Projects

OBAP: Observatory of the Biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest in Peru - Funded by IRD (France) and IIAP (Peru)

Project leader: N Hubert, C Garcia-Davila

Scientists involved from our team : T Couvreur, JF Renno, AC Thuillet

The Andean countries (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia) are home to the Andean foothills of the Amazon basin, the world's leading biodiversity hotspot in terms of the number of endemic species, plants and animals combined. However, the projections of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon (SPA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), indicate that throughout the Amazon basin, biodiversity will be impacted by the increase in anthropogenic pressures and temperatures, with strong synergies whose extent and consequences remain largely unknown. In this context, faced with the lack of knowledge of biodiversity and the multiple current and future threats to the Amazonian ecosystems, the idea of developing observatories of Amazonian biodiversity in different countries and at the level of the basin is essential. 

OBAP allows the development of inter/trans-disciplinary research projects relating to the evolution of biodiversity, the ecology of species, communities and socio-ecosystems, with scientific questions debated with political powers and Amazonian societies. It also allows methodological developments, which are tested, mastered, standardized and shared. It is based on a network of reference sites, already distributed throughout the Peruvian Amazon (notably the IIAP stations), and which can be extended to other Andean countries, such as Bolivia. This will allow OBAP to fully fulfill its role as an observatory, with multi-year monitoring of Amazonian biodiversity assessing and anticipating the impact of global changes.

OBAP creates synergies among the research projects it hosts, focusing on the evolution of Amazonian biodiversity under the pressure of global change

Main objectives:

Objective 1 - Taking into account the scientific questions raised during dialogues with Amazonian societies, in order to develop a sustainable approach to solving the problems posed.

Objective 2 - The temporal analysis (on the Anthropocene scale) of the dynamics and modifications of biodiversity combined with the spatial analysis of the distribution of species on the scale of their habitat and their ecosystem. 

Objective 3 - Assessment of the impact of anthropogenic actions (overexploitation of forest and aquaculture resources, dams, deforestation, pollution, introduction of invasive species) on the evolution of biodiversity.

Main missions of OBAP:

Mission 1 - Identification of the main ecosystem disturbance factors in the Peruvian Amazon

Mission 2 - guide the execution of projects through the implementation of standardized, repeatable and transferable procedures to the scientific community involved in topics relating to Amazonian biodiversity

Mission 3 - Training, education and technology transfer

Main projects:

Project 1 - Molecular characterization of aquatic vertebrates as a basis for the development of environmental DNA (eDNA) in the Peruvian Amazon (2018-2020) - IRD, IIAP - Funded by FONDECYT Peru (350 000€ - Includes purchase of a sequencer)

Project leaders: C Garcia Davila (IIAP), C Mariac (IRD), JF Renno (IRD)

Scientific team: C Mariac (IRD), F Duponchelle (IRD), JF Renno (IRD), C Garcia (IIAP), D Castro (IIAP), C Angulo (IIAP)

The objective of this project is the installation of laboratory equipment, with the purchase of a sequencer from IIAP, to complete the DNA barcode reference libraries; and a pilot study, using an eDNA approach, to analyze the protective role on biodiversity of the Pacaya Samiria Nature Reserve (Loreto, Peruvian Amazon), subject to increasing anthropogenic impacts from its center to its periphery, through a buffer zone.

Project 2 - Anthropogenic effects on biodiversity in the Peruvian Amazon, assessed using an eDNA approach (2021-2022) - IRD, IIAP - Funded by FONDECYT Peru (110 000€)

Project leaders: C Garcia Davila (IIAP), C Mariac (IRD), JF Renno (IRD)

Scientific team: C Mariac (IRD), F Duponchelle (IRD), JF Renno (IRD), C Garcia (IIAP), D Castro (IIAP), C Angulo (IIAP)

This project aims to strengthen eDNA approaches in the Pacaya-Samiria reserve in order to assess its protective power over biodiversity and to conduct eDNA analyses in the Rio Nanay basin, which meets the Amazon at Iquitos and is subject to a gradient of anthropogenic pressures that increases from upstream to downstream. This project also involves detecting and measuring the impact of invasive fish species on the environment.

Project 3 -  Citizen Science for the Amazon (2017-2020) - IRD, WCS Bolivia - Funded by Gordon and Betty Moore Fundation, via Wildlife Conservation Society (45 000€)

Project leaders: R Wallace (WCS), G Miranda (WCS), C Mariac (IRD), JF Renno (IRD)

Scientific team: C Mariac (IRD), F Duponchelle (IRD), JF Renno (IRD), R Wallace (WCS), G Miranda (WCS)

The objective of this project is to understand the role of the "Los Llanos de los Mojos" floodplain in the dynamics of fish reproduction as a function of hydrological cycles and variations in the composition of the riparian flora, and the impact of the giant predator Arapaima gigas, a species accidentally introduced into the Bolivian Amazon in the Madre de Dios - Beni basin from a extensive fish farm in Peru, on the native fish communities.

Project 4 - Use of molecular markers (barcoding and metabarcoding) to characterize ornamental and food fish in the Peruvian Amazon and applications for export monitoring and management plans (2015-2017) - IRD, IIAP - Funded by FONDECYT Peru (100 000€)

Project leaders: C Garcia Davila (IIAP), C Mariac (IRD), JF Renno (IRD)

Scientific team: C Mariac (IRD), F Duponchelle (IRD), JF Renno (IRD), C Garcia (IIAP), D Castro (IIAP), C Angulo (IIAP)

In both the aquarium and food fish trade, barcoding is used to characterize fish species for traceability purposes.

Project 5 - Monitoring tropical plant biodiversity from eDNA samples: exploring water, sol and air attributes (2022-2023) - IRD, IIAP - Funded by Agropolis Fondation (30 000€)

Project leaders: AN Thuillet (IRD), JF Renno (IRD)

Scientific team: C Mariac (IRD), N Scarcelli (IRD), JF Renno (IRD), AC Thuillet (IRD), C Garcia (IIAP), D Castro (IIAP), C Angulo (IIAP), N Davilla (IIAP)

This project should allow us to apply our eDNA approaches to Amazonian flora by comparing and then selecting the water, soil, and air environments that are most effective for collecting DNA in the environment and understanding the floral biodiversity of the rainforest.