Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding 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,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 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 underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities 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 or ganism 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 ne glected 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 lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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

Padrões de distribuição de espécies de percevejos semi-aquáticos (Hemiptera: Gerromorpha): utilizando fatores ambientais e espaciais para determinar a estrutura das comunidades em riachos amazônicos

Amazonian lotic ecosystems are among the environments that have received most attention in studies on species distribution. This is related to the presence of high environmental complexity and spatial variation in these ecosystems, thus it is necessary to elucidate how such conditions affect the species distribution in response to habitat specificity and dispersion under different scales. Thus, in this thesis we aim to evaluate how environmental and spatial factors structure semi-aquatic bug (Hemiptera: Gerromorpha) communities in Amazonian streams. To achieve this goal, the thesis was divided into three chapters. First, we evaluated factors that structure metacommunities, considering environmental factors, linear and fluvial spatial structure within a drainage basin. We observed that the effect of the environment had greater effect on metacommunity structure and only factors related to river dispersion were important for these response. Thus, at basin scale, the metacommunity structure was affected mainly by species sorting and mass effects was associated to dispersion in smaller scales within basin network. In second chapter, we analyzed the patterns of metacommunities of semiaquatic bugs among different biogeographic areas of the Amazon region, we found that the limitation of community variation across space was decisive in structuring the diversity of assemblies. These results showed that high turnover occurs within the ecoregions evaluated due to environmental heterogeneity. In addition, beta diversity between different biogeographic areas in Amazon region evidenced general patterns of decay of similarity due to environmental and spatial distances. In the third chapter, we deconstructed the assemblages between wingless and winged individuals to evaluate the alteration of the environment in areas with anthropic alteration. We find that the composition of winged species assemblages differs from the total community composition, however, assemblages of winged and winged species showed responses associated with the loss of diversity caused by anthropic activity. However, the environmental variables that structure these assemblies were different, indicating that a trade-off occurs between reproduction (wingless) and dispersion (winged) to reach the fitness of these populations. In general, we highlight that characteristics of the aquatic habitat on a local scale, and the fluvial connectivity between habitats are the main determinants in structuring the communities of these organisms at a basin scale. Considering biogeographic scales, the limitation of the dispersion through space was the main factor in the structure of the communities, however, the beta diversity between regions also showed to be dependent on local factors. We consider that the specificity of these organisms to live on the surface of the water, besides showing strong relation with this habitat, also shows that the locomotion on the water surface is the main dispersion mechanism of these organisms in the basin network. In addition, the processes that have determined communities' patterns of diversity act on local scales up to biogeographic scales. However, we highlight that advances in the impacts of anthropic activities in the Amazon can also interfere in these processes and act on the distribution of species among the lotic ecosystems of the region.CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoOs ecossistemas lóticos amazônicos são sistemas complexos e dinâmicos, com uma extensa variação espacial e ambiental entre eles. Entender como as espécies aquáticas estão distribuídas é essencial para pensar em planos ou projetos de conservação desse bioma, fazendo-se necessária a tentativa de elucidar como tais condições fetam a distribuição dos organismos em resposta à especificidade de habitat e dispersão das espécies sob diferentes escalas. Diante desse cenário, esta tese teve o objetivo geral de avaliar como os fatores ambientais e espaciais estruturam as comunidades de percevejos semiaquáticos (Hemiptera) em riachos amazônicos. Para isso, dividimos a tese em três capítulos. No primeiro, avaliamos os fatores determinantes da estruturação das metacomunidades, considerando fatores ambientais, estrutura espacial linear e fluvial dentro de uma bacia de drenagem. Observamos que o efeito do ambiente teve maior influência sobre a estrutura da metacomunidade e somente fatores relacionados a dispersão via fluvial foram importantes para esses organismos. Assim, em escala de bacia hidrográfica, a estrutura da metacomunidade foi estruturada principalmente por species sorting sendo que mass effects pode atuar sobre a dispersão em escalas menores dentro da rede hidrográfica. No segundo capítulo analisamos os padrões de metacomunidades de percevejos semiaquáticos entre diferentes áreas biogeográficas da região amazônica. Em escala biogeográfica, encontramos que a limitação da variação das comunidades através do espaço foi determinante na estruturação da diversidade das comunidades. Esses resultados mostraram que ocorre alto turnover dentro das eco-regiões avaliadas devido à heterogeneidade ambiental. Além disso, a diversidade beta entre diferentes áreas biogeográficas da região amazônica evidenciou um padrão geral de decaimento da similaridade em decorrência das distâncias ambientais e espaciais. No terceiro capítulo, desconstruímos as comunidades de percevejos em assembleias de organismos ápteros e alados para avaliação da alteração do ambiente em áreas com alteração antrópica. Demonstramos que a composição das assembleias com espécies aladas difere da composição total da comunidade de percevejos, contudo, assembleias de ápteros e alados mostraram respostas associadas à perda de diversidade causada por atividade antrópica. Entretanto, as variáveis ambientais que estruturam essas assembleias foram diferentes, indicando que ocorre um trade-off entre reprodução (ápteros) e dispersão (alados) para o alcance do fitness dessas populações. Destacamos que características do habitat aquático em escala local, e a conectividade fluvial entre habitats são os principais determinantes na estruturação das comunidades desses organismos em escala de bacia hidrográfica. Considerando escalas biogeográficas, a limitação da dispersão através do espaço foi o principal fator na estrutura das comunidades, contudo, a diversidade beta entre regiões mostrou também ser dependente de fatores locais. Consideramos que a especificidade desses organismos em viver na superfície da água, além de mostrar forte relação com esse habitat, também evidencia que a locomoção sobre a superfície da água é o principal mecanismo a dispersão desses organismos na rede hidrográfica. Além disso, processos que determinaram os padrões de diversidade das comunidades atua em escalas locais até biogeográficas. Contudo, destacamos que avanços dos impactos de atividades antrópicas na Amazônia podem também interferir nesses processos e atuar sobre a distribuição das espécies entre os ecossistemas lóticos da região

How Habitat Filtering Can Affect Taxonomic and Functional Composition of Aquatic Insect Communities in Small Amazonian Streams

Responses in taxonomic and functional composition of communities were analysed in small Amazonian streams at the small and large scale (habitat patches, river segment scale, and catchment scale). We hypothesised that similar responses in community structure to local environmental factors were a correlation between taxonomic and functional composition. To evaluate the response of taxonomic composition to environmental variables, redundancy analysis (RDA) and RLQ analysis were performed to investigate the response of community abundance (L) as a function of the environment (R) and traits (Q). The fourth-corner analysis was applied to summarize specific interactions between environmental variables and traits. Then, community taxonomic composition was associated with models at multiple scales of habitat (i.e. riparian/channel, substrates, and water variables). Likewise, the fourth-corner tests and RLQ axes showed associations between trait composition and environmental variables related to variables, such as riparian cover and channel morphology followed by variation in substrate size and composition. Unexpectedly, these results did not show specific associations between unique environmental variables and traits. At last, results showed that local conditions of stream habitat regulated community structure and functional composition of aquatic insects. Thus, these findings indicate that the local environmental filtering appears to be strongly associated with selected species traits adapted to occur in a range of habitat conditions. Despite the low number of analysed streams, these results provide important information for understanding the simultaneous variation in functional trait composition and community composition of aquatic insect assemblages. © 2020, Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil

Urban development and industrialization impacts on semiaquatic bugs diversity: A case study in eastern Amazonian streams

Landscape changes have caused the decline of biodiversity and affected the integrity of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we assessed the influence of industrialization associated with urban development on aquatic environments and the biodiversity of semiaquatic bugs (Gerromorpha) at different scales (water quality, habitat, and landscape). Using the simple buffer method, we evaluated nine streams assessing water quality variables, habitat structure, and linear features (radius ​= ​300 ​m, length ​= ​600 ​m) for the percentage of land use and land cover. Our results found that species composition of Gerromorpha was mainly affected by primary forest cover, habitat integrity, leaves substrate, and water temperature (29% explanation), and the species richness was mostly influenced by the habitat integrity index (HII) and phosphorus concentrations. The model that best explained the variation in species richness showed a positive relationship with phosphorus concentrations and HII (43% variation). Therefore, our results show that those human activities are the main factors altering aquatic biodiversity from local to regional scales. Therefore, the retention of riparian forests – even in urban and industrialized areas – can maintain the diversity of semiaquatic insect species by providing suitable environments for the habitat, feeding, and reproductive requirements of these aquatic organisms. Finally, our results also show that the management of riparian vegetation in urban areas and industrial complexes promotes aquatic biodiversity conservation in regions under development in the Amazon

FreshLanDiv: A Global Database of Freshwater Biodiversity Across Different Land Uses

International audienceMotivation Freshwater ecosystems have been heavily impacted by land‐use changes, but data syntheses on these impacts are still limited. Here, we compiled a global database encompassing 241 studies with species abundance data (from multiple biological groups and geographic locations) across sites with different land‐use categories. This compilation will be useful for addressing questions regarding land‐use change and its impact on freshwater biodiversity. Main Types of Variables Contained The database includes metadata of each study, sites location, sample methods, sample time, land‐use category and abundance of each taxon. Spatial Location and Grain The database contains data from across the globe, with 85% of the sites having well‐defined geographical coordinates. Major Taxa and Level of Measurement The database covers all major freshwater biological groups including algae, macrophytes, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish and amphibians

FreshLanDiv: A Global Database of Freshwater Biodiversity Across Different Land Uses

Publication status: PublishedFunder: Ministry of Sciences, Technology and Innovation of ColombiaFunder: Graduate School of the University of TennesseeMotivation: Freshwater ecosystems have been heavily impacted by land‐use changes, but data syntheses on these impacts are still limited. Here, we compiled a global database encompassing 241 studies with species abundance data (from multiple biological groups and geographic locations) across sites with different land‐use categories. This compilation will be useful for addressing questions regarding land‐use change and its impact on freshwater biodiversity. Main Types of Variables Contained: The database includes metadata of each study, sites location, sample methods, sample time, land‐use category and abundance of each taxon. Spatial Location and Grain: The database contains data from across the globe, with 85% of the sites having well‐defined geographical coordinates. Major Taxa and Level of Measurement: The database covers all major freshwater biological groups including algae, macrophytes, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish and amphibians