Lalandy Sehen

Project:

Structural and floristic traits of habitats with differing relative abundance of the leumurs Microcebus murinus and M. ravelobensis in northwestern Madagascar

Understanding the factors that regulate species distribution and abundance are of key importance in ecology. I am interested the variations in structural and floristic parameters in habitats with differing relative abundance of two mouse lemur species, Microcebus murinus and M. ravelobensis, in order to explore possible functional links between the vegetation parameters and relative mouse lemur abundances. In the Ankarafantsika National Park, northwestern Madagascar, the two species live in partial sympatry but occupy different parts of the forest in different relative abundances. The vegetation structure and the floristic composition of such sites are compared with special emphasis on the question of the importance of the distribution and abundance of certain food plants on the abundance of the lemurs.

Lalandy Sehen

Professional and scientific career

2011

Doctoral degree in ecology and plant biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar

2007 - 2011

PhD Student at the Department of Ecology and Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Antananarivo Madagascar and the Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany.

2005 - 2006

D.E.A diploma from the Department of Ecology and Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Antananarivo Madagascar.

2002 - 2003

Maitrise in Sciences, Option: Ecology and Plant Biology

2001 - 2002

License in Sciences

Publications

I. Articles in peer reviewed journals

2011

Thorén, S.; Quietzsch, F.; Schwochow, D.; Sehen, L.; Meusel, C.; Meares, K.; Radespiel, U. (2011). Seasonal changes in feeding ecology and activity pattern in two sympatric mouse lemur species in northwestern Madagascar. Int. J. Prim. 32, 566-586.

2010

Sehen, L., Goetze, D., Rajeriarison, C., Roger, E., Thorén, S. & Radespiel, U. 2010. Structural and floristic traits of habitats with differing relative abundance of the lemurs Microcebus murinus and M. ravelobensis in northwestern Madagascar. Ecotropica, 16:15–30.

II. Abstracts of international conferences (2010 - 2007)

2010

3. Sehen, L., Radespiel, U. Rajeriarison, C., Roger, E.,& Goetze, D., 2010. Les caractéristiques floristiques des habitats expliquent-elles les variations d’abondance de deux espèces de microcèbes sympatriques au nord-ouest de Madagascar? XIXième Congrès AETFAT (Association pour l’Etude de la Taxonomie de la Flore d’Afrique Tropicale) (Antananarivo, Madagascar), 26-30 Avril 2010.

2009

2. Sehen, L.; Rajeriarison, C.; Roger, E.; Radespiel, U. 2009: Variations in the vertical forest structure among different mouse lemur habitats in northwestern Madagascar. 11th Meeting of the Gesellschaft für Primatologie, (Hannover, Germany), February 24.-26, 2009, S. 68.

2008

1. Sehen, L.; Rajeriarison, C.; Roger, E.; Radespiel, U. 2008. Microhabitat structure analysis: one way to explain the distribution of the two Mouse lemurs’ species in Northwestern Madagascar. Student Conference on Conservation Science, (Cambridge, UK), March 25-27, 2008.

Awards & grants

Travel grant from the Conservation International Foundation (CI), for participating in the Student Conference on Conservation Science in Cambridge (2008).
WWF grant for training in environmental education (3 months; 2007)
Tropical Biology Association (TBA): one month field course in tropical ecology and conservation in Morondava/Madagascar (2006)