Rafael Villegas-Patraca

Introducción: Los muestreos directos constituyen la mejor manera de documentar la riqueza biológica de un lugar, pero pueden verse limitados por diversas circunstancias. Nos preguntamos si la riqueza de especies documentada en campo puede ser complementada con datos de plataformas digitales de biodiversidad. Objetivo: Analizar si los datos de ocurrencia de especies disponibles en la Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) pueden complementar listados de especies creados con trabajo de campo y reportados en la literatura. Métodos: Comparamos listados de especies de aves disponibles en publicaciones académicas con aquellos generados usando información de GBIF para las mismas áreas de estudio utilizando el índice de disimilitud de Sorensen (βsor) y sus dos componentes (recambio βsim y anidamiento βsne). Resultados: GBIF reporta más especies (n = 26-232) que 14 de 24 listados consultados, pero menos (n = 12-114) que los otros 10. La suma de especies documentadas entre fuentes representa un incremento de entre 1.6 y 464 % comparada con el número de especies listadas solamente en los artículos, demostrando el potencial de complementación entre ambas fuentes. βsor osciló entre 0.15-1, mostrando que siempre hubo diferencias entre los listados comparados. En ningún caso βsim = 0, ni βsne = 1, indicando que una fuente de información siempre listó especies ausentes en la otra y que el anidamiento de especies entre fuentes de información nunca fue total. Proporcionamos código de R que puede ser adaptado para descargar y limpiar datos de GBIF de cualquier grupo biológico y lugar. Conclusiones: Los registros de ocurrencia de especies disponible en GBIF puede complementar la información recopilada en campo, pero ésta a su vez puede complementar los registros de GBIF, por lo que resaltamos la importancia de continuar documentando la riqueza biológica a través de trabajo de campo, especialmente en áreas poco exploradas.

Introducción: Los muestreos directos constituyen la mejor manera de documentar la riqueza biológica de un lugar, pero pueden verse limitados por diversas circunstancias. Nos preguntamos si la riqueza de especies documentada en campo puede ser complementada con datos de plataformas digitales de biodiversidad. Objetivo: Analizar si los datos de ocurrencia de especies disponibles en la Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) pueden complementar listados de especies creados con trabajo de campo y reportados en la literatura. Métodos: Comparamos listados de especies de aves disponibles en publicaciones académicas con aquellos generados usando información de GBIF para las mismas áreas de estudio utilizando el índice de disimilitud de Sorensen (βsor) y sus dos componentes (recambio βsim y anidamiento βsne). Resultados: GBIF reporta más especies (n = 26 – 232) que 14 de 24 listados consultados, pero menos (n = 12 – 114) que los otros 10. La suma de especies documentadas entre fuentes contiene hasta 246 más que las reportadas individualmente por cada una, resaltando la magnitud de riqueza de especies que puede ganarse al combinar información de ambas fuentes. βsor osciló entre 0.15 – 1, mostrando que siempre hubo diferencias entre los listados comparados. En ningún caso βsim = 0 ni βsne = 1, indicando que una fuente de información siempre listó especies ausentes en la otra y que el anidamiento de especies entre fuentes de información nunca fue total. Conclusiones: Los registros de ocurrencia de especies disponible en GBIF puede complementar la información recopilada en campo, pero ésta a su vez puede complementar los registros de GBIF, por lo que resaltamos la importancia de continuar documentando la riqueza biológica a través de trabajo de campo, especialmente en áreas poco exploradas. Proporcionamos código de R que puede ser adaptado para descargar y limpiar datos de GBIF de cualquier grupo biológico y lugar.

Besides direct mortality, wind farms also affect aerial fauna by modifying their communities, reducing species diversity and richness through disturbance. During three consecutive years, we used mist nets and acoustic recorders, and conducted carcass searches, to characterize the assemblage of bat species and to estimate bat mortality at two nearby wind farms sited 40% of dissimilarity in the species composition of bat assemblages between wind farms despite the short distance between them, with species turnover accounting for more than half of the dissimilarity every year. Similarly, species turnover accounted for >15% of the dissimilarity in the composition of the assemblage of live bats (captured and recorded acoustically) and the assemblage obtained through carcass searches. Our findings suggest that nearby wind farms impact bat communities differentially and aerial insectivores disproportionally. Long term, multi-method surveys are needed to characterize bat communities in highly diverse regions and to evaluate the post-construction effects that wind farms have on them.

