Research Projects

Primates, large-bodied frugivores, are the primary seed dispersers of large fruits in tropical evergreen forests with limited dispersal redundancy. Oceanic islands have more limited functional dispersal redundancy due to low species diversity, exacerbating ecosystem functioning. small tropical island ecosystems are vulnerable to climate change, making it crucial to study ecological trajectories of islands with different communities of frugivores or seed dispersers. studies on the functional dispersal roles of primates have been limited to terrestrial ecosystems of southeast Asia or south America. The Nicobar archipelago presents an excellent natural model to study the ecological manifestation of disparate guilds of seed dispersers. The Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the largest arboreal seed disperser, occurs in only three of the 21 islands, while tree shrews occur in two. The study aims to have profound theoretical implications if distinct differences are found between island categories, as the indirect contribution of macaques to local climatic conditions has never been studied in terrestrial ecosystems. Positive findings could revise tenets of optimal foraging theory and co-evolutionary dynamics between plants and frugivores, as well as inform conservation of island ecosystems.