Fall Semester 2019

Esteban Guevara

Effects deforestation might have on interactions between hummingbirds and plants

Hummingbird in the Andes of Ecuador (© Esteban Guevara )

Drivers of global change, like land-use change, influence the abundance and distribution of organisms which could potentially disrupt trophic interactions, like those occurring among hummingbirds and their food plants. Esteban Guevara, PhD candidate in Ecology, will investigate the effects that deforestation might have on interactions between hummingbirds and plants. This mutualistic relationship is widely observed in the tropical Andes and is the basis of pollination for hundreds of plants.  Esteban Guevara´s research project will apply trait-based, Bayesian and network approaches combined with field experiments to understand changes in the functional diversity of hummingbirds and plants, beta-diversity of species interactions and changes in network structure across gradients of land-use in the Andes of Ecuador.

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