Conservation research opportunities in a new biological field station in the Amazonian rainforest

We welcome a guest blog post from Conservation Biologist, Robin Corrià Ainslie, describing the hugely biodiverse landscape of the Cutucú Range of mountains in Ecuador, and the opportunities offered by a new field research station established there, the Sunka Biological Station.

Sunka Biological Station is a new field station located in the Cutucú Range, an Amazonian mountain range close to the Andes, in Ecuador. It offers many opportunities for new research and collaboration on conservation projects.

Fig. 1: View of the Amazon basin from the Cerro Wisui (1360m), a day’s walk from Sunka Biological Station. The plateau or Tepui, has dwarf vegetation.

The Cutucú Range (Coordillera de Cutucú – or Kutukú) is a mountain range partially isolated from the Andes, but much older geologically, with some Tepui-like formations at the mountain plateaus, similar to the Tepuis of the Guyanan Shield (Willmott, 2015). It remains relatively unexplored and well-preserved due to the rough terrain and the policies of the indigenous Shuar groups for entering their territories. The Sunka Station is the only Biological Station in the whole Cutucú Range.

Within a large protected area, but threatened by deforestation

Fig. 2: Location of the Sunka Biological Station at the north-east of the Coordillera de Cutucú (labelled Kutukú on the map), parallel to the eastern slopes of the Andes, in Ecuador. Modified figure from (Pozo-Zamora et al., 2022).

In 1990 the Bosque Protector Cutucú-Shaimi was created, the biggest protected area of its type in Ecuador, covering 311,500 hectares. Botanists from the Missouri Botanical Gardens (USA), and the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (Spain) identified the potential of a mountainous area in the north-eastern end of the Cutucú, resulting in the creation of the Wisui Biological Station (WBS) in 2008. It hosted the field courses of the Master Programme in Tropical Areas and its Conservation, organized by the Menéndez y Pelayo International University (UIMP) and the Spanish Council for Research (CSIC), which took place in Ecuador from 2008 to 2013, before being relocated to Spain. Field courses and field studies were conducted, resulting in some research being published, as well as the Management Plan for the Bosque Protector Cutucú-Shaimi, to improve the conservation of ecosystems within the protected area and promote sustainable practices amongst communities living in and around it, such as ecotourism (CARE et al., 2012).The new Sunka Biological Station, previously the WBS, is now a private biological station. It changed its name to “Sunka Station” in reference to the Sunka bird, the name in Shuar of the Andean Cock of the Rock (Rupicola peruviana), a very attractive bird common in the area. It is located in the same spot as the former WBS, a forested area of around 4000 ha, with extensive old-growth forests ranging from 650 to 1360 meters. It aims to preserve the relatively untouched forests and foster research while providing an alternative source of income to the local Shuar population, who are rapidly shifting to timber cutting and cattle ranching. This has led to an increase in deforestation in the nearby areas, also fostered by the Trans-Cutucú road (Cabrero et al., 2017). The Bosque Protector Kutukú-Shaimi, in addition, contains mining concessions, and the whole Cutucú Range may be at risk of mining exploration and exploitation, threatening the biodiversity, especially the endangered species living there (Roy et al., 2018). The Trans-Cutucú road however facilitates access to Sunka and has the opportunity to develop ecotourism and other forms of sustainable practices.

Field station facilities and interactions with the local community

Fig. 3: Construction of one of the traditional huts of Sunka Station by the local Shuar community, only using traditional techniques and materials. Local Shuar people are encouraged to participate and benefit from the Station in various ways.

The Sunka Station facilities include two traditional huts with a capacity for twelve people, but more huts, to host 20 guests, are being planned, including a laboratory, to help with basic and applied research and teaching. It provides guests with traditional food and accommodation.

