickness and weight; and higher values of leaflet length and width. In contrast, it held a lower value of seed rate of fruit. Bioclimatic variables such as isothermality, the minimum temperature of coldest month, the mean temperature of wettest quarter, the precipitation of driest month and the mean monthly temperature range were the potential drivers of length, width, thickness, weight, total seeds weight and the seed rate of fruit as well as length and weight of seeds. These variations of morphological traits suppose an adaptation to the environmental condition or a phenotypic plasticity for A. africana and are important insights to guide management and conservation of A. africana populations in the different climatic condition in Benin. Future investigations on molecular analyses should reveal variation in gene pools over the different climatic conditions and will precise later the more plausible hypothesis. Preservation of tropical aquatic biodiversity requires better understanding of ecosystems and governance structures. Tropical aquatic ecosystems are species rich, with high numbers of endemics, and under increasing pressure from human activities. A more concerted effort towards aquatic conservation requires addressing a number of key topics, including: better documenting and understanding tropical aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; identifying and communicating critical regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services; better coordination across institutional structures to build capacity of decision makers that can work together for the preservation of aquatic ecosystems and congruence with terrestrial ones; and (re)establishing wellfunctioning monitoring and reporting networks, and connecting these with local citizen monitoring for both data collection and citizen awareness. A recent and developing global initiative, the Alliance for Freshwater Life (AFL) supports the knowledge base of freshwater biodiversity and its importance for human well-being. Building a coalition of global leaders in research, conservation, education, communication and environmental policy, the AFL initiative is of particular relevance for tropical freshwaters which are often lacking effective national or regional protection, and where institutional capacity can be weak. The AFL will: () build greater global awareness of the values of freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity; () augment and mobilise the huge body of existing research information, such as on the functioning, distribution and status of freshwater systems, for application to the sustainable management and conservation of them; () fill critical information gaps on freshwater ecosystems to inform sustainable development; (4) bring forward the science of freshwater ecosystems to develop and inform conservation and development policy; and (5) implement on-the-ground conservation action. TUESDAY :0

68 S09-O08 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY S09-O09 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY IDENTIFYING GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS FOR BIODIVERSITY FROM OIL PALM EXPANSION UNFOLDING LONG TERM DISTURBANCES OF FOREST COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIAN LOWLANDS John Garcia-Ulloa, Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, Giovanni Strona, Serge Wich Dilce de Fatima Rossetti, Rogerio Gribel, Peter Mann Toledo, Sônia H. Tatumi ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate D - Sustainable Resources, Ispra, IT Faculty of Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK Brazilian Institute for Space Research, São Jose dos Campos, BR, dilce.rossetti@inpe.br Brazilian Institute for Amazonian Research, Manaus, BR Federal University of Sâo Paulo, Santos, BR TUESDAY :45 Oil palm expansion has significantly transformed landscapes in Southeast Asia and the industry has become a globally important social and environmental player. Oil palm development is a reality in many regions in the world, as human population grows and demand for vegetable oils increases. Although our knowledge of the impacts of oil palm cultivation has significantly increased in the last decade, we lack a global strategy for the expansion of this crop that minimizes impacts on biodiversity and meet local and global demands for palm oil. In this talk, we present an up-to-date study of the potential risks to biodiversity from oil palm expansion, based on regional spatial analyses for selected case studies in Africa, Americas and Southeast Asia. These analyses combine information on oil palm suitability and current land-use, with species distribution, diversity and vulnerability for various vertebrate groups. Overall, we found no available areas where large scale oil palm agriculture could be accommodated in Africa, while available land for planting new oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia is increasingly limited. Yet, our analysis show opportunities for low-impact expansion in the neotropics. Our analysis highlights as well, the potential impacts on nonforest biomes from a low carbon development trajectory in the oil palm industry. Finally, we discuss factors that may enable or hinder the application of such global strategy by examining local and regional environmental and social contexts. Linking plant species distribution to geology has been biased by the simplification of biogeographic models and the poor comprehension of geological processes. Amazonian lowlands show forests under different successional stages. A growing perception has been that such heterogeneity results from long-term environmental changes. We investigate this hypothesis designing a model based on past and present-day vegetation, and on the understanding of geological history. An area in southwestern Amazonia was selected to acquire floristic inventories, and we interpreted the paleovegetation based on C/N and d C of sedimentary organic matter. These data were analysed in the context of geological evolution. Topographically higher, Late Pleistocene terrains had non-flooded, late successional terra firme forests and local less-diversified white-sand forests on younger paleochannel deposits. Late Pleistocene-Holocene terrains at intermediate elevations also had terra firme forests, but of smaller trees with lower basal areas. These terrains exhibited forests with ecotonal features near forest-savanna boundaries. Terrains of Holocene age located closer to the main river valley recorded seasonally-flooded varzea forest. Several Late Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene-Holocene deposits recorded the expansion of C4 land plants before the forestation from ~0,000 cal yr BP to 7,578 cal yr BP, which could not be related solely to past aridity. The studied forests had a long history, with onsets from 6,0 to,5 cal yr BP,,40 to,800 cal yr BP and,64 to 964 cal yr BP in the instance of terra firme, varzea and ecotonal forests, respectively. TUESDAY 4:0 Despite these long-lasting communities, not all forests reached maturity due to their location in terrains of diverse hydrological contexts. Hydrology in the study area was a consequence of environmental disturbances caused by the interplay of topographic gradients owing to the history of terrace downcutting and deposition over the geological time, added to the distance to a main river valley having various flooding events through time. Capturing long-term disturbances in this area of still pristine forests has the potential of contributing to better understand potential mechanisms that determine trends in tree growth and forest diversity across many tropical regions.

69 4 5 S09-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY S09-O FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY ARCHIVES OF NATURAL HISTORY; TREE OF LIFE CONSTRUCTED FROM A GRAM OF SOIL USING EDNA ANALYSIS OF THE POTENTIALITIES OF AMBAHIVIKY RAFFIA PALM IN THE BOENY REGION Kingsly Chuo Beng, Richard Thomas Corlett Zolalaina Andriamanantena, Fenozo Heritiana Andriamanantena, Hery Lisy Tiana Ranarijaona Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Doctoral School Natural Ecosystems (EDEN), University of Mahajanga, Mahajanga, MG, Yunnan, CN, bengkingsly000@yahoo.com andzolalaina@gmail.com TUESDAY 4:45 Advances in next-generation sequencing have made it possible to detect an organism s presence or absence in any environment and this is especially important for soil taxa. Environmental DNA (edna) is genetic material originating from the hair, skin, urine, faeces, gametes or carcasses of an organism and preserved in water, soil or sediment. DNA can persist in the environment from a few days in temperate water, to hundreds of thousands of years in cold, dry permafrost, allowing direct isolation without any obvious signs of an organism s presence or absence. edna barcoding and metabarcoding has the potential to revolutionize ecology and conservation in several ways. First, edna techniques are fast, efficient and relatively cheap, thus providing the opportunity to monitor the dynamics of species, populations and communities, and to map their geographic distribution over long-time periods and across large spatial scales. Second, edna sampling is simple, non-destructive and noninvasive, causing no significant damage to the target species or its habitats. Third, using edna improves the detection of rare, cryptic and elusive species, even at relatively low densities. Fourth, edna enables the early detection of biological invasions and their timely eradication before full establishment. Despite these developments, little attention has been given to the application of edna in soil, especially in biodiversity-rich tropical regions. In a pilot edna study in tropical China, we collected soil cores from seven sites and used three molecular markers to evaluate the application of edna in biodiversity monitoring. We detected taxa representing the entire Tree Of Life, from microbes through invertebrates to vertebrates. Our study demonstrates that tropical soils are archives of natural history. Madagascar is a country with a very famous biodiversity. There are many wood and non-wood forest products in the island. Raffia is a non-wood product. Rafia farinifera is a very important and unique natural resource both in the daily life of the chain operators and in the natural forest ecosystem. The raffia areas of Ambahiviky in the rural commune of Betsako in the Mahajanga II district of the Boeny Region are managed by the local grassroots community. Studies are being done to find out about the potential and the measures of these natural resources and the different pressures they are undergoing by carrying out transects and plots carried out in 0 and 07. Surveys are also conducted with local population to assess pressures on the raffia palm. During measurements, stand density and abundance decreased. Seed individuals are especially less abundant. Yet, the raffia areas are a source of water supplying the rice fields and the local population. However, climate change among the pressures on the raffia areas leads to the degradation of these resources. In fact, the rice fields are silted and the raffia palms are cut down by very intense cyclones. In addition, to ensure the effect of climate change and to have a balance between economic recovery and biological conservation, measures such as protection and restoration will be provided to ensure the sustainability of raffia especially regeneration. TUESDAY 5:00 Merian Award Applicant

70 6 7 S09-O FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY S09-O FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY DISTRIBUTION OF PODOCARPUS LATIFOLIUS/MILANJIANUS FROM THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM TO 00 IN AFRICA WITH THE DYNAMIC VEGETATION MODEL CARAIB SPATIO-TEMPORAL VARIATIONS OF CARBON AND NITROGEN IN BIOGENIC STRUCTURES OF FUNGUS-GROWING TERMITES IN THE XISHUANGBANNA REGION Marie Dury, Alexandra-Jane Henrot, Anne-Marie Lézine, Rachid Cheddadi, Jérémy Migliore,4, Olivier J. Hardy 4, Alain Hambuckers 5, Joy Singarayer 6, Franck Trolliet, Louis François Chunfeng Chen, Wenjie Liu, Junen Wu, Xiaojin Jiang TUESDAY 5:5 Unit for Modelling of Climate and Biogeochemical Cycles, UR-SPHERES, University of Liège, Liège, BE, Marie.Dury@uliege.be Laboratoire d Océanographie et du Climat LOCEAN, Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR Institut des Sciences de l Evolution, Université de Montpellier II, CNRS-UM-IRD, Montpellier, FR 4 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, BE 5 Behavioural Biology Unit, UR-SPHERES, University of Liège, Liège, BE 6 Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK Podocarpus latifolius/milanjianus (same species according to genetics) is an endemic African species with populations in the western, eastern and southern parts of the continent. The current global warming threatens the conservation of the relict patches of this mountain evergreen species. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the species was certainly more largely distributed and present at lower elevations than today according to pollen data. At the beginning of the Holocene, Podocarpus moved upwards due to warmer conditions. The size of the populations might have collapsed abruptly at the end of the African Humid Period at ca.,000 BP (Lézine et al., Journal of Biogeography, 40: 8-96, 0). Besides this general evolution, the palaeo-distribution of Podocarpus remains relatively unknown. The origin and connections between the eastern, southern and western Podocarpus forests are still not understood. In the framework of two related projects, AFRIFORD (Genetic and palaeoecological signatures of African rainforest dynamics: pre-adapted to change?) and VULPES (VULnerability of Populations under Extreme Scenario), we use the CARAIB dynamic vegetation model (Dury et al., iforest, 4:8-99, 0), in parallel to genetic and palynologic analyses, to simulate the past and future dynamics of Podocarpus and to understand its current distribution. Projections of the HadCM climate model are used to reproduce climatic conditions in Africa from LGM (,000 BP) to present time with a temporal resolution of kyr. For the future (period ), several IPCC climate scenarios from the Coupled Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) have been selected according to the quality of their reconstructed climate (temperature and precipitation) over sub-saharan Africa for historical period. After interpolation to a 0.5 regular grid, we kept only past/future anomalies that we added to the GSWP (0 CR) climate data chosen as the reference for the historical period. Sub-continental simulations are performed with CARAIB forced by these climatic projections to simulate the net primary productivity (NPP) of Podocarpus over time and space. In addition, CARAIB simulations are performed at higher resolution over a restricted region in southwestern Cameroon to identify potential microrefugia. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Science, Jinghong, CN, chenchunfeng@xtbg.ac.cn Fungus-growing termites are abundant and play an important role in soil nutrient dynamics in the tropics due to their activities and unique effects on soil physical, chemical and biochemical properties. However, the mechanisms of termite mound turnover and the effects of such turnover on temporal and spatial patterns of nutrients in surrounding soils have rarely been studied. Here, we investigated the relationship between the stabilization and redistribution of soil nutrient properties and the chronological development of termite mounds (primary, secondary-occupied and abandoned mounds). The study was conducted to assess the concentrations of nutrients and water content in the biogenic structures produced by two fungus-growing termites (M. annandalei and O. yunnanensis) in different mound stages. Samples were collected along a transect at regular intervals proportional to the size of the biogenic structure. We found the concentration of NO - in the following sequence: active mound, abandoned mound, and the surrounding soils. The concentrations of organic carbon (Corg) and total N in the active mounds were significantly lower than those in the surrounding top soils, although a weak difference was observed with subsoils. The concentrations of Corg and total N in the abandoned mounds were significantly higher than those in active mounds, whereas no difference was observed with surrounding soils. The mean concentrations of nutrients were significantly different between fresh parts (sampling locations ) and old parts (locations 4 6) of the secondary-occupied mounds. The nutrients in the fresh parts of the mound approached the values in the primary mound; whereas the nutrients in the old part of the mound approached the values in the abandoned mound. Our results indicate that nutrient concentrations change through the chronological development of termite mounds, which are hot spots of nutrients that subsequently affect ecosystem processes at specific spatial and temporal scales through the stabilization and redistribution of nutrients. TUESDAY 6:00 Merian Award Applicant

71 8 9 S09-O4 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL DIVERSITY FACTORS DETERMINING FUNGAL DIVERSITY AND DYNAMICS DURING WOOD DECOMPOSITION ACROSS DISTURBANCE GRADIENT IN TROPICAL MOUNTAINOUS FOREST TUESDAY 6:5 Gbadamassi G.O Dossa,,, Yun-Qiang Yang, Weiming Hu 4, Ekananda Paudel 5, Douglas Schaefer, Kun-Fang Cao 6, Jian-Chu Xu,,7, Kathyn E. Bushley 8, Rhett D. Harrison 9 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, CN, dgbadamassi@gmail.com Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, CN Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies, Kunming Institute of Botany, Kunming, CN 4 Nematode Molecular Systematics and Biological Control, Entomology and Nematology Department University of Florida, Florida, US 5 Nepali Academy of Science and Technology, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, NP 6 Ecophysiology and Evolution Group, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, and College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Guangxi, CN 7 World Agroforestry Centre, East & Central Asia Regional Office, Kunming, CN We did not find forest disturbance to affect the decomposition process for any of the two contrasting woody species. Nevertheless, species identity, core relative position to the soil and time significantly affect the decomposition rates. To explain these results, we explored the temporal dynamic of fungal diversity and community. We found that the diversity of fungi peaked in the mid of the experiment then decrease toward the end of the monitoring time. The preliminary analyses suggest that time and species (of woody debris) were significant drivers of alpha-diversity of fungal decomposers. While for the community change over time, we found that time and forest type were significantly shaping the turnover. Merian Award Applicant 8 Department of Plant and Microbial Biology University of Minnesota, Minnesota, US 9 World Agroforestry Centre, East & Southern Africa Region, Lusaka, ZM Nutrient cycling is controlled by both abiotic and biotic factors. However much less is known about biotic factors such as fungi contribution to nutrient cycling in tropical biomes. Combining with the high degree of degradation occurring in tropical forests, there is a need of filling this gap in our knowledge. Our study aims to link biotic, especially fungal diversity to decomposition rates in tropical biomes. Thus we set up to examine how forest degradation affects wood decomposition in general but more importantly () does time have an effect and what are those effects in terms of diversity and community structure? () does woody debris species affect fungi diversity and community structure? () does the relative position of woody debris to the soil affect fungi diversity and community structure? We conducted a standard wood decomposition experiment across a disturbance gradient in a tropical mountain forest from mature forest to open land in Xishuangbanna, SW China using two contrasting native woody species. We periodically monitored wood specific gravity loss of logs (n = 80, each being 0.5 m in length) by collected wood core (from lower half of log, part in direct contact with soil and upper half part in opposite direction) and wood dust samples and employed next-generation sequencing to identify fungi alpha diversity and the fungal community structure (beta diversity).

72 40 4 SESSION 0 IMPACT OF SOIL PLANT-FAUNA-MICROORGANISMS INTERACTIONS ON THE FUNCTIONING OF TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS S0-O0 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY SOIL, LANDSCAPE AND LAND-USE ITINERARY EFFECTS ON NON-CULTIVATED PLANT COMMUNITIES AND ASSOCIATED SERVICES IN CROPLANDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND Margot Neyret, Henri Robain, Anneke de Rouw, Bounsamay Soulileuth, Karn Trisophon, Kaesorn Jumpa 4, Christian Valentin Chairs: Jean-Christophe LATA, Luc ABBADIE Contact: jean-christophe.lata@upmc.fr Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES) Paris, Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Sorbonne University, National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA), University Paris-East Créteil (UPEC), Bondy, FR, margot@neyret.me Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES) Paris, IRD, Sorbonne University, INRA, University Paris-East Créteil (UPEC), Vientiane, LA Land Development Department, Regional office 6, Chiang Mai, TH 4 Land Development Department, Central office, Bangkok, TH WEDNESDAY Tropical natural ecosystems are renowned for being major reservoirs of plant and animal biodiversity, and key ecosystems for global climate and biogeochemical regulation. They are also submitted to important threats, mainly through conversion to agriculture and climate changes. These terrestrial ecosystems depend on their soils and the biodiversity they host, so that the ecology of tropical soils must be studied to better understand the functioning of these ecosystems and predict their dynamics. Moreover, tropical soils are viewed as very fragile due to low cation exchange capacity, high mineralization rates and heavy rains so that the degradation of tropical ecosystems often begins with soil degradation. The goal of this session is to present results on the ecological functioning of tropical soils that determine the general functioning of tropical ecosystems. Soil ecology is based on belowground-aboveground interactions and all aspects of these interactions will potentially be addressed: plant-soil interactions, plant-soil-microorganism interactions, plant-soil fauna interactions, plant-microorganism-fauna interactions, modification of soil properties by soil organisms... The session will emphasize interactions that are essential to the maintenance of the concerned ecosystems and their resilience to disturbances. Anthropized ecosystems will also be addressed, for example when soil ecology is influential for the maintenance of soil fertility in agricultural landscapes. Studies on the general ecology of soil organisms will also be considered. In the past decades, the transition from annual crops to rubber tree plantations in South-East Asia has caused concern regarding the increase of soil erosion processes. Weeds communities fulfil numerous ecosystem services and are strongly dependent and farming practices. Thus, the ongoing transition is likely to affect their structure and associated services such as soil protection from erosion. To address the effects of land use, season, soil characteristics and landscape on plant communities in croplands of mountainous Northern Thailand, we carried out botanical inventories and soil characterization in 0 fields from 4 main land uses representative of the transition from annual crops to rubber plantations (upland rice, maize, young rubber, mature rubber) twice a year since March 06. We estimated the proportion of each land cover around the fields using satellite images. We installed twelve erosion microplots in rubber tree plantations to monitor weekly plant cover, run-off, and soil detachment. Land use was the main factor of weed community variations, explaining % of the variance. Season, soil characteristics and landscape also affected communities (resp. 8 %, 9 % and 7 % of observed variance). Soil cover was lower in rubber tree plantations compared to annual crops. High plant living biomass was associated to higher N and C soil content. Higher plant cover decreased runoff (the proportion of rainfall that does not infiltrate) and prevented soil surface from degradation. While further investigation is needed to uncover more precise relations between soil physical properties and weeds, we showed that plant cover was strongly affected by land uses and was a key factor in protecting soil from degradation and limiting runoff. Ongoing investigations are now focusing on the effects of farming practices on the seasonal dynamics of weeds and soil erosion. WEDNESDAY 09:0 Merian Award Applicant

73 4 4 S0-O0 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY S0-O0 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY DIET COMPOSITION ANALYSIS OF TROPICAL SOIL-FEEDING TERMITES: AFRICAN APICOTERMITINAE TERMITES INCREASE ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE TO DROUGHT IN TROPICAL RAINFOREST Johanna Romero Arias, Steeve Bonneville,, Yves Roisin Louise Ashton,, Hannah Griffiths, Kate Parr, Theo Evans 4, Fevziye Hasan, Yit Arn Teh 5, Marcus Tin 6, Charles Vairappan 6, Paul Eggleton Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE, Johanna.Romero.Arias@ulb.ac.be The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, HK, lashton@hku.hk U.R. BGéOsys, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE Natural History Museum London, London, UK MAT, Materials Engineering, Characterization, Processing and Recycling, Université Libre de University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Bruxelles, Brussels, BE 4 University of Western Australia, Australia, Perth, AU 5 University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK Termites are one of the key actors of the soil fauna of tropical 6 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MY rainforests and woodlands. The termite assemblage of an ecosystem WEDNESDAY 09:45 depends on its soil parameters such as granulometry, chemical composition or water retention. These parameters are largely influenced by the termites themselves, which act as ecosystem engineers of tropical environments. On the other hand, variations in soil texture and composition create opportunities for niche partitioning, to support a broad diversity of termites and other soil arthropods. The Apicotermitinae is a subfamily of soil-feeding termite species, which ingest cellular organic materials mixed with clay minerals. Yet, specific food sources can be revealed by direct methods, such as analysis of gut contents and termite tissues, or indirect ones, through nest material analysis. In this study, we analysed the content of the foregut (i.e. the crop and the gizzard) of the workers of a broad array of Apicotermitinae species. We estimated the relative amounts of clay, organic matter and coarse mineral elements (crystals) in species with or without soldiers. Clay dominates the gut contents in this group, followed by organic matter. We also found substantial amounts of aggregates consisting of organic matters and thin clay particles. We discussed the variations observed between the different species of Apicotermitinae studied. Climate change is threatening tropical rainforests and the ecosystem services they provide. Drought events are predicted to become more frequent and more severe, yet, there is little information about how droughts affect faunal biota and associated ecosystem processes. Consequently, biotic responses to climate change are barely considered in Earth system models and we know little about how animal responses to climatic events can affect ecosystem resilience. Termites are hyper-abundant in tropical rainforests, with up to 0,000 individuals in a square meter. Unlike many other rainforest organisms, there is evidence that termites respond positively to drought; however, the consequences of such climate-mediated biotic changes on ecosystem processes and resilience has not been investigated. Here, we address this gap for the first time, using a large-scale termite suppression experiment in Malaysian Borneo, spanning the El Niño drought of 05-6 and subsequent non-drought conditions. We quantified the influence of termites on three ecosystem components that determine vegetation dynamics: decomposition, soil nutrient cycling and soil moisture. These factors were assessed both during and after the drought event and we quantified seedling mortality within each period. During the drought, termites were more abundant. When termites were experimentally suppressed, decomposition, soil nutrient heterogeneity and soil moisture decreased, and seedling mortality was 4 % higher. The effects of termite suppression were not apparent in non-drought conditions. These results demonstrate the multitrophic impact of termitemediated processes on ecosystem resilience to drought, with far-reaching implications for terrestrial nutrient cycling and atmospheric carbon budgets. We demonstrate, with a novel, real-world experiment, the vital importance of an invertebrate biota for the resilience of rainforest systems. As drought pressure increases under climate change, biodiversity will become more important for the maintenance of functioning ecosystems. WEDNESDAY 0:00

74 44 45 S0-O04 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS OF BIOME DISTRIBUTION IN BOLIVIA AND BRAZIL - DISSECTING THE IMPORTANCE OF SOILS, CLIMATE AND FIRE Pedro Luiz Silva de Miranda, Caroline Lehmann, Ary Oliveira-Filho, Danilo M. Neves, Timothy R. Baker, Carlos Alberto Nobre Quesada 5, Toby Pennington 6,7, Kyle G. Dexter,7 School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, P.L.Silva-De-Miranda@sms.ed.ac.uk Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Miras Gerais, Belo Horizonte, BR Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, US 4 School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK 5 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Coordenação de Dinâmica Ambiental, Manaus, BR 6 Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK 7 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK In the tropics, areas under the same climatic regime can be occupied by different biomes, showing that the environmental controls behind biome distribution are still poorly understood. Other factors such as edaphic conditions and disturbance history (e.g. fire) must also be involved. We aimed to determine which are the main environmental drivers behind the distribution of rain forests, savannas and seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs) in Brazil and Bolivia. WEDNESDAY 0:5 We collected and analysed soil samples (for many variables, including ph, aluminium, phosphorous, partial sum of bases and sand percentage) from 8 sites for which biome state had been determined independently based on tree species composition. We also considered temperature seasonality (from Bioclim), inter-annual precipitation seasonality and fire return index (both from Lehmann et al., 04) as explainers of biome state. We employed structural equation modelling (SEM) to assess drivers of biome state, in order to account for dependencies of explanatory variables. For Bolivia, the transition between SDTF and Savanna is mainly driven by fire and it is not related to soils, whereas in Brazil it is driven only by soils (partial sum of bases and Aluminium). The transition between savannas and rain forests in Brazil is related to soils and fire; in Bolivia, it is mediated by fire frequency and inter-annual precipitation seasonality. The transition between SDTFs and rain forests in Bolivia is mediated by fire and climate, whereas we were unable to detect any significant drivers for this transition in Brazil. These results show that soils and fire are important to biome distribution and that environmental controls differs between Brazil and Bolivia. Savannas in Bolivia (Chiquitania) are likely the result of anthropogenic degradation of SDTFs. Meanwhile, in Brazil, soil controls are responsible for the distribution of savannas and SDTFs as previously hypothesized.

75 46 47 SESSION S-O0 MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS A LARGE VIEW OF THE SMALL PROTISTS IN NEOTROPICAL RAINFORESTS MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS Micah Dunthorn Chairs: Virginie ROY, Lise DUPONT University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, DE, dunthorn@rhrk.uni-kl.de Contact: roy@u-pec.fr Naturalists have long known that plants and animals in tropical WEDNESDAY Soil is a complex system which provides ecosystem services such as biomass production, organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. These functions are delivered by the huge diversity of organisms that live and interact in the soil, under the influence of abiotic environment. While significant advances have been made in physical and chemical characterization of soils, biological communities remain understudied, with a poor knowledge of their specific diversity. Indeed, soil fauna suffers a strong taxonomic deficit that is particularly pronounced in tropical regions. Identification of soil species is hampered by the lack of observable morphological characters and samples can be represented by incomplete specimens or non-identifiable structures (cocoons, eggs, traces). Constraining environmental conditions such as those encountered in soils can induce a stabilizing selection on morphology, decreasing morphological changes that accompany speciation. With the increasing use of molecular data in taxonomy, the number of publications referring to cryptic species discovery is continually rising. DNA barcoding and metabarcoding are now routinely used to organize samples in genetically divergent groups, allowing rapid discovery of species and calculation of biodiversity estimators. Multi-locus approaches provide a fine resolution on species delimitation issues, and confirmation of cryptic speciation. Session participants are encouraged to submit contributions on the following topics: tropical soil diversity and species assemblages, molecular species delineation, cryptic species discovery. rainforests are exceedingly species rich. It has been unknown if similar hyperdiversity patterns are seen at the microbial scale with unicellular protists. To expand our view of these ecosystems to include a broader microbial perspective, I sampled soils in lowland rainforests in Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador using a metabarcoding approach with general eukaryotic primers. I found that protist communities in Neotropical rainforests are hyperdiverse and dominated by the parasitic Apicomplexa, which infect arthropods and other animals. These hostspecific parasites potentially contribute to the high animal diversity in the forests by reducing population growth in a density-dependent manner. By contrast, too few Oomycota OTUs were found to broadly drive high tropical tree diversity in a host-specific manner under the Janzen-Connell model. Extremely high OTU diversity and high heterogeneity between samples within the same forests suggest that protists, not arthropods as commonly thought, are the most diverse eukaryotes in tropical rainforests. These data show that protists play a large role in tropical terrestrial ecosystems long viewed as being dominated by macro-organisms. WEDNESDAY :00

76 48 49 S-O0 MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS MEGALOTHORAX DIVERSITY: ACCOUNT OF A NEGLECTED SPRINGTAIL WIDELY DISTRIBUTED IN THE INTERTROPICAL ZONE S-O0 MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS COMPLEX TAXONOMY AND GLOBAL PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE WELL-KNOWN TROPICAL EARTHWORM PONTOSCOLEX CORETHRURUS WEDNESDAY :5 Clément Schneider, Cyrille D Haese (speaker) MECADEV, UMR 779 CNRS/MNHN, Paris, FR, dhaese@mnhn.fr Despite its apparent poor diversity, the genus Megalothorax have a worldwide distribution. Phylogenetic analyses based on several molecular loci indicates that Megalothorax is much more diverse than previously thought with probably many species yet to be described including cryptic species. Interestingly, several species have a sexual reproduction and have a restricted distribution whereas others are parthenogenetic and widely distributed. The latter group includes Megalothorax minimus group and Megalothorax incertus group. M. laevis belongs to the incertus group but shares similitudes with the minimus group acquired through evolutionary convergences such as smooth lamellae of the mucro. Those similitudes might have created a confusion between M. minimus and M. laevis. While M. minimus used to be generally regarded cosmopolitan it is actually restricted to the temperate and cold regions of both hemispheres. M. laevis has been completely overlooked since its original discovery. However, the present sampling lead to believe that M. laevis replace M. minimus as the commonest edaphic Megalothorax species in the intertropical zone. Shabnam Taheri, Samuel James, Virginie Roy, Thibaud Decaëns, Bronwyn Williams 4, Franck Anderson 4, Rodolphe Rougerie 5, Chih-Han Chang 6, George Brown 7, Luis Cunha 7,8, Dave Stanton 8, Elodie Da Silva 7, Jiun-Hong Chen 9, Alan Lemmon 0, Marie Bartz, Dilmar Baretta, Isabelle Barois, Emmanuel Lapied 4, Mathieu Coulis 5, Lise Dupont Université Paris Est Créteil, Créteil, FR, lise.dupont@u-pec.fr University of Iowa, Iowa, US Centre d Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier, FR 4 Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, US 5 Muséum national d Histoire Naturelle, Paris, FR 6 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, US 7 Embrapa Florestas, Colombo, BR 8 Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK 9 National Taiwan University, Taipei, TW 0 Florida State University, Tallahassee, US Universidade Positivo, Curitiba, BR Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Chapecó, BR Instituto de Ecología, Veracruz, MX 4 Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, NO 5 CIRAD, Le Lamentin, MQ Few earthworm species are peregrine and among them, Pontoscolex corethrurus is the most well-known. Probably native from the Guyana shield, this earthworm is nowadays distributed worldwide, in the tropical and sub-tropical zones. It is found in a wide range of habitats, from apparently pristine to any kind of human-disturbed environments. P. corethrurus presents several characteristics of a successful invader: r-strategy, parthenogenesis reproduction and ecological and reproductive plasticity. Although its ecological interactions with the environment were well documented, the taxonomic status of this earthworm was unclear. WEDNESDAY :0 We investigated the phylogenetic relationships within the genus Pontoscolex at a global scale (5 countries), focusing on morphologically indistinguishable lineages using the mitochondrial COI and 6S markers, the nuclear ITS and 8S markers and a large-scale multilocus sequence data matrix obtained using the Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) phylogenomic method.

77 50 5 Four cryptic species were discovered within the P. corethrurus species complex and one of them, P. corethrurus L was particularly widespread. Although sympatry between L, L and L 4 was observed, no case of hybridization was detected between L and the two other cryptic species, confirming the status of species of P. corethrurus L. A population genetics study of this species using COI sequences and AFLP data revealed a low mitochondrial genetic diversity and a high proportion of clones in some populations, in accordance with the principal mode of reproduction of the species (i.e., parthenogenesis). However, variable levels of genetic diversity among populations and results of gametic disequilibrium analysis suggesting recombination in several populations, confirmed a mixed-mating strategy (sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis). S-O04 MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO DISENTANGLE THE CRYPTIC DIVERSITY IN ANTS OF THE NEOPONERA APICALIS SPECIES COMPLEX Boris Yagound,, Ronara Souza Ferreira, Fabrice Savarit, Stéphane Chameron, Nicolas Châline, Chantal Poteaux (speaker) Laboratoire d Ethologie Expérimentale et comparée, Villetaneuse, FR, poteaux@leec.univ-paris.fr Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory, Sydney, AT Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, São Paulo, BR Inferring species boundaries is of crucial importance in the biological sciences. However, this task often proves to be challenging because many species exhibit a very high morphological similarity, while their actual diversity remains cryptic. In this context, multidisciplinary studies can be useful to circumvent this issue and delimit species. Here, we present results gathered during several years in an integrative study of Neoponera apicalis ants, a complex of closely related and partly sympatric cryptic species. The relationships between the different putative species were first investigated over their Neotropical distribution range with molecular phylogeny based on mitochondrial DNA genes. All morphs represented distinct well-supported clades, with a high intramorph variability mostly explained by geographic differences. Phylogenetic relationships between morphs were however mostly unresolved, leaving the phylogeography of this complex unanswered. To further decipher the topologies observed between N. apicalis morphs, we then conducted a set of comparative analyses in ants from sympatric and allopatric populations, focusing on () the morphology and bioacoustics of stridulatory organs, () the anatomy of male phenotypes, () the diversity of reproductive systems, (4) the ecological preferences for nesting sites and foraging activity, and (5) the chemical ecology of fertility-associated signals. WEDNESDAY :45 Overall, we found a strong congruence of morph-specific traits across methods. We suggest that at least five of the morphs studied here should be considered as a valid new species, even if they present different levels of divergence. This study highlights the relevance of integrative approaches when dealing with cryptic diversity.

78 5 5 SESSION MOLECULAR ECOLOGY AND FUNCTIONAL GENETICS IN THE TROPICS S-O0 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY BIOSTATISTICS APPLICATIONS FOR TROPICAL (AND NON) PLANT AND ANIMAL BIOLOGY: A (META)GENOMICS PERSPECTIVE Filippo Biscarini, Chairs: Pablo OROZCO-TERWENGEL, Ute RADESPIEL Cardiff University - School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK, biscarinif@cardiff.ac.uk Contact: orozco-terwengelpa@cardiff.ac.uk CNR-IBBA (National Council for Research - Institute of Biology and Biotechnology in Agriculture), Milan, IT Tropical environments are under threat for a variety of reasons including human population WEDNESDAY expansion and encroachment, habitat fragmentation, and climate change. Species leaving in such environments are highly challenged, as they need to modify life strategies and/or change distribution ranges in order to accommodate for rather fast environmental changes. Understanding the outcome of such changes (e.g. demographic changes, hybridization, extinction, inbreeding) is of utmost importance if we are to effectively contribute to the conservation of tropical species. Historically, the field of molecular ecology has focused on characterizing population genetic parameters typically associated to neutral molecular markers. The understanding of the effect of genetic variants on functional traits, however, was constrained, largely, due to our limited capacity to mine genome-wide diversity. Technological developments during the last decade have facilitated generating genetic resources for almost any species, as well as have speeded up the pace at which genetic information can be acquired, thereby revolutionizing the field of molecular ecology. Today it is possible to screen natural populations for genetic variation related to neutral demographic processes, but also variation that is associated to adaptive processes and therefore of functional importance. However, as new possibilities become available in molecular ecology, questions arise regarding how to incorporate such new results into management strategies of species inhabiting changing environments such as the tropics. This session will provide the opportunity to present new data on this and related questions, to critically review the existing evidence and to point out important avenues for future research in tropical molecular ecology. Next-generation sequencing and high-throughput SNP-genotyping have wide applications in plant and animal genomics and metagenomics. Such applications provide insights into population genetics and are used to develop tools to assist agriculture. In rice, through GWAS the SD- gene allele linked to semi-dwarf phenotype was found to be still segregating in temperate japonica accessions, while in indica and tropical japonica accessions was either absent (wild type) or fixed (semi-dwarf lines). With a similar approach, SNP associated with yield have been identified in rice accessions under limited-water conditions: the identified associations are suitable targets for genomics-assisted breeding to improve yield-related traits under limited water conditions. In sugar beet, alleles for genetic resistance to diseases are typically introduced through introgression from wild beets. By sequencing resistance genes for rhizomania and nematode infections, wild and cultivated beets did indeed cluster together, except one gene: this last reveals a resistance mutation that originated directly in domestic beets. With metagenomics, significant differences have been observed in the gut microbiota composition of BALBc mice (animal model for Graves thyroid disease) immunized with the same protocol in comparable specific-pathogen free units from different centers. These differences help explain the lack of reproducibility of the animal model across centers. Similarly, the gut microbiota may be implicated in genotype-by-environment interactions found in livestock when farming the same breed in different places (e.g. temperate vs tropical latitudes). In cattle, the rumen microbiome has a major role in methane production, a green-house gas implicated in global climate change. Feed supplementation modulate the rumen microbiota composition, and specifically reduce the counts of methanogenic taxa. These results can be applied to farming and breeding for reduced methane emissions in cattle. WEDNESDAY :0

79 54 55 S-O0 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY S-O0 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY POPULATION GENOMICS OF WILD CHINESE RHESUS MACAQUES REVEALS DYNAMIC DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORIES AND LOCAL ADAPTATION RED VERSUS BLUE VERSUS GREEN: MOLECULAR ASPECTS OF COLOR POLYTYPY IN A POISON FROG Heike Pröhl, Ariel Rodríguez, Nicolas Mundy Pablo Orozco-terWengel Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, DE, heike.proehl@tiho-hannover.de Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, orozco-terwengelpa@cardiff.ac.uk The rhesus macaque (RM, Macaca mulatta) is one of the most important nonhuman primate models in evolutionary biology and biomedical research. However, information on the genetic variation of geo-referenced wild populations is limited. Here we present the first population genomics survey of wild RMs, comprising 8 individuals representing five subspecies from 7 locations in China, covering a large fraction of the species natural distribution. Animal coloration is an adaptive attribute, subject to strong local selection pressures and therefore often diversified among species or populations. The visually conspicuous strawberry poison frog Oophaga pumilio shows a broad array of color morphs across its distribution in the rainforests in Central America. While the ecological factors contributing to this impressive phenotypic color divergence have been extensively investigated, the contribution of molecular processes has been neglected so far. WEDNESDAY :45 With a > 55M detected autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), genetic diversity in wild RMs is higher compared to captive populations with 84K-8.5M subspecies specific SNPs. We detected a hierarchical population structure with genetic lineages found on the mainland and one on Hainan Island mapping onto the current subspecies designations. The divergence among the five groups was estimated between 70 and 7 thousand years ago but with more recent gene flow detected between some groups. Consistent with the expectation of a larger body size in colder climates (Bergman s rule), the northernmost RM lineage (subspecies M. m. tcheliensis) exhibits the largest body size of all Chinese RMs and features signatures of positive selection in genes responsible for skeletal development. When comparing the tropical subspecies M. m. brevicaudus from Hainan Island to other subspecies we identified candidate genes related to cardiovascular function including blood circulation, and response to temperature stimuli, features potentially involved in adaptation to tropical climates. Furthermore, we found 87 non-synonymous RM SNPs homologous to human variants involved in disease. Our study revealed an unexpected demographic history in Chinese RMs, coupled with a history of local adaption to the regions where they are currently found. This study offers novel insights into the evolution of RMs and provides valuable information for biomedical research. We applied RNA-Seq gene expression analysis in order to identify candidate genes involved in coloration differences among red, blue and green color phenotypes on the mainland and the islands of the Bocas del Toro archipelago in Panama. Using RNA extracted from field-collected skins, we assembled a de novo reference transcriptome containing 0494 transcripts with an open reading frame and used it to estimate the differences in gene expression between color morphs. Differential expression (DE) was quantified and statistically tested using three methods (limma, edger, and DESeq ). A set of 75 coding transcripts were identified as DE by the three detection methods applied. Approximately 8 % of these transcripts represented genes previously linked to pigment production pathways, including carotenoid metabolism, pteridine production, melanin synthesis and purine metabolism. Gene set enrichment analyses indicated that genes in the pteridine pathway were upregulated in red relative to blue color frogs. Genes in the melanin synthesis pathway were up-regulated in green relative to blue frogs. Expression patterns of several of these genes were analyzed and their potential role in color variation inferred based on published studies on other vertebrates. Overall our results identify multiple candidate genes associated to color phenotypes which will open new avenues for future studies of color variation in frogs. WEDNESDAY 4:00

80 56 57 S-O04 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY DE NOVO TRANSCRIPTOME SEQUENCING AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED GENES IN ERYTHROPHLEUM SPECIES UNDER DROUGHT STRESS Mohamed Neji, Anais Gorel, Dario Ojeda Alayon, Jérôme Duminil,4, Kathy Steppe, Adeline Fayolle, Olivier Hardy S-O05 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY IMMUNOLOGICAL MHC SUPERTYPES AND ALLELIC EXPRESSION: HOW LOW IS THE FUNCTIONAL MHC VARIABILITY IN WILD ENDANGERED NAMIBIAN CHEETAHS? Simone Sommer, Bettina Wachter, Nina Schwensow University of Ulm, Ulm, DE, Leibnitz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, DE Université Libre de Bruxelles, Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, Brussels, BE, WEDNESDAY 4:5 University of Liege, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Department Biosystem Engineering, Gembloux, BE Ghent University, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Ghent, BE 4 UMR-DIADE, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, FR The genus Erythrophleum includes two sister tree species geographically widespread in the tropical African rainforest characterized by a high economic and socio-cultural value: E. suaveolens and E. ivorense (Fabaceae). With a large geographical distribution extending from Senegal to Kenya, and south to Zimbabwe, E. suaveolens seems to be more adapted to the dry climate of the Guineo-Congolian forests and the forest-savanna landscapes. In contrast, E. ivorense is restricted to evergreen Guinean-Congolese forests. Such pattern of distribution suggests that the two species differ in their performance for coping with drought stress. With the aim of unravelling the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of these species to drought, we performed an RNA-seq on six seedlings from each species to analyze their transcriptional responses at different stages of drought. After cleaning and assembly, 97,645,49 reads in E. ivorense and 44,8,58 in E. suaveolens were assembled to 68,768 and 70,8 unigenes, respectively. Annotation of these genes showed that 45 % had a significant match to one of the following databases: Swiss-Prot, Pfam, Signalp, Tmhmm and RNAmmer for both species. Gene Ontology analysis showed that 0,865 and 0,64 genes were assigned to 55 to 56 GO terms, with the abundance of Biological process category. By comparing control samples to weeks and 8 weeks stressed samples, a set of,00 (,04 down-regulated/86 up-regulated) and,495 (469 down-regulated/,06 up-regulated) differentially expressed genes were identified in E. ivorense and E. suaveolens, respectively. Notably, the number of DEG was found to be much higher at 8 weeks of stress in both species, suggesting that the severe treatment affects more drought-related genes than mild stress. Digital gene expression analysis indicated that pathways involved in response to stimulus plays important role during drought stress in both species with more change observed in E. suaveolens. Overall, our data showed that the two species exhibit similar expression patterns, suggesting that the main difference in gene expression was quantitative. A lower number of DEG identified in E. suaveolens and the change in pathways observed during the treatment is consistent with the expectation that this species displays more tolerance to drought. Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are a famous textbook example of how habitat loss and historic bottlenecks have depleted genetic variability both genome-wide and at the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), which plays an integral role in the adaptive immune response. However, wild Namibian cheetahs show no signs of impaired immuno-competence or health. This contradicts theoretical expectations and poses the question as to whether other adaptive components of the immune system have been overlooked that might be important for consideration in conservation genetics. Here, we show that wild Namibian cheetahs still harbor a certain degree of functional MHC diversity. The present alleles are divergent enough to cover several functionally distinct MHC supertypes and thus are probably capable of binding and presenting a relatively broad range of antigens to T-cells. We have detected a similar pattern in four other wild, strongly bottlenecked, cat species supporting the hypothesis that species with a low MHC allelic variability might be able to retain diversity not within but across loci. Moreover, the allelic composition influences the level of MHC class I and class II expression suggesting that the latter is triggered by structural MHC diversity. Our study indicates that the evolutionary role of MHC diversity goes beyond allelic variability and offers an explanation as to how wild cat species might have avoided impaired immuno-competence, despite showing low MHC diversity. On a cautionary note, although the low MHC diversity currently seems to be sufficient to ensure the health of wild cheetahs, whether it can provide sufficient protection from future threats through emerging new pathogens remains uncertain. WEDNESDAY 4:0

81 58 59 S-O06 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY S-O07 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY PHYLOGEOGRAPHY AND HETEROGENEOUS SELECTION SHAPE VOMERONASAL RECEPTOR DIVERSITY IN MOUSE LEMURS (MICROCEBUS SPP.) SPECIES DELIMITATION IN THE GENUS GREENWAYODENDRON BASED ON MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC MARKERS REVEAL NEW SPECIES Ute Radespiel, Philipp Hohenbrink,, Nick Mundy Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, DE, Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK Brandet-Junior Lissambou,, Thomas L.P. Couvreur,4, Christiane Atteke, Tariq Stévart 5, Rosalia Piñeiro 6, Gilles Dauby,5, Franck K. Monthe, Bertrand M batchi, Olivier J. Hardy, Bonaventure Sonké 4 Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku Olfactory communication is essential for nocturnal mammals and many species possess a functional vomeronasal organ (VNO). The small nocturnal mouse lemurs of Madagascar presumably possess the largest number of vomeronasal receptors (VR, ~ 00) among all primates. The high diversity of VRs within this clade has been related to the fundamental relevance of olfactory communication and predator recognition in these primates. Previous genetic studies suggest an allopatric radiation of extant mouse lemur species with a recent expansion of one species, M. murinus, from southwestern to northwestern Madagascar. The aim of this study is to infer different phylogeographic signals and selection regimes that acted on the VR repertoire of two mouse lemur species differing in their evolutionary trajectories. To infer ongoing intraspecific selection regimes and phylogeographic history, we investigated sequence variation in seven V R loci amplified across multiple mouse lemur species and sequenced 7 VRs in sympatric populations of two species of mouse lemurs (M. murinus and M. ravelobensis) in northwestern Madagascar. The VR repertoire of M. ravelobensis showed a significantly higher genetic diversity on the level of nucleotides and haplotypes than M. murinus that can be explained by a longer evolutionary history of the former species in the region and a relatively recent founder effect in M. murinus. Whereas the larger interspecific comparisons revealed strong signals of positive selection across the VR repertoire, the population samples rather suggest the effect of purifying selection with one locus even showing evidence of functional loss in M. ravelobensis. Only a few loci in M. ravelobensis showed evidence of positive selection. The discordance of both analyses may indicate that early beneficial mutations at VRs may have been fixed over a short period of time during mouse lemur evolution and that VR evolution may have been rather heterogeneous and episodic over time. WEDNESDAY 4:45 (USTM), Franceville, GA, lissamboujuniorbrandet@gmail.com Service d Evolution Biologique et Ecologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, BE Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Montpellier, FR 4 Laboratoire d Ecologie et Systémique des Plantes du Département de Biologie de l Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) de l Université de Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, CM 5 Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique africaine, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, BE 6 Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Londres, UK Combining genetic and morphological markers is a powerful approach for species delimitation, much needed in tropical species complexes. Greenwayodendron (Annonaceae) currently contains two species of trees distributed across African rainforests. Previous genetic studies have suggested that this genus could contain cryptic species. We tested species delineation within Greenwayodendron by combining morphological and molecular data. First, we measured 6 morphological characters from 500 herbarium specimens. Multivariate analyses were used to identify groups of morphologically different specimens. We then tested whether these groups were genetically different. For this, a total of 800 silica-dried samples were genotyped using 8 nuclear microsatellites. Genetic groups were identified and characterized using a Bayesian clustering algorithm and factorial correspondence analysis. Morphometric analysis suggested the existence of seven different groups. Bayesian cluster analysis identified four different groups, while factor analysis identified three additional groups. These analyses highlight that Greenwayodendron as currently circumscribed underestimates the total number of species. Indeed, based on our integration of morphology and genetic diversity we identified two new species and confirm the new status of species for one variety. Our results support the subspecies status of G. suaveolens subsp usambaricum. The status of one group of specimens, all collected from Sao Tome, remains inconclusive. This is partially linked to the few fertile materials available. Our study shows the strength of combining morphological and molecular data, as it shows that potentially new taxa are to be discovered using these approaches. WEDNESDAY 5:00

82 60 6 SESSION INTRA- AND INTER-SPECIES VARIATIONS IN THE ALLOMETRY OF TROPICAL TREES AND CONSEQUENCES FOR THE ESTIMATION OF BIOMASS AND CARBON STOCK S-O0 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY STATE OF THE ART ON TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR BIOMASS/CARBON MONITORING AND ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE Adeline Fayolle, Vincent P. Medjibe, Moses Libalah Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, BE, adeline.fayolle@uliege.be Chairs: Adeline FAYOLLE, Moses LIBALAH, Vincent MEDJIBE Contact: adeline.fayolle@ulg.ac.be COMIFAC, Yaoundé, CM University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, CM Current and future decisions to attenuate the impacts of climate change is also dependent on the accuracy in quantifying biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forests which host the world s largest terrestrial ecosystems and play a central role in the global carbon cycle. However, while the knowledge, technology and savoir-faire in the latter subject are witnessing significant process elsewhere, other areas such as the Congo Basin forests in Central Africa, are far less studied compared to the other tropical regions. Because of the lack of site- or species-specific tree allometries for the estimation of biomass, most studies have therefore adopted approaches developed elsewhere or have relied on pantropical allometries hence leading to huge uncertainty on the forests biomass stocks, and dynamics. In the recent decades, a renewed interest has been observed for the estimation and monitoring of forest biomass and carbon worldwide, and specifically in the tropics with the ongoing negotiations under the UNFCCC for the implementation of the REDD+ mechanism. Because all methods to estimate biomass and carbon stocks contained in tropical forests rely on an allometric equation to convert inventory data into biomass estimates, tropical tree allometry recently received great attention from scientists and research sponsors. WEDNESDAY This session aims at grouping contributions: () on new approaches to build tree allometries, and specifically high-resolution remote sensing; () gather newly collected data on tropical tree allometry, e.g., PreREDD+ project in the Congo Basin, in order to have a better understanding of the variation of tropical tree allometry, within and between species, and within and between sites at community level. Studies conducted outside Central African forests are also welcome. Pantropical allometric models early developed in the 980s, and 000s, were recently revised and a global consensus is emerging toward a universal approach to estimate biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forest using generic allometric models. Many local allometric models were also recently established, specifically in places previously undersampled, such as the forests of the Congo basin. We believe that the newly collected data that have and will have strong practical implications for the estimation of forest biomass and carbon stocks are also extremely important to explore the between-site and betweenspecies variations in tropical tree allometry. Despite major advances in our understanding of tropical tree allometry, an integrative view on tropical tree allometry, its variation and ecological (and evolutionary) significance, is yet to arise. As an introduction to the session, we will present the interest of analyzing betweensite and between-species variations in tropical tree allometry, integrating methods and spatial scales, and bridging disciplines and approaches to reach a unifying view. WEDNESDAY 09:0

