Article
Ecology
Aiora Zabala, Luis Enrique Garcia Barrios, Unai Pascual
Summary: Sustainable farming near tropical forests can protect ecosystems at risk of biodiversity loss. However, in mountainous forest frontiers, cattle farming practices degrade land and endanger future livelihoods. Silvopasture, a form of agroforestry, can combine cattle farming, biodiversity conservation, and climate benefits, but its adoption is slow and relevant predictors are not well understood.
ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Alicia Williams, Ashley A. Dayer, J. Nicolas Hernandez-Aguilera, Tina B. Phillips, Holly Faulkner-Grant, Miguel Gomez, Amanda D. Rodewald
Summary: Although many coffee farms have shifted to full-sun cultivation, an increasing number of birdwatchers are paying attention to bird-friendly coffee certifications, showing a preference for considering the ecological environment of birds when purchasing coffee.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Aldo Daniel Jimenez-Ortega, Alonso Aguilar Ibarra, J. Mauricio Galeana-Pizana, Juan Manuel Nunez
Summary: This paper discusses how to incorporate changes within an agroecosystem into sustainability assessment by measuring the sustainability of organic coffee producers in Sierra Madre of Chiapas, Mexico. The results show that expanding coffee plantations into forested areas leads to higher levels of sustainability compared to converting agricultural activities into coffee plantations or having both transitions. Indicators such as labor efficiency, benefit-to-cost ratio, price, remnant of primary vegetation, recovery of production from natural phenomena, family succession, and producer land area also showed statistical differences between classes.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Santiago Izquierdo-Tort, Esteve Corbera, Drian Martin, Julia Carabias Lillo, Jerome Dupras
Summary: Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) provide economic incentives for natural resources management, and this study examines the distributional justice in community-based PES in Chiapas, Mexico. The analysis reveals both continuity and change in how communities share PES benefits, reflecting contradictory justice principles. The distribution of benefits is influenced by pre-existing land tenure features and norms, but communities continuously adjust benefit-sharing arrangements in response to distributional challenges. This study provides novel insights on the evolution, diversity, and complexity of distributive justice in community-based PES.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Julio Dominguez-Gabriel, Karina Guillen-Navarro, Gabriel Otero-Colina, Javier Valle-Mora, Rebeca Gonzalez-Gomez
Summary: This study focused on identifying Brevipalpus species, assessing the spread of Brevipalpus-associated viruses, and monitoring mite population fluctuations in coffee plantations in Chiapas, Mexico. Brevipalpus papayensis was found to be most abundant in shaded Bourbon coffee at 1300 meters above sea level, while B. yothersi was more common in open-growth canephora coffee at low altitudes. Both mite species did not pose risks to coffee production in the studied plantations at the time of the study.
EXPERIMENTAL AND APPLIED ACAROLOGY
(2021)
Letter
Biodiversity Conservation
Friederike C. Bolam, Louise Mair, Marco Angelico, Thomas M. Brooks, Mark Burgman, Claudia Hermes, Michael Hoffmann, Rob W. Martin, Philip J. K. McGowan, Ana S. L. Rodrigues, Carlo Rondinini, James R. S. Westrip, Hannah Wheatley, Yuliana Bedolla-Guzman, Javier Calzada, Matthew F. Child, Peter A. Cranswick, Christopher R. Dickman, Birgit Fessl, Diana O. Fisher, Stephen T. Garnett, Jim J. Groombridge, Christopher N. Johnson, Rosalind J. Kennerley, Sarah R. B. King, John F. Lamoreux, Alexander C. Lees, Luc Lens, Simon P. Mahood, David P. Mallon, Erik Meijaard, Federico Mendez-Sanchez, Alexandre Reis Percequillo, Tracey J. Regan, Luis Miguel Renjifo, Malin C. Rivers, Nicolette S. Roach, Lizanne Roxburgh, Roger J. Safford, Paul Salaman, Tom Squires, Ella Vazquez-Dominguez, Piero Visconti, John C. Z. Woinarski, Richard P. Young, Stuart H. M. Butchart
Summary: Conservation actions have prevented multiple extinctions of bird and mammal species since 1993, but many species remain highly threatened and efforts need to be scaled up to prevent further extinctions in the future.
CONSERVATION LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Maria Eugenia Aguilar-Alvarez, Gerardo Saucedo-Castaneda, Noel Durand, Isabelle Perraud-Gaime, Rosa Obdulia Gonzalez-Robles, Gabriela Mariana Rodriguez-Serrano
Summary: The study investigated the level of Ochratoxin A (OTA) in coffee from Chiapas, Mexico, and found that the prevalence of OTA is low, with 52% of samples not detecting OTA, 45% of samples having OTA concentration below European regulations, and only 3% exceeding the regulations. Further analysis showed that the presence of OTA depends on the variety, type, and processing of the coffee.
Article
Parasitology
Guillermo Orta-Pineda, Carlos Antonio Abella-Medrano, Gerardo Suzan, Adrian Serrano-Villagrana, Rafael Ojeda-Flores
Summary: The study found that landscape anthropization in the protected natural area in Chiapas, Mexico, impacts the composition and structure of mosquito assemblages, increasing the abundance and species richness of mosquitoes associated with sylvatic ecosystems.
Article
Ecology
A. E. Barnes, J. G. Davies, B. Martay, P. H. Boersch-Supan, S. J. Harris, D. G. Noble, J. W. Pearce-Higgins, R. A. Robinson
Summary: Recent commitments to increase protected areas to combat biodiversity crisis have been questioned due to mixed and rarely evaluated evidence. This study used citizen science data in the UK to assess the effectiveness of designated areas on avifauna. The findings suggest that these areas have positive associations with species occurrence, abundance, and change, with the greatest benefits seen in conservation-dependent and declining species.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Joanne Chang, Chia-Ching Wu, Chun-Yen Chang
Summary: This study aims to understand the correlation between human aesthetic perceptions and ecological quality by exploring the relationship between naturalness, measured by avian diversity, and the restorativeness people experience from the natural landscapes. The findings suggest that landscapes with greater objective naturalness, higher avian species richness and Shannon diversity index scores, were assessed as more natural and positively associated with perceived restorativeness. However, other environmental factors such as bird abundance did not show significant associations between perceived naturalness and restorativeness.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Itzel Ibarra-Meza, Hugo Alberto Barrera-Huertas, Eugenia Lopez-Lopez
Summary: The Metropolitan Zone of the Mexican Valley, being one of the most populated areas in the world, suffers from severe atmospheric pollution. This study focused on the evaluation of air quality and its relationship with the diversity of bird communities in the Protected Natural Area Sierra de Guadalupe. The results showed that poor air quality has a negative impact on bird diversity, emphasizing the importance of the protected area for biodiversity conservation.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Edson A. Alvarez-Alvarez, R. Carlos Almazan-Nunez, Fernando Gonzalez-Garcia, Marlene Brito-Millan, Alfredo Mendez-Bahena, Sergio Garcia-Ibanez
Summary: The study examined changes in woody plant species in Mexican cloud forests under different land use categories, showing that shade coffee plantations and advanced successional forests maintain higher species richness and diversity compared to cattle pastures. Composition and structure of vegetation were found to be similar between late successional forests and coffee plantations, both of which were more structurally complex than cattle pastures. This highlights the importance of shade coffee cultivation in maintaining biodiversity in cloud forest ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
M. J. Bedoya-Duran, H. H. Jones, K. M. Malone, L. C. Branch
Summary: The number and composition of birds and mammals in shade coffee landscapes in the Western Andes of Colombia differ from those in continuous forest, lacking certain species such as large-bodied, insectivorous birds and forest-specialist and large-bodied mammals. The richness of species in forest fragments is closer to that in shade coffee but differs significantly in species composition. The distance from continuous forest is the most important predictor for occupancy, suggesting that conserving higher elevation tropical montane forest is crucial for biodiversity conservation in shade coffee landscapes.
ANIMAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Edson A. Alvarez-Alvarez, R. Carlos Almazan-Nunez, Pablo Corcuera, Fernando Gonzalez-Garcia, Marlene Brito-Millan, Victor M. Alvarado-Castro
Summary: Land-use changes have impacted biodiversity in the Neotropics, particularly in agroforestry systems. This study evaluated the diversity of birds and their response to different land-use types in a Mexican cloud forest landscape. The results showed that late forests and shade coffee plantations had higher bird species diversity compared to cattle pastures. The study also highlighted the importance of shade coffee plantations in maintaining taxonomic and functional diversity of birds.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Andres M. Lopez-Perez, Andrea Chaves, Sokani Sanchez-Montes, Patrick Foley, Marcela Uhart, Julio Barron-Rodriguez, Ingeborg Becker, Gerardo Suzan, Janet Foley
Summary: This study investigated the ecology of Rickettsia species in the US-Mexico transboundary region, finding multiple Rickettsia pathogens and suggesting that wild animals may serve as potential hosts for Rickettsia diseases. The presence of various Rickettsia species highlights the importance of eco-epidemiological studies and the One Health approach in understanding disease transmission in this region.
TRANSBOUNDARY AND EMERGING DISEASES
(2022)