The Project

The pressure to tear down and develop rainforests increases with growing populations and weakening economies in tropical countries around the world. We must expect that large areas of currently continuous forest will be turned into a patchwork of forested and deforested areas in the near future. Such changes in the landscape will have profound effects upon the local flora and fauna; these effects must be understood if we are to maximize the compatibility of development and ecosystem preservation.

The BDFF (formerly the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems) Project is a collaborative research effort between Brazil's National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) and the Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian. The BDFFP, begun in 1979, is the only experimental study of the process of habitat fragmentation under way in the Amazon basin. Currently publications in referred journals number more than 150.

Initially, BDFFP researchers attempted to quantify how many species could survive in a forest reserve of a given size. Scientists censused the flora and fauna of a series of 12 forest plots of 1, 10 and 100 hectares before they were isolated from the surrounding forest by clearcutting, and subsequently monitored physical and ecological changes in the reserves after isolation. These studies demonstrated that certain species go extinct in forest isolates. Working in "control areas" of undisturbed forest, BDFFP researchers are trying to identify the factors that lead some taxa to extinction and permit other, often closely related, species to survive.

As scientists observed changes in the isolated forest reserves, it became apparent that a number of factors, other than the size of the forest isolate, were important in determining the ecological stability of the forest reserves. A team of researchers and graduate students is investigating the physical and biological changes that occur along a newly created forest edge. Another group is studying the interactions between isolated forest ecosystems and the vegetation around the forest reserves as pasture gives way to scrubby, second-growth vegetation. (See Project Summary for a list of current researchers and project titles.)

Recognizing that conservation programs for rainforests will have to come from local initiatives, the project has tried to involve as many Latin American students as possible in the BDFFP. We have offered fellowships to Brazilian, Bolivian, Colombian and Mexican graduate students carrying out their thesis research in the project's reserves. Currently, five Brazilian students are doing their doctoral research under the auspices of the BDFFP. We hope to expand the number of students we can support. The yearly deadline for proposals is 15 May.

In August of 1993 we offered our first intensive, 4-week course in Amazonian field ecology to a group of 20 Latin American students. The course, which is offered every year, follows the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) model of daily field investigations and provides students with the opportunity to learn first hand the ecology of the Amazonian rainforest.

Base de Dados Tropicais (Tropical Data Base)

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Facilities

The BDFF project operates from a central office in Manaus, which handles administration and logistic support of the project. The main area includes a reading-study room, a computer room, a herbarium, and a small laboratory. A fleet of 4 wheel drive vehicles transport project personnel and researchers between Manaus and any of the 8 base camps set up 80 Km north of the city. Camps are rustic, but comfortable, and include a dormitory, a laboratory hut, and a separate kitchen area.

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Contact Information

For further information contact:

Claude Gascon,
Scientific Coordinator
Associacao de Levantamento da Amazonas (ALFA)
c/o INPA-Ecologia
C.P. 478
69011-970 Manaus, AM
Brazil

Phone: 5592-642-1148
Fax: 5592-642-2050
E-Mail: pdbff@inpa.gov.br

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