83 6 6 S-O0 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY S-O0 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY INTEGRATING ECOLOGICAL PREDICTORS IN A REGIONAL TREE HEIGHT-DIAMETER MODEL FOR CENTRAL AFRICA Moses Libalah,, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Vincent Droissart, Bonaventure Sonké, Gilles Dauby, Gyslene Kamdem, Narcisse Kamdem, Gilles Le Moguedec, Gislain II Mofack, Raphael Pélissier, Pierre Ploton, Stéphane Takoudjou Momo,, Nicolas Texier, Donatien Zebaze, Nicolas Barbier,, Pierre Couteron, STRUCTURAL, FUNCTIONAL AND WOOD ANATOMICAL TRAITS PREDICT DROUGHT RESPONSES OF COSTA RICAN TROPICAL FOREST TREE SPECIES Roman Mathias Link, Sylvain Delzon, Christoph Leuschner, Dagoberto Arias Aguilar, Juan Carlos Valverde Otarola, Marvin Castillo Ugalde, Bernhard Schuldt Georg-August-University, Göttingen, DE, rlink@gwdg.de Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Bordeaux, FR Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago, CR Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory (LaBosystE), Higher Teacher s Training College, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, CM, libalah_moses@yahoo.com AMAP, IRD, CNRS, INRA, Université Montpellier, Montpellier, FR WEDNESDAY 09:45 Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique africaine, Bruxelles, BE Tree height scales allometrically with tree trunk diameter but this scaling varies considerably between trees and sites. Because tree height is often estimated from generic tree height-diameter allometric models, this variation generates large uncertainties and biases in the estimation of the above-ground biomass (AGB). Growth in tree height is known to be influenced by ecological factors such as temperature, light availability, soil fertility and competition. Therefore, these factors can also be expected to impact the allometric relationship between height and diameter. The main goal of this study is to test the potential of some ecological factors to improve tree height prediction for central African forest trees. Diameter and height of 7,46 and 4,50 trees respectively were measured in nine sites hosting 7 -ha plots in three countries of the Congo Basin. Soil samples were collected within each plot and analyzed for 0 variables and bioclimatic variables were extracted from satellite data. We built height-diameter log-linear regression models integrating one to twelve ecological predictors and estimated their relative root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) and bias using a leave-one cross-validation scheme. We compared the predicted tree height and AGB estimates with those obtained from two existing pantropical or regional models (Feldpausch et al. 0; Chave et al. 04), henceforth named generic models. Our analyses revealed that using plot-level tree basal area and a precipitation gradient as additional covariates significantly improve the performance of the tree height-diameter model. The error in height prediction associated with this model was 8.9 % compared to 0. % and.7 % for the generic models while the bias was 5.0 % with this model and.5 % and.5 % for the generic models. Using these height diameter models for AGB estimation, our results indicate that the two generic models led to an AGB overestimation of 6.6 % (Chave et al. 04) and 4.6 % (Feldpausch et al. 0). This study thus presents an improved height-diameter model to predict the heights of Central African trees by integrating the effects of some easy-to-retrieve ecological predictors. Vulnerability curves (VCs) are an important tool for ecophysiological studies because they allow to quantitatively determine the drought response of plants. Parameters derived from VCs, such as the P50 (water potential at 50 % loss of conductivity), are mechanistically close correlates of plant drought resistance and have been shown to be closely related to a series of other plant traits. In our study, we test whether the parameters of VCs can be credibly predicted using a set of structural, functional and wood anatomical variables. Upper canopy branches of 0 trees from 0 species of tropical trees from humid low-land tropical forests situated on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica were collected during two measurement seasons in 06 and 07. VCs for at least one branch of each sampled tree were obtained with the Cavitron centrifuge method with a novel 00 cm rotor system. Additionally, we determined tree size, wood density, vessel diameter and vessel density for all sampled trees. We use a hierarchical Bayesian framework to fit VCs on our dataset using multi-level nonlinear models that account for the hierarchical nature of the data and allow to estimate the within-tree, between-tree and between-species variability in the parameters of the VCs. On a second stage in the model, we test for effects of structural, functional and wood anatomical traits on the shape of the VCs. WEDNESDAY 0:00

84 64 65 S-O04 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY S-O05 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY VOLUME-WEIGHTED AVERAGE WOOD SPECIFIC GRAVITY IMPROVES ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS PREDICTIONS IN A SEMI-DECIDUOUS FOREST OF EASTERN CAMEROON THE LIMITED CONTRIBUTION OF LARGE TREES TO BIOMASS DYNAMICS IN AN OLD-GROWTH TROPICAL FOREST Gauthier Ligot, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Dakis-Yaoba Ouédraogo, Xavier Morin,4, Sébastien Bauwens, Fidele Baya 5, Yves Brostaux 6, Jean-Louis Doucet, Adeline Fayolle Le Bienfaiteur Sagang Takougoum,, Stéphane Momo Takoudjou,, Moses Bakonck Libalah,, Vivien Rossi 4, Noël Fonton 5, Gislain II Mofack, Narcisse Guy Kamdem, Victor François Nguetsop, Bonaventure Sonké, Nicolas Barbier University of Yaoundé, Yaoundé, CM, sagang.bienfaiteur@yahoo.fr University of Dschang, Dschang, CM AMAP, IRD, CNRS, INRA, Université Montpellier, Montpellier, FR 4 Commission des Forêts d Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC), Yaoundé, CM Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, TERRA Research Center, Central African Forests, Gembloux, BE, gligot@uliege.be UPR Forêts et Sociétés, CIRAD, Montpellier, FR CEFE UMR 575, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, FR 4 Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, Montpellier, FR 5 Ministère des Eaux, Forêts, Chasse et Pêche, Bangui, CF 5 ONFi, Yaoundé, CM 6 Université de Liège - Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, AgroBioChem, Applied Statistics, Computer Science and Modeling, Gembloux, BE Wood specific gravity (WSG) is an important trait directly linked to the biomass of a tree and accuracy in its measurement will enhance biomass and carbon stock estimations. We here propose a simple method to obtain precise WSG values that integrates both WSG and volume distribution along the tree compartments into an averageweighted WSG (WWSG). This is thanks to an original destructive dataset of trees belonging to 5 species mostly represented by large trees (up to 45 Mg) collected in the semi-deciduous forests of eastern Cameroon within the auspices of the PREREDD+ of the Commission of Central African Forest funded by the World Bank. The variables breast height diameter (DBH), stem morphology (Sm) and WSG sources (from basal samples, WSGBase; from Dryad global database, WSGDryad) were combined in allometric models to predict WWSG. We then studied the influence of each WSG source on bias propagation from individual to forest stand scale from census data of 9780 trees belonging to -ha plots inventoried in the same area. A combination of WSGBase, DBH and Sm was found significant to predict WWSG explaining 8 % of its variation. However, replacing WSGBase by WSGDryad in the model explained 74 % of WWSG variation. At tree level, estimating AGB using WSGDryad and WSGBase yielded overestimations of 0 % and 8 % respectively whereas the predicted WWSG only produced an underestimation of %. At stand-level, predicted WWSG gave an average simulated bias of % ± 6.8 whereas WSGBase led to a bias of 7. % ± 7.5 and WSGDryad led to a bias of. % ± 8.8. We also observed that the stand-level bias obtained with WSGBase and WSGDryad decreased with total plot AGB; plots with a low number of large trees being the most biased in AGB predictions. The systematic bias induced by WSGBase and WSGDryad for biomass estimates are clearly not negligible but generally overlooked. The result in terms of application is, however, the same, as the use of WSGBase and WSGDryad, e.g. within National Forest Inventories or REDD+ scheme, will produce spatially structured errors, with different forest types having different overestimation levels, dramatically impacting broader scale extrapolations. WEDNESDAY 0:5 Although the importance of large trees regarding biodiversity and carbon stock in old-growth forests is undeniable, their annual contribution to biomass dynamics and carbon uptake remains poorly studied at the stand level. To clarify the role of large trees in biomass dynamics, we used data of tree growth, mortality and recruitment monitored during 0 years in 0 4-ha plots in a species rich tropical forest (Central African Republic). Using a random block design, three different silvicultural treatments, control, logged, and logged + thinned, were applied in the 0 plots. Biomass gains and losses were analyzed in relation to the relative biomass abundance of large trees and by tree size classes using a spatial bootstrap procedure. Despite large trees showing a high individual growth rates and holding a substantial amount of biomass, we showed that stand-level biomass production decreased with the abundance of large trees in all treatments and plots. The contribution of large trees to annual stand-level biomass production appeared limited in comparison to that of small trees. This pattern did not only originate from differences in abundance of small versus large trees or differences in initial biomass stocks among tree size classes but also from a reduced relative growth rate of large trees and a relatively constant mortality rate among tree size classes. In a context in which large trees are increasingly gaining attention as being a valuable and a key structural characteristic of natural forests, the present study brought key insights to () better gauge the relatively limited role of large trees in the biomass dynamics at the stand level and () carefully up-scale results of biomass growth observed at the tree or species levels. WEDNESDAY :00

85 66 67 S-O06 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY S-O07 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY VARIATIONS OF CARBON STOCKS IN TROPICAL FOREST; COMBINING VIEWS FROM THE FIELD AND FROM REMOTE SENSING COMPARISON OF LIDAR-DERIVED LIANA BIOMASS ESTIMATES WITH ALLOMETRIC ESTIMATES Sruthi Moorthy, Hans Verbeeck Jean Francois Bastin, Ervan Rutishauser, Sassan Saatchi, Tom Crowther, John Poulsen 4, Lee White 5 Ghent University, CAVElab, Ghent, BE, sruthi.krishnamoorthyparvathi@ugent.be WEDNESDAY :5 ETH-Zurich, Institute of Integrative Biology, Crowther Lab, Zurich, CH, bastin.jf@gmail.com Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box , Balboa, Ancon, PA NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove 46 Drive, Pasadena, CA 909, US 4 Duke University, Durham, US 5 ANPN, Libreville, GA Global estimation and monitoring of forest carbon are a major component of Global Change research. While remote-sensing data acquisition and improvement of techniques follow an increasing exponential curve, the assessment of forest carbon stocks and change at global -but also national- scale appears still very uncertain. Here, to illustrate some of the most important remaining gaps on our understanding of tropical forest carbon stock variations, we summarize some of the latest investigations we led on the subject with perspectives from remote sensing, from forest inventories and from tree anatomy. Merian Award Applicant Lianas are an important component of tropical forests, commonly constituting up to 40 % of the woody stems and about 5 % of the woody species. Tropical forests are currently experiencing large-scale structural changes, including an increase in liana abundance and biomass. Biomass of tropical trees have been an active area of research for the past few decades whilst liana biomass has received little or no attention. Schnitzer et. al. (Biotropica 006) developed an allometric equation relating liana diameter to biomass based on 44 lianas from four different countries. This allometric equation is the best general equation that is available for estimating liana biomass. Addo-Fordjour et. al. (International Journal of Ecology 0) developed specific allometric equations for estimating liana biomass in Penang National Park, Malaysia as the equation proposed in Schnitzer et. al., 006 significantly overestimated the liana biomass in this forest. The objective of our study is to quantify the uncertainty of the different allometric equations proposed for liana biomass estimation in literature. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is an active remote sensing technique that measures forest structure parameters with high spatial accuracy. We collected data with a Riegl VZ000 instrument between September 07 and October 07 from lianas within the COPAS (Canopy Operational Permanent Access System) site of Nouragues field station (French Guiana). We scanned lianas of varying size distribution (between to 0 cm DBH) in high resolution from multiple positions. To estimate the wood density, we collected micro-core samples of each liana. We manually extract the D point cloud of every liana from these scans by following them from the ground to the canopy. After extraction and isolation of the points belonging to a liana, we determine their volume by applying Quantitative Structure Modelling (QSM) algorithms (Raumonen et. al., Remote Sensing 0). We estimate the liana biomass from the total volume and the wood density based on microcores. We compare the LiDAR-derived biomass with the biomass estimates from the allometric equations. WEDNESDAY :0

86 68 69 SESSION 4 DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSES OF TROPICAL FORESTS TO INCREASING NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY S4-O0 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY BIOLOGICAL VS. ABIOTIC CONTROL OF BASE METAL BUDGETS IN A TROPICAL MONTANE FOREST IN SOUTH ECUADOR Andre Velescu, Moritz Bigalke, Jens Boy, Carlos Valarezo 4, Wolfgang Wilcke Chairs: Jürgen HOMEIER, Selene BAEZ Contact: jhomeie@gwdg.de Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe, DE, andre.velescu@kit.edu University of Bern, Institute of Geography, Bern, CH Leibniz University Hannover, Institute of Soil Science, Hannover, DE 4 National University of Loja, Research Directorate, Loja, EC Tropical regions are facing increasing atmospheric inputs of nutrients, which will have unknown consequences for the structure and functioning of these systems, no matter if they are within protected areas or not. Even remote areas are expected to receive rising amounts of nutrients. The effects of higher rates of atmospheric nutrient deposition on the biological diversity and ecosystem functioning of tropical ecosystems are poorly understood and our knowledge of nutrient fluxes and nutrient limitation in tropical forest ecosystems is still limited. Yet, it will be of paramount importance to know the effects of increased nutrient availability to conserve these ecosystems with their biological and functional diversity. In a tropical montane rainforest in South Ecuador, the alkali and earth alkali metals Ca, Mg, K, and Na are supplied by weathering of the parent substrate consisting of phyllites and metasandstones and by atmospheric inputs. Phases of acid deposition are interrupted by alkalinization through episodic basic dust deposition. Although the biological productivity of most terrestrial ecosystems is thought to be N- and/or P-limited, there is increasing evidence that the essential plant nutrients K, Na, Mg and Ca can also limit biological functioning. WEDNESDAY This session will combine recent results from experiments and observational studies with the aim to review and conclude on our current knowledge on the role of nutrients (and increasing nutrient availability) in tropical forest ecosystems. To explore the effects of dust deposition on base metal budgets and to quantify the biological and geochemical contributions to base metal cycling, we set up complete element budgets of a 9-ha large catchment in a native tropical montane forest in South Ecuador between 998 and 0. The catchment is characterized by a high annual interception loss (8-50 %) and a low contribution of stemflow to the soil water input. Mean total annual soil input (throughfall + stemflow + litterfall) was 800 ± 500 mg m - (Ca, mean ± SD), 9000 ± 50 (K), 4690 ± 69 (Mg) and 846 ± 59 (Na) of which ± 6 % (Ca), 45 ± 6 (K), 9 ± 0 (Mg) and 84 ± (Na) were leached to soil horizons below the organic layer. The three nutrient metals Ca, K and Mg were thus to a large part retained in the biotic part of the catchment. WEDNESDAY :0 The canopy budget of K was consistently and most pronouncedly negative. The canopy budgets of Ca and Mg were closely correlated and in most years negative, while the budget of Na was consistently positive, indicating net retention of this element in the canopy. The mineral soil retained % of Ca, K and Mg, while Na was net released from the mineral soil. The size of mainly biologically controlled aboveground fluxes of Ca, K and Mg was - orders of magnitude larger than that of mainly geochemically controlled fluxes which are driven by sorption to soil and weathering. If estimated dry deposition was included, the system accumulated 86 kg Ca.ha - and 99 kg K.ha -, had a nearly balanced budget of Mg (+0. kg.ha - ) and lost 56 kg of Na.ha - in the 5 years of the long term ecosystem study. The strongest driver of all budgets was the input flux into the various compartments.

87 70 7 S4-O0 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY NUTRIENT INPUTS ALTER ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGAL ASSEMBLAGES IN MONTANE TROPICAL FORESTS OF SOUTHERN ECUADOR S4-O0 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY ONTOGENIC AND TRAIT-BASED RESPONSES OF COMMON TREE SPECIES TO ALTERED NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY IN A TROPICAL MONTANE FOREST Juan F. Dueñas,, Tessa Camenzind,, Julien Roy,, Stefan Hempel, Juan Pablo Suárez, Jürgen Homeier 4, Matthias C. Rillig, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, DE, jduenas@zedat.fu-berlin.de Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, DE Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, EC Daisy Cárate Tandalla,, Selene Báez, Jürgen Homeier Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal. Escuela Politécnica del Chimborazo, Riobamba, EC, dmcarate@gmail.com Plant Ecology. University of Göttingen, Göttingen, DE Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas. Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, EC 4 Plant Ecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, DE Increased nutrient deposition has the potential to modify plant community structure and decrease tree diversity of tropical montane forests. Higher nutrient deposition is expected to alter tree community through trait-based responses of adult trees. Altered nutrient availability can also affect tree seedling performance (i.e., growth and mortality), which will influence the regeneration potential of the tree community. To our knowledge, no studies have yet investigated how long-term experimental nutrient addition influences the seedling community, and whether responses of seedlings and adult trees are determined by their functional traits. WEDNESDAY :45 The eutrophication of tropical forest soils driven by atmospheric nutrient deposition is a poorly understood phenomenon and a cause of major concern. Even more so, as the concentration of reactive forms of nutrients in the atmosphere has increased steadily in the last decades, mainly due to human action. Given that eutrophication will have a direct impact on soil nutrient pools, it is important to generate empirical data on the response of soil borne micro-organisms to this change. This information can assist in understanding the consequences that global change can impose on understudied tropical ecosystems, which are prominent biodiversity hotspots. Our research group has provided evidence that nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) additions to the soils of a tropical montane forests in south-eastern Ecuador affect the diversity and composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) assemblages. We also reported that different taxonomic groups within Glomeromycotina react differently to N versus P additions. As part of an ongoing nutrient manipulation experiment (NUMEX), our group extends this evidence by looking at how AMF assemblages along an elevation gradient (000 m 000 m) of old growth tropical montane forests respond to systematic additions of N and P. Using high-throughput sequencing techniques we present evidence that nutrient additions reduces, albeit not markedly, the diversity of AMF assemblages along the elevation gradient, while producing a shift in their composition. These results are interpreted in the context of the resource allocation hypothesis, while the possible consequences of this change for tropical forest ecosystem are further discussed. Within the Nutrient Manipulation Experiment (NUMEX), we conducted a detailed monitoring of seedlings to investigate changes in forest regeneration potential as a consequence of increased nutrient availability. After nine years of fertilization, our results indicate that increased availability of N and P affect the regeneration and growth of various tree species. Demography and composition of tree seeding communities have been analyzed after six years of monitoring 9 regeneration plots ( m ) equally distributed in experimental nutrient addition plots (+N, +P, +N and P) at 00 m in southern Ecuador. Preliminary analyses at the community level were performed to compare the responses of common and rare species among seedlings. The most common species were: Graffenrieda emarginata (Melastomataceae), Myrcia sp. nov. (Myrtaceae), Prunus sp. nov. (Rosaceae), Faramea uniflora, Palicourea angustifolia, Palicourea luteonivea (all Rubiaceae). Among these species, seedling growth showed individual responses to nutrient availability. Recent studies of mature common species in the same experiment demonstrated that functional traits of species are involved directly in the differential response to N, P or NP addition. Since functional strategies in early stages are of high importance for the competition among species, we compare how functional traits (LA, SLA, foliar N and foliar P) are involved in growth responses of seedlings and mature trees of common species. We expect that seedlings show generally more acquisitive functional traits than later stages. WEDNESDAY 4:00 Merian Award Applicant

88 7 7 S4-O04 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY S4-O05 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY TREE FUNCTIONAL TRAITS AND NUTRIENT LIMITATION IN AN ANDEAN ELEVATION GRADIENT SODIUM RETENTION IN THE CANOPY OF A TROPICAL MONTANE FOREST IN SOUTH ECUADOR Selene Báez, Jürgen Homeier Tobias Fabian, Andre Velescu, Wolfgang Wilcke Escuela Politécnica Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, EC, selenebae@gmail.com Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe, DE, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, DE tobias.fabian@student.kit.edu WEDNESDAY 4:5 Increased atmospheric nutrient deposition is one of the most pervasive aspects of Global Environmental Change. Our research indicates that trait-based tree responses to increased nutrient availability have the potential to affect plant community structure and decrease species diversity in a nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) limited Andean forests. However, the extent of nutrient limitation (for N and P) seems to vary along Andean elevation gradients. Furthermore, it is not well understood how tree functional traits are distributed along this elevation gradient. Thus, the present study uses Linear Mixed Models to explore () the relative nutrient limitation (by N and P) on tree growth along an Andean elevation gradient, () how tree functional traits are distributed across our elevation gradient, and () how tree functional traits affect individual responses to higher nutrient availability. This study was conducted in the framework of the ongoing project NUMEX (Ecuadorian NUtrient Manipulation EXperiment) in southern Ecuador. The NUMEX experiment was established in 008 and includes three sites at 000, 000 and 000 m of elevation. At each site 6 permanent forest plots of 0 0 m receive ambient, or moderate additions of N, P and N+P. In the plots, all trees with 0 cm DBH have been identified, labelled and their diameter has been measured annually. Sodium is an omnipresent element, which is primarily known as an essential nutrient for animals. Although the importance of Na is increasingly being discussed as a functional element, Na is only considered a supporting nutrient for plants. Yet, in contrast to animals and plants, little is known of Na demands of microorganisms in the phyllosphere. We present results of an experiment on Na absorption of phyllosphere microorganisms in a tropical montane forest located on the eastern cordillera of the south Ecuadorian Andes. We conducted our study in a 9 ha-large catchment under undisturbed lower montane forest, where ecosystem Na fluxes have been monitored since 998. Because the climate is dominated by the SE trade winds passing over the Amazon Basin, Na deposition is low, although the Pacific Ocean is at only 50 km distance to the West. Na concentrations in the ecosystem fluxes are low and catchment budgets indicate that Na is retained in the canopy. Since Na is not considered an essential element for plants, we hypothesise that Na is retained in the canopy because of Na limitation of microorganisms in the phyllosphere. To test Na absorption, we sampled leaves heavily covered by phyllosphere microorganisms and leaves without visible phyllosphere cover from tree species belonging to 7 frequently occurring plant families. The fresh leaves were sprayed with a NaCl solution containing mg.l- Na, which simulates the Na concentration in rainfall during La Niña events. Comparison with a control treatment excluded effects by abiotic Na fixation on the surface of the leaves. WEDNESDAY 4:0 The results showed a positive relationship between phyllosphere cover and Na retention, which was significant on understory tree leaves, but not in the upper canopy. Different habitat conditions in the upper and lower canopy seem to favor the development of different organism communities, which seem to have a different demand for Na. Interestingly, leaching of K, Ca and Mg increased with increasing degree of phyllosphere cover, which can be attributed to an intensified element exchange between foliage and phyllosphere with leaf age. These results suggest that Na availability possibly plays a regulating role in the study ecosystem which might even grow in importance if Na deposition from the atmosphere continues to decrease or stabilizes at the current low level. Merian Award Applicant

89 74 75 S4-O06 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY S4-O07 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY LONG-TERM LITTERFALL DYNAMICS IN TROPICAL MONTANE FORESTS IN ECUADOR: THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE, ALTITUDE, AND FERTILIZATION VARIATION OF TREE LEAF PROPERTIES AND FOLIVORY AFTER CONTINUED NUTRIENT ADDITION IN TROPICAL MONTANE FOREST OF S ECUADOR Kerstin Pierick, Nohemy Poma, Jann-Philip Ahlers, Andre Velescu, Jürgen Homeier Jürgen Homeier, Anne Bergmann, Katharina Giray, Carlos Iván Espinosa University of Göttingen, Göttingen, DE, jhomeie@gwdg.de Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, EC Albrecht von Haller Institute of Plant Sciences, Georg August University Göttingen, Göttingen, DE, kerstin.pierick@stud.uni-goettingen.de Universidad National de Loja, Ciudadela Universitaria Guillermo Falconı sector La Argelia, Loja, EC Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, DE WEDNESDAY 4:45 Litterfall is an important component of the carbon and nutrient cycles of tropical forests. In the near future, tropical ecosystems will be exposed to increased atmospheric deposition of nutrients, which is likely to impact their functioning. In order to study the effects of increased nutrient availability on tropical montane forests, a fertilization experiment was launched in the mega-diverse Podocarpus National Park area in southern Ecuador. Plots at three altitudes (000 m, 000 m and 000 m a.s.l.) were fertilized in a full-factorial design with moderate amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen since 008. Since the beginning of the experiment, litterfall rates were measured in monthly intervals with litter traps. Additionally, phosphorus and nitrogen contents of the litter were measured once a year. We analyzed the temporal development of litterfall rates and litter quality at the different altitudes and under the different treatments using mixed models. Furthermore, we used the mixed models to examine how both seasonal patterns and longterm trends in litterfall rates can be explained by variation in precipitation. Our results suggest that tropical montane forests of higher altitudes are highly susceptible to nutrient inputs, and that changes in precipitation can considerably impact litterfall dynamics. Merian Award Applicant Andean tropical forests belong to the hotspots of biodiversity. However, these ecosystems are threatened by deforestation and fragmentation, and also by increasing nutrient deposition rates. The Ecuadorian Nutrient Manipulation Experiment (NUMEX) was established in 008 to improve our understanding of effects of increasing nutrient availability in tropical montane forests. Old-growth montane forests at 000, 000 and 000 m asl are fertilized with moderate amounts of N (50 kg.ha -.yr - ) and P (0 kg.ha -.yr - ). Within the present study, we analyzed changes in leaf properties and herbivory on tree species and stand level. At the three elevations, fresh leaves of abundant tree species were annually analyzed for changes in their leaf functional properties (SLA, foliar nutrients) during nine years of continued nutrient addition. In addition, we used mixed fallen leaves (collected with litter traps after eight years of nutrient addition) to determine leaf morphology (leaf area and SLA), foliar nutrient concentrations and leaf area loss on the stand level. The tree species responded species-specifically to the added nutrients, most species increased foliar N or P when the respective nutrient was added. On the stand level, we found a significant influence of elevation on leaf morphology (leaf area and specific leaf area decreased with elevation), foliar nutrients (decreasing N and P concentrations) and folivory (decreasing leaf area loss with elevation), but nutrient addition did not produce strong effects. WEDNESDAY 5:00

90 76 77 SESSION 5 S5-O0 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT BEYOND BODY SIZE: CONSISTENT DECREASE OF TRAITS WITHIN ORTHOPTERAN ASSEMBLAGES WITH ELEVATION ECOSYSTEM AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ALONG ALTITUDINAL GRADIENTS Yvonne Tiede, Claudia Hemp, Antje Schmidt, Thomas Nauss, Nina Farwig, Roland Brandl Philipps-Universität, Marburg, DE, yvonne.tiede@biologie.uni-marburg.de Chairs: Eric GUILBERT, Marianne ELIAS Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, DE Contact: eric.guilbert@mnhn.fr Morphological traits affect the overall fitness of organisms as well as WEDNESDAY Mountains provide a natural gradient of environmental parameters changing with altitude. As such, it is a natural lab to explore many aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem structures related with changing parameters. Tropical mountains harbor among the highest concentrations of biodiversity on Earth. Mountain provided also refuge area to species when environmental changed during the past (like glaciations). As such community structure on altitudinal gradient may reflect past evolution as well as current environmental conditions. Climate change already causes montane species to shift their distribution ranges in response to warming temperatures. The session aims to consider all aspects of altitudinal changes and variations of community structure and ecosystems. It aims also to evaluate the historical aspects vs. current ecological trends that shape community structure. A better understanding of altitudinal gradient is crucial for biodiversity conservation, particularly in a changing climate frame. interactions with the environment and within food webs. Body size, for example, affects the fitness of individuals in various ways and patterns of body size clines have been studied intensively across environmental gradients, particularly with respect to Bergmann s rule. Yet, the applicability of a general rule for body size clines of ectotherms is still under debate and patterns of other morphological traits are nearly unexplored. We therefore studied how elevation (as a proxy for temperature) and productivity along an extensive elevational gradient (~ 700-4,400 m a.s.l.) on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) influence four ecologically relevant morphological traits of orthopteran assemblages: Body size (fecundity), wing length (dispersal), hind femur length (jumping ability), and eye size (predator detection) of 60 species. Bayesian analyses revealed that interspecific body size, relative wing length, hind femur length, and eye size of orthopteran assemblages decreased with increasing elevation. Our results suggest that orthopteran assemblages had higher fecundity, better dispersal and escape abilities and better predator detection at higher temperatures (low elevations) than at low temperatures (high elevations). Body size and relative eye size also decreased with increasing productivity. This contrasts assumptions from the resource-availability hypothesis, which would suppose positive relationships between productivity and the size of morphological traits. Instead, the absence of vegetation as a source of food and hiding possibilities benefited large body- and eye sizes that reduce the risk of starvation and predation. WEDNESDAY :0 Altogether, our study emphasizes a clear change of a significant number of ecologically important morphological traits along environmental gradients. Our understanding of species responses to changing environmental conditions can therefore strongly benefit from studies that go beyond patterns of body size and include changes of further morphological traits that influence the ecological fit of organisms in their environment. Merian Award Applicant

91 78 79 S5-O0 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT S5-O0 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT IMPACT OF POLLINATOR SHIFTS ON MATING SYSTEMS AND POPULATION GENETIC DIVERSITY IN A NEOTROPICAL PLANT GROUP MACRO-ECOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF HALICTINE BEE-MICROBIOMES Antonia Mayr, Marcell K. Peters, Alexander Keller, Thomas Schmitt, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter Agnes Dellinger, Ovidiu Paun, Diana Fernández-Fernández, Darin Penneys, Jürg Schönenberger University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, DE, antonia.mayr@uni-wuerzburg.de WEDNESDAY :45 University of Vienna, Vienna, AT, agnes.dellinger@univie.ac.at UNC Wilmington, Wilmington, US INABIO, Quito, EC Pollinator shifts, shifts in the functional group of a plant species pollinator, are believed to be triggered by changes in pollinator quantity and pollinator quality. In tropical systems, shifts from bee pollination in lowland species to vertebrate pollination (hummingbirds, bats) in montane species seem to be common as the activity of vertebrates is less affected by adverse weather conditions. Such shifts can have consequences for the plant species mating systems as well as for population genetic structure and diversity. Experimental studies support the hypothesis that birds and bats are more efficient pollinators than bees, transferring larger amounts of pollen and capable of spanning larger distances between plant individuals. However, the impact of different functional pollinator groups on population genetic diversity is still largely unknown. We chose the Neotropical tribe Merianieae (Melastomataceae), harbouring bee, hummingbird/bat and passerine pollination, as a model system to study consequences of pollinator shifts on mating systems and population genetic diversity. All selected species were self-compatible, regardless of pollinator type. No signs of pollen limitation were found in the vertebrate pollinated systems. Comparing two bee-pollinated populations at different altitudes, however, showed strong pollen limitation in the high-altitude population. Our population genetic results further support the idea that vertebrate pollinators are better at linking populations over large geographic distances, with higher levels of observed heterozygosity and higher population genetic diversity among populations than in bee pollinated species. The diversity and composition of microbial communities on wild bees is poorly understood. Their microbiome differs strongly from the one of domesticated honeybees, due to differences in lifestyle and behavior. The microbiome is assumed to be largely shaped by nest-materials and collected pollen. The microbiome on the bee s surface might also be affected by the composition of their cuticular chemistry. So far it is completely unknown how these associations shift with changes in temperature or resource availability. In this study, we test the effect of changes in temperature and flower preferences along an altitudinal gradient at Mt. Kilimanjaro, as well as the impact of host phylogenetic relationships and cuticular hydrocarbon compositions on the microbiota of halictine bees, with special focus on the genus Lasioglossum. We sampled 60 female bees from flowers from sites over an elevational gradient of 900 m. DNA was extracted from heads and guts and bee species were barcoded by Sanger sequencing. Metabarcoding was applied for ITS to analyze the pollen composition as well as for 6S to infer microbiota from the same samples. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles were identified by using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. We found a strong turnover in the microbiome composition following the altitudinal gradient. One of the major impacts was the decrease of Lactobacillaceae with higher elevations and lower temperature. Lactobacillaceae are common bee gut symbionts with strong importance in pollen fermentation and nutrient acquisition. Other bacterial families became more prominent in higher elevations, raising new questions about the functional role of these bacteria for host bees. WEDNESDAY 4:00

92 80 8 S5-O04 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT TRAITS THAT HELP BATS CONQUERING NEOTROPICAL MOUNTAINS: LESSONS FOR THE CONSERVATION OF TROPICAL FOREST ANIMAL DIVERSITY William Douglas de Carvalho,, Maraya Martins, Carlos Esberard, Jorge Palmeirim (speaker) cec - Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, PT, palmeirim@fc.ul.pt Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Seropedica, BR S5-O05 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT FERN ECOLOGY ALONG A TROPICAL ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT IN ECUADOR Laura Salazar, Jürgen Kluge, Jürgen Homeier, Michael Kessler 4 Research Center for Biodiversity and Climate Change (BioCamb), Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Quito, EC, inecotu@gmail.com Faculty of Geography, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, DE Plant Ecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, DE To identify determinants of biodiversity in Neotropical moist montane forest, we analyzed the structure of phyllostomid bat assemblages along an altitudinal gradient and tested the role of species traits shaping those assemblages. Using own data and published descriptions we compiled a dataset with the composition of assemblages at 5 forested sites, ranging from 60 m to 960 m asl, in mountains in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest domain. We then quantified how abundance, richness and diversity changed along this altitudinal gradient. Finally, we evaluated the capacity of each species to be present and thrive in altitude, and tested which traits may influence that capacity. Abundance, species richness and diversity declined markedly in altitude, due to a progressive trait related rarefaction or absence of species; low habitat specialization, tolerance to low temperatures and cave roosting facilitated success at higher altitudes. Because of this trait filtering and of altitudinal changes in resources, assemblages where progressively dominated by a smaller number of mostly generalist species. There were no mountain specialist species. High mountain Atlantic Forest harbors phyllostomid assemblages that are impoverished subsets of those at lower altitudes. Phyllostomids have a tropical origin, and may thus have a low potential to adapt to montane forest environments, which possibly explains the observed climatic trait filtering. Habitat filtering is also important, keeping forest specialists mostly at lowest altitudes. Protected areas in the Atlantic Forest are mostly limited to mountains. These areas are precious to protect biodiversity, including phyllostomid assemblages with unique structures and ecological roles. However, it is also critical to protect and restore the few remaining areas of lower altitude Atlantic Forest, which tends to host better populations of forest specialists, and have less climatic constraints for animal taxa with a tropical origin. 4 Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zürich, CH WEDNESDAY 4:5 Ferns and lycophytes (henceforth called ferns for simplicity) are widely distributed across the world with about 000 species. Ferns are more abundant and diverse in humid tropical forest, especially in montane habitats, where they represent between 6.5 and 5 % of the vascular plants flora at local scales. For instance, Ecuador harbors about 400 ferns species, although it is the smallest Andean country with an area of approximately 8000 km². The overall fern richness found in Ecuador is considered exceptionally high in comparison to other Andean countries (e.g. Peru: 00 species, Bolivia: 6 species). Although of the high diversity of this group of plants in Ecuador, few studies have been conducted to evaluate diversity patterns and its causes along elevational gradients. The center of attention of this work is the study of species richness, productivity, and interspecific competition of terrestrial ferns along an elevational gradient on the eastern Andean slope in Ecuador. In addition, we expect to evaluate in the long term, different aspects of fern ecology in permanent plots at the same gradient. During the first years of research, diversity and productivity were recorded at eight elevations (500 m to 4000 m) in three permanent plots of 400 m each per elevation. Whereas, experiments on interspecific competition were recently carried out at 4000 m, 500 m and 500 m. For these last tests, it was established plots of 0 5 m per elevation. Each plot was divided in 4 subplots of 5 m and only the second subplots were used for competition experiments. In agreement with other studies, the species richness in our elevational gradient showed a hump-shaped pattern, with highest values at mid elevations. Also, along the elevational gradient (regional scale), fern species richness was strongly positively related to fern productivity. Whereas, within elevational belts (local scale), fern species richness was marginally negatively related to fern productivity, probably driven by competition. Currently, we are carrying out an experimental removal of dominant terrestrial fern individuals to test the roll of competition on diversity. We expect that in the first few years after the removal, the fern individuals of the remaining species will show increased growth (productivity) per individual (because of reduced competition) but the overall productivity per plot should be lower than in the control subplots. WEDNESDAY 4:0

93 8 8 S5-O06 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT S5-O07 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT ALTITUDINAL FILTERING AND THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTHOPPERS (HEMIPTERA, AUCHENORRHYNCHA) ON MOUNT WILHELM (PAPUA NEW GUINEA) DIVERSITY OF VASCULAR EPIPHYTES ALONG AN ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT IN VERACRUZ, MEXICO Valeria Guzman-Jacob, Gerhard Zotz, Thorsten Krömer, Amanda Taylor, Holger Kreft Paul Chatelain, Marianne Elias, Adeline Soulier-Perkins, Eric Guilbert Mécanismes adaptatifs et évolution, MECADEV-UMR 779 MNHN-CNRS, Muséum National d Histoire naturelle, Paris, FR, plchatelain@gmail.com Institut de Systématique Evolution Biodiversité ISYEB-UMR 705, CNRS-Muséum National d Histoire Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography group. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, DE, valerova@hotmail.com Institute for Biology and Environmental Sciences. Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, DE Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales. Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, MX Naturelle, Paris, FR Vascular epiphytes are a conspicuous and highly diverse group in tropical forests; contributing substantially to local and regional plant diversity. This group of plants is particularly vulnerable to primary habitat loss and anthropogenic disturbances in forest structure, a typical example being the montane region of central Veracruz in Mexico, were fragmentation of the natural forest due to land use changes is one of the biggest threats. WEDNESDAY 4:45 Tropical mountains are critical spots for biodiversity research and conservation. Since the environment gradually varies along tropical slopes, they are also key models for climate change issues. Within these forests, species altitudinal assemblages can be shaped by numerous factors: biotic, abiotic and historical factors. Phylogenetic relatedness patterns along altitudinal gradients constitute a considerable source of information, and can shed light on ecological processes that structure communities. This study focuses on community phylogenetic structure of planthoppers, specifically the species rich and abundant Fulgoroidea families (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha), Cixiidae and Derbidae+Achilidae, along an elevational gradient on Mount Wilhelm (Papua New Guinea). Those taxa are strongly linked to vegetation, since they are sap-feeders or fungivorous, and therefore respond to vegetation transitions throughout the gradient (ranging from 00 to 700 m. a.s.l). In order to assess the factors driving planthoppers community composition, we recorded abundance data for planthoppers species along the elevational gradient and we generated a molecular phylogeny of the local species, using Bayesian Inference. We recorded 65 taxa. We then investigated the phylogenetic structure of the communities by performing a Spatial Analysis of Community Diversity. We also conducted an ancestral reconstruction of vegetation type and linked it with feeding characteristics. With a fully resolved and well-supported phylogeny, we show that Cixiidae are phylogenetically clustered along the elevational gradient, while Derbidae+Achilidae harbour a random structure, suggesting that local adaptation to elevation shapes community structure of Cixiidae, but not that of Derbidae+Achilidae. Evolutionary perspectives in light of the ecology of the species are discussed. Our findings highlight how crucial phylogenies can be in the study of tropical altitudinal gradients. This study aims at analyzing the diversity, distribution and floristic composition of vascular epiphytes along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity at the eastern slope of Cofre de Perote. We quantified species richness at eight different sites within belts of ca. 500 m each between sea level and,500 m, including six vegetation types (semi-deciduous forest, tropical lowland oak forest, humid montane forest, pine-oak forest, pine forest and fir forest) and a land-use gradient (old-growth forest, degraded forest and secondary forest). We established 0 plots of 0 0 m along the gradient. Epiphytes were sampled on one mature tree per plot from stem base to the outer portion of the crown, using the single rope climbing technique. Additionally, we recorded the presence of all epiphytes in the understory, using collecting poles and binoculars. A total of 97 morphospecies distributed in 5 genera and 5 families were found along the elevational gradient. Elevation and different land-uses were strong filters shaping the epiphyte species composition. Epiphytes were negatively impacted by human disturbance, species numbers in the disturbed and secondary forest were reduced by 0 % and 6 % respectively. We discuss the relationship of epiphyte diversity, elevation, and land-use gradients in the light of climate change and conservation. WEDNESDAY 5:00

94 84 85 S5-O08 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT PREDICTORS OF SPECIES RICHNESS AND COMMUNITY BIOMASS OF LARGE MAMMALS ALONG ELEVATIONAL AND LAND USE GRADIENTS ON MT. KILIMANJARO Friederike Gebert, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Marcell Peters University of Würzburg, Würzburg, DE, Mammals are of huge ecological importance and flagships for conservation. However, the factors promoting their diversity and community structure on tropical mountains remain remarkably little understood. Today, large mammals are threatened by human disturbances such as habitat destruction and hunting and may increasingly depend on the conservation of protected areas. Here, we studied large mammals (> 0 kg) with camera traps along extensive elevational and land use gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Using path analysis, we identified the direct and indirect effects of climate, area and resources on the species richness and community biomass of mammal communities. Furthermore, we tested how protected areas contribute to the conservation of large mammals. WEDNESDAY 5:5 Our results show that the species richness distribution of large mammals along the elevational gradient follows a hump-shaped pattern and is best explained by differences in ecosystems primary productivity along the elevational gradient. Moreover, we found that protected areas significantly contribute to the maintenance of mammal communities as they were exhibiting a higher species richness and community biomass than nonprotected areas. This effect was largely caused by the loss of large mammal species from unprotected areas (even those with natural vegetation). Our study suggests that resources rather than direct climatic effects shape species richness distributions and underscores the crucial importance of protected areas for the conservation of large mammals on tropical mountains. Merian Award Applicant

95 86 87 SESSION 6 FIELD WORK WITH HAND LENS: RESEARCH ON ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES S6-O0 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES THE TROPICAL LOWLAND CLOUD FOREST - AN EPIPHYTE HOTSPOT Robbert Gradstein Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle, Paris, FR, robbert.gradstein@mnhn.fr Chairs: Catherine REEB, Sanna HUTTUNEN Contact: catherine.reeb@mnhn.fr Research of tropical bryophytes benefits from tight collaboration with herbarium taxonomists and ecologists. Because of small size and insufficient taxonomic knowledge and literature, research on tropical bryophytes can rarely been conducted without identifying specimens with microscope and reference specimens in herbaria. Our aim in this session is to give an overview of current taxonomical and ecological research on tropical bryophytes and enhance collaboration between taxonomists and ecologists working on them. As research groups working on tropical bryophytes are typically very small and scattered in in different institutions and countries around world, session also provides an opportunity for networking and sharing research results and ideas. Cloud forests are widely distributed in montane regions in the Tropics, at elevations above 500 m; fog in the mountains develops on windward slopes by uplifting, cooling and condensation of moist air masses. Recent studies in French Guiana have shown the occurrence of cloud forest in lowland areas, well below 500 m. These forests occur in valleys with high rainfall; fog in these forests develops during night by cooling and condensation of moist air at the valley bottom, under conditions of low air turbulence. The fog (= radiation fog) gradually lifts during early morning hours by solar heating, and is cleared well before noon. Tropical lowland cloud forests have not received attention in the literature yet should be widespread; observations are available from Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, French Guiana and Borneo. The forest is rich in epiphytes, including montane species which descend to sea level under foggy conditions. In this talk I will present evidence from corticolous liverworts, epiphylls, filmy ferns and epiphytic biomass. WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY 09:0

96 88 89 S6-O0 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES S6-O0 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES RESPONSES OF TROPICAL LOWLAND BRYOPHYTES TO EXPERIMENTAL WARMING AND CO FERTILIZATION HABITAT SPECIALIZATION OF LEJEUNEACEAE IN THE AMAZON FOREST: THE ROLE OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS Maaike Y. Bader, Elodie Moureau, Nada Nikolic, Gerhard Zotz Sylvia Mota de Oliveira University of Marburg, Marburg, DE, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, DE Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, NL, WEDNESDAY 09:45 The tropics harbor a very high bryophyte diversity, but the warm lowlands seem to contribute relatively little to this richness. Bryophyte biomass is even more conspicuously reduced in most tropical lowland areas, compared to cooler montane forests, suggesting that high temperatures limit bryophyte growth. If so, then climate warming may be lethally dangerous for mosses in tropical lowland forests. To test this hypothesis and to study the underlying physiological mechanisms of climate-change responses, we are exposing various bryophyte species (mosses and liverworts) in the rainforest of La Selva, Costa Rica, to increased temperatures and CO, measuring responses in growth and gas-exchange rates. Concurrently, we are developing a model simulating carbon-exchange rates based on microclimatic conditions to predict responses under different climatechange scenarios. Diel carbon balances in bryophytes can be affected by increased temperatures through increased respiration rates and through faster drying, which restricts the time available for photosynthesis. Respiration rates in tropical mosses appear well-adjusted to current ambient temperatures across elevations, but especially in the warm lowlands, warming may move temperatures beyond the acclimation capacity or even beyond thermal tolerance thresholds. Faster drying will likely reduce activity times especially during the day, due to the typical tropical afternoon rains and high night-time humidity rendering bryophytes actively respiring, i.e. loosing carbon, during most nights. On the other hand, the concurrent increases in atmospheric CO may partly counteract these effects by allowing higher rates of carbon gain. Few experimental studies have addressed these questions in bryophytes in general, and none in tropical bryophytes in particular. We will present the first results of our unique rainforest experiment and discuss the implications for the future of bryophytes in the tropical lowlands. Amazonian bryophytes are mostly epiphytic, and species show strong habitat specialization related to the forest structure. The clear association between turn-over in species composition and the microenvironmental gradient along the host trees supports the idea that species occurrences and community assemblage are subjected to environmental filtering. The expectation is that features that facilitate species to inhabit a given environment will be significantly more present in the bryophyte community growing in that environment. However, the broad morphological variation within bryophytes limits the comparison among all species that occur along the vertical microenvironmental gradient. Lejeuneaceae is the only bryophyte family that has species distributed along the complete vertical gradient in the Amazon forest, showing specialization on both extremes the understory and the canopy. The relationship between Lejeuneaceae species occurrence along the height zones on the host trees and the possession of a number of morphological and reproductive traits was tested using data from a systematic bryophyte inventory from nine localities in the Amazon. While reproduction mode and the production of asexual propagules do not seem to influence species occurrence along the height zones, leaf pigmentation and the convolution of leaves during dry state facilitate canopy occupancy and hamper the occurrence of species in the understory. WEDNESDAY 0:00

97 90 9 S6-O04 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES CHANGES IN THE COMPOSITION OF EPIPHYLLOUS COMMUNITIES WITH LEAF AGE, HOST SPECIES AND MICROCLIMATE IN A TROPICAL LOWLAND FOREST Anna Mežaka,, Noris Salazar Allen, Maaike Y. Bader Marburg University, Marburg, DE Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PA, bryo8@gmail.com S6-O05 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES TAXONOMY, SYSTEMATICS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF AFRICAN ENTOSTHODON (FUNARIACEAE) Nicholas Wilding,, Bernard Goffinet, Rafael Medina,4, Yang Liu,5, Terry A. Hedderson University of La Réunion, Saint-Pierre, RE, nicholaswilding@gmail.com University of Cape Town, Cape Town, ZA University of Connecticut, Storrs, US 4 Augustana College, Rock Island, US Epiphyllous algae, fungi, lichens and liverworts (total epiphylls) represent a diverse but under-studied part of tropical forest ecosystems. The epiphyll substrate is inherently short-lived, although some leaves in tropical forest understories can live several years, thus allowing the establishment of well-developed epiphyllous communities. To study what factors control succession among epiphylls, we described epiphyllous community composition on leaves in three age classes belonging to different host species and located in contrasting microsites (closed forest and forest gap). 5 Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden, Shenzhen, CN WEDNESDAY 0:5 Epiphyllous communities differed strongly with leaf age. Total epiphyll cover and diversity increased with leaf age. The highest increment was that of lichens followed by liverworts and algae. Fungi showed no changes in diversity and cover. While total epiphyll and lichen cover clearly increased, liverwort and algae cover increased much less and fungi cover did not change with leaf age. The strong increase in diversity was mainly due to the increase in lichen species. Several indicator species were found for old leaves but none for young leaves, suggesting that succession is mainly an accumulation rather than a turnover of species. Host species and sites did differ in epiphyll cover and diversity from young to old leaves. Contrary to our expectation, liverwort cover and diversity were higher on leaves in gaps than in closed forest, while lichen cover did not differ. However, for gaps and closed forest several lichen and liverwort indicator species were distinguished. The next step will be to follow epiphyll communities through time, studying on an individual basis, whether and how species interactions control community development. The Funariaceae are a large family of soil-inhabiting, annual to biennial mosses of worldwide distribution. A recent revision of the genus Entosthodon in sub-saharan Africa counts 6 species, of which six are newly described. Phylogenetic inference suggests that the genus is largely paraphyletic with respect to Physcomitrium and comprises no fewer than major clades. Each of these major lineages are represented on the African continent and/or neighboring islands, often by multiple species. Species of Entosthodon otherwise occur throughout sub-saharan Africa although centers of diversity are found in the Cape provinces of South Africa and in East Africa. Biogeographic reconstructions recover an African origin for the two most diverse clades within Entosthodon, however, the extant diversity is probably best explained by a combination of cladogenesis and repeated dispersal into the region. WEDNESDAY :00

