Rapid synchronization of inventory and interactions in biodiversity studies: molecular tools to facilitate understanding and conservation of the Nicaraguan dry tropical forest (IN2-BST-Nicaragua)

Anabela Cardoso, Jesús Gómez-Zurita Frau, Jean-Michel Maes, Ricardo Matías Rueda Pereira.

Originally spreading across large areas of tropical America’s Pacific coast, its extension is now less than 2% of what it once was. In Nicaragua, its disappearance is imminent, unless restoration and conservation plans can be rapidly deployed. And conservation cannot be ensured without a full understanding of the system’s environmental characteristics and processes. This is an isolated ecosystem of a fairly small size, so it should not be too difficult to obtain a full inventory of its component organisms. However understanding its functioning and the web of species interactions is a monumental task.

The project will address this objective by simultaneously exploring both aspects – inventory and interaction – in communities. We will genetically characterize organisms – plants and herbivorous beetles – and the latters’ diet by examining the DNA of the food in their digestive tract, via a DNA barcoding strategy. The comparison of diet sequences with those of local plants will allow us to clarify trophic links, quantify the manifold vital processes the dry forest sustains, and give wider publicity to its qualities and needs.