Project Leader:
Dr. Scott Mori
Earth Institute Contact: Dr. Scott Mori
EI Collaborators:
Nancy Simmons
Robert Voss
Additional External Researchers:
Tatyana Lobova, The New York Botanical Garden
Cullen Geiselman,The New York Botanical Garden
Locations: French Guiana
Description:
The goals of the proposed project are to inventory plants dispersed by bats in the undisturbed forests of French Guiana, to create a tool for the identification of bat-dispersed plants based on morphology, anatomy, and molecular data, and to address hypotheses about bat/plant interactions. Based on preliminary data, the investigators hypothesize that 10-15% of the flowering plant species in central French Guiana are dispersed by bats. French Guiana was chosen because of the richness in flowering plants and fruit-eating bats found there, and because the Principal Investigator is an expert in its flora. Moreover, more ecological and biological studies need to focus on this area because of threats from road construction and uncontrolled gold mining.
EI Unit:
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC)
Cross Cutting Themes:
Ecosystems
Core Disciplines:
Biology
Address:
The New York Botanical Garden
200th Street and Kazimiroff Blvd.
Bronx, New York 10458-5126
Project Web Site:
http://www.botanypages.org/mori/batsplants/introduction/intro.htm
Collaborating Institutions:
The New York Botanical Garden, Institute of Systematic Botany
Institute de Recherche pour le Développement
Herbier de Guyane
Cayenne, French Guiana
Funding Agency:
National Science Foundation
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