98 9 9 S6-O06 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES S6-O07 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES CLOUD WATER INTERCEPTION OF EPIPHYTIC BRYOPHYTES IN A PERUVIAN UPPER MONTANE CLOUD FOREST: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH BIOMASS AND WATER-HOLDING CAPACITY OF BRYOPHYTES ALONG AN ELEVATIONAL GRADIENT ON BARU VOLCANO, PANAMA Tinja Pitkämäki, Sanna Huttunen, Johanna Toivonen Eyvar Elias Rodriguez Quiel,, Jürgen Kluge, Glenda Mendieta Leiva, Maaike Bader Biodiversity Unit, University of Turku, Turku, FI, tievpi@utu.fi Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, Germany, DE, eyvarr@gmail.com Herbarium, Autonomous University of Chiriqui, Chiriqui, PA WEDNESDAY :5 Epiphytic plants account for high proportion of biomass in tropical montane rain forests. In high-elevation cloud forests, where frequent fog passes through the canopy, the majority of this epiphytic biomass consists of bryophytes. Together with physiological adaptations for water absorption and storage, bryophytes abundance implies a regulatory role in the forest water cycle. Epiphytic bryophytes capture rain and fog droplets, potentially increasing water availability, and stabilize forest microclimate by slowly releasing the accumulated moisture. Their ecological impact on forest hydrology has been especially attributed to cloud water interception (CWI) during dry seasons, but few studies have provided quantitative data to support this hypothesis. We constructed an experimental design to measure the cloud water input into bryophyte assemblages on artificial branches. To contrast CWI efficiency to functional traits of bryophytes, we used different dominant species typical of different parts of the host tree. Our results show that bryophytes water content changes following the daily fluctuations in temperature and humidity and that the magnitude of this variation is species-dependent. These findings highlight the importance of species composition as well as biomass on the ecohydrological functioning of bryophyte communities, both of which should be noted in conservation planning and management. Tropical mountain forests support a high abundance and diversity of bryophytes on different substrates. However, quantitative information about how bryophyte biomass and diversity change with elevation in tropical mountains is still scarce. The current project analyzes ecological aspects, such as the effect of climatic characteristics on the diversity and abundance of bryophytes in the Baru Volcano National Park, Panama. On the western slope of the volcano 4 plots, four at each of eight elevations, were established on an elevational gradient from 900 to 00 m a.s.l. Bryophytes were sampled in 0 0- cm plots on rocks, soil, branches, decaying trunks and the bark of live trees. We recorded the thickness of the bryophyte layer, species cover and environmental parameters. After collection, the water-holding capacity and biomass of all samples was determined. Identification of bryophytes and lichens is still ongoing. The bryophyte biomass and the water retention capacity per substrate area increased along the elevational gradient for each substrate. The highest forests (00 and 00 m a.s.l.) have isolated trees and many dwarf shrubs, and this is where the greatest development of the bryophyte layers (up to 6 cm thickness) was recorded. These patterns can probably be explained by the variation in microclimate along the gradient. At the highest elevations, fog provides a daily wetting of the bryophytes, especially epiphytic ones. At lower elevations the water supply is increasingly in the form of rain, which is less frequent than the fog. At even lower elevations (below ca 00 m) the amount of rain also declines. The apparent strong coupling of bryophyte biomass to precipitation regimes implies a high sensitivity to climatic warming and changes in the cloud base altitude. If diversity patterns follow abundance patterns, as we will study next, this means a serious threat of climate change to biodiversity. WEDNESDAY :0

99 94 95 S6-O08 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES S6-O09 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES CLIMBING MT. GEDE UP AND DOWN - INSIGHTS INTO SPECIES RICHNESS AND COMPOSITION OF EPIPHYTIC BRYOPHYTES THE MADBRYO PROJECT, A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO ENHANCE MALAGASY BRYOPHYTES KNOWLEDGE Catherine Reeb, John Brinda, Elodie Dubuisson, Michelle Price, Bernard Goffinet 4, Lova Eka A.P. Iskandar,, Michael Stech, Sylvia Mota de Oliveira Marline 5, Pete Philippson, Alain Vanderpoorten 6 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, NL, eka.iskandar@naturalis.nl Institut de Systématique Ecologie Evolution, Sorbonne Université, MNHN, Paris, FR, Cibodas Botanic Garden, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibodas, Cianjur, ID catherine.reeb@mnhn.fr Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis, US Along elevational gradients, three main patterns of species richness Conservatoire Botanique de Genève, Genève, CH have been observed in studies of different groups of organisms: 4 University of Connecticut, Storr, US increase with altitude, decrease with altitude, and increase-then- 5 University of Cape Town, ZA decrease with altitude. The latter, known as the hump-shaped 6 Université de Liège, Liège, BE pattern, seems to be the most common, but the factors causing WEDNESDAY :45 these three patterns remain unclear. Bryophytes have been included in rather few studies of elevational transects, and in Indonesia, no such study on epiphytic bryophytes involving multiple transects from different slopes on the same mountain was ever conducted. We established two elevational gradient transects on the North-North-East (Cibodas) and South-South-West (Selabintana) slopes of Mt. Gede, West Java, Indonesia. The gradients range from 500 to 700 m asl. each, and were sampled at 00 m intervals. This research aims to compare species richness patterns and composition along transects based on statistical analyses. Species richness distribution on both slopes showed a hump-shaped pattern that peaked at 900 m asl. The Cibodas transect is richer than the Selabintana transect, with 60 species (7 mosses and 89 liverworts) compared to 49 species (57 mosses and 9 liverworts), respectively. Based on pairwise elevation comparison, species composition is not significantly different between slopes, except for the highest plot (700 m asl). More detailed analyses of the species compositional changes along the transects are in progress. Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) are small terrestrial plants that primarily disperse via spores. They are the second most speciose group of land plants and play essential roles in water and nutrient cycling in many ecosystems. The latest checklist of bryophytes from Madagascar, a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot, contains 44 taxa, but comparisons with other regions suggest that this number considerably underestimates the actual size of the island s bryoflora. The MadBryo project aims to close the gaps in our knowledge by gathering together the specimen and taxonomic data that are currently scattered across multiple institutions, supplementing them as necessary with targeted collecting efforts, and using them to develop a comprehensive flora for the bryophytes of Madagascar. Together, these efforts will provide a strong foundation for pursuing further scientific research on Malagasy bryophytes and for promoting their conservation. Many historical specimens of Malagasy bryophytes have accumulated in herbaria over the years. Together they represent a large and mostly untapped source of vital taxonomic and biogeographic data, but many of them have not been fully curated and are consequently difficult to use. In turn, the inaccessibility of the information they contain hampers scientific research into all aspects of the biology of Malagasy bryophytes. WEDNESDAY :0 We present the actual state of knowledge on Malagasy bryophytes and then the MadBryo collaborative project, beginning by a coordinated effort to mobilize herbarium specimens and their associated data. We aim to provide here very preliminary results and to promote dynamic exchanges on Malagasy bryology.

100 96 97 S6-O0 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES EVOLUTION OF HABITAT PREFERENCES AMONG MOSSES (BRYOPHYTA) Sanna Huttunen, Lars Hedenäs, Neil Bell University of Turku, Turku, FI, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, SE Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Mosses (Bryophyta) together with liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and hornworts (Anthocerophyta) belong to the oldest land plant lineages. Division Bryophyta includes approximately 500 species that occupy wide diversity of habitats from tropical forest canopies to arctic wetlands. We used recently published molecular phylogeny including the largest sampling of mosses this far and data on habitats to investigate evolution of habitats and environmental preferences of mosses. Ancestral character state reconstruction highlights highly convergent evolution of epiphytic and aquatic habitat preferences among derived moss lineages. We will revise () research dealing with evolution of some morphological traits, such as sporophyte structure, structures related to water transport and growth habit, and () current knowledge on functional role of these traits in different habitats. WEDNESDAY :45

101 98 99 SESSION 7 MANIPULATIONS OF BIOTIC COMPONENTS AND THEIR INTERACTIONS IN TROPICAL FORESTS (FOOD WEBS) Chairs: Katerina SAM, Elina MÄNTYLÄ, Piotr SZEFER Contact: katerina.sam.cz@gmail.com There is an imbalance between experimental and observational data in tropical forest community ecology. Many hypotheses built on empirical statistical patterns still remain untested by rigorous field experiments. For example, predictions of the widely known Janzen-Connell hypothesis were only recently confirmed by pioneering manipulation of natural enemies of seedlings (pathogens and insect herbivores) in Belize and also producing some unexpected results. This shows that experimentation coupled with developments in ecological theory can enhance our abilities to look into and predict future dynamics of rich tropical ecosystems. S7-O0 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS EXPERIMENTAL DISRUPTION OF FOOD WEBS IN TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS Vojtech Novotny Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice, CZ, novotny@entu.cas.cz Experimental manipulation of exceptionally complex food webs in tropical rain forests is often the only feasible approach to understand their dynamics, particularly the balance of bottomup resource control and top-down control by natural enemies on individual trophic levels. Here we attempt a classification of various methodological approaches to food web experiments and give examples, mostly from rain forests of Papua New Guinea. WEDNESDAY In recent years, growing number of whole ecosystems/food webs manipulations proved through their abilities to falsify hypotheses explaining empirical patterns to be invaluable tools in understanding the dynamics and processes governing complex tropical food webs. As researchers usually need to follow rigorous protocols, carrying out whole ecosystem experiments in the rich ecosystems like the tropical forest is still burdened with many conceptual and technical difficulties. Therefore, we believe that initiating and intensifying discussion in this topic would accelerate finding new solutions, which would then help to increase the scope of the ecosystem manipulations and open the black box of experimental approaches conducted in the context of diverse interacting ecosystems. We propose a session that would cover broad spectrum of tropical ecosystem/food webs manipulative experiments. We would bring together researchers working currently on in tropics. Ideally, we want to engage scientists working on manipulations of some aspects of animal-plant interactions in different areas of the world. Our session scope is to include manipulations of primary and secondary forests, prey-predator, herbivore-host plant and host-parasite systems from various tropical ecosystems. We believe that this meeting would have a great potential to spark future collaborations and stimulate development of tropical forest community ecology. WEDNESDAY 4:00

102 00 0 S7-O0 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS S7-O0 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS WHAT TO MEASURE FROM PLANTS IN PREDATOR EXCLOSURE STUDIES? A CROSS-CONTINENTAL COMPARISON OF FRUIT-SEED SYNDROMES IN THE TROPICAL RAINFORESTS OF PANAMA, THAILAND AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA Elina Mäntylä Chris Dahl,, Richard Ctvrtecka, Sofia Gripenberg, Dominic Rinan, Jona Filip, Roll Lilip, Pitoon Kongnoo 4, Montarika Panmeng 4, Sutipun Putnaul 4, Manat Reungaew 4, Marleny Rivera 5, Simon T. Segar, Petr Klimes, Stuart J. Davies 5, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin 4, Joseph S. Wright 5, George D. Weiblen 6, Vojtech Novotny, Yves Basset 5 Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Science, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, CZ, elkuma@utu.fi Several meta-analyses and reviews have shown that insectivorous birds and bats help plants by removing herbivorous arthropods also in the tropics with a rich biodiversity. Predator exclosures around the plants are needed to study this. Conducting a predator exclosure experiment requires usually a lot work; starting from building the exclosures and maintaining those. Therefore, researchers usually want to measure everything possible happening to the predator, arthropod and plant communities. Counting the arthropods, and observing birds or bats is usually rather straightforward. WEDNESDAY 4:5 But what should be measured of the plants inside the exclosures and of their uncaged controls? The easiest measure is often how much leaf material the herbivorous arthropods have eaten. This is also usually the strongest effect of predator exclusion, especially in experiments with a short duration. Other rather easy measurements are stem width, plant height or biomass. A big portion of the exclosure studies in tropics have been done in agricultural environments. There it is understandably interesting to measure the amount of the final product, such as how much there are coffee beans, how big are kales or how many kilograms there is cacao. It is worth to measure also the flower, seed or fruit production of non-agricultural plants. There are much less measurements done showing of what is happening inside the plant. For example, are the plants without insectivorous predators forced to produce more defensive chemicals, invest more in trichomes covering the leaves or lower their photosynthetic rate? There is need for more plant measurements in predator exclosure studies, especially in the natural tropical forests. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia and Institute of Entomology, Biology Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, České Budějovice, CZ, cd.rokrok@gmail.com New Guinea Binatang Research Center, Madang, PG University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 4 Khao Chong Botanical Garden, Nayoung, TH 5 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PA 6 Bell Museum and Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, US ForestGEO is a global network of permanent forest plots established to study long term tropical and temperate forest ecosystem dynamics. Until recently the wealth of plant data from ForestGEO plots has not been used by entomologists. We compare fruit/seed feeding insect predators in three ForestGEO rain forest plot sites, Panama, (Barro Colorado Island = BCI), Thailand (Khao Chong = KHC) and Papua New Guinea (Wanang = WAN). Insect feeding on fruits and seeds may reduce the survival rate and mortality of seedlings thus influences plant species diversity and composition. We used a standardized protocol and reared fruit/seed feeding insects in these forest plots. At these sites, matured or ripened fruits/seeds were sampled from 46 plant species and were assigned to a syndrome category per species. We also took morphometric measurements of selected fruits and photographed them. We used Munsell Colour index and identified pictures to vertebrate dispersed fruit colour (black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, violet, white and yellow) by Janson (98) and Gautier-Hion et al. (985). Overall, a total,6 kg of seeds/fruits reared 80,600 insects representing approx.,678 insect species at three sites. We used these data and analyze the fruit syndromes in three tropical forest communities, and compared fruit colour distribution, since, fruit colour may be a by-product of selection acting on correlated characters, therefore, we expect high fruit colour similarity between KHC and WAN. Further, BCI understorey may be dominated by high number of small fruiting trees and shrubs, on average will have smaller fruit size than those at KHC and WAN. Finally, the distribution of fleshy fruited plants is largely determined by water-energy dynamics and seasonality, thus proportion of dry fruits will be high at the drier and more seasonal at Neotropical Panama site. It may likely explain that Neotropical rain forest exhibit high proportion of dry drupes, non-fleshy dehiscent, and therefore attacked by specialized insect communities. WEDNESDAY 4:0

103 0 0 S7-O04 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS COMPARING THE MECHANISMS THAT GENERATE SEEDLING COMMUNITY COMPOSITION IN A DIVERSE TROPICAL ECOSYSTEM S7-O05 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS ELEVATIONAL PATTERNS IN PREDATION, HERBIVORE PERFORMANCE AND HERBIVORY IN HOSTILE AND ENEMY FREE SPACE Kirstie Hazelwood, C. E. Timothy Paine, Harald Beck Katerina Sam,, Bonny Koane, Peter Amick, Vojtech Novotny, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK, k.j.hazelwood@stir.ac.uk Towson University, Towson, US Biology Centre CAS, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, CZ, katerina.sam.cz@gmail.com University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Ceske Budejovice, CZ The New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, Madang, PG The determinants of species composition and the processes that maintain diversity in tropical forests is of increasing interest to ecologists and conservationists alike. An inverse relationship between conspecific density and survival, known as negative density dependence (NDD), is thought to play a pivotal role in structuring plant communities, in particular at the seedling stage. The mechanisms by which NDD operates are thought to be heavily reliant on host specific predators, in particular pathogenic fungi and insects, and to a lesser extent mammals, though the comparative contribution of these predators to NDD is unclear. WEDNESDAY 4:45 Well documented seedling plots in a non-degraded lowland tropical forest in Peru give us a unique opportunity to experimentally compare the contributions of four different mechanisms to NDD in seedlings, and to examine their contribution to diversity. We excluded fungal pathogens and insects using pesticides, and mammals of two size classes using wire mesh exclosures from seeding plots spread throughout mature floodplain forest, and monitored survival over three years. Our control plots showed a strong negative relationship between seedling survival and conspecific density, indicating effects of overcompensating NDD. Fungal pathogens and small mammals reversed this effect, allowing higher seedling survival with higher conspecific density, while the effect of insects and large mammals reduced the strength of overcompensating NDD but did not reverse the trend. These results back up results from separate studies showing that the effects of fungal pathogens on NDD are stronger than those of insects, and that the effects of small mammals on NDD are stronger than those of large mammals. We are surprised to find, however, that small mammals generate stronger NDD than insects, since we expected insects to maintain higher host specific behaviours. Our study demonstrates the importance of fungal pathogens, and the understated relevance of small mammals in determining species composition in tropical forests. It is well recognized that predators can enhance plant growth by reducing herbivore abundance. Yet the strength of such trophic cascades has been found to be quite variable both within and between communities. We hypothesised that birds, bats and ants are important predators of arthropod. However, their relative importance will differ along a forest elevational gradient ( m). We also expected that various predators will affect prey in different ways, based on their size and life history. We conducted exclosure experiments at eight sites (500 m elevational increment) along the elevational gradient of Mt. Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea. We excluded ants, birds, bats separately and in combinations from tree saplings (Ficus sp., 00 per site) and completed experiment with work on control saplings. We protected saplings by nets (against birds and bats), by nets opened daily in the morning and in the afternoon (separate birds and bats) and by tangle foot (against ants). We surveyed insect communities and herbivorous damage every three months. Further, we completed our experiments with surveys of focal predators. Herbivorous damage and arthropod abundances decreased with increasing elevations, and exclusion of vertebrates and birds had significant effect on herbivorous damage as well as on arthropod abundances, and their body size. Bats and ants did not seem to influence insect communities significantly. Species richness of insectivorous birds and bats decreased with increasing elevation, while their abundances peaked at mid-elevations. Ant species richness and abundance decreased steeply with increasing elevation. We conclude that herbivore pressure and herbivore abundances are higher towards lowlands. Stable arthropod populations are remained low by natural enemies of various importance along gradients. Disruption on communities of natural enemies has the potential to allow arthropods to reach high levels, resulting in extensive herbivorous damage. WEDNESDAY 5:00

104 04 05 S7-O06 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS FUNGI, HERBIVORES AND PREDATORS CAN CHANGE THE COMMUNITY STRUCTURE OF EARLY SUCCESSIONAL STAGE OF TROPICAL FOREST Piotr Szefer,, Kenneth Molem, Austin Sau, Vojtech Novotny, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, České Budějovice, CZ, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, CZ The New Guinea Binatang Research Center, Madang, PG In the last few decades evidence has accumulated showing an important role of secondary forests in maintaining high tree diversity and ecosystem functions in tropics. Its conservation value can raise fast and plays increasingly important role over time, as secondary forests community structure becomes more similar to untouched primary forest. The outcome of secondary successional process strongly depends on the disturbance regime, time elapsed after disturbance and on landscape context of a former forest patch. Despite that knowledge very often the end results of successional trajectories remain highly unpredictable. After one year of regrowth 6 experimental plots (5 5 m) were harvested and total aboveground biomass of all species present within the plots was sampled. Plots were treated either with insecticides, fungicides, subjected to increased herbivory pressure or protected from birds, bats and ants with plastic fences and exclosures. Plant community structure responded significantly to treatments, resulting in changes of species composition, diversity, richness, productivity, and community weighted trait values. Individual treatments affected different aspects of successional plant communities, suggesting diversified roles of insects, fungal pathogens and predators in successional processes. Moreover, these responses were not always consistent between experimental blocks, which may imply complex mechanisms and interactive effects of local, initial conditions on the outcomes of food web manipulations during successional changes. We show that fungi, herbivores and predators can influence secondary successional processes. These findings may shed some light on high unpredictability of successional trajectories of tropical secondary forests, however mechanisms still remain hypothetical. Merian Award Applicant WEDNESDAY 5:5 Recent manipulative experiments in tropical primary forests have shown important role of pathogens, insect herbivores and predators in shaping the diversity and composition of seedling communities. These studies point out an important mechanism of mediation of plant competitive interaction, which have great potential to drive tropical forests dynamics. However it is uncertain whether these biotic factors are of high importance during secondary succession in tropics, where fast growing plants compete aggressively for resources. We designed a manipulative experiment to assess the effect of pathogenic fungi, insect herbivores and predators on general productivity, diversity and trait composition of secondary tropical forest in Papua New Guinea at its early stage.

105 06 07 SESSION 8 ECOLOGICAL NETWORKS UNDER THE TROPICS Chair: Colin FONTAINE Contact: cfontaine@mnhn.fr Ecological communities, whether they are forest, lake, savanna or coral reefs, consist of a wide variety of species that interact with each other in a variety of ways. These interactions are a key component of biodiversity in general and of communities in particular: all organisms depend on it for example to feed, reproduce or benefit from favorable habitats. Ecological networks are powerful tools to understand the organization and functioning of biological communities, as well as their dynamic and response to perturbations. The aim of this symposium is to synthesize the current knowledge on ecological networks in tropical areas, to investigate whether tropical networks differ from those at higher latitude as well as discuss methodologies to sample and analyse interaction networks. S8-O0 TROPICAL NETWORKS MOBILITY OF AVIAN FRUGIVORES DETERMINES THEIR ABILITY TO SWITCH TO OTHER PLANT RESOURCES IN FRAGMENTED FORESTS Eike Lena Neuschulz, Marta Quitián,, Vinicio Santillán,, Carlos Iván Espinosa, Jürgen Homeier 4, Katrin Böhning-Gaese,, Matthias Schleuning Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, DE, elneuschulz@senckenberg.de Goethe University, Frankfurt, DE Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, EC 4 University of Göttingen, Göttingen, DE Matching of functional traits determines the selection of potential partners in species interaction networks, such as between plants and animals. The composition of functional traits in species communities, however, often varies in space, for instance along gradients of human land use. Understanding how flexible animal consumers can react to changes in the trait composition of plant communities is crucial to project consequences for ecosystem functions, such as animal-mediated seed dispersal. WEDNESDAY We here investigate the ability of frugivorous birds to switch fruit resources between natural and fragmented forests by using a novel, trait-based approach, to quantify functional shifts of consumer species. We expected that a high functional shift between plant resources should be associated with bird traits that relate to foraging (i.e., avian bill width) and mobility (i.e., Kipp s index). We sampled plant-frugivore networks in a tropical montane forest in Ecuador covering three elevations and two habitat types (natural and fragmented forest) at each elevation over a period of two years. We measured functional traits for each fleshy-fruited plant and bird species in the field and on museum specimens. WEDNESDAY 09:0 We found pronounced variation in the functional trait space of the fruiting plant community between natural and fragmented forests across all elevations. Kipp s index was the most important trait determining functional shifts of birds, whereas bill width and phylogeny were not associated with functional shift. We conclude that high mobility enables birds to respond flexibly to changes in the trait composition of resource plants by switching to other resources in disturbed habitats and that linking species interaction networks and functional traits can help to better project the consequences of human impacts for ecosystem functioning.

106 08 09 S8-O0 TROPICAL NETWORKS S8-O0 TROPICAL NETWORKS SPECIALIZATION IN ANTAGONISTIC INTERACTION NETWORKS: SELECTIVE PRESSURES ON ANURAN CALLING IN THE PRESENCE OF FROG-BITING MIDGES THE IMPORTANCE OF SEASONALITY IN ORGANISING AN UPPER MONTANE FOREST POLLINATION NETWORK ON MT. CAMEROON Ulmar Grafe Yannick Klomberg,, Jan Mertens, Štěpán Janeček,, Michael Bartoš,, Robert Tropek,4 Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, BN, Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, CZ, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, NL Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Třeboň, CZ 4 Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, CZ The advertisement calls of anurans are subject to eavesdropping by illegitimate receivers such as competitors, predators, and biting flies. Here I report on the selective pressures that act on anuran advertisement calls and calling behavior from frog-biting midges (Corethrellidae: Diptera) from northern Borneo. Frog-biting midges feed on frog blood and are also known to be vectors of trypanosomes and thus must be regarded as having significant influence on the design of frog advertisement calls and calling behavior. In a tenyear effort, midges were collected directly from calling frogs and with traps broadcasting frog advertisement calls and pure tones in lowland mixed-dipterocarp rainforest and peatswamp forest in Brunei Darussalam and Sarawak, Malaysia. WEDNESDAY 09:45 Nine species of frog-biting midges were found to bite species of frogs. Frogs with advertisement calls below 4 khz were bitten more, suggesting a significant cost to calling in these species and an upper limit in the hearing threshold of most midges. In addition, sound traps broadcasting at high rates, high amplitude, and placed on the ground versus 4 m above ground were more attractive. Quantitative bipartite host-ectoparasite networks indicated an antagonistic interaction network containing both generalist and specialist relationships with significant specialization asymmetry. Host defenses and parasite offenses varied strongly in different frog and midge species. A significant role of habitat filtering, behavior, and coevolution in shaping network structure is proposed. Biotic pollination is a key factor in tropical forests, since 99 % of plant dependent on it. A crucial factor in shaping pollinator assemblages is climatic seasonality. However, currently there is a lack of comparative studies considering complete seasonal pollination network fluctuations at a given locality. To increase knowledge of pollination in the Afrotropics and gain further insights on the role of seasonality, we study pollination networks on Mount Cameroon, the highest mountain in west-tropical Africa. It offers a unique ecosystem diversity due to its bordering of several biogeographic regions and isolated positioning. Furthermore, Mt. Cameroon is one of the three wettest places in the world with per annum rainfall ranging between -5 m. The presence of two very contrasting seasons making it a perfect site for studying seasonal changes. Besides identifying the pollination networks and seasonal variations we also aim to test the pollination syndromes with this dataset. These syndromes have been tested and debated on a global scale, but data from West-tropical Africa is lacking. On two elevations (400 and 00 m) six 00 m transects were established in uppermontane forest. We recorded all flowering plant species from the complete forest strata and its visitors during 4-hour periods using video-cameras in both wet and dry season. This methodology allowed us to assess which flower visitors are potential pollinators. We recorded ± 600 plants of 05 different species. In the thus far analysed recordings we have documented over 0,000 individual flower visits comprising different visitor groups. Using this initial data, we will present preliminary findings of the role of seasonality in organizing an Afrotropical upper-montane forest pollination network. Furthermore, we will give insights in the applicability of pollination syndromes within this unique system. WEDNESDAY 0:00

107 0 S8-O04 TROPICAL NETWORKS TROPHIC STRUCTURE IN A TROPICAL CAVE ECOSYSTEM: SURFACE-SUBSURFACE ECOSYSTEM INTERACTION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION Daniel Husana,, Masumi Yamamuro University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños, PH, dmhusana@up.edu.ph University of the Philippines Open University, Los Baños, PH The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, JP TUESDAY 0:5 The absolute darkness of the cave ecosystem makes photosynthesis impossible, resulting in a scarcity of food. Nonetheless, certain animals that are adapted to long period of starvation live in this habitat. Here, we aimed to determine the source of nutrients for cave animals, and clarify the trophic structure and hierarchy in the tropical subterranean ecosystem as well as its implications to the conservation of cave habitats and its unique inhabitants. We investigated upland (freshwater) cave in the Philippines and used stable isotope analysis technique. Results of δ C and δ 5 N stable isotope analyses revealed the trophic hierarchy in the cave aquatic habitat. Troglobitic (cave-obligate) animals occupied the top level of the trophic structure whereas non-cave-obligate animals occupied the bottom. Stable isotope analysis suggests that troglobitic fish is the top cave aquatic predator feeding on crabs and crickets. The result also suggests that the basic source of nutrition for cave animals is guano rather than other organic matter such as forest litter. The presence of many unique and endemic cave inhabitants, and the surface-subsurface interaction and connectivity implied a major concern for management and ecological conservation, suggesting the need for protection of both cave and the surface environment in an integrated and multidisciplinary manner.

108 SESSION 9 FREE SESSION: FRUGIVORES, SEED DISPERSAL AND FOREST REGENERATION S9-O0 FREE SESSION: FRUGIVORES, SEED DISPERSAL AND FOREST REGENERATION IS FRUIT ODOR AN ADAPTATION FOR LEMUR SEED DISPERSAL? Omer Nevo, Diary Razafimadimby, Juan Antonio James Jefery, Stefan Schulz 4, Manfred Ayasse Chairs: Pierre-Michel FORGET Contact: pierre-michel.forget@mnhn.fr University of Ulm, Ulm, DE, omer.nevo@evolutionary-ecology.de University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo, MG University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, US 4 Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, DE Many angiosperms rely on animal vectors for pollination and seed dispersal. This resulted in an evolution of a plethora of floral and fruit traits which attract animal mutualists. In flowers, various studies have demonstrated the importance of both visual and olfactory signals in pollinator attraction. In fruits, visual signals have evolved to attract seed dispersers, primarily birds, which possess excellent colour vision. Yet with the exception of a few studies, the role of olfactory signals through fruit odour has remained understudied. WEDNESDAY Primates are now known to possess an excellent sense of smell which, in the process of food acquisition, is primarily used for food selection, i.e. identification of individual ripe fruits in a patch. Thus, if fruit odour is under selection exerted by primate feeding behaviour, fruits of species that specialise on primate seed dispersal are expected to be selected to shift their odours upon ripeness to allow primates to discriminate ripe from unripe fruits. In contrast, in species that rely on olfactory less-oriented frugivores such as birds, a change in odour profile upon ripeness may result from fruit maturation processes but is expected to be substantially less marked. We conducted a comparative study of changes in fruit odour in a community of 9 plant species from Madagascar. We show that plants that specialise on seed dispersal by lemurs the local primates tend to substantially increase their odour production upon ripeness while bird specialists or generalists do not. More strikingly, the difference in the chemical composition of ripe and unripe fruits is significantly higher in lemur-specialist species. These effects are independent of phylogeny. This indicates that fruit odour is an evolved signal whose function is to allow seed-dispersing primates to identify ripe fruits and thus facilitate plant reproduction. WEDNESDAY :00 Merian Award Applicant

109 4 5 S9-O0 FREE SESSION: FRUGIVORES, SEED DISPERSAL AND FOREST REGENERATION FOUR DECADES OF FOREST LOSS IN BORNEO AND ITS LASTING EFFECTS ON FOREST FRUGIVORES AND SEED DISPERSAL S9-O0 FREE SESSION: FRUGIVORES, SEED DISPERSAL AND FOREST REGENERATION LARGE TROPICAL AVIAN FRUGIVORES: A PANTROPICAL COMPARISON OF THEIR DIVERSITY, SEED DISPERSAL AND CONSERVATION STATUS Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, John Garcia-Ulloa, David Gaveau, Jaboury Ghazoul Olivier Boissier ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH, natalia.ocampo@usys.ethz.ch Independent, Paris, FR, olivier.boissier7@gmail.com CIFOR, Bogor, ID Large frugivorous birds in tropical rain forests can be comparable in size to their mammalian counterparts, with arboreal hornbills reaching the weight of a monkey and ground-dwelling cassowaries that of a bovid. These birds can also be very efficient dispersers of large seeds. But as primates and other seed-dispersing mammals are being extirpated out of ever increasing tracts of hunted rain forests, the role of large avian seed dispersers is likely to increase in these defaunated forests, so long as they can persist there. It is thus important to have detailed knowledge of this key ecological group. WEDNESDAY :5 Animal-assisted seed dispersal is an important ecosystem process often imperilled by habitat loss and fragmentation through the reduction of functional landscape connectivity. The loss of seed dispersal affects natural regeneration processes in remaining forested areas, and can limit the outcomes of forest restoration initiatives. To investigate the impacts of forest loss on animalassisted seed dispersal, we modeled changes in habitat availability, species distribution and functional connectivity of frugivorous forest vertebrates between 97 and 05 for Borneo. We mapped concentrations of 69 frugivorous birds and mammals in the island, using refined species distributions and habitat availability maps, and modelled landscape functional connectivity through graph theory approaches. Our methodology allowed us to identify the impacts of four decades of forest loss, characterize the most affected species, and create a vulnerability map of seed dispersal potential for the island. Spatially explicit models of habitat availability showed a mean loss of 0 % of species habitat in the period studied. Large vertebrates and lowland species were the most affected. Results of a mixed effects model showed that relative connected area loss was explained by the amount of habitat loss, with moderate impact of the elevational range of the species, its dispersal ability, and its ability to move through plantations. Given that oil palm only grows <000 m, and that it is the primary cause of deforestation in Borneo, lowland forests have been disproportionally affected. These forests are highly diverse and can house concentrations of up to 60 frugivorous species in a given patch. The extirpation of these species is likely harming native plant populations, with impacts that are expected to worsen over generations. Through our models we are able to identify areas that are critical to the conservation of functional connectivity for frugivorous species at the landscape and regional scales. As such, our approach can be used to prioritize areas for the maintenance of seed dispersal processes. These conservation priorities are especially important in the face of continued expansion of commodity plantations (such as oil palm) in Borneo. I aimed to comprehensively review and compare the diversity of large rain forest avian frugivores ( 00 g) over all four tropical continents and to assess their seed dispersing potential and conservation status. I selected relevant species in the literature and recorded their range, weight, habits and diet. I extracted global conservation assessments from the IUCN Red List. A total of 4 species of large avian frugivores were found in tropical rain forests worldwide. America, with 59 species, has the greatest species richness, and Africa the lowest (7 species). Australasia has the highest proportion of large avian frugivores over total rainforest avifauna, possibly in relation with the absence of primates. Arboreal species are significantly heavier in Asia (mean weight 870 g), while terrestrial species are significantly heavier in Australasia (mean weight.55 kg) than on other continents. A total of 4 % of all species are globally threatened or near-threatened. This figure rises to 6 % for species weighing over kg. Besides, 74 % of all species are declining. While their global situation is not as dire as that of primates, the conservation status of large avian frugivores is nonetheless very worrying. As dispersers of large seeds, the largest frugivore species (> kg) are essential for many rain forest trees, and their endangerment threatens forest regeneration. WEDNESDAY :0 Merian Award Applicant

110 6 7 S9-O04 FREE SESSION: FRUGIVORES, SEED DISPERSAL AND FOREST REGENERATION GENE DISPERSAL AND HISTORY OF THE COLONIZATION OF THE DAHOMEY GAP FROM THE CAMEROON VOLCANIC LINE BY GUINEO-CONGOLIAN FLORA Boris B. Demenou, Rosalía Piñeiro, Jean-Louis Doucet, Jérémy Migliore, Franck K. Monthe, Gilles Dauby, Olivier J. Hardy Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE, bormin0@yahoo.fr Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK Management of Forest Resources, Biosystem Engineering Department, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Université de Liège, Gembloux, BE WEDNESDAY :45 This study focuses on the history of colonization of the Dahomey Gap (DG) by two Guineo-Congolian (GC) plants species and the gene dispersal pattern that can explain the obtained demographical pattern. The DG is a corridor of savannahs located in South Benin and Togo that separates currently the GC forest into two blocks: the block of Upper Guinean (UG) and the block of Central Africa (Lower Guinean (LG) + Congolia (C)). It results from the fragmentation of the GC forest during the glacial phases. Currently, it contains some typical GC plant species. In this study, we used data from nuclear microsatellites for two GC forest species Distemonanthus benthamianus (49 individuals) and Terminalia superba (99 individuals) and from whole plastome for D. benthamianus (47 individuals) to infer genetic discontinuities and the origin of DG populations. We then investigated the gene dispersal patterns of T. superba using an indirect approach to estimate gene dispersal distances. As results, we obtained that these two species exhibit similar phylogeographical pattern with respectively high and low differentiation (FST) between inferred gene pools; but which results from different demographic histories depending on the markers: DG population come from admixture of both forest blocks with microsatellite data and only from the Cameroon volcanic line with chloroplast data. One explanation of these results could be linked to the gene dispersal pattern. We discuss these results in the light of the obtained gene dispersal distance for T. superba (400 m to m) in this study and for D. benthamianus by Debout et al. (0) and Hardy et al. (unpublished).

111 8 9 SESSION 0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME: CHALLENGES IN CONNECTING REMOTE SENSING, FIELD DATA, AND FOREST MODELS FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES S0-O0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME SIMULATING THE IMPACT OF LIANAS ON THE CARBON CYCLE OF TROPICAL FORESTS Hans Verbeeck, Manfredo di Porcia, Marcos Longo, Félicien Meunier Ghent University, CAVElab, Ghent, BE, hans.verbeeck@ugent.be JPL, California Institute of Technology, California, US Chairs: Andreas HUTH, Franziska TAUBERT, Rico FISCHER Contact: andreas.huth@ufz.de Tropical forests are characterized by complex patterns, structures and processes acting at various spatial and temporal scales. Consequently, forest attributes like biomass stocks or carbon, water and nutrient fluxes can vary in space and time. Understanding and predicting main forest attributes in response to global change drivers is a major challenge for scientists and policymakers. State-of-the-art methods like field inventories, forest modelling or remote sensing techniques are generally applied to estimate and project forest attributes under global change. However, each of these methods can be limited in terms of accuracy, extent or resolution leading to uncertainties. To overcome such limitations and to improve estimates of forest attributes, the combination of these methods represents a promising approach. We want to explore innovative linkages between remote sensing, field inventories and forest modelling at different spatial and temporal scales and to discuss perspectives of future research in forest ecology. We encourage scientists of different fields to contribute novel experimental and theoretical approaches that can be applied to characterize patterns, structures and processes in tropical forests. Lianas are an important component of tropical forests, commonly constituting up to 40 % of the woody stems and about 5 % of the woody species and contributing substantially to forest leaf biomass. Lianas compete strongly with trees for both above- and below-ground resources. Their indirect impact on the carbon balance, due to their influence on tree community dynamics (by increasing mortality and suppressing tree growth), is far larger than their direct contribution to biomass. Currently tropical forests are experiencing large-scale structural changes, including an increase in liana abundance and biomass. This may eventually reduce the projected carbon sink of tropical forests. Despite their crucial role no single terrestrial ecosystem model has included lianas so far. We have included lianas in a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model and test it against experimental data. We chose ED (Ecosystem Demography model version ), a model that occupies the midpoint on the continuum from gap models that contain individual trees, to area-based global models. ED explicitly tracks horizontal and vertical heterogeneity in canopy structure making it very suitable to study liana impacts at a large scale. At the same time, the very inner structure of the model, that is its spatial implicitness, constraints the programming design of this new liana PFT. THURSDAY The first part of the presentation will focus on the current representation of lianas in ED and the parameterization that has been used. We will focus mainly on the specific allometry and interaction with tree cohorts that we have implemented in the model. In the second part results will be shown where we compare the output of the model with data collected in an old growth forest at the Paracou site (French Guiana) and a regrowth forest in Gigante, Panama. We integrate the model with a multitude of data types: inventories, flux tower data, terrestrial lidar data, etc. By comparing runs starting from bare ground, runs starting from observed inventories and liana vs no liana runs we assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current model version and try to get a better insight in the impact of lianas on the carbon cycle of tropical forests. Our results indicate a total forest biomass reduction of 0 % due to the impact of lianas. THURSDAY 09:0

112 0 S0-O0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME IMPACT OF HYDRAULIC TRAITS OF LIANAS ON THEIR ABUNDANCE: PREDICTIONS FROM THE VEGETATION MODEL ED Félicien Meunier, Manfredo di Porcia e Brugnera, Long Nguyen Hoang, Hans Verbeeck S0-O0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME RAIN FOREST DYNAMICS UNDER DIFFERENT EXPLOITATION REGIMES Stephan A. Pietsch IIASA-ESM, Laxenburg, AT, pietsch@iiasa.ac.at Ghent University, Cavelab, Gent, BE, felicien.meunier@ugent.be Tropical forests play an important role in global climate change mitigation, storing about half of the global terrestrial carbon on Earth. These ecosystems are experiencing important structural changes, of which one of the most apparent is liana proliferation. Lianas constitute a taxonomically diverse growth form, making them difficult to study. That explains why they were ignored so far in models. Recently, however, it was lobbied for defining a new Plant Functional Type, representing lianas, in vegetation models, such as the Ecosystem Demography model (ED). Among other processes, ED is able to simulate the water fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, and it was shown that the hydraulic properties were responsible for the differentiated responses to water stress in seasonally dry forests. Woody vines exhibit contrasted properties as compared to regular trees, which should lead to contrasted responses to drought stress and hence abundances. We performed a meta-analysis of the literature to collect the available information about lianas (in particular, the functional parameters of the ED hydraulic module together with structural traits). The significant correlations between functional and structural parameters were then implemented in the ED model and four long-term simulations (with or without the lianas, with or without the hydraulic module) were run for a specific site. Among the tropical forests, moist and wet forests exhibit the highest tree species diversity and contain commercially highly valued timber. The density of exploitable stems per hectare, however, is normally restricted to -5 stems. Any timber exploitation is concomitant with damage and/or death of neighbouring trees and with the removal of several trees to gain access to the marketable timber resource. Depending on the type of forest exploitation concession, i.e. permanent, medium or short term, different harvesting and timber extraction strategies are applied. Within this study, the different strategies will be analysed for their sustainability in terms of Carbon stocks, Carbon sequestration and growth dynamics using model data fusion. Results from BGC-model application, calibrated and validated with a set of ~00 plot level data sets on soil, litter and biomass C - representing different land use histories and management strategies - revealed that () different growth traits are favoured by different management strategies, () ecosystem productivity response is non-linear and () that sudden shifts in productivity dynamics occur. Statistical differences were observed for hydraulic properties between the two groups. In particular, for the same wood density, lianas experience more severe cavitation which impacted their abundance, as well as the forest total biomass. THURSDAY 09:45 THURSDAY 0:00

113 S0-O04 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME PRODUCTIVITY OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST AND THE ROLE OF FOREST STRUCTURE Andreas Huth, Edna Rödig, Rico Fischer, Franziska Taubert, Anja Rammig, Matthias Cuntz Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, Leipzig, DE, TU Munich, Munich, DE INRA, Nancy, FR S0-O05 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME HIGH RESOLUTION ANALYSIS OF TROPICAL FOREST FRAGMENTATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE Rico Fischer, Katharina Brinck,, Jürgen Groeneveld, Mateus Dantas De Paula, Joseph O. Sexton, Danxia Song, Andreas Huth Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, Leipzig, DE, Imperial College, London, UK Precise descriptions of forest productivity, biomass, and structure are essential for understanding ecosystem responses to climatic and anthropogenic changes. However, relations between these components are complex and rarely investigated, in particular for tropical forests. We developed an approach to simulate carbon dynamics of around 40 billion individual trees within 7.8 Mio km² of Amazon rainforest. We then integrated remote sensing observations from lidar (forest height map) in order to detect different forest states and structures caused by small-scale to large-scale natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Under current conditions, we identified the Amazon rainforest as a carbon sink, gaining 0.56 Gt C per year. This carbon sink is driven by an estimated mean gross primary production (GPP) of 5. tc.ha -.a -, and a mean woody aboveground net primary production (wanpp) of 4. tc.ha -.a -. We found that successional states play an important role for the relations between productivity and biomass. Forests in early to intermediate successional states are the most productive and carbon use efficiencies are non-linear. Simulated values can be compared to observed carbon fluxes at various spatial resolutions (individual to Amazon-wide scale). Notably, we found that our results match different observed patterns (e.g., MODIS GPP). University of Maryland, College Park, US Deforestation in the tropics is not only responsible for direct carbon emissions but also extends the forest edge wherein trees suffer increased mortality (edge effect). Here we combine high resolution (0 m) satellite maps of forest cover with estimates of the edge effect. We show that 9 % of the remaining area of tropical forests lies within 00 m of a forest edge. The tropics house around 50 million forest fragments. Edge effects in tropical forests have caused an additional 0. Gt ( Gt) of carbon emissions, which translates into 0.4 Gt / year and represents % of the currently estimated annual carbon releases due to tropical deforestation. Fragmentation substantially augments carbon emissions from tropical forests and must be taken into account when analyzing the role of vegetation in the global carbon cycle. We conclude that forest structure has a substantial impact on productivity and biomass. It is an essential factor that should be taken into account when estimating current carbon budgets or analyzing climate change scenarios for the Amazon rainforest. THURSDAY 0:5 THURSDAY :00

114 4 5 S0-O06 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME GLOBAL PATTERNS OF TROPICAL FOREST FRAGMENTATION Franziska Taubert, Rico Fischer, Juergen Groeneveld,, Sebastian Lehmann, Michael Mueller, Edna Roedig, Thorsten Wiegand,, Andreas Huth,,4 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH UFZ, Leipzig, DE, franziska.taubert@ufz.de TU Dresden, Dresden, DE German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (idiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, DE 4 University Osnabrueck, Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrueck, DE S0-O07 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME EFFECTS OF FRAGMENTED FOREST DEGRADATION ON THE WATER CYCLE - INSIGHTS FROM A FOREST SIMULATION MODEL Mateus Dantas de Paula, Jürgen Groeneveld,, Andreas Huth,,4 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, DE, mateus.dantas@ufz.de Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Science, Tharandt, DE Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück, DE 4 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (idiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, DE Remote sensing allows for the quantification of global tropical deforestation with high spatial resolution. This in-depth mapping enabled us to achieve substantial advances in the analysis of continental-wide fragmentation of tropical forests. THURSDAY :5 We identified roughly 0 million forest fragments in three continents that show surprisingly similar power law size and perimeter distributions as well as fractal dimensions. Power law distributions have been observed in many natural phenomena such as wild fires, landslides and earth quakes. The principles of percolation theory provide one explanation for the observed patterns and suggest that forest fragmentation is close to the critical point of percolation. Simulation modelling supports this hypothesis. The observed patterns do not only emerge from random deforestation which can be described by percolation theory but also from a wide range of deforestation and forest recovery regimes. Predictions of our models outline that additional forest loss will strongly increase the total number of forest fragments (maximum by factor over 50 years while decreasing their size), and that this consequence can be partly mitigated by reforestation and forest protection. Deforestation is expected to cause large disruptions to the water cycle, affecting forest evapotranspiration and runoff, and causing changes in weather patterns and higher incidence of flooding events. However these disruptions could become much more severe, since the remaining fragmented forests continue to degrade for a long time after deforestation has ceased due to edge effects, a major cause of forest degradation. Here we use an individual-based dynamic forest model, parameterized with local forest inventory, climate and soil data from a 6,000 ha reference landscape from the Brazilian northeastern Atlantic forest, containing 0,98 ha of fragmented forest to understand the consequences of forest degradation due to edge effects on the evapotranspiration and runoff. We simulate forest areas of - hectares with 00 meter edge influence during 000 years in the reference landscape and observe the average changes to evapotranspiration and runoff due to edge effect mediated forest degradation. Our results show a reduction of 54 % of transpiration from a fragment of hectare (mean = 6 mm/ha) to hectares (mean = 790 mm/ha), and an increase of total surface runoff of 5 % ( ha mean = 74 mm/ha, ha mean = 40). Most hydrological change for transpiration and runoff occur for fragment sizes up to 50 hectares. When applying the model to the whole landscape, we found that not considering the effects of edges overestimated 4 % total evapotranspiration and underestimated in 45.7 % total runoff. This work demonstrates the importance of forest models in quantifying ecosystem processes under disturbance regimes, and can be incorporated to remote sensing products in order to further model regional climatic changes in precipitation and impacts to watershed dynamics or water environmental services. THURSDAY :0

115 6 7 S0-O08 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME DENSITY-DEPENDENT REGULATION AND DENSITY- INDEPENDENT LIMITATION TOGETHER DETERMINE THE ABUNDANCE OF A COMMON TREE SPECIES S0-O09 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME MODEL-DATA FUSION TO RETRIEVE TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES FROM SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS Marco Visser Jean-François Exbrayat, A. Anthony Bloom, T. Luke Smallman, Mathew Williams Princeton University, Princeton, US, mvisser@princeton.edu Stable coexistence requires that species have positive population growth rates at low density, and negative rates at high density. Yet few studies empirically quantify such population-level densitydependence, focussing almost exclusively on density-dependence of early life-stages, while none evaluated the relative importance of all underlying demographic processes toward population regulation. We used high resolution aerial pictures to quantify landscape-scale variation in adult density on Barro Colorado Island, in Panama. We used this to select ten nearby locations varying 0-fold in population density of a common tropical palm species Attalea butyracea. Subsequently, we established 0 4-ha field plots and followed the fate of seeds, seedlings and adult palms from 007 to 0. We measured all vital rates (growth, survival and reproduction) and quantified density dependence in these rates, and then applied density-dependent Integral Projection Models to integrate vital rate functions across the life cycle. Estimated population growth rates were positive at low density and negative at high density, mainly due to negative density dependence of seedling establishment. Invasion growth rates and projected equilibrium density, however, were mostly determined by transition rates of density-independent life stages that reflect light limitation. Our results highlight that density-dependence at early life-stages can regulate populations around observed densities, but that density-independent limiting factors are crucial determinants of species abundance, and ultimately coexistence, which cannot be ignored. National Centre for Earth Observation and School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, j.exbrayat@ed.ac.uk Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, US Recent model benchmarking and inter-comparison studies have highlighted some non-trivial uncertainties in our understanding of key terrestrial ecosystem properties. Differences in plant carbon allocation and residence times in particular lead to worrisome differences in terrestrial carbon stocks simulated by Earth system models in the present and their evolution under changing climate and disturbance regimes. Observations of ecosystem functional properties may only be available at local scale but wall-to-wall satellite observations coupled with model-data fusion approaches provide a means to retrieve them over large continuous domains. Here, we use the CARbon Data MOdel framework (CARDAMOM) to produce a re-analysis of the terrestrial carbon cycle in agreement with remotely sensed observations of leaf area and biomass stocks under current climate and fire regimes. CARDAMOM relies on a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte- Carlo model-data fusion to retrieve confidence intervals of model parameters that regulate ecosystem properties. We present pantropical results for the first fifteen year of the st century at a spatial resolution. Overall, the spatial distribution of retrieved plant carbon allocation strategies and residence times does not correspond to usual land-cover maps used in global vegetation models. A sensitivity analysis reveals that fire-prone ecosystems present shifts toward more allocation of net primary productivity to woody carbon pools, at the expense of photosynthetic carbon pools, which is commensurate with field observations. THURSDAY :45 In conclusion, CARDAMOM is capable of retrieving ecosystem carbon stocks, fluxes and traits consistent with observations and theory. It will be a tool of choice to take full advantage of upcoming satellite missions dedicated to observing tropical forests, and inform the development of more robust climate change projections. THURSDAY :0