The Station provides alternative sources of income and opportunities to the local community. The Station itself is co-owned by a member of the local Shuar community. Members of the community are always hired to work at the station, whether it is to build the huts and other premises, guide, cook, or provide other services to the visitors. Other interactions with the community members are facilitated, like the participation of the station’s staff or volunteers in the community’s cooperative work sessions called “mingas”, and the participation of visitors in social activities with the locals, such as sports activities. The local trade is also facilitated, giving the locals the possibility to sell their locally produced goods (basically vegetables and fruits, but also crafts and other products). The training of the local workers and guides is on its way, with some training needs detected, such as the use of English language, improved nature guiding and the use of citizen science tools such as eBird and iNaturalist.

All visitors always have a local Shuar guide to help them navigate the forests and also to help researchers with the knowledge of the rainforests they might need. When needed, local biologists or taxonomists can also be hired to help with research on specific taxa or topics.

Biodiversity studies in Cutucú and Sunka

The Cutucú Range’s high biological diversity is due to its partial isolation from the Andes, its altitudinal range (from 600 to 2480 masl) and the influence of the Amazon basin. The better-studied taxa include birds, with a recent study reporting 501 species in Cutucú (Pozo-Zamora et al., 2022), including historical bird data from the area around Sunka. The recent eBird lists and other historical bird data from the WBS (Moens, 2017) amount to 269 species in Sunka Station, 14 of which are included in the IUCN Red List or are threatened at the national level (Freile et al., 2018). Birds were also found to host a variety of blood parasites (Moens and Pérez-Tris, 2016). Nevertheless, the birds in Sunka still remain understudied, especially in the higher areas and the Tepuis.A study on amphibian ecology found 56 species in Sunka (Jiménez-Robles et al., 2017), with more than 70 species estimated. It included 2 IUCN Red List endangered frog species and 4 undescribed frog species (Fig. 3), collected as voucher specimens waiting to be described as new species.

Fig. 4: Undescribed and IUCN Red List endangered (EN) frogs at Sunka Sation. a), b): two undescribed Pristimantis species; c): Hyloxalus cevallo (EN), d): Pristimantis rubicundus (EN). Photos a, b and d by Octavio Jiménez Robles; c by Jorge Brito and Vladimir Sandoval.

A study of bat populations found 37 species, with 45 estimated (Francisco J. Sánchez-Karste, unpublished), and plant-bat interactions were shown to be important for seed dispersal (Arguero et al., 2012). Also, 14 species of non-flying micromammals were found (Jorge Brito and Arguero, 2013).

The few studies performed on plant ecology at Sunka Station found that diversity and structure differ greatly between the lowland evergreen forest and the tepui forest (Quizhpe et al., 2019), as in other locations in Cutucú. There has been a rapid recovery in forest biomass and diversity through secondary succession following slash-and-burn agriculture, however, the floristic composition recovers slowly (Corrià-Ainslie, 2010).

Research and collaboration opportunities

A lot of taxa at Sunka Station still remain unstudied. Jorge Brito, from the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INABIO), Ecuador, describes the Cutucú Range as “a remote area with a gap of information on many taxa, like non-flying mammals”. Jorge has recently described a new species of mammal of the genus Thomasomys in the Cutucú Range (Brito et al., 2021), as well as a new Pristimantis frog in 2013 (Brito M. and Pozo-Zamora, 2013), also found in Sunka. Other lesser-studied taxa show the enormous potential of the area for identifying and learning more about a huge range of biodiversity, for example, a study in 2004 in the Cutucú Range found one of the most diverse communities of dung beetles in the world (Celi et al., 2004). Better funding is needed, as well as human and material resources to improve field exploration of this remote area, which could harbour more unknown endemic species (Brito et al. 2021).

To halt and reverse the nearby deforestation, there is a need to promote and improve conservation initiatives at Sunka as well as the potential to reverse it with ecological restoration projects (Aronson et al., 2010). The Sunka Biological Station is promoting one of the first private conservation areas to offer protection to the most valuable primary montane forests and provide support for the indigenous communities living there. It is starting at 150 ha and aiming to increase in the near future.

We are looking for collaborations, which could include: