Julia Camara Assis

One way people living in urban areas interact with wildlife is through encounters with birds. Research shows that visual and acoustic interactions with birds enhance the quality of life for city residents. However, global habitat loss and fragmentation have led to declines in most urban bird populations. As urbanization accelerates worldwide, it is essential to find ways for bird populations to thrive in cities while meeting citizens’ cultural ecosystem service needs. This study utilized least-cost path models to identify (i) potential ecological corridors between green spaces for six Dutch urban bird species experiencing population decline and (ii) locations that present a high likelihood of encounters between these birds and pedestrians in urbanized areas. Using expert knowledge, we simulated multiple least-cost corridors among nine green spaces in the Municipality of Utrecht. Additionally, we determined the best potential paths for pedestrians between the same nine green spaces based on citizen science data. Our results revealed that the multi-species nature of bird corridors varies, and there is limited overlap between these corridors and the simulated pedestrian paths. Nonetheless, most bird corridors are situated within 20 m of pedestrian paths, indicating hotspot areas with high potential for bird-pedestrian encounters, particularly near the Utrecht city center. We contend that locations where pedestrian paths intersect or are close to the simulated bird corridors are ideal for interventions aimed at increasing landscape permeability for the six bird species, ultimately enhancing the chances of encounters between birds and pedestrians. Finally, we proposed conservation measures based on our findings that benefit both the studied bird guilds’ population growth and the daily lives of citizens.

Context: Animal movement through the landscape is essential to several ecological processes, assuring genetic flow, reproductive success and population dynamics. In fragmented landscapes, species change their movement patterns according to their sensitivity to landscape cover and configuration. Increased landscape habitat loss and fragmentation affects resource distribution and habitat availability, compelling species to move more frequently through anthropized matrices. Objectives: Our aim was to provide a new prospect for what is known about animal movement through the landscape anthropogenic matrix in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, by analyzing the potential movement distances of several mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian species. Methods: We used recorded roadkills within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest as a source of information of species’ occurrence. We assumed the euclidean distance from the roadkill spot to the nearest forest fragment as the potential movement distance by different species through the anthropogenic matrix. Experts’ classification of species’ forest dependence degree, and animal movement information from the literature survey was used to analyze the variation in potential animal movement distance in these matrices. Results: We analyzed 90 species, the majority of them being non-forest dependent (n = 64; 71%). The potential movement distances ranged from 0 to > 1500 m, and forest-dependent species presented lower mean distances (between 772 and 978 m) than non-forest dependent species (between 673 and 1015 m). The literature survey resulted in 44 articles regarding animal movement in the matrix, referred only to 22 species. No articles were found for 20 species, mainly reptiles and amphibians. Conclusions: By comparing these values to the average distance between forest remnants in the Atlantic Forest, we expect that the distance to be traveled through the matrix to reach forest fragments may be restrictive, mainly for species with higher degree of forest dependence. Despite being descriptive, our results provide important insights on animal movement through the matrix, especially for less studied species, such as amphibians and reptiles.

The Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large‐scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southern limits in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. We compiled 185,787 distribution records, with unique georeferenced coordinates, for the 4225 species, represented by occurrence and abundance data. The number of species for the most numerous orders are as follows: Characiformes (1289), Siluriformes (1384), Cichliformes (354), Cyprinodontiformes (245), and Gymnotiformes (135). The most recorded species was the characid Astyanax fasciatus (4696 records). We registered 116,802 distribution records for native species, compared to 1802 distribution records for nonnative species. The main aim of the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set was to make these occurrence and abundance data accessible for international researchers to develop ecological and macroecological studies, from local to regional scales, with focal fish species, families, or orders. We anticipate that the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set will be valuable for studies on a wide range of ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, fishery pressure, the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and the impacts of species invasion and climate change. There are no copyright restrictions on the data, and please cite this data paper when using the data in publications.

Global agricultural production is expected to double by 2050 due to both global population increase and changes in diets as a consequence of growing incomes. This also means more pressure on water resources, as agriculture accounts for 70 % of global water withdrawal and for energy production as the entire food supply chain accounts for about 30 % of total global energy consumption. Although there are ongoing discussions related to the sustainability of food, water, and energy sectors, integrating [...] ABSTRACT Global agricultural production is expected to double by 2050 due to both global population increase and changes in diets as a consequence of growing incomes. This also means more pressure on water resources, as agriculture accounts for 70 % of global water withdrawal and for energy production as the entire food supply chain accounts for about 30 % of total global energy consumption. Although there are ongoing discussions related to the sustainability of food, water, and energy sectors, integrating

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.

Ecosystems degradation, and consequently biodiversity loss, has severe impacts on people around the world. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is one of the international initiatives that have emerged to inform policy makers and aid decisions to prevent further global biodiversity loss, focusing on the interdependence between natural systems and human culture. IPBES promotes the use of scenarios and modelling approaches as a fundamental tool to advance the understanding of the relationships between drivers of change, Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP), and social systems. Local-scale case studies with a system approach demonstrating how current knowledge can be used to inform decision-making are still scarce. Here, we present a comprehensive conceptual model and a series of four scenarios under different policies for shea tree species management, as a case-study of applying systems thinking and the NCP concept to a local-scale socio-ecological system. We first characterized the central processes, NCP, drivers and pressures affecting the shea tree system, to investigate the impacts of the multiple uses of the shea tree species on the system as a whole. We then described potential policy options, developed four scenarios, and evaluated them by a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN). We predicted qualitative outcomes of the proposed scenarios: Business-as-usual (BAU), “Conservation and fair trade”, “Agroforestry and fair trade” and “Industrial development”. We found that the scenarios focussing on conservation, fair trade and agroforestry, can improve the conservation status of shea trees, and enhance wellbeing in the local communities. In this case study, we demonstrate that the development of a comprehensive conceptual model at a local scale can be a useful exercise to identify opportunities for effective policy strategies and social innovation. The shea tree case study can provide an example for modelling non-timber forest products in other regions around the world that face similar drivers and pressures. Species for which this model could be adapted include Central and South American species such as the Brazilian nut (Bertholletia excelsa), cocoa (Theobroma cacao), andiroba (Carapa guianensis), açai (Euterpe oleracea) and the wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense). The model and workflow applied here may thus be used to understand similar socio-ecological systems with local and international economic value across the Neotropical region.

Unidades de Conservação (UC) são uma estratégia usual para a conservação da biodiversidade, porém, sem uma gestão integrada com a sociedade, não são suficientes para garantir a conservação ambiental. As limitações de gestão estão relacionadas com a falta de investimentos em recursos financeiros e humanos por parte dos órgãos governamentais responsáveis. A concessão das áreas de uso público de UCs começou a ser praticada no Brasil sem uma legislação específica. Este trabalho avaliou a tramitação e as potenciais implicações do Projeto de Lei 249/13, recentemente aprovado na forma da Lei 16260/2016, na gestão das UCs. Foram feitos o levantamento e análise de documentos, totalizando 31 documentos, entre eles documentos acadêmicos, notícias, manifestações formais e documentos legais. Identificamos que a tramitação do PL e a aprovação da Lei ocorreram sem uma ampla discussão com a sociedade e apoio técnico na sua elaboração, o que pode trazer implicações negativas. Mesmo com a lei em vigor, destacamos que ainda há possibilidades de atuação de ONGs, Ministério Público e outros profissionais autônomos, por meio de apoio técnico e legal na elaboração dos editais, planos de manejo e contratos de concessão e participação dos mesmos nas audiências públicas.