Throughout their world distribution, fruit bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) play an extremely important role in forest ecology through seed dispersal and pollination. However, the recognition of their role in maintaining forest ecological diversity has been largely overshadowed by the fact that fruit bats are known to cause damage to a wide variety of cultivated fruits and, as a result, significant effort is undertaken to control fruit bat numbers in areas where crop damage frequently occurs. In Australia, fruit bats of the genus Pteropus (or flying foxes) are well known for their role in destroying valuable fruit crops, particularly along the east coast from Cairns to Sydney. Historical evidence suggests that flying foxes have been culled as an orchard pest in large numbers for the past 80 years. Uncontrolled culling both on-farm and in roosts coupled with extensive habitat destruction in the past century, has resulted in noticeable declines both in flying fox distribution and local population numbers. In New South Wales, flying foxes have been 'protected' under the National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974) since 1986. From that time, fruitgrowers have been required to obtain a licence (referred to as an occupier's licence) from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to cull flying foxes causing damage to fruit crops. However, despite the 'protected' status of the species, flying foxes continue to be culled in large numbers as an orchard pest. An examination of the management of flying foxes in NSW, has shown that, between 1986-1992, fifteen NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Districts issued a combined total of 616 occupier's licences to shoot flying foxes with an total allocation of over 240,000 animals. In addition, most flying foxes are culled when the female is carrying her young under wing or when the young remain in the camp but continue to be dependent on her return for survival. Further evidence on the extent of culling includes a widely distributed fruitgrower survey with responses indicating that as few as 50% of the fruitgrowers shooting flying foxes in NSW obtain the required licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. While the NPWS has undertaken research into the role of flying foxes in seed dispersal and pollination, management effort largely continues to focus on resolving conflicts between fruitgrowers and flying foxes primarily by issuing culling permits to fruitgrowers. At present, there is no NPWS policy on the management of flying foxes in NSW to guide the administration of the permit system. As a result, the process of issuing permits for flying foxes is largely inconsistent between NPWS Districts. The absence of comprehensive goals and objectives for the management of flying foxes has resulted in the current situation where large numbers of flying foxes are being culled both legally and illegally in the absence of any data on the impacts of unknown culling levels on local flying fox populations. The NPWS has a statutory obligation to manage flying foxes consistent with the 'protected' status of the species in NSW and several well known principles of wildlife management. However, current management of flying foxes in indicates that the Service may be in violation of the requirement to 'protect' and 'conserve' flying foxes as required under the National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974). This study recommends that licences issued to fruitgrowers to cull flying foxes be discontinued immediately and that adequate enforcement be engaged to reduce illegal shooting. This action should continue until such time that research on flying fox populations is able to demonstrate that the culling of flying foxes will not lead populations into decline. Furthermore, management effort should focus on the development of alternative strategies to reduce crop damage by flying foxes and provide incentives for growers to utilize existing control strategies such as netting.

