Article
Ecology
Savvas Zotos, Marilena Stamatiou, Ioannis N. Vogiatzakis
Summary: Improving knowledge on species distribution is crucial for species conservation and management. This study uses species distribution models to predict the distribution of the Cyprus grass snake, an elusive species. The results significantly improve previous estimations and provide new perspectives on the species ecology and conservation.
ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Carlos P. Munoz-Ramirez, Nicole Colin, Cristian B. Canales-Aguirre, Aliro Manosalva, Ruby Lopez-Rodriguez, Jeet Sukumaran, Konrad Gorski
Summary: Diplomystidae is a family of freshwater catfish that has been discovered in a new location in southern South America. The study suggests that this population may have survived in the basin during the Last Glacial Maximum, indicating the importance of glacial history in shaping freshwater biodiversity in the region.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Parasitology
Raquel Gardini Sanches Palasio, Thiago Salomao de Azevedo, Roseli Tuan, Francisco Chiaravalloti-Neto
Summary: This study evaluated the distribution of Biomphalaria species habitats in the Middle Paranapanema region of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and predicted future changes, focusing on the maintenance of habitats, expansion of scattered spots, and the spread of species to new areas.
Article
Ecology
Xavier Rotllan-Puig, Anna Traveset
Summary: MinBAR is an R package that calculates the optimal background area by sequentially fitting several concentric species distribution models to achieve satisfactory model quality. It is a versatile tool that helps modellers define the optimal solution.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Anderson A. Eduardo, Alexandre Liparini, Pablo A. Martinez, Sidney F. Gouveia, Pablo Riul
Summary: Species distribution models (SDMs) rely on assumptions of equilibrium distribution with the environment and conserved climatic niche over geological time. Multitemporal calibration improves the temporal transferability of SDMs, allowing for integration of fossil and recent occurrence data.
ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Rebecca Biddle, Ivette Solis-Ponce, Martin Jones, Stuart Marsden, Mark Pilgrim, Christian Devenish
Summary: This study utilized citizen science to help understand the distribution of the newly described and Critically Endangered Amazona lilacina and found up to 92% overlap between field data models and community data models.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Benjamin Deneu, Maximilien Servajean, Pierre Bonnet, Christophe Botella, Francois Munoz, Alexis Joly
Summary: CNN models are found to be crucial in improving predictive performance of CNN-SDMs by considering local landscape structure in predicting plant occurrences in France. They can identify the influence of local environmental landscapes and provide noticeable prediction gain for rare species, showing promising potential for biodiversity monitoring and conservation strategies.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Stefano Mammola, Julien Petillon, Axel Hacala, Jeremy Monsimet, Sapho-Lou Marti, Pedro Cardoso, Denis Lafage
Summary: Species distribution models are essential tools for ecologists to explore species distributions and answer questions related to biogeography, climate change, and conservation biology. Most studies focused on well-known organisms or charismatic and economically important arthropod species, with limited research on terrestrial arthropod predators. The use of SDMs in mapping the geography of arthropod predators is still in a nascent stage, with potential for future research using modern data sources and new modeling approaches.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zhen Ye, Juanjuan Yuan, Jakob Damgaard, Gavril Marius Berchi, Fabio Cianferoni, Matthew R. Pintar, Horea Olosutean, Xiuxiu Zhu, Kun Jiang, Xin Yang, Siying Fu, Wenjun Bu
Summary: Holocene climate warming has significant impacts on the population structure and gene flow of the cold-adapted water strider Aquarius paludum. The study reveals two phylogeographic lineages that diverged in the middle Pleistocene, resulting in a west-east genetic pattern. In the Holocene, the western and eastern lineages had a second contact, forming a temporary hybrid zone in the arid-semiarid regions of China. The future prediction suggests the possible existence of a novel northern corridor that would intensify the west-east gene flow.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Lucas dos Santos Rodrigues, Nicholas Winterle Daudt, Luis Gustavo Cardoso, Paul Gerhard Kinas, David Conesa, Maria Grazia Pennino
Summary: This article investigates the characteristics of species distribution modelling research in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (SWAO). The majority of studies focus on the Global North, with Brazil being the most prolific country. Collaboration between research groups appears to be limited, with few instances of collaboration between groups.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Luca Vecchioni, Federico Marrone, Simone Costa, Calogero Muscarella, Elena Carra, Vincenzo Arizza, Marco Arculeo, Francesco Paolo Faraone
Summary: This study genetically characterized the Sicilian population of the European pine marten for the first time, showing that it is a native species that colonized the island during the Pleistocene and has a well-differentiated endemic lineage. The discovery of a previously unknown major phylogroup of the species in Sicily highlights the need for dedicated monitoring and conservation efforts to protect this evolutionarily significant population.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Asad Ali, Farrah Zaidi, Syeda Hira Fatima, Said Munir
Summary: The study utilized binomial kriging to model the spatial distribution of three species of flies in livestock in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, showing a good fit of the spatial models. It was found that land-use-land-cover was a significant factor affecting the spatial distribution of all three species, while elevation acted as a barrier for the invading species, Wohlfahrtia magnifica, limiting its distribution potential.
