Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Diego Navarro-Drazich, Lucas G. Christel, Andres Gerique, Isabel Grimm, Maria-Luisa Rendon, Liliane Schlemer Alcantara, Yasmin Abraham, Maria del Rosario Conde, Cecilia De Simon
Summary: This paper assesses the state of knowledge of climate change and tourism in South and Central America, focusing on the characteristics of the tourism sector, climate risks, and GHG contribution. The authors conducted a literature review and searched for institutional publications, programs, and strategies. The analysis identified the main challenges and potentialities between tourism and climate change, including the limited number of studies and lack of primary data, as well as scarce tourism-specific policies and recent development of multisectoral climate plans.
JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mercedes Andrade-Velazquez, Ojilve Ramon Medrano-Perez, Martin Jose Montero-Martinez, Alejandro Alcudia-Aguilar
Summary: This study reveals a clear warming trend in southeast Mexico-Yucatan Peninsula, Central America, and the Caribbean regions, with slightly positive and negative precipitation anomalies in different areas. The correlation between temperatures and precipitation with climate drivers such as ENSO, PDO, and AMO is also highlighted in the research.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2021)
Review
Environmental Sciences
I Hagen, C. Huggel, L. Ramajo, N. Chacon, J. P. Ometto, J. C. Postigo, E. J. Castellanos
Summary: This paper provides a comprehensive assessment and synthesis of climate-related risks and adaptation potential in Central and South America. The study identifies various risks, such as food insecurity, floods and landslides, water scarcity, epidemics of vector-borne diseases, biome shift in the Amazon Forest, coral bleaching, coastal risks, and systemic failure due to cascading impacts. The analysis also highlights the importance of strengthening adaptive capacity and conducting further research on the risk-adaptation nexus in the region.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Omar Cirilli, Helena Machado, Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales, Christina Barron-Ortiz, Edward Davis, Christopher N. Jass, Advait M. Jukar, Zoe Landry, Alejandro H. Marin-Leyva, Luca Pandolfi, Diana Pushkina, Lorenzo Rook, Juha Saarinen, Eric Scott, Gina Semprebon, Flavia Strani, Natalia A. Villavicencio, Ferhat Kaya, Raymond L. Bernor
Summary: The study provides an updated taxonomic framework for the genus Equus and explores its relationship with other lineages of the family Equidae. It examines the correlations between body size and environmental changes using paleoclimatic map reconstructions. The study also presents the two most recent phylogenetic hypotheses on the evolution of Equus and compares them with molecular-based studies.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wesley P. Scott, Sergio Contreras, Gabriel J. Bowen, T. Elliott Arnold, Ramon Bustamante-Ortega, Josef P. Werne
Summary: Global warming is expected to impact regional precipitation, such as the projected warmer and drier climate in central-south Chile due to anthropogenic warming. Stable isotope compositions of precipitation provide valuable information about moisture sources and history, but data from remote areas like Chile are limited, hindering accurate regional precipitation modeling.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Zijie Zhao, Meng Han, Kai Yang, Neil J. Holbrook
Summary: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the climatological signatures of the midsummer drought (MSD) in Central America and southern Mexico. It identifies the role of surface wind-pressure patterns and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in influencing the development of the MSD.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michelle Simoes Reboita, Tercio Ambrizzi, Natalia Machado Crespo, Livia Marcia Mosso Dutra, Glauber Willian de S. Ferreira, Amanda Rehbein, Anita Drumond, Rosmeri Porfirio da Rocha, Christie Andre de Souza
Summary: Oceanic heat sources disrupt the atmosphere, leading to waves that affect climate in remote regions like South America. Eight teleconnection patterns, including ENSO, PDO, AMO, TAD, SAD, SAM, MJO, and IOD, play significant roles in influencing precipitation and wind anomalies in the region. The most affected areas are southeastern South America and the north sector of Brazil, characterized by a precipitation dipole pattern between them during each teleconnection pattern.
ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Geusep Ortega, Paola A. Arias, Juan Camilo Villegas, Pablo A. Marquet, Paulo Nobre
Summary: In tropical regions, particularly in Central and South America, climate seasonality projections under climate change remain uncertain. Models show moderately accurate simulations of precipitation and temperature on the continents but exhibit systematic biases over oceans, with better performance during certain seasons. Despite some improvements in CMIP6 models, biases still exist in simulating regional precipitation patterns and annual cycles. Projections suggest decreasing precipitation in most regions, while there is a general consensus on persistent warming for temperature, with an average increase of 6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century according to CMIP6 models.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Anna Carolina Bazzanela, Claudine Dereczynski, Wanderson Luiz-Silva, Pedro Regoto
Summary: This work evaluates the ability of 28 CMIP6 models to represent the South American climate during the reference period and finds that some models perform poorly in representing specific systems, with most models overestimating the intensity of the subtropical and polar jets.
