[font face=Serif][font size=5]Lemur Lessons: Factors Driving Lemur Species Extinctions for Past 2,000 Years Have Also Sparked Ongoing ''Ecological Retreat" by Surviving Species [/font]

[font size=4]At least 17 species of lemurs have vanished on Madagascar over the last 2,000 years, with human activity likely a central factor. New research led by the University of Cincinnati examined eight of those extinctions, and findings suggest that surviving species don’t necessarily benefit when competitors die out. [/font]

Date: 5/23/2012 1:00:00 PM
By: M.B. Reilly
Phone: (513) 556-1824
Photos By: Brooke Crowley

[font size=3]New research out today on the long-term impact of species extinctions suggests that the disappearance of one species does not necessarily allow remaining competitor species to thrive by filling now-empty niches.

Instead, in University of Cincinnati-led research on lemur extinctions over the past 2,000 years, findings suggest that one likely result of changes that lead to species’ extinctions is that remaining species go into “ecological retreat.” And that retreat can result in new selective and ecological pressures that then increase the extinction risk of surviving species, potentially creating an “extinction cascade.”

…

Findings show that prior to extensive human disturbance, lemurs were very common in open habitats of wooded savannah and spiny thicket on Madagascar, which constitutes the majority of southwestern Madagascar today.

But after the larger-sized lemurs that once inhabited those regions went extinct, related species – that existed then and are still extant today – could not fill the empty niches. Instead, still-extant lemur species have shown, over time, an increasing reliance on habitats with dense forest cover.

…[/font][/font]