Subproject E01 - Frameproject

Zoological Research Institute and Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee
160, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Biodiversity in conversion -
The influence of fragmentation and man-made exploitation on the biodiversity of tropical montane forests

This project links a set of thematically and geographically strictly coordinated analyses of biodiversity conversion in the East African highland and montane rain forests. Analyses of biodiversity and its change are carried out mainly in the Kakamega forest, Kenya. It represents the eastern-most branch of the Guineo-Congolian rain forest block, situated at 1400 to 1700 m a.s.l. in western Kenya. The area has protected status as National Forest Reserve and includes both primary and seconday rain forest, as well as several isolated fragments. It is perfectly suited to conduct comparative analyses of biodiversity within the mentioned habitat types. The efforts are centred on the comparison of primary and secondary highland rain forests with small isolated fragments. The developing open area habitats (farm land, grazing areas, waste lands etc.) and the communities forming within them are included. Comparative studies will be carried out at Mount Kenya and other montane forest regions in Kenya and Uganda.

Principal goal is the establishment of biodiversity observatories for long term monitoring, with main focus on the effects of man-made changes in biodiversity. To achieve this aim, significant interfaces of the trophic network of the tropical rain forest and its replacement communities have been critically selected: plant-pollinator systems, forest fragmentation and seed dispersal, exchange of atmospheric compounds, regeneration of tree species, decline in anurans, diversity of coprophagous beetles, dragonflies, and Lepidoptera.

The use of modern remote sensing techniques and the collection of local and historical information on environmental change will be used to establish a local information system in the study areas. Experiments are carried out using standardized plots and sampling methods. The potential of forest and savannah ecosystems for sustainable land use are investigated.

As a result, we expect a better understanding of the complex consequences of evolutionary change on the different hierarchical levels resulting from degradation and fragmentation, especially at the level of critical trophic and reproductive interfaces. In addition, we expect to be able to provide useful tools and methods for rapid assessment procedures for selected systems.

Five representative palaeo-african refugial areas have been selected to investigate plant diversity and structure of xero-tropical montane communities in southern Yemen and on Socotra. One main objective is to obtain information about the history of habitat fragmentation and its present effect on genetic diversity in selected groups of plants, insects and vertebrates. Genetic comparison of isolated populations is used to estimate the time frames of their historical dispersal and diversification. The obtained ecological data will help to estimate the present state of desertification and to develop management plans for the preservation and sustainable use of unique xero-tropical communities.