The interface between behavioral ecology and biological conservation was the starting point for one of the winning articles of the Capes-Natura Excellence in Research Award. The work of Diogo Soares Menezes Samia, who conducted his study at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) and is currently a researcher at the University of São Paulo (USP), sought to identify the characteristics of species that are more adapted to coexist with humans, and reached some surprising conclusions.
The study [1] secured first place in the “Sociobiodiversity and Biological Conservation” category of the Capes-Natura Award, which had its first edition concluded in 2016. The aim of the award was to stimulate the production of highly relevant and impactful articles for scientific and technological development focused on sustainability and biodiversity conservation. The other category of the award, titled “Sustainability: new materials and technologies,” was won by the work developed by researcher Fernando do Couto Rosa Almeida.
To take the top spots, both winning studies had to stand out in a pool of 268 submitted works. In an interview with Natura Campus, Diogo Samia detailed the objectives and methodology used in his study, which earned him an award of R$25,000. The researcher emphasized the importance of promoting research incentives like those carried out by Natura in partnership with CAPES, the federal agency that coordinates postgraduate courses in Brazil. “I think it is important for large companies to assume this social role and invest more and more in research, not only in environmental issues, which is indeed a key issue, but also in social aspects, such as reducing poverty, improving the quality of life of the local community, among others. Natura is definitely a pioneer in this scenario,” he stated.
Meta-analysis yields surprising results on birds
According to researcher Diogo Samia, the interface between behavioral ecology and biological conservation is relatively recent, but has gained prominence since the last decade. There are still many open questions, and his proposal was to answer some of them: “From the literature review, we began to identify the gaps in knowledge, questions that had not yet been answered within this area, and we arrived at the main question of the article, which was to discover what are the morphological, natural history, and life history characteristics of species that are more tolerant to coexistence with humans. This knowledge allows us to predict which species will be more or less threatened by the rapid human population growth, which, among other consequences, has resulted in greater contact between humans and natural populations. No one had answered this question yet; it was open,” recalls Diogo.
The method adopted for the development of the study was meta-analysis, an approach that allows the integration of results from independent studies, even if such studies were conducted with slightly different objectives. In this method, the researcher conducts a systematic review of the available literature and analyzes the data quantitatively (and not just qualitatively), taking into account various factors that may have influenced the results of the original studies. The data compilation provided by the bibliographic analysis brought some results that surprised the authors of the award-winning study.
“We found a lot of literature on birds, which gave us the opportunity to draw more robust conclusions about this taxonomic group. Generally, it is difficult to make generalizations in studies of this nature, as animal behavior and the ecological factors acting on them can vary greatly from one geographical region to another,” explains Diogo. According to the researcher, the most important generalization they were able to identify was that bird species with larger body sizes are the ones that find it easier to coexist with humans.
“There was a well-established belief that the larger the species, the more sensitive it is to human presence, but we found the opposite. This result allows us to design more effective strategies for biodiversity conservation and mitigation of human-caused impacts,” states Diogo. The article is also co-authored by Brazilian scientists Fausto Nomura and Thiago Rangel, Japanese scientist Shinichi Nakagawa, and American Daniel Blumstein.
After winning the Capes-Natura Award, Diogo Samia is working on research about urban ecology, recognizing the latitudinal pattern of bird behavior across the European continent. Diogo is also working on launching a book about ecotourism, with publication expected in August 2017. “The idea is to show the impacts and benefits of ecotourism and how we can make it more effective for biodiversity conservation and the promotion of local communities,” he stated.
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[1] Samia, D. S., Nakagawa, S., Nomura, F., Rangel, T. F., & Blumstein, D. T. (2015). Increased tolerance to humans among disturbed wildlife. Nature communications, 6.