116 8 9 S0-O0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME ABOVE, AROUND AND AMONG TREES: INTEGRATING INDIVIDUAL-BASED MODELLING AND REMOTE SENSING DATA FOR ECOLOGICAL INFERENCE ABOUT TROPICAL RAINFORESTS Fabian Jörg Fischer,, Jérôme Chave, S0-O TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME DESCRIBING -D STRUCTURE OF TROPICAL FORESTS FROM RADAR ACQUISITIONS: POTENTIALS, CHALLENGES, AND LINKS TO GROUND AND LIDAR MEASUREMENTS Matteo Pardini, Maria Tello Alonso, Victor Cazcarra Bes, Kostantinos Papathanassiou German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, DE, matteo.pardini@dlr.de CNRS, Toulouse, FR, fabian.j.d.fischer@gmx.de THURSDAY :45 Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, FR Research into the ecology of tropical rainforests has made important progress in recent years. We have not only deepened our understanding of ecosystem processes across scales (from the ecophysiology of individual organisms to regional biodiversity patterns), but also seen significant improvements regarding both data quality and quantity. New data sources such as remote sensing have been successfully developed, and existing data sets are increasingly consolidated and made accessible in open databases. Integrating the resulting wealth of information into a coherent picture of tropical rainforests remains, however, an altogether different challenge. This becomes particularly apparent when looking at mechanistic models that simulate the emergence of patterns through underlying processes. While the approach is highly promising given its integrative powers, it is far from clear how to strike the right balance between the theoretical knowledge of the processes involved and our practical abilities to parameterize them for species-rich tropical communities. With regard to these questions, we propose an innovative approach that relies on mechanistic modelling and combines it with techniques known from Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). Remote sensing data can thus be linked back to ecologically meaningful units such as individual trees and help make inferences about processes that would be difficult to parameterize otherwise. We here present results from a suite of simulation runs with the individual-based forest growth simulator TROLL which has been applied to a tropical rainforest in French Guiana. Using LiDAR data from recent flights in French Guiana, we will demonstrate how we can effectively narrow down ill-constrained parameters through remote sensing data, gain insight into the emergence of forest structure and investigate the respective roles of intraspecific and interspecific variation in the process. Remote sensing systems have been demonstrated to be a powerful source of information for monitoring tropical forest ecosystems. In particular, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and LIght Detection And Ranging (lidar) systems provide measurements sensitive to -D forest structure parameters at high spatial resolution. This is of critical importance given the high spatial heterogeneity and complexity of tropical forests. In particular, SAR acquisitions in tomographic mode enable the estimation of -D radar reflectivity profiles. A framework for qualitative and quantitative forest structure estimation from these reflectivity profiles has been recently proposed. It is based on a pair of complementary indices for the characterization of horizontal and vertical structure. In order to ensure the physical interpretation and ecological relevance, the indices have been derived in correspondence of structure indices already established in forestry and ecology studies. This two-index framework has been shown to provide: () the systematic interpretation of the D radar reflectivity in terms of physical forest structure. This is not always an intuitive task because of the dependency of radar reflectivity on system parameters as well as on the geometric and dielectric properties of the forest. () the direct comparison of forest structure estimates from field inventory data to estimates derived from radar and even lidar measurements. In this presentation, potentials and challenges of the application of this framework to tropical forests are discussed. Results from the recent AfriSAR campaign, in which timecoincident SAR and lidar data were acquired over several tropical forest sites in Gabon, will be presented. The correspondence between the structure descriptors calculated from remote sensing data and ground measurements, together with the behaviour of the obtained forest structure estimates as a function of the spatial scale will be addressed as well. THURSDAY 4:00

117 0 S0-O TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME FOREST AGE STRUCTURE ASSUMPTIONS WITHIN GLOBAL FOREST MODEL. BRAZIL CASE STUDY S0-O TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME ELEVATION GRADIENTS SHAPE TREE DISTRIBUTIONS IN TROPICAL FORESTS Olga Turkovska, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Stephan Pietsch, Aline Soterroni, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, AT, National Institute for Space Research, Sao Paulo, BR James Margrove, Christopher Philipson, Robert Bagchi, Colin Maycock, David Burlsem 4, Jaboury Ghazoul ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH, University of Connecticut, Connecticut, US Current aboveground biomass is a key quantity researched by spatially explicit forest and land-use models, estimated through net primary production, forest area, forest age structure etc. Of these factors, forest age structure has been difficult to constrain due to a lack of observations and geographical heterogeneity. Moreover, forest age structure simulation within forest and land-use models is limited to several assumptions, often without actual connection to spatial data and consideration of forest types particularities, e.g. tropical forests. However, forest age structure, i.e. distribution of forest area amongst age classes significantly impact the estimates for current aboveground biomass on the site-specific and regional scale. For instance, forest age structure within spatially explicit global forest model (G4M) is described on a level of a spatial unit ( ) as a uniform distribution of the forest area amongst age classes (normal forest). While the number of age classes depends on selected time step and the last age class is constrained by rotation time for a forest in the spatial unit. However, evidence suggests that a uniform age structure assumption does not adequately capture the forest structure in tropics, for example, in Brazil. At the same time, the question what would be the adequate assumption for simulating tropical forest structure remains open. The study researches the adequacy of the normal forest assumption for simulating forest age structure applied in G4M and investigates the impact of variations in the age structure assumptions of tropical forest, for example by applying site and country-specific assumptions based on the literature and observations (e.g. In particular, this exercise explores the changes in aboveground biomass estimates due to different approaches towards age structure simulation within G4M for the tropical forests. Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MY 4 University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK Variation in the topographical distribution of tropical tree species has long been associated with local soil water availability. The fundamental drivers of these patterns, which contribute to mechanisms of species coexistence remain poorly resolved. We experimentally quantified the sensitivity of seedlings of 6 tree species to ephemeral water inundation across micro-topographical gradients (on the scale of a few tens of centimetres) and characterised adult tree distributions of these species across a more extensive macrotopographical gradients (tens of metres) using spatial point pattern analysis. We show that species-specific seedling sensitivity to water inundation and trait wood density explain a large component (70. %) of adult elevation distribution. Seedlings of trees that typically occur at higher elevations and thus drier localities are more sensitive to water inundation. These species tend to have high wood density. Seedlings of adults whose distribution predominantly lies within low-lying wetter areas have higher tolerances to flooding, and these species tend to have lower wood densities. We suggest that communities of tropical forest trees express fine scale partitioning along soil water gradients. Water inundation episodes on the scale of tens of centimetres act on early life stages in wetter low lying regions to filter out sensitive species. We also reveal an elevation gradient of increasing species wood densities even after controlling for inundation sensitivities. Wood density has long been associated as a trait coupled with stress tolerance, and we suggest and periodic droughts enable these species to grow on higher elevations. With this knowledge, it is becoming ever clearer that an increasingly variable rainfall amplitude in the region will affect the spatial structure, species composition, and diversity of future forests. THURSDAY 4:5 THURSDAY 4:0

118 S0-O4 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME MAPPING TROPICAL DISTURBED FORESTS IN MATO GROSSO THROUGH LANDSAT SURFACE REFLECTANCE TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS Yunxia Wang, Guy Ziv, Marcos Adami, Edward Mitchard, Sarah Batterman, Timothy Baker, Wolfgang Buermann, David Galbraith S0-O5 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME CARBON RECOVERY OF LOGGED FORESTS Christopher Philipson,, Mark E. J. Cutler, Philip G. Brodrick, Gregory P. Asner, Doreen S. Boyd 4, Pedro Moura Costa 5, Giles Foody 4, Geertje M.F van der Heijde 4, Philippa R. Lincoln 6, Michelle A. Pinard 7, Glen Reynolds 8, Martijn Snoep 9, Hamzah Tangki 0, John Tay, Yap Sau Wai 0, David F.R.P. Burslem 7 University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, gyyw@leeds.ac.uk National Institute for Space Research (INPE) Amazon Regional Center, Belém, BR University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK ETH Zürich, Zürich, CH, christopher.philipson@usys.ethz.ch Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA 9405, US 4 School of Geography University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Tropical disturbed forests play an important role in global carbon sequestration due to their rapid biomass accumulation rates. However, the accurate estimation of carbon stocks in disturbed forests is still challenging due to large uncertainties in the extent and spatial distribution of disturbed forests. Using Google Earth Engine (GEE), we developed an automated approach to map forests that have been disturbed between using time-series of Landsat surface reflectance imagery. This approach combines temporal trajectories of Landsat spectral bands and four vegetation indices with a random forest classification algorithm. We demonstrated the feasibility of this method to map disturbed forests in three different forest ecoregions, namely seasonal forest, moist forest and dry forest in Mato Grosso, Brazil. 5 Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 6 LTS International, Edinburgh, UK 7 The Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, The University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK 8 Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Lahad Datu, MY 9 Face the Future, Wageningen, NL 0 Yayasan Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MY School of International Tropical Forestry, University Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MY THURSDAY 4:45 The overall mapping accuracy varied from 8. % for moist forest to 85.5 % for seasonal forest. According to our classification, the dry forest ecoregion experienced the most severe disturbances with 8.5 % of forests being disturbed during our period of interest, followed by seasonal forest and moist forest. We further separated disturbed forest into degraded forest and post-deforestation regrowth forest based on an existing post-deforestation land use map. We found that the area of degraded forest was up to 50 % larger than post-deforestation regrowth forest, with.8 % of primary forests in Mato Grosso currently degraded. The methodology developed in this study was found to be an accurate and efficient approach to map tropical disturbed forests including both degraded forests and post-deforestation regrowth forests. Applying this new classification approach to other tropical areas will provide a better constraint on the spatial extent and magnitude of disturbed forests and ultimately their importance in the global carbon cycle. Merian Award Applicant Logged-over tropical forests harbour substantial amounts of biodiversity and forest carbon, yet are under ever-increasing threat of land use change. Protecting logged forest from conversion to plantations could help maintain terrestrial carbon stocks, which could be funded by avoided-deforestation carbon-credit schemes. However, there are very few studies reporting the rate of biomass and carbon recovery of logged-forests in Southeast Asia. Accurate estimates of carbon recovery rates are essential to ensure carbonoffset projects are economically viable. To assess the Aboveground Carbon Density (ACD) recovery of logged-forest through time, we combined three different networks of plots in the Ulu-Segama Forest Reserve in Sabah, Malaysia, with historic logging data. All of the forest plots where measured twice between 996 and 06, accounting for the inherent variation in logged forests and enabling us to estimate recovery rates over a 0-yr interval. The measured values of ACD in plots combined with a history of times since logging provide a high temporal-resolution to determine carbon recovery rates. We then extend this analysis using extrapolations from a high-resolution carbon map of the entire forest reserve constructed using an airborne LiDAR survey. This combination of approaches provides the first highly resolved estimates of carbon recovery rates following logging for Southeast Asian lowland dipterocarp forests and highlights their potential for rapid recovery. THURSDAY 5:00

119 4 5 S0-O6 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME VARIATION IN SPACE AND TIME OF ANT DISTRIBUTION AMONG GROUND LAYERS IN AN ECUADORIAN PREMONTANE FOREST Maurice Leponce,, Justine Jacquemin,, Yves Roisin Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, BE Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE, maurice.leponce@ulb.ac.be Nearly half of the ant species present in a tropical forest are directly in contact with the ground for nesting or foraging, with evidence of vertical stratification among ground layers (i.e., surface, litter, and soil). How ants in each layer respond to environmental factors and to seasonality remains little studied. We hypothesized that ant species distribution varied spatially and seasonally among the three ground layers and that their distribution was distinctly affected by various abiotic and biotic factors. The ant distribution was analysed spatio-temporally: vertically (between the ground surface, leaf-litter, and mineral soil, using pitfalls, Winkler, and soil cores), horizontally (every meter along a 00 m transect) and seasonally (between the dry and the rainy seasons). Four environmental parameters were measured every meter along the transect: canopy openness, slope, leaf-litter volume and soil properties. THURSDAY 5:5 Our results showed a clear vertical stratification, with distinct faunal composition in each layer and a strong seasonal effect. Stable distribution of several dominant species between seasons suggests a low nest relocation rate. During the dry season, higher ant richness and abundance were found in pitfall traps suggesting higher activity on the surface of the forest floor. Similarly, higher ant richness and abundance found in the soil during the dry season suggest the migration of drought-sensitive species downwards deeper into the soil. Species richness and dominant species distribution were related to distinct factors according to the layer considered; we found strong correlations between the quantity of leaf-litter and dominant ant species distribution and species richness in the leaf-litter layer, while no correlation was found with any factor in the soil layer. While soil properties influenced the ant distribution at the kilometer scale they had little influence at the meter scale.

120 6 7 SESSION TROPICAL FOREST ECOSYSTEM RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE Chair: Eric GUILBERT Contact: eric.guilbert@mnhn.fr Global warming predictions suggest many changes of climate parameters, even with the best scenario. We are already faced to these changes. In the tropics, already submitted to heavy anthropic pressure, these changes will deeply affect the environment. Forests are involved in carbon cycle and play a major role in climate system. How will react this ecosystem? How will react the biodiversity? Such questions are highly challenging as forests provide many ecosystem services. All studies that aim to analyse, model, project and predict global warming effects on all components of tropical forest should provide information and tools To make our planet great again? The session sets out to evaluate how global warming might affects current tropical ecosystem structure, species distribution and interactions, highlighting the recent advances in the topic. S-O0 CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON CARBON-SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL OF TROPICAL RAINFORESTS Jean-François Exbrayat,, David T. Milodowski, T. Luke Smallman,, Mathew Williams, National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, j.exbrayat@ed.ac.uk School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Tropical forests have been identified as both a major sink and source for anthropogenic carbon. Multiple international initiatives have been introduced to mitigate climate change by reforesting previously cleared areas and restoring degraded forests (e.g. UN- REDD). Key to implementing effective mitigation plans is knowledge of the capacity of forests to grow and store carbon under projected climate change. This capacity remains poorly constrained. Here we use a machine-learning approach to determine the potential biomass of regions where climate could support rainforest. We first derive a relationship between climate and satellite observations of biomass in intact forest landscapes. We use this relationship to create maps of potential biomass of the hypothetical undisturbed landscape for the present. We then create maps also for the end of the st century according to projections from thirteen Earth system models under two representative concentration pathways (RCPs). All calculations are made at a 0 spatial resolution. THURSDAY The difference between the potential and observed biomass defines the carbonsequestration potential for degraded and deforested landscapes, both for now and the future. Our results indicate a current carbon-sequestration potential of 69.0 Pg C (with a confidence interval ranging from 6.0 to 74. Pg C). We estimate that 64 % of the carbonsequestration potential corresponds to reforestation in regions that have been previously cleared, and 6 % correspond to the restoration of degraded forests. Our results indicate that reforestation potential decreases to.0 Pg C (4.5 / 4.) and 4. Pg C (7.8 /.4) when using climate change projections under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 respectively. This decrease is due to reduced carbon-sequestration potential from both previously disturbed regions and currently intact regions, indicating a risk of tropical rainforest die-back, due to projected warmer and drier conditions. THURSDAY 09:0

121 8 9 S-O0 CLIMATE CHANGE SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? PROJECTED CHANGES IN AVIAN FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY ON TROPICAL MOUNTAINS UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE Matthias Schleuning, Irene M.A. Bender,,, Larissa Nowak,4, W. Daniel Kissling 5 Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, DE, matthias.schleuning@senckenberg.de German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (idiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, DE Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, DE 4 Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, DE 5 University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL Tropical mountains are hotspots of biodiversity and considered particularly susceptible to climate change. Along elevational gradients, climate change forces species to move their ranges upwards, which triggers changes in the composition of ecological communities. We propose to combine approaches from biogeography (species distribution models) and community ecology (functional diversity) to quantify the potential consequences of climate change for ecological communities on tropical mountains. Here we modeled current and projected future occurrence probabilities of 40 frugivorous bird species along a 000 m elevational gradient in the tropical Andes, ranging from the lowlands up to the tree line, and computed projected changes in avian functional diversity, based on functional traits relevant for seed dispersal. We found three main patterns of projected community change along the mountain: () functional attrition caused declines of functional diversity in the lowland, () functional turn-over was high at mid-elevations, and () functional decreases were weaker than expected at high elevations. We conclude that functional diversity of frugivorous birds is likely to respond differently to climate change at different elevational levels of tropical mountains, which has important consequences for seed dispersal and movement capacities of plants dependent on avian seed dispersal. S-O0 CLIMATE CHANGE PLANT DIVERSITY HOTSPOTS AND REFUGES IN THE TROPICAL ANDES Gwendolyn Peyre, David Campos, Jonathan Lenoir University of the Andes, Bogotá, CO, gf.peyre@uniandes.edu.co University of Tolima, Ibagué, CO University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, FR The páramo biogeographical province includes the high mountain ecosystems of the northern Andes and constitutes a fast evolving biodiversity hotspot. The recent orogeny and following glaciation dynamics of the Cenozoic helped shape the páramo s unique phytodiversity by creating continental biogeographic islands on mountain tops and promoting plant diversification. Today, the páramo hosts around 5000 vascular plant species, most of them represented within the families Asteraceae and Poaceae. In this study, we focused on these two dominant plant families and aimed at identifying their past refuges and actual hotspots. To do so, we used presence-absence data from the VegPáramo database and modelled for each species their: () past potential distribution during the Last Glacial Maximum (,000 years ago), () present potential distribution, and () present realized distribution. For all analyses, we relied on bioclimatic data from the CHELSA project database and conducted individual spatial distribution models (SDMs), using the Generalized Linear Model and Random Forest algorithms, and the Area Under the ROC Curve for model evaluation. We then stacked the SDMs based on taxonomy at genus and tribe levels. Finally, for each family, we identified páramo refuges with permanent species occupation as well as actual species-rich areas. The obtained results are therefore contributing valuable knowledge on plant distribution and evolution in the tropical mountain páramo. THURSDAY 09:45 THURSDAY 0:00

122 40 4 S-O04 CLIMATE CHANGE CYCLONES, FRAGMENTATION AND BIRD ASSEMBLAGES: NATURAL AND HUMAN DISTURBANCES IN A CHANGING CLIMATE James Moloney James Cook University, Townsville, AU, james.moloney@jcu.edu.au S-O05 CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF LIANAS ON TREE GROWTH IN TROPICAL FORESTS Elizabeth Kearsley, Geertje van der Heijden, Stefan Schnitzer,4, Hans Verbeeck Ghent University, Gent, BE, elizabeth.kearsley@ugent.be University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Marquette University, Milwaukee, US Severe tropical storms are predicted to increase in frequency and geographic extent in the future due to climate change. Furthermore, natural disturbance regimes such as cyclones now mostly occur in the context of human disturbance such as habitat fragmentation. In March 006, Cyclone Larry severely disturbed already-fragmented lowland rainforests in North-eastern Australia. A previous study provided an opportunity to examine the impacts of a severe cyclone on vegetation and bird communities in continuous and fragmented habitats of differing sizes over a ten-year period. Three unfragmented sites, large fragments (>5 ha) and small fragments (<5 ha) had been surveyed prior to the cyclone, and then - months, 5 months, year, years, and 0 years post-cyclone. Immediately post-cyclone, vegetation was largely defoliated and, although canopy cover had recovered from >0 % immediately post-cyclone to <50 % by year 0, vegetation structure remained highly disturbed. The bird assemblage, however, recovered far more quickly after initial devastation, with bird assemblages in continuous sites and fragments comparable to pre-cyclone assemblages years after the cyclone, and little further change after 0 years. No evidence of disproportionate species loss in fragments was apparent. The relatively robust nature of the avifauna to both natural and human disturbance (in comparison to other tropical regions) is probably due to the nature of lowland bird assemblages in this region (relatively depauperate and generalist), and the species sifting that had already occurred at a local scale in fragments. However, other tropical regions with more specialised faunal assemblages, or that lie at present outside severe tropical storm zones, may show far greater sensitivity to climate change-driven storm impacts. 4 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama city, PA Lianas (woody climbers) are structural parasites and an important component of tropical forests. Due to their strong competition with trees for above and below ground resources, lianas can have a large effect on tree diversity, recruitment, growth and survival, which can further impact tree community composition, carbon storage and carbon, nutrient and water fluxes. Moreover, recent research from the Neotropics has indicated that lianas are proliferating in abundance and biomass related to climate change. Although the drivers behind this liana increase are currently not fully understood, liana proliferation itself can endanger the future of the tropical carbon sink as lianas reduce carbon sequestration and storage in these forests. As tropical forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle, this in turn may lead to increased atmospheric CO concentrations, which may have serious implications for climate change. In this study, we use a large-scale liana removal experiment conducted in the Barro Colorado National Monument in the Republic of Panama to investigate the impact of lianas on individual tree growth. The impact of varying severities of liana infestation in the crown on tree growth is assessed, while controlling for growth environment (light, neighboring competition) and species identity using structural equation modeling. The impact of lianas is validated with plots that are liana-free. Different scenarios of future increases in liana abundance and biomass are assessed. THURSDAY 0:5 THURSDAY :00

123 4 4 S-O06 CLIMATE CHANGE S-O07 CLIMATE CHANGE SIMULATING PRESENT-DAY DISTRIBUTION OF PODOCARPUS LATIFOLIUS/MILANJIANUS IN AFROMONTANE FORESTS OF CAMEROON WITH THE DYNAMIC VEGETATION MODEL CARAIB ANALYSING THE POSITION OF THE EASTERN ANDEAN TREE LINE WITH A MASS TRANSECT SAMPLING OF SATELLITE IMAGERY Stefan Jozefowicz, Przemyslaw Zelazowski, Yadvinder Malhi Alexandra-Jane Henrot, Marie Dury, Anne-Marie Lézine, Rachid Cheddadi, Jérémy Migliore,4, Alain Hambuckers 5, Franck Trolliet, Louis François Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Environmental Modelling, Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, PL, stefan.jozefowicz@gmail.com Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Unit for Modelling of Climate and Biogeochemical Cycles, UR-SPHERES, Université de Liège, Liège, BE, alexandra.henrot@uliege.be Laboratoire d Océanographie et du Climat LOCEAN, Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR Oxford, UK THURSDAY :5 Institut des Sciences de l Evolution, Université Montpellier, CNRS-UM-IRD, Montpellier, FR 4 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE 5 Behavioural Biology Unit, UR-SPHERES, University of Liège, Liège, BE It is today established that climate change alters biodiversity, since the migration speeds of many species, especially plants, are presumably too slow to follow climate change. Tropical mountain floras are particularly vulnerable to the climatic threat, because they combine high ecosystem diversity and large proportion of endemic species, with the risk of reaching the summits of the mountains, which would limit their migration. Moreover, these environments are often strongly impacted by man. Being able to identify and predict the areas favorable to the persistence of species - microrefugia - becomes crucial in view of the fragmentation of the space devoted to their conservation. Microrefugia can be identified by using dynamic vegetation models (DVMs) at high-resolution over a given region. However, DVMs are usually run at the plant functional type level (PFT), whereas conservation studies require specific projections for each individual species. Thus, some efforts focus now on applying DVMs at the species level refining the definition of morphophysiological parameters from initial PFT traits to specific traits collected in the field or found in trait databases. In the framework of the international VULPES project (VULnerability of Populations under Extreme Scenario, we use the CARAIB DVM (Dury et al., iforest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, 4:8-99, 0) to simulate the evolution over the last thirty years (98-00) of the distribution of Podocarpus latifolius/ milanjianus, an endangered species localised in several patches of the Afromontane forest of Southwestern Cameroon. CARAIB is run at high resolution using climatic inputs derived from the ERA-Interim climate dataset combined with WorldClim climatology at 0 arc seconds (~ km). Climatic tolerances of Podocarpus latifolius/milanjianus are adapted in the model simulations in function of the observed distribution. Sensitivity tests are performed to evaluate the impacts on the simulated distribution of Podocarpus of different plant traits and tolerances, as well as the effect of the competition with other species. CARAIB results are discussed in terms of biomass and net primary productivity (NPP). The Eastern Andean tree line (EATL) is one of the world s most vivid examples of an altitudinal ecotone, because of both its continuity at the continental scale, as well as it being the western boundary of the forest biome of Amazonia. Where the EATL is undisturbed by anthropogenic pressures such as wildfires and cattle ranching, its course is a spatial manifestation of the underlying environmental parameters limiting the distribution of individual species and biomes. This indicator quality of the EATL is of particular significance in the context of global climate change and the role of higher altitudes as a refugium for species migrating upslope as a result of that change. Despite this, there has been to our knowledge no systematic analysis of the EATL s position to date. The aim of this study was to extract information about tree line position for its most consistent stretch on the eastern slopes of the Andes, ranging between the latitudes of 6.5 S and 7.8 S, from the three-decade record provided by fine resolution sensors aboard the Landsat 4, 5, 7 and 8 satellites. We were aided in this task by the recent publication of the reprocessed, highly spatially accurate Landsat Collection. Spectral data in the form of vegetation indices, along with a set of climatic and geomorphometric characteristics of the terrain, were sampled by way of upslope transects with a locally-consistent aspect. The resulting database of tens of thousands of transects can be queried to () apply multiple definitions of EATL, () apply various quality restrictions, () discover and quantify the EATL s location drivers on scales ranging from local to continental, (4) quantify shifts in the EATL s position over time. The emergence of the well-known phenomenon of latitudinal tree line elevation change serves as a first-order validation of this approach. THURSDAY :0

124 44 45 S-O08 CLIMATE CHANGE DEFORESTATION AND FOREST DEGRADATION TRENDS IN TROPICAL RAINFOREST Kiswanto Kiswanto,, Satoshi Tsuyuki Faculty of Forestry, The Mulawarman University, Samarinda, ID, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JP The tropical rainforest is located in a wide area surrounding the equator, covering more than ten percent of the total earth s land surface. Unfortunately, prospects for tropical forests biodiversity are becoming increasingly depressing due to persistent deforestation and forest degradation. The trends in deforestation and forest degradation and their causes are studied using different disciplinary methodologies at the multiple scales, therefore, give balancing information of environmental management. Several international groups produce routine estimates of tropical deforestation, most notably the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which has been providing a global forest resources assessment every five to ten years since the late 940s. Our study also concerns to deliver yearly land cover maps that could be used to estimate annual deforestation and forest transitions but only in small scale such as a case in East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. For showing the land cover classification and land cover changes over time in East Kalimantan (Indonesia), we produced yearly land cover maps from 000 to 06 using Landsat imageries interpreted visually and then analyzed land cover changes during 7 years, including a total of forest cover over time. In this study, we investigated annual deforestation trends during 7 years. Our results indicated that forest loss mainly occurred in natural forests, was caused by decreasing of forest quality, i.e. changes from primary to secondary forest, from secondary forest to shrubland, etc. Forest gain was only seen in plantation forest, that was changed from primary and secondary dryland forest. Merian Award Applicant THURSDAY :45

125 46 47 SESSION REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES S-O0 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO MONITORING TROPICAL FOREST RESILIENCE: THE POTENTIAL OF EO TO MONITOR LONG-TERM CHANGE ACROSS FOREST LANDSCAPES Mark Cutler, Christopher Philipson,, David Burslem, Giles Foody 4, Doreen Boyd 4, Geertje van der Heidjen 4 Chair: Mark CUTLER Contact: m.e.j.cutler@dundee.ac.uk University of Dundee, Dundee, UK, m.e.j.cutler@dundee.ac.uk ETH Zurch, Zurich, CH University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK 4 University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Remote sensing has the potential to provide information relating to important ecological variables at a range of temporal and spatial scales. However, despite this potential, the use of remote sensing for repeated monitoring of tropical environments is still not operational, with many challenges remaining. THURSDAY This session will look at the opportunities and challenges that new methods in remote sensing can offer the monitoring of tropical forest environments, with a particular focus on forests that have been affected by the recent El Nino. In particular, speakers from several projects that have been supported by the UKs NERC-funded programme Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Niño will be invited, giving presentations on their experiences of using remote sensing at a variety of spatial scales: from the monitoring of lianas with drones, to the analysis of productivity across wider landscapes using new Sentinel data. The session will also be open to others who wish to give presentations on a related theme. Ultimately, the aim of the session is foster closer collaboration between remote sensing scientists and ecologists, by better understanding the need and aspirations of ecologists with respect to environmental monitoring, with the opportunities and realities of current remote sensing techniques. Globally, almost half of all remaining tropical forest (c. 400 million ha) is allocated for timber production (Blaser et al., 0), meaning these forests have a crucial role to play in the economic sustainability of many developing nations economies. To maintain the ecosystem services that local inhabitants and state / national economies may derive from these forests (including medicinal, timber and food production) as well as conservation, demands effective forest management to promote sustainable regeneration. However, the resilience of logged and degraded forests i.e. their capacity to respond to short-term perturbations (such as ENSO-induced drought) by resisting damage and recovering quickly, is poorly understood, with few long-term studies or field plot networks available to determine forest resilience across a gradient of prior disturbance and/or post-logging management regimes. In this paper we report on findings from long-term monitoring of forest plots located across a disturbance gradient and the use of remotely sensed data at various scales to estimate forest properties and response to ENSO-induced drought at local to regional scales. Bringing together the results from monitoring across two decades and the more recently funded NERC STEED project (Spatio-TEmporal Dynamics of Forest Response to ENSO Drought) the forests surrounding the Danum Valley Field Centre, Malaysia, have shown huge variability in forest recovery (in terms of above-ground biomass), with recovery rates up to.6 MG.ha - but that these are highly dependent upon the volume of timber extracted during logging. This increase in biomass is mirrored in our remotely sensed estimates of AGB from Landsat TM and MODIS data, but also shows a high degree of variability across the disturbed landscape. This variability in productivity is also manifest when assessing the impact of short-term drought which the region experienced in 05/6. We illustrate this by showing variability in leaf spectral response through to a landscape-scale MODISderived drought index, illustrating the potential of remote sensing at multiple spectral and spatial resolutions to estimate forest resilience to both logging and climatic disturbance. THURSDAY :0

126 48 49 S-O0 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO DO EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS CAUSE LIANA PROLIFERATION? USING UAVS TO TRACK CHANGES IN TROPICAL FOREST CANOPY COMPOSITION OVER TIME S-O0 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO FROM REMOTELY SENSING TROPICAL HUMAN-MODIFIED LANDSCAPES TO MONITORING PROGRESS TOWARDS AICHI AND SDG TARGETS Geertje van der Heijden, Catherine Waite (speaker), Doreen S. Boyd, David Burslem, Christopher Philipson, Mark Cutler 4 Marion Pfeifer Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, marion.pfeifer@newcastle.ac.uk University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, catherine.waite@nottingham.ac.uk THURSDAY :45 University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK ETH Zürich, Zürich, CH 4 University of Dundee, Dundee, UK Extreme weather events, such droughts associated with El Niño events, are known to affect tropical forest functioning, but the specific responses of canopy structure and composition are not fully understood. Lianas are a key component of tropical forest canopies and are thought to have an advantage over trees in drought conditions as they may be more efficient in taking up water during such times drought conditions. As lianas reduce tree growth, and increase tree mortality and forest-level leaf production, thereby reducing net above-ground carbon uptake by as much as 76 %/year, chances in liana infestation due to extreme weather events may therefore have potentially damaging ramifications for carbon storage and sequestration in tropical forests. Using UAV imagery of Malaysian tropical forest collected in 06 and 07, this projects aims to characterise changes in the contribution of lianas to canopy structure, to inform the likely longer-term impact of ENSO drought on carbon accumulation. The ultra-high resolution (~ cm/pixel) images enable changes in % liana canopy crown cover (a direct indicator of changes in liana) and tree crown greenness (which may be indicative of a change in overall crown health) to be assessed on a per tree basis. From this, we can examine whether liana infestation has increased in the period directly after the El Niño, and whether any changes in liana cover are related to changes crown greenness, which will provide potentially unique evidence to improve ecological understanding of tropical forest functioning. Initial results based on 0 trees infested with lianas in both 06 and 07 indicate that average % liana canopy cover is significantly higher in 07 (mean = 5.8 % in 07 vs. 4.6 % in 06, p = 0.005). Additionally, changes in liana infestation were weakly, negatively correlated with a reduction in greenness between years (Adj R = , p = ), indicating that increases in liana infestation may lead to a decline in overall tree crown health. Remotely sensing forest ecosystem states over time is a great tool to map and monitor essential ecosystem functions. For example, leaf area index, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and fractional vegetation cover can be measured using optical instruments from below vegetation canopies, as we are currently doing within our GLOBAL LAI project. And using remote sensing data acquired from above vegetation canopies to then map those attributes for the landscape is a straightforward task, as we show for landscapes in Africa and Borneo. This is wonderful as LAI and fapar are Essential Climate Variables that regulate key ecosystem processes and determine habitat differentiation along vertical gradients of light availability. Both inter-correlate with each other and with FCover to control vegetation productivity and biomass at stand level. However, how does that help us to understand resilience, loss and recovery of ecosystems and the services they provide? I will briefly discuss two new projects I am currently involved in that aim to address components of this question. The first one is testing imaging as a tool for detecting plant stress before visual symptoms start to appear and negative effects become established. By linking maps derived from this imaging to measurements of species those ecological functions within trophic networks are relevant for the delivery of ecosystem services (using our new BIOFRAG approach, Pfeifer et al. 07 Nature), I aim to unravel the mechanisms behind the delivery of biodiversity dependent ecosystem services ( marionpfeifer/projects/measuring-mapping-and-predicting-forest-and-crop-qualityin-human-modified-tropical-landscapes/). The second project, with Dr Andy Marshall, involves the monitoring of forest recovery in landscapes in Australia and Tanzania using a combination of imaging tools, field measurements and experiments to unravel mechanisms and pathways of recovery ( THURSDAY 4:00

127 50 5 S-O04 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO SPATIAL PATTERNS OF LIANA SUCCESS IN MALAYSIA Chris Chandler, Geertje van der Heijden, Giles Foody, Doreen Boyd University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, chris.chandler@nottingham.ac.uk S-O05 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO RESPONSES OF NEOTROPICAL FOREST MAMMALS TO AN EXTREME EL NIÑO EVENT Patrick Jansen,, Joseph Wright Wageningen University, Wageningen, NL, patrick.jansen@wur.nl Tropical forests are highly productive, biologically rich and carbon dense. As such, these ecosystems are critical to the global carbon balance and key in mitigating some of the effects of climate change. Lianas are important components of tropical forests, where they have been shown to increase in abundance and biomass over the last decades. Lianas compete intensely with trees for above- and below-ground resources, thus substantially limiting tree growth and survival. Such increases in liana biomass may induce changes in tree species composition and dynamics, which could have consequences for tropical forest carbon storage in the future. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, PA THURSDAY 4:5 Studies on lianas have largely focused in the Neotropics, limiting our understanding of the drivers behind variation in liana infestation and the impact on carbon balance in the Palaeotropics. Furthermore, although liana infestation varies greatly across forests, the drivers of the broad-scale variation in liana pressure remains unexplored. Here, we therefore aim to map liana infestation in Bornean Malaysia with the use of airborne hyperspectral imagery to () investigate whether the spatial patterns in liana infestation are driven by variation in disturbance and/or forest structure and () test whether carbon sequestration and storage is affected by liana infestation on a regional scale. Airborne hyperspectral imagery and LiDAR data were collected concurrently (Mark Cutler, Dundee). Preliminary results from ground measurements showed liana biomass and abundance were both greater in the primary forest in comparison to secondary forests. Comparison of liana infestation and forest structure revealed a canopy height maximum of 64.4 m for liana infestation. In addition, we find a clear difference in the spectral response between lianas and trees. A neural network is able to accurately predict liana presence across the hyperspectral imagery (8 % correctly classified). Additional training data may have the potential to predict liana infestation as a percentage of canopy cover on a continuous scale. These results suggest that natural disturbance such as tree fall may be more frequent in the old-growth primary forest leading to increased liana recruitment and infestation. Furthermore, preliminary findings suggest that airborne hyperspectral imagery can provide a promising tool to identify liana infestation over large regions in tropical wet rainforests. A phenomenon that has been linked to extreme El Niño events in some tropical moist forests is massive die-off of mammals. These die-offs, which represent a risk to the genetic diversity and even persistence of populations, occur during some but not all El Niño events, for reasons not understood. Several authors have speculated that the mechanism underlying these die-offs is that a dry El Niño phase causes a boom of mammal populations via elevated fruit production, and that a wet La Niña phase that follows produces a bust due to depressed fruit production. However, no study actually studied mammal populations through such a cycle. We studied the mammal community of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, during and after the very strong El Niño event of May 05 April 06. We used an island-wide network of camera traps to monitor mammal abundance, condition and aspects of behaviour, and transect counts to estimate mammal mortality. We linked the data to climate and fruiting data from the same site. We found that seed production was elevated through most of 05 and the first half of 06, and led to a rise in mammal numbers, i.e. a boom. However, although fruit production was much lower during the two years that followed, we did not observe elevated mammal mortality, i.e. a bust. This El Niño event, unlike past events that were followed by mammal die-off, lacked a strong La Niña with harsh (cold and wet) weather conditions. Our observations, along with evidence from past events at the study site, suggests that die-offs associated with El Niño events are at least partially caused by harsh weather conditions affecting animals, and not by ENSO-driven variation fruit abundance alone. THURSDAY 4:0

128 5 5 SESSION REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE USE S-O0 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES DOES DIVERSITY REALLY MATTER FOR THE ACCUMULATION OF ABOVE-GROUND BIOMASS IN DRY FOREST REHABILITATION? Fatima C.M. Piña-Rodrigues, Harvey Marin Paladines, José Mauro Santana da Silva, Ivonir Piotrowski Chairs: Sven GÜNTER, Rizza Karen VERIDIANO, Nikolay AGUIRRE Contact: sven.guenter@thuenen.de Universidade Federal de São Carlos-CCTS- Environmental Science Department, Sorocaba-SP, BR, fpinarodrigues@gmail.com THURSDAY How can the potential and biodiversity of tropical forest landscapes under high human pressure be rehabilitated? This is what the session aims to address and discuss. Over the last decades, there has been an increasing debate on how to link human and ecological dimensions when it comes to conserving and managing tropical landscapes. Albeit this holistic approach, there are still challenges that have yet to be addressed in terms of scaling-up, incorporating specific restoration ecology aspects into landscape approaches and finally transforming science-based studies into tangible policies and good practices. The interdisciplinary nature and cross-cutting facets of landscape studies provide a suitable platform to address both forest resilience and options for restoration whilst also addressing the social dimensions of sustainable livelihoods. This is essentially what the session seeks to provide the conference participants. Session participants are particularly encouraged to submit contributions on the following topics: () State of the art and challenges in terms of analysing or implementing landscape approaches at various scales. () Restoration and rehabilitation of tropical landscapes. () Linking ecological data with social and socio-economic data to address the interdisciplinary nature of forest landscape management. The restoration of degraded areas aims to restore biodiversity and the natural processes of ecosystems. The contribution of above-ground biomass accumulation is one of the most important ecological processes that generate stability and resilience in restored areas. So, to assess how diversity affects the contribution of above-ground biomass accumulation (ABA), we evaluate a restoration in the dense-functional functional model (DDF) in a Brazilian southeast dry forest. Species of tree and shrubs are chosen from local forest communities to restore a multilayer structure. After that we selected 4 species based on functional traits and ecological services such as pollinators and dispersers attraction, input of nutrient and biomass accumulation and nitrogen fixing. An equal proportion of intermediate-late successional and pioneer species were mixed and densely planted ( plants/m²). In five plots (0.4 ha, ha, ha, 0.4 ha and ha) we sampled 0 subplots (0.5.0 m) along two years to collect litterfall using a conic trap (0.5 m ). Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) was used to represent species composition calculated from the Jaccard matrix of plots x species to obtain axis scores (80 % of variance). Multiple linear regression analyzes were applied to analyze the ABA (Mg/ha) as dependent variable and the independent variables of species composition- CE (NMDS axis scores), richness (R), dominance (Do), equability (J), diversity of Shannon (H ) and density (d) evaluated by the Akaike criterion. The composition and richness of species were the diversity factors that most influenced the contribution of ABA, represented by: ABA = CE R. This issue is relevant in a scenario which the current trend is the use of few species of rapid growth and the reduction of species richness in restoration projects, especially in Brazil. THURSDAY 09:0

129 54 55 S-O0 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES S-O0 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES CARBON SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL OF SECONDARY FOREST FOR LANDSCAPE RESTORATION AT THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON REGION NATURAL FOREST REGENERATION AT MT. KILIMANJARO Marion Renner, Andreas Hemp, Markus Fischer,,4 Paul Eguiguren,, Sven Günter, Institute of Plant Sciences, Bern, CH, Department of Systematic Botany, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, CH Technische Universität München - Germany, Munich, DE, paul.eguiguren@thuenen.de Thünen-Institut, Hamburg, DE 4 Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt, DE Tropical forest has more of 50 % of carbon stored in biomass, having a great role in the global carbon cycle, also contains a great biodiversity and provides important ecosystem services. Despite this, are heavily threatened by deforestation leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystems services (carbon). Large areas of forests have been converted to other land uses (pastures, crops). In many cases agricultural land is abandoned after few years of its conversion; therefore, natural succession processes take place. Secondary forests as result from natural succession are frequently considered to be a promising tool for restoration. In Ecuador it is estimated that almost ha/year had been regenerated between , 9800 ha/year were localized in the lowland amazon ecosystems. These areas are mainly the result of abandoned pastures and chakras (traditional agroforestry systems) on private or communal lands. THURSDAY 09:45 This study aims to analyze the carbon sequestration potential and carbon stocks of these secondary forests and compare them with carbon stocks in primary forest. We used a stratified random sampling design, 7 plots of m were established in secondary forests of different ages of succession ( - 0 years). Additionally, 4 plots of 600 m were allocated in well preserved primary forest. Analysis of variance using general mixed models and linear regression were conducted. Our results show that secondary forest between and 0 years can store around 4 Mg.ha -.yr -. The carbon stock of secondary forests reached in average around 70 Mg.ha - representing almost 59 % of primary forests. Our results suggest that sequestration potential of secondary forests can be a promising tool for landscape restoration in addition to strategies focusing on avoided deforestation and conservation of primary forests. Also could serve as inputs for the implementation of actions related to the mitigation of climate change and moreover in biodiversity conservation. Climate change, land use, logging and fire are strongly affecting tropical forests. However, little is known about woody regeneration for different land cover types and tropical climates. We investigated the regeneration of woody species in six natural and seven anthropogenic disturbed habitat types along the.5 km elevational gradient of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We recorded all woody regeneration stems between 5 and 0 cm tall. We found woody regeneration along the full elevation gradient with a hump shape distribution peaking at mid elevation, where rainfall and overall woody biomass are highest. The taxonomic diversity was decreasing with elevation. Both suggest that climate warming has not yet shifted the overall distribution of woody species in natural habitats. The woody regeneration layer in the savanna bears much more species than the higher canopy layers, however the communities are strongly differing. This may indicate a lack of safe sites for early establishment. In contrast, the forest zone showed a lower species number in the sapling than in the higher canopy layers and a lower, however still 0 % species turnover, suggesting sporadic recruitment or recruitment lacks of species. Only long term observations could reveal clear answers. Agricultural land use at lower elevation, namely maize fields, grasslands and coffee plantations, reduced the number and diversity of stems dramatically. Only home gardens showed a diverse sapling community, suggesting that the traditional use and the proximity to the forest prevented a lack of propagules and soil destruction. Plots with former disturbance in form of fire and logging showed an increased recruitment of stems and species than natural plots, a proof of still ongoing succession after time spans of 0-40 years. As we also did find saplings of species typical for natural forests in the disturbed forests, we conclude that these forests still bear the chance to return to the old growth state through natural regeneration. THURSDAY 0:00

130 56 57 S-O04 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES QUANTIFYING NET PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY, POTENTIAL POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND FOREST CONSERVATION IN AN AFRICAN FOREST-COCOA LANDSCAPE S-O05 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES CAN INTERCROPPING WITH THE WORLD S THREE MAJOR BEVERAGE PLANTS HELP IMPROVE THE WATER USE OF RUBBER TREES? Alexandra Morel,, Michael Adu Sasu, Mark Hirons, Ken Norris, Yadvinder Malhi Junen Wu, Wenjie Liu, Chunfeng Chen University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford, UK, alexandra.morel@ouce.ox.ac.uk Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK Nature Conservation Research Centre, Accra, GH As part of a three-year Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) funded project looking at the ecological limits to poverty alleviation, we have been collecting continuous in situ measurements of net primary productivity (NPP) in cocoa farms and contiguous protected and logged forest. The plots were located across landscape (distance from forest) and management (density of shade trees maintained) gradients, to assess the trade-offs between crop yields and ecologically sensitive farm management. In addition, we collected household demographic, farm management and standard of living data to assess the importance of agroforestry incomes for alleviating community-level poverty measures. We found that NPP levels varied widely across our plots and, in some cases, cocoa plots were as productive as neighbouring protected forest. Crop yields were not related to NPP levels, suggesting farmers could be managing their cocoa farms to maximise cocoa yields, carbon sequestration and habitat for biodiversity. We developed an ecological production that found there was not a direct influence of shade management on cocoa yields; however, farms located closer to an intact forest did derive a yield benefit. This suggests policy options such as incentives for maintaining shade and forest conservation could accomplish both positive income effects and biodiversity conservation outcomes in this landscape. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, CN, wujunen@xtbg.ac.cn The dramatic expansion of rubber plantations in mainland South-East Asia and South-West China has caused many ecoenvironmental problems, especially negative hydrological consequences. These problems have gradually worsened and pose formidable threats to rubber agriculture, especially in the light of increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Although rubber-based agroforestry systems are regarded as the best solution for improving the sustainability of rubber agriculture and environmental conservation, plant water use and related interspecific interactions have rarely been examined in such systems. We primarily used stable isotope (δd, δ 8 O and δ C) methods to test whether intercropping could improve the water use of rubber trees in three types of promising agroforestry systems (i.e. rubber with tea, coffee and cocoa) in Xishuangbanna, China. We found that the rubber tree is a drought-avoidance plant with strong plasticity with respect to water uptake. This characteristic is reflected by its ability to cope with serious seasonal drought, allowing it to avoid interspecific competition for water. The rubber trees showed wasteful water behavior unless they were intercropped with tea or coffee. However, these intercropped species exhibited drought-tolerance strategies and maintained lower water use efficiencies to strengthen their competitive capacity for surface soil water. The stable δ C values of the intercrop leaves indicated that all the agroforestry systems have stable internal microclimatic environments or higher resistance. THURSDAY 0:5 This study suggests that interspecific competition for water can enhance the water use efficiency of drought-avoidance plants (i.e. rubber trees) and lead to complementarity between the root distributions of plants in rubber agroforestry systems (i.e. rubber with tea, coffee and cocoa). All agroforestry systems have higher resistance, but tea was the most suitable intercrop in terms of water use because the interspecific competition for water was moderate and the agroforestry system retained much more soil water and improved the water use efficiency of the rubber tree. Considering the root characteristics of the tea trees, we suggest that the crops selected for intercropping with rubber trees should have a relatively fixed water use pattern, short lateral roots and a moderate amount of fine roots that overlap with the roots of the rubber trees in the shallow soil layer. THURSDAY :00

