Huang, Pao-Shen
Title
PhD student
Project
The effects of plantation forest management on species and genetic diversity of invertebrates.
Abstrct
Current plantation management policies have evolved to focusing on both conserving biodiversity and maximizing economic benefit. However, there is a large gap between defining biodiversity and devising practical ways of quantifying and monitoring it. Before designing effective means for conserving biodiversity of plantation forests, we should understand the difference in species and genetic characteristics between natural and plantation forests subjecting to different degree of thinning. Species and genetic diversities are important in mediating material and energy flow in ecosystems. Invertebrates are diverse, abundant, exhibiting varying habitat requirements and playing different functional roles in the ecosystem. Invertebrates play important roles in ecosystem functioning because of their diversity, complicated interactions with other organisms, and sensitivity to changes in habitats. Therefore, they are suitable ecological indicators to assess the effects of environmental impacts on biodiversity. One aim of this study is to investigate the effects of various degree of thinning on invertebrate diversity by comparing the community structure and guild composition of invertebrates in different forest types located in three elevations. I will monitor and quantify invertebrate diversity and microhabitat parameters in primary as well as plantation forests receiving different thinning managements. Multivariate analyses will be used to examine the relationships between microhabitat structure, microclimates and invertebrate diversities and the monitoring will be conducted on a long term scale. I will also use molecular markers to quantify genetic diversity of particular invertebrate taxa in different forests. In addition, I will test whether the genetic diversity of trees in plantation forests will determine the structure of associated invertebrates’ communities. The findings of these studies will provide useful information for establishing plantation forest biodiversity database and for designing effective strategies for management.
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Updated: Nov-20-2020 02:10:19 (Taiwan, GMT+08:00).