| |
| author |
Maïmouna Kanté
| | title |
Flowering Phenology: Lemurs, People, & Climate Change
| | abstract |
In this thesis, I explore the ways in which the changes observed in flowering
phenology in Talatakely, Ranomafana National Park (RNP), Madagascar, are intertwined
with the lemurs, the people of Madagascar, and climate change. The data were collected
from an ongoing monitoring of fruiting trees found in the secondary growth forest that
Propithecus edwardsi feed on. The precipitation data were collected by the Tropical
Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) program. Previous studies have associated
high levels of productivity in the rainforest to high levels of rainfall. I hypothesized that
due to climate change we would no longer be able to associate high levels of rainfall to
high levels of flowering based on the flowering phenology and rainfall data gathered
from 2012 to 2018. Through statistical analyses using the Software RStudio, I found that
there was no relationship between the high levels of flowering, when compared to the
monthly sum of rainfall over seven years, r(N = 28,024) = -0.0086 , p = 0.26. In addition,
ancillary analyses confirmed that Madagascar, specifically RNP, is experiencing longer
dry seasons. Variability in rainfall will put a stain on food supply for both lemurs and
people which will aggravate the tension between a need to save the biodiversity while
still respecting local populations. Future work would look at other abiotic factors that
influence the flowering processes, such as iridescence and soil composition.
| | school |
The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University
| | degree |
B.A. (2020)
|
| advisor |
Tammy Windfelder
|
| full text | MKante.pdf |
| |