Although biological invasions are a common and intensively studied phenomenon, most studies often ignore the biotic interactions that invasive species play in the environment. Here, we evaluated how and why invasive plant species are interconnected within the overall frugivory network of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, an important global biodiversity hotspot. To do this, we used the recently published Atlantic Frugivory Dataset to build a meta-network (i.e., a general network made of several local networks) that included interactions between 703 native and invasive plant species and 331 frugivore species. Using tools derived from complex network theory and a bootstrap simulation approach, we found that the general structure of the Atlantic Forest frugivory network (i.e., nestedness and modularity) is robust against the entry of invasive plant species. However, we observed that invasive plant species are highly integrated within the frugivory networks, since both native and invasive plant species play similar structural roles (i.e., plant status is not strong enough to explain the interactive roles of plant species). Moreover, we found that plants with smaller fruits and with greater lipid content play a greater interactive role, regardless of their native or invasive status. Our findings highlight the biotic homogenization involving plant–frugivore interactions in the Atlantic Forest and that the impacts and consequences of invasive plant species on native fauna can be anticipated based on the characteristics of their fruits.

Background and Research Aims: Power lines are one of the main anthropogenic causes of bird mortality on a global scale, but research is scarce in some countries with a high diversity of birds, such as Mexico. In this study, we assessed the impact of bird collisions and electrocutions with power lines on avian communities at three wind farms located in three different states in Mexico. Methods: Carcass searches were carried out at sites in Tamaulipas (4 months in 2021), Guanajuato (2 months in 2020, 4 months in 2021), and Oaxaca (55 months from 2014 to 2021). Results: A total of 579 bird carcasses from 65 different species were recorded. The White-winged Dove ( Zenaida asiatica) was the most frequently found species (282 records) across the three sites. When considering the number of species identified per family, Icteridae had the highest number of species at the Oaxaca site, Columbidae and Passerelidae at the Tamaulipas site, and Anatidae at the Guanajuato site. At the order level, Passeriformes had the highest number of species at the Tamaulipas and Oaxaca sites, and Anseriformes in Guanajuato. Of the total species recorded, 12 are within some category of risk according to Mexican legislation and the IUCN Red List, and 18 are migratory species. Conclusions: Our results, together with evidence from previous studies, indicate that power lines represent one of the main causes of anthropogenic mortality in Mexico in terms of the number of affected bird species. Further research is urgently needed to explore the effect of power lines on bird populations in the country, particularly those at risk of extinction, and migratory species. Implications for Conservation: The high diversity of species found to be affected in this study highlights the wide-ranging impact of these structures and the need to implement mitigation strategies at the three sites studied, particularly for the most affected species, the White-winged Dove ( Zenaida asiatica).

Knowledge about the biodiversity of Baja California has been obtained mainly from natural protected areas (NPAs), while some unprotected natural areas have been poorly studied. The Sierra Cucapá in the northeast of the peninsula is one example. The objectives of this study are 1) to integrate existing knowledge of bird, mammal, and reptile diversity in Cucapá from public databases, citizen science platforms, and information generated from fieldwork, 2) to identify the spatial distribution of records in the study area, 3) to compare the composition of vertebrate species of Cucapá with that of NPAs of northern part of the peninsula, and 4) to assess the biological conservation value of Cucapá. We obtained records of 150 species of native vertebrates (102 birds, 34 mammals, and 14 reptiles) of which 10 species of birds, four mammals, and seven reptiles are included in a risk extinction category. The different sources of information contributed in a complementary way to the species inventories. Large areas in western and northern Cucapá lack records. The total difference in species composition between Cucapá and nearby NPAs ranged between 58 and 69% for birds, 61 and 79% for mammals, and 69 and 87% for reptiles. The species richness of Cucapá, its particular species composition, the presence of species in risk extinction categories, and the number and size of unexplored areas indicate that this area represents an opportunity for biological conservation in the northern part of the Peninsula. This work provides compelling data for the protection of Cucapá.