Past and present effects of habitat amount and fragmentation per se on plant species richness, composition and traits in a deforestation hotspot

Worldwide, human activities are rapidly changing land cover and its spatial configuration. While it is widely acknowledged that habitat loss is a major cause of biodiversity loss, there is less agreement on how biodiversity responds to changes in habitat configuration. We assessed the effects of forest amount and forest fragmentation per se (the number of patches for a given forest amount, an aspect of configuration) on woody species richness, composition, and traits in the Dry Chaco forest, a global deforestation hotspot. We sampled woody plants in 24 forest sites varying in forest amount and fragmentation per se in the surrounding landscapes. Using Generalized Linear Modeling we tested whether a model with just forest amount was at least as able to predict species richness as a model with either patch size or isolation or the combination of both. We also tested whether forest amount and fragmentation per se influenced species richness, composition, and the density of four species traits. Finally, we compared these responses to forest amount and fragmentation per se measured in the past (2009) vs. in the present (2017) to look for time-lagged responses. We found that: 1) in support of the habitat amount hypothesis, species richness was more strongly related to forest amount than to the size and/or isolation of the forest patch containing the sample plot; 2) the positive effect of forest amount on species richness was more important than the effect of fragmentation per se (also positive); 3) fragmentation per se changed species composition such that plots in landscapes with more fragmented forest had species with smaller leaves and seeds, and higher wood density; and 4) species richness showed a time-lagged response to forest amount but not to forest fragmentation per se. Our results suggest that preservation of native Dry Chaco forest should be prioritized regardless of its fragmentation level, for conserving woody plant species diversity

Cooperación al desarrollo en el bajo lempa (El Salvador): percepción del estado de salud y condición nutricional

En la región salvadoreña del Bajo Lempa se han desarrollado los proyectos de cooperación al desarrollo sostenible de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ref. 19/17, 18/11), en el que se analiza el nivel de calidad de vida de la zona mediante la condición nutricional de la población escolar y el nivel de seguridad alimentaria. Se evaluó la percepción sobre el estado de salud de 27 productores en función del tipo de agua de consumo; el estado nutricional de 334 escolares (5-16 años) y la percepción de seguridad alimentaria en 143 hogares. Los resultados obtenidos informan de la existencia de un 59,7% de hogares con algún tipo de inseguridad alimentaria, siendo la tipología grave la que mayor porcentaje aporta (25,9%). Se detecta una asociación positiva entre el nivel educativo materno y el nivel de seguridad alimentaria. Se reporta una 23,8% de sobrecarga ponderal y un 9% de desnutrición crónica

Protected Landscapes in Spain: Reasons for Protection and Sustainability of Conservation Management

Landscape conservation efforts in many European countries focus on cultural landscapes, which are part of the cultural identity of people, have a great heritage significance, improve the living standards of local populations and provide valuable cultural biodiversity. However, despite a wide arrange of protective measures, the management of preserved areas is seldom effective for the protection of cultural landscapes. Through a multi-approach analysis, we characterise the main heritage attributes of 17 Protected Landscapes in Spain and assess their management effectiveness by quantifying the evolution of the spatial pattern inside and outside protected landscapes. Our method has proven useful to quantitatively describe the spatial-temporal patterns of change of the protected and unprotected landscapes studied. We highlight the following results: (i) the concepts of uniqueness and naturalness are not appropriate to preserve cultural landscapes; (ii) the land protection approach currently adopted is not useful for the protection of cultural landscapes, particularly of the most rural ones; (iii) the landscapes studied with greater rural features can be considered as “paper parks”. We recommend that different protection measures focused on the needs and desires of the rural population are taken into account in order to protect cultural landscapes that are shaped by traditional rural activities

Assessment of a large number of empirical plant species niche models by elicitation of knowledge from two national experts

Quantitative models play an increasing role in exploring the impact of global change on biodiversity. To win credibility and trust, they need validating. We show how expert knowledge can be used to assess a large number of empirical species niche models constructed for the British vascular plant and bryophyte flora. Key outcomes were (a) scored assessments of each modeled species and niche axis combination, (b) guidance on models needing further development, (c) exploration of the trade‐off between presenting more complex model summaries, which could lead to more thorough validation, versus the longer time these take to evaluate, (d) quantification of the internal consistency of expert opinion based on comparison of assessment scores made on a random subset of models evaluated by both experts. Overall, the experts assessed 39% of species and niche axis combinations to be “poor” and 61% to show a degree of reliability split between “moderate” (30%), “good” (25%), and “excellent” (6%). The two experts agreed in only 43% of cases, reaching greater consensus about poorer models and disagreeing most about models rated as better by either expert. This low agreement rate suggests that a greater number of experts is required to produce reliable assessments and to more fully understand the reasons underlying lack of consensus. While area under curve (AUC) statistics showed generally very good ability of the models to predict random hold‐out samples of the data, there was no correspondence between these and the scores given by the experts and no apparent correlation between AUC and species prevalence. Crowd‐sourcing further assessments by allowing web‐based access to model fits is an obvious next step. To this end, we developed an online application for inspecting and evaluating the fit of each niche surface to its training data

Vinculaciones entre los usos energéticos en el ámbito doméstico y los bosques como bienes comunes : estudio de caso en una localidad rural del árido sanjuanino, Argentina

Se trata de establecer posibles vinculaciones entre la evolución del bosque y los usos de las energías disponibles (gas, leña y electricidad) para llevar a cabo las principales actividades domésticas en Mogna, una pequeña localidad rural del árido sanjuanino, en Argentina. La finalidad es construir reflexiones sobre posibles maneras de reducir la presión sobre los bosques a la vez que hacer más fáciles y salubres las tareas en el ámbito doméstico rural.Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región CuyoFil: Herrero Jáuregui, Cristina. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Biología, Departamento de Ecología (España).Fil: Karol, Ana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Serafini, Nicolas. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Silva Furlani, Natalia del Valle. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región; ArgentinaFil: Sosa, Carlos Sebastian. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Allasino, Mariana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Cañadas, Mario. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Alberghini, Juan Pablo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Agricultura Familiar Región Cuyo; Argentin

Aprender divulgando: mejora del aprendizaje de conceptos y de la expresión oral y escrita mediante la divulgación científica

Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias BiológicasFALSEsubmitte

Estudio de comunidades de matorral mediterráneo I

Conjunto de guiones de prácticas de Ecología, correspondientes al bloque temático sobre el estudio de comunidades, y material complementario (estadillo y plantilla para la matriz de datos)

Guía Rápida de SPSS v.25 (Prácticas de Ecología)

Guía rápida de SPSS v.25 para usar en las Prácticas de Ecología (Grado en Biología, 3er curso

Programa piloto de uso del portafolio como herramienta docente en el Grado de Biología

Memoria final del proyecto de Innovación educativa "Programa piloto de uso del portafolio como herramienta docente en el Grado de Biología