|
|
Changes of biodiversity and composition of insect communities during restoration of tropical environments
Halamová, Pavla ; Tropek, Robert (advisor) ; Čížek, Lukáš (referee)
in English Tropical rainforests are the richest habitats, but most endangered habitats on the world as well. Given the current global trend of deforestation, successful restoration of secondary forests is necessary for maintaining the rich fauna and flora of tropical rainforests. Insects are the most diverse group of animals in the tropics and they have crucial roles in an ecosystem functioning. Restoration interventions in degraded forests are nowadays more common and case studies are involving insect communities, however no review of them has been conducted. The aim of this thesis was to summarize the results of hitherto published studies dealing with the insect responses to the restoration of the tropical rainforests. With the emphasis on logged forests and lands converted for agriculture, the insect species richness, abundance, diversity, and the changes of composition were studied. If ecological conditions are suitable, insect species richness, abundance, diversity, and similarity of composition tend to increase towards primary forests for majority of insect groups. However, we observe some differences across groups of insects, based on the type and severity of disturbance, and on specific conditions on the site. Keywords: insect recovery, tropical rainforest, disturbance, species diversity,...
|
|
|
The assessment of the impacts of European institutions activities in the Forestry and Nature conservation in the Republic of Ghana
Cudjoe, Bismark
EU Forest and Conservation NGOs activities in Ghana from the perspective of public relations has been investigated. The methodology involved mixed research methods (qualitative and quantitative). Under the qualitative research approach, primary data were collected through unstructured questionnaires from the wood base and non-wood base small-scale forest enterprises, interviews were solicited from key informants including private logging companies and finally, forest fringe communities were visited and interviewed. Under the quantitative research approach, secondary data were collected through content analysis of EU institutions organisational press release, and an in-depth interview was conducted among all investigated institutions, content analysis of media houses was also collected to understand the sources of their news articles. Finally, official bulletins, published thesis, books, research articles, and journals were also consulted and used as a secondary data source for this research study. The result emanated from the administered questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focused group discussions reveals that public relations strategies and tactics can be used as a tool to enhance conservation education, manage forest crisis, empower local involvement, support livelihood programs and finally help reveal inefficiencies and bureaucracies in the state forestry sector, thereby contributing to sustainable forest management.
|
|
|
Breeding and singing activity of rainforest birds along an elevational gradient in tropical Africa
Zenklová, Tereza ; Sedláček, Ondřej (advisor) ; Riegert, Jan (referee)
Tropical areas are usually expected to be a stable environment when compared to the temperate zone. This is true especially for the temperature and the day length which ensure relatively stable food supply. As a consequence, tropical birds, especially rainforest species, are thought to breed all year round. But even in the tropics, breeding can be synchronized with some fluctuating environmental conditions such as rainfall and differences in food supply and breeding and singing activity may occur seasonally in tropical rainforest as well. But the data for testing these assumptions are still scarce. In the first part of my thesis, I focused on the seasonality in breeding activity in various feeding guilds of birds inhabiting tropical rainforest on Mount Cameroon in three different elevations - lowland, submontane and montane forest. The second part focuses on the seasonality in singing activity at both population and species level. I also compared singing activity with the data on breeding activity. The extent of breeding activity differed between feeding guilds and I showed preferences of different guilds to different seasons for breeding. Most of the groups, especially insectivorous birds, bred in the beginning of the dry season, except of species searching for invertebrates on the ground. These...
|
|
|
Vliv fragmentace a ztráty habitatu na primáty
Sniegon, Arthur F. ; Sedláček, Ondřej (advisor) ; Pluháček, Jan (referee)
Anthropogenic activities and human encroachment may cause profound and often irrevocable changes in an environment. This may result in challenges for most of the wildlife, including our closest extant relatives, non-human primates. Worldwide, primates may be particularly susceptible to human-induced habitat alterations owing to their large body size, social way of life, slow reproduction, large home-ranges, naturally low population densities and often strong dependence on forest cover. Three main phenomena have been described as major threats for primates: loss of the natural habitat and its conversion to human-dominated landscape, fragmentation of the remaining patches of suitable habitat, and commercial bushmeat hunting. Here I review the first two processes. If primates survive the initial disturbance, they are forced to adjust their demographic, behavioural and dietary traits. However, this may not be enough for their persistence in a long term as their genetic diversity might be compromised. Moreover, also parasitic infections may impact severely the disrupted populations. In this thesis, I reviewed the current knowledge in primates demography, population genetics, dietary changes and parasite interactions in altered habitats. Most of the studies examined the African continent and Latin America, a...
|
|
|
Tropical rainforests in modern civilization
Suchanová, Veronika ; Lisa, Aleš (advisor) ; Dvořák, Antonín (referee)
This thesis deals with the selected issues regarding tropical rainforests in modern civilization. It explains what the tropical rainforest is and where it is located. The thesis points at the importance of the tropical rain forestry, and warns of increasing threats primarily due to deforestation. The thesis also shows possible approaches to deal with the issue and presents a practical example of a functional project in real life.
|
guest ::
