3 research outputs found

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

    Habitat associations of land birds in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil

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    Fernando de Noronha is one of few archipelagos of Brazil. These islands harbor five species of land birds: two introduced species (House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, and Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis), one widespread dove (Eared Dove, Zenaida auriculata) and two endemic passerines. The two endemic species, Noronha Vireo (Vireo gracilirostris) and Noronha Elaenia (Elaenia ridleyana), have been classified as 'Near Threatened' and 'Vulnerable', respectively. Here, we quantified the abundance of land birds and correlated it to habitat features to assess potential habitat preferences. We carried out 120 five-minute point counts in October 2009, and correlated bird abundance with percentages of woodland, bushes, low herbs, bare ground, and man-made habitats in each sample. The abundance of Noronha Vireo and Noronha Elaenia was positively correlated with woodland and bushes cover. The Eared Dove was associated to sites with bare ground, the House Sparrow with man-made habitats, and the Cattle Egret with low vegetation sites. Abundances of Noronha Vireo and Noronha Elaenia were significantly higher in sites with natural vegetation than in human-influenced areas. The association between these species and areas with high native vegetation cover highlights their potential vulnerability to human disturbance
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