Áreas vulnerables a la invasión actual y futura de la rana toro (<em>Lithobates catesbeianus<em>: Ranidae) en Colombia: estrategias propuestas para su manejo y control

The bullfrog is one of the most aggressive invasive species globally because of their wide dispersal ability, competence and their voracious eating habits. In Colombia, the species has been reported since the early 80's when entered the country as an economic alternative in the frog breeding and distribution has increased since then. This work has modeled potential distribution of the species in Colombia based upon the projection of the distribution in the native area in the northeastern United States. Likewise, the distribution was compared with the current potential future distribution of three global circulation models (CCCMA-CGCM31, CSIRO_MK30 and IPSL_CM4) and over two time horizons (2050 and 2080 yrs). It was determined that the Andes and the Caribbean Region in Colombia presents optimal areas for the establishment of the species present and the future. It is urgent to design and implement a management and control plan for Bullfrog populations in Colombia, to identify invaded areas and perform control of this species. This article provides some basis for the development of this plan in Colombia

Global South leadership towards inclusive tropical ecology and conservation

Strengthening participation of Global South researchers in tropical ecology and conservation is a target of our scientific community, but strategies for fostering increased engagement are mostly directed at Global North institutions and researchers. Whereas such approaches are crucial, there are unique challenges to addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within the Global South given its socio-economic, cultural and scientific contexts. Sustainable solutions protecting biodiversity in the tropics depend on the leadership of Global South communities, and therefore DEI improvements in the Global South are paramount in our field. Here, we propose ten key actions towards equitable international collaborations in tropical ecology, which, led by Global South researchers, may improve DEI at institutional, national and international levels. At an institutional level, we recommend (1) becoming role models for DEI, (2) co-developing research with local stakeholders, and (3) promoting transparent funding management favouring local scientists. At a national level, we encourage (4) engagement in political actions protecting scientists and their research in tropical countries, (5) participation in improving biodiversity research policies, and (6) devising research that reaches society. At an international level, we encourage Global South researchers in international collaborations to (7) lead and direct funding applications, (8) ensure equitable workloads, and (9) procure equal benefits among national and foreign collaborators. Finally, (10) we propose that Global South leadership in DEI efforts has the most potential for worldwide improvements, supporting positive long-lasting changes in our entire scientific community. Supplementary materials provide this abstract in 18 other languages spoken in the Global South

The Effects of Governmental Protected Areas and Social Initiatives for Land Protection on the Conservation of Mexican Amphibians

Traditionally, biodiversity conservation gap analyses have been focused on governmental protected areas (PAs). However, an increasing number of social initiatives in conservation (SICs) are promoting a new perspective for analysis. SICs include all of the efforts that society implements to conserve biodiversity, such as land protection, from private reserves to community zoning plans some of which have generated community-protected areas. This is the first attempt to analyze the status of conservation in Latin America when some of these social initiatives are included. The analyses were focused on amphibians because they are one of the most threatened groups worldwide. Mexico is not an exception, where more than 60% of its amphibians are endemic. We used a niche model approach to map the potential and real geographical distribution (extracting the transformed areas) of the endemic amphibians. Based on remnant distribution, all the species have suffered some degree of loss, but 36 species have lost more than 50% of their potential distribution. For 50 micro-endemic species we could not model their potential distribution range due to the small number of records per species, therefore the analyses were performed using these records directly. We then evaluated the efficiency of the existing set of governmental protected areas and established the contribution of social initiatives (private and community) for land protection for amphibian conservation. We found that most of the species have some proportion of their potential ecological niche distribution protected, but 20% are not protected at all within governmental PAs. 73% of endemic and 26% of micro-endemic amphibians are represented within SICs. However, 30 micro-endemic species are not represented within either governmental PAs or SICs. This study shows how the role of land conservation through social initiatives is therefore becoming a crucial element for an important number of species not protected by governmental PAs

Sir Samuel Baker: a Memoir North Africa Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel

La rana toro es una de las especies invasoras más agresivas a nivel global debido a su amplia capacidad de dispersión, de competencia y por sus hábitos alimenticios voraces y plásticos. En Colombia la especie ha sido reportada desde la década de los 80's cuando fue introducida al país como alternativa económica en la ranicultura y su distribución se ha incrementado desde ese entonces. En el presente trabajo se realizó un modelo de distribución potencial de la especie para Colombia basado en la proyección de la distribución actual en el área nativa, en el noreste de los Estados Unidos. Así mismo se comparó la distribución potencial actual con la distribución futura en tres modelos globales de circulación (CCCMA-CGCM31, CSIRO_MK30 y IPSL_CM4) y a lo largo de dos horizontes de tiempo (años 2050 y 2080). Se determinó que los Andes y la región Caribe en Colombia presentan áreas óptimas para el establecimiento de la especie en el presente y en el futuro. Es urgente realizar un plan de manejo y control de la rana toro en Colombia, identificar las áreas invadidas para controlar las poblaciones de esta especie y tomar medidas preventivas en áreas potenciales para la invasión.Artículo revisado por pare

Functional diversity of phyllostomid bats in an urban–rural landscape: A scale-dependent analysis

Urbanization is one of the most pervasive processes of landscape transformation, responsible for novel selection agents promoting functional community homogenization. Bats may persist in those environments, but the mechanisms responsible for their adaptability and the spatial scales in which the landscape imposes environmental filtering remain poorly studied in the Neotropics. We tested the hypothesis that landscape composition interacts with the spatial scale to affect the functional diversity of phyllostomids in an urban–rural gradient. Based on functional traits, we calculated indices of functional richness, divergence, evenness, and community-weighted means of morphological traits, and classified species into functional groups. We evaluated the changes in those variables in response to forest, grassland, and urbanized areas at 0.5, 1.25, and 2km scales. The number of functional groups, functional richness, and functional evenness tended to be higher in areas far from cities and with higher forest cover, whereas functional divergence increased in more urbanized areas. Our results show that the mean value of wing loading in the assemblage was negatively associated with landscape transformation at several spatial scales. However, environmental filtering driven by grass cover was particularly robust at the 0.5km scale, affecting big-sized species with long-pointed wings. Retaining natural forest in cattle ranging systems at ~12 km2 appears to favor the functional evenness and number of functional groups of phyllostomids. Recognizing the scale of the effect on phyllostomid functional responses appears to be a fundamental issue for elucidating the spatial extent to which phyllostomid conservation planning in urban–rural landscapes should be addressed. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.Fil: Ramírez Mejía, Andrés Felipe. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Colombia. Universidad de Los Llanos; ColombiaFil: Urbina Cardona, J. Nicolás. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Sánchez, Francisco. Universidad de Los Llanos; Colombi