Butterfly diversity in Sumatra: Effects of land-use change and biodiversity enrichment in oil palm plantations

During my master thesis, embedded in EFForTS subprojects B11 and Z02, I will re-analyze data of butterfly collections previously conducted in the EFForTS core plots and the EFForTS-BEE Biodiversity Enrichment Experiment. My aim is to find out not only how rainforest conversion to oil palm impacts butterfly biodiversity, but whether enrichment planting in oil palm plantations has the potential to reverse that biodiversity loss.
To do that, I will use classic taxonomic approaches such as species richness and diversity indices (by Hill numbers), as well as a newly created dataset of functional traits of butterflies which may allow me to understand which ecosystem services are impacted by both land-use change as well as enrichment planting in oil palm.

This master thesis is supervised by Gustavo Paterno and Jochen Drescher.