Article
Ecology
Jean Goedert, Romain Amiot, Jeremy Anquetin, Nicolas Seon, Renaud Bourgeais, Gilles Bailly, Francois Fourel, Laurent Simon, Chun Li, Wei Wang, Christophe Lecuyer
Summary: Research findings suggest that the development of the early complete turtle shell may have occurred in a semi-aquatic or aquatic environment rather than on land. The study also reveals that the early stem turtle Odontochelys was a herbivorous semi-aquatic animal. These findings have significant implications for understanding the origin and evolution of turtles.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Tor E. Eriksen, John E. Brittain, Geir Soli, Dean Jacobsen, Peter Goethals, Nikolai Friberg
Summary: This study provides a first global overview of methods used to assess the environmental quality of rivers and streams using macroinvertebrates. By reviewing literature from developing economies, the study found that macroinvertebrates were successful in detecting degradation of environmental quality in rivers. A global common metric is proposed for river assessment, comprising three common river assessment metrics from literature review, emphasizing the urgent need for attention to riverine environmental quality.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Amanda Rehbein, Tercio Ambrizzi
Summary: ENSO events have been studied extensively due to their significant impact on climate and weather in South America. Most attention has been given to the warm phase (El Nino events) during the austral summer. However, it is still unclear how the teleconnection patterns are modified based on the different intensities of ENSO events in different seasons, and the subsequent impact on South America. This study aims to investigate how the different phases, intensities, and seasons of ENSO events modulate the Stationary Rossby Waves that impact South America. A tool called raytracing was developed for this purpose. The distribution of SST anomalies influences ENSO intensity, with higher and wider anomalies leading to stronger ENSO events. Weak ENSO events result in weak anomaly precipitation over South America, particularly in the southeast region. The position of stationary Rossby waves varies during El Nino and La Nina events, with El Nino causing them to be slightly closer to the equator and La Nina positioning them poleward. The wave shape and amplitudes remain constant during summer events regardless of ENSO intensity, demonstrating the robustness of precipitation anomaly patterns over South America. However, in other seasons, these wave features exhibit larger variations and heavily influence the position and signal of precipitation anomalies over South America, with positive anomalies associated with downstream crests and negative anomalies associated with downstream troughs/upstream crests.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Julia Mindlin, Carolina S. Vera, Theodore G. Shepherd, Marisol Osman
Summary: This article explores the response of summer rainfall in southeastern South America to greenhouse warming and identifies the combination of remote drivers that lead to extreme drying and wetting scenarios. The study also highlights the possibility of drying in southeastern South America and emphasizes the impact of regional box definition on the results.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2023)
Article
Economics
Daowei Zhang
Summary: This paper investigates the origins, trend, and drivers of institutional timberland investment in South and Central America. It notes that domestic institutions in South America have been a distinctive source of, and a significant contributor to, the rise of institutional timberland investment globally in the past six-plus decades. The paper further shows that foreign institutions have increased their timberland investment in the region since the 1990s, motivated by seeking high risk-adjusted returns.
FOREST POLICY AND ECONOMICS
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
C. J. Batchelor, S. A. Marcott, I. J. Orland, F. He, R. L. Edwards
Summary: The connection between abrupt high-latitude warming during the last glacial period-Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events-and rapid climate changes at lower latitudes has revealed inter-hemispheric teleconnections in the ocean-atmosphere system. We examined a speleothem in Wisconsin that grew from 70-50 thousand years ago and found large negative oxygen isotope (δO-18) excursions that correlate with DO events recorded in the ice core of the North Greenland Ice Core Project. Climate simulations suggest that abrupt DO warming would increase the δO-18 of annual precipitation in the study area, supporting the observed negative δO-18 excursions.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Alana C. Sharp, Blaine W. Schubert, Matthew W. Colbert, Steven C. Wallace, Frederick E. Grine
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2020)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christine M. Janis, Borja Figueirido, Larisa DeSantis, Stephan Lautenschlager
Article
Geography, Physical
J. Tyler Faith, David R. Braun, Benjamin Davies, Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Matthew J. Douglass, Irene Esteban, Vincent Hare, Naomi E. Levin, Julie Luyt, Robyn Pickering, Mitchell J. Power, Judith Sealy, Deano Stynder
JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE
(2020)
Article
Geography, Physical
Julien Louys, Yahdi Zaim, Yan Rizal, Aswan, Mika Puspaningrum, Agus Trihascaryo, Gilbert J. Price, Ansley Petherick, Elinor Scholtz, Larisa R. G. DeSantis
Summary: Orangutan fossils have been found throughout Pleistocene Southeast Asia, with modern orangutans now restricted to Borneo and Sumatra. The food procurement strategies between masting events differ between Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, with the former having diets with higher quality and less tough foods. Dental microwear analysis indicates that Pleistocene orangutans in western Sumatra had diets similar to modern Sumatran orangutans and likely consumed more fleshy fruits.
QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Robert S. Feranec, Mauricio Anton, Ernest L. Lundelius Jr.