131 58 59 S-O06 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES S-O07 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES IMPACTS OF OIL PALM PLANTATION AND RIPARIAN BUFFER QUALITY ON STREAM LITTER DECOMPOSITION AND BACTERIAL COLONIZATION IN BORNEO ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FROM LARGE-SCALE RESTORATION Catarina Jakovac, Andre B. Junqueira, Bernardo Strassburg Darshanaa Chellaiah International Institute for Sustainability, Rio de Janeiro, BR, THURSDAY :5 Monash University Malaysia, Selangor, MY, Southeast Asia is undergoing extensive conversion of tropical forests into exotic monoculture plantations, particularly oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) (OP). This undoubtedly alters aquatic productivity as headwater streams are heavily dependent on inputs of riparian leaf litter to provide energy and nutrients to aquatic food webs. To reduce plantation impacts, the retention of riparian buffer zones along stream and river banks are widely advocated as an environmental management tool. In this study, we compared the efficacy of commonly used riparian buffer types in OP plantations to mitigate impacts on litter decomposition rates and associated bacterial assemblages quantified using 6S rrna gene sequencing. Our riparian types follow a disturbance gradient: () forested reference sites (NF); () OP with ~0 m buffer of native vegetation along both banks (OPF); () OP planted to stream edge with no chemical application within ~0 m of stream edge on both banks (OPOP); (4) OP planted to stream edge with chemical application (OPNB). The litterbag experiment was conducted using two leaf types of contrasting quality, native reference Macaranga tanarius and exotic OP leaves. We found that both leaf species responded differently to changes in riparian quality. Macaranga litter was more susceptible to increases in nutrients and stream temperatures in OP streams with increased bacterial diversity and richness as well as decomposition rates. However, decomposition of OP leaves only slowed in OPOP streams, where we also found significantly different bacterial composition compared to all other riparian types. We propose that long term disturbances at these sites altered the sets of functional interactions of bacterial communities with possible implications on litter processing rates. Overall, our results show the complex interactions between responses of litter processing rates and bacterial decomposer assemblages to litter and riparian quality in oil palm streams in Borneo. Findings from this study provide support for the use of riparian buffers with emphasis on high tree diversity to effectively mitigate adverse OP plantation impacts on tropical stream functioning. Merian Award Applicant International agreements have set goals for restoring 50 million hectares of deforested and degraded lands by 00 globally. Countries signing such agreements have set specific goals and are developing law instruments for achieving them. In this study we ask what would be the contribution in terms of ecosystem services of large scale restoration if the world achieve such goals? We use Brazil as a model to quantify the contribution of landscape restoration to carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation at multiple scales. The Brazilian environmental law requires around 9.5 million hectares to be restored in private lands. If all that area is restored with native vegetation, 8,670,80 Gg of CO will be sequestered from the atmosphere into above and belowground biomass. The rainforests of the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes and the savannas of the Cerrado make together 90 % of the area to be restored and 97 % of carbon sequestration. Belowground biomass contributes with % of the carbon sequestered. According to the recovery rates of native vegetation estimated for the Neotropics, such maximum carbon stocks would be achieved within 60 years. Therefore, around 44,54 Gg of CO would be sequestered per year. This amount represents 7 % of the mean annual emissions in Brazil (mean annual emission of Brazil is,984,485 Gg CO eq) and 0 % if zero deforestation is attained. Brazil has committed, in the Paris Agreement, to reduce its emissions in 7 % by 05. Therefore, forest restoration along with zero deforestation is important climate mitigation pathways to be followed. Our analyses indicate that belowground biomass plays an important role in carbon sequestration, especially in the savanna biomes, and should be taken into account. THURSDAY :0

132 60 6 S-O08 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES RESTORING RAINFOREST IN MADAGASCAR: ARE WE PLANTING ENOUGH TREES FOR PEOPLE AND LEMURS? Maholy Ravaloharimanitra, Lucien Randrianarimanana,, The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar, Antananarivo, MG, rrmahooly@gmail.com GERP (Groupe des Etudes et Recherches sur les Primates de Madagascar), Antananarivo, MG University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo, MG Rainforest restoration is vital for reversing current trends of deforestation and for maintaining remaining habitat for Madagascar s unique wildlife, including its >00 emblematic lemur species (90 % of which are threatened by extinction). We have therefore introduced reforestation and ecological restoration programs as a conservation tool to be implemented by local communities managing various lemur-rich rainforest sites in eastern Madagascar under government-backed management transfer schemes. In order to overcome initial scepticism of the need rainforest restoration, we have integrated community members in assessing the impact of current forest use on resource availability and ecological services. We used spatial analyses to map forest evolution and correlate it with human demographics in order to run simulations of potential future scenarios. In order to reach a high level of accuracy, we have collected data on the number of cut trees and the amount of other forest products consumed per year. Based on these findings, we calculated the expected number of trees to be planted each year in order to keep the rainforest and its ecological services from shrinking. As a result, motivation among the local community to engage in rainforest restoration and tree planting has considerably increased, which has helped us to set up a comprehensive rainforest restoration program aiming at both maintaining the local community s resource base and securing crucial habitat for endangered lemurs. THURSDAY :45

133 6 6 SESSION 4 TOWARDS A RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE IN THE ATLANTIC FOREST OF RIO DE JANEIRO: EXPERIENCES FROM INTECRAL PROJECT S4-O0 RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO AN INTRODUCTION TO INTECRAL (INTEGRATED ECO TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES FOR A SUSTAINABLE RURAL RIO DE JANEIRO) PROJECT Claudia Raedig, Udo Nehren TH Köln, Cologne, DE, claudia.raedig@th-koeln.de Chairs: Claudia RAEDIG, Udo NEHREN Contact: claudia.raedig@th-koeln.de THURSDAY Since the days of the European colonization, within a period of about 500 years, today`s state of Rio de Janeiro has been transformed from a sparsely populated forested area to an economic and cultural hub of Brazil and the whole continent of South America. This process is characterized by technological progress, economic development and population growth, and at the same time by overexploitation of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, uncontrolled urban sprawl, and increasing social disparities. Today, the rural landscape of Rio de Janeiro state is dominated by an agricultural and pastoral matrix, with forest fragments occurring mainly in steep areas or in areas otherwise difficult to access. Forest fragmentation is accompanied by habitat and biodiversity loss as well as soil degradation and erosion. For such lands, extreme weather events as the severe drought events in the northeast of the state (04-06) as well as floods and mudslides in response to heavy precipitation events in the mountainous south (0, the municipality of Teresopólis being particularly affected) are increasingly devastating. Regional climate scenarios indicate that extreme weather events will increase in the future, triggering drought events in the northeast as well as raising disaster risk in the south of the state. As a consequence, the rural producers, mainly family farmers, will be adversely affected. According to more pessimistic predictions, even food and water supply for the metropole region of Rio de Janeiro might be at risk. In light of this setting, the BMBF-funded German-Brazilian research project INTECRAL (Integrated eco technologies and services for a sustainable rural Rio de Janeiro, 0-07) with the collaboration of the World Bank-funded sustainable development programme Rio Rural seeks to explore solutions for a more resilient rural landscape in Rio de Janeiro state. Nested in the complex legal environmental framework of Brazil, integrated strategies, concepts and tools were developed to contribute to the rural region s sustainable development, maintaining the family farm dominated rural matrix as well as maintaining ecosystem functions and associated services of the forest fragments. In the session, different measures developed within INTECRAL project will be presented, which contribute to a resilient rural landscape, such as corridor strategies for private protected areas, restoration measures with endemic plant species, potential use and conservation options for a threatened tree species, or eco-friendly and affordable harvesting techniques. The BMBF-(German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) funded research project INTECRAL (0 until 07) aimed at finding integrative solutions for more sustainable development of the rural region of Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Before project start, research demands were aligned with the World Bank-funded Program Rio Rural (PRR) at the State Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock. PRR is a cooperation of different, mostly RJ-based stakeholders, working for a more resilient rural landscape in RJ state with a focus on supporting family farmers. Research demands were oriented towards management options that bring together agricultural production and biodiversity conservation and consider Brazil s legal framework for environmental protection. Solutions on one hand allow the cultivation of crops which due to legal restrictions could not possibly be pursued in an economically successful way in the future, like sugarcane cultivation at the family farm level. On the other hand, solutions are addressing biodiversity conservation, e.g. measures which maintain and connect areas with nearnatural vegetation in an agricultural matrix. One important aspect often neglected due to standards used for decades for plantation of tree species globally is the use of native species. RJ state belongs to the Mata Atlântica biome which is known for its exceptional richness of endemic species and suggests the use of endemic species for ecological restoration and rehabilitation measures. One famous species, the national tree of Brazil Paubrasilia echinata Lam., a CITES-listed species, is further scrutinized for potentials and constraints for a sustainable cultivation strategy. Most relevant solutions provided by INTECRAL project will be summarized in the book Strategies and tools for a sustainable rural Rio de Janeiro which will be published in 08 in the Springer series on Environmental Management. THURSDAY :0

134 64 65 S4-O0 RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO AGROECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT IN RIO DE JANEIRO (BRAZIL): RECONCILING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND BIRD CONSERVATION S4-O0 RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO SAVING SMALL SCALE SUGARCANE FARMERS IN THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO: A DEVELOPMENT STUDY OF A HARVESTING TECHNOLOGY Augusto Piratelli, Fatima Piña-Rodrigues, Claudia Raedig Carl-Friedrich Gaese Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos, Departamento de Ciencias Ambientais, Sorocaba, BR, ajpiratelli@gmail.com University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics, Köln, DE Recent research has focused on characterizing biodiversity and its ecological functions as well as associated ecosystem services (e.g. pollination, seed dispersal, and control of herbivorous arthropods). A more applied angle of this research is the development of biodiversity-friendly measures in agricultural practices maintaining ecosystem functions and services. More than half of Brazil s native vegetation is found on restricted areas, and farmers are required by law to maintain parts of their lands as legal reserves (LRs) and permanently protected areas (PPAs). These areas may serve as stepping stone for animals and plants, by connecting larger patches of native vegetation across agroecosystems. However, a recent revision of the Brazilian forest code has considerably reduced LRs and PPAs, also allowing the use of exotic species in half an area for restoration purposes. Without proper regulation, this situation may put at risk the biodiversity, the ecosystem services it plays, and the future of Brazilian agricultural production. Birds serve as models for the range of ecosystem services that they consistently perform, and monitoring these species can provide substantial data for a more effective combination of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. We discuss more sustainable agriculture practices for optimizing both for agricultural production and bird biodiversity conservation and, and thus for human well-being. TH Köln, ITT, Cologne, DE, carl-friedrich.gaese@th-koeln.de Environmental legislation in Brazil takes account of the conservation. For the environment, the ban of burning of dry leaves before the sugarcane harvest is indisputable. However, for the family farmers, this ban will cause the relinquishing of sugarcane cultivation, since without pre-burning, the harvesting will be too expensive to maintain their existence. In the state of Rio de Janeiro pre-burning will end by the year 04. Whereas solutions for large companies like the self-propelled harvester technology are available, there is a great need for harvest technology for small farms, because until now they are mostly dependent on manual harvesting. When family farmers are able to keep their sugarcane production, usually in combination with other agricultural activities, the diverse agricultural matrix of Rio de Janeiro can be maintained. In parallel, by implementation of a more efficient harvesting process, more high-quality material will be available for further processing as well as more material for feeding the energy demand and generate income for the farmers. Even the sustainable use of sugar cane leaves as a source of energy will become more important in the coming years. Compared to the conventional harvesting technology, entire stalks of sugarcane are harvested avoiding major losses of sugar juice and reducing fermentation. Due to the gentle defoliation, the stalks can be used for replanting because rhizomes and nodes are not damaged. The device is pulled by a tractor and has low power consumption. Plant tops and leaf mass fall to the soil after removal and are not mixed with soil particles during the harvesting process. In this way, soil particles do not get into the further processing process and leaf mass can be used on the other hand for further use. THURSDAY :45 For this study both economic and structural conditions in Rio de Janeiro were examined including the state of art and the biologic and technical properties of sugarcane. THURSDAY 4:00

135 66 67 S4-O04 RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO PROMOTING CONNECTIVITY IN RIO DE JANEIRO STATE: CORRIDORS FOR LINKING PRIVATE PROTECTED AREAS Lorena Valeria Guzmán Wolfhard, Raedig Claudia TH Köln, Cologne, DE, S4-O05 RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO BIOENGINEERED REHABILITATION OF DEGRADED LAND USING NATIVE PLANT SPECIES - A CASE STUDY FROM SOUTHEAST BRAZIL Dietmar Sattler, Anja Hebner, Jens Wesenberg, Jürgen Heinrich Leipzig University, Institute of Geography, Leipzig, DE, sattler@uni-leipzig.de Brazil has a highly complex environmental legal framework, and in addition to the obligatory protection of forest, land owners have the option to create private protected areas (Reservas Particulares do Patrimônio Natural, RPPNs). Such RPPNs allow maintaining or re-establishing connectivity, by acting as stepping stones and thus counteracting forest fragmentation and associated biodiversity loss. So far, RPPNs are not considered for land management planning and their establishment is dependent of the knowledge of landowners about the possibility to create RPPNs and their willingness to establish such protected areas on their lands. Therefore, this study aims to explore possible connectivity paths between established and probable future RPPNs in two municipalities in Rio de Janeiro, one in the comparatively forest-rich Serrana Region, and the other one in the comparatively forest-poor Northwest Fluminense Region. Connectivity routes among RPPNs were identified by using two methods: the least cost path method for finding the cheapest paths by assigning different weights to land use features and a second method which ranks the different land use features from areas suitable to non-suitable for linking of RPPNs. The latter method allowed for the use of more recent data of the study area and was supplemented with data of the willingness of landowners to establish RPPNs on their land (for the Fluminense Region). Both methods permitted the identification of suitable linkages between RPPNs and priority areas for future RPPN establishment, and can be considered as starting point for future connectivity strategies incorporating a more systematic establishment of RPPNs to counter fragmentation and biodiversity loss. Dr. Födisch Umweltmesstechnik AG, Markranstädt, DE Senckenberg Museum of Natural History, Görlitz, DE In Southeast Brazil, the continuously growing pressure from rural and industrial land use is causing progressive land degradation, especially within the unique Atlantic Forest dominion of this region. In contrast to considerable experience in afforesting native forests in Brazil, only little information on ecosystem-friendly bioengineering measures for the rehabilitation of degraded areas is available. Furthermore, natural engineering or soil-bioengineering measures using living plant material are still very rare and if applied, they mostly use non-native plants from other tropical regions. The use of non-native plants for rehabilitation of degraded areas carries several risks, in particular ecological incompatibility and the potential invasive spread of these plants. The study presented provides a brief overview of the actual state-of-the-art regarding the use of native and non-native plant species in rehabilitation and restoration measures applied in the Atlantic Forest dominion. Moreover, results from a case study on bioengineered rehabilitation of a degraded pasture are presented where native plants were successfully used. The case study confirmed that bioengineered rehabilitation measures using native species are an additional and valid tool for small scale land restoration. Such measures can even help supporting local biodiversity conservation without compromising farmland activities within the dominion of the Atlantic Forest. THURSDAY 4:5 THURSDAY 4:0

136 68 69 S4-O06 RESILIENT RURAL LANDSCAPE FOR RIO DE JANEIRO POTENTIALS FOR THE CONSERVATION AND THE ECONOMIC USE OF THE THREATENED BRAZILIAN NATIONAL TREE PAUBRASILIA ECHINATA LAM. WITHIN RIO DE JANEIRO STATE Silke Lichtenberg, Udo Nehren, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Juan Antonio Reyes-Agüero Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics, Technische Hochschule Köln, Köln, DE, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Technológica, San Luis Potosí, MX Instituto de Investigación de Zonas Desérticas, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, MX Several native and endemic tree species of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, especially precious wood species, are highly endangered due to the historical and current overexploitation. In consequence, the legal extraction of wood from wild forests is completely prohibited and legal extraction from plantations of native tree species is strictly regulated. Brazil s national tree Paubrasilia echinata Lam. - in Portuguese paubrasil is one of them. Its precious wood is used worldwide as raw material for high quality violin bows. Alternative wood species are rarely accepted by professional musicians, bow makers and violin makers, even though some of them have been proven to meet the high technical standards of wood characteristics which pau-brasil guarantees for premium violin bows. Therefore, it was looked for alternative solutions to cover future wood demand and commercial pau-brasil plantations have been established and supported by the affected stakeholders. THURSDAY 4:45 There exist several plantation types with pau-brasil, such as monospecific and mixed tree plantations and agroforestry systems, yet there is poor understanding concerning their long-term productivity, wood quality, and economic return. For the sustainability of theses plantations and to guarantee continuous supply of planted pau-brasil for future wood markets, it is essential to identify potential ecological, economic, legal, and social assets and constraints including the potential contribution of wood supply by pau-brasil plantations. The presented data originate from a field study in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest with detailed inventories of nine plantations in Northeast and Southeast Brazil. Based on these data the conservation and utilization potential of pau-brasil for the state of Rio de Janeiro, the southernmost range of the species was discussed respective to the future paubrasil wood markets.

137 70 7 SESSION 5 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS? IMPACTS OF FOREST DEGRADATION AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS ON TROPICAL ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING S5-O0 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS COMPLETE CARBON BUDGET IN SELECTIVELY LOGGED AND OLD-GROWTH TROPICAL FORESTS IN BORNEO Terhi Riutta,, Yadvinder Malhi, Lip Khoon Kho,, Toby R Marthews,4, Walter Huaraca Huasco, Sylvester Tan 5, Edgar Turner 6, Glen Reynolds 7, Sabine Both 8, David FRP Burslem 8, Yit Arn Teh 8, Stuart J Davies 5, Noreen Majalap 9, Charles S Vairappan 0, Robert M Ewers Chair: Yit Arn TEH Contact: yateh@abdn.ac.uk Human disturbance in the tropics is leading to massive changes in biodiversity and major shifts in ecosystem biogeochemistry, altering key processes such as net primary productivity, ecosystem respiration, biogeochemical cycling and fluxes of reactive trace gases. Yet despite studies of land-use change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem biogeochemistry of tropical forests, the links between these impacts have received less attention, challenging our ability to accurately model and predict the response of tropical ecosystems to current and future environmental forcings. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, terhi.riutta@ouce.ox.ac.uk Imperial College London, Ascot, UK Tropical Peat Research Institute, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kajang, MY 4 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK 5 Centre for Tropical Forest Science, Washington, US 6 University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 7 The Royal Society South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Lahad Datu, MY 8 University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK 9 Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, MY 0 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MY In this session, we will explore what is known about the linkages between forest degradation and biodiversity loss, and investigate the consequences of these concomitant phenomena for ecosystem processes and trace gas exchange. We will identify key knowledge gaps and discuss means of addressing them, including inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary modes of problem solving. Contributions are particular welcome from those investigating plant-soil interactions; biosphere-atmosphere exchange; traits-based approaches to studying ecological processes; remote sensing approaches to quantifying biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; the role of fauna in modulating biogeochemical cycles and multitrophic processes. The area of human-modified tropical forests exceeds that of undisturbed forests, making them an important component of the global carbon budget. However, carbon dynamics in human-modified tropical forests remain poorly quantified. Here, we present the first estimates for the complete carbon budget of five selectively logged forest plots and six old-growth forest plots in Malaysian Borneo. We measured net primary productivity (NPP) of canopy, woody and fine root components, and autotrophic (Ra, comprising leaf, stem and root) and heterotrophic (Rh, comprising deadwood, litter, mycorrhiza and soil organic matter) respiration. The ecosystem carbon balance was estimated as the difference between NPP and Rh and gross primary productivity (GPP) was estimated as the sum of NPP and Ra. The methods follow the GEM plot protocols. THURSDAY GPP and Ra were higher in logged forest than in old-growth forest, while NPP and carbon use efficiency (NPP/GPP) in both forest types was similar. Rh was higher in logged forest. The old-growth plots were a small carbon sink (given the uncertainties, not different from zero), while the logged plots were a small source of carbon to the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration via the high growth rate of trees in logged forest did not offset the carbon emissions from the excess organic matter and higher mortality, which were legacies of the logging. Given that the majority of tropical forest biome has experienced some degree of logging, accurate assessments of logged forest carbon sink and source strengths are crucial for estimating the carbon balance of the tropical biome. THURSDAY 09:0

138 7 7 S5-O0 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS HUMAN MODIFICATION ALTERS THE GREENHOUSE GAS BALANCE OF MANAGED TROPICAL PEATLANDS IN NORTHERN BORNEO S5-O0 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS WHERE CAN WE STORE MOST CARBON? USING AN 80-YEAR CHRONOSEQUENCE TO IDENTIFY DRIVERS OF CARBON UPTAKE IN SECONDARY FORESTS Yit Arn Teh, Frances Manning, Norliyana Zin Zawawi, Sarah Cook, Timothy Hill, Lip Khoon Kho 4 University of Aberdeen, School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen, UK, yateh@abdn.ac.uk Isabel Jones, Lynsey Bunnefeld, Pattison Zarah, Daisy Dent, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK, i.l.jones@stir.ac.uk Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, PA University of Leicester, Department of Geography, Leicester, UK THURSDAY 09:45 University of Exeter, Department of Geography, Exeter, UK 4 Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Tropical Peat Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur, MY Human modification of tropical peatlands, especially in Southeast Asia, has the potential to alter the source-sink potential of tropical peatlands for C and the composition of greenhouse gas emissions. Given the large scale of tropical peatland conversion in Southeast Asia and the key role that these types of ecosystems play in local communities livelihoods, it is imperative that we find means of improving the sustainability of these managed peatland landscapes to mitigate climate change and environmental pollution. Here we report ecosystem fluxes of CO, CH 4 and N O fluxes from managed tropical peatlands in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo that are currently under oil palm production. Trace gas flux was quantified using a mixture of top-down methods (i.e. eddy co-variance) and bottom-up approaches (i.e. intensive C plots, flux chamber measurements, quantification of aqueous transfers). We also explored the potential for mitigation of greenhouse gas fluxes through altered management practices, focusing on fertilizer and water table management. Top-down and bottom-up methods indicated that these ecosystems were net atmospheric sources of CO emitting approximately ± 4 Mg C.ha -.yr -. Water table position played a key role in modulating rates of C loss, with reduced C emissions at higher water table positions. These ecosystems were also net atmospheric sources of CH 4 and N O. Net CH 4 flux was approximately 7 to 6 ± 88 kg C.ha -.yr - and showed pronounced spatial heterogeneity. Flooded microforms displayed elevated rates CH 4 efflux, and played a disproportionately large role in regulating ecosystem CH 4 balance. Net N O flux was more difficult to estimate because of lack of agreement between our top-down and bottom-up measurement methods. Eddy covariance measurements suggest a net annual flux of kg N.ha -.yr -, while chamber-based flux measurements suggest a net annual flux of 59 ± 84 kg N.ha -.yr - to 478 ± 85 kg N.ha -.yr -. This discrepancy between top-down and bottom-up methods is due in part because of the very high temporal heterogeneity in N O flux, driven by periodic fertilizer application. These data suggest that altered water table and surface management practices are the best means of controlling C trace gas fluxes, while advances in fertilizer management could play a critical role in mitigating N O flux. Secondary tropical forests regenerating after land abandonment can rapidly uptake carbon into above-ground biomass, presenting a cost-effective tool for lowering atmospheric CO. However, carbon uptake and storage in secondary forests can vary across space and time. Understanding the factors that drive differential rates of carbon uptake across regenerating forests, such as soil nutrient status, is essential for building more accurate predictive models of carbon uptake and storage capacity across secondary forests globally. Using a chronosequence of secondary forests in Panama, ranging from 40-0 years, we use structural equation modelling to disentangle the relationships between carbon pools in above-ground biomass, deadwood, below-ground biomass and soil, and quantify the relative importance of site characteristics such as forest age, soil nutrients, and land-use history in determining levels of carbon storage. THURSDAY 0:00

139 74 75 S5-O04 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS S5-O05 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS EFFECTS OF SELECTIVE LOGGING ON A PRODUCTION FOREST S SUCCESSION OF THE AMAZON: A SIMULATION EXPERIMENT LAND-USE CHANGE AFFECTS PLANT TRAIT DISTRIBUTION IN A SEASONALLY DRY TROPICAL FOREST Julia Sfair,, Francesco de Bello, Marcelo Tabarelli Ulrike Hiltner,, Achim Bräuning, Andreas Huth,,4, Rico Fischer Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, BR, juliacaram@gmail.com University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, CZ Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, Dept. Ecological Modelling, Leipzig, DE, ulrike.hiltner@ufz.de Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Inst. of Geography, Erlangen, DE University of Osnabruck, Inst. of Environmental System Research, Osnabruck, DE 4 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research idiv, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, DE THURSDAY 0:5 There is a growing concern about the extent to which tropical production forests in the Amazon are managed sustainably. The Amazon rainforest is an essential carbon reservoir, with a high degree of biodiversity worth protecting. It provides useful resources, such as timber, which has contributed to the loss of about 0 % of the forest area in the last five decades. The implementation of economically and ecologically sustainable silviculture strategies plays a central role in preventing further loss of resilience and forest degradation. However, in order to identify effective silviculture strategies, methods to support the decision-making process are urgently needed. One opportunity to estimate future stand structures is provided by dynamic forest growth models able to extrapolate field data in the long-term under different scenarios of future environments and logging intensity. We applied the dynamic, individual-based forest model FORMIND, with management module, to a humid tropical lowland forest of the northeastern Amazon in French Guiana. We developed a simulation experiment, for undisturbed forest growth and selective logging options, which helps us to better understand long-term effects of different disturbance intensities on the forest s aboveground biomass production and tree species composition. For the first time, we were able to validate the short-term accuracy of our simulation experiment with the help of multi-year, large-scale forest inventory data, in which secondary succession and undisturbed growth conditions have been recorded over the last years. Our simulation results show the model accurately mirrors aggregated forest attributes, such as aboveground biomass and basal area, of both undisturbed growth and selective logging. We demonstrate that silviculture strategies with low disturbance have advantages over conventional ones in context of forest resilience. Due to a higher disturbance of forest residues, current silviculture burdens future biomass production, tree species composition, and delays recovery. The intensity of land-use, associated to climate change and soil nutrient depletion, are affecting the biota of Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTF) in irreversible ways. Although there are plenty evidences that human disturbance, water availability and soil nutrients can affect plant diversity, little is known about how these environmental conditions can affect functional composition and diversity in SDTF. In a Brazilian SDTF (Caatinga), we investigated how chronic anthropogenic disturbance (CAD, which included wood extraction and livestock pressure) along a rainfall and soil gradients affects the local (alpha) and between areas (beta) functional diversities and the variation of traits, considering interspecific and intraspecific variability. Areas with low rainfall not only have low functional diversity, but also have different functional composition in comparison to wetter areas. On the other hand, CAD has higher impact on trait distribution: whereas wood extraction promoted species that avoid water loss, livestock affected more edible plant individuals, with softer tissues. When we analyze the trait variation of the most abundant and frequent species (i.e., successful species), the response to each environmental variable is idiosyncratic, i.e., whereas some species are affected by wood extraction, others are more influenced by livestock pressure or rainfall. In fact, these species have different strategies to cope with water stress, nutrient variation and CAD, i.e., the most successful species do not have a set of traits that characterize them. In synthesis, CAD, rainfall and soil fertility can affect different aspects of functional composition and diversity, with potential implications for the ecosystem functioning of SDTF under increasing levels of disturbance, climate change and soil nutrient depletion. THURSDAY :00

140 76 77 S5-O06 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS S5-O07 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS THE IMPACTS OF LOGGING ON SOIL MICROBIAL DIVERSITY IN TROPICAL FORESTS OF BORNEO Dafydd Elias,, Nick Ostle, Niall McNamara, Rob Griffiths, Sam Robinson, Sabine Both 4, David Burslem 4, Terhi Riutta 5, Yadvinder Malhi 5 Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK, dafias@ceh.ac.uk Plant and Soil Ecology Laboratory, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, DISTURBANCE-INDUCED MICROCLIMATE CHANGE DRIVES COMMUNITY SHIFTS IN RAINFOREST ANTS AFTER LOGGING AND CONVERSION TO OIL PALM Michael Boyle,, Tom Bishop,, Sarah Luke 4,5, Stephen Hardwick, R. Isolde Lane-Shaw, Marion Pfeifer,6, Michiel van Breugel 7,8, Theodore Evans 9,, Clare Wilkinson, Arthur Chung 0, Robert Ewers Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK, michael.boyle@imperial.ac.uk UK Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, SG, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, UK Centre for Invasion Biology, Dept of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, ZA 4 Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK 4 School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK 5 Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, South Parks Road, 5 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Oxford, UK 6 School of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK 7 Forest GEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PA With land use change such as logging predicted to have dire 8 Yale-NUS College, Singapore, SG consequences for above ground tropical biodiversity, it is crucial 9 School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, AU to understand whether these impacts may alter belowground 0 Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sepilok, MY biotic communities. Soil microbial communities mediate multiple THURSDAY :5 ecosystem services such as net primary production, litter decomposition, nutrient cycling and biosphere-atmosphere trace gas exchange. Alteration of the belowground soil microbiome may drive changes to these ecosystem processes as recent studies have shown a positive link between below ground diversity and ecosystem function. We sampled 4 unlogged and 4 logged established tropical forest plots across Sabah, Malaysia to measure soil properties and characterise microbial communities. We used next generation Illumina amplicon sequencing to identify soil bacteria and fungi in order to test the hypotheses that soil microbial diversity would be reduced by logging. Results show that whilst bacterial diversity was driven predominantly by soil ph rather than logging history, species richness of ectomycorrhizal fungi was significantly reduced by logging. We propose that this is due to the selective removal of large individuals from the Dipterocarpaceae family which are one of the dominant ectomycorrhizal symbionts in south-east Asian tropical forests. This may have important implications in terms of carbon cycling, nutrient mobilization and transfer of nutrients from soil organic matter to trees. This work forms part of the wider NERC Human Modified Tropical Forest Programme which aims to understand the role of biodiversity in major biogeochemical cycles of tropical forests. Logging and habitat conversion create hotter microclimate conditions in tropical landscapes, which represents a powerful form of localised anthropogenic climate change. These novel conditions are thought to directly affect tropical organisms, particularly ectotherms, although empirical evidence is lacking. Here we investigated how interactions between environmental temperature and the physiological traits of species affected communities of ants, a key functional group in tropical ecosystems. We obtained years of microclimate recordings from 44 sampling points across a gradient of forest disturbance in Malaysian Borneo, and quantified the ant community (4,60 individuals) at a subset of 59 of these sampling points. Live ants were collected from the same areas (,59 individuals), and subjected to laboratory warming experiments to determine thermal tolerances. The abundance of ant genera along a gradient of forest disturbance was defined by an interaction between their thermal tolerance and environmental temperature. In warmer microhabitats, genera with high thermal tolerance had increased abundance, and those with low thermal tolerance had decreased abundance. The genus-level changes in abundance scaled up to generate community-level changes, with a C increase in maximum daily temperature corresponding to an increase of 0.9 C in community-weighted mean thermal tolerance. Our results empirically demonstrate that disturbance-induced microclimate change directly influences the abundance of key organisms in tropical landscapes. Forests around the world are being rapidly disturbed and fragmented, leaving novel landscapes characterised by altered microclimates. Our findings reinforce the need to develop a mechanistic understanding of the impacts of microclimate change in human-modified landscapes. THURSDAY :0

141 78 79 S5-O08 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS INTER-ANNUAL DYNAMICS AND PERSISTENCE OF SMALL MAMMAL COMMUNITIES IN A SELECTIVELY LOGGED TROPICAL FOREST IN BORNEO Philip Chapman, Oliver Wearn, Terhi Riutta,, Chris Carbone, J. Marcus Rowcliffe, Henry Bernard 4, Robert Ewers Imperial College London, London, UK, p.chapman4@imperial.ac.uk Zoological Society of London, London, UK Oxford University, Oxford, UK 4 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MY Understanding temporal change and long-term persistence of species and communities is vital if we are to accurately assess the relative values of human-modified habitats for biodiversity. Despite a large literature and emerging consensus demonstrating a high conservation value of selectively logged tropical rainforests, few studies have taken a long-term perspective. We resampled small mammals ( kg) in a heavily logged landscape in Sabah, Borneo between 0 and 06 to investigate temporal patterns of species-level changes in population density. We found that small mammal population density in heavily logged forest was highly variable among years, consistent with patterns previously observed in unlogged forest, and uncovered evidence suggesting that one species is potentially declining towards local extinction. Across nine species, population densities varied almost sevenfold during our six-year study period, highlighting the extremely dynamic nature of small mammal communities in this ecosystem. Strictly terrestrial murid species tended to exhibit strong temporal dynamics, whereas semi-arboreal foraging species such as tree shrews had more stable dynamics. We found no relationships between population density and fruit/seed mass, and therefore no evidence that our patterns represent responses to interannual mast fruiting of the dominant canopy dipterocarp trees. This may be due to the removal of most of the canopy during logging, and hence the dipterocarp seed resource, although it possibly also reflects spatiotemporal limitations of our data. Our results underline the importance of understanding long-term variability in animal communities before developing conservation and management recommendations for human-altered ecosystems. THURSDAY :45

142 80 8 SESSION 6 FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION: CURRENT CHALLENGES OF IMPACT EVALUATION S6-O0 IMPACT EVALUATION OF FOREST CERTIFICATION NEED, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION: THE CASE OF THE FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL Marion Karmann, Franck Trolliet Chairs: Marion KARMANN, Franck TROLLIET Contact: m.karmann@fsc.org Tropical forests are being threatened by habitat degradation and deforestation worldwide. These changes, mainly caused by a global increasing demand for land, timber and Non Timber Forest Products, affect the sustainability of biodiversity, a wide array of ecosystem services associated with it, and the long-term well-being of humans from a local to a global scale. While logging activity is often perceived as a major threat to tropical forest ecosystems, forest management (FM) certification has been developed as a response to growing anthropogenic disturbances. Forest Stewardship Council International, Bonn, DE, m.karmann@fsc.org This talk will start with an overview of the origins and goals of forest management certification and take the example of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme to explain into more details the functioning and potential impacts of responsible forest management. As a multi-stakeholders initiative FSC has standards developed to ensure a balance between environmental, social and economic advantages in forestry operations. Consequently, FSC does not strive explicitly and exclusively for highest ecological requirement. Compliance of forest management with those agreed standards is regularly evaluated by third party. FM certification aims at promoting better environmental, social and economic forest management practices. Today FM certification is mainstream, supported worldwide by major producers and buyers. Certification appear thus as a powerful tool to ensure the longterm balance between the maintenance of forests ecological functions, the well-being of local human populations and the sustainable exploitation of forest resources. Yet, precisely evaluating how certification schemes impact those various dimensions is challenging and still requires efforts from the community of researchers. The objective of this session is to get an overview about the most recent research findings, challenges and needs to evaluate ecological impacts of FM certification on tropical forests. In contrast, the evaluation of on-the-ground impacts of forest management certification is performed by independent researchers. Although recent findings suggest that FSC does ensure environmental benefits, evaluators have different objectives, varying perspectives on FSC goals, use varying not necessarily aligned methodologies. Therefore, generalization of the findings on the effects of FSC remains hardly possible. Moreover, researchers are often faced with challenges to properly conduct such assessments and draw robust conclusions. We will present some of the main difficulties of impact evaluation and discuss alternatives to better understand how assessments can be conducted, from rigorous scientific designs to specific instruments inherent to the FSC system and tools that need to be developed. We will finally emphasis that sound impact evaluations are crucial to understand what works and what does not (and for whom), and target avenues for the improvements of certification system. THURSDAY THURSDAY :0

143 8 8 S6-O0 IMPACT EVALUATION OF FOREST CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATION OF TROPICAL FORESTS: FROM IMPACT ASSESSMENT TO POLITICAL ECONOMY? S6-O0 IMPACT EVALUATION OF FOREST CERTIFICATION A BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENT BETWEEN PROTECTED AND MANAGED FORESTS IN SOUTHEASTERN CAMEROON Alain Karsenty CIRAD, Montpellier, FR, alain.karsenty@cirad.fr Davy Fonteyn, Simon Lhoest, Marc Dufrêne, Nicolas Barbier,4, Fructueux Houngbégnon, Moses Libalah, Bonaventure Sonké, Nicolas Texier,4, Donatien Zebaze, Adeline Fayolle University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, TERRA Research Centre, Central African Forests, THURSDAY :45 Certification has not reduced deforestation in tropical countries. However, improving the management of productive forests would indirectly contribute to preventing deforestation through sustainable forest-oriented development of a territory. It generates jobs and tax revenues that play their role in public decision-making processes regarding land use. It is difficult for narrowed impact assessments to grasp this process, which is more a matter of political economy. Impact evaluators and public policies scientists must work jointly to get a full picture of the effects of policy instruments. Various observations suggest that companies investing in certification to gain or maintain market share are self-regulating to avoid losing their certificates, and thus comply with laws and regulations. Can FSC certification guarantee greater sustainability than strict compliance with the law? Several cases suggest that the letter of a regulation may be respected but its spirit betrayed, justifying certification. The rise of legality certifications, nevertheless, poses a challenge to the FSC and should lead to rethinking the concept of sustainability of tropical forest management. Certified areas are promoted by governments to demonstrate (their) good forest management. Certification has become an institution in the sociological sense of an established social form. If the positive externalities of certification are considered as collective goods, and these labels are increasingly used in public policies, it becomes legitimate to supplement market incentives with subsidies for the adoption of certification. Three measures can be foreseen: () prioritisation in public procurement, () a reduction in forest royalties for certified companies, offset by international transfers to national budgets, () a pooling of the costs of certification audits through an allocation of certain revenues from the Forestry Funds. Gembloux, BE, davy.fonteyn@doct.ulg.ac.be University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, BIOSE & TERRA, Biodiversity and Landscape, Gembloux, BE Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, CA 4 AMAP Lab, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier University, Montpellier, FR In Central African forests, selective logging represents the main land allocation with 49. million of ha (8.7 % of forested areas) while protected areas represents 45. million of ha (6.5 % of forested areas). If managed sustainably, production forests can broaden conservation strategies outside of protected areas, preventing access to poachers and hunters, and preserving forests, though harvesting some trees per hectare (generally < ) at each rotation (between 0 and 0 years). In this study, we aimed to assess the biodiversity retained by semi-deciduous forests allocated to protection and production in southeastern Cameroon. We specifically compared the floristic and faunistic diversity of a protected area, a FSC-certified logging concession and surrounding community forests. Camera traps and -ha forest plots were installed in the Dja Biosphere Reserve (n = cameras, n = 5 plots), different sites in the Pallisco FSC-certified concession (n = 54 cameras, n = 5 plots) covering short and long post-logging times and also unlogged forests, and three surrounding community forests (n = cameras, n = 6 plots). Plot data were collated from three institutions (University of Yaoundé I ENS), French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (University of Liège). Though they retained a relatively high tree species richness, specifically for pioneer species, the community forests were found to be depauperate in animal diversity and showed a strong shift in animal species composition towards small-sized species (such as the giant pouched rat). Both indicate an already advanced defaunation process. Even if a great part of the animal diversity is retained inside the FSC-certified logging concession, the Dja Reserve holds the richest and most abundant animal communities with the occurrence of threatened species like the giant pangolin or chimpanzees. Finally, the forest structure, more than the composition, seemed to be influenced by the logging activity and showed strong heterogeneity within and between managed and protected forests. Selective logging done on a sustainable way seems to be a unique chance to combine wood production and biodiversity protection by connecting the current network of protected areas and acting like buffer areas around them as long as the forest access is strictly restricted and controlled. THURSDAY 4:00

144 84 85 SESSION 7 S7-O0 FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE CONGO BASIN FUNCTIONAL SHIFTS WITHIN CENTRAL AFRICAN RAINFORESTS MULTISCALE FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE FORESTS OF THE CONGO BASIN: WHAT WILL HAPPEN, WHY AND HOW Jean François Bastin, Frederic Mortier, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Raphael Pélissier, Claude Garcia 5, Nicolas Bayol 6, Guillaume Cornu, Fabrice Benedet, Jean- Louis Doucet 4, Adeline Fayolle 4 Chairs: Claude GARCIA, Jean-François BASTIN, Fabien QUETIER Contact: claude.garcia@usys.ethz.ch ETH-Institute of Integrative Biology, Crowther Lab, Zurich, CH, bastin.jf@gmail.com CIRAD, UPR F&S, Montpellier, FR IRD-AMAP, Montpellier, FR 4 Gembloux Agro Bio-Tech - Université de Liège, Gembloux, BE 5 ETH-Zurich, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Zurich, CH The future of the forests of the Congo Basin is constrained by two processes: climate change and land use change. An improved understanding of the drivers and pathways of landscape change and a more realistic depiction of the decision-making processes of the stakeholders involved would allow managers and land planners to better anticipate the ecological, social and economic impacts of human interventions. In this session, we report on the outcomes of the twin projects CoForTips/CoForSet, aimed at developing future scenarios for the forests of the Congo Basin. We identified ecological transitions between forest types allowing managers to better anticipate the ecological impacts of human interventions. We have shown that we can expect forest transitions under the combined effect of climate and land-use change. Unless we change course, the future forests of the Congo Basin will be more fragmented, more deciduous and richer in pioneer light demanding species. We described practices and norms that the women and men living in the forested landscapes of the Congo Basin develop in response to change, which in turn determine landscape trajectories. We documented that demography and food-crop agriculture do not drive rapid changes of the system. Agricultural expansion and logging triggered by industries and infrastructure development, particularly roads and mining, are the main drivers of sudden shifts. We have measured and documented the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies forced by external drivers of change. We merged expert, local and scientific knowledge to develop models linking social, economic and environmental drivers. These models facilitate improved understanding of the social and ecological system of the forests of the Congo Basin, highlighting drivers behind system change, and we developed theoretical models that highlight underlying patterns of deforestation linked to small-scale agriculture. We developed precise and realistic simulations predicting changes in land cover for the next 50 years. We developed process-based role-playing games that allow stakeholders to grasp the complexity of the system and devise new strategies and new forms of collective action. We have addressed the what, the how and the why of forest landscape change in the Congo Basin. These outputs allow stakeholders and decision makers to develop their own scenarios of land use and biodiversity. Our methodologies, and in particular the role-playing games, can be used at the village level to develop social capital and trust, while at the regional level they act as negotiation tools, helping shape the future governance of the forests of the region. They will help stakeholders make more informed decisions today and better anticipate future outcomes. 6 FRM, Montpellier, FR THURSDAY Understanding the reaction of ecosystems to climate change and anthropogenic pressure is a central question in ecology and environmental sciences. In the terrestrial tropics, theoretical and empirical works suggest that once external disturbances have reached a given threshold, forest-savanna systems can switch from one state to another. Considering the multiplicity of the tropical forest systems, we make the assumption that numerous shifts may actually occur within the forest itself, without changes in forest cover but with risks of critical modifications in forest functioning. To test this hypothesis, we used a finite mixture of regression models aiming at simultaneously predicting and grouping forest functional profiles at the stand level with respect to anthropogenic pressure, climate and soil. The model is built on a dataset of more than plots of 0.5-ha each gathered from Central African forest companies. Forest stand functions are analyzed through two key functional traits: the successional status - pioneer vs. non-pioneer trees- and the leaf phenology - evergreen vs. deciduous trees. Our model captured a significant part of variation in the functional composition over the study area and revealed how anthropogenic pressure, climate change, soils or their combination lead to profound modifications within the forests. In particular, we showed that shifts from evergreen to deciduous stands can be mediated both by anthropogenic pressure or climate change. This work shows for the first time how external forcing may jointly lead to multiple shifts in the functional composition of tropical forests. Our model allowed to predict directional changes in forest functioning according to anthropogenic pressure and climate thus opening new perspectives in theoretical ecology, global vegetation modelling and in the understanding of the vulnerability of tropical forests to global changes. THURSDAY 4:5

145 86 87 S7-O0 FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE CONGO BASIN PLAYING THE GAME: DEFINING INDICATORS FOR INTACT FOREST LANDSCAPES IN THE CONGO BASIN S7-O0 FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE CONGO BASIN CRITICAL CYCLES OF RESILIENCE FOR LAND USE IN THE CONGO BASIN Claude Garcia,, Juliette Chamagne, Helene Dessard, Céline Dillmann, Tina Cornioley, Fabien Quetier CIRAD, Montpellier, FR Stephan A. Pietsch, Bernard Bustier, Johannes Pirker, Aline Mosnier IIASA-ESM, Laxenburg, AT, MDN - Ministère de Défense Nationale, Libreville, GA ForDev / ETHZ, Zurich, CH, claude.garcia@usys.ethz.ch Biotope, Mezes, FR In 04, the General Assembly of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) adopted Motion 65 that called for the protection of the vast majority of Intact Forest Landscapes (IFL) in FSC certified concessions around the Globe. To comply with Motion 65, a Regional Working Group for the Congo Basin on High Conservation Values (HCV-RWG) was established in 06. To support its decision-making process, FSC invited a team of researchers as facilitators. The facilitation team associated Companion Modelling and MineSet. Companion Modelling is a participatory approach based on the development and use of role-playing games to support decision-making. MineSet, is a model of regional landscape change developed to explore the future of tropical forest landscapes in Central Africa over the next decades. MineSet places players in the roles of CEOs of logging and mining companies, interacting with markets, the government and NGOs, planning their activities and developing strategies to cope with the environmental, economic and social impacts of their decisions. It features all the major underlying drivers of land use change in Central Africa: demographics, economic and finance signals, governance and transparency, technological changes, and cultural differences. As the game unfolds, the players discover the complexity of the system, and devise new rules and strategies to balance development and conservation. Stability and resilience of Congo Basin landscapes are affected by a multitude of factors. Besides climate change and increasing inter annual climate variability, direct human land use impact is a major driver of ecosystem productivity, related carbon balance issues and maintenance of ecosystem services provision. Within this research we assess the impact of land use intensification, climate variability on the resilience and stability of the Congo basin biomes, using () field data from ~ 00 field plots, representing all typical land use types occurring in the region, () a calibrated and validated BioGeoChemistry model (BGC-MAN) and () an analysis of respective ecosystem dynamics and the related shifts in stability, productivity and resilience. Results indicate sequences of tipping points, changes in ecosystem resilience and the long-term system memory of climate and human impacts. THURSDAY 4:0 The game and the discussion that follows enables stakeholders to share and confront their perceptions of the system, better grasp its complexities, explore alternative futures in a low-risk environment, and negotiate new forms of collective action. Taking on the role of a stakeholder has a profound impact on players awareness and understanding of the system, and has the potential to reshape their perception on the problem at hand. This experience is a critical component of the approach and central to the learning process. Thanks to this combination, the RWG could unlock stalled negotiations, level the playing field between participants and move toward consensus. This example serves as proof of concept of the use of facilitation and games to address complex negotiations under conditions of high uncertainty and divergent interests. It shows a way to foster transformation in landscape management. THURSDAY 4:45

146 88 89 S7-O04 FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE CONGO BASIN WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE FORESTS OF THE CONGO BASIN, HOW AND WHY Claude Garcia,, Laurene Feintrenie,,4 CIRAD, Montpellier, FR ForDev / ETHZ, Zurich, CH, claude.garcia@usys.ethz.ch CATIE, Turrialba, CR 4 World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, KE Statements about the future do not fall under the constraints of classical logic. They are not true or false. They are undetermined, so-called future contingents. This unescapable uncertainty is a source of stress and discomfort for all, political leaders included. The use of scenario planning for decision-making is a way to reduce this discomfort, and to develop strategies that are better able to cope with surprise. However, the development of scenarios requires underlying mental models, however loose. All models are wrong, with one exception. All others degrade the information to make it manageable with our cognitive limitations. This degrading is done across several dimensions. A useful framework proposes a trade-off between precision, realism and generality. Another major limitation is the representation of human agency in these models, a critical determinant of the dynamics of social and ecological systems. The manner in which agency is represented is often unsatisfactory. We present here how we overcame these trade-offs and obstacles, clarifying here the contribution of different forms of models to the development of narratives of possible futures. To explore the futures of the forests of the Congo Basin, we developed theoretical, empirical and process-based models that merge expert, local and scientific knowledge, integrating social, economic, governance, ecological and geophysical processes. These models represent, predict and explain regional trajectories of landscape change at the time scale of 50 to 00 years. The scenarios explicitly address different management and policy options. THURSDAY 5:00 Taken together, these three types of models explain what will happen to the forests of the Congo Basin in the coming decades, how and why. As in any good crime story, this leaves only two questions unanswered: who? and when? But these are no longer questions scientists can explore. These belong to the realm of strategy and decision making. They belong to the realm political will, corporate commitments, and stakeholder livelihood strategies.

