Research Summary
Santa Lucia Reserve, Northwest Ecuador — The Ecuadorian Andes host some the world's most exceptional biodiversity hotspots. Unfortunately, the distribution of many species has been dramatically reduced due to habitat loss and hunting. To make matters worse, the Andes are now predicted to experience heightened warming relative to lower altitudes as a result of climate change. Such warming may result in a loss of many plants and the species that rely on them. Dr. Mika Peck and colleagues monitor populations of large mammals in the reserve. Because these animals need high quality forest habitat to survive, they act as “umbrella species” whose protection will also ensure the conservation of countless other forest animals and plants. The data collected on this project will help answer the question of whether existing reserves and corridors are sufficient to protect the wealth of wildlife in Ecuador's forests in the face of climate change.
Meet the Scientists
Dr. Mika Peck
University of Sussex
The Ecuadorian Andes qualify as one of the world's exceptional biodiversity hotspots due to the extraordinary numbers of endemic plants and vertebrates. Unfortunately, the distribution of many species has been dramatically reduced due to habitat loss and hunting. In addition, the Andes are predicted to experience heightened warming relative to lower altitudes as a result of climate change which may result in a loss of vegetation types and the species that rely on them. You will help to survey key carnivore and bird species and their associated vegetation types to determine abundance and distribution, which will provide reserve managers with accurate scientific data to underpin habitat and species action plans. You’ll help to set up camera traps to record presence of carnivores; you’ll conduct bird surveys and set up an innovative tree canopy camera to record key canopy species and collect and prepare botanical samples. I look forward to welcoming you and invite you to participate in this vital conservation research alongside our research team.
Dr. Mika Peck was born in 1969. An expedition to the Ecuadorian Andes in 1995 led him to pursue a Ph.D. in Tropical Ecology at the University of Stirling, with fieldwork in Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia. The impacts of human activity on natural systems in tropical and temperate countries became the main thrust of his research and he undertook a series of postdoctoral positions investigating them. In 2005 he received funding from the United Kingdom’s Darwin Initiative fund for the PRIMENET project, which aims to conserve the critically endangered brown-headed spider monkey and other primates of northwestern Ecuador. He is a lecturer/research fellow at the University of Sussex and has taught graduate courses in primate conservation at the University of Oxford-Brookes. He will be responsible for the coordination of Earthwatch projects and will accompany expeditions into the field.