Reunión Nacional para la Conservación de la Nutria Neotropical

11 y 12 de Noviembre 2014  •  Instituto de Ecología, A.C. INECOL

La nutria neotropical, Lontra longicaudis annectens, o “perro de agua” es un depredador tope de los ecosistemas acuáticos tropicales y es considerada como una especie indicadora del estado del hábitat. A pesar de su importancia ecológica, existe un vacío de información sobre el estado de sus poblaciones en México y sobre las prioridades para su conservación en las diferentes cuencas hidrológicas y en las áreas naturales protegidas en que se encuentra.
La nutria neotropical está catalogada como “amenazada” en la Norma Oficial Mexicana y como en “peligro de extinción” por la Convención sobre el Comercio Internacional de Especies Amenazadas de Flora y Fauna Silvestres (CITES).
La Reunión Nacional para la Conservación de la Nutria Neotropical tiene como objetivos:

• contribuir al conocimiento del estado de conservación de las poblaciones de la nutria neotropical

• proponer alternativas de manejo del hábitat de la especie para reducir las amenazas a las que se enfrentan

El evento contará con la participación de expertos en la especie y se realizará con el apoyo de la Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales protegidas (CONANP) y su Programa de Conservación de Especies en Riesgo (PROCER).

CracidMex1: a comprehensive database of global occurrences of cracids (Aves, Galliformes) with distribution in Mexico

ZooKeys 420: 87–115 (2014)
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.420.7050
www.zookeys.org

CracidMex1: a comprehensive database of global
occurrences of cracids (Aves, Galliformes)
with distribution in Mexico

Gonzalo Pinilla-Buitrago, Miguel Angel Martínez-Morales,
Fernando González-García, Paula L. Enríquez, José Luis Rangel-Salazar,
Carlos Alberto Guichard Romero, Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza,
Tiberio César Monterrubio-Rico, Griselda Escalona-Segura

Abstract
Cracids are among the most vulnerable groups of Neotropical birds. Almost half of the species of this family are included in a conservation risk category. Twelve taxa occur in Mexico, six of which are considered at risk at national level and two are globally endangered. Therefore, it is imperative that high quality, comprehensive, and high-resolution spatial data on the occurrence of these taxa are made available as a valuable tool in the process of defining appropriate management strategies for conservation at a local and global level. We constructed the CracidMex1 database by collating global records of all cracid taxa that occur in Mexico from available electronic databases, museum specimens, publications, “grey literature”, and unpublished records. We generated a database with 23,896 clean, validated, and standardized geographic records.

Database quality control was an iterative process that commenced with the consolidation and elimination of duplicate records, followed by the geo-referencing of records when necessary, and their taxonomic and geographic validation using GIS tools and expert knowledge. We followed the georeferencing protocol proposed by the Mexican National Commission for the Use and Conservation of Biodiversity. We could not estimate the geographic coordinates of 981 records due to inconsistencies or lack of sufficient information in the description of the locality. Given that current records for most of the taxa have some degree of distributional bias, with redundancies at different spatial scales, the CracidMex1 database has allowed us to detect areas where more sampling effort is required to have a better representation of the global spatial occurrence of these cracids. We also found that particular attention needs to be given to taxa identification in those areas where congeners or conspecifics co-occur in order to avoid taxonomic uncertainty.

The construction of the CracidMex1 database represents the first comprehensive research effort to compile current, available global geographic records for a group of cracids. The database can now be improved by continuous revision and addition of new records. The CracidMex1 database will provide high quality input data that could be used to generate species distribution models, to assess temporal changes in species distributions, to identify priority areas for research and conservation, and in the definition of management strategies for this bird group. This compilation exercise could be replicated for other cracid groups or regions to attain a better knowledge of the global occurrences of the species in this vulnerable bird family.

Información adicional con Fernando González-Garcia.

Detection of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in amphibians inhabiting cloud forests and coffee agroecosystems in central Veracruz Mexico

Detection of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in amphibians
inhabiting cloud forests and coffee agroecosystems in central
Veracruz, Mexico

Rene Murrieta-Galindo · Gabriela Parra-Olea
Alberto González-Romero · Fabiola López-Barrera
Vance T. Vredenburg

©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Abstract. The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a threat to the survival of amphibians worldwide, a situation that is compounded by several other factors. In this study, we determined the prevalence of Bd and its relationship to biotic and abiotic variables for six amphibian communities in two cloud forest fragments and four coffee agroecosystems in central Veracruz, Mexico. A sampling effort of 768 person-hours and 109 skin swabs resulted in the detection of B. dendrobatidis in four amphibian species belonging to three families. The co-inertia model showed the following as the most important variables: tree density, fern species, temperature and elevation, fragment or site size, and structural index. Conversely, we did not find a clear relationship between Bd prevalence and the habitat management gradient. The highest prevalence was found in the second cloud forest, but a very similar result was found in one of the traditional agroecosystems; the lowest levels of prevalence were found in another second traditional agroecosystem and the first cloud forest. The degree of infection was highest in the cloud forests where the diversity of trees, orchids, and elevation was higher. Ecnomiohyla miotympanum was the most abundant species and was found to be infected in four of the five sites, presenting the highest degree of infection.

Información adicional con Alberto González-Romero.

