Beth Kaplin

University of Rwanda · Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management

Mountain regions are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Yet, little is known about local adaptation responses in African mountain regions, especially if these are incremental or transformational. First, using household questionnaires, we interviewed 1,500 farmers across ten African mountain regions to investigate perceived climate c...

Medicinal plants play a crucial role in healthcare practices and are an integral part of human society. A comprehensive checklist of medicinal plants is the basis for the risk and protection. Tropical East Africa (TEA) has a high diversity of medicinal plants. This study compiled a comprehensive checklist using published books and literature compri...

This study delves into the diversity and composition of agroforestry species in Rwanda's Eastern Plateau and Eastern Savannah agro-ecological zones. Examining these systems across diverse landscapes is crucial for selecting species adapted to local conditions. We surveyed four landscapes with varying tree cover levels, using stratified random sampl...

Expanding in both scope and scale, ecosystem restoration needs to embrace complex social–ecological dynamics. To help scientists and practitioners navigate ever new demands on restoration, we propose the “social–ecological ladder of restoration ambition” as a conceptual model to approach dynamically shifting social and ecological restoration goals....

Conservation funding is currently limited; cost-effective conservation solutions are essential. We suggest that the thousands of field stations worldwide can play key roles at the frontline of biodiversity conservation and have high intrinsic value. We assessed field stations’ conservation return on investment and explored the impact of COVID-19. W...

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species’ population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate ‘intactness scores’: the remaining proportion of...

The restoration of degraded ecosystems is considered a key strategy to contribute to ecological integrity and human well‐being. To support restoration practice, 10 “Principles to guide the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030” were conceived through a consultative process and put forward by a group of leading international restoration actor...

Cercopithecus monkeys are a species‐rich genus generally considered arboreal frugivores with widespread distribution in sub‐Saharan African forests. We studied a largely undocumented species threatened by habitat fragmentation, Cercopithecus denti , during 3 months in 2017 in a small forest fragment of Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. C. denti's diet...

INTRODUCTION MATERIAL AND METHODS

In tropical Africa, a wide range of agroforestry practices exist, resulting in various configurations of trees in the landscape, with an unknown impact on ecosystem services. We evaluated tree occurrence, structure, and composition in agroforestry systems within four contrasting landscapes representing different levels of tree cover in peri-urban K...

In butterflies and moths, male-killing endosymbionts are transmitted from infected females via their eggs, and the male progeny then perish. This means that successful transmission of the parasite relies on the successful mating of the host. Paradoxically, at the population level, parasite transmission also reduces the number of adult males present...

The golden monkey, Cercopithecus mitis kandti, an Endangered subspecies of blue monkey, is found in only two small populations in the central part of the Albertine Rift region in Central/East Africa. Since the 1950s, the habitat of golden monkeys has been lost or degraded in the Virunga massif (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda), inc...

Mountain regions and their communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. However, little is known on the impacts observed and adaptation responses used in Burundi’s mountain region and if these are different to those reported in the contiguous mountain region of Rwanda. This paper aims to fill in these knowledge gaps. Semi-stru...

Objectives: Studying reproductive seasonality helps us understand changes in the energetically demanding periods of pregnancy and lactation. We investigated how diet variability and key food plant phenology relate to mating and birth seasonality in both remaining populations of endangered golden monkeys in the Virunga massif and the Gishwati fores...

Investment in social interaction and affiliative behaviour is often related to variation in sex-specific dispersal patterns among species but can also vary within species in response to local environmental conditions and feeding competition. Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) association patterns have been studied primarily in low and mid-elevation tropi...

Global biodiversity decline is continuing largely unabated. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species (hereafter, Red List) provides us with the gold standard for assessments, but taxonomic coverage, especially for invertebrates and fungi, remains very low. Many players contribute to the Red List knowl...

Land-use change is the main driver of habitat loss and fragmentation for primates, resulting in declines in species diversity and population size. The Gishwati-Mukura landscape in Rwanda, home to endemic and threatened primate species, is characterized by heavily degraded and fragmented forest fragments, including one remnant tropical montane fores...

There is a lack of published studies on feeding regimens and growth in zoological painted dog Lycaon pictus populations, and hence, a gap in understanding potential relationships between the two. Here we present a case study evaluating the influence of two feeding protocols (ad libitum and controlled feed) on morphometric measurements, litter, age,...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to primate populations globally. The Endangered golden monkey Cercopithecus mitis kandti is only found in two small forest fragments: the Virunga massif in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Gishwati Forest in Rwanda. Little is known about the abundance and distribution...

The use of “belly scoring” can offer a novel, non-invasive objective management tool to gauge food intake between individuals, groups, and populations, and thus, population fitness. As food availability is increasingly affected by predation, ecological competition, climate change, habitat modification, and other human activities, an accurate belly...

Many primates exhibit behavioral flexibility which allows them to adapt to environmental change and different habitat types. The golden monkey (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) is a little-studied endangered primate subspecies endemic to the Virunga massif and the Gishwati forest in central Africa. In the Virunga massif, golden monkeys are mainly found...