Summary: Homotherium was a cosmopolitan cat in the Pleistocene, with a diet consisting of soft and tough foods including juvenile mammoths. Its dietary ecology was distinct from other extinct and extant cats, with adaptations for acquiring open-country prey and avoiding bone consumption. The findings suggest a unique feeding strategy for Homotherium when compared to other carnivores.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Ansley S. Petherick, Joshua D. Reuther, Scott J. Shirar, Shelby L. Anderson, Larisa R. G. DeSantis
Summary: Arctic climate change poses a threat to polar bears due to reduced sea ice affecting their prey availability. Research suggests that polar bears traditionally prefer soft foods, but some bears in the 21st century may be shifting towards consuming harder foods. The specialized diet and cranial morphology of polar bears may severely limit their ability to adapt to a warming Arctic.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Geography, Physical
Joshua E. Cohen, Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Emily L. Lindsey, Julie A. Meachen, F. Robin O'Keefe, John R. Southon, Wendy J. Binder
Summary: Using dental mesowear analyses, this study investigated the dietary behavior of Bison antiquus, Equus occidentalis, and Camelops hesternus from five pits in the latest Pleistocene. Results showed that Equus occidentalis were strict grazers, while Bison antiquus and Camelops hesternus were mixed feeders. Posterior probability and discriminant function analyses revealed little variability in Equus, modest variability in Bison, and high variability in Camelops, suggesting large ungulates may have been more opportunistic in their feeding strategies.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Melissa Pardi, Larisa R. G. DeSantis
Summary: This synthesis explores the isotopic ecology of North American mammalian herbivores since approximately 7 Ma, revealing that hypsodont taxa often have broader diets that include more browse consumption. The study demonstrates that even generalist taxa may have narrow localized dietary breadth, and that 'grazing-adapted' taxa exhibit dietary flexibility across space and time, potentially reducing competition among ancient herbivores.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Larisa DeSantis
Article
Geography, Physical
Abigail Kelly, Joshua H. Miller, Matthew J. Wooller, C. Tom Seaton, Patrick Druckenmiller, Larisa DeSantis
Summary: In contrast to modern Arctic ecosystems, the high-latitude ecosystems of the Late Pleistocene supported a diverse range of large herbivores, with potential coexistence supported by dietary differences and taphonomic differences suggesting spatial or temporal niche partitioning. Late Pleistocene bison and horses had less abrasive diets than modern obligate grazers, indicating a potential incorporation of more forbs in their diets for these grazers of the mammoth steppe. Dietary niche partitioning alone cannot fully explain the co-occurrence of Late Pleistocene bison and horses, suggesting additional factors such as spatial or temporal niche partitioning.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2021)
Correction
Biology
M. I. Pardi, L. R. G. DeSantis
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Geography, Physical
Joshua M. White, Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Alistair R. Evans, Laura A. B. Wilson, Matthew R. McCurry
Summary: Research on the extinct diprotodontid marsupial Hulitherium tomasettii suggests that it was not a specialist bamboo feeder as previously believed, but rather a generalized browser that may have been able to utilize vegetation higher up in trees. The study used a multi-proxy approach to analyze dental complexity and microwear texture, concluding that H. tomasettii did not exhibit the characteristics of extant bamboo feeding taxa.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Melissa Pardi, Andrew Du, Michael A. Greshko, Lindsey T. Yann, Richard C. Hulbert, Julien Louys
Summary: This study explores the intraspecific dietary variation of herbivorous mammals across the globe and through time by analyzing carbon isotopes in their enamel. The findings reveal that almost all herbivores, regardless of their dietary strategies, exhibit individual specialization with narrow carbon isotope ranges. This individual specialization reduces intraspecific competition, increases carrying capacities, and has stabilizing effects on species and communities over time.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Amanda A. Burtt, Larisa R. G. DeSantis
Summary: This study examines the bone utilization and durophagy behaviors of gray wolves from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) using dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA). The results show that the dietary behavior of wolves is not correlated with factors such as sex, body size, pack association, or age class. Additionally, there is an increased carcass exploitation in the contemporary GYE wolf population, suggesting a possible long-term trend linked to decreased winter severity and climate change.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Anthropology
David R. Braun, John Tyler Faith, Matthew J. Douglass, Benjamin Davies, Mitchel J. Power, Vera Aldeias, Nicholas J. Conard, Russell Cutts, Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Lydie M. Dupont, Irene Esteban, Andrew W. Kandel, Naomi E. Levin, Julie Luyt, John Parkington, Robyn Pickering, Lynne Quick, Judith Sealy, Deano Stynder
Summary: Despite advances in understanding the Paleolithic record, there is still much unknown about the evolutionary and ecological consequences of changes in human behavior. Developing expectations for identifying these phenomena is difficult due to the multi-generational impacts of behavior changes, requiring insights into emergent phenomena over longer time periods. Generative models show promise in exploring the unexpected consequences of human-environment interaction.
EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY
(2021)