Effects of fragmentation on the morphological and evolutionary patterns of understory birds

• Grant number: 24/10174-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 13, 2024
• End date: January 18, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Mauro Galetti Rodrigues
• Grantee: Patricia dos Santos Ferreira
• Supervisor: Wesley Francisco Dattilo da Cruz
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Instituto de Ecología (INECOL), Mexico
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/15169-0 - Effects of fragmentation on morphological and evolutionary patterns of understory birds, BP.MS

Abstract

Human actions such as deforestation and changes in land use affect habitats, leading to morphological changes, such as bilateral asymmetry in animals, influenced by natural selection and environmental factors. Indices such as fluctuating asymmetry are used to assess environmental stress, while evolutionary potential to measure the adaptability of populations to environmental changes and phenotypic variation. In this project, we seek to understand whether forest fragmentation influences the morphological diversity, fluctuating asymmetry and the evolutionary potential of four species of understory birds in Atlantic Forest landscapes. Our hypotheses regarding fluctuating asymmetry are A) that forest cover has a negative effect on fluctuating asymmetry, where areas with more forests have lower rates of fluctuating asymmetry; and B) that functional connectivity presents a pattern similar to forest cover. We will also test three hypotheses regarding evolutionary potential, namely A) that forest cover has a positive effect on the evolutionary potential of birds, where areas with more forests have populations with greater evolutionary potential; and B) that functional connectivity will present a similar pattern to forest cover. To test the hypothesis whether explanatory variables are influencing bird asymmetry, we will fit linear and non-linear regression models using landscape metrics as predictor variables (forest cover and connectivity) with fluctuating asymmetry and evolutionary potential used as a response variable.