Soil-litter arthropods are critical for ecosystem functioning and sensitive to land use change, and hence to the variations in soil physicochemical properties. The relationships between soil-litter arthropod communities and soil physicochemical properties, however, remain poorly studied in Rwanda. We explored the relationships between the families...

Land use changes and the ways that natural resources are extracted and used pose severe threats to freshwater ecosystems globally. This is particularly pronounced in developing and densely populated countries, such as Rwanda. In-depth understanding of how ecosystems respond to threats could guide their restoration, conservation , and better managem...

In species with flexible grouping dynamics (i.e., fission-fusion), party (or subgroup) size is often shaped by available resources. Food resources are thought to limit party size in a range of mammalian species, reflecting a strategy of reducing feeding competition. In montane habitats, where food is highly seasonal, we may expect to see strong eff...

Competition for food is often a cost associated with living in a group, and can occur in an indirect (scramble) or direct (contest) form. We investigated feeding competition in a supergroup of Rwenzori black-and-white colobus monkeys ( Colobus angolensis ruwenzorii ) in Rwanda, with the aim of establishing whether freedom from scramble competition...

This study shows how social practice theory can contribute to the analysis of processes of social change. Currently social change is associated with the ABC paradigm, which codifies, “attitude”, “behavior”, and “choice”, framing social change as the consequence of individual action. In comparison, my research explores how social practice theory mig...

Primates display broad diversity in their social organization. The social groups of a few primate species are organized in a multilevel fashion, with large groups composed of multiple, core one‐male units (OMUs). A characteristic of multilevel societies is that the higher levels can include hundreds of individuals. The Rwenzori black‐and‐white colo...

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) of the Bocas del Toro archipelago are targeted by the largest boat-based cetacean watching operation in Panama. Tourism is concentrated in Dolphin Bay, home to a population of resident dolphins. Previous studies have shown that tour boats elicit short-term changes in dolphin behavior and communication; howev...

Both observational and indirect evidence are widely used to determine the diets of wild animals. Direct observations are often assumed to provide the most comprehensive reflection of diet, but many wild animals are logistically challenging to observe. Despite the regular use of observational and indirect methods for inferring diet in wild animals,...

Almost all primates experience seasonal fluctuations in the availability of key food sources. However, the degree to which this fluctuation impacts foraging behavior varies considerably. Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, live in a montane forest environment characterized by lower primary producti...

The use of soil and litter arthropods as biological indicators is a way to assess environmental changes, where ant species in particular may serve as important indicators of soil quality. This study aimed at relating the abundance of soil and litter ant species to soil parameters under different tree species, both native and exotic, and varieties o...

Freshwater biodiversity is critically understudied in Rwanda, and to date there has not been an efficient mechanism to integrate freshwater biodiversity information or make it accessible to decision-makers, researchers, private sector or communities, where it is needed for planning, management and the implementation of the National Biodiversity Str...

This research presents a case study on perceptions of local people on the use of Nyabrongo river wetland and its conservation in Rwanda. It critically examines the potential implications of a shift in wetland use and management practices for local people and presents empirical data from a household survey, group discussions, and observations from t...

Seed-dispersal ecology in tropical montane forests (TMF) differs in some predictable ways from tropical lowland forests (TLF). Environmental, biogeographic and biotic factors together shape dispersal syndromes which in turn influence forest structure and community composition. Data on diaspore traits along five elevational gradients from forests in...

Risk-assessment methods are useful in collecting data that can help decision making to prevent the introduction of new species that have the potential of invading as well as in management of established taxa. Not only the complexity and unaffordability of available pre-introduction risk-assessment models make them rarely or inconsistently applied i...

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely s...

Community support and participation is an important factor to achieving successful results in weed management. This study sought to gain an insight into local residents’ perceptions of control of water hyacinth using a face-to-face survey. The results showed that biological control was poorly understood by local residents and was perceived as ineff...

Cercopithecus monkeys have been considered arboreal frugivorous forest monkeys. Little is known about the rare owl-faced monkey (Cercopithecus hamlyni) which has a very limited distribution. Here we present findings from one of the first systematic studies of this species in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. C. hamlyni is restricted to an approximatel...

Although, the probability of an alien plant species to become invasive in natural or semi-natural habitats is relatively low, the introduction of new taxa should always be regarded as a sensitive issue because the effects of an insertion of an invasive species are likely to be prohibitive as well as external. Ideally, plant species with an invasive...

The study of primate ecology and conservation has advanced rapidly in recent years. This practical volume brings together a group of distinguished primate researchers to synthesize field, laboratory, and conservation management techniques for primate ecology and conservation. This synthesis focuses on new and emerging field methods alongside a comp...

According to the national policy, overall forest and agroforestry cover in Rwanda is to increase up to 30% land cover by 2020. On the other hand, demographic data reveal that Rwanda's urban areas are among the fastest-growing on the continent. Unfortunately, there is only little information of the effects of such a rapid urbanization on tree cover...

