Caracterización Ecológica en Múltiples Escalas de Sayornis saya y S. phoebe y su Zona de Contacto en las Grandes Planicies

We assessed interspecific ecological relationships between Say's (Sayornis saya) and Eastern (S. phoebe) phoebes at three scales by developing ecological niche models at two spatial extents and comparing the models' predictions with data from local-scale surveys. The two species' habitats differed in several environmental attributes, primarily precipitation, temperature, and vegetation indices, at both extents. Local-scale surveys between -97° and -101° longitude revealed a steep gradation in ratios of occurrences Say's to the Eastern Phoebe, increasing from east to west. Local-scale occurrences coincided with results of ecological niche models at the extent of both the continent and contact zone, except for Eastern Phoebe occurrences and vegetation indices at both extents. Say's Phoebes nested in open country with sparse or no surrounding woodland, whereas Eastern Phoebe nests were primarily along woodland streams but also at seven sites in more open country where Say's Phoebes had nested previously. At the contact-zone extent, the niche space of the Eastern Phoebe was embedded more into that of Say's Phoebe than the converse. Although niche models at the contact-zone extent indicated some potential for contact, competition between these two species for nest sites is probably less important in limiting distributions than are autoecological characteristics

ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATION STRUCTURE AND ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODEL PROJECTIONS

Non

Environmental Correlation Structure and Ecological Niche Model Projections

This is the published version

Ecological niche modeling of the rare bee Promelitta alboclypeata reveals possible cryptic differentiation across northern Africa and Arabia (Hymenoptera: Melittidae)

International audienceAbstractThe scarcely collected bee Promelitta alboclypeata with known occurrence across northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula is a typical example of the bee family Melittidae which encompasses a good number of species with sparse or disjunct distributions and particular flower preferences. Using records for 16 localities, we estimated ecological niche models for P. alboclypeata in Maxent on four sets of occurrences, to represent the disparity of the known records, most of them known from the western section of the range. Our estimates show a predicted area for the species in the northern section of the geographic extent assumed accessible to the species (mainly north Africa and the Arabian Peninsula), signaling feasible regions to survey for the presence of the species; possible ecological niche differentiation between the western and eastern populations is also signaled by the models

Human cytomegalovirus US28 facilitates cell-to-cell viral dissemination

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encodes a number of viral proteins with homology to cellular G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These viral GPCRs, including US27, US28, UL33, and UL78, have been ascribed numerous functions during infection, including activating diverse cellular pathways, binding to immunomodulatory chemokines, and impacting virus dissemination. To investigate the role of US28 during virus infection, two variants of the clinical isolate TB40/E were generated: TB40/E-US28(YFP) expressing a C-terminal yellow fluorescent protein tag, and TB40/E-FLAG(YFP) in which a FLAG-YFP cassette replaces the US28 coding region. The TB40/E-US28(YFP) protein localized as large perinuclear fluorescent structures at late times post-infection in fibroblasts, endothelial, and epithelial cells. Interestingly, US28(YFP) is a non-glycosylated membrane protein throughout the course of infection. US28 appears to impact cell-to-cell spread of virus, as the ΔUS28 virus (TB40/E-FLAG(YFP)) generated a log-greater yield of extracellular progeny whose spread could be significantly neutralized in fibroblasts. Most strikingly, in epithelial cells, where dissemination of virus occurs exclusively by the cell-to-cell route, TB40/E-FLAG(YFP) (ΔUS28) displayed a significant growth defect. The data demonstrates that HCMV US28 may contribute at a late stage of the viral life cycle to cell-to-cell dissemination of virus

Paléoenvironnements et adaptations humaines au Dernier Maximum Glaciaire : le cas du Badegoulien

Avec l’avancée de nos connaissances sur la variabilité climatique de la dernière période glaciaire en Europe, une meilleure précision des simulations paléoclimatiques et le développement d’algorithmes prédictifs, il est aujourd’hui possible d’aborder sur de nouvelles bases la relation entre environnement et culture au Paléolithique supérieur. Cette étude expose les résultats de l’application de la modélisation de niches éco-culturelles (Eco-Cultural Niche Modeling) au Badegoulien (culture archéologique de la fin du Dernier Maximum Glaciaire). L’application de deux architectures prédictives – Genetic Algorithm for Rule-Set Prediction (GARP) et Maximum Entropy (Maxent) – à partir des données archéologiques, paléoclimatiques et géographiques, nous a permis de reconstituer la niche écologique propre à cette culture. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les deux territoires définis à partir de la circulation des matières premières lithiques au Badegoulien correspondent à des conditions environnementales légèrement distinctes mais qui appartiennent à la même niche écologique.This study details an application of Eco-Cultural Niche Modeling (ECNM) aimed at examining the ecological context of the Badegoulian archaeological culture during the middle and later part of the Last Glacial Maximum in France, using two modeling architectures – the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-Set Prediction (GARP) and Maximum Entropy (Maxent). We reconstructed the ecological niche of the Badegoulian and also assessed whether eco-cultural variability existed within the technocomplex. We identified two broad but distinct territories within the Badegoulian based on lithic raw material circulation and used randomization-based tools to compare the eco-cultural niches estimated for these two territories, taking into account the use or non-use of conditions within the dispersal range of the human populations in question. In order to examine patterns of eco-cultural niche similarity, we used ENMTool’s (Warren et al., 2008 and 2010) niche overlap measures and the associated background similarity test. The overlap measures compare two maps (in this case, the eco-cultural niche reconstructions for the two Badegoulian territories) and measure the similarity between them. The background similarity test then evaluates whether the observed degree of similarity between the two maps is greater than would be expected by chance. We defined a background area for each of the Badegoulian territories based on a generalization of lithic raw material transport within the Badegoulian. This was accomplished by establishing a buffer with a radius of 175 km centered on clusters of recorded archaeological sites within each territory. When creating these buffers, we also kept intact the boundary between the northern and southern territories since there are no known instances of lithic raw material circulation between the two. The predicted geographic range of the ecological niche reconstructed for the Badegoulian technocomplex as a whole covers much of present-day France, extending north into southern Belgium and south into the northern third of the Iberian Peninsula, although the known distribution of the Badegoulian does not extend into either of the two regions. The eco-cultural niche reconstructions for the two lithic raw material circulation networks show an overlap in the southern portion of the present-day region of Poitou-Charentes, the western part of the Limousin region, and southwards along the western margin of the Massif Central. The background similarity tests indicate that these two Badegoulian territories are interpredictive and thus occupy the same ecological niche. However, the northern territory is associated with ecological conditions that are slightly cooler and more humid than those of the southern territory. We propose that the identified Badegoulian lithic raw material circulation networks reflect distinct social territories associated with particular conditions within a single ecological niche. The relationship between these territories and ecological factors has interesting implications, considering that they share a common lithic technology. We argue that the trend towards territoriality observed in the Upper Solutrean (Banks et al., 2009) carries over into the Badegoulian, during which time territories become more distinct, even if the distinction is not readily apparent in terms of stone tool types. This study illustrates the utility of combining ecological niche reconstructions with archaeological data to identify and evaluate diachronic trends in cultural continuity for situations in which such patterns may be missed when the focus is solely on lithic technology and typology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Introducción a los análisis espaciales con énfasis en modelos de nicho ecológico

