Lecture 14- Rainforest animals 1

Question 1

What are the two main australian tropical rainforest vegetation types?

Answer 1

1.Tropical rainforest: high animal diversity (also called closed forest) 2.Temperate rainforest: lower animal diversity

Question 2

What are some characteristics of tropical rainforests in Australia? (structure, canopy cover and max. canopy height)

Answer 2

-complex structure -70-100% canopy cover -max.canopy height 40-50m -only in the northern parts of the East coast -sea level to 1600m

Question 3

What is rainfall like in tropical rainforests in Australia?

Answer 3

-reliable above 1500mm/year

Question 4

How much of the land in Australia is tropical rainforest?

Answer 4

-only 1-2% of total land are of Australia

Question 5

What is species richness in different altitudes in tropical rainforests in Australia?

Answer 5

-Sea level to 1600m - upland RF (cooler), fewer animal species - lowland RF (below 1000m), more species, warmer and heavily impacted by human activities

Question 6

What is the main difference between temperate and tropical rainforests?

Answer 6

-temperate have fewer species and animals that are there are less abundant

Question 7

What is the tropical rainforest diversity?

Answer 7

-the rainforest can support a huge diversity of organisms

Question 8

How many invertebrate species are there in tropical rainforest?

Answer 8

-number of invertebrate species unknown (over 75,000 sp. known only from Australia’s tropical rainforests) -tested by misting tree with insecticide and collect bugs at the bottom -e.g. scarab beetle -about 60% of butterflies are in the wet tropics

Question 9

Where is the tropical rainforest in Australia?

Answer 9

-

Question 10

Up to which altitude do rainforests occur?

Answer 10

1600m

Question 11

What are some characteristics of turquoise earthworm?

Answer 11

-can get up to 60cm long -can be couple centimeters thick -not known well

Question 12

How many bird species are there in the tropical rainforest in Australia?

Answer 12

-area of very high bird diversity for Australia: 16.5% (128 species) -e.g. palm cockatoo (rainforest specialist, large bird, it is poached, slow breeder,of conservation concern)

Question 13

How many reptile species are there in the tropical rainforest in Australia?

Answer 13

-160 reptile sp. (23% of Australia’s reptile fauna) -e.g. lace monitor (goanna), up to 2m long

Question 14

How many frog species are there in the tropical rainforest in Australia?

Answer 14

-47 frog species (23% of Australia’s frog fauna) -e.g. Lesueur’s tree frog: very common, sitting on rocks, the male is much smaller, males are yellow, the females go to the males to the stream

Question 15

How many mammal species are there in the tropical rainforest in Australia?

Answer 15

-89 mammal species, (33% of Australia’s mammal fauna) -have possums, monotremes, musky rat kangaroos

Question 16

What is the distribution of striped possum?

Answer 16

• also in PNG, in the closed forest and the adjacent forest to it
• doesn’t live in dry areas

Question 17

What are the constraints for research in tropical rainforest?

Answer 17

* remote *often logistically difficult *wet season flooding and isolation

Question 18

What are the key ecological questions on striped possums?

Answer 18

* diet * habitat use and area requirements * comparative studies with closely related species General “rule” on area requirements: herbivores < carnivores/insectivores

Question 19

What is the general rule about area requirements?

Answer 19

-herbivores need less area than carnivores or insectivores

Question 20

What are the known diets of other Petaurid possums?

Answer 20

* Plant exudates (sap, gum, nectar) a major component of diet * Smaller species supplement diet with invertebrates

Question 21

What family are the striped possums in?

Answer 21

Petaurids

Question 22

What are some unusual morphological characters of Striped possums? (3)

Answer 22

* Klinorhynchy (rounded cranium, very rounded skull, harder to break) * Large procumbent lower incisors , move separately * Tongue & 4th finger elongated

Question 23

How does a hand of striped possum compare to a typical petaurid hand and what may that mean?

Answer 23

Morphology suggest specialised diet of invertebrates

Prediction: that striped possums are insectivores & will therefore require much larger areas of habitat than other petaurid possums

Question 24

What is the diet of a striped possum?

Answer 24

Specialised insectivore: * wood-boring beetle larvae and social insects very important in diet (high fat content, very energy rich) * other invertebrates taken opportunistically * exudates used occasionally (sweet)

Question 25

What is the habitat range of striped possums?

Answer 25

-Radio-tracking data showed that habitat requirements are huge compared to other petaurid possums

Question 26

Why do tropical rainforests support high animal diversity?

Answer 26

• patchiness (potential speciation) - high complexity, lot of places for animals to specialise in - high productivity, lot of food for animals, don’t have to compete for food

Question 27

What may a tropical rainforest in North Queensland represent?

Answer 27

-quite large areas of habitat -However there may be barriers to movement which restrict/prevent populations of some species from mixing

Question 28

What can habitat patchiness result in on a local scale?

Answer 28

-Habitat patchiness (on a local scale) can result in the isolation of sub- populations of some species (potential for speciation) -e.g.Rainforest patch, surrounded by dryer (eucalypt) forest: a potential habitat barrier

Question 29

What can habitat patchiness result in on a larger scale?

Answer 29

-Larger scale, geographic barriers (e.g. valleys between mountains) can also result in the isolation of sub-populations -e.g PNG: some tree kangaroo populations isolated on mountain tops

Question 30

What changes the impact of habitat or geographic barriers on animal species?

Answer 30

-mobility (bat= mobile, antechinus= can only walk a mile) -body size (if larger body size have bigger capacity to cover more distance) -degree of habitat specialization

Question 31

How does high complexity affect species richness in tropical rainforest?

Answer 31

-high complexity (e.g. Red Bellied Pitta specialises on rainforest snails, carnivorous birds exploit high complexity) -high productivity

Question 32

How does high productivity affect species richness in tropical rainforest?

Answer 32

-high productivity -many rainforest trees produce fleshy fruits -Frugivorous (herbivorous) birds exploit high productivity & lots of fleshy fruit -e.g. Super Fruit Doves

Question 33

What is common in tropical rainforests?

Answer 33

-bit less synchronous -so seeds and flowering occurs all the time so birds in particular can eat it -Tropical rainforest trees often fruit heavily and are used by many species -e.g. Fig Parrot -so in rainforest less competition for food, enough for everyone

Question 34

What is temporal separation?

Answer 34

-Temporal separation in resource use: birds feed during day, mammals feed at night –Feathertail glider feeds on nectar at night; honeyeaters butterflies & friar birds feed during day(hard to see in Vic but common in tropical forest)

Question 35

What is an example of faunal link with PNG and Asia (from Australia)?

Answer 35

• Buff Breasted Paradise Kingfisher
• Over-winter in PNG
• Migrate Oct/Nov to breed in lowland rainforests of Cape York - Form pairs, establish territories, nest in termite mounds
• occur below 600m -go for rich soils -breed in the lowland forest
• nest in termite nests on the soils, dig holes into the termite mounds and inside it they then nest
• adults migrate before juveniles, juveniles follow later

Question 36

Summary:

Answer 36

• Australia’s tropical rainforest fauna survives in very small area of the continent - Diversity very high across all animal groups (due to habitat patchiness, complexity & high productivity) - Links between Aust.n & PNG rainforest fauna

Question 37

What is the main geographical barrier between PNG and Australia?

Answer 37

-Tores Strait -barrier for non-mobile species -lowland PNG is similar to Australian lowland -share 50% of bird fauna between the two places