We examined the influence of seed handling by two semi-terrestrial African forest primates, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and l’Hoest’s monkeys (Cercopithecus lhoesti), on the fate of large-seeded tree species in an afromontane forest. Chimpanzees and l’Hoest’s monkeys dispersed eleven seed species over one year, with quantity and quality of disper...

Seed dispersal by rodents has been understudied in Africa. Based on seed-removal experiments, the presence of seeds in burrows and caches, cotyledon burial of seedlings, and images from camera traps, we provide evidence that rodents (Cricetomys kivuensis) remove and hoard large seeds of Carapa grandiflora in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda.

All orchids require free-living, mycorrhizal fungi to complete their life cycles in nature and consequently, orchid conservation must take into account both organisms. In light of climate change now underway, orchids and other plants must be capable of migrating to higher latitudes, either on their own or with human intervention ( = assisted migrat...

Land-use decisions and practices surrounding protected areas have proven to be contentious. Particularly in developing countries, buffer zones associated with protected areas must accommodate both conservation and development objectives, including agricultural interests. However, incorporating stakeholder group preferences in land-use decisions can...

International Congress for Conservation Biology, Edmonton, Alberta 2010 INTEGRATING THE CONCEPT OF WELL-BEING INTO HARBOR SEAL (PHOCA VITULINA) CONSERVATION AND CAPTIVE CARE Oriel, Elizabeth, Antioch University New England, Keene NH, lizzieoriel@gmail.com Frohoff, Toni, TerraMar Research, Santa Barbara, Ca. toni@sonar.org Bradshaw, G. A., The Kerul...

Interdisciplinary approaches to conservation research and environmental management continue to garner interest among practitioners, academics, and students. Yet, cases of practitioners and researchers from different disciplines successfully working in concert towards an integrated conservation approach are rare. What is preventing practitioners of...

We describe chimpanzee seed dispersal in the tropical montane forest of Nyungwe National Park (NNP), Rwanda, for a total of three years from January 1998 through May 2000 and May 2006 through March 2007. Relatively few studies have examined chimpanzee seed dispersal in montane communities where there are generally fewer fruiting tree species than i...

We examined frugivore visitation and seed dispersal of five large-seeded (≥ 5 mm) tree species in tropical montane forest based on their occurrence in frugivorous primate diets: Ekebergia capensis, Olea capensis, Parinari excelsa, Prunus africana, and Syzygium guineense. A total of 21 frugivores in five assemblages (i.e., chimpanzees, cercopithecin...

Forest soils contain the largest carbon stock of all terrestrial biomes and are probably the most important source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to atmosphere. Soil CO2 fluxes from 54 to 72-year-old monospecific stands in Rwanda were quantified from March 2006 to December 2007. The influences of soil temperature, soil water content, soil carbon (C) and n...

Tree and soil interactions may result in changes in soil carbon and nutrient contents. Forest plantations made up of monodominant stands of 17 different species, some native and some exotic to Rwanda, as well as a stand with mixed native tree species were investigated. Biosequential sampling was used followed by basic soil chemical analyses. Result...

A u t h o r ' s p e r s o n a l c o p y Editorial Conservation in areas of high population density in sub-Saharan Africa Tropical forests of Africa harbour unique biota, much of which is distributed in forest isolates that have been poorly investigated, and our current knowledge of species diversity and distribution patterns is still limited. Hence...

We investigated the relation between temporally varying resources, diet composition, and seed-handling behaviors in a group of blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis doggetti) in a tropical montane forest of Rwanda. Changes in diet composition were related to concurrent phenological studies of fruit-producing trees, and density and abundance of tree res...

We examined the postdispersal fate of large seeds (>= 5 mm) dispersed by chimpanzees in all afromontane forest to evaluate aspects of the effetiveness of seed dispersal by chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. We assessed the influence of six microhabitat characteristics oil seed persistence and germination in seeds dispersed in chimpanzee feces and "wadgc...

Protected areas (PAs) represent a central strategy in biodiversity conservation worldwide. Yet many PAs are weakened by people-PA conflicts resulting from the separation of natural resource protection from human considerations. Research at Masoala National Park in Madagascar focused on the following questions: (1) What are the factors that influenc...

Data on intraspecific dietary variability has important implications for understanding flexibility in foraging behavior, habitat utilization, population dynamics, and social behavior and may also assist in conservation efforts. We compared food availability and diet of a group of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) at a high altitude site...

Flowers are the sexual reproductive organ systems of angiosperms. Sexual reproduction is the fusion of male gametes (sperm carried in pollen) and female gametes (egg within the plant ovary) to form a zygote (carried and nourished in the seed). Male gametes are first dispersed as pollen to a maternal parent to form the embryo and then male gametes m...

This chapter presents a hypothesis for the maintenance of the current geographical distribution of the lhoesti group. I have synthesized recent studies of the behavioral ecology of members of the lhoesti group with biogeographical information and forest history data. The geography of the Congo Basin and the history of glaciation in the region creat...

L'Hoest's monkey's (Cercopithecus Ihoesti) are believed to be naturally infected with a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), termed SIVIho, but only a handful of isolates, all derived from captive animals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR), have thus far been characterized. Here, we report the noninvasive detection and molecular characteri...