Primer registro documentado del Esparvero variado (Accipiter bicolor) para la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

En la porción meridional de América del Sur el Esparvero Variado (Accipiter bicolor) habita bosques subtropicales y templados, además de regiones de vegetación abierta con bosques en galería y en isletas (Bierregaard 1994). En el este del continente, el límite sur de su distribución reconocida es el norte y nordeste de Uruguay, y el nordeste de Entre Ríos, Argentina (Ferguson-Lees & Christie 2001). En la provincia de Buenos Aires la especie no se distribuye regularmente (Bierregaard 1994, Narosky & Di Giacomo 1993, Ferguson-Lees & Christie 2001, Bodrati et al. 2006), y al momento no se conocen registros documentados para esta región. El objetivo de esta nota es informar el primer registro documentado del Esparvero Variado para dicha provincia.Fil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

Range expansion, density and conservation of the Araucaria Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura setaria (Furnariidae) in Argentina: The role of araucaria Araucaria angustifolia (Araucariaceae) plantations

The Araucaria Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura setaria (Furnariidae) is a globally Near Threatened species. Its habitat, the araucaria (Araucaria angustifolia) rainforest of south-east Brazil and north-east Argentina, is highly fragmented and reduced to nearly 10% of its original range. The species has also been recorded in commercial araucaria plantations that comprise about 80% of its suitable habitat in Argentina. This situation provides an opportunity for the conservation of the Araucaria Tit-spinetail in a human-modified landscape. We assessed the occurrence of the species in the region and estimated its density and total population size in araucaria plantations in Argentina. We discuss the value of plantations in the conservation of the bird, and evaluate its conservation status in Argentina using IUCN criteria. The density of the tit-spinetail in araucaria plantations, estimated by a distance sampling method, was 9 birds ha-1. The overall population size in commercial plantations appears to be large (>7,000 birds), showing that araucaria plantations play an important role in the conservation of the bird. However, plantations must not replace the native araucaria forest because the former are an intrinsically fragmented habitat influenced primarily by economic factors and forestry practices. The long-term conservation and restoration of araucaria rainforest in Argentina and Brazil must be guaranteed to conserve the Araucaria Tit-spinetail and other species associated with this rainforest. Based on the restricted and very fragmented habitat, the Araucaria Tit-spinetail should be regarded as Vulnerable in Argentina.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

First documented record of the Rufous-tailed Attila (Tyrannidae) for Corrientes, Argentina

We report on the capture of an adult male Rufous-tailed Attila (Attila phoenicurus) in Mburucuyá National Park, Corrientes, Argentina. This is not only the first record for this protected area, but also the first record for the province. Records for this species are scarce in Argentina, where it has been registered only in Misiones province. Populations of this species are believed to be declining, and it is considered a ?threatened species? in Argentina. The confirmed presence of the Rufous-tailed Attila in Mburucuyá National Park extends the species´ distribution range farther south than currently known, and implies that this threatened species occurs in at least one large protected area of Argentina.Fil: García, Natalia Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Trujillo Arias, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Kopuchian, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

Effects of Pleistocene climate changes on species ranges and evolutionary processes in the Neotropical Atlantic Forest

The effects of global glaciations on the distribution of organisms is an essential element of many diversification models. However, the empirical evidence supporting this idea is mixed, in particular with respect to explaining tropical forest evolution. In the present study, we evaluated the impacts of range shifts associated with Pleistocene global glacial cycles on the evolution of tropical forests. In particular, we tested the predictions: (1) that population genetic structure increases with fragmentation variation between the present and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and also (2) with geographical range instability; and (3) that genetic diversity increases with range stability and (4) decreases with fragmentation variation between periods. To address our predictions, we studied population genetic structures and modelled present and past distributions of 15 Atlantic Forest (AF) endemic birds. Afterwards, we evaluated the relationship of population genetic parameters with metrics of species range shifts between the present and the LGM. We found that geographical ranges of AF birds changed in concert with Pleistocene glacial cycles but, unexpectedly, our findings suggest the novel idea that ranges during glacial maxima were slightly larger on average, as well as equally fragmented and displaced from the interglacial ranges. Our findings suggest that range shifts over the late Pleistocene impacted on the diversification of forest organisms, although they did not show that those range shifts had a strong effect. We found that a combination of fragmentation variation across time, small current range size, and range stability increased population genetic structure. However, neither fragmentation, nor range stability affected genetic diversity. Our study showed that evolutionary responses to range shifts across AF birds have a high variance, which could explain the mixed support given by single-species studies to the action of Pleistocene range shifts on population evolution.Fil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Calderón, Pablo Luciano Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Trujillo Arias, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Flores, Pamela. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento; ArgentinaFil: Pessoa, Rodrigo. Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros; BrasilFil: d'Horta, Fernando M.. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Miyaki, Cristina Y.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasi

Range expansion, density and conservation of the Araucaria Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura setaria (Furnariidae) in Argentina: The role of araucaria Araucaria angustifolia (Araucariaceae) plantations

The Araucaria Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura setaria (Furnariidae) is a globally Near Threatened species. Its habitat, the araucaria (Araucaria angustifolia) rainforest of south-east Brazil and north-east Argentina, is highly fragmented and reduced to nearly 10% of its original range. The species has also been recorded in commercial araucaria plantations that comprise about 80% of its suitable habitat in Argentina. This situation provides an opportunity for the conservation of the Araucaria Tit-spinetail in a human-modified landscape. We assessed the occurrence of the species in the region and estimated its density and total population size in araucaria plantations in Argentina. We discuss the value of plantations in the conservation of the bird, and evaluate its conservation status in Argentina using IUCN criteria. The density of the tit-spinetail in araucaria plantations, estimated by a distance sampling method, was 9 birds ha-1. The overall population size in commercial plantations appears to be large (>7,000 birds), showing that araucaria plantations play an important role in the conservation of the bird. However, plantations must not replace the native araucaria forest because the former are an intrinsically fragmented habitat influenced primarily by economic factors and forestry practices. The long-term conservation and restoration of araucaria rainforest in Argentina and Brazil must be guaranteed to conserve the Araucaria Tit-spinetail and other species associated with this rainforest. Based on the restricted and very fragmented habitat, the Araucaria Tit-spinetail should be regarded as Vulnerable in Argentina.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Correction to: Body size and genetic variation in the White-tipped Plantcutter (Phytotoma rutila: Cotingidae) suggest ecological divergence across the Chaco-Andes dry forest belt

In the original publication of the article, there is a typo at the base text of Table 3 which is mentioned as “** robust result when critical c/h2 < 2 [following Brommer (2011)]”. However, the correct text should be “** robust result when critical c/h2 < 0.2 [following Brommer (2011)]”. The original article has been corrected.Fil: Rodríguez Cajarville, María José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Calderón, Pablo Luciano Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Tubaro, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

Plumage variation in the Planalto Woodcreeper (Dendrocolaptes platyrostris) and the melanocortin-1 receptor gene (MC1R)

The Planalto Woodcreeper (Dendrocolaptes platyrostris) presents “pale” and “dark” plumage variants, which are distributed throughout the Cerrado and Caatinga, and throughout the Atlantic Forest, respectively. To understand the genetic nature of the plumage variation in the species, we partially sequenced the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene, which is associated with melanic phenotypes in vertebrates. We found no correlation between variation at MC1R sequences and plumage color in D. platyrostris. Aminoacid sites that were correlated with variation in melanic plumage in other bird species were monomorphic in D. platyrostris. Our results suggested that MC1R seems not to be involved in controlling plumage variation in D. platyrostris.Fil: Corso, Josmael. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Departamento de Genética; BrasilFil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Mendonça d'Horta, Fernando. Universidade de Sao Paulo. Instituto de Biociências; BrasilFil: da Silva Loreto, Elgion Lucio. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Departamento de Biologia; BrasilFil: Miyaki, Cristina Yumi. Universidade de Sao Paulo. Instituto de Biocièncias; Brasi

Biogeography of the Gran Chaco: Niche modeling and phylogeography of Microspingus Melanoleucus (Aves: Thraupidae)