Human activities are a major driver of biodiversity degradation and loss, especially in tropical forest areas, where forest-fringe towns and villages depend on the forests for their livelihoods. In order to reduce threats that human activities pose to biodiversity, livelihoods support programs are employed as economic incentives for biodiversity conservation. These programs support the livelihoods activities of local communities, with the aim of triggering favorable attitudes and behaviors towards conservation, and ultimately reduce biodiversity degradation. Their effectiveness as conservation tools has not been evaluated. I investigated the effects of livelihoods programs on conservation attitudes and the consequent effects on biodiversity in the Afadjato-Agumatsa and Atewa forest areas in southeastern Ghana. The study areas are coupled human and natural systems, which are excellent for research in the theoretical framework of biocomplexity in the environment. Using literature reviews and field visits, I documented the specific livelihoods support activities (LSAs) used for biodiversity conservation, their historical trend and geographical distribution in Ghana. I used ex-post costbenefit analysis to determine socio-economic estimates of the LSAs in the two forest areas. Since communities were not randomly assigned to the interventions, I employed quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effects of LSAs on environmental attitudes. I evaluated the effect of conservation attitudes on biodiversity at two levels. These levels included 1) functional biodiversity at the landscape level represented by mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of forest; and 2) compositional biodiversity at the species level represented by species diversity of fruit bats. iv The earliest record of LSAs used for biodiversity conservation in Ghana was in 1993. I identified 71 different activities belonging to eight categories. Some of these activities are beekeeping, animal husbandry, crop farming, and snail rearing. Most LSA programs have been in northern Ghana. There was an increasing tendency to make LSAs part of every conservation program in Ghana and this satisfies the current policy of collaborative conservation. The socio-economic estimates of LSAs included: 1) capital investment; 2) net socio-economic benefits; and 3) the benefit-cost ratio. The per-community values of the three estimates were not different between the two study areas. The per capita values of capital investment and net economic benefit were not significantly different between the two study areas. However, benefitcost ratio per capita was higher in Afadjato-Agumatsa than in Atewa. Estimates of economic returns from LSAs were marginal but the perceptions of success were relatively high. Environmental attitudes in LSA communities and non-LSA communities were not significantly different, and this was confirmed by an estimate of infinitesimal effects of LSAs on forest conservation attitudes. Among LSA communities, benefit-cost ratio of LSAs predicted favorable forest conservation attitudes; and change in pro-conservation attitudes were significantly higher in communities that had active LSAs than in communities which had no active LSA. Mean NDVI of the forests decreased from 1991 to 2000 and decreased further but at a slower rate to 2010. Higher forest conservation attitudes predicted higher mean NDVI in 2010. Higher change in mean NDVI from 1991 to 2000 predicted higher change in mean NDVI from 2000 to 2010. Eleven of the 13 fruit bat species in Ghana were recorded in the study areas. Longer v distances between a local community and its forest predicted higher species diversity of forestspecialist fruit bats. The results indicate that LSAs have become a major contribution to Ghana’s current collaborative forest policy. The fact that perceptions of LSA success were moderate even though the economic returns from them were marginal suggest that other factors such as provision of employment, training in new skills and community cohesion played a part in how communities viewed the success as LSAs. Evaluations of conservation attitudes suggest that just participating in LSAs did not improve attitudes; but higher benefit-cost ratio predicted favorable conservation attitudes, and conservation attitudes were higher in communities that sustained their LSAs. Therefore, it may serve biodiversity conservation to invest in LSAs that can be sustained and involve the least costs to local communities. Primary production of the forests, a proxy for a functional habitat, continued to decrease. Preventing communities from locating closer to forests could improve fruit bat diversity, which contributes to natural forest regeneration. Improving conservation attitudes should be an objective of conservation at the landscape scale. On the basis of the results, I developed a conceptual model for forest biodiversity conservation in a biocomplexity framework. This model could be useful for evaluating conservation in tropical forest areas. Lessons from this study can be applied in other incentive-based conservation programs such as payments for ecosystem services systems and carbon market schemes. I suggest that this study be repeated after a decade and that other socio-political and biogeochemical variables be integrated into future studies.

Population structure, biogeography and phylogenetic relationships of the fruit bat genus Rousettus have been studied in Africa and adjacent regions. The current population patterns of rousettine fruit bats in the Old World are influenced by several environmental attributes, namely the topography, climate and land cover. These variables are mirrored in fruit bat plesiomorphies related to the ecological niche of tropical flying frugivore, as well as apomorphies of rousettines including echolocation ability, roosting in caves and dispersal capacity in open landscapes with discontinuous tree cover. Phylogenetic relationships among species and subspecies of the genus have been indicated and confronted with the existing colonization scenarios. Insular populations (including habitat islands within desert oases) show frequent genetic differentiation from their mainland relatives suggesting successful founder events after traversing stretches of unsuitable habitats. Genetic differentiation evolving in less distant islands suggests involving behavioural mechanisms maintaining cohesion of isolated demes as site fidelity and natal habitat-biased dispersal. In sub-Saharan mainland Africa within the large range reaching from the southern border of Sahara to Cape Peninsula, Rousettus populations share a...