147 90 9 SESSION 8 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION Chairs: Pierre-Michel FORGET, Catherine REEB Contact: pierre-michel.forget@mnhn.fr S8-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION USING UAVS AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY FOR ECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS IN TEMPORARY ROCK POOLS OF COLOMBIAN GUIANA SHIELD Ángela Aristizábal-Botero, David Paez-Perez, Emilio Realpe Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, CO, a.aristizabal@uniandes.edu.co Enjambre, Bogotá, CO The Guiana shield is one of the most ancient bedrock formations on Earth with a variety of ecosystems like: tropical forests, flooding savannas and temporary rock pools. Temporary rock pools are one of the least studied systems in South America, even though there are a lot of physiological challenges for their highly diverse communities due to the seasonally and sub-seasonally desiccation caused by heat. We identified the acquisition of spatial characteristics of the landscape as the first step in the investigation of the ecological processes governing the communities inhabiting this underexplored ecosystem. To this end, we employed a UAV (i.e., drone) with onboard RGB+NIR cameras to capture aerial images. These images were then processed using photogrammetry software to obtain high resolution digital terrain models (DTM), RGB and NDVI orthophotographs. Based on the surveyed information, several analyses were performed. The morphometry analysis of pools yielded the relationship between their volume, depth and surface area. The connectivity analysis helped us determine the flow network that emerges during rain events; this is useful as an important parameter to understand dispersion dynamics of many species in this system. Using the morphometry of the pools, historical precipitation and evaporation data, a hydrologic model was implemented to simulate individual pool hydroregimes. RGB and NDVI images were used to measure the vegetation coverage over pools and estimate a photosynthetic rate. Lastly, human settlement patterns shown in multitemporal aerial images were associated with ecological indexes to inform conservation initiatives. THURSDAY In conclusion, new technologies in UAVs, low cost onboard sensors, photogrammetry and GIS software offer the possibility to quickly survey any ecosystem, which result in a powerful set of tools for abiotic characterization in biological and ecological investigations. THURSDAY :0

148 9 9 S8-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION WHAT MAKES RATS SUCCESSFUL INVADERS ON MADAGASCAR? Melanie Dammhahn,, Toky M. Randriamoria, Steven M. Goodman,4 S8-O0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION THREATENED BIRDS, DYNAMIC HABITATS AND DISTURBANCE PROCESSES - CONSERVATION ECOLOGY IN ONE OF THE WORLDS MOST UNDERSTUDIED SAVANNA ECOSYSTEMS Animal Ecology, Zoological Institute & Museum, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, DE, melanie.dammhahn@uni-greifswald.de Animal Ecology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, DE Association Vahatra, Antananarivo, MG Jo Kingsbury, G. Matt Davies, Chris Tonra, Ross Macleod The Ohio State University, Columbus, US, kingsbury.0@buckey .osu.edu University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK 4 Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, US The Beni savannas of Northern Bolivia are one of the world s most remote, understudied and threatened grassland ecosystems. Here, vegetation dynamics are driven by complex interacting environmental and agricultural disturbance processes, including flooding, fire and cattle grazing. In turn, the distribution of bird communities is shaped by how these processes influence prevailing vegetation composition and structure. We explore how the distribution and habitat use of avian grassland specialists is influenced by habitat structure and disturbance history along the cerrado-grassland gradient with focus on three key conservation species, Alectrurus tricolor (cock-tailed tyrant), Coryphaspiza melanotis (black-masked finch, and Emberizoides herbicola (wedgetailed grass-finch). THURSDAY :45 Invasive species are a critical contemporary conservation threat because they change ecological interactions, modify ecosystem functionality, and even cause extinctions of indigenous species. Understanding what makes a successful invasive species as well as predicting the consequences of the introduction of non-indigenous organisms is of major interest in ecology. Rodents of the genus Rattus are among the most pervasive and successful invasive species worldwide. A broad and flexible generalist diet has been suggested as key to the invasion success of Rattus spp. Here, we used an indirect approach to better understand foraging niche width, plasticity, and overlap within and between introduced Rattus spp. as well as overlap between invasive Rattus spp. and native small mammals in anthropogenic habitats and natural humid forests of Madagascar. Based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values measured in hair samples of individual rodents, we found that R. rattus had an extremely wide foraging niche, encompassing the isotopic space covered by a complete endemic forest-dwelling Malagasy small mammal community. Comparisons of Bayesian standard ellipses, as well as (multivariate) mixed-modeling analyses, revealed that the stable isotope niche of R. rattus tended to change seasonally and differed between natural forests and anthropogenic habitats, indicating plasticity in feeding niches. In co-occurrence, R. rattus and R. norvegicus partitioned feeding niches. Isotopic mismatch of signatures of individual R. rattus and the habitat in which they were captured, indicate frequent dispersal movements for this species between natural forest and anthropogenic habitats. Since R. rattus are known to transmit a number of zoonoses, potentially affecting communities of endemic small mammals, as well as humans, these movements presumably increase transmission potential. Our results suggest that due to their generalist diet and potential movement between natural forest and anthropogenic habitats, Rattus spp. might affect native forest-dependent Malagasy rodents as competitors, predators, and disease vectors. The combination of these effects helps explain the invasion success of Rattus spp. and the detrimental effects of this genus on the endemic Malagasy rodent fauna. Our results indicate that: () Cock-tailed tyrants specialize on specific disturbance-sensitive micro-habitats within the cerrado-grassland ecotone, while black-masked finch and wedgetailed grass-finch are generalists but track available food resources that may be influenced by the timing and severity of disturbance processes; () Black-masked finch and cock-tailed tyrants have greater sensitivity to grazing pressure and agricultural fire-management than the more common wedge-tailed grass-finch a factor likely contributing to their current high rates of global decline; () Prescribed burning is integral for the conservation of avian communities within this region, but scale, timing and frequency are likely important considerations due to their influence on key habitat resources; and (4) Management within protected areas that aims to retain a range of post-burn stages in a shifting mosaic could help to support wider avian communities. Our study develops a better understanding of how disturbance processes influence biodiversity in this understudied region. Our results will be critical for strengthening management protocols in protected areas like the Barba Azul Nature Reserve, and will help inform more sustainable approaches to agriculture in the wider Beni Savanna region. THURSDAY 4:00

149 94 95 S8-O04 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION LAND-USE CHANGE AND CONSERVATION IN NORTH-EAST THAILAND S8-O05 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION HUNTING IN TIMES OF CHANGE: INDIGENOUS STRATEGIES IN THE COLOMBIAN AMAZON James Moloney, Wassana Phanurak, Netchanok Khongthon Nicole Ponta, Claude Garcia,, Nathalie van Vliet James Cook University, Townsville, AU, Nakhon Ratchasima Rajhabhat University, Nakhon Ratchasima, TH ETH Zürich, Zurich, CH, CIRAD, Montpellier, FR CIFOR, Bogor, ID In this study, we investigate patterns and drivers of landscape change, and the consequent impacts on vertebrate biodiversity and traditional resource use in Nakhon Ratchasima province, North-east Thailand. Firstly, we quantified regional landscape change from the 950s until the present from a combination of aerial photography and satellite image analysis, and examined environmental correlates. Secondly, bird, mammal and reptile assemblages were examined across five different land-cover types using active searching, pointcounts, opportunistic recording and formal and informal interviews with local people. Thirdly, interviews examine natural resource use and governance. We found that significant areas of the original closed forest on floodplains had already been cleared by the 950s. The last 5 years has seen increased clearance of woodland in drier areas as crops diversify. The most intact forest type is low woodland, which in some cases is managed. However, bird and mammal assemblages here are less diverse than within other, less protected forest types. In particular, the dry-season diversity of insectivorous birds and evergreen forest species as well as mammals is low within this more secure forest in comparison to outside, unprotected areas. Furthermore, many of the traditional resources important to local people are found within unprotected and fast-disappearing areas. While there is the possibility of land swaps and purchases to maintain ecosystem services, more coordinated planning is required to maintain functioning ecosystems. The Amazon region, following a tropical pattern, is experiencing socio-economic changes at an exceptionally high rate, generating pressure on the people that need to adapt to new settings. Despite the change, indigenous people still rely on the forest they are embedded in and among other activities do hunt and trade wildlife in order to meet their livelihood requirements. Their forest dependency combined with added external pressures forces them to walk the fine line between overhunting and exacerbated poverty. Individual strategies, shaped by the hunters values and ambitions as well as external conditions, need to cope with the novelty and evolve accordingly. For the effective implementation of conservation initiatives, we, as scientists, should acknowledge this delicate balance and take into account people strategies with their underlying drivers and their adaptive capabilities. Lacking the understanding that drives decision-making of the forest dwellers can lead to frustration and mistrust by both parties while at the same time delivering poor outcomes hampering present and possibly future initiatives. To uncover hunting strategies in the Colombian Amazon and their evolution under the current socio-economic transition, we co-designed a role-playing game together with the relevant stakeholders. The game simulates the mosaic of activities that hunters perform in the wet and dry season, while also allowing for specific hunting strategies. Conditions change while the game unfolds, opening up to alternative potential scenarios that have been suggested by the stakeholders themselves. Will hunters give up hunting when given the opportunity of an alternative income source? Will institutional changes affect their livelihoods? These are some of the questions that we have been able to explore through the game. THURSDAY 4:5 When it comes to coupled human-nature systems, the best way forward to produce just and resilient conservation strategies might be triggering an adaptive process of experiential learning and scenario exploration. It is about identifying the strings that pull the system and adjusting our strategies whatever direction we take. The use of games as boundary objects helps us eliciting the plurality of those strategies, their drivers and how outside change affect them. THURSDAY 4:0 Merian Award Applicant

150 96 97 SCIENTIFIC POSTER SESSION ABSTRACTS

151 98 99 S0-P0 MANGROVES FUNCTIONING AND MANAGEMENT LANDSCAPE GENETIC METHOD TO EXPLAIN INTRA- AND INTER-ISLAND PROPAGULE TRANSPORT OF MANGROVE SPECIES S0-P0 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS EVOLUTION OF REFERENCES ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ECOLOGY OF TROPICAL WETLANDS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN Maki Thomas, Yuichi Nakajima, Matin Miryeganeh, Satoshi Mitarai Georges Simon Andrianasetra, Germain Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, JP, CIDST, Mahajanga, MG, Understanding migration systems is integral to design effective Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that will maintain population connectivity in the face of environmental changes. Applying knowledge of migration systems in MPA design is especially important for fringe mangrove habitats in island systems where mangrove population connectivity is maintained through dispersal by ocean currents and there is a high rate of habitat loss. This project focuses on the migration system of Rhizophora stylosa, a mangrove species common throughout the Ryukyu Archipelago in the northern West Pacific region and a representative species of the family Rhizophoraceae, which is abundant throughout the Indo-West Pacific. We utilized landscape genetic methods to demonstrate how differences in local habitat landscape affect the migration patterns among islands. To further investigate the extent of connectivity among isolated populations and their dispersal patterns, we performed microsatellite analysis in chloroplast and nuclear genomes with samples collected from coastal areas on four different islands, representing a spatial scale of over 500 km. Research on the ecology of wetlands requires different scientific approaches and useful procedures for conducting monitoring and ecological studies. The object of this work is () to provide information on the diversity of themes and references related to the ecology of wetlands in the Indian Ocean region, and talk to diverse audiences such: students, academics, professionals in continental wetlands and fans of the ecology of flora fauna of inland water. () to demonstrate the evolution of information upon the valorization of wetlands that permit to: inform, understand, act and protect wetlands based on their relationship with living things (flora) in the islands of the Indian Ocean. Thus, an inventory of all available documents (hardcopy as well as online versions) on the ecology of continental wetlands will be fulfilled with the aim of establishing a catalog to evaluate the evolution of knowledge and information on this topic. Exchanges between the different actors during this conference could be held, in order to improve and update the different information and experiences on the tropical ecology of wetlands. As a perspective, a network of stakeholders on the ecology of wetlands could be established. The genetic results were also compared with physical oceanographic data derived from the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) and other obtained observational data. Discrepancies between genetic and oceanographically simulated connectivity may suggest that the mangrove propagule s dispersal is limited dominantly by local hydrodynamics, including inner reef currents, wind or coastal wave driven forces, while coincidence between them may suggest rare but consistent inter population interactions.

152 00 0 S0-P0 CONTINENTAL WETLANDS CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE RAFFIA AREAS IN THE BOENY REGION FOR SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT Zolalaina Andriamanantena, Hery Lisy Tiana Ranarijaona Doctoral School Natural Ecosystems (EDEN), University of Mahajanga, Mahajanga, MG, andzolalaina@gmail.com Madagascar, because of its insularity, is a country of megabiodiversity. The country s fauna and flora are remarkably diverse and endemic. The Boeny Region is also rich in forest resources such as dense forests, savannahs, mangroves and raffia areas. Rafia farinifera, a monoecious plant whose ideal ecology is the tropics. The raffia areas are managed by local grassroots communities or COBAs in the fokontany of Ankilahila or managed by the local authorities or fokontany for the case of Beharafa Mangapaika or restored in the raffia areas of Tanandava Mariarano. This study was conducted to understand the potential of this ecosystem by conducting ecological surveys. The Duvigneaud transect method and the Braun-Blanquet plating method were adopted. The MARP method was carried out to complete the ecological surveys in order to identify all the pressures and to provide recommendations for the local population as well as for VOI members and local and/or national authorities, in order to restore them. A total of 48 species belonging to 44 genera and 4 families with were identified in all study sites. The floristic compositions of the areas according to their type of management are not similar. However, for raffia in the same study area, the floristic composition seems similar. The density of the raffia palms is very dense in the areas of management transfer and restoration areas but low in areas managed by the fokontany. The natural regeneration of raffia palm is important in areas where VOI is present. Many products from raffia palm are used for different purposes. It is the same for the associated plants with raffia palm. Anthropogenic pressures and natural pressures are the factors of degradation of these raffia areas. Despite these pressures on the raffia areas, the presence of the VOI in the study areas plays a key role in the preservation of these natural resources. However, for the sites managed by the local authorities or the fokontany, the degradation of the raffia areas is strongly noticed. To ensure the sustainability of raffia palm especially regeneration in the face of different pressures, protect, restore and train local population for sustainable development and biological conservation will be provided. S04-P0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS WHERE DO THE NSENENE SWARMS COME FROM? Anu Valtonen, Robert Opoke,, Geoffrey Malinga,, Petra Junes, Philip Nyeko, Heikki Roininen Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, FI, anu.valtonen@uef.fi Department of Biology, Gulu University, Gulu, UG Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism, Makerere University, Kampala, UG The edible grasshopper, Ruspolia differens (Serville) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), locally called as Nsenene, is a widespread species swarming in grassland habitats across Afrotropics. It is an important source of food for humans in East Africa where they are harvested with powerful lights from the natural populations during the two annual swarming seasons. There are various traditional beliefs concerning the origins of the swarms but it is clear that the swarming dynamics is poorly understood and the source populations for swarms are so far unknown. As a first step to reveal the origins of R. differens swarms, we explored the host plants of R. differens with both laboratory experiments (no-choice and multiple-choice experiments) and a field monitoring study of a non-swarming population in Uganda. Our results show that R. differens accepts a wide range of grass and sedge species but has a clear preference for certain hosts. The most important host plants in our study location are grasses Brachiaria ruziziensis R.Germ. & C.M.Evrard, Panicum maximum Jacq., and Chloris gayana Kunth. It is therefore likely that R. differens swarms originate in grasslands where these hosts are available. In order to preserve viable natural populations of R. differens in East Africa in the long-term, our results call special attention to sufficient protection of natural and seminatural grasslands from overgrazing and rapid urban expansion.

153 0 0 S04-P0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS FACTORS CONTROLLING LONG-TERM SAVANNA DYNAMICS IN THE CAMPOS DE HUMAITÁ, MIDDLE MADEIRA RIVER REGION, SOUTHWESTERN BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA Rogerio Gribel, Dilce de Fatima Rossetti, Luiz de Souza Coelho S04-P0 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS BIOMASS STOCKS, SPATIAL STRUCTURE AND FLORISTIC COMPOSITION OF SAVANNAS IN THE BATEKE PLATEAU Paula Nieto-Quintano, Edward T. A. Mitchard, Casey M. Ryan University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, Edinburgh, UK, paula.nieto@ed.ac.uk Brazilian Institute for Amazonian Research, Manaus, BR, gribel.rogerio@gmail.com Brazilian Institute for Space Research, São Jose dos Campos, BR Disjointed savanna patches scattered in Amazonia and growing under the same climatic conditions than the rainforest, is still an intriguing scientific question. The most frequent hypotheses for these open formations are: () the expansion of savannas during drier periods of the Pleistocene, being the contemporary Amazonian savannas residual ecosystems; () possible environmental disturbances caused by extensive and recurrent anthropogenic fires during the Holocene; and () changes in hydrological dynamics due to environmental changes, caused or not by tectonic forces, which could have influenced the characteristics of the substrates, thus leading to the establishment of different vegetation types. We reconstruct vegetation dynamics from an area in southwestern Amazonia based on the study of eight botanical plots combined with paleoenvironmental analysis of 0 lithostratigraphic profiles confined to three fluvial paleolandforms with open vegetation in the middle Madeira River. The sedimentary evolution and history of vegetation change through time were built with basis on facies analysis integrated with radiocarbon dating, as well as dc and C/N analyses of sedimentary organic matter. The majority of the profiles evidenced flooding episodes and sedimentary deposition characteristic of paralic aquatic environments. Floristic studies showed that savannas in topographically lower terrains presented greater floristic similarity between them, suggesting that the duration of flooding has greater influence than soil characteristics in the species distribution. Small microtopographic variations at local scale also strongly affected the presence of tree species. C/N and radioisotope dating revealed that savannas had existed in the area for at least 0,000 years BP, particularly been located over fluvial paleolandforms represented by channel and lake deposits that were left behind over the fluvial terraces. Radioisotope dating in forest sites contiguous to savannas suggested the replacement of these by the formers in several events initiated during the mid and late Holocene. Our results reinforce the concept that, at least for the region of study, factors linked to sedimentary dynamics, and not to climate or anthropogenic fires, play a preponderant role in the distribution of the savannas. The Bateke Plateau in the Republic of Congo is one of the last frontiers for ecology, being among the botanically and structurally least known areas in Africa. Here we assess the biomass, floristic diversity and spatial structure of this ecosystem. We established four large (5 ha) permanent sample plots at two savanna sites, inventoried all trees, and assessed shrub and grass species and biomass, as well as soil characteristics in subplots. Tree density was very low (4 stems/ha for DBH 0 cm), even though annual precipitation is relatively high (800 mm), probably due to the very sandy and nutrient poor soils. The total plant carbon stocks (above-ground and below-ground dry matter) was 7.4 ± 0. MgC/ ha, with over half being grass biomass, and the remainder divided approximately equally between trees and saplings/shrubs. The carbon stock of the system is dominated by the top of the soil (SOC 6.7 ± 0.9 Mg/ha in 0-0 cm depth). We found significant spatial clustering of trees at scales of less than 40 meters (Moran s I test). We identified 49 plant species (4 tree species, shrubs, 4 sedges, 7 herbs and grass species), with an average species richness of per plot. There is tree hyperdominance of Hymenocardia acida Tul. (Phyllantaceae), and a richer understory species composition dominated by Loudetia simplex and Hyparrhenia diplandra. The understory diversity is higher than expected given that the Bateke Plateau is surrounded by rainforest and has been isolated from other savannas for much of its history.

154 04 05 S04-P04 SAVANNA FUNCTIONING AND DYNAMICS AN EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN TO INVESTIGATE THE ROLE OF MAMMAL COMMUNITY ON FOREST DYNAMICS IN THE CERRADO BIOME (BRAZIL) S05-P0 DIVERSIFICATION OF AFRICAN FORESTS STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF FOREST OF BRACHYSTEGIA LAURENTII (DE WILD.) LOUIS EX J. LÉON. IN THE MAB YANGAMBI, IN DRC Olivier Pays, Franco L Souza, Pierre-Cyril Renaud, Cyntia C Santos,, Fabio de Oliveira Roque, Mauricio Silveira, Erich Fisher, Francisco Valente-Neto, Ana Claudia Piovezan Borges, Clarissa de Araujo Martins,, Damien Arvor Hippolyte Nshimba Seya Wa Malale, Bijou Lituka Yalufi University of Kisangani, Kisangani, cd, hippolytenshimba@gmail.com UMR 6554 CNRS - LETG-Angers, University of Angers, Angers, FR, olivier.pays@univ-angers.fr Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, InBio. Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, MS, BR UMR 6554 CNRS - LETG-Rennes, University of Rennes, Rennes, FR This study aims at analyzing the structure and composition of a forest dominated by Brachystegia laurentii in the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve. To do this, two plots of ha each, m were sampled in a forest near the Isalowe River. Although land use changes in the tropical regions affect drastically biodiversity and ecological services, assessing their long-term impacts remains challenging and alarming. Defaunation of large mammals may exacerbate the top-down or bottom-up control of the communities in a context dependent way in relation to the land use changes. However, these predictions have never been tested using a long-term integrated framework including observational and experimental studies at landscape scale in the Cerrado hotspot. Thus, we designed experiments along a gradient of native vegetation loss on the Serra da Bodoquena Plateau in selected areas with livestock and crop where there is a variation from 9 to 00 % of native vegetation cover. The effect of the agricultural matrix around the fragments is particularly studied. We selected fragment of native vegetation typical from Cerrado and set up two plots of 5 5 m, one that excludes mammals larger than kg and another control. The ecological functions (regulation and supporting services) that are studied in relation to the resilience of native vegetation are the following: () forest dynamics including tree and understory community, seed and fruit dispersion and survival, seedling, () soil including nutrients cycling, decomposition (leaf and woods), soil and litter community, () plant and animal diversity including phylogenetic and functional diversity and animalplant interactions. The main questions that are investigated are: Is there any effect (and if so, what is the shape of the relationship) of native vegetation loss (i.e. attributes of forest fragments) and the studied functions? Is there any effect of the agricultural matrix around the forest fragments on the role of mammals on forest dynamics? Are pastures more permeable than crops to mammal community? Here we will present some primarily results on mammal community structure and the dynamics of land-use change of the studied area. A total of 89 species belonging to 69 genera and 40 families were identified in the two plots; 59 species, 54 genera and 5 families in the first plot and 54 species, 45 genera and 6 families in the second plot. A total of 699 trees of dbh more than 0 cm were surveyed; an average density of 50 trees/ha; 8 trees in the P and 7 trees in the P with a basal area varying from a plot to another, i.e. m²/ha in P and 5 m²/ha in P. A clear dominance of Brachystegia laurentii (59 %) was found, 55 % in P and 6 % in P. Alongside this species, two species have distinguished themselves by their greater relative dominance, frequency and density than other species. These are Scorodophloeus zenkeri and Staudtia kamerunensis. A remarkable diversity was also highlighted. The Shannon- Weaver index gave a value of.089 for the P and.799 for the P and the Simpson index gave for the P and for the P. In both plots, species are distributed more or less equitably with a very close equitability index, for P and 0.70 for P. This study also revealed a predominance of Megaphanerophyts (56 %) and Mesophanerophyts (40 %) in the forest studied. The diaspores barochores (9 %) and sarcochores (40 %) are better represented in the set of forest. The first type is better represented in P and the second type is better represented in P. Species of the phytosociological class of Strombosio- Parinarietea, characteristic of terra firma natural forests, are also better represented.

155 06 07 S06-P0 AUDIO AND VIDEO MONITORING ECOACOUSTIC SURVEYS PREDICT ALPHA AND BETA DIVERSITY IN SOUTHERN ECUADORIAN MONTANE FOREST S06-P0 AUDIO AND VIDEO MONITORING DEEP NETWORKS TAG THE LOCATION OF BIRD VOCALISATIONS ON AUDIO SPECTROGRAMS David C. Siddons,, Vinicio Santillán, Martha Quitián, Yvonne Tiede, Christine I.B. Wallis, Pedro X. Astudillo, Eike L. Neuschulz, Matthias Schleuning, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Roland Brandl, Jörg Bendix, Nina Farwig Lefteris Fanioudakis, Ilyas Potamitis (speaker) Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, GR Universidad del Azuay, Cuenca, EC, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, DE Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt (Main), DE Effective biodiversity measurement and monitoring systems across wide spatial and temporal scales is an important challenge for conservation management under changing environmental conditions. Assessing biodiversity traditionally requires observational field studies that require both experts and time. Ecoacoustics has the potential as an efficient tool to provide information on biodiversity and monitor change with minimal need for experts on the ground. We tested the effectiveness of five ecoacoustic indices as proxies for traditional point count bird surveys in twelve montane forest sites with two levels of disturbance and two elevations in southern Ecuador. We conducted point counts over two seasons and recorded point counts on different occasions during the same periods. We compared species richness and α-diversity indices calculated from the observational point counts to α-diversity indices calculated from the acoustic surveys using GLMM to account for possible autocorrelation. We also calculated an Ecoacoustic β-diversity measure derived from an NMDS ordination of occupied frequencies and compared the results to an NMDS of the point counts using Procrustes analysis. The Acoustic Diversity Index and Acoustic Evenness Index proved to correlate strongly with several traditional α-diversity indices and species richness. The Ecoacoustic β-diversity NMDS distinguished sites between elevations and was significantly correlated with the traditional observed avian community NMDS, effectively predicting β-diversity. Our results show that Ecoacoustic indices have potential to be used as proxies for biodiversity monitoring and assessment. Merian Award Applicant Monitoring bird diversity in tropical forests provides essential information for bird community composition and distribution. Moreover, the appealing elegance of birds singing is an excellent means to raise public awareness about tropical conservation. This work focuses on reliable automatic detection and segmentation of bird vocalizations as recorded in the open field. Acoustic detection of avian sounds can be used for the automatized monitoring of multiple bird taxa and query in long-term recordings for species of interest. Bird recognition requires a database containing a large number of example vocalizations. Bird vocalization recordings with exact boundaries are costly, rare and uncommon for large datasets. Although it is relatively easy to annotate a small recording as having a bird vocalization or not based on visual inspection of its spectrogram it is costly to derive exact bounding boxes for all vocalizations it includes. On the contrary weakly labeled data are abundant (see e.g. the Xeno-canto database). Weakly labelled in the context of this work means that a recording is labeled as having a bird sound or not but there is no other metadata on where is the bird sound exactly located within the recording. Predicting the exact location of the vocalization allows different kind of measurements to be derived e.g. bird activity per time -unit, extraction of the repertoire of vocalizations, recognition of different species. Our work focuses on automatic training procedures that require minor human supervision and aims at inspecting large audio corpora. In this work, we use the Salience map as a byproduct of Deep-nets that allows us to localize the vocalizations. The Salience map allows having a glimpse of where exactly the deep net basis its decision to classify a recording as having or not a bird vocalization. Thus, implicitly, the Salience map tags the spectrogram with the correct localization of birds vocalizations. Once we derive the Salience map of the part of the available database having a positive label for birds, we apply bounding boxes on the saliency blobs and then we apply state of the art Deep-learning detection algorithms (e.g. YOLO v ) to derive bounding boxes for the part of the test set classified by the DenseNet as having a bird.

156 08 09 S07-P0 ADVANCES IN CANOPY SCIENCE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF LIANA SUCCESS IN MALAYSIA Chris Chandler, Geertje van der Heijden, Giles Foody, Doreen Boyd S08-P0 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION HABITAT-SPECIFIC EDAPHIC CONTROLS ON PALM COMMUNITY PHYLOGENETIC STRUCTURE IN THE WESTERN AMAZON University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, Robert Muscarella, Henrik Balslev Tropical forests are highly productive, biologically rich and carbon dense. As such, these ecosystems are critical to the global carbon balance and key in mitigating some of the effects of climate change. Lianas are important components of tropical forests, where they have been shown to increase in abundance and biomass over the last decades. Lianas compete intensely with trees for above- and below-ground resources, thus substantially limiting tree growth and survival. Such increases in liana biomass may induce changes in tree species composition and dynamics, which could have consequences for tropical forest carbon storage in the future. Studies on lianas have largely focused in the Neotropics, limiting our understanding of the drivers behind variation in liana infestation and the impact on carbon balance in the Palaeotropics. Furthermore, although liana infestation varies greatly across forests, the drivers of the broad-scale variation in liana pressure remains unexplored. Here, we therefore aim to map liana infestation in Bornean Malaysia with the use of airborne hyperspectral imagery to () investigate whether the spatial patterns in liana infestation are driven by variation in disturbance and/or forest structure and () test whether carbon sequestration and storage is affected by liana infestation on a regional scale. Airborne hyperspectral imagery and LiDAR data were collected concurrently (Mark Cutler, Dundee). Preliminary results from ground measurements showed liana biomass and abundance were both greater in the primary forest in comparison to secondary forests. Comparison of liana infestation and forest structure revealed a canopy height maximum of 64.4 m for liana infestation. In addition, we find a clear difference in the spectral response between lianas and trees. A neural network is able to accurately predict liana presence across the hyperspectral imagery (8 % correctly classified). Additional training data may have the potential to predict liana infestation as a percentage of canopy cover on a continuous scale. Aarhus University, Aarhus, DK, bob.muscarella@gmail.com Palms are a diverse and iconic group in tropical forests with critical importance for ecological and human systems. Understanding patterns and drivers of palm diversity can shed light on general mechanisms promoting tropical species diversity. We paired data on palm community composition from 54 transects located across two main habitat types in the western Amazon (seasonally inundated and non-inundated) with information on soil chemistry, topography, climate, and phylogenetic relationships among palms to ask () how does phylogenetic structure of palm communities vary along soil gradients within and between major habitat types? And, () which clades primarily drive observed patterns in phylogenetic community composition? Among non-inundated transects, palm communities tended to be more phylogenetically clustered in areas of low soil nutrient concentrations. In contrast, among seasonally inundated transects, phylogenetic clustering of palm communities was higher with greater mean annual precipitation but varied less along measured soil gradients. In both habitat types, phylogenetic clustering was largely due to co-occurring species from two genera: Geonoma and Bactris. This finding illustrates a key role for these two genera for understanding palm community composition, and also provides insight to the potential drivers of diversification for these two hyper-diverse genera. Our study demonstrates strong regional and edaphic controls on palm phylogenetic structure across the western Amazon, suggesting different mechanisms acting in different habitat types. Understanding the mechanisms promoting diversity of this highly diverse and ecologically important group will serve to advance understanding general patterns of diversification in the tropics. These results suggest that natural disturbance such as tree fall may be more frequent in the old-growth primary forest leading to increased liana recruitment and infestation. Furthermore, preliminary findings suggest that airborne hyperspectral imagery can provide a promising tool to identify liana infestation over large regions in tropical wet rainforests.

157 0 S08-P0 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION TREE REACTION TO DROUGHT IN A MONTANE RAINFOREST IN SOUTHERN ECUADOR S08-P0 TROPICAL TREES ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION ECOLOGICAL GENOMICS OF NICHE EXPLOITATION AND INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN TROPICAL FOREST TREES Volker Raffelsbauer, Achim Bräuning Sylvain Schmitt, Myriam Heuertz, Bruno Hérault,4, Niklas Tysklind 5 Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, DE, volker.raffelsbauer@fau.de The eastern declivity of the Cordillera Real in southern Ecuador is covered by a highly diverse mountain rainforest. Local climate is humid with around 00 mm of annual rainfall, and dry spells are rather rare but nevertheless a regular event during the Veranillo del Niño (VdN) periods in October or November (Volland-Voigt et al. 0). However, different tree species might respond diverse to occasional drought stress, raising the question if some species might be better adapted to a higher frequency of dry periods that may occur under future climate conditions. UMR Biodiversité Gènes et Communautés, Université de Bordeaux, Cestas, FR, sylvain.schmitt@agroparistech.fr UMR Biodiversité Gènes et Communautés, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Cestas, FR Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Yamoussoukro, CI 4 UR Forêts et Société, Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), Montpellier, FR 5 UMR Écologie des Forêts de Guyane, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Kourou, FR We monitored 4 individuals of eight different families with high-resolution electronic dendrometers and analyzed tree responses during dry intervals with a minimum length of four consecutive days without rainfall during July 007 to November 00, and additionally during March 05 to March 07. We calculated the averaged stem shrinkage rates during these periods, and compared the specific recovery times in consideration of plant families and plant functional types. Our results showed that the two deciduous broadleaved species Cedrela montana and Tabebuia chrysantha showed the biggest loss of increment during dry spells, with up to mm stem shrinkage after 0 days of drought. However, the two species differ strongly regarding growth rate and averaged daily increment change with mm and mm respectively. Looking at the recovery time, Vismia tomentosa and Tapirira guianensis moved into focus. While Vismia recovered to the pre-drought circumference after only five days, Tapirira needed 5 days on average to restore its circumference. If such dry spells change in duration and frequency, this may result in an alteration of the forest composition. Understanding characteristics, causes and consequences of biodiversity is a fundamental challenge in ecology and evolution. Biodiversity presents three nested levels, from individuals, over species, to ecosystems. Intraspecific variability affects the individual level of biodiversity. High levels of intraspecific variability, notably in ecologically important traits has been reported. Intraspecific variability is shaped by the interaction between () genetic variability, () environmental heterogeneity and () stochastic factors. However, we still know little about the effects of this variability on population dynamics, species interactions and ecosystem processes. Interestingly though, variability at the level of genotypes and traits has been suggested to promote local adaptation of populations and to promote species coexistence at the community level, thus suggesting a role for this variability in the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. We here present the conceptual framework of the recently started PhD thesis of S. Schmitt. The main objective of the thesis is to further explore the genotype-environment interactions in shaping the intraspecific trait variability of biodiversity. The study site for the thesis is the lowland rainforest in the research station of Paracou, French Guiana, where detailed inventory and tree growth data, as well as environmental characterization are available. We specifically wish to consider the intraspecific genomic variability as a continuum within structured populations of closely related species, and measure its role on individual tree performance through growth over time, while accounting for effects of a finely-characterized environment at the abiotic and biotic level. Eventually, we expect to help building a theory of community ecology starting with individuals, because interactions with environment is based at the individual level.

158 S0-P0 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY COMMUNITIES OF COLLEMBOLA ON RÉUNION ISLAND: RECOLONIZATION OF HABITATS DESTROYED BY LAVA FLOWS AND IMPACT OF EXOTIC PLANT SPECIES S0-P0 TROPICAL SOIL ECOLOGY BACTERIAL DIVERSITY IN THREE DIFFERENT FIRE INCIDENCE AREA IN MOPANE WOODLAND OF LIMPOPO NATIONAL PARK Sandrine Salmon, Maxime Villers, Adji Ami Diop, Cyrille D Haese, Jean-François Ponge, Pierre-Michel Forget, Dominique Strasberg, Nathalie Machon UMR 779 MECADEV Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle-CNRS, Brunoy, FR, sandrine.salmon@mnhn.fr UMR PVBMT CIRAD-Université de La Réunion, Peuplements Végétaux et Bio-agresseurs en Milieu Tropical, Saint-Denis La Réunion, FR UMR 704 CESCO Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle-CNRS, Paris, FR Natural recolonization of disturbed environments is a key issue for the maintenance of biodiversity, especially in a context of habitats threatened by exotic species. Recolonization by collembola of habitats destroyed by lava flows has never been documented. These soil-dwelling arthropods provide an essential basis for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Our objective was to answer the following questions: Which habitats (forests, crops) serve as sources for collembola recolonization? Do exotic plant species influence this recolonization? Which traits allow rapid recolonization? Our study was performed in the Reunion island, where several habitats have been destroyed by lava flows and where 500 introduced plant species threaten the functioning of ecosystems. Collembola were collected from soil, litter, herbaceous layer, moss and tree bark sampled from different habitats (lava flows, forests and sugarcane fields). They were identified at the species or morphospecies level. Their functional traits were measured. For the first time collembolan species were inventoried in forests, crops and lava flows on Reunion Island: 56 species and morpho-species belonging to families were observed. Species richness was increased in crops and forests compared to lava flows indicating that recolonization was incomplete. Our results show that the recolonization of habitats destroyed by lava flows depends on many factors that differ according to the considered micro-habitat (vertical stratum). Colonization was a function of the percentage of exotic plants, the distance to the nearest forest and the age of lava flow, in herbaceous layer, soil and litter, respectively. Dominant functional traits observed in lava flows were those belonging to edaphic species. The rapidity with which edaphic species colonized lava flows, added to the observation of many of these species on tree trunks, suggests that they could have benefited from air transport for settlement in lava flows. Ivete Maquia,, Denise Brito, Natasha Ribeiro, Nuno Duro 4, Mário Da Costa 4, Paula Fareleira 5, Isabel Maria Videira e Castro 5, Maria Manuela Ferreira Pinto 4, Andrea Berruti 6, Erica Lumini 6, Ana I. F. Ribeiro-Barros 4 Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, PT Biotechnology Center, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, MZ, ivetemaquia@gmail.com Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, MZ 4 Plant Stress and Biodiversity Laboratory, Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, PT 5 Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, Oeiras, PT 6 National Research Council Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Torino, IT Mopane woodland represent the second most important forest ecosystem in Southern Africa which is characterized by the dominance of the woody legume Colosphosperum mopane, a specie of high socio-economic and medicinal value. Anthropogenic fires are one of the major ecological risks compromising this ecosystem, and so far there have been few studies on the effect of fire on mopane microbial fauna, particularly on biological nitrogen fixers such as Rizhobium. In the present study, the microbial diversity was analyzed in three types of mopane woodlands soils of the Limpopo National Park (LNP) using the 6S rrna marker. No significant differences were observed between the microbial flora of the different soils. Regarding to nitrogen fixing bacteria, the following genera were identified: Firmicute (55 %), Bacteroidetes (9 %), Proteobacteria ( %), Tenericutes (8 %), Actinobacteria ( %) and other bacterias. To analyse the presence of symbiotic nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, cowpea was inoculated with soils, and bacteria purified from the resulting nodules. Four different species were purified, namely Bradyrhizobium iriomotense, B. ingae, B. yuanmingense and Rhizobium freirei. These results indicate that fire does not interfere in the microbiology of LNP soils. Although the formation of symbiotic nodules in C. mopane is not common, the symbiotic capacity of isolated species will be studied in the near future.

159 4 5 S-P0 MOLECULAR TAXONOMY AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN SOILS USE OF ACOUSTICS FOR SPECIES DELIMITATION IN A NEOTROPICAL ANT SPECIES COMPLEX S-P0 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY TRANSCRIPTOMIC RESPONSES OF MANGROVE TREES TO DIFFERENT STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENTS Kenzy Peña-Carrillo,, Gianni Pavan, Rubí Meza-Lazaro 4, Alejandro Zaldivar-Riveron 4, Jean-Paul Lachaud 5,6, Gabriela Pérez-Lachaud, Paul Devienne, Chantal Poteaux Laboratoire d Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée, Université Paris-Nord, Villetaneuse, FR, kenzy@leec.univ-paris.fr Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias, General Terán, MX Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacustica e Ricerche Ambientali, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell Ambiente, Universita di Pavia, Pavia, IT 4 Colección Nacional de Insectos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, MX 5 Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS-UMR 569, Université de Toulouse UPS, Toulouse, FR 6 Departamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Quintana Roo, MX Neotropics are well-known for its considerably high biodiversity. Several causes, both biotic and abiotic ones, have been proposed to explain this extraordinary biodiversity, where a large number of species remained unnoticed due to the occurrence of cryptic species. Ectatomma ruidum (Roger 860) is a Neotropical ant species whose distribution range extends from northern Mexico to Brazil, and is one of the most common species of its genus. Recent phylogenetic and species delimitation studies based on mtdna and nuclear markers have revealed that, though the morphology of E. ruidum is conserved along its distributional range, it actually represents a complex of three to four species (E. spp. -4), with two of them having a wide geographic distribution along the Neotropics (E. spp. and ). However, the status of one of these species is not supported by mitogenomic sequencing or by analyses of cuticular hydrocarbons (E. sp. 4). Moreover, two of the species of this complex appear to hybridize in a restricted area in the state of Oaxaca, near the Itsmo de Tehuantepec, Mexico (E. spp. and ), a region that is known for its complex evolutionary history and its rich biodiversity. Both hybridizing species are facultatively polygynous and have an infrequent polymorphism in queen size, with some nests showing two morphotypes of reproductive females (miniaturized queens called microgynes and a normal one, called macrogyne). By contrast, no hybridization was reported between the two sympatric species with wide geographic distribution, with one of them not having microgynes. We hypothesized that reproductive isolation between E. spp. and could be broken due to the presence of microgynes that mated with males of different origin. Previous studies have shown that acoustic signals and morphology of the stridulatory apparatus could help for species delimitation in ants. Therefore, here we show the results of our study where we compare the produced sounds and the morphology of the stridulatory apparatus in castes of the species belonging to the E. ruidum complex as taxonomic tools to delimit its species boundaries. Matin Miryeganeh, Hidetoshi Saze Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, JP, matin.miryeganeh@oist.jp Mangroves are salt tolerant trees that grow in coastal saline water in tropics and subtropics and are adapted to harsh conditions with high salinity, extreme tides, strong winds, high temperatures, and anaerobic wetlands. They have developed specific morphological and physiological characteristics, such as breathing and support roots, salt-excreting leaves, and viviparous seedlings. Despite increasing awareness of mangrove s ecological importance, the molecular mechanisms underlying their adaptation to extreme habitats remain elusive. Mangrove communities show gradual phenotypic changes in forest structure such as tree height and biomass that usually decrease due to increasing stress factors along the tidal gradients. We have set the study site in a mangrove forest located along the estuary of a river and coastal area of Pacific Ocean in Okinawa-Japan. This forest is consisted mainly of three mangrove species from the family Rhizophoraceae, and show highly developed morphological adaptations to extreme conditions. We are investigating how gene expression varies among individuals from different habitats in different level of stress, and how this variation is correlated with their morphological differences. A detailed de novo annotation of genes based on RNA sequencing data was done and gene expression analysis identified remarkable genomic characteristics that are conserved within each group but differ among them. Annotations of Gene Ontology also, revealed differences in the transcriptome profiles among the two populations. This study may contribute to a better understanding of the adaptive responses in plants and may help to evaluate the risk of plant species in fluctuations of the environmental conditions and can make a good model system for studying genetic mechanisms related to abiotic stress adaptation in tropical forest trees.

160 6 7 S-P0 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE THREATENED TREE SPECIES AFZELIA AFRICANA SM. AND IMPLICATION FOR THE SPECIES CONSERVATION IN BENIN Thierry Houehanou,,, Kathleen Prinz 4, Frank Hellwig,4, Achille Assogbadjo,, Jens Gebauer 5, Romain Glele Kakaï Laboratory of Ecology, Botany and Plant Biology; Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, Parakou, BJ, thierryhouehanou@gmail.com Laboratory of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Abomey Calavi, Abomey Calavi, BJ Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d Estimations Forestières, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d Abomey Calavi, Abomey Calavi, BJ 4 Institute for Ecology and Evolution, Department for Systematic Botany with Hausknecht Herbarium and Botanical Garden, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, DE 5 Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems with Special Focus on Horticulture, Faculty of Life Sciences, Rhine- Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kleve, DE Afzelia Africana is a valuable and threatened tree species in its occurrence range in Africa. Up to now, no information regarding molecular ecology is available to motive the conservation of this tree species in Africa in general and particularly in Benin. This study was then carried out to assess the genetic diversity and the differentiation among populations of Afzelia afrcana from different zones in Benin. 70 adults individuals from fifteen populations split in three different geographical subpopulations (Southern, Central and Northern) were analyzed at microsatellite loci. All loci were polymorphic with the number of alleles per locus ranging from 4 to 0. High levels of genetic diversity were found over the three subpopulations. Mean values of observed/ expected heterozygosities were 0.88/0.75, 0.877/0.75 and 0.848/0.765 respectively in Southern, Central and Northern subpopulations. We observed a weak but statistically significant genetic differentiation among geographical subpopulations regarding the values of Fst (Value = 0.08; P= 0.00) and Rst (Value = 0.055; P= 0.00). Significant isolation by distance was obtained with the Mantel test. The inbreeding coefficient was negative suggesting an outbreeding but not significant in each subpopulation. Analysis of genetic diversity of juveniles in comparison to adults will confirm later the possible existence of inbreeding or not since only adults have been studied. In addition, the occurrence of geographical genetic differentiation at countryside involves those natural subpopulations to be conserved in situ in their geographical zones. Therefore, it is required to conserve a representative gene pool in a protected area of each geographical zone. S-P0 TROPICAL MOLECULAR ECOLOGY EVIDENCE FOR RAPID ADAPTATION TO THE TROPICS IN CREOLE CATTLE GENOMES Dan Pitt, Michael W Bruford, Pablo Orozco-terWengel (speaker), Mario Barbato, Rodrigo Martínez, Natalia Sevane School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, Sevane-FernandezN@cardiff.ac.uk Institute of Zootechnics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, IT Corporación Colombiana De Investigación Agropecuaria (Corpoica), Centro de investigaciones Tibaitatá, Bogotá, CO The introduction of Iberian livestock species in the Americas after Columbus arrival imposed high selection pressures on a limited number of animals over a brief period of time. Knowledge of the genomic regions selected during this process may help in enhancing climatic resilience and sustainable animal production. We first aimed to determine taurine and indicine ancestry contributions on the genomic structure of tropical Creole cattle. Second, we inferred their demographic history using analytical approaches (approximate Bayesian computation -ABC-, linkage disequilibrium -LD- analysis, Ne Slope analysis -NeS-). Third, we performed whole genome scans for signatures of selection based on cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity tests (XP-EHH) and population differentiation (FST) to disentangle the genetic mechanisms involved in adaptation and phenotypic change by rapid and major environmental transition. To tackle both questions, we combined SNP array data in modern Creole cattle with modern day samples from breeds comprising their putative Iberian ancestors. Reconstruction of the population history of Creoles from the end of the 5 th century to the present day featured a major demographic expansion until the introduction of zebu and commercial breeds into the Americas ~70 years ago, triggering a drastic Ne contraction. Using the NeS approach provided insights into short-term complexity in population change, undetected using ABC, and depicting a decrease/expansion episode at the end of the ABC expansion period, as well as several recent fluctuations in Ne and the attainment of the current small Ne only towards the end of the 0 th century. We detected selection signatures for tropical adaptation, including, importantly, for the slick hair coat phenotype, identifying a new candidate gene (GDNF), as well as novel candidate regions involved in immune function, nervous and behavioural processes, iron metabolism and adaptation to new feeding conditions. The outcomes from this study will help in future-proofing farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) by providing molecular tools that allow selection for improved cattle performance, resilience and welfare under climate change.