El Gran Chaco integra la diagonal Neotropical de formaciones abiertas y es objeto fundamental en hipótesis de conexiones pasadas entre la Selva Atlántica, la Amazonía y las Yungas. El objetivo de esta investigación fue evaluar si el Gran Chaco fue escenario de expansión de bosques higrófilos durante las fluctuaciones climáticas del Pleistoceno, que podrían haber conectado la Selva Atlántica y las Yungas en su sector meridional (Selva Tucumano-Boliviana). Para poner a prueba la hipótesis se utilizó como modelo de estudio a un ave endémica chaqueña, la Monterita Cabeza Negra (Microspingus melanoleucus), y se realizaron análisis filogeográficos empleando marcadores nucleares y mitocondriales, así como también modelados de nicho ecológico para el presente y períodos pasados (Último Interglacial, Último Glacial Máximo y Holoceno Medio). Los resultados indicaron un alto flujo génico en toda la distribución del ave, sin que existan linajes restrictos geográficamente. Los modelados de nicho no reflejaron grandes modificaciones en su distribución, aunque para el presente, sugieren ausencia de hábitat a lo largo de una diagonal en sentido noreste-sudoeste, la cual se agudizó en el Holoceno Medio y se atenuó en el Último Glacial Máximo. Estas variaciones se encontrarían relacionadas con cambios microclimáticos dentro del Gran Chaco. Los resultados obtenidos avalan una estabilidad temporal de la ecorregión chaqueña, por lo que se rechaza la hipótesis de expansiones de bosques higrófilos que hayan fragmentado la distribución del ave modelo de estudio.The Gran Chaco, which is part of the diagonal of Neotropical open formations, is a fundamental region to test hypotheses of past connections among the Atlantic Forest, the Amazon and the Yungas. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the Gran Chaco was fragmented by expansions of wet forests during Pleistocene climatic oscillations, which could have connected the Atlantic Forest and the Yungas’s southern sector (Tucuman-Bolivian Forest). To test the hypothesis, we studied an endemic bird of the region, the Black-capped Warbling Finch (Microspingus melanoleucus). We conducted phylogeographic analyses employing DNA sequences of nuclear and mitochondrial markers, as well as ecological niche modeling (ENM) for the present and past periods (Last Interglacial, Last Glacial Maximum and Middle Holocene). The ² Q N4 niche models showed a relatively conserved distribution range across historic periods, although they suggested for the present, and particularly for the Mid Holocene, a lack of habitat suitability along a geographic diagonal from northeast to the southwest of the study region. These results supported temporal habitat stability in the Gran Chaco ecoregion, and did not support the hypothesis of expansions of wet-forests that could have fragmented the region and linked neighboring domains such as Andean and Atlantic forests.Fil: Delgado, Bárbara R.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Mogni, Virginia Yanina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Biología. Cátedra de Botánica Morfológica y Sistemática Agronómica; ArgentinaFil: Trujillo Arias, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentina. Universidad Industrial Santander; ColombiaFil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

A comparative phylogenomic analysis of birds reveals heterogeneous differentiation processes among Neotropical savannas

The main objective of this study was to evaluate biogeographical hypotheses of diversification and connection between isolated savannas north (Amazonian savannas) and south (Cerrado core) of the Amazon River. To achieve this, we used genomic markers (genotyping-by-sequencing) to evaluate the genetic structure, population phylogenetic relationships and historical range shifts of four Neotropical passerines with peri-Atlantic distributions: the narrow-billed woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes angustirostris), the plain-crested elaenia (Elaenia cristata), the grassland sparrow (Ammodramus humeralis) and the white-banded tanager (Neothraupis fasciata). Population genetic analyses indicated that landscape (e.g., geographic distance, landscape resistance and percentage of tree cover) and climate metrics explained divergence among populations in most species, but without indicating a differential role between current and historical factors. Our results did not fully support the hypothesis that isolated populations in Amazonian savannas have been recently derived from the Cerrado core domain. Intraspecific phylogenies and gene flow analyses supported multiple routes of connection between the Cerrado and Amazonian savannas, rejecting the hypothesis that the Atlantic corridor explains the peri-Atlantic distribution. Our results reveal that the biogeographical history of the region is complex and cannot be explained by simple vicariant models.Fil: Alves Lima Rezende, Cássia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Cabanne, Gustavo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Rocha, Amanda Vaz. Universidade do Brasília; BrasilFil: Carboni, Martín Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Zink, Robert M.. University of Nebraska; Estados UnidosFil: Caparroz, Renato. Universidade do Brasília; Brasi