MAYA PROJECT RESEARCH
Description and Results
The following account of our research activities follows the
outline given. For each topic, we describe the associated
conservation challenges, give some background knowledge on the
topic, describe our research activities, and give a brief
synopsis of our results.
7. Monitoring the Ecological Integrity of Tropical Forest Protected
Areas
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Our ecological monitoring plan for
the Maya Biosphere
Reserve; click
here to download the PDF file of this
report in
English or in Spanish.
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Simply designating and patrolling a protected area does not
insure that effective conservation takes place therein. One must
study the biota of a protected area over time in order to
evaluate the success of conservation efforts. Also, in many
cases it is desirable to conduct baseline inventories in order
to document the species present and other features of
biodiversity within a protected area or other area of concern.
By the same token, global ecological change is the norm
rather than the exception, especially today, as a result of
widespread human impacts on the planet. Thus there is a need to
keep tabs on subtle ecological changes that may be occurring.
Watching for such ecological changes and trends over time is
the realm of ecological monitoring. Ecological monitoring
is a rapidly-developing science, and it is not known how best to
conduct such monitoring in tropical forests. We directed a
substantial amount of effort toward the development of a
rationale and specific methods for biotic inventory and
monitoring in Neotropical forests.
Our efforts were of two sorts. First, we conducted base-line
raptor and songbird population estimates in many
permanently-located study plots, allowing for continued
monitoring over time (see below). Second, we contributed to
efforts to design an ecological monitoring plan for the Maya
Biosphere Reserve and the trinational Selva Maya region.
Songbird and Raptor Inventory and Monitoring
We conducted a large series of raptor point counts on 64
point count sites in four protected "core areas"
within the Maya and Calakmul Biosphere Reserves of Guatemala and
México. We gathered baseline data on raptor species composition
and abundance patterns at these sites. These point count sites,
which are permanently located via GPS points, hold the potential
for follow-up sampling in the future, in order to test for
possible changes in the raptor community over time. Each count
site was a 1 km2 plot, and structural vegetation data
were taken along a 1 km transect forming the midline of each of
these wedge-shaped plots.
Protected areas sampled were Tikal National Park (16 points
in two mature forest types, and eight points in the farming
landscape nearby); Biotopo Zotz just west of Tikal (10 points in
mature forest); Biotopo Dos Lagunas (10 points in mature
forest); and Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche, México (10
points in mature forest).
To sample the non-raptorial bird community, we also conducted
a large amount of sampling using both point counts and
standard-effort mist-netting, in a variety of mature forest
types and all ages of second-growth forest we could find near
Tikal. We sampled second-growth ranging in age from one or two
years to 30 years in age. These efforts allowed us to define
patterns of habitat association of 90 bird species at Tikal,
and, if repeated over time, may allow evaluation of changes in
the bird community over time.
A Monitoring Plan for the Maya Biosphere Reserve and Maya
Forest Region
Upon request from the U.S. Agency for International
Development, we designed an ecological monitoring plan for the
Maya Biosphere Reserve. This plan is presented here in its
entirety in PDF format
(this is a very large pdf file and downloading it should only be
attempted with a fast connection speed).
In addition, we have participated in subsequent
multi-national efforts to devise and put in place a monitoring
program for the trinational Selva Maya region (Whitacre and
Miller 1999).
 Literature Cited, Monitoring the Ecological Integrity of Tropical Forest Protected
Areas
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