161 8 9 S-P0 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY THE IMPORTANCE OF TREE ALLOMETRY FOR LOCAL-SCALE VARIATION IN ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS Grace Jopaul Loubota Panzou, Ted Feldpausch, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Eric Forni, Jean-Louis Doucet, Joël Loumeto 4, Adeline Fayolle (speaker) Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Gembloux, BE, adeline.fayolle@uliege.be University of Exter, Exeter, UK CIRAD, Montpellier, FR 4 University of Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville, CG S-P0 TROPICAL TREE ALLOMETRY EVOLUTION OF ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS OF DRY TROPICAL FOREST IN THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF MADAGASCAR IN RELATION WITH HUMAIN ACTIVITIES Tian Li,, Lantotiana Michel Eric Randriamanana, Harimalalanirina Fabriella Camélias Rasoamanantenaniaina, Nomenjanahary Zo Tahina, Roger Edmond, Faramalala Miadana, Hary Jeannoda Vololoniaina, Annette Hladik 4, Riera Bernard, Mécanismes adaptatifs & évolution, Paris, FR, litian04@hotmail.com Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle, Paris, FR Université d Antananarivo, Département Biologie et Ecologie Végétale, Antananarivo, MG Aboveground biomass (AGB) plays a critical role in determining the long-term dynamics of carbon in tropical forests. Consequently, understanding what factors are important in controlling AGB in tropical forests has major implications for projecting the terrestrial carbon stocks, in the context of an increasingly uncertain future. In this study, we aimed to explore the local-scale AGB variation in two forest sites in northern Congo, representative of contrasted forest types under the same climate but growing on vastly different soils and parent material (quartzite substrate for CIB and sandstone substrate for Mokabi). Tree diameter was measured in 6 permanent forest plots of -ha in each site, and tree allometry (total tree height, height of the first branch and crown dimensions) was measured on a subsample of 8 plots of -ha in each site. Allometric data were available for a total of 0 trees (040 for CIB and 6 for Mokabi) covering a large range of diameters (0-00 cm). We first developed site-specific allometric models that were used to estimate AGB at plot level. We then explore the determinants of AGB variation at plot level using multiple regressions and mixed linear models. For a given diameter, trees tended to be taller and to have deeper crown in the Celtis forest of the CIB (rich soils), while they tended to have larger crown in the Manilkara forest of the Mokabi (sandy soils). Similar trends were reported within species for the sixteen species shared by both sites, suggesting an environmental control of tree allometry. We found that AGB strongly varied between the two forest sites, with greater AGB per hectare in the Celtis forest of the CIB site. Within-site AGB variation was positively related to basal area, though between-site AGB variation was determined by tree allometry (height-diameter and crown allometries). These results have strong implications for forest biomass and carbon monitoring. 4 UMR 706. Éco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, MNHN, CNRS et Université Paris-7., Paris, FR The dynamics of tropical dry forest woody plants was studied in the protected area of Antrema, North-west Madagascar. Stem density, basal area, and above-ground biomass were estimated from two large permanent censuses of plots, in the forests of Badrala, Ankoririaka and Ambanjabe. They were established on contrasting locations and censused three times at Badrala, first in 04, then again in 06 and another time in 07 together with Ankoririka and Ambanjabe forest. Mean stem density was 46 stems ha - in 04, 460 stems ha - in 06, 466 stems ha - in 07 in Badrala forest, with the basal area.9 m in 04,. m in 06,. m in 07. Stem mortality rate ranged between 0.65 % and.5 % y-. In this plot, stem density increases slightly over the study period, on the contrary, the cut of stem has increased over the years. In Ankoririka and Ambanjabe forests, stems density was 9 per ha - and 40 per ha -, with the basal area 6.7 m and,6 m in 07, and in recent years 7 trees were cut in Ankoririka and 8 trees in Ambanjabe, which represent 0 % of total basal area. The difference in stem density, basal area and stem cut is consistent with the hypothesis of different typologies of pedology and the distance between villages and Doany (sacred place for local people). Even though in a protected area, the dynamic of forest suffers still a strong influence by the ethnic people. Merian Award Applicant

162 0 S4-P0 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY EFFECTS OF MODERATE NUTRIENT ADDITION ON TREE PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES. THE EXAMPLE OF ALCHORNEA LOJAENSIS IN SOUTHERN ECUADOR S4-P0 TROPICAL FOREST NUTRIENT ECOLOGY SODIUM IN A TROPICAL MONTANE FOREST IN SOUTH ECUADOR: DEMAND OF PHYLLOSPHERE MICROORGANISMS AND EFFECTS ON DECOMPOSITION Susanne Spannl, Achim Bräuning,, Erwin Beck Tobias Fabian, Andre Velescu, Tessa Camenzind, Matthias C. Rillig, Wolfgang Wilcke University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE, Susanne.Spannl@uni-bayreuth.de University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, DE In the humid tropics, availability of macro-nutrients like N and P is assumed to be the limiting growth factor for trees. Therefore, stable carbon isotopes (δ C) in tree rings are suitable proxies for plant physiological responses and functioning under changing environmental conditions, since those are susceptible for nutrient modifications. Within the framework of an ongoing Ecuadorian NUrient Manipulation EXperiment (NUMEX), intra-annual variations of δ C were combined with microscopic thin sections, cumulative growth rates, wood anatomical structures, light intensity and tree height of the evergreen species Alchornea lojaensis (sample collection in April 0). Although this innovate and new approach highlighted the species-specific responses to changing nutrient availability of nitrogen, it was not possible to detect growth ring boundaries utilizing intra-annual δ C signals; as clear date marker points within the wood were missing at this time. Therefore, in 07, same measurements were repeated again to improve and expand our knowledge about growth mechanisms of A. lojaensis. A comparison of these two studies will be presented to assess the effects on materialistic manifestations of tree physiological activity after almost 0 years of continued nutrient fertilization. Merian Award Applicant Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe, DE, tobias.fabian@student.kit.edu Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Biology, Berlin, DE Sodium is not an essential nutrient for plants and its effects on biota are mainly discussed in view of salinity in arid ecosystems. However, current studies in tropical forests investigate the hypothesis of Na being a limiting element in decomposition, thus affecting the carbon cycle. Na limitation of soil fauna may occur when Na inputs from the atmosphere and rock-derived Na concentrations in soils are low. Furthermore, Na might also be required by organisms of the phyllosphere, which might explain observations that deposited Na is retained in forest canopies. In our study on Na limitation in a tropical montane forest on the eastern cordillera of the Andes of South Ecuador, we investigated the hypotheses that () the study area is characterized by low Na concentrations because of low atmospheric deposition, () soil organic matter decomposition processes are limited by Na restrictions of faunal and fungal activity, and () Na is retained in the canopy because of Na limitation of microorganisms in the phyllosphere. Ecosystem Na fluxes have been monitored in a 9 ha-large catchment under an undisturbed montane forest since 998. Results reveal low Na concentrations in the organic layer and the mineral soil. Lower Na fluxes with throughfall+stemflow than with bulk deposition indicate Na retention in the canopy. Furthermore, Na input to the soil was higher than Na fluxes with litter leachate, suggesting Na retention in the organic layer in most of the 5 observation years. To explore the role of phyllosphere microorganisms in Na retention, we conducted an experiment with fresh leaves having different degrees of phyllosphere cover and sprayed them with a NaCl solution containing mg L- Na. Increasing phyllosphere cover led to enhanced Na retention, which was more pronounced on understory tree leaves than on leaves of the upper canopy. Effects of Na limitation on decomposition were tested by degradation of cellulose filter papers soaked in different Na solutions (NaCl, NaH PO 4, Na SO 4 ). Differential effects on soil microfauna and fungi were tested in a litterbag experiment set up in a factorial design. Our results revealed enhanced decomposition rates following Na additions in the presence of soil fauna. These results suggest a potential role of Na in regulating ecosystem processes. Merian Award Applicant

163 S5-P0 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT ECOLOGY OF BIRD COMMUNITIES ALONG AN ELEVATIONAL TROPICAL GRADIENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA Katerina Sam,, Bonny Koane, Vojtech Novotny, Biology Centre CAS, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, CZ, University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Ceske Budejovice, CZ S5-P0 ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT WOODY PLANTS ARE FLESHY-FRUITED IN THE LOWLANDS: STRONG ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENTS CONTROL FRUIT TYPES ON A HIGH-ELEVATION OCEANIC ISLAND Albert Sébastien, Olivier Flores, Dominique Strasberg UMR PVBMT, Université de la Réunion, Saint-Pierre, RE, candidalbert@gmail.com The New Guinea BInatang Research Centre, Madang, PG Elevational gradients continue to provide an attractive setting for biodiversity studies and serve as a heuristic tool and natural experiment in the study of community ecology. Here we present robust quantitative data on bird communities along a complete undisturbed rainforest elevational gradient. Our aim was to describe bird communities in detail and inspect various aspects of their ecology and patterns along the gradient. Mt Wilhelm gradient is located in the Central Cordillera of Papua New Guinea, spanning from the lowland floodplains of the Ramu river (00 m) to the tree line (700 m). We collected bird community data at eight sites (500 m elevational increment) during five independent surveys - in dry, wet seasons and extremely dry seasons (El Nino event). We used point counts, mist-netting and random walks throughout the area to survey birds. We divided all recorded birds (more than 40,000 individuals comprising 48 species) into five feeding guilds. We examined patterns of species richness, density, range size and distribution of birds. We further describe patterns in functional diversity and seasonal movements of birds. Data indicate that species richness and abundance of birds is highest at the lowest elevations and decreases steeply for all birds together and for frugivores. However, the diversity and abundances of insectivores remains constant until 700 m a.s.l. and then decreases with increasing elevation. The patterns in frugivore-insectivores and insectivore-nectarivores are more similar to those of insectivores rather than frugivores. We observe overall highest species turn-over at mid-elevations (between m), and highest abundances of insectivorous birds at m. Extreme droughts during of El Nino even in 05 had significant effect on bird communities, especially on frugivorous birds at lower elevations. Finally, we discuss malaria parasitemia in birds along the elevational gradient, and their elevational migrations. We assessed the importance of abiotic factors in explaining the spatial distribution of fleshy-fruited (FF) and dry-fruited (DF) woody species on La Réunion (Mascarene archipelago). We used an historical dataset of 49 vegetation plots surveyed in wellpreserved, native habitats between 50 and 000 m. We assigned fruit types to woody species. We calculated the FF and DF species richness, and the proportion of FF species (pff). We used general linear models to measure the relationships between these response variables and abiotic factors (elevation, climatic and topographic variables), controlling for spatial autocorrelation. Phylogenetic signal and endemism were assessed to disentangle assembly rules along environmental gradients. Elevation was always the best predictor. pff decreased from 8 % at 50 m to 0 % above 50 m. Precipitation of the driest month had also a highly significant effect. pff were higher on the windward where there was no precipitation seasonality. Topographic variables had an overall weak influence on response variables. Strong environmental filtering was highlighted at high elevations where single-island endemic DF plants dominated. The striking relationship between elevation and pff suggests a strong bottom-up control in communities, i.e. the availability of resources controls the fruit type composition. Biogeographic constraints may mostly influence the composition of fruit types at high elevations because () the sources of preadapted FF lineages are scarce and distantly located, and () current FF lineages on La Réunion might lack the evolutionary potential to adapt to harsh high-elevation conditions. Finally, because fruit types are closely related to seed dispersal strategies, these results show that these strategies change radically along elevational gradients. In an island where all large frugivorous vertebrates are now extinct, this raises the question of the future of FF species-rich communities.

164 4 5 S6-P0 ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF TROPICAL BRYOPHYTES EPIPHYTIC BRYOPHYTES RESPOND TO CHANGES IN FOREST STRUCTURE Tinja Pitkämäki, Johanna Toivonen, Sanna Huttunen Biodiversity Unit, University of Turku, Turku, FI, tievpi@utu.fi Department of Biology, Turku, FI S7-P0 MANIPULATIONS OF TROPICAL FOOD WEBS EFFECTS OF MACROCONSUMERS ON INVERTEBRATE FEEDING GROUPS ACROSS A GRADIENT OF VEGETATION LOSS IN TROPICAL KARST STREAMS Elaine Corrêa, Fabio Roque, Ryan Utz, Augusto Ribas, Bruno Martínez, Franco Souza Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, BR, elaineccorrea@yahoo.com.br Falk School of Sustainability, Chatham University, Gibsonia, US Increasing human impact threatens the forest biota of tropical Andes. The loss and degradation of forest habitat have been most dramatic in cloud forests (CFs) which, due to their exceptional biodiversity and valuable ecosystem services provided, have become a priority target for conservation. Both the plant diversity and ecosystem function in CFs are linked to high epiphyte loads. In particular, the extensive cover of epiphytic bryophytes on tree trunks and branches is a distinguishing feature of CFs. Previous studies have already demonstrated changes in epiphyte assemblages after disturbances such as logging. As full protection is not always an option, there is a need for sustainable management strategies to prevent biodiversity loss and sustain ecosystem function: understanding the relationships between environmental variables and community composition of epiphytic bryophytes is the first step towards this goal. We conducted a vegetation survey in primary and secondary cloud forests of Northern Peru to study the effects of forest structure on epiphytic bryophytes. In the studied forests, tree density and basal area turned out to be good indicators of the degree of anthropogenic disturbance. The biomass of epiphytic bryophytes decreased as the forests became more disturbed. Associated changes in the community composition suggest that communities respond to altered microclimatic conditions following logging. Results are presented for both taxonomic diversity and growth-form based functional diversity. Species loss resulting from human activities tends to disproportionately affect consumers at the top of trophic networks, resulting in changes to community structure and ecosystem functioning across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Few studies have simultaneously and experimentally addressed the effects of native vegetation depletion and macroconsumer loss on invertebrate food webs in streams. The aim of this study was to investigate how native riparian forest loss affects the interaction of macroconsumers such as fish and shrimp on composition of benthic invertebrate functional groups in tropical karst streams in Central-West Brazil. We experimentally excluded macroconsumers from the benthic zone of seven streams that reflected a continuous gradient from 0 % to 00 % of riparian forest cover. Across sites, the absence of macroconsumers appeared to promote an increase of abundance of scraper (e.g. Leptophlebiidae) and predator (e.g. Tanypodinae and Odonata) invertebrates, but did not alter collector or total invertebrate abundance. Additionally, the effect of native vegetation loss on trophic interaction was variable and was site-specific. Our results demonstrate the impact of native vegetation loss on the trophic interaction of macroconsumers and invertebrate functional groups in tropical karstic streams. Such potential top-down effects have been poorly studied in tropical karstic streams to date. Financial support: CAPES, PELD Planalto da Bodoquena: redes de interações em longo Prazo, CAPES-COFECUB and FUNDECT/CAPES.

165 6 7 S8-P0 TROPICAL NETWORKS THE ROLE OF UV REFLECTANCE IN THE POLLINATION SYSTEM OF HYPOXIS CAMEROONIANA ON MT. CAMEROON Yannick Klomberg,, Raissa Dywou Kouede, Michael Bartoš,4, Robert Tropek,5, Eric Fokam, Štěpán Janeček,4 S0-P0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME DYNAMICS AND DIVERSITY OF A SUBTROPICAL FOREST IN FUSHAN, TAIWAN: SIMULATION APPROACH VIA THE INDIVIDUAL-BASED TROLL MODEL E-Ping Rau, Jérôme Chave Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, CZ, yannickklomberg@gmail.com Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, NL Department of Zoology and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Buea, CM 4 Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Třeboň, CZ 5 Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, CZ Ultraviolet (UV) light reflectance has long been believed to play a role in predicting plant pollinators. UV reflection patterns on flowers act as specific guides to the flower or on a smaller scale as nectar guides. The UV pattern is expected to alter the behaviour of insects and influence plant reproductive success. We focused on the role of UV reflectance in the pollination of the pyrophytic species Hypoxis camerooniana, a plant with UV reflecting petals on Mt. Cameroon. We filmed 54 flowering plants from opening till closing of the flower in the montane grasslands around Mann Spring (± 50 m), resulting in over 000 hours of footage. Four treatments of UV manipulation were applied, including the full or partial application of UV absorbing cream and related controls treated with neutral cream. Moreover, we filmed non-treated flowers to see the effect of our experimental approach. We observed visitor s behaviour and checked the interaction(s) with reproductive organs to distinguish potential pollinators. After recording, pistils were collected for analysis of germinated pollen tubes to test pollination effectiveness. Laboratoire Évolution & Diversité Biologique, Toulouse, FR, epingchris@gmail.com A major challenge in ecology is to understand processes that drive the high diversity and dynamics of tropical and subtropical forests, many of which are subjected to frequent cyclones. These episodic climatic disturbances have strong impact on tree growth and survival, but their effects on community structure have not been extensively studied. Simulation with mechanistic models integrating plant functional traits represent a powerful tool to this end. In this study, we applied individual-based TROLL model to a subtropical forest with frequent typhoon visits, parametrizing with functional trait and climate data. We used both local climate data from meteorological stations and global re-analysis climate data from CRU-NCEP database, and evaluated their respective performance. We found that global climate data showed less variability in precipitation and slightly lower temperature than local climate data, but the simulation results were not greatly affected by the type of climate data used. Results after simulations over 500 years showed adequate estimations of forest structure (maximum height and biomass), underestimation of the number of small trees and overestimation the number of large trees; species evenness was also largely overestimated. These discrepancies suggested the potential importance of typhoons in shaping forest structure and diversity. Preliminary results show a general decrease of visitation rates in treated flowers, with UV blocked flowers showing the lowest visitation rates. Flies are the notable exception, since they alone favour control treated flowers. Diurnal visitation patterns are not affected by treatment. Night visitation was rare due to nyctinasty, the night visitor community was mainly formed by harvestmen and crickets. Most visits occurred in the morning hours. Day visitation was dominated by bees, with the second largest group being flies. Based on the pollen tube count we can conclude that treatment did not influence pollination success, since only trivial differences between all treatments and natural control were found In the future, we will attempt to improve the model by developing modules that capture how disturbance events may influence forest dynamics, comparing across sites (Luquillo, BCI, etc.) with different climatic disturbance intensity, and incorporating spatial heterogeneity, in hopes of improving the generality of the model and providing fundamental understandings on processes shaping tropical forests.

166 8 9 S0-P0 TROPICAL FORESTS IN SPACE AND TIME SIMULATING SEED DISPERSAL TO REPRODUCE PAST DYNAMICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN TROPICAL TREES S-P0 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO TOWARDS LANDSCAPE SCALE METRICS OF ENSO-INDUCED TREE MORTALITY IN PRIMARY AND DISTURBED TROPICAL FORESTS VIA REMOTE SENSING Marie Dury, Olivier J. Hardy, Jérémy Migliore,, Alexandra-Jane Henrot, Franck Trolliet, Alain Hambuckers 4, Anne-Marie Lézine, Joy Singarayer 5, Louis François Doreen Boyd, Liam Clark, Giles Foody, David Burslem, Christopher Philipson, Geertje van der Heijden, Catherine Waite, Mark Cutler 4 Unit for Modelling of Climate and Biogeochemical Cycles, UR-SPHERES, University of Liège, Liège, BE, Marie.Dury@uliege.be Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, BE Laboratoire d Océanographie et du Climat LOCEAN, Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, doreen.boyd@nottingham.ac.uk University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK ETH Zürich, ETH Zürich, CH 4 University of Dundee, Dundee, UK 4 Behavioural Biology Unit, UR-SPHERES, University of Liège, Liège, BE 5 Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK Climate change and human pressure threaten species richness of African tropical forests. Understanding how the past climate changes have shaped the current distribution and composition of African rainforests can certainly help to the ecosystem conservation in the future. This topic is addressed in the framework of the multi-disciplinary AFRIFORD project (Genetic and palaeoecological signatures of African rainforest dynamics: pre-adapted to change?). The CARAIB dynamic vegetation model is applied at the level of representative African tropical tree species to reconstruct their past and present distributions in equatorial Africa. To reproduce fully population dynamics, the results of the vegetation model are combined with a seed dispersal model. First, we simulate with the CARAIB DVM the changes over time in the potential distribution of tree species studied in AFRIFORD taking competition between species into account. From Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to present time, the vegetation model is forced with the -kyr snapshot outputs of the HadCM climate model, statistically downscaled at a spatial resolution of 0.5 and bias-corrected. The calculated distributions are essentially in equilibrium with climate, except for small delay times associated with biomass growth. These distributions are also compared directly with the potential (no dispersal limitation either) distributions obtained from species distribution modelling (MaxENT) for the same set of tree species and with the same climate forcing. Then, to simulate tree species under limitation by both climate and seed dispersal, we present preliminary results obtained with the dispersal module. Tests about the sensitivity of species dynamics to climate and competition are performed. Species dispersal is simulated on a sub-grid at 00 m resolution from the LGM refugia identified by the DVM. The dispersal capacities are dependent on species productivity and survival simulated by the DVM under past climate conditions. A commonly reported impact of drought affecting tropical forests is an increase in tree. Any loss of trees from drought has a significant impact upon ecosystem services, particularly with respect to carbon dynamics and projected changes to the species composition of forests as drought frequencies change. However, this critical factor in determining how resilient forests are to short term drought (whether driven by ENSO or other factors) is highly variable across both time and space, and poorly studied in logged forests in particular. In this paper findings are presented from the NERC-funded STEED (Spatio-TEmporal Dynamics of Forest Response to ENSO Drought) project which has used plots, UAV and satellite observations of Bornean tropical forests to measure ENSO-induced mortality. We show that there remain significant challenges in analysing these data not least because the relative youth of higher spatial resolution sensors (e.g. WorldView-) means that best practice has yet to be established for how tree mortality, for instance, is best detected using these data. Furthermore, while the use of imagery taken from multiple sensors at multiple times is able to elucidate forest response to perturbations (i.e., drought) at multiple spatial scales, factors such as cloud cover present significant barriers. While it is possible to select imagery with limited cloud cover, this is rarely consistent across time. Work has been done to overcome these issues in other forest environments but very little in tropical environments. Nonetheless, initial findings from the STEED project indicate that it is possible to identify incidences of tree mortality from imagery and this paper postulates how remote sensing might be best employed for future ENSO events to ensure a fuller understanding of the impact of drought across time and space.

167 0 S-P0 REMOTE SENSING FOREST RESPONSE TO ENSO SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODEL FOR A MICRO-ENDEMIC HUMMINGBIRD WITH VEGETATION INDICES AS A PREDICTOR OF HABITAT STRUCTURE Edwin Zarate,, Pedro X. Astudillo, David C. Siddons,, Roland Brandl, Nina Farwig, Jörg Bendix Universidad del Azuay, Cuenca, EC, ezarate@uazuay.edu.ec S-P0 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES CHALLENGES AND RISKS OF BUSHMEAT EXPLOITATION AT KISANGANI REGION (DRC) Casimir Nebesse, Guy-Crispin Gembu (speaker), André Malekani, Olivier Basa, Dudu Akaibe, Erik Verheyen Université de Kisangani, Kisangani, CD, gembuguycrispin@gmail.com Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, BE Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, DE Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are very important tools to predict geographic distribution of biodiversity via ecological niche modelling mainly using climatic information. The most used information is data from the WorldClim Global Climate database. However, the spatial resolution of these data is at best km and interpolated, useful for relatively homogeneous areas. In areas such as Ecuador, bisected by the Andes mountain range, the climatic variations are notable over short distances and ecosystems and landscapes also change abruptly. To improve these predictions, it would be appropriate to work with finer scale climatic information, which is not always available for the areas of interest. For this reason, we opted to model finer scale variation using Landsat remote sensing images as a proxy for habitat variation rather than using climatic variation. We used texture analysis of NDVI and NDWI indices as a proxy for habitat structure. We focused on southern Ecuador across the known distribution range of a micro-endemic hummingbird (Metallura baroni) found in páramo and shrub in high areas of the Andes, and developed an SDM using MAXENT. The results were promising (AUC = 0.957) and can be mapped to :50K, providing a cartographic tool for better planning and direct conservation decisions at a local scale. Bushmeat exploitation in Kisangani area (Thsopos Province) is an increasingly activity, because it developed in the shadows and almost out of control. There are signs of the emergence of a thriving business in Kisangani City. As part of the MRV project, we conducted a study on bushmeat exploitation in the different markets of Kisangani City. The study allowed us to measure the impact of hunting on the various wild species exploited and sold as bushmeat. The results of this work show that Kisangani region is losing biodiversity through commercial bushmeat harvesting activities. At least % of bushmeat encountered in different markets of Kisangani are partially protected species;, 7 % combine fully protected and unprotected species traded. Unfortunately, this exploitation is irrational and remains poorly controlled as a result of weak governance, the widespread lack of enforcement of laws and regulations that have all reinforced, to varying degrees, over-hunting. This high demand for bushmeat increase poaching in the rural areas of Kisangani City through the use of homemade guns (calibre ) and other prohibited hunting animals. This hunting is practiced in an unsustainable and less selective way on the wildlife would in the long run the risks of: () local disappearance of certain large Mammals (ecological stakes); () impoverishment of the rural populations which practice the hunting and the reduction of incomes in their households (economic stakes), and () the difficult survival for households of hunters and bush meat sellers (social issue).

168 S-P0 REHABILITATION OF TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPES WHERE HAS THE PEAT GONE? DETERMINING REGIONAL- SCALE CARBON LOSSES USING INSAR FROM TROPICAL PEATLANDS Martha Ledger, Sofie Sjögersten, Andrew Sowter, David Large, Chris Evans 4, Keith Morrison 5 Department of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, martha.ledger@nottingham.ac.uk Geomatic Ventures, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Department of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK 4 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor, UK 5 Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK 80 % of peatland in Indonesia and Malaysia are now drained for production of pulp wood and palm oil. Associated increased peat decomposition and large-scale forest fires are now significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. However, carbon losses from these processes remain poorly quantified as assessing the impact of peatland drainage across SE Asia is extraordinarily difficult due to the challenging nature and scale of the environment. Space-based platforms offer the opportunity for regular and efficient pan-regional monitoring. A transformative development in satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), a technique that measures surface motion, has the potential to solve this problem. A new intermittent small baseline subset (ISBAS) modelling technique developed at Nottingham, provides excellent coverage across almost all land surfaces irrespective of ground cover. This enables long term measurement of peatland surface motion across whole catchments, regions and countries. Importantly, the ISBAS technique is able to determine surface deformation under tropical forest canopy using C-band InSAR data. This enables continuously monitoring of surface motion ranging from cm/yr at spatial scales 90x 90 m. Field-based subsidence measurements are a common approach for assessing carbon losses from peatlands. Thus, space-based InSAR-derived motions should directly relate to carbon loss, allowing pan-regional assessment of carbon loss from otherwise inaccessible tropical peatlands. This project aims to determine whether rate of subsidence of the peat surface measured by InSAR is a proxy for rate of carbon loss in tropical peatlands in SE Asia. To achieve this, we will combine InSAR and field measurements of subsidence, with peat carbon stock data using statistical regression modelling techniques to validate the use of subsidence as a proxy for carbon loss. This project will deliver, for the first time, regional C loss rates from tropical peatlands in SE Asia following land use change. S5-P0 HUMAN-MODIFIED TROPICAL FORESTS IMPACTS OF LOGGING GAPS ON SOIL MICROBIAL DIVERSITY AND FUNCTION IN BORNEO Samuel Robinson,, Dafydd Elias, Niall McNamara, Nick Ostle, Rob Griffiths Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, s.robinson@lancaster.ac.uk Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK Tropical forests provide a vital global carbon sink, resulting from complex biogeochemical processes driven by plant-soil interactions. Current rapid land-use change threatens to alter the capacity of tropical forest soils to store carbon, with over 0 % of forest cover in Borneo being lost since the 970 s due to logging and conversion to oil palm plantation. The selective removal of large canopy-forming trees in addition to creation of logging roads dramatically affects forest structure, vegetation community and microclimate. Subsequent alteration in plant inputs to the soil has downstream consequences for soil microbial communities and function. Key foci for this research are to investigate linkages between structure of human-made logging gaps, vegetation and microclimate/environmental characteristics, and soil microbial diversity, community structure and function (carbon and nutrient cycling) within logged-over forest in lowland dipterocarp rainforest across the Sabah region of northern Malaysian Borneo. 6 study plots were established inside logging gaps across two sites in degraded forest (within the NERC BALI Project disturbance gradient) and sampled for: () soil chemical, physical and biological (microbial diversity through next-generation sequencing) properties; () gap size and shape (canopy cover, aerial photography and LiDAR); () vegetation cover and height, and (4) environmental and climate characteristics (air temperature, humidity, soil temperature and moisture content) in addition to installing longer-term environmental data loggers. Sampling was repeated in paired co-located control plots under adjacent closed-canopy forest for comparison. Metrics will be tested between gap and forest plots, as well as spatial variation within gaps and across sites. These data will also be used to inform ex-situ soil incubation studies investigating soil function (respiration) under controlled temperature and drought manipulations to provide understanding of potential atmospheric feedbacks under future climate scenarios. Merian Award Applicant

169 4 5 S8-P0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD ENHANCES THE NUMBER OF BREEDING PAIRS IN A CAPE VULTURE COLONY S8-P0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MULTIPLE-TAXA RESPONSES TO LAND USE CHANGES IN A BRAZILIAN SAVANNA LANDSCAPE Dana Schabo, Sonja Heuner, Michael Neethling, Sascha Rösner,, Roger Uys, Nina Farwig (speaker) University of Marburg, Marburg, DE, farwig@uni-marburg.de pixeldiversity GmbH, DE Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, ZA Vultures provide important ecosystem services, as they dispose carrion, maintain energy flows and prevent the spread of diseases. At the same time, the number of vultures is declining worldwide due to numerous threats, such as poisoning and collisions with power-lines as well as the lack of adequate food sources. Vulture restaurants, i.e. supplementary feeding stations, have become a widespread conservation tool aimed at supporting vulture colonies. However, the effect of vulture restaurants on population dynamics of vulture species is still poorly understood. In our study, we used a -year dataset from a breeding colony of the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres and a nearby vulture restaurant in South Africa to investigate the effect of supplementary food on population dynamics and breeding success. We found a significantly positive effect of supplementary food during the nest-building stage on the number of breeding pairs. However, breeding success, i.e. the proportion of successful nests, was not affected by supplementary food during the incubation and rearing stage. Our results indicate that carefully managed vulture restaurants might stabilize vulture colonies and can therefore aid vulture conservation. Clarissa Araújo Martins, Maurício Silveira, Francisco Valente Neto, Marciel Elio Rodrigues, Claudenice Faxina Zucca, Erich Arnold Fischer, Olivier Pays, Pierre-Cyril Renaud, Fabio Oliveira Roque Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, UFMS, Campo Grande, MS, BR, martins.ca@gmail.com LETG-Angers, Université d Angers, Angers, FR Processes underlying gradients of biodiversity are a fundamental yet unresolved topic in ecology. Intensification of land uses cause species loss but may also change the phylogenetic structure of the communities. Understanding how land use changes in the tropical regions affect phylogenetic structure of communities is useful for setting regulatory limits and defining conservation action. Community phylogenetic structure results in three basic patterns: clustered, overdispersed and random. Based on classic ideas, phylogenetic clustering occurs when communities comprised of ecologically similar species are present at the same place and time as a result of environmental filtering, whereas phylogenetic overdispersion results when limiting similarity occurs between closely-related, and therefore competing, species. Within random phylogenetic structure, the species tend to co-occur regardless of their phylogenetic relatedness. Our hypothesis is that as the percentage of native vegetation cover decreases in a landscape, the phylogenetic clustering pattern of the communities would increase due to the loss of phylogenetic related species. Using the Net Relatedness Index (NRI), we evaluated the phylogenetic community structure for birds, bat, aquatic macroinvertebrates and dragonflies along a gradient of loss of vegetation cover in a Cerrado hotspot region, Brazil. Our results did not show an evident pattern of increasing phylogenetic clustering pattern of the communities as the percentage of native vegetation cover decreases. There is no congruence of patterns in the response of the groups to the loss of native vegetation cover. Apparently, groups can respond idiosyncratically to land use.

170 6 7 S8-P0 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION DEVELOPING LONG-TERM MONITORING OF NATURAL AREAS FOR A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE: STUDY CASE OF LA REUNION S8-P04 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION A NEW TOOL FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE GABONESE FLORA: THE THREATENED PLANT SPECIES OF GABON WEBSITE Claudine Ah-Peng, Olivier Flores, Vincent Legros, Benoit Lequette, Jacques Rochat, Mathieu Rouget, Nicholas Wilding (speaker), Dominique Strasberg University of La Réunion, Saint-Pierre, RE, nicholaswilding@gmail.com Parc National de La Réunion, La Plaine-des-Palmistes, RE CIRAD, Saint-Pierre, RE Nicolas Texier,,, Tariq Stevart,,4, Ehoarn Bidault,5, Peter B. Phillipson,5 Université Libre de Bruxelles, Evolutionary Biology and Ecology (EBE), Bruxelles, BE, texnicolas@yahoo.fr Université Libre de Bruxelles, Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique Africaine, Bruxelles, BE Missouri Botanical Garden, Africa & Madagascar Department, St. Louis, US 4 Jardin Botanique de Meise, Meise, BE La Réunion island, in the Mascarenes, has been recognized as a World Heritage site for its Piton, Cirques and Remparts since 00. The site, coinciding with the core zone of La Réunion National Park, represents ha, equivalent to 40 % of the island. These dramatic landscapes of rugged terrain, impressive escarpments, forested gorges are dominated by three cliff-rimmed cirques and two volcanoes a dormant massif forming the highest peak, Piton des Neiges (069 m), and in the eastern part of the island lies the very active volcano, the Piton de la Fournaise (6 m). The island harbours a wide variety of natural habitats (tropical montane cloud forests, subalpine shrublands, lowland forests, dry forest ), now all remnant in the Mascarene archipelago, that host high levels of endemism for both flora and fauna. Thereby, La Réunion is the most significant contributor towards conservation of terrestrial biodiversity in the Mascarene islands. 5 Institut de Systématique, Évolution, et Biodiversité, Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle de Paris, Paris, FR The concept of High Conservation Value (HCV) was developed by the Forest Stewardship Council to support sustainable forest management. It provides a standard that many Gabonese logging companies have employed to certify their production. The concept is also used for the certification of sustainable palm groves and can also be directly transposed to the mining sector, two activities that have been expanding rapidly in recent years in the country. In order to define priority sites for conservation, and thus to guide actions to ensure the conservation of the flora, taxonomic knowledge and risk of extinction assessments are essential prerequisites for the application of the HCV approach (under criterion ). However, for plants, only a small fraction of the flora has been assessed and a list of threatened species has not been available. The Divines project (FEDER) aims at developing innovative methods for characterizing and monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the long term for conservation managers to ensure the protection of this world heritage site. In this poster, a description of the goals, actions and preliminary results of the DIVINES project will be described from gene to ecosystem levels. To help remedy this shortcoming, we have developed a website, with a financial support of Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation and WWF, to present the threatened plant species of Gabon ( The website is hosted as a project on Missouri Botanical Garden s Tropicos platform and aims to provide all stakeholders using the HCV concept or requiring the identification of endangered species, with information on threatened plant species present in Gabon. More specifically, for each species, it provides: a brief description; documents its phenology, distribution and habitat; proposes its preliminary conservation status according to the IUCN Red List criteria and cites the main literature associated with this species. Photos of live plants and/or scans of reference herbarium samples enrich these data, as well as a distribution map of known specimens. To date, 58 species have already been assessed and are presented on the website but more than 500 species have also been identified as potentially threatened and are currently under assessment.

171 8 9 S8-P05 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION BAT HUNTING BODES HUMAN AND FOREST HEALTH THREAT IN CONGO BASIN RAINFOREST Prescott Musaba, Guy-Crispin Gembu, Erik Verheyen, Dudu Akaibe, André Malekani, Claude Mande S8-P06 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION ECOLOGICAL MODELLING OF AGGREGATION OF PARASITE ACANTHOGYRUS SP. IN WILD NILE TILAPIA (OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS L.) Dana Vi Husana, Jomar Rabajante, Vachel Gay Paller Université de Kisangani, Kisangani, CD, gembuguycrispin@gmail.com University of the Philippines, Los Banos, PH, danahusana@gmail.com Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, BE Large and small mammals have been used as main animal protein source and even income source for many urban and rural families in the African lowland rainforest regions, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the Tshopo Province (DRC), where the cattle farming is not practiced, bat hunting is obviously one of the most profitable commercial activities since their consumption have been increased among households with low incomes. While bats provide an undeniable ecosystem service, they have nevertheless been proven the multi-host for human and wildlife pathogenic agent. This research aims to present cultural and socio-economic broad overview of bat dealers and consumers perception. From 0 to 06, overall,66 bat specimens were counted in Kisangani markets. Among five frugivorous bat species mostly recorded on stands, Eidolon helvum (Kerr, 79) specimens occurred nearly 9 % of the sold capital. While interviews with households in Kisangani reveal that the strongest preference for E. helvum bushmeat is related to its flesh taste, yet most families are unaware of the health risks associated with this consumption. Parasite aggregation is a naturally occurring phenomenon whose implications in ecological studies range from coinfection dynamics of the parasites to stability of population dynamics and their effects on host community health. While several studies mainly attribute overdispersion to differences in host susceptibility and aggregation of infective stages in the environment, other possible factors include direct reproduction in hosts, and accumulation with host trophic level or age. Here, we present a discrete time model that shows the relationship between the age of the host and the degree of parasite aggregation. The model includes two parameters which can be adjusted to fit different cases. One parameter is the force of infection which would vary for different host age groups while the other parameter represents the decrease of parasites due to treatment. Although the model is designed in the context of Acanthogyrus sp. in various age groups of Oreochromis niloticus found in Sampaloc Lake, Laguna, Philippines, it would be applicable for other host-parasite systems as a means of predicting other scenarios related to parasite aggregation. Since the parameters can be adjusted, this serves as an initial study upon which other models with new factors and further improvements can be based on. According to bat dealers and consumers, bats bushmeat activities are spread throughout the year with a peak profitability during high rainfall season (April to September), this leads to enough profit and to provide families with sufficient animal protein. Therefore, these findings imply that bat consumption is associated with human culture and the household incomes plummeting during the last decade. These indicators augur the eventual harmful consequences on human, fauna and the Congo basin rainforest health.

172 40 4 S8-P07 FREE SESSION: TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF NAEGLERIA FOWLERI UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE IN LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN, LOUISIANA Samendra Sherchan Tulane university, New Orleans, US, sshercha@tulane.edu Brackish water samples from Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana were assessed for the presence of pathogenic amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). It is an emerging pathogen and it is expected that the number of cases will increase due to climate change. In our study, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qpcr) methods were used to determine N. fowleri, E. coli, and enterococci in water collected from Lake Pontchartrain. N. fowleri target sequence was detected in 5.4 % (56/58) of the water samples from ten sites around the lake. Statistically significant positive correlations between N. fowleri concentration and water temperature as well as E. coli (qpcr) were observed. Multiple linear regression (MLR) model shows seasonal factor (summer or winter) has significant effect on the concentration of N. fowleri, E. coli and enterococci (qpcr) concentration. Significant positive relationships between E. coli and enterococci was observed from both qpcr (r = 0.5) and culture based method (r = 0.54). Meanwhile, significant positive correlation between qpcr and culture based methods for enterococci concentration was observed (r = 0.). In our study, water temperature and E. coli concentration were indicative of N. fowleri concentrations in brackish water environment. Future research is needed to determine whether sediment is a source of N. fowleri found in the water column.

173 4 4 INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS

174 44 45 INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS VENUE - CONFERENCE CENTRE INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS ROOMS - CONFERENCE CENTRE CICSU The conference centre is located in the Quartier Latin Paris 5 th Arrondissement: International Conference Center Sorbonne Université (CICSU) 4 place Jussieu, ENTRANCE TOUR 44, Paris The conference centre at Sorbonne Université (SU, 4 place Jussieu, entrance tour 44) is organized in two close buildings. To get to the registration room, please enter via tour 44, go up the stairs and follow the signage. GPS coordinates: Lat / Long Served by many means of public transport: Metro: lines 7 and 0 Station Jussieu ; Bus: lines 4 and 6 Stop Université Paris 6, lines 67 and 89 Stop Jussieu Railway station (SNCF station, French National railway company): Gare d Austerlitz. You have then to cross the Jardin des Plantes to reach the campus (7-0 mn). Free underground parking with 800 places. First floor in buildings 44-54/44-45 for registrations, the four parallel sessions, coffee breaks, and also side rooms (cloak room, meeting/working rooms GTÖ board room). Auditorium under the patio (basement level) for opening and closing ceremonies, plenary talks, public lecture, and GTÖ membership assembly. Lobby for posters session and coffee breaks. REGISTRATION DESK The registration desk is in Building 44-54, first floor, room 05. Enter the building via Tour 44. The registration will be open from Monday, 6 th March 6:00 until Thursday, 9 th March 4:00. Conference fees and additional bookings at the registration desk can be paid in cash and credit card (Master/Visa).

175 46 47 INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS TALKS & POSTERS INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS INTERNET For each oral presentation, there will be a 5 minutes time slot ( min for the presentation + min for discussion). Please make sure to respect this time period. The conference room is equipped with a beamer and a Windows computer to allow PowerPoint presentations. It will not be possible to use your own computer. Please make sure that your PowerPoint presentation can run on a Windows computer, and prepare a PDF presentation to be sure The IT desk will be located in the registration office in building 44-54, first floor (room 05). Speakers, please provide memory stick to our staff in charge of uploading presentations at the IT desk at registration time Monday from 6:00. This allows us more time in case problems should occur. All the other presentations need to be handed over to the conference IT staff no later than the afternoon preceding the day the presentation is scheduled! Wireless lan access will be provided. MEETING & WORKING ROOMS Three working/meeting rooms are available in building 44-44, level (rooms 0, and 4). These rooms are opened to the participants during the week. LUNCH FACILITIES Please put up your poster at registration time Monday 6:00 to 7:0. Posters should be on display from 8:00 on Monday 6 March 08 until the end of the Conference on Thursday 9 March 08, posters should be removed on Thursday by 7:00 as remaining ones will be disposed. Authors are expected to attend their poster whenever possible during breaks to facilitate interaction with participants and at the scheduled time slot Wednesday afternoon. Please consult the conference programme at Posters will have to be stuck to the hard top boards. Magnets will be supplied by the organisers. Each poster presentation will be allocated one display board. The dimensions of the poster should be in A0 portrait format (0 cm high and 85 cm wide). For further details please check the conference webpage CLOAK ROOM We have established a cloak room in the registration office building 44-54, first floor (room 05). Please be aware that the university cannot take responsibility for any loss. Restaurant L Ardoise (SU campus, between buildings 5 and 6, level 0), offers two style lunches either in the self-service area the so-called Brasserie or the Restaurant where you get served. Opened from :00 to 4:00. Payment methods accepted: Cash. You can also find other snacks/café/restaurant around the SU Jussieu campus.

176 48 49 PARTNER - TROPIMUNDO THE ERASMUS MUNDUS MASTERS COURSE IN TROPICAL BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS TROPIMUNDO Farid Dahdouh-Guebas,, Ludwig Triest, Jean-Yves Dubuisson, Bernard Riéra 4, Giacomo Santini 5, Sabrina Coste 6, Daniel Imbert 7, François Nguetsop 8, Harisoa Ravaomanalina 9, Aidy M Muslim 0, Satyanarayana Behara 0, Stefano Cannicci Department of Organism Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles ULB, Brussels, BE, fdahdouh@ulb.ac.be Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences and Bio-engineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB, Brussels, BE Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, Université Pierre et Marie Curie UPMC, Paris, FR 4 MECADEV UMR 779 CNRS-MNHN, Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle, Département Adaptations du vivant, Brunoy, FR 5 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze UNIFI, Sesto Fiorentino, IT 6 AgroParisTech-ENGREF, INRA, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, Université de Guyane UdG, Kourou, GY 7 Université des Antilles UdA, Pointe-à-Pitre, GP 8 Department of Plant Biology, Université de Dschang UDsch, Dschang, CM 9 Dept. of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Antananarivo UNIVANTA, Antananarivo, MG 0 MOE 7th Higher Institution Center of Excellence HICoE in Marine Science, Institut Oceanografi Dan Sekitaran (INOS), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu UMT, Terengganu Darul Iman, MY The Swire Institute of Marine Science and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong HKU, Hong Kong, HK TROPIMUNDO is unique in incorporating a nd semester (with theoretical courses and a significant field course) in the tropics in Guadeloupe, France (Université des Antilles UdA), Cameroon (Université de Dschang Udsch), Madagascar (University of Antananarivo UNIVANTA), Malaysia (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu UMT) or Hong Kong (University of Hong Kong HKU). These institutions cover specialisations in Caribbean insular ecosystems, Central African terrestrial ecosystems, Malagasy forest ecosystems, and Malaysian mangrove ecosystems and other South-East Asian terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, covering a wide choice of skills and qualifications in tropical biodiversity and ecosystems. Furthermore TROPIMUNDO brings together European expert higher education institutes, with long-standing worldwide expertise in tropical rainforests and woodlands and in coastal ecosystems in Belgium (Université Libre de Bruxelles ULB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB), France (Université Pierre et Marie Curie UPMC c/o Sorbonne Université, Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle MNHN and Université de Guyane UdG) and Italy (Università degli Studi di Firenze UNIFI). They integrate world class scientific education and research expertise on the aforementioned tropical ecosystems and experience in designing and teaching in international MSc programs. The st semester primarily aims at teaching basic courses in Europe, whereas the rd semester focuses on specialised courses at one of the European partners. The 4 th and final semester is dedicated to the thesis. Graduates obtain multiple degrees or a joint degree, a joint Europass Diploma Supplement, a Europass Mobility and a Europass Language Passport. TROPIMUNDO s learning outcomes stretch far beyond academic knowledge and insight, but also aim at demonstrating enhanced capabilities in effective analysis and communication, independence, creativity and assertiveness, critical judgement, and ethical and social understanding. TROPIMUNDO is an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems funded by the European Commission. It is the first MSc program ( yrs, 0 ECTS) that integrates the knowledge and skills related to four adjacent interlinked tropical ecosystems under threat (tropical rainforests and woodlands, wetlands, - both terrestrial and coastal such as mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs). Study of these ecosystems is crucial to understand, protect and manage tropical biodiversity in an era characterised by an international biodiversity crisis with imminent risks of extinction of species due to global warming and anthropogenic impacts such as habitat destruction and changes in land use. During the two years of the Master program TROPIMUNDO students are able to concentrate on botany, zoology and integrative ecosystem approaches in institutions worldwide. Multiple specialisations are included, such as the evolution of tropical flora and vegetation; faunistic assemblages; informatics tools to treat and manage biodiversity data and databases (biogeographical, genetic, geographical information systems) including the management and conservation of historic collections such as herbarium sheets; the study of diversity, dynamics and evolution of tropical and subtropical ecosystems (with a focus on four related systems, namely tropical rainforests and woodlands, mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs, including the interactions between flora, fauna, man and the environment within and between each of these adjacent ecosystems);conservation and restoration ecology of natural habitats and their biodiversity including competences in sustainable management and governance of biodiversity, and finally, in tropical ethnobotany, exploitation and valorisation of the functions, goods and services of natural habitats and their resources, and conservation of traditional ecological knowledge.

177 50 5 TROPIMUNDO maximises the inclusion of European languages by offering a content and language integrated learning program (English or English + French), and it is delivered in a society that is French, English, Dutch, Italian or Spanish-speaking, which is valorised using buddy programs and Tandem Learning. This aims at improving the students language capabilities for which facilities are provided by all partners. TROPIMUNDO management is handled by a multi-level and shared responsibility involving 4 decision bodies (Steering, Selection, Internal Evaluation and External Evaluation), and main execution structure (Coordination Office), all operating with equal commitment by the partners. A series of Associated Partners, including scientific institutes, governmental and non-governmental organisations responsible for conservation or management of tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity, and public authorities, agreed to advertise the program, to provide or to communicate existing placements, jobs, internships or thesis perspectives and scholarships, and to assist in evaluating the program. This links TROPIMUNDO to the real and professional world. References

178 5 5 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED - ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES

179 54 55 SIDE EVENT MINI FORUM COPED: DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION OF AFROTROPICAL FORESTS DIVERSITE ET CONSERVATION DE LA FORET TROPICALE AFRICAINE Chairs: Pierre-Michel FORGET, Philippe TAQUET Contact: The side event Miniforum COPED is organized by Pierre-Michel Forget, Professor Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle, and by Philippe Taquet, Member of the Académie des sciences, as well as by COPED (Standing Committee for Developing Countries) of the Académie des sciences. The side event has two main objectives. First, the COPED aimed at inviting lead African scientists to communicate about their research in the field of plant and animal diversity, ecology and dynamic and conservation of afrotropical forests during the European Conference of Tropical Ecology (gtoe8) at CICSU, Paris. Second, the COPED aimed at organizing an international meeting in March 09 in Central Africa targeting Preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity of tropical forests. Therefore, COPED invited scientists to contribute to two discussion sessions in order to establish the academic and scientific committee, and to discuss the content of the program of COPED09. The Miniforum also benefitted from the help from the French Embassy in the United States that supported travel of one speaker (D. Kenfack). PROGRAM 09:0 Auger, P. Welcome from the COPED President, Académie des Sciences. 09:5 Forget, P.-M., Taquet, P. Introduction: content and goal of the miniforum COPED. 09:45 Pulcherie B., Sosef, M. S. M., Chatrou, Lars W. Biogeography of Campylospermum Tiegh. and its center of diversity in tropical Africa. 0:00 Missoup, A.D., Nicolas, V., Colyn, M., Keming Chung, E., Hutterer, R., Wendelen, W., Denys, C. Systématique et biogéographie des rongeurs des milieux forestiers afrotropicaux. 0:5 Gonmadje, C., Doumenge, C. McKey, D. Biodiversity and conservation value of an Atlantic central African forest: the Ngovayang Massif (Cameroon). 0:0 Break and Posters :00 Ntie, S., Davis, A. R., Hils, K., Mickala, P., Thomassen, H. A., Morgan, K., Vanthomme, H., Gonder M. K., Anthony, N. M. Patterns of evolutionary diversification among Central African duikers (subfamily Cephalophinae). :5 Nyirambangutse, B., Zibera, E., Dusenge, M. E., Nsabimana, D., Pleijel, H., Uddling, J., Wallin, G. Canopy nutrient cycling in Afromontane tropical forests at different successional stages. :0 Kenfack, D. CTFS and permanent plots in African Rainforests. :45 Abernethy, K., Koumba Pambo, A. F., Jeffery, K. Scientific capacity building and the evidence base for change in Central African forests. :00 Forget, P.-M., Taquet, P. Conclusion and invitation for discussion meetings (8 afternoon and 9 morning). :5 Nyirambangutse, B., Zibera, E., Dusenge, M. E., Nsabimana, D., Pleijel, H., Uddling, J., Wallin, G. Canopy nutrient cycling in Afromontane tropical forests at different successional stages. Three themes have been provisionally proposed to stimulate the exchanges between participants of the miniforum: () biodiversity: inventory and conservation of natural resources; () management and sustainable use: forestry, commercial timber, natural resources, climate and health; () monitoring and management of forests: observatory, satellite, arboretum, education, ecotourism, tree atlas. As a start, the oral communications of the side event are fulfilling those themes.

