Geographic distribution and extinction risk of Amazon marmosets (Primates, Callitrichidae, Mico and Callibella)

• Grant number: 23/07833-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: September 01, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Laurence Marianne Vincianne Culot
• Grantee: Giovanna Rocha Bergamasco
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/04863-8 - Reassessing the conservation status of the Amazon marmosets(Primates, Callitrichidae, Mico and Callibella), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The Amazon is the largest, most biodiverse and important rainforest in the world. It provides essential ecosystem services for the functioning of the planet's biogeochemical cycles, is home to about 10% of all Earth's diversity, as well as the greatest wealth of primate species, and forms the largest ecotone on the planet with the Cerrado. However, the southeastern region of the Amazon is known as the "arc of deforestation" due to the high conversion rates of forests into pastures and soy and corn monocultures. Half of all global deforestation over the past 30 years took place in the arc of deforestation. This region is home to a high diversity of primates, around 52 species, still little studied. Among these, there are 16 endemic species of marmosets of the genus Mico and Callibella, of which little is known about basic aspects, such as geographic distribution and risk of extinction. According to the IUCN, three are classified as "near threatened", three as "vulnerable" and one as "endangered" of extinction. However, it is very likely that these categories are underestimated due to the scarcity of basic information for such assessments. Therefore, the present study aims to (1) delimit the distribution of Mico and Callibella species based on unpublished data already collected, (2) map the main threats to the habitat of these species and (3) provide the basis for reassessing the conservation status, as well as to (4) identify priority areas and (5) potential strategies for their conservation. In this way, this project will make it possible to better understand the distribution of the species, as well as the availability of habitat and the main threats to the populations of Amazonian marmosets; a first step towards understanding the real degree of threat and proposing effective conservation strategies.