Earthwatch-supported scientists report on their multi-discipline approach at the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation
Maynard, MA - The world's largest freshwater wetland, Brazil's Pantanal, is an ecosystem under siege, faced with extreme environmental pressures from intensive agriculture, hydrological management schemes, and pollution. A symposium at the meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) highlighted the pioneering use of multi-discipline ecological field research and volunteer participation in addressing these environmental concerns.
The symposium, titled "Pantanal Wetlands Biodiversity and Conservation," was held on July 26 at ATBC's Frontiers in Tropical Biology and Conservation in Uberlândia, Brazil. Chaired by Dr. Erich Fischer, bat ecologist at Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul and Earthwatch principal investigator, the symposium featured several research findings from Earthwatch's Conservation Research Initiative (CRI) in the Pantanal.
"The Pantanal is a ‘frontier' in the sense that very little information is available about its ecology and biodiversity, in contrast with the surrounding areas, such as the Amazon rainforest, cerrado, and Atlantic rainforest," said Fischer.
Twenty-four times the size of the Florida Everglades, the Pantanal harbors the most diverse assemblage of tropical wildlife in South America. Thirty million caiman share this outstanding wetland resource with anteaters, anacondas, jabiru storks, hyacinth macaws, rheas, maned wolves, capybaras, tapirs, and the world's largest jaguars.
The Pantanal is the most recent geological formation in South America, and human occupation and land use is only 200 years old, making it one of the premier wilderness sites on Earth. Historic land use in the form of low-impact cattle ranching is now being replaced by more intensive ranching and agriculture, with unknown effects on the ecology. Other impacts include uncontrolled sport fishing, gold mining, and large-scale dredging and damming schemes.
"Integrating disciplines we can reach an increased general picture of the Pantanal ecosystem, and so contribute to better decisions about policy and conservation plans," said Fischer. "Some general ecological patterns can be well assessed by multi-discipline research, including seasonality in flowering and fruiting plants, diseases, population mortality and growth rates, animal behavior, community structures, food webs, and more."
In the symposium, Fischer and his co-principal investigator George Camargo (Conservação Internacional do Brasil) reported on their research on bat populations and ecology supported by Earthwatch volunteers. Their findings include the sampling of more than 1,000 bats in 26 species and 5 families, and different species compositions in several habitats.
"Bats are a special group as they have a wide range of food habits and use all available types of resources in a given site," said Fischer. "Monitoring the community structure of bat assemblages we can infer about disturbances and conservation status among sites. In addition, several bats are unique pollinators or seed dispersers of important plant species in Pantanal."
Other scientists from the Earthwatch Pantanal CRI reported on their complimentary findings. Don Eaton (UNIDERP and Institute for Biological Conservation) shared findings on the impact of hydrologic processes on aquatic habitat diversity, highlighting the severe negative impact of hydrologic alterations, known locally as hidrovias. Dr. Alexine Keuroghlian (UNIDERP and Institute for Biological Conservation) reported on the ecological impacts of the changing cattle industry, integrating findings from research on peccary and feral pig, birds, and aquatic biodiversity. Heitor Herrera (Instituto Oswaldo Cruz) addressed the use of host-parasite interactions in small mammals as a bioindicator of environmental change.
Earthwatch's Pantanal CRI has supported research projects in the Pantanal for the past five years, and has been instrumental in building the capacity of educators, ranch-hands, guides, and property owners in science and resource management.
"Since 2000, more than 600 people have contributed labor and funding to 9 different Earthwatch-supported research projects in the Pantanal," said Dr. Mark Chandler, conservation director at Earthwatch. "These projects are supported because they address research needs that will help the sustainable management of the Pantanal. Many of the results reported at this symposium exemplify the urgent need for this multi-discipline approach and the power of participant-supported research."
"Volunteers are ‘the hands' that execute our field work, contributing significantly with positive criticism about procedures and insights into field questions," said Fischer. "In the end, both volunteers and researchers learn much about life in the Pantanal and global importance of conservation."
Earthwatch Institute is an international nonprofit organization that supports scientific field research by offering members of the public unique opportunities to work alongside leading field scientists and researchers. Earthwatch's mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.