First, I studied time-delayed responses of bird and mammal communities to land-use change, and developed a spatially explicit approach which predicts where and how many species are likely to go extinct due to past landscape transformation (Semper-Pascual et al. 2018). Second, I investigated whether such time-delayed responses were driven by habitat loss or habitat fragmentation (Semper-Pascual et al. 2021). Third, I identified occupancy declines for the threatened Giant Anteater, and developed an approach that allows to isolate the direct and indirect effects of land-use change (Semper-Pascual et al. 2020). Finally, using the collared peccary as a case study, I combined occupancy models with stress hormonal indicators, two approaches that detect deforestation impacts at an early stage (Semper-Pascual et al. 2019). My PhD thesis is available here.
The project was led by Tobias Kuemmerle and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). |