neotropical forests
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon A Sloat ◽  
Luke M Noble ◽  
Annalise B Paaby ◽  
Max Bernstein ◽  
Audrey Chang ◽  
...  

Factors shaping the distribution and abundance of species include life-history traits, population structure, and stochastic colonization-extinction dynamics. Field studies of model species groups help reveal the roles of these factors. Species of Caenorhabditis nematodes are highly divergent at the sequence level but exhibit highly conserved morphological uniformity, and many of these species live in sympatry on microbe-rich patches of rotten material. Here, we use field experiments and large-scale opportunistic collections to investigate species composition, abundance, and colonization efficiency of Caenorhabditis in two of the world's best studied lowland tropical field sites: Barro Colorado Island in Panamá and La Selva in Sarapiquí, Costa Rica. We observed seven species of Caenorhabditis, four of them known only from these collections. While these localities contain species from many parts of the phylogeny, both localities were dominated by globally distributed androdiecious species. We found that Caenorhabditis were able to colonize baits accessible only by phoresy, preferring to colonize baits making direct contact with the ground. We estimate founder numbers per colonization event to be low.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5060 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-488
Author(s):  
LUCAS DENADAI DE CAMPOS ◽  
PEDRO G. B. SOUZA-DIAS

Neometrypus Desutter, 1988 n. status is elevated to the generic level. Ten new species of this genus are described (N. azevedoi n. sp., N. carvalhoi n. sp., N. catiae n. sp., N. couriae n. sp., N. lopesae n. sp., N. maiae n. sp., N. marcelae n. sp., N. mejdalanii n. sp., N. mendoncae n. sp., N. monnei n. sp.). All the species are from Brazil, nine from the Atlantic Forest, and one from Amazonia. We also provide a distribution map of all type localities of Neometrypus n. status, an identification key for all 13 known species of the genus, the first record of the mating behavior, and a short discussion about paedomorphic characters and communication between these crickets.  


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Brian Folt ◽  
Craig Guyer

Abstract In seasonal wet Neotropical forests, many studies have suggested that species-rich terrestrial frog assemblages are regulated bottom-up by the abundance of leaf litter. However, terrestrial frogs are prey to a diverse community of predators, and no studies have tested for top-down effects of predators on this or other anuran assemblages. Here, we used an extensive field dataset to model the relative contribution of food resources, microhabitat resources and predators towards the occupancy and detection of two frog species (Craugastor bransfordii and Oophaga pumilio) at La Selva, Costa Rica. Frog occupancy was most strongly influenced by predatory spiders and secondarily influenced by the abundance of leaf litter. Predators exerted stronger effects on frogs than food resources, and frogs avoided predators more as leaf litter decreased. Detection probability was elevated when predators were present. We found support for bottom-up effects of leaf litter on the terrestrial frog assemblage, but top-down effects by predators exerted stronger effects on frog occupancy and detection. Because predator avoidance varied along a resource gradient, predator and resource effects appear to be dependent, supporting interactions between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms. Climate-driven decreases in leaf litter may drive decreased availability of frog refugia and increased interactions between frogs and predators.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0245110
Author(s):  
Camilo Alejo ◽  
Chris Meyer ◽  
Wayne S. Walker ◽  
Seth R. Gorelik ◽  
Carmen Josse ◽  
...  

Indigenous Territories (ITs) with less centralized forest governance than Protected Areas (PAs) may represent cost-effective natural climate solutions to meet the Paris agreement. However, the literature has been limited to examining the effect of ITs on deforestation, despite the influence of anthropogenic degradation. Thus, little is known about the temporal and spatial effect of allocating ITs on carbon stocks dynamics that account for losses from deforestation and degradation. Using Amazon Basin countries and Panama, this study aims to estimate the temporal and spatial effects of ITs and PAs on carbon stocks. To estimate the temporal effects, we use annual carbon density maps, matching analysis, and linear mixed models. Furthermore, we explore the spatial heterogeneity of these estimates through geographic discontinuity designs, allowing us to assess the spatial effect of ITs and PAs boundaries on carbon stocks. The temporal effects highlight that allocating ITs preserves carbon stocks and buffer losses as well as allocating PAs in Panama and Amazon Basin countries. The geographic discontinuity designs reveal that ITs’ boundaries secure more extensive carbon stocks than their surroundings, and this difference tends to increase towards the least accessible areas, suggesting that indigenous land use in neotropical forests may have a temporarily and spatially stable impact on carbon stocks. Our findings imply that ITs in neotropical forests support Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Thus, Indigenous peoples must become recipients of countries’ results-based payments.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ana Sofía Alcalde ◽  
Natalia Politi ◽  
Sandra Rodríguez-Artigas ◽  
José Antonio Corronca ◽  
Luis Osvaldo Rivera