Population structure, biogeography and phylogenetic relationships of the fruit bat genus Rousettus have been studied in Africa and adjacent regions. The current population patterns of rousettine fruit bats in the Old World are influenced by several environmental attributes, namely the topography, climate and land cover. These variables are mirrored in fruit bat plesiomorphies related to the ecological niche of tropical flying frugivore, as well as apomorphies of rousettines including echolocation ability, roosting in caves and dispersal capacity in open landscapes with discontinuous tree cover. Phylogenetic relationships among species and subspecies of the genus have been indicated and confronted with the existing colonization scenarios. Insular populations (including habitat islands within desert oases) show frequent genetic differentiation from their mainland relatives suggesting successful founder events after traversing stretches of unsuitable habitats. Genetic differentiation evolving in less distant islands suggests involving behavioural mechanisms maintaining cohesion of isolated demes as site fidelity and natal habitat-biased dispersal. In sub-Saharan mainland Africa within the large range reaching from the southern border of Sahara to Cape Peninsula, Rousettus populations share a...

Submitted by Sandra Pereira (srpereira@ufrrj.br) on 2017-01-26T12:52:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015 - William Douglas de Carvalho.pdf: 2195014 bytes, checksum: b6deab05010b9d498b671e9f59a39141 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-26T12:52:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015 - William Douglas de Carvalho.pdf: 2195014 bytes, checksum: b6deab05010b9d498b671e9f59a39141 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-09 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / Many world hotspots for conservation are located in mountains, which are considered priority areas for preservation of plants and vertebrates species. Species that occur in these locations have functional traits that favor the colonization of forests in high areas. Furthermore, we know little about the biology of these species along elevational gradients, for example, reproductive rate. Thus, the objectives of this thesis were divided into two sections, namely: (1) verify how the species and the different Phyllostomidae guilds vary in richness along an altitudinal gradient and identify the functional traits that facilitate the colonization of forests in high areas, and (2) determine if the reproductive rate of fruit bats Phyllostomidae varies locally and if this variation can be explained by local responses to variations in the abundance of resources. For this, we compiled studies in the Atlantic Forest of southern and southeastern Brazil through database (Capes bank of thesis; Scielo; Web of Science), journals and the database of Laborat?rio de Diversidade de Morcegos (LADIM) of Instituto de Biologia of Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). After the selection of 35 different species of Phyllostomidae bats of 45 different locations, where the altitude varies between 60 and 2.450 m.a.s.l., 10 functional traits for each species were selected: trophic guild (GT), trophic level (NT), relative wing load (CRA), aspect ratio (AA), degree requirement forest habitat (GEHF), using natural cavities (UCN), southern latitudinal limit (LLS), body mass (MC), forearm size (TA) and body size (TC). The selected functional traits were related to an altitudinal index, calculated for each species, and those with greater correlation were chosen to be the best model to describe and determine the main functional traits that lead the species to colonize forests in high areas. Furthermore, we considered species with over 300 captures (Carollia perspicillata, Sturnira lilium e Artibeus spp.) to verify the effect of altitude on their reproductive rate. We found that there was a decline in the abundance and richness of Phyllostomidae species in high altitudes, with a decline in the abundance of fruit bats and increase of hematophagous species. The nectarivorous bats, gleaners and omnivore bats were not affected by altitude. The results also indicated that the forest habitat requirements degree was the main functional trait that leads the species to colonize forests in high areas, and the use of natural cavities and southern latitudinal limit could be relevant to colonize. All bat species had a higher reproductive rate in months of major rainfall (October to March). Sturnira lilium was the species that has the highest