Research - Mike Shanahan |
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In 2001, I left the University of Leeds (UK) where I completed my Ph.D. thesis (entitled: Ficus seed dispersal guilds: ecology, evolution and conservation implications). For 3 years I had been studying interactions between figs (Ficus species), and the birds and mammals that eat their fruit and, in doing so, disperse their seeds. The majority of my fieldwork was based in Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia, with additional fieldwork on Long Island, Papua New Guinea. Ficus is a large plant genus of considerable ecological and conservation interest. The interaction between Ficus species and their potentially seed-dispersing vertebrate frugivores was examined with regard to the mechanisms that allow different guilds of Ficus species to attract subsets of frugivore communities. Fieldwork conducted in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea provided evidence of such patterns that result from largely phylogenetically-determined differences in the ecology of fruit production. A global literature review highlighted the dietary importance of Ficus throughout the tropics and the implications of dispersal guild structures were examined with respect to species coexistence, differential seed dispersal, colonisation of degraded landscapes and the conservation of fruit-eating birds and mammals. Why study figs? Click here to find out their importance. Click here for the 'global fig-eating review'. Click here for an up-to-date list of Ficus taxonomy, nomenclature & distribution produced in collaboration with Prof C.C. Berg. [currently offline] |
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The understorey of Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia | |||