Guia para estudiar Patrones de Distribución de Especies

EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
This methodological guidebook to study distribution patterns of Amazonian species is
oriented to young scientists, students and the scientific community in general. It is based on
the field studies conducted in the framework of the project Biological Diversity of Peruvian
Amazonia, Peru-Finland (BIODAMAZ), in its Phase I. The project is a technical cooperation
project between the governments of Peru and Finland. Phase I of the project was
implemented from 1999 to 2002; Phase II is currently being implemented (2003-2007). The
overall objective of the project in Phase I was conservation and sustainable use of
Amazonian biological diversity, and the project proposal was to develop environmental
management and administration tools and research methodologies for sustainable
management of Peruvian Amazonian biological diversity. Through these actions the project
ultimately aimed to contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development in Peruvian
Amazonia. The national counterpart of the project BIODAMAZ is the Research Institute of
Peruvian Amazonia (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, IIAP). The
Finnish counterpart is a consortium formed by the environmental consulting company, Biota
BD Oy, and the University of Turku. The National University of Peruvian Amazonia
(Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana, UNAP) has collaborated in many ways
during the implementation of the project.
The project BIODAMAZ aims that this document could serve as a guidebook in conducting
biological field studies and correctly analysing the results. Separate sections treat the basic
ideas and theories for understanding geographical distributions of species as well as the
principles of various numerical methods commonly used for analysing species distributions
and interpreting them in relation to factors that affect them. It is expected that theoretical
and statistical sections can be of use to a wider audience, for example Peruvian university
students. Some standardised sampling methods for studies of species composition and
other community variables in the field are described for a limited number of groups of
organisms. This section probably generates interest in a somewhat narrower group of
readers; however, it can serve as an example that helps to understand the amount and
quality of work required for biological inventories and to appreciate that a biological
inventory is formed by a series of components, such as theory, field studies, numerical
analysis and interpretation of results. Biological inventories are the basis for future studies
in ecology, systematics or conservation, among others, and provide important results for
decision-making in environmental policy issues.
The field studies of the project BIODAMAZ were conducted in order to increase the
knowledge base on biological diversity and its distribution patterns with the aim of
supporting the processes of land use planning for sustainable use of natural resources,
organized occupation of Amazonian land, and conservation of biological diversity.
In order to know the distribution of all the species, the ideal would be to make an inventory of
all the species all over the world. This is practically impossible to do, so we need to base our
suppositions on species distribution patterns on samples or focalized and punctual research
and collections. These suppositions need to be based on theories or hypothesis on factors
that control the distribution. In this document three scientific theories (Theory of Pleistocene
Refuges, Theory of Island Biogeography, theory that explains the relations between the
abundance and distribution of species based on the concept of niche) are analysed,
together with their significance in explaining species distributions in Amazonia. The role of
these theories and others are still in debate. The relevance of scientific theories is
evaluated by information gathering through data obtained from natural history museums,
database and species list construction, and inquiries to knowledgeable people. The
information gathered has to back up the suppositions based on the theories in order for
these to be accepted by the scientific community.
In this document indicators of species distributions are discussed. The idea is to find
species groups whose species composition varies between localities as the general
composition of floral and faunal species varies. Study sites can be classified using the
composition of indicator species, and if these really work, this classification can give the
same result as the classification of sites using the general composition of flora and fauna.
Due to the constant loss of habitats and biodiversity in the world, there is an urgent need to
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