Birds of a neotropical green city: an up-to-date review of the avifauna of the city of Xalapa with additional unpublished records

Urban Ecosyst

DOI 10.1007/s11252-014-0370-3

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Birds of a neotropical green city: an up-to-date review
of the avifauna of the city of Xalapa with additional
unpublished records

Fernando González-Garcia · Robert Straub
José A. Lobato García · Ian MacGregor-Fors

©Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Abstract. Although urbanization poses severe threats to biodiversity, some wildlife groups manage to thrive within urban areas. Among wildlife, birds are a highly diverse, charismatic and well-known group, establishing complex communities in human settlements around the world, making them suitable bioindicators. However, it is often difficult to have historical species lists that allow understanding current urban ecology trends. In this paper, we compile the available bird records, including unpublished information, for one of the best studied and well vegetated urban areas in México: the city of Xalapa. We gathered records for 329 species, representing ~30 % of the national avifauna in this medium-sized neotropical city. This important avian diversity in the city of Xalapa is mostly due to its environmental heterogeneity, underlining the relevance of its location, and the nature of its surroundings. The information provided in this paper will not only provide an environmental education baseline and represent a starting point for ornithologists, but will represent a reference document on the birds that have been recorded within the limits of Xalapa in the last three decades.

Información adicional con Fernando González-Garcia.

Vegetation Cover and Road Density as Indicators of Habitat Suitability for the Morelet’s Crocodile

Abstract
Understanding the response of species to land-use change is necessary for the improvement of management and conservation policies. We assessed the impact of vegetation cover and land-use change on Morelet’s crocodile populations in nine wetlands located in central Veracruz, Mexico, to test the hypothesis that higher forest cover and lower anthropogenic impact increases crocodile density. We correlated the relative density of crocodiles with wetland attributes, including depth, pH, salinity, and richness and structure of bordering vegetation; and with anthropogenic disturbance factors, including the proportion of modified land surrounding the water body, road density, and road type. The relative density of crocodiles was correlated positively with vegetation cover and correlated negatively with plant density and with the presence of nonpaved roads, particularly in the zone that bordered the water bodies (core zone). Our findings suggest that as long as the water bodies are bordered with arboreal vegetation, land-use change and paved road density in inland areas had minor impacts on Morelet’s crocodile populations in Mexican wetlands. The vegetation cover and the number of nonpaved roads within the core zone are useful indicators of habitat suitability for the Morelet’s crocodile. The conservation of mangroves and forest remnants is therefore essential for the maintenance of crocodile populations.
Informes Dr. Alberto González-Romero

Predicting the density and abundance of white-tailed deer based on ecological niche theory

Abstract
Based on the theory of ecological niche modeling, a novel approach known as the Distance to the Niche Centroid (DNC) method was recently proposed for mapping the abundance/density of species. To illustrate the utility of this approach, we present the application of DNC, to predict white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus distribution, density and population size in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve (TCBR), Mexico. Using a distribution map based on occurrence data, estimation of DNC, and regression analysis between DNC and 14 independent sites containing local density information pertaining to this species from 2010 to 2011, we generated a map of the potential distribution of white-tailed deer density in the 4,906 km2 that comprise the TCBR. Abundance (total number of deer) in the TCBR was calculated using both field estimations and the predicted map of density. We briefly discuss some biological, management and conservation implications of this novel conceptual and methodological approach.
Informes Dr. Salvador Mandujano

Relación entre la riqueza de mamíferos medianos en cafetales y la heterogeneidad espacial en el centro de Veracruz

ISSN 0065-1737

Acta Zoológica Mexicana (n.s.), 30(2): 337-355 (2014)

RELACIÓN ENTRE LA RIQUEZA DE MAMÍFEROS
MEDIANOS EN CAFETALES Y LA HETEROGENEIDAD
ESPACIAL EN EL CENTRO DE VERACRUZ

Jorge GARCÍA-BURGOS,²Sonia GALLINA¹ &Alberto GONZÁLEZ-ROMERO¹

¹Red de Biología y Conservación de Vertebrados. Instituto de Ecología, A.C. Carretera Antigua a Coatepec #351, El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz, C.P.91070.
²Domicilio actual. Grupo SELOME S. A. de C.V. Louisiana No.104, Col. Nápoles, Del. Benito Juárez, México D.F. C.P. 03810

Abstract. Coffee plantations are biologically and economically important agrosystems at both national and international level, and they are one of the main crops in central Veracruz which have replaced the cloud forest, however they are able to retain some of the original biodiversity of the region. In order to analyze the patterns between alpha, beta and gamma diversity of medium-sized mammals, and spatial heterogeneity of coffee plantations along a management gradient, there were considered registers from tracks, camera-traps, Tomahawk traps, and also information obtained from people who live around five coffee plantations (1 diverse polyculture, three simple polyculture and one unshaded coffee plantation) and two fragments of cloud forest as control in two areas: Coatepec and Huatusco. The spatial heterogeneity was measured through landscape variables that involved human population, roads density, Normalized Differential Vegetation Index and interspersion and juxtaposition of habitats in a buffer area of 2 km around the sampling sites. Alpha diversity was affected by spatial heterogeneity as negative correlations were found between mammal richness and total human population and the percentage of open areas, as well, on the other side, negative correlations were found between the percentage of shadow emerging vegetation (several crops and secondary vegetation) and juxtaposition of habitats. Alpha diversity varied from 5 to 13 species, while beta diversity, percentage of complementarity varied from 9.09% to 84.61 %, and gamma diversity of landscape was 15 species. A cluster analysis showed that Huatusco has features that are different from Coatepec, as less roads impact and less human population in addition the sites with greater intermediate shade cover are more adequate to conservation due a high species diversity in which six species were at some risk.

Información adicional con los autores.