Tropical Freshwater Biodiversity
Trinidad's Northern Range offers a fantastic opportunity to study freshwater biodiversity. The fish and invertebrates that live in the multiple parallel streams are well documented taxonomically, yet we still have much to learn about temporal and spatial patterns in their distributions.
Since 2015, we have been collecting data on freshwater biodiversity in Trinidad's Northern Range, so that we can ask questions about how these communities change over time.
Longitudinal datasets like this are invaluable for asking 'big' ecological questions about the dynamics of freshwater assemblages in general, as well as for deepening our understanding of Trinidad's biodiversity so as to better protect these important yet threatened systems.
Since 2015, we have been collecting data on freshwater biodiversity in Trinidad's Northern Range, so that we can ask questions about how these communities change over time.
Longitudinal datasets like this are invaluable for asking 'big' ecological questions about the dynamics of freshwater assemblages in general, as well as for deepening our understanding of Trinidad's biodiversity so as to better protect these important yet threatened systems.
CURRENT PROJECTS
How is freshwater diversity in the Northern Range changing over time? |
This project builds upon an ERC-funded BioTIME project which established a longitudinal freshwater biodiversity dataset for 16 sites across Trinidad's Northern Range back in 2015.
In 2022, we resumed annual surveys of these sites, and Ada is applying new statistical techniques to explore temporal patterns of biodiversity, as well as the potential impacts of recreational disturbance, as part of her FSBI-funded PhD research. With Ada Eslava and Anne Magurran at the University of St Andrews, and Indar Ramnarine and Rajindra Mahabir at The University of the West Indies
|