En 2016 implementamos un sistema de seminarios de enseñanza, en formato de videos libres y accesibles desde internet, con la finalidad de dar a conocer de forma sencilla y en castellano, las bases conceptuales y aplicaciones de los modelos de nicho ecológico en estudios de ecología, conservación biológica, epidemiología y agrobiodviersidad, así como su implementación para el diseño de políticas públicas de los recursos naturales. Cada seminario fue desarrollado por uno o varios expertos discutiendo conceptos, métodos y diferentes herramientas disponibles para elaborar modelos de distribución de especies. Este manuscrito reúne los resúmenes de cada uno de los seminarios en línea, dando referencias clave para cada tema y el enlace al video correspondiente. Los videos están disponibles de forma libre en YouTube o en formato .mp4 bajo solicitud

Curso modelado de nicho ecológico, version 1.0

The suite of ideas, protocols, and software tools that has come to be known as “Ecological Niche Modeling” (ENM) — as well as those for the related “Species Distribution Modeling” (SDM)—has seen intensive exploration and research attention in recent decades. In spite of at least four syntheses, the field has grown so much in complexity that it is rather difficult to access for newcomers. Until now, accessibility to this field was achieved by in-person courses organized by universities or research centers, in some of which we have participated as instructors. However, the access to these specialized courses is limited, on one hand because they are not offered in all universities, and on the other because normally they are taught in English. To expand the access to a wider community of Spanish-speaking researchers, here we offer an entirely digital and free-of-charge course in Spanish, which was presented over 23 weeks via Internet in 2018. Although intrinsic Internet-related barriers may limit access to course materials, we have made them available in diverse formats (video, audio, pdf) in order to eliminate most of these problems.El conjunto de ideas, métodos y programas informáticos que se conoce como “Modelado de Nicho Ecológico” (MNE)—y el relacionado “Modelado de Distribución de Especies” (MDS)—han sido objeto de intensa exploración e investigación en las últimas décadas. A pesar de existir al menos cuatro síntesis publicadas, este campo ha crecido tanto en complejidad, que la formación de nuevos investigadores es difícil. Hasta ahora, dicha formación se ha hecho de manera presencial en cursos organizados por universidades o centros de investigación, de los que hemos formado parte como instructores. Sin embargo, el acceso a este tipo de cursos especializados es restringido, por un lado, porque los cursos no se ofrecen en todas las universidades, y por otro, porque normalmente se imparten en inglés. Para facilitar el acceso a una mayor comunidad de científicos de habla hispana, presentamos un curso en español, completamente digital y de acceso gratuito, que se realizó vía Internet durante 23 semanas consecutivas en 2018. Aunque las barreras intrínsecas al uso de Internet pueden dificultar la accesibilidad a los materiales del curso, hemos usado diversos formatos para la divulgación de los contenidos académicos (video, audio, pdf) con el objetivo de eliminar la mayor parte de estos problemas

Research priorities for maintaining biodiversity’s contributions to people in Latin America

Maintaining biodiversity is crucial for ensuring human well-being. The authors participated in a workshop held in Palenque, Mexico, in August 2018, that brought together 30 mostly early-career scientists working in different disciplines (natural, social and economic sciences) with the aim of identifying research priorities for studying the contributions of biodiversity to people and how these contributions might be impacted by environmental change. Five main groups of questions emerged: (1) Enhancing the quantity, quality, and availability of biodiversity data; (2) Integrating different knowledge systems; (3) Improved methods for integrating diverse data; (4) Fundamental questions in ecology and evolution; and (5) Multi-level governance across boundaries. We discuss the need for increased capacity building and investment in research programmes to address these challenges

Open Access Solutions for Biodiversity Journals: Don’t Replace One Problem with Another

N