Abstract DBI 9750164 Preston R. Aldrich This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biosciences Related to the Environment for 1997. This fellowship provides an opportunity for the Fellow to gain additional scientific training beyond the doctoral degree and to pursue innovative and imaginative into the fundamental mechanisms underlying the interactions between organisms and their environment at the molecular, cellular, organismal, population, community and/or ecosystem level in any area of biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences of the National Science Foundation. Each fellowship supports a research and training plan to be carried out in a sponsoring laboratory. The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Dispersal, area and edge effects, and the fragmentation of Amazonian tree populations." This study examines the effects of forest fragmentation on tree populations in Brazil. Adults and seedlings are being mapped and tissue collected from different-sized patches. Microsatellite markers are being used to reconstruct parentage relations and assess the effect of patch area and edge on pollen and seed dispersal and effective population size. Valuable information is being gained on the ecology of species interactions in heterogeneous environments with important implications for conservation theory and the design of nature reserves.