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yuyang Xian, Yongquan Lu, Guilin Liu
Summary: Global climate change caused by fossil energy consumption threatens the habitat of pangolins. MaxEnt modeling reveals that temperature, precipitation, geomorphology, and vegetation coverage affect the habitats of different pangolin species. Human activities pose a threat to pangolin habitats, but labor transfer in southern China mitigates the negative impact in rural areas. Illegal pangolin trade is a significant threat, and future scenarios show changes in habitat for different pangolin species.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rhett M. Rautsaw, Gustavo Jimenez-Velazquez, Erich P. Hofmann, Laura R. V. Alencar, Christoph I. Grunwald, Marcio Martins, Paola Carrasco, Tiffany M. Doan, Christopher L. Parkinson
Summary: In addition to being important for biologists, species distributions also have practical uses for naturalists, curious citizens, and fields like conservation planning and medical intervention. Venomous snakes, with their global distribution and medical significance, particularly highlight the importance of accurate information. To address the need for updated fine-scale distributions, researchers have created VenomMaps, a database and web application that provides updated distribution maps and species distribution models for all New World pitvipers.
Article
Forestry
Cristina Alegria, Alice M. M. Almeida, Natalia Roque, Paulo Fernandez, Maria Margarida Ribeiro
Summary: This study modeled the potential distribution of Maritime pine using the MaxEnt algorithm under current and future climate change scenarios. It updated the species ecological envelope map and assessed the agreement between the maps produced by different methodological approaches. The MaxEnt-predicted map matched well with the species' current distribution, while the ecological envelope map was closer to the species' empirical potential distribution. Climate change had moderate impacts on the species' future distributions using MaxEnt, but higher and more severe impacts on the ecological envelope map. Combining both approaches resulted in a decrease in species occupancy in the future under climate change scenarios.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Hector Tejero-Cicuendez, Austin H. Patton, Daniel S. Caetano, Jiri Smid, Luke J. Harmon, Salvador Carranza
Summary: The geographic distribution of biodiversity is crucial for understanding evolution. This study uses the reptile communities in Afro-Arabia to investigate the biogeographic patterns and their drivers. By reconstructing phylogenetic relationships and ancestral distributions, the researchers estimate dispersal, vicariance, and range contraction events. The study finds an increase in vicariance following the Oligocene, likely due to the fragmentation of the Afro-Arabian plate. Additionally, it suggests diversification enhanced by environmental processes and the establishment of a dispersal corridor connecting Africa, Arabia, and Eurasia.
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Daniel Escoriza, Axel Hernandez
Summary: This study investigated habitat utilization patterns of Mediterranean salamanders and found that vegetation cover has similar influences on terrestrial and aquatic species, with important differences identified for lotic and lentic aquatic species. The aquatic lotic, terrestrial, and small-body species were also found to deviate significantly from the expected range of variation.
INTEGRATIVE ZOOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Alex Slavenko, Karin Tamar, Oliver J. S. Tallowin, Fred Kraus, Allen Allison, Salvador Carranza, Shai Meiri
Summary: This study provides a comprehensive revision of the skink genus Lobulia and its related genera in New Guinea. The findings suggest that Lobulia, as currently defined, is polyphyletic, leading to the establishment of four new genera and the description of nine new species. The study also highlights the biogeographic history of Lobulia and its radiation in the accreted terranes of New Guinea. These findings emphasize the uniqueness and importance of New Guinea's montane herpetofauna to tropical biodiversity.
ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
David Donaire-Barroso, Axel Hernandez, Daniel Escoriza
Summary: This study evaluates the environmental factors affecting the presence of Alytes maurus and highlights the positive correlation between vegetation cover and its presence. Therefore, protecting riparian forests and streams is crucial for the conservation of this species.
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF HERPETOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Steven P. Brady, Debora Goedert, Lauren E. Frymus, Francisco Javier Zamora-Camacho, Peter C. Smith, Caroline J. Zeiss, Mar Comas, Timothy A. Abbott, Silvia P. Basu, Jason C. DeAndressi, Mia E. Forgione, Michael J. Maloney, Joseph L. Priester, Faruk Senturk, Richard Szeligowski, Alina S. Tucker, Mason Zhang, Ryan Calsbeek
Summary: Human activities have caused massive losses of natural populations across the globe, and amphibians are among the groups that have experienced substantial declines. Roads, which are often associated with habitat conversion, pollution, and disease emergence, have been found to have a novel consequence on wood frogs in North America. Wood frogs living near roads had higher incidence and severity of oedema during the breeding season compared to those living away from roads. This effect was explained by increased conductivity of breeding ponds, likely caused by runoff pollution from road salt used for de-icing. Oedema severity was negatively correlated with locomotor performance in northern populations, which experience more intense winters.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Parasitology
Jorge Garrido-Bautista, Josue Martinez-de la Puente, Jose Luis Ros-Santaella, Eliana Pintus, Paula Lopezosa, Nicola Bernardo, Mar Comas, Gregorio Moreno-Rueda
Summary: This study sampled Culicoides from Eurasian blue tit nests and found that habitat type and timing of reproduction have significant impacts on the abundance and species composition of Culicoides.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Jiri Smid, Marek Uvizl, Mohammed Shobrak, Salem Busais, Al Faqih Ali Salim, Raed Hamoud M. AlGethami, Abdulaziz Raqi AlGethami, Abdulkarim Saleh K. Alanazi, Saad Dasman Alsubaie, Michail Rovatsos, Lucie Novakova, Tomas Mazuch, Salvador Carranza
Summary: This study investigates the genetic, morphological, and ecological diversification of a Hemidactylus clade in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. The researchers discovered four undescribed species within the clade, two from Arabia and two from Ethiopia. The study also highlights the underestimated role of the southern Arabian coastal desert as a local biodiversity hotspot.
ORGANISMS DIVERSITY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Arlo Hinckley, Ines Sanchez-Donoso, Mar Comas, Miguel Camacho-Sanchez, Melissa T. R. Hawkins, Noor Haliza Hasan, Jennifer A. Leonard
Summary: Bergmann's and Allen's rules have been used to describe ecological patterns across latitudinal gradients, but there is still ongoing discussion about these patterns in tropical montane mammals. This study on the Mountain Treeshrew in Borneo found a complex pattern of morphological variation across elevation, not fully supporting Bergmann's and Allen's rules. It suggests that factors other than temperature may play a more important role in shaping the phenotypic variation of this species.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Daniel Escoriza, Jihene Ben Hassine
Summary: In this study, the evolutionary patterns of climate niches in five species and eleven subspecies of the genus Testudo were assessed using ecological niche models. The results showed that there were differences and overlaps in the climate niches among the species and subspecies, with a higher level of evolutionary divergence observed among sister species.
Article
Zoology
D. Escoriza
Summary: The Pacific Ocean, the largest in the world, contains diverse reptiles in remote archipelagos. This study found that there are spatial effects on species' dispersal ability, and this effect is more significant than the phylogenetic effect. The reproductive mode and body size also play a role in the dispersal capacity of island squamates.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jorge Garrido-Bautista, Josef Harl, Hans-Peter Fuehrer, Mar Comas, Steve Smith, Dustin J. Penn, Gregorio Moreno-Rueda
Summary: This study examines the prevalence and associations of microfilariae in a wild population of blue tits, as well as characterizes the filarioid lineages using genetic sequencing. The results show a moderate prevalence of microfilariae in the blue tit population, and a negative association between parasite presence and host body mass. Phylogenetic analyses reveal the presence of five filarioid lineages, four of which belong to the Splendidofilaria clade.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Catarina J. Pinho, Mohammed Darwish, Jiri Smid, Salvador Carranza, Raquel Vasconcelos
Summary: DNA metabarcoding is a crucial tool for understanding trophic interactions and biodiversity. This study applied this method to investigate the diet composition of the reptile community in Wadi Ashar, Saudi Arabia. The results revealed the unexpected importance of plants in the reptiles' diet and the significant influence of reptile body size on diet composition.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Zoology
Karin Tamar, Marek Uvizl, Mohammed Shobrak, Mohammed Almutairi, Salem Busais, Al Faqih Ali Salim, Raed Hamoud M. AlGethami, Abdulaziz Raqi AlGethami, Abdulkarim Saleh K. Alanazi, Saad Dasman Alsubaie, Laurent Chirio, Salvador Carranza, Jiri Smid
Summary: A recent molecular phylogeny of the agamid genus Pseudotrapelus has identified a genetically distinct lineage in central Saudi Arabia, which has been described as a new species named P. tuwaiqensis sp. nov. This species is endemic to the Tuwaiq Escarpment and is genetically differentiated and phylogenetically close to P. sinaitus and P. chlodnickii.
VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Zoology
Felix Amat, Daniel Escoriza
Summary: This study evaluated the influence of climate on the distribution of the king cobra and predicted its future distribution. Through phylogenetic analysis, the researchers found that the current distribution of the species is strongly correlated with humid climate conditions. The study also suggests that the absence of the king cobra in Sri Lanka and Taiwan can be explained by the lack of suitable climatic corridors during the connection between these islands and the mainland.
ZOOLOGICAL STUDIES
(2022)
Article
Ornithology
Jorge Garrido-Bautista, Antonio Soria, Cristina E. Trenzado, Amalia Perez-Jimenez, Eliana Pintus, Jose Luis Ros-Santaella, Nicola Bernardo, Mar Comas, Stanislav Kolencik, Gregorio Moreno-Rueda
Summary: Birds have developed defense mechanisms to minimize the negative effects of ectoparasites on their nestlings. This study tested predictions of the Tasty Chick Hypothesis by analyzing immune capacity and body condition of Blue Tit nestlings parasitized by Hen Fleas and Blowflies. The results partially supported the TCH, showing lower immune capacity in smaller nestlings and a negative impact of Hen Fleas on smaller nestlings.