Ferraz Population Biology Laboratory

In this research line, we analyze mist-net captures and bioacoustics monitoring of more than 100 understory forest bird species sampled in old-growth and secondary-forest sites of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP). Our analyses aimed at inferring demographic and local distribution responses to anthropogenic habitat change in a deforestation frontier. The Auk paper about age effects on survival by Alejandra Muñoz is one highlight of this work. Other papers in preparation analyze change in population density and differences in occupancy dynamics parameters between forest types. Data collection was supported by STRI and FAPEAM research grants.

Photo by Rob Bierregaard, Jr. showing Dimona 10 and 1ha fragments short after isolation, in 1984.

Starting with Luiza Figueira’s MSc paper on secondary forest use by parrots in the BDFFP, we opened a line of work aimed at understanding populations of threatened species, one or a few at a time. More or less accidentally, it happened that most of this work has centered on parrots, with Viviane Zulian’s PhD focusing on the Vinaceous-breasted Parrot (Amazona vinacea), and now, Diego Zavala’s MSc studying tree cavity use by the Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus), in Costa Rica. Vivi’s redrawing of the Vinaceous-breasted geographic range and the data integration models she developed for that purpose are probably the most consequential ecological application coming out of our lab to date.

Photo of a Vinaceous-breasted Parrot (Amazona vinacea) in western Santa Catarina, Brazil, by Viviane Zulian.

Since the investigation about palm three infestation by Rhodnius bugs, in collaboration with Fernando Abad-Franch, we have explored applications of hierarchical modeling to the study of disease vectors and, most recently, in Ricardo Rohweder’s MSc project, to analyzing the transmission of a viral disease in Rio Grande do Sul. This line of research produced collaborations with the Porto Alegre city council and with the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. These projects, which mostly analyze information collected by large-scale public health initiatives, have produced results about geographic distribution of disease vectors and about the effectiveness and timing of control measures.

Photo of a stage 2 Aedes aegypti larva, by Ricardo Rohweder.