2023 Sep. Will's summer field work is featured in Bio News (Week 5).
Spotlight:
Through hardships and monkey antics, PhD student Will Brooks conducts fieldwork in Malaysian Borneo
Will Brooks (Lim Lab) traveled to Malaysian Borneo to conduct field work for his PhD dissertation research at George Mason University. Borneo holds hyper-species-diverse tropical rainforests which are imperiled by deforestation. In tropical rainforests, some species will experience population declines in response to forest fragmentation. Will aims to find which bird species are negatively impacted by forest fragmentation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo and explore mechanisms explaining their sensitivity. He used automatic recording devices to document species presence in fragments and captured birds to gather body measurements and samples for DNA analysis.
This summer, Brooks worked in forest fragments in an oil palm plantation and in primary rainforest in Maliau Basin, a circular geological feature known as “Sabah’s lost world.” The first field season of the project was a great success. Brooks and his four research assistants were able to collect 640 hours of audio recordings and hundreds of blood and fecal samples. This data was hard earned. The travel logistics and permit bureaucracy were stressful, and extreme heat and humidity made field work physically exhausting. An unexpected local holiday closed multiple permitting offices, delaying field work by an entire week. Then in the first round of data collection, one fourth of the audio recorders were stolen or destroyed by monkeys. Super glue, rope, and mud was all that was needed to secure the recorders; no others were stolen during the rest of the season. With unexpected obstacles also came some lovely surprises. Will and his research assistants were treated to a rare mass fruiting event at Maliau Basin, which drew in rare species including the Helmeted Hornbill, the Crested Partridge, and the Bulwer’s Pheasant.