reproductive rate in high altitudes, which coincides with the area where there is a greater wealth and abundance of Solanum sp. Artibeus sp. had a higher reproductive rate in medium and low altitudes, where there is a greater richness of Ficus species and Carollia perspicillata showed no altitudinal preference for reproduction. At the areas with larger bat abundance, more reproducing females were observed, as these sites appear to have a higher amount of resources. The conservation of the whole altitudinal gradient with the possible implementation of conservation units is necessary, because bat species occur in greater abundance at different altitudes and reproduce at different altitudes. / Em ?reas montanhosas localizam-se muitos hotspots mundiais para conserva??o, sendo que esses locais s?o considerados ?reas priorit?rias para preserva??o de esp?cies de plantas e vertebrados. Esp?cies que ocorrem nesses locais possuem tra?os funcionais que propiciam a coloniza??o de florestas em ?reas elevadas. Al?m disso, pouco ? conhecido sobre a biologia dessas esp?cies em gradientes altitudinais, como por exemplo sua taxa reprodutiva. Sendo assim, os objetivos da presente tese foram divididos em dois cap?tulos, sendo eles: (1) verificar como as esp?cies e as diferentes guildas de Phyllostomidae variam ao longo de um gradiente altitudinal e identificar que tra?os funcionais facilitam a coloniza??o de florestas em ?reas elevadas e (2) determinar se a taxa reprodutiva de morcegos Phyllostomidae frug?voros varia localmente e se esta varia??o pode ser explicada pelas respostas locais ? varia??o na abund?ncia de recursos. Para isto, compilamos estudos realizados na Floresta Atl?ntica do sul e sudeste do Brasil atrav?s de banco de dados (banco de teses da CAPES; Scielo; Web of Science), revistas especializadas, e do banco de dados do Laborat?rio de Diversidade de Morcegos (LADIM) do Instituto de Biologia da Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). Ap?s a sele??o de 35 diferentes esp?cies de morcegos Phyllostomidae de 45 diferentes localidades, onde a altitude variou entre 60 e 2.450 m de altitude, selecionamos 10 tra?os funcionais para cada esp?cie: guilda tr?fica (GT), n?vel tr?fico (NT), carga relativa da asa (CRA), aspecto da asa (AA), grau de exig?ncia de habitat florestal (GEHF), utiliza??o de cavidades naturais (UCN), limite latitudinal sul (LLS), massa corporal (MC), tamanho do antebra?o (TA) e tamanho corporal (TC). Os tra?os funcionais selecionados foram relacionados com um ?ndice altitudinal, representando a altitude em que a esp?cie ? mais abundante, e aqueles tra?os funcionais que apresentaram maior correla??o foram submetidos a escolha de melhor modelo para descrever quais foram os principais tra?os funcionais que levam as esp?cies a colonizarem florestas em ?reas elevadas. Al?m disso, consideramos as esp?cies com mais de 300 capturas (Carollia perspicillata, Sturnira lilium e Artibeus spp.) para verificar o efeito da altitude sobre sua taxa reprodutiva, relacionando a propor??o de animais em reprodu??o com a altitude. Encontramos uma queda na abund?ncia e riqueza de esp?cies de Phyllostomidae em altitudes elevadas, com queda na abund?ncia de frug?voros e aumento de esp?cies de h?bitos hemat?fagos. As guildas de nectar?voros, catadores e on?voros n?o foram influenciadas pela altitude. Nossos resultados tamb?m indicaram que o grau de exig?ncia de habitat florestal foi o principal tra?o funcional que leva as esp?cies a colonizarem florestas em ?reas elevadas, sendo que a utiliza??o de cavidades naturais e o limite latitudinal sul tamb?m podem ser relevantes para a coloniza??o. Todas as esp?cies de morcegos apresentaram maior taxa reprodutiva nos meses em que historicamente ocorrem maiores precipita??es (de outubro a mar?o). Sturnira lilium foi a esp?cie que apresentou maior taxa reprodutiva em altitudes elevadas, sendo esta taxa coincidente com a ?rea onde h? maior riqueza e abund?ncia de Solanum sp. Artibeus sp. apresentou maior taxa reprodutiva em m?dias e baixas altitudes, locais onde h? maior riqueza de esp?cies de Ficus e Carollia perspicillata n?o apresentou prefer?ncia altitudinal para a reprodu??o. Naquelas localidades onde a abund?ncia de morcegos foi maior, mais f?meas estavam reproduzindo-se, sendo que estes locais parecem ter maiores quantidades de recursos. Mostra-se necess?rio a conserva??o de todo o gradiente altitudinal com a poss?vel implanta??o de unidades de conserva??o, pois determinadas esp?cies de morcegos ocorrem em maior abund?ncia em altitudes diferentes, al?m de se reproduzirem em altitudes diferentes