180 56 57 SE-O0 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES SE-O0 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES BIOGEOGRAPHY OF CAMPYLOSPERMUM TIEGH. AND ITS CENTER OF DIVERSITY IN TROPICAL AFRICA SYSTEMATICS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF RODENTS FROM AFROTROPICAL FORESTS Pulcherie Bissiengou, Marc S. M. Sosef, Lars W. Chatrou Alain Didier Missoup, Violaine Nicolas, Marc Colyn, Ernest Keming Chung 4, Rainer Hutterer 5, Wim Wendelen 6, Christiane Denys Herbier National du Gabon, IPHAMETRA-CENAREST, Libreville, GA, Botanic Garden Meise, Meise, BE Wageningen University and Research, Biosystematics group, Wageningen, NL WEDNESDAY 09:45 The genus Campylospermum belongs to the family Ochnaceae s.l., which is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical forests and savannas of the Old and New World. It is a family of trees and shrubs or rarely herbs and consists of about 500 species in 7 genera. The highest species richness is found in the Neotropics, where species and 5 genera are present. In Africa, including Madagascar, about 50 species and nine genera occur, while the lowest diversity is observed in Southeast Asia, hosting only 0 species and 8 genera. The majority of the genera is confined to a single continent, exceptions being Campylospermum and Ochna, both with an Old World distribution. The continental African species of the genus Campylospermum occur from Senegal to Angola and from Ethiopia to Zambia, with highest diversities in regions covered by evergreen forest. They are distributed within three biogeographic areas, the Congolian region, the Sudanian region and the Zambezian region. Widespread species such as C. reticulatum and C. vogelii are found in all three biogeographic regions, but most are restricted to only one. No species is restricted to the Sudanian region; the occurrences there all relate to outlier populations of more drought-resistant species that have their main distribution centre within the Congolian region. Relatively few species, such as C. bukobense, C. lunzuensis and C. plicatum, are distributed across the Congolian and Zambezian region. Five species (C. andongensis, C. lutambensis, C. sacleuxii, C. scheffleri, C. warneckei) are endemic to the Zambezian region while the majority (8 species, about 8 %) of Campylospermum species is restricted to the Congolian region. The latter is subdivided into three subregions: Guinea, Congo and Shaba. Eighteen species are restricted to the Congo subregion while three species (C. amplectens, C. congestum and C. schoenleinianum) are endemic to the Guinea subregion. No endemics are known to occur in the Shaba subregion. Species such as C. calanthum, C. duparquetianum, C. dybovskii, C. elongatum, C. flavum and C. sulcatum are more widely distributed and found in both the Guinea and Congo subregions. Department of Animal Biology Organisms, Faculty of Science, University of Douala, Douala, CM, admissoup@ymail.com Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB - UMR CNRS, MNHN, EPHE, Sorbonne Université, Paris, FR UMR CNRS 655 ECOBIO, Station Biologique de Paimpont, Plelan Le Grand, FR 4 Kilum-Ijim Forest Project, Kumbo, CM 5 Section of Mammals, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, DE 6 Zoology Department, RMCA-Tervuren, Tervuren, BE With more than 00 species already described, rodents represent nearly half of the biodiversity of mammals. Tropical areas in sub- Saharan Africa host an important part of this biodiversity: 89 genera have been reported, for a total of 469 species. With the discovery of a cryptic diversity within the group, several species have been described during the last decade, by combining morphological, molecular and cytogenetic data. New evidences on diversification patterns in tropical Africa have been reported. Our studies in collaboration with several European museums including the National Museum of Natural History of Paris have permitted, by using an integrative approach combining morphological and genetic data, to test the systematic position and to confirm the geographical distribution of several taxa. Phylogenetic data also allowed us to discuss on mechanisms promoting the biodiversity in afrotropical forests. The role of several barriers among which mountain ranges and fluvial systems in the diversification processes, as well as the effect of Plio-Pleistocene climatic oscillations and Miocene volcano-tectonic activities were particularly highlighted. It would be interesting to check the status and the geographical distribution of other taxa in further works using an integrative systematic approach. New data on the climatic niche modelling and the analysis of genetic data at the population level would be also helpful for a better understanding of processes promoting the diversification in tropical Africa but also for a conservation purpose. WEDNESDAY 0:00

181 58 59 SE-O0 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION VALUE OF AN ATLANTIC CENTRAL AFRICAN FOREST: THE NGOVAYANG MASSIF (CAMEROON) Christelle Gonmadje,, Charles Doumenge, Doyle McKey SE-O04 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES PATTERNS OF EVOLUTIONARY DIVERSIFICATION AMONG CENTRAL AFRICAN DUIKERS (SUBFAMILY CEPHALOPHINAE) Stephan Ntie, Anne R. Davis, Katrin Hils,4, Patrick Mickala, Henri A. Thomassen 4, Katy Morgan, Hadrien Vanthomme 5, Mary K. Gonder 6, Nicola M. Anthony Department of Plant Biology, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, CM, CIRAD, Campus International de Baillarguet, Montpellier, FR Centre d Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR CNRS 575, Montpellier, FR Département de Biologie, Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku, Franceville, GA, stephanntie@yahoo.fr Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, US Cheetah Conservation Fund, Otjiwarongo, NA The Ngovayang Massif of southern Cameroon is a range of small hills near the Atlantic coast, in the Lower Guinea floristic region. This region is known to harbor forests with high levels of biodiversity and endemism, but this Massif is botanically poorly known. We assessed tree species diversity and level of endemism of the Ngovayang forest, comparing it with other sites in Central Africa. Fifteen -ha permanent plots within old-growth forests of the Ngovayang Massif were censused. WEDNESDAY 0:5 A total of 7967 individuals with dbh 0 cm were recorded, belonging to 58 species, 67 genera and 7 families. The mean number of stems was 5 ± 75 stems ha -. The mean Fisher s alpha index was 4.4 ± 6.5. Taking into account other data available, the list of vascular plants known in the Massif reaches a total of 497 species. We found 4 species of high conservation value, including Cameroon endemics and other rare and threatened species. Species richness and endemism are comparable to those of the richest known sites in Central African forests. Topographic heterogeneity, high precipitation and atmospheric humidity owing to the proximity of the ocean, and permanence of a forest cover during past geological times probably all contribute to explaining the Massif s high tree diversity and endemism. This study highlights the botanical importance of the poorly studied Ngovayang forest within the Lower Guinea region, justifying efforts for improved assessment of this value and for the development of suitable national conservation strategies. 4 Comparative Zoology, Institute for Evolution and Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, DE 5 Département Écologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, Muséum National d Histoire Naturelle, CNRS UMR 779, Brunoy, FR 6 Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, US Duikers are an important component of the mammal community throughout the whole Congo basin. However very little is known about their ecology and drivers of diversification. Meanwhile, duikers are a significant source of proteins for local people and are increasingly threatened by hunting pressure and habitat alteration. The present study set out to assess patterns of evolutionary diversification in central African duikers (genera Cephalophus and Philantomba). They constitute good markers for tropical diversification because they are highly tied to forested habitat. The sampling strategy consisted of collecting georeferenced duiker feces across 4 sites and seven countries across Central Africa. Analyses of historical and contemporary population genetic structure were carried out on the three most abundant species (C. dorsalis, C. callipygus, and P. monticola) in our sampling area using a ~ 650 bp mitochondrial fragment of the control region and polymorphic microsatellite loci. These data show that () the highlands of southwest Nigeria and southwest Cameroon comprise genetically distinct populations of C. callipygus and P. monticola species, () environmental variation explains most of the nuclear genetic differentiation in both C. callipygus and P. monticola, () signatures of demographic expansion for all three taxa are broadly coincident with a history of post-glacial expansion, and (4) the Sanaga, Ogooué and Sangha rivers may constitute partial riverine barriers and/or act as fluvial refugia. WEDNESDAY :00

182 60 6 SE-O05 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES SE-O06 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES CANOPY NUTRIENT CYCLING IN AFROMONTANE TROPICAL FORESTS AT DIFFERENT SUCCESSIONAL STAGES Brigitte Nyirambangutse, Etienne Zibera, Mirindi Eric Dusenge,, Donat Nsabimana, Håkan Pleijel, Johan Uddling, Göran Wallin CTFS-FORESTGEO AFRICA PROGRAM: AN INITIATIVE TOWARDS THE LONG-TERM MONITORING OF AFRICAN FORESTS David Kenfack Africa Program Coordinator, CTFS ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, PA, KenfackD@si.edu WEDNESDAY :5 Department of Biology, University of Rwanda, Butare, RW, brigittenyiridandi@gmail.com Biology Department, The University of Western Ontario, London, CA Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, SE, goran.wallin@bioenv.gu.se Canopy nutrient composition and cycling control biogeochemical processes and tree growth in forests. However, the understanding of nutrient limitations and cycling in tropical montane forests (TMF) is currently limited, in particular for Afromontane forests. In this study we investigated leaf nutrient composition and resorption, canopy nutrient cycling and soil carbon and nutrient content in 5 permanent plots at different successional stages in a TMF (elevation 950 to 550 m a.s.l.) in Rwanda, Central Africa. Leaf concentrations of elements were analysed in attached green leaves as well as in shed leaves of 0 early (ES) and 0 late (LS) successional tree species. Leaf nutrient concentrations mostly did not differ between ES and LS species (exception: K was 0 % higher in ES), but the ratios of P, K and Mg to N were significantly higher in ES species. Mean resorption efficiencies of N (7 %), P (48 %) and K (46 %) were much higher than for other nutrients. Nutrient resorption efficiency exhibited very large interspecific variation, did not differ between ES and LS species, and was not related to the leaf concentration of the respective element. Total leaf litterfall was on average 4.9 t.ha -.yr - (66 % of total litterfall) and was independent of the successional stage of the forest. The total content of C, N, P and K in leaf litterfall did not differ between ES and LS stands. Ground litter turnover rates of C and N were 0.98 and 0.78 y-, respectively. High leaf N concentrations, intermediate N:P ratios and low resorption efficiencies compared to values reported for other TMFs indicate high fertility and likely co-limitation by N and P, however progressively increasing towards P limitation during the course of succession. Our results further demonstrate that resorption efficiency and canopy litterfall inputs to soil mostly do not differ between ES and LS species in Afromontane tropical forests. Deforestation and climate change is impacting African forests by threatening its biodiversity and its ability to provide ecosystem goods and services. A network of long-tern monitoring plots is being established across the main vegetation types of the continent to document how these forests respond to global change. The program was initiated in 994 and now comprises five large (0 0 ha) plots in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, and Nigeria. The plots represent four of eight main vegetation types in Africa and monitor the growth and survival of over one million individual trees in over 400 species. These plots use standardized protocols and are part of a global network coordinated by the Center for Tropical Forest Science Forest Global Earth observatory (CTFS-ForestGEO) of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Within the plots all free standing trees cm diameter are measured, tagged, mapped, and identified. Subsequent re-measurements every five year provide data on growth, mortality, recruitment of different species, information that is critical to forest conservation and understanding how global change is impacting African forests. WEDNESDAY :0

183 6 6 SE-O07 SIDE EVENT MINIFORUM COPED ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY BUILDING AND THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR CHANGE IN CENTRAL AFRICAN FORESTS Katharine Abernethy,, Aurelie Flore Koumba Pambo,4, Kathryn Jeffery, University of Stirling, UK, k.a.abernethy@stir.ac.uk Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale, GA Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, GA 4 CENAREST, GA Monitoring change over time in tropical biomes is a crucial part of planning conservation policies and evaluating whether the actions taken are effective. As global climate change advances and the time for mitigation of change reduces, the need for accurate estimations of biome response becomes more acute. Although suites of indicators of ecosystem health, such as the Essential Biodiversity Indicators, have been developed over the past decade, using them on the ground requires extensive resources in staff training, equipment organization and funding and uptake of the data can be very poor, if results are not easily accessible to decision-makers. WEDNESDAY :45 We look at the challenges of the st century for adequate surveillance and management of Central African environments and the resources that have so far been channeled to meet these challenges. We cover the emergence of remote-sensing databanks, publically available databases, internet education tools and digital books and discuss the provision of a robust evidence base for the state of the central African biomes. We analyze the gaps in 08 in our ability to undertake and use adequate monitoring of environmental change, and propose some pathways to improving the available evidence base.

184 64 65 SOCIAL EVENTS

185 66 67 SOCIAL EVENTS WELCOME RECEPTION SOCIAL EVENTS Date: Monday, 6 th March, 08 Time: From 9:00 to :0 Venue: CICSU - Jussieu Campus, Auditorium lobby Open to all participants! Meet your friends and colleagues and everybody you haven t seen since the last European Conference for Tropical Ecology/gtö PUBLIC LECTURE Date: Tuesday, 7 th March, 08 Time: From 8:00 to 9:0 Venue: CICSU - Jussieu Campus, Auditorium lobby Sebastian Lotzkat - Species revisited catching (up on) the cornerstones of biology (Abstract in the beginning of the book) Open to everyone! CONFERENCE DINNER Date: Wednesday, 8 March, 08 Time: From 8:0 to :00 Venue: Aquarium Tropical Palais de la Porte Dorée, 9 avenue Daumesnil, 750 Paris Access by public transport: Metro line 8 (station Porte Dorée ), Tram Ta (station Porte Dorée ), or Bus line 46 (stop Porte Dorée ). Access from the conference centre SU: Take the metro line 7 attention take the 7 which goes direction Mairie d Ivry get off at the station Porte d Italie leave the metro, cross the road and walk to tram stop few meters and take the tram Ta, direction Porte de Vincennes get off at the stop Porte Dorée. Attention you have to use a new ticket as you have left the metro. Please allow approximately 40 min for getting to the Aquarium Tropical. Allow tickets per trip (the connection between metro and tram is not possible with the same ticket). Fee: Euro Registration mandatory.

186 68 69 ALL ABOUT PARIS

187 70 7 ALL ABOUT PARIS TRANSPORTS IN PARIS Public transport Most public transport in Paris is organised by the RATP. The network includes metro lines, trains RER A and B, trams and buses. Maps of the network are available free of charge from the information desks at the metro stations. RATP website: Timetables: on weekdays, the metro and RER operate from 5:0 a.m. to about :5 a.m. Consult the time tables shown at the metro stations or bus stops. Where to buy a metro ticket? Metro tickets cost.90 each ( 4.50 for 0 [ask for un carnet ]). You can buy tickets at automatic ticket machines in metro stations, in tobacconists and on the website Metro tickets are valid in zone and only for journeys within Paris city limits. Metro Map: Attention! Special rates for airports as there are outside zone and, please visit: More detailed information about public transport, metro, trams and busses can be found here: Bike rental Thanks to the policy of the Paris City Council, the bicycle is gaining ground: today 700 kilometres of bike paths are available to cyclists. Near to the main train stations and the principal tourist routes, you ll find companies renting bicycles for a day, a weekend or a week. (cf. list below) Vélib : Set up by the City of Paris, Velib is a self-service bicycle sharing scheme. It is very affordable, and bikes are available throughout Paris (and beyond the city limits) 4 hours a day. It is the ideal way to get around Paris. More information here: Taxis information How to get a taxi? By hailing one in the street (it is free if the sign on the roof is lit up and green), At a taxi rank, By calling one of the main taxi firms. The Taximètre: Fare comparison and taxi booking hotline. Please see: ALL ABOUT PARIS Paris taxi drivers are not known for their flawless knowledge of the Paris street map; if you have a preferred route, say so. Taxis can also be hard to find, especially at rush hour or early in the morning. Your best bet is to find a taxi rank (station de taxis, marked with a blue sign) on major roads, crossroads and at stations. A white light on a taxi s roof indicates the car is free; an orange light means the cab is busy. There is a service charge of.0. The rates are then based on zone and time of day: A: 0am-5pm Mon-Sat central Paris, 0.8 per km. B: 5pm-0am Mon-Fri, 5pm-midnight Sat, 7am-midnight Sun central Paris; 7am-7pm Mon- Sat inner suburbs and airports,.0 per km. C: midnight-7am Sun central Paris; 7pm -7 am Mon-Sat, all day Sun inner suburbs and airports; all times outer suburbs,. per km. Most journeys in central Paris cost 6- ; there s a minimum charge of 5.60, plus for each piece of luggage over 5kg or bulky objects, and a 0.70 surcharge from mainline stations. Most drivers will not take more than three people, although they should take a couple and two children. There is an additional charge of.75 for a fourth adult passenger. Don t feel obliged to tip, although rounding up to the nearest euro is polite. Taxis are not allowed to refuse rides if they deem them too short and can only refuse to take you in a certain direction during their last half-hour of service (both rules are often ignored). If you want a receipt, ask for un reçu or la note. Complaints should be made to the Bureau de la réglementation publique, 6 rue des Morillons, 757 Paris Cedex 5. These firms take phone bookings 4/7; you also pay for the time it takes your taxi to reach you. If you wish to pay by credit card, mention this when you order. Alpha , G , Taxis Bleus , HEALTH INFORMATION Useful phone numbers Fire, medical emergency or ambulance: 8 or 5 and from a mobile phone: Police: 7 Fire brigade: 8 SAMU medical urgences: 5 Anti-poison centre: (cap.paris.lrb@aphp.fr or 4/7 urgent medical aid and advice on drugs, medication, poisons, etc. Centre Antipoison et de Toxicovigilance de PARIS. Hôpital Fernand WIDAL 00 rue du Faubourg Saint Denis Paris Cedex 0

188 7 7 ALL ABOUT PARIS Hospitals in Paris The 9 hospitals of the Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, located in various parts of Paris and the Île-de-France, provide a service for all the public, 4 hours/4 and 7 days/7. They account for 5 general emergency departments. Each hospital also has its own specialist consultations. A doctor will direct you to the one that is most appropriate to your needs. During the hospitalization of a child or loved one, some hospitals may also offer you accommodation or give you information about a specialist agency. Some of the major Parisian hospitals are: La Pitié Salpêtrière, the Hôtel-Dieu, Lariboisière, Necker and Bichat. For urgent consultations in English Many practitioners at the American Hospital, the Institut Franco-Britannique and the Hôpital Foch are perfectly bilingual. It is also possible to contact SOS Médecins France on + (0) : operators will direct you, when possible, to an English-speaking doctor. Pharmacies Chemists are usually open all day from 8am to 8pm. They close on a rota basis on Sunday and sometimes on Monday. But when one chemist is closed, the addresses of the nearest open chemists are listed on the door. PRACTICAL INFORMATION Bank card lost or stolen Cardstop: (0.5 TTC for minute) and 4/7. From outside: ALL ABOUT PARIS Post Office A postcard or a letter to send? You can post them in one of the yellow letter boxes found on most street corners. Stamps can be bought in post offices or tobacconists. Most post offices are open from 8am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am to midday on Saturday. Closed on public holidays. Clothing In March, bring warm clothes, and it is always a good idea to pack an umbrella and a rain coat. Electricity A.C. 0 volts - 50 cycles. Plugs are of the round -pin type. Phone country code 00 PARIS WAY OF LIFE Eating out Paris Capital of Gastronomy invites travellers from all over the world to have a feast! Choose and book your restaurant via PARISINFO: Discovering Paris Paris is multifaceted and there are numerous ways of discovering it. As well as the top sights, there are many other amazing places. Here are our suggestions: Banks There is a multitude of banks in Paris, both French and foreign. They are generally open from 9am to 5pm, or 6pm, from Monday to Friday, sometimes from Tuesday to Saturday. Certain branches may close at lunchtime, between.0pm and pm. Even though you may find some banks who will accept your currency in exchange for euros, you are more likely to come across exchange bureaux, which specialize in this type of transaction. Make sure you have some ID with you. Walks in Paris Mythical, trendy, popular, unusual Paris has many aspects to reveal in the course of a variety of itineraries: Shopping in Paris Luxury, ready-to-wear, gastronomy, antiques, lifestyle shopping addresses galore: Your credit card will enable you to withdraw cash in euros 4 hours a day at the hundreds of automatic cashpoints in the city. They often give you the choice of instructions in French, English or other languages. The majority of international cards are accepted by cash dispensers at the principal French and foreign banks. However, not all banks provide a currency exchange service.

189 74 75 ALL ABOUT PARIS Paris Information Please find here very useful links for your stay in Paris: Discover Paris in a few days: paris-in---or--days Paris, 0 must see: paris-0-must-sees/paris-0-must-see Famous moments to visit in Paris: famous-monuments-or-monuments-to-discover What to do in Paris in March-April 08? in-march-april-it-s-springtime-in-paris/what-to-do-in-paris-in-march-and-april

190 76 77 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Conference management: Heike KUHLMANN, KCS Kuhlmann Convention Service; Rue des Chênes, CH-800 Delémont; Phone: ; Fax: ; Helpers: Jean-Philippe AKPOUE, Marion BARBE, Mouna CHAMBON, Paul CHATELAIN, Raphaël DE LAAGE DE MEUX, Boris DEMENOU, Julie DESMIST, Manon DUCRETTET, Héloïse DUPRAT, Blandine GAILLARD, Clément GROS, Laurent GRUMIAU, Tian LI, Aboubacar MAIGA, Jérémy MIGLIORE, Lantotiana RANDRIAMANANA, Marie SEGUIGNE, Shabnam TAHERI, Félicien TOSSO, Julie ZALKO We are grateful also to the CICSU for their logistic help. Session Chairs: Luc ABBADIE, Nikolay AGUIRRE, Louise ASHTON, Selene BAEZ, Sébastien BAROT, Jean-François BASTIN, Thomas COUVREUR, Mark CUTLER, Julian DONALD, Lise DUPONT, Marianne ELIAS, Adeline FAYOLLE, Rico FISCHER, Colin FONTAINE, Pierre-Michel FORGET, Claude GARCIA, Jacques GIGNOUX, Sandrine GROUARD, Eric GUILBERT, Sven GÜNTER, Damien Daniel HINSINGER, Jürgen HOMEIER, Alice C. HUGHES, Andreas HUTH, Sanna HUTTUNEN, Patrick A. JANSEN, Marion KARMANN, Jean-Christophe LATA, Moses LIBALAH, Elina MÄNTYLÄ, Vincent MEDJIBE, Tarik MEZIANE, Emma MICHAUD, Udo NEHREN, Violaine NICOLAS-COLIN, Pablo OROZCO-TERWENGEL, Pete B. PHILLIPSON, Fabien QUETIER, Ute RADESPIEL, Claudia RAEDIG, Hery Lisy Tiana RANARIJAONA, Catherine REEB, Malika RENE-TROUILLEFOU, Virginie ROY, Katerina SAM, Joeri Sergej STRIJK, Jérôme SUEUR, Piotr SZEFER, Franziska TAUBERT, Yit Arn TEH, Franck TROLLIET, Rizza Karen VERIDIANO. Photos credits: CNRS Photothèque Thomas VIGNAUD, Erwan AMICE_LEMAR & Pierre-Michel FORGET AND SPECIAL THANKS TO YOU

191 78 79 INDEX OF PARTICIPANTS

192 80 8 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Abernethy Katharine Institut de Recherches en GA ka7@stir.ac.uk 6 Ecologie Tropicale Akodewou Amah CIRAD / AgroParisTech / FR makodewou@gmail.com 84 Université de Lomé Aldana Ana NA CO anaaldanaser@gmail.com Alebrahim Andrianasetra Mohammad Taghi Georges Simon University of Mohaghegh Ardabili Centre d'information et de Documentation Scientifique et Technique IR m.t.alebrahim@gmail.com MG gsimon@moov.mg 99 Araujo Clarissa UFMS BR martins.ca@gmail.com 6 Martins Aristizábal Ángela Universidad de los Andes CO a.aristizabal@uniandes. 9 edu.co Arnaud Marie Leeds University UK gymasa@leeds.ac.uk 58 Ashton Louise University of Hong Kong HK lashton@hku.hk 4 Bader Maaike University of Marburg DE maaike.bader@uni-marburg. de 88, (90), (9) Báez Selene Escuela Politécnica Nacional EC selenebae@gmail.com (7), 7 del Ecuador Barot Sébastien iees Paris - Sorbonne Université FR sebastien.barot@ird.fr (79), (8) cc 7 Bastin Jean-Francois ETH-Zurich, Institute of CH bastin.jf@gmail.com 66, 85 Integrative Biology, Crowther Lab Beck Erwin University of Bayreuth, Dept. DE erwin.beck@uni-bayreuth.de (0) Plant Physiology Bendix Joerg University of Marburg DE bendixa@staff.uni-marburg. (06), (0) de Beng Kingsly Chuo Xishuangbanna Tropical CN bengkingsly000@yahoo. 4 Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences com Bertucci Frédéric Centre de Recherches FR fred.bertucci@gmail.com 0 Insulaires et Observatoire de l'environnement, USR78 Biscarini Filippo Cardiff University UK biscarinif@cardiff.ac.uk 5 Bissiengou Pulcherie Herbier National du Gabon GA bissiengou_p@yahoo.fr 56 Blanchard Fabian Ifremer / UMR LEEISA GF Fabian.Blanchard@ifremer.fr (5) Boissier Olivier Independent FR olivier.boissier7@gmail.com 5 Bolanos Pablo Muséum National d'histoire FR pablo.bolanos@edu.mnhn.fr 99 Naturelle Boom Arthur Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-EBE) BE boomarthur@gmail.com 9 Bousquet- Mélou Anne Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'ecologie, Aix-Marseille Université FR anne.bousquet-melou@ imbe.fr Boyd Doreen University of Nottingham UK doreen.boyd@nottingham. ac.uk Boyle Michael Imperial College London UK michael.boyle@imperial. ac.uk Bräuning Achim University Erlangen-Nürnberg / Institute of Geography 55, (6) 9 77 DE achim.braeuning@fau.de (74), (0), (0) Family name Bretagnolle François University of Burgundy, UMR Biogéosciences Bryja Josef Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Budde First name Organisation Ref. Page Katharina Birgit FR francois.bretagnolle@ubourgogne.fr CZ bryja@brno.cas.cz 89 (9), Caillaud Anne IUCN France FR anne.caillaud@uicn.fr 60 Cárate Daisy Escuela Politécnica del EC dmcarate@gmail.com 7 Tandalla Chimborazo Chandler Chris University of Nottingham UK chris.chandler@nottingham. 50, 08 ac.uk Chapman Philip Imperial College London UK p.chapman4@imperial.ac.uk 78 Chatelain Paul Muséum National d'histoire FR plchatelain@gmail.com 8 Naturelle Chatrou Lars Wageningen University NL lars.chatrou@wur.nl 8, (56) Chellaiah Darshanaa Monash University Malaysia MY dche57@student.monash.edu 58 Chen Chunfeng Xishuangbanna Tropical CN chenchunfeng@xtbg.ac.cn 7 Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Science Corrêa Elaine Universidade Federal de Mato BR elaineccorrea@yahoo.com.br 5 Grosso do Sul Couteron Pierre Institut de Recherche pour le Développent (IRD) FR pierre.couteron@ird.fr (6) Couvreur Thomas Institut de Recherche pour le Développent (IRD) FR thomas.couvreur@ird.fr (87), (88), (59) Université de Bordeaux / INRA FR katharina-birgit.budde@ubordeaux.fr Cragg Simon University of Portsmouth UK simon.cragg@port.ac.uk 6 Cutler Mark University of Dundee UK m.e.j.cutler@dundee.ac.uk (), 47, (48), (9) DHaese Cyrille MECADEV, UMR 779 CNRS FR dhaese@mnhn.fr 48 / MNHN Dahdouh- Farid Université Libre de Bruxelles / BE fdahdouh@ulb.ac.be 59, 48 Guebas Vrije Universiteit Brussel Dahl Chris Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Science, Institute of Entomology CZ cd.rokrok@gmail.com 0 Dammhahn Melanie University of Greifswald / Animal Ecology Damtew Mesfin Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Ecology and Biodiversity Dantas de Paula Mateus Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ DE melanie.dammhahn@ 9 uni-greifswald.de BE mdamtew@vub.be 69 DE mateus.dantas@ufz.de (), 5 Dellinger Agnes University of Vienna AT agnes.dellinger@univie.ac.at 78 Demenou Boris Université Libre de Bruxelles BE borsmin0@yahoo.fr (), 6 (ULB-EBE) Dirberg Guillaume Muséum National d'histoire FR dirberg@mnhn.fr Naturelle Donald Julian University of the West of FR Julesdonald@gmail.com England Bristol / Evolution, Diversité Biologique Toulouse Dossa Gbadamassi G.O. Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences CN dgbadamassi@gmail.com 8

193 8 8 Family name Doucet Jean-Louis Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech / Liège University First name Organisation Ref. Page BE jldoucet@uliege.be (9), (65), (6), (85), (8) Doumenge Charles CIRAD FR charles.doumenge@cirad.fr (9), (), (58) Dubuisson Jean-Yves Sorbonne Université FR dubuisson@mnhn.fr (48) Dubuisson Elodie Sorbonne Université / MNHN FR elodie.dubuisson@upmc.fr (95) / Isyeb Dueñas Juan Free University Berlin, DE jduenas@zedat.fu-berlin.de 70 Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB) Dunthorn Micah Department of Ecology, DE dunthorn@rhrk.uni-kl.de 47 University of Kaiserslautern Dupont Lise Université Paris Est Créteil FR lise.dupont@u-pec.fr 49 Duprey Nicolas Max Planck Institute for DE n.duprey@mpic.de 50 Chemistry Dury Marie University of Liège BE mariedury@hotmail.com 6, (4), 8 Ebenye Seraphine University of Buea CM ebenyemokake@yahoo.co.uk Mokake Eguiguren Paul Thunen Institute - Germany DE paul.eguiguren@thuenen.de 54 Elias Marianne Institut de Systématique, FR elias@mnhn.fr 5, (8) Evolution, Biodiversité Elias Dafydd Centre for Ecology & Hydrology UK dafias@ceh.ac.uk 76 Exbrayat Jean-François School of GeoSciences, UK j.exbrayat@ed.ac.uk 7, 7 University of Edinburgh Fabian Tobias Karlsruher Institut für DE tobias.fabian@student.kit.edu 7, Technologie Faivre Valentin Agence Mensam FR valentinfaivre@icloud.com Farwig Nina University of Marburg DE farwig@uni-marburg.de (77), (06), (0), 4 Fauvelot Cécile Institut de Recherche pour le FR cecile.fauvelot@ird.fr 8 Développement (IRD) Faye Adama Institut de Recherche pour le FR adamafae@gmail.com 88 Développement (IRD) Fayolle Adeline Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech BE adeline.fayolle@uliege.be (9), (56), 6, (65), (8), (85), (8) Fernandez Catherine Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'ecologie, Aix-Marseille Université FR catherine.fernandez@imbe.fr 6, (55) Finckh Manfred University of Hamburg / Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants DE manfred.finckh@unihamburg.de 77, (78) Fischer Fabian CNRS Toulouse FR fabian.j.d.fischer@gmx.de 8 Fischer Rico Helmholtz Centre for DE rico.fischer@ufz.de, (74) Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ Fonteyn Davy University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, TERRA Research Centre, Central African Forests BE davy.fonteyn@doct.ulg.ac.be 8 Glotin Hervé UMR LIS CNRS Université de Toulon FR glotin@univ-tln.fr 98, (00), (0) Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Forget Pierre-Michel Muséum National d'histoire FR pierre-michel.forget@mnhn.fr (), 54 Naturelle (MNHN) Frotté Lou Université des Antilles GP lou.frotte@univ-antilles.fr 49 Gaese Carl-Friedrich TH Köln DE carl-friedrich.gaese@th-koeln. 65 de Garcia Claude CIRAD / ETHZ CH claude.garcia@usys.ethz.ch (85), 86, 88, (95) Garcia-Ulloa John ETH Zurich CH john.garcia@usys.ethz.ch, (4) Gasc Amandine Institut de recherche pour le FR amandine.gasc@gmail.com 05 dévelopement (IRD) Gebert Friederike University of Würzburg DE friederike.gebert@uniwuerzburg.de 84 Gebrekirstos Aster World Afgroforestry Centre KE A.gebrekirstos@cgiar.org Gembu Guy Crispin Université de Kisangani CD gembuguycrispin@yahoo.fr, 8 (UNIKIS) Gignoux Jacques Institut d'ecologie et de Sciences de l'environnement de Paris - UPMC - cc 7 FR jacques.gignoux@upmc.fr 7 Gonmadje Christelle University Yaoundé I CM cgonmadje@yahoo.fr 58 Gradstein Robbert Muséum National d'histoire FR robbert.gradstein@mnhn.fr 87 Naturelle (MNHN) Grafe Ulmar Faculty of Science, Universiti BN grafe@biozentrum.uniwuerzburg.de 08 Brunei Darussalam Groenendijk Jessica San Diego Zoo Global Peru PE jessica.groenendijk@gmail. com Grouard Sandrine Muséum National FR grouard@mnhn.fr 5 d'histoire Naturelle, UMR709 Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques, Environnements Guilbert Eric UMR779 CNRS / MNHN FR eric.guilbert@mnhn.fr (8) Guimarães Elza Laboratory of Ecology and evolution of plant-animal interactions, São Paulo State University Günter Sven Thünen Institute of International Forestry and Forest Economics Guzman Jacob Valeria Biodiversity, Macroecology Biogeography Guzmán Q. J. Antonio Center for Earth Observation Sciences, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta Guzmán Wolfhard Lorena Valeria University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Technology and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics BR elzaguimaraes.bot@gmail. com DE sven.guenter@thuenen.de (54) DE valerova@hotmail.com 8 CA antguz06@gmail.com 08 DE lv_gw@hotmail.com 66 Gvozdik Vaclav National Museum CZ vaclav.gvozdik@gmail.com 94 Hardy Olivier Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-EBE) BE ohardy@ulb.ac.be (90), (9), (9), (), (6), (56), (59), (6), (8)

194 84 85 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Hazelwood Kirstie University of Stirling UK 0 Henrot Alexandra- Jane UMCCB, UR-SPHERES, University Liège BE (6), 4, (8) Heuertz Myriam INRA FR 9, (), () Heymann Eckhard W. Deutsches Primatenzentrum DE 8 Hilje Branko Earth and Atmospheric CA 0 Sciences Department, University of Alberta Hiltner Ulrike Helmholtz-Centre for DE 74 Environmental Research GmbH - UZF/ Dept. Ecological Modelling Hinsinger Damien Guangxi University CN damien.hinsinger@yahoo. com Homeier Jürgen University of Goettingen DE jhomeie@gwdg.de (70), (7), (7), (74), 75, (8), (07) Houehanou Thierry Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, Benin Hughes Alice Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences BJ CN thierryhouehanou@gmail. com ach_conservation@hotmail. com Husana Dana Vi University of the Philippines PH danahusana@gmail.com 9 Husana Daniel Edison University of the Philippines PH dmhusana@up.edu.ph 0 Los Baños Huth Andreas Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH 0, 6 DE andreas.huth@ufz.de, (), (4), (5), (74) Huttunen Sanna Univeristy of Turku FI sanna.huttunen@utu.fi 96, (9), (4) Irvine Kenneth IHE Delft NL k.irvine@un-ihe.org Iskandar Eka Naturalis Biodiversity Center NL eka.iskandar@naturalis.nl 94 Jackson Toby University of Oxford UK tobias.jackson@linacre. 09 ox.ac.uk Jain-Poster Ketan Stanford University US ketanjp@stanford.edu Jakovac Catarina International Institute for BR c.jakovac@iis-rio.org 59 Sustainability Jansen Patrick Wageningen University NL patrick.jansen@wur.nl 5 Jaramillo- Correa Juan P. Institute of Ecology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 7 MX jaramillo@ecologia.unam.mx 6 Jones Isabel University of Stirling UK i.l.jones@stir.ac.uk 7 Jozefowicz Stefan Laboratory of Remote Sensing PL stefan.jozefowicz@gmail.com 4 and Modelling of Environment Juergens Norbert Universität Hamburg DE norbert.juergens@t-online.de 70 Karmann Marion Forest Stewardship Council DE m.karmann@fsc.org 8 International Karsenty Alain CIRAD FR alain.karsenty@cirad.fr 8 Kearsley Elizabeth Ghent University BE elizabeth.kearsley@ugent.be 4 Kenfack David Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute US kenfackd@si.edu 6 Family name Kingsbury Joanne School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, First name Organisation Ref. Page US kingsbury.0@buckey . osu.edu Kiswanto Kiswanto The Mulawarman University ID kiswantosardji@gmail.com 44 Kittel Isabell University Bremen, Center for DE ij.kittel@gmail.com Jasmin Tropical Research Kleinschroth Fritz ETH Zürich CH klfritz@ethz.ch 67 Klomberg Yannick Charles University CZ yannickklomberg@gmail.com 09, 6 Koffi Kouamé Fulgence Sorbone Université - Université Nangui Abrogoua Konaré Sarah Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences-Paris Kosecka Monika Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics, Technical Univrsity of Catalonia, BarcelonaTech (UPC) 9 CI fulkoffi@yahoo.fr 79 FR sarah.konare@courriel. 74 upmc.fr ES monika.kosecka@upc.edu 97 Kurz Holger BfBB DE Gtoe@bfbb.de Lata Jean- Sorbonne Université / Institute FR jean-christophe.lata@upmc.fr (79), 8, (8) Christophe of Ecology and Environmental Sciences - Paris Law Stephanie University of Liverpool UK stephanie.law@liverpool.ac.uk Le Bienfaiteur Sagang University of Yaoundé CM sagang.bienfaiteur@yahoo.fr 64 Takougoum Le Guen Annaig CNRS LEEISA FR annaig.leguen@cnrs.fr Le Maho Yvon Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert FR yvon.lemaho@iphc.cnrs.fr 5 Curien, CNRS Strasbourg and Scientific Center of Monaco Ledger Martha University of Nottingham UK martha.ledger@nottingham. ac.uk Leponce Maurice Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Li Tian Mécanismes adaptatifs & évolution Libalah Moses Systematic and Ecology Laboratory BE maurice.leponce@ 4 naturalsciences.be FR litian04@hotmail.com 9 CM libalah_moses@yahoo.com (6), 6, (64), (8) Lichtenberg Silke Technische Hochschule Köln DE silke.lichtenberg@gmail.com 68 Ligot Gauthier University of Liège / Gembloux BE gligot@uliege.be 65 Agro-Bio Tech / TERRA Research Center, Central African Forests Link Roman Mathias Georg-August-University Göttingen DE rlink@gwdg.de 6 Lissambou Logatoc Brandet- Junior Eugene Lorence Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku Plant Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of the Philippines Los Baños GA PH lissamboujuniorbrandet@ gmail.com elrlogatoc@gmail.com Lopez Pascal Jean UMR BOREA FR pascal-jean.lopez@mnhn.fr (48) Lotzkat Sebastian Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut DE slotzkat@senckenberg.de 4 Frankfurt Lührs Mia-Lana Büro Renala DE mluehrs@gwdg.de Majd Roghayyeh University of Mohaghegh Ardabili IR m.t.alebrahim@gmail.com 59

195 86 87 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Mäntylä Elina Biology Centre of Czech CZ 00 Academy of Science, Institute of Entomology Maquia Ivete Biotechnology Center Eduardo MZ Mondlane University Marçal Rosa Ana Clara University of Campinas BR (UNICAMP) Marfleet Kate University College London and UK Natural History Museum Margrove James ETH Zurich CH ethz.ch Mayr Antonia University of Würzburg DE 79 de McGuire Krista University of Oregon US 40 McKey Doyle Centre for Functional and FR (), (58) Evolutionary Ecology, University of Montpellier Mezaka Anna Marburg Univrsity, Faculty of Geography, Ecological Plant Geography Group DE 90 Clarissa Technishe Universitat Kaiserslautern/ Universidade Federal de Pernambuco DE 7 Meunier Félicien Ghent University, Cavelab BE 0 Meyer Christoph University of Salford UK 9 Meziane Tarik Muséum National d'histoire FR Naturelle (MNHN) Michaud Emma National Center of scientific Research-Environmental Marine Sciences laboratory FR Migliore Jérémy Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-EBE) / CNRS-Sorbonne Université (LOCEAN) Miryeganeh Matin Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology / Plant Epigenetics Unit (Saze unit) BE jeremy.migliore@ulb.ac.be 90, (9), (), (6), (6), (4), (8) JP matin.miryeganeh@oist.jp 5 Missoup Alain Didier University of Yaoundé CA 57 40, 94 Moloney James James Cook University AU james.moloney@jcu.edu.au 57 Monsalve Alejandra Universidad Nacional de Colombia CO acmonsalver@unal.edu.co 57 Monthe Franck Université libre de Buxelles (ULB-EBE) Morel Alexandra University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment Mota de Oliveira Moudingo Ekindi BE fmonthek@ulb.ac.be, (59), (6) UK alexandra.morel@ouce. ox.ac.uk Sylvia Naturalis Biodiversity Center NL sylvia.motadeoliveira@ 89, (94) naturalis.nl Jean Hude University of Douala CM m_ekindi@yahoo.fr 56 Muellner-Riehl Alexandra Leipzig University DE muellner-riehl@uni-leipzig.de 9 Muscarella Robert Aarhus University DK bob.muscarella@gmail.com, 09 Muttaqin Anwari Nur Boston University US anwari@bu.edu 56 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Mwampamba Tuyeni Institute of Ecosystems and MX tuyeni@iies.unam.mx 4 Sustainability Research / National Autonomous University of Mexico Ndri-Kone Aya Brigitte University Nangui Abrogoua CI ndri.brigitte@yahoo.fr 80, (8) Nehren Udo Technische Hochschule Köln DE udo.nehren@th-koeln.de (6), (68) Neji Mohamed Université Libre de Bruxelles TN mnmedneji@gmail.com 56 (ULB-EBE) Neuschulz Eike Lena Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Reserach Centre Frankfurt DE elneuschulz@senckenberg.de 07 Nevo Omer University of Ulm / Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics Neyret Margot Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) Nicolas-Colin Violaine Museum National d'histoire Naturelle, UMR 705 DE Mendes Knoechelmann omer.nevo@evolutionaryecology.de FR margot@neyret.me 4 FX violaine.colin@mnhn.fr 9, (57) Novotny Vojtech Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences Nshimba Seya Wa Malale Hippolyte Université de Kisangani, Faculté des Sciences, Dpt Ecologie et gestion des ressources végétales (EGREV), Laboratoire de S.O.S FORET CZ novotny@entu.cas.cz 99, (0), (0), () CD hippolytenshimba@gmail. 05 com Niekisch Manfred Zoo Frankfurt DE manfred.niekisch@stadtfrankfurt.de Nieto Paula University of Edinburgh UK paula.nieto@ed.ac.uk 0 Quintano Njovu Henry Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Wuerzburg DE hnjovu@mwekawildlife.ac.tz 6 Ntie Stephan Université des Sciences et GA stephanntie@yahoo.fr 59 Techniques de Masuku Nunoo Isaac Kwame Nkrumah University of GH nunooisaac85@yahoo.com Science and Technology Nyirambangutse Brigitte University of Rwanda RW brigittenyiridandi@gmail.com 60 Ocampo- Natalia ETH Zurich CH natalia.ocampo@usys.ethz.ch 4 Penuela OrozcoterWengel Pablo Cardiff University UK sbipao@cf.ac.uk 54, (7) Oslisly Richard ANPN /IRD GA roslisly@parcsgabon.ga Palmeirim Jorge Faculdade de Ciencias, PT palmeirim@fc.ul.pt 80 Universidade de Lisboa Pardini Matteo German Aerospace Center DE matteo.pardini@dlr.de 9 (DLR) Parolin Pia University of Hamburg, BEE DE pparolin@botanik.unihamburg.de 68 Parra Edicson Imperial College London UK edicsonparras@gmail.com Sanchez Pays Olivier UMR 6554 CNRS - LETG-Angers - University of Angers FR olivier.pays@univ-angers.fr 04, (5)

196 88 89 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Peña Carrillo Kenzy Laboratoire d'ethologie FR 4 Expérimentale et Comparée, Université Paris Peyre Gwendolyn Universidad de los Andes CO 9 Pfeifer Marion Newcastle University UK 49, (77) Philipson Christopher ETH Zürich CH Pierick Kerstin Georg-August University of DE 74 Göttingen Pietsch Stephan A. International Institute of Applied AT 87 Systems Analysis Piratelli Augusto Universidade Federal de Sao BR 64 Carlos/Departamento de Ciencias Ambientais Pitkämäki Tinja University of Turku FI 9, 4 Polania Jaime Universidad Nacional de CO jhpolaniav@unal.edu.co 57 Colombia Sede Medellin Ponta Nicole ETH Zurich CH nicole.ponta@usys.ethz.ch 95 Potamitis Ilyas Technological Educational GR potamitis@staff.teicrete.gr 07 Institute of Crete Poteaux Chantal Laboratoire d'ethologie FR poteaux@leec.univ-paris.fr 5, (4) Expérimentale et Comparée Pozsgai Gabor Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University CN pozsgaig@coleoptera.hu Pröhl Hjördis Heike Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Radespiel Ute Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover DE DE heike.proehl@tiho-hannover. de ute.radespiel@tiho-hannover. de Raedig Claudia TH Köln DE claudia.raedig@th-koeln.de 6, (64), (66) Raffelsbauer Volker Friedrich-Alexander-University DE v.raffelsbauer@gmx.de 0 Erlangen-Nuremberg Rau E-Ping Laboratoire Écologie & Diversité Biologique FR epingchris@gmail.com 7 Maholy The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar Reeb Catherine Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Institut de Systématique, evolution, biodiversité Ravaloharimanitra René- Trouillefou Malika UMR BOREA Université des Antilles MG rrmahooly@gmail.com 60 FR catherine.reeb@gmail.com 95 GP malika.trouillefou@univantilles.fr Renner Marion Institute of Plant Sciences CH marion.renner@ips.unibe.ch 55 Riutta Terhi University of Oxford / School of UK terhi.riutta@ouce.ox.ac.uk 7, (78) Geography and the Environment Robinson Samuel Lancaster University and Centre UK s.robinson@lancaster.ac.uk for Ecology & Hydrology Rodrigues Fatima Universidade Federal de Sao BR fpinarodrigues@gmail.com 5, (64) Carlos/Departamento de Ciencias Ambientais Rodríguez Quiel Eyvar Elias Autonomous University of Chiriqui, Panama DE eyvarr@gmail.com 9 Romero Arias Johanna Univeristé Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-EBE) BE Johanna.Romero.Arias@ ulb.ac.be 48 4 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Rossetti Dilce INPE BR dilce.rossetti@inpe.br, (0) Rowe Karen Museums Victoria AU karowe@museum.vic.gov.au 04 Roy Virginie Université Paris-Est Créteil / Institute of ecology and environmental sciences - Paris FR roy@u-pec.fr (49) Ruiz Pinzon César Augusto Institut Méditérannéen de Biodiversité et Ecologie marine et continentale Salazar Laura Universidad Tecnologica Indoamerica Salmon Sandrine Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle, UMR 779 Mecadev Sam Katerina Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Science, Institute of Entomology San Miguel Anitza Valencia College; Conservacion de la Naturaleza Amazonica del Peru, A.C. Sanchewska Karolina Fulbright Poland-Botanical Institute in Krakow FR cesar.ruiz@imbe.fr 47 EC inecotu@gmail.com 8 FR sandrine.salmon@mnhn.fr CZ katerina.sam.cz@gmail.com 0, US PL asanmiguel@ valenciacollege.edu mossy.artist@ufl.edu Santiago Louis University of California US santiago@ucr.edu 0 Santos Cyntia Université de Angers and BR cyntiasantos7@yahoo.com.br 76 UFMS-Brasil Sattler Dietmar Leipzig University, Institute of DE sattler@uni-leipzig.de 67 Geography Schleuning Matthias Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre DE matthias.schleuning@ senckenberg.de 8 Schmitt Sylvain Université de Bordeaux / Unité Mixte de Recherche Biodiversité Gènes et Communautés FR sylvain.schmitt@ agroparistech.fr Schumacher Nils-Christian University of Wuerzburg DE nils-christian.schumacher@ 8 stud-mail.uni-wuerzburg.de Schweizer Daniella Ecosystem Management ETH CH daniellaschweizer@gmail. com Sébastien Albert Université de la Réunion, UMR RE candidalbert@gmail.com PVBMT Segovia Ricardo School of GeoSciences / UK segoviacortes@gmail.com 7 University of Edinburgh Sethi Sarab Imperial College London UK s.sethi6@imperial.ac.uk Sfair Julia Universidade Federal de BR juliacaram@gmail.com 75 Pernambuco Sherchan Samendra Tulane university US sshercha@tulane.edu 40 Shrestha Ramesh Evironment Nepal NP environnepal@gmail.com Babu Siddons David Universidad del Azuay EC dsiddons@uazuay.edu.ec 06, (0) Silva de Pedro Luiz The University of Edinburgh UK pedromiganda@hotmail.com 44 Miranda Sommer Simone Evolutionary Ecology and DE Simone.Sommer@uni-ulm.de 57 Conservation Genomics Spannl Susanne University of Bayreuth DE Susanne.Spannl@unibayreuth.de 0 Srikanthasamy Tharaniya Sorbonne Université,UPMC,iEES-Paris FX tharaniya.srikanthasamy@ upmc.fr (79), 8

197 90 9 Family name First name Organisation Ref. Page Strijk Joeri Guangxi University CN jsstrijk@hotmail.com Sueur Jerome Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle (MNHN) Szefer Piotr Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology Taubert Franziska Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ FR sueur@mnhn.fr (99), (0), (05) CZ szefer85@gmail.com 04 DE franziska.taubert@ufz.de 4 Teh Yit Arn University of Aberdeen UK yateh@abdn.ac.uk (4), (7), 7 Thomas Maki Okinawa Instititute of Science JP maki.thomas@oist.jp 98 and Technology Thornton Ann University of Southampton UK a.thornton@soton.ac.uk 64 Tiede Yvonne Philipps-Universität Marburg, Biologie DE tiedey@biologie.uni-marburg. de Tiwari Rakesh University of Leeds UK shimogarakesh@gmail.com Tom-Dery Damian University of Hamburg, Applied DE damian.tom-dery@unihamburg.de 75 Plant Ecology Tosso Félicien TERRA Research Centre, Central BE dnftosso@uliege.be 9 African Forests, Gembloux Agro- Bio Tech, University of Liège Tripathi Hemant University of Edinburgh, Department of GeoSciences UK hemanttripathi05@gmail.com 85 Trolliet Franck Forest Stewardship Council International Trone Marie Valencia College; Conservacion de la Naturaleza Amazonica del Peru, A.C. Turkovska Olga International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Ulloa Juan Sebastian ISYEB, UMR 705 CNRS MNHN UPMC EPHE Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle - Université Paris-Sud Valadou Bénédicte Agence Française pour la Biodiversité Vallée Vincent Ifremer Guyane, Fisheries Biodiversity Unit Valtonen Anu Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland Velescu Andre Karlsruher Institut für Technologie Veranso- Libalah Marie Claire Institut für Molekulare und Organismische Evolutionsbiologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität 77 DE f.trolliet@fsc.org (6), (4), (8), (8) US mtrone@valenciacollege.edu (98), 00, 0 AT turkovsk@iiasa.ac.at 0 FR juan.ulloa@mnhn.fr 0 FR benedicte.valadou@ afbiodiversite.fr FR vincent.vallee@ifremer.fr 5 FI anu.valtonen@uef.fi 0 DE andre.velescu@kit.edu 6, (7), (74), () CM mario_clario@yahoo.ca 87 Verbeeck Hans Ghent University, CAVElab BE hans.verbeeck@ugent.be 67, 9, (0), (4) Veridiano Rizza Karen Thuenen Institute for DE karen.veridiano@thuenen.de International Foresty and Forest Economics Visser Marco Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University US mvisser@princeton.edu 6 Family First name Organisation Ref. Page name Waite Catherine University of Nottingham UK catherine.waite@nottingham. ac.uk 07, 48, (9) Wang Yunxia University of Leeds UK gyyw@leeds.ac.uk Wantzen Karl M. UNESCO Chair FX karl.wantzen@univ-tours.fr Wilding Nicholas Université de La Réunion, UMR Peuplements vegetaux et bioagresseurs en milieu tropical RE nicholaswilding@gmail.com 9, 6 Mirco Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) Wu Junen Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences DE mirco.woelfelschneider@ 6 leibniz-zmt.de CN wujunen@xtbg.ac.cn 57 Wölfelschneider Zarate Edwin Universidad del Azuay EC ezarate@uazuay.edu.ec 0 Zigelski Paulina Universität Hamburg DE paulina.meller@gmx.de (77), 78 Zolalaina Andriamanantena Doctoral School Natural Ecosystems MG andzolalaina@gmail.com 5, 00

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199 Erwan AMICE LEMAR/CNRS Photothéque ISBN