Summary Approximately 80% of neotropical forests are subject to unsustainable economic practices, such as logging. Spiders are a megadiverse taxonomic group with a particularly great diversity in forest ecosystems and could help indicate the sustainability of logging operations. At six sites at 400–700 m altitude in the piedmont forest of north-western Argentina, spiders collected using pitfall traps and forest structure and spider assemblage structure variables were quantified in order to examine the association between them and to identify indicator spider families. Logging changes forest structure and seems to generate an unsuitable habitat for spiders associated with mature forests. The family taxonomic level is a good surrogate for spider morphospecies. The Mysmenidae, Nemesiidae, Theridiidae, Pholcidae, Hahniidae and Tetragnathidae families were associated with upper canopy cover of 20% or more and with more than two dead fallen trees per 0.1 ha and >15 live trees per 0.1 ha, found in unlogged forests. Bearing in mind that the piedmont forest of north-western Argentina is being logged in the absence of sustainability criteria, we suggest including spiders in monitoring schemes to complement the information obtained from more readily used groups, such as charismatic vertebrates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 492 ◽  
pp. 119166
Author(s):  
Ulrike Hiltner ◽  
Andreas Huth ◽  
Bruno Hérault ◽  
Anne Holtmann ◽  
Achim Bräuning ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Lentz ◽  
Trinity L. Hamilton ◽  
Nicholas P. Dunning ◽  
Eric J. Tepe ◽  
Vernon L. Scarborough ◽  
...  

AbstractTikal, a major city of the ancient Maya world, has been the focus of archaeological research for over a century, yet the interactions between the Maya and the surrounding Neotropical forests remain largely enigmatic. This study aimed to help fill that void by using a powerful new technology, environmental DNA analysis, that enabled us to characterize the site core vegetation growing in association with the artificial reservoirs that provided the city water supply. Because the area has no permanent water sources, such as lakes or rivers, these reservoirs were key to the survival of the city, especially during the population expansion of the Classic period (250–850 CE). In the absence of specific evidence, the nature of the vegetation surrounding the reservoirs has been the subject of scientific hypotheses and artistic renderings for decades. To address these hypotheses we captured homologous sequences of vascular plant DNA extracted from reservoir sediments by using a targeted enrichment approach involving 120-bp genetic probes. Our samples encompassed the time before, during and after the occupation of Tikal (1000 BCE–900 CE). Results indicate that the banks of the ancient reservoirs were primarily fringed with native tropical forest vegetation rather than domesticated species during the Maya occupation.


ZooKeys ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1044 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
John Spence ◽  
Achille Casale ◽  
Thorsten Assmann ◽  
James K. Liebherr ◽  
Lyubomir Penev

This special issue of ZooKeys celebrates the memory of Dr. Terry Lee Erwin (1940-2020), who was the founding Editor of this journal. Terry was also a preeminent systematist specializing in the beetle family Carabidae, as well as one of the world’s principal authorities on the biodiversity crisis, especially in relation to the canopy fauna of tropical forests. His contributions as a practicing scientist, an educator and a public advocate for insect natural history were enormous. His unexpected passing in May 2020 was a significant loss to students of the Carabidae and to the worldwide community interested in understanding the biological diversity of Neotropical forests. In this volume we showcase his influence on others, both through a set of scientific papers that reflect the breadth of that influence, and a series of personal memories offered by people who worked and interacted with Terry. That influence includes both the direct impacts of his own scientific work and the unusual level of encouragement and generous support that he provided to others who pursued work on carabid beetles. The volume begins with a short biography of Dr. Erwin, emphasizing his connections to the New World tropics and the genesis of his work on the beetles that live there, followed by a general summary of his scientific accomplishments and the legacy that he leaves behind to support and encourage work in the areas that he touched. The work closes with a view of his most central work as a taxonomist by listing the genera and species that he described, and the taxa named in his honour by others in recognition of his influence on the field. This volume was made possible through the generous support of Pensoft Publishers. The Editors sincerely thank all contributors and the highly competent staff of ZooKeys for their efforts in producing this memorial to our friend, colleague and exemplary systematist.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicien Meunier ◽  
Marco D. Visser ◽  
Alexey Shiklomanov ◽  
Michael C. Dietze ◽  
J. Antonio Guzman ◽  
...  

Lianas are a key growth form in tropical forests. Their lack of self-supporting tissues and their vertical position on top of the canopy make them strong competitors of resources. A few pioneer studies have shown that liana optical traits differ on average from those of colocated tree. Those trait discrepancies were hypothesized to be responsible for the competitive advantage of lianas over trees. Yet, in the absence of reliable modelling tools, it is impossible to unravel their impact on the forest energy balance, light competition and on the liana success in Neotropical forests. To bridge this gap, we performed a meta-analysis of the literature to gather all published liana leaf optical spectra, as well as all canopy spectra measured over different levels of liana infestation. We then used a Bayesian data assimilation framework applied to two radiative transfer models (RTMs) covering the leaf and canopy scales to derive tropical tree and liana trait distributions, which finally informed a full dynamic vegetation model. According to the RTMs inversion, lianas grew thinner, more horizontal leaves with lower pigment concentrations. Those traits made the lianas particularly efficient at light interception and completely modified the forest energy balance and its carbon cycle. While forest albedo increased by 14% in the shortwave, light availability was dramatically reduced in the understory (-30% of the PAR radiation) and soil temperature decreased by 0.5 degree Celsius. Those liana-specific traits were also responsible for a significant reduction of tree (-19%) and ecosystem (-7%) gross primary productivity (GPP) while lianas benefited from them (their GPP increased by +27%). This study provides a novel mechanistic explanation to the increase in liana abundance, new evidence of the impact of structural parasitism on forest functioning, and paves the way for the evaluation of the large-scale impacts of woody vines on forest biogeochemical cycles.


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