Navegando por Assunto "Dry forest"

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Inside or out? Cave size and landscape effects on cave-roosting bat assemblages in Brazilian Caatinga caves
(2020-04-08) Carlos Vargas-Mena, Juan; Cordero-Schmidt, Eugenia; Rodriguez-Herrera, Bernal; A. Medellín, Rodrigo; de Medeiros Bento, Diego; M. Venticinque, Eduardo; Jorge Ortega
Cave bats have an intimate association with their roosts. Size, structural heterogeneity, and microclimatic conditions are traits of caves known to affect the structure of these assemblages. The effects of the natural and anthropogenic landscape factors around caves on the structure of these assemblages are poorly known, especially in areas with large cave clusters. We assessed the effects of cave size and surrounding landscape attributes on the richness and species composition of cave-roosting bats in 13 caves distributed in two landscapes with large cave clusters in Caatinga dry forests, Brazil. In a 1-km buffer around caves, we obtained 13 internal cave and external landscape variables. Candidate univariate models using generalized linear models were constructed and the Akaike information criterion was used for model selection. The cave size model explained richness and variance in the species composition; larger caves tended to have greater richness and assemblage composition varied depending on the cave size, hence affecting the occurrence of certain species, some of conservation concern (Natalus macrourus, Furipterus horrens). The cave connectivity model affected only the richness; caves located in denser cave clusters had higher richness likely attributed to movement of bats among caves by a more diverse array of species. Both environmental and anthropic variables affected species composition, but differently depending of the landscape context of cave location (protected versus nonprotected area). The extent these landscape variables affected the species composition was due to species-specific responses, and observed in the mean colony sizes of the species shared between the cave systems. All the landscape variables that we tested affected the structuring process of cave-roosting bats assemblages, and evidences that variables found in disturbed karstic landscapes also affect the structure of the assemblage (e.g., large colonies of vampire bats). However, the ubiquitous effect of cave size on both richness and species composition reinforces the critical importance of the roost in the life of these flying mammals.
Artigo
Playback point counts and N‐mixture models suggest higher than expected abundance of the critically endangered blond titi monkey in northeastern Brazil
(American Journal of Primatology, 2020-03-30) Coelho, Igor P. et al.
Effective management of threatened species requires accurate population size estimation and monitoring. However, reliable population size estimates are lacking for many endangered species. The critically endangered blond titi monkey (Callicebus barbarabrownae) is an endemic primate of the Caatinga biome in Northeastern Brazil. A previous assessment based on presence‐only data estimated a minimum population size of 260 mature individuals in 2,636 km2 , and studies based on visual records suggested very low local relative abundance. However, this cryptic species is known to be difficult to visually detect. We played back recordings of C. barbarabrownae loud calls to count the number of responding groups in 34 sampling sites during 9 consecutive days in a 221‐km2 study area. Repeated group counts at sites were used in N‐mixture models, which account for imperfect detection, to estimate the number of groups in relation to dry forest area and distance to villages. We estimated a total of 91 groups in the study area. Considering the mean number of adults per group as three, we estimated a population of 273 adult individuals, resulting in a density of 2.3 individuals/km2 in the dry forest habitat. Detection probability was four times higher for surveys conducted between sunrise to midmorning than between midmorning to sunset. We also found that C. barbarabrownae abundance increases with increasing dry forest area and increasing distance to the nearest village, indicating the need to promote dry forest restoration in the Caatinga. As our results suggest a larger population of C. barbarabrownae than had been previously estimated for its entire distribution, our results suggest a need for similar assessments in other areas to reliably estimate the total population size. This study demonstrates how playback surveys coupled with N‐mixture models can be used to estimate population sizes of acoustically‐responsive primates, and thus contribute to more effective conservation management.