Environmental and human influences on the distribution of birds in the Western Amazon, and implications for conservation planning

Lazarus Pomara

Causes of biogeographic diversity may include spatial and temporal variability in ecological conditions, dispersal abilities of species, and historical climate changes. Additional complexity is contributed by human influences, including agriculture, hunting, and forestry. This research uses biological surveys at multiple sites across forest landscapes near the city of Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon to assess the influences of these factors on the geographical structure of bird communities. Specifically, the group is testing hypotheses that differences in species composition among surveyed bird communities are associated with differences in plant species composition, forest structure, soil type, hunting intensity, anthropogenic forest fragmentation, and location within recognized large-scale biogeographic regions.