GI101 Iwokrama and Surama Forest Biodiversity Survey
(Expedition 1)
Research Assistants join an expedition with a fixed 4-week itinerary
that contains training course elements as well as working on the
various research projects.
This expedition gives volunteers the opportunity to
contribute to an annual biodiversity monitoring programme of key
forest taxa, as well as see a wide range of Guiana Shield wildlife.
For
three of the four weeks, the group are based in one of the 5
field camps. In the first week, the group complete a Jungle Training
and Guiana Shield Forest Ecology course. The course is designed to
prepare the group for living and working in the forest and to be of
practical use in the surveys. Skills in learning how to live safely
and healthily in the tropical forest in hammock-based camps are also gained. The other part of the
course is a series of lectures on the wildlife and ecology of
the fauna and flora likely to be encountered as well as learning how
to identify some of the more common species.
The
teams move at the end of each week and help with the
surveys at each camp and along their radiating transects. At each
site, the transects radiating out from the camp in different
directions are used for the surveys. Mist nets are set for understorey birds during the day, and bats at night. Herpetofauna
surveys are completed from day and night time searches along
each transect and streams, and contribute to a PhD at the University
of Mississippi. Large mammal and bird surveys are be completed
from separate standardised searches along the transects. The
transects are surveyed daily to provide sufficient sample
sizes to statistically analyse the faunal community dynamics of the
forest.
The
data collected are used to monitor annual changes in abundance
of key indicator species to understand the effects of climatic
variation and human-induced impacts. The herpetofauna data gathered
from standardised searches identify encounter rates for the
most common species as well as adding to the overall species lists
for the Park. The large mammal and large bird data gathered from
standardised surveys are expressed as encounter rates (direct
observations or signs) for each of the main species (e.g. Black
Spider Monkey, Red Howler Monkey, Wedge-capped Capuchin, White-faced
Saki, deer, peccaries, carnivores). Distance sampling analysis
is
used to identify changes in relative abundance of the commoner
species. The bird mist net and the bat mist net data are
quantified per unit of netting effort. These data over a period of
years combined with forest structure and satellite data are then
used to track biodiversity changes in the Iwokrama and Surama
forests and are being written up as a part of a University of Kent
PhD.
On one
of the four weeks, the team will travel
down the Burro-Burro River through the heart of the Iwokrama
rainforest to the savannah village of Surama. This is a deep forest
experience and the teams will be camping out on the river bank in
hammocks and helping the boat drivers and guides porter the boats
around rapids and to navigate around fallen trees. The purpose of
this trip though is to gather standardised data on the Giant River
Otters, Caiman, Anaconda and water birds (e.g. kingfishers, herons,
egrets, ducks, cormorant, terns, etc.) encountered as well as
various indicators of human disturbance.
.JPG)
