LEAP – Landscape Ecology and Primatology

LISTEN: Inaugural lecture explores how primate behaviours are shaped by environment

Katie Thompson

Professor Amanda Korstjens is a behavioural ecologist, who studies animals in their natural environments. Her work has taken her around the world to places such as Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, Costa Rica and Uganda.

In her inaugural lecture, which took place at Bournemouth Natural Science Society (BNSS), she explored how monkey and ape behaviours are shaped by their environment. She also explained how human modifications to natural environments and climate change are affecting monkeys and apes globally, drawing on her research expertise and work in locations across the world.

LEAP: Landscape Ecology and Primatology

LEAP: Landscape Ecology and Primatology

Katie Thompson

What is LEAP?

LEAP brings together a team of landscape ecologists, primatologists, biogeographers, and specialists in remote sensing, carbon stock assessment and forest inventory, led by Amanda H. Korstjens and Ross A. Hill from Bournemouth University, with Serge A. Wich and Matthew Nowak.

Deforestation, encroachment and climate change are causing wide-scale disturbance of tropical forests, impacting the carbon cycle and causing the extinction of forest-dependent species. LEAP investigates how tropical deforestation and degradation affect ecosystem stability, species’ survival, and carbon pools.

The aim: 

To develop methods for rapid assessment of forest structure and relate this to carbon stocks stored in tree biomass and habitat quality for keystone species.

For more information on how to get involved, current projects, publications and more about the team then follow this link: LEAP