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| 2. |
- Embert, Dirk, et al.
(författare)
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Priority areas for amphibian conservation in a neotropical megadiverse country : the need for alternative, non place based, conservation
- 2011
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 20:7, s. 1557-1570
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Amphibians constitute one of the most threatened species group worldwide. Because they are affected by various threats such as habitat destruction, chytrid fungus, climate change, invasive species and human use, different approaches are needed for their conservation. In this paper we examine patterns of alpha diversity, endemism and threatened species distributions of amphibians in Bolivia. We modeled distribution data using ecological niche modeling implemented with MaxEnt (Maximum Entropy Modeling). In contrast with previous studies, we validated each individual map with specialists. Important areas for amphibian conservation were defined by overlapping species richness, endemism richness and concentration of threatened species, and then excluding all unsuitable habitats. Our goal was to identify high-priority sites for the conservation of amphibians in Bolivia. We discuss a place-based strategy (identification of priority areas) and the need for further non place-based strategies. We highlight the importance of strengthening two existing protected areas that together host up to 40% of Bolivia's threatened amphibian species, and we propose alternative strategies such as ex situ conservation for those species not covered by the priority areas. Bolivia's General Directorate for Biodiversity and Protected Areas (in Spanish, Direccin General de Biodiversidad y Areas Protegidas (DGBAP)) and Bolivian experts are jointly using the here presented results to define a national strategy of amphibian conservation for safeguarding this important element of Bolivia's biodiversity.
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| 3. |
- Hortal, Joaquin, et al.
(författare)
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Perspectives on the use of lakes and ponds as model systems for macroecological research
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of limnology. - : Pagepress. - 1129-5767 .- 1723-8633. ; 73:Suppl. 1, s. 46-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Macroecology studies large-scale patterns aiming to identify the effects of general ecological processes. Although lakes (and ponds) are particularly suited for macroecological research due to their discrete nature and non geographically-structured variability, the development of this discipline in lentic habitats is comparatively much smaller than for terrestrial environments. This is despite the interest of limnologists for large-scale phenomena, which results in the high level of development of some disciplines such as predictive limnology. Here we discuss how current state-of-the-art in macroecology may benefit from research in lentic habitats at five topics. First, by including an island biogeography analytical framework to incorporate the effects of lake origin and history on lentic biodiversity. Second, by studying local and regional effects on the latitudinal gradients of species richness. Third, by considering lakes and ponds altogether for the study of beta diversity and metacommunity structure, which is already common ground in limnological research. Fourth, by relating species traits with ecosystem structure and functioning; here we consider in particular the potential effects of body size-determined dispersal and competitive exclusion processes on lake-wide trophic organization. And fifth, by incorporating current research in functional (i.e., trait) and phylogenetic diversity to the study of community structure. We finally conclude that lentic habitats can be particularly important for the development of the most functional aspects of macroecology, due to the relative ease of studying the different biotic and abiotic components of the system separately, compared to most terrestrial systems. This can allow teasing apart many of the confounding factors that are characteristic of macroecological research, thus helping the development of future theoretical syntheses.
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| 4. |
- Castroviejo-Fisher, Santiago, et al.
(författare)
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A new species of Hyalinobatrachium (Anura: Centrolenidae) from the Amazonian slopes of the central Andes with comments on the diversity of the genus in the area
- 2009
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Ingår i: Zootaxa. - 1175-5326 .- 1175-5334. ; :2143, s. 24-44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We describe a new species of Hyalinobatrachium from the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia on the basis of morphological, bioacoustic and genetic characteristics. Hyalinobatrachium carlesvilai sp. nov. can be distinguished from other species of Hyalinobatrachium by the combination of the following characters: (1) truncate snout in dorsal and lateral view; (2) white pericardium; (3) enameled dorsal, tarsal and cloacal folds; (4) hand webbing formula III 2(-) -1(+) IV; (5) iris cream; (6) advertisement call consisting of a single, frequency-modulated note with a pulsed section followed by a tonal section. The new species had been previously identified as Hyalinobatrachium munozorum and H. bergeri. The advertisement call of the new species was previously assigned to H. bergeri. Here we describe the previously unknown call of Hyalinobatrachium bergeri. Additionally, we study the taxonomic status of H. lemur and H. pellucidum and place the former as synonym of the later. We extend the distribution of H. pellucidum to Departamento Cusco in southern Peru.
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| 5. |
- Goicoechea, Noemi, et al.
(författare)
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Recovering phylogenetic signal from frog mating calls
- 2010
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Ingår i: Zoologica Scripta. - : Wiley. - 0300-3256 .- 1463-6409. ; 39:2, s. 141-154
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Few studies have tried to analyse the phylogenetic information contained in frog mating calls. While some of those studies suggest that sexual selection deletes any phylogenetic signal, others indicate that frog calls do retain phylogenetic informative characters. Discordant results can be the outcome of disparate rates of character evolution and evolutionary plasticity of call characters in different groups of frogs, but also the result of applying different coding methods. No study to date has compared the relative performance of different coding methods in detecting phylogenetic signal in calls, hampering thus potential consilience between previous results. In this study, we analyse the strength of phylogenetic signal in 10 mating call characters of 11 related species of frogs belonging to three genera of Andean and Amazonian frogs (Anura: Terrarana: Strabomantidae). We use six quantitative characters (number of notes per call, note length, call length, number of pulses per note, fundamental frequency and dominant frequency) and four qualitative ones (presence/absence of: pseudopulses, frequency modulation in notes, amplitude modulation in notes and amplitude modulation in pulses). We code quantitative characters using four different coding and scaling methods: (i) gap-coding, (ii) fixed-scale, (iii) step-matrix gap-weighting with between-characters scaling, and (iv) step-matrix gap-weighting with between-states scaling. All four coding methods indicate that frog calls contain phylogenetic information. These results suggest that divergent selection on frog mating calls may not always be strong enough to eliminate phylogenetic signal. However, coding methods strongly affect the amount of recoverable information. Step-matrix gap-weighting with between-characters scaling and gap-coding are suggested as the best methods available for coding quantitative characters of frog calls. Also, our results indicate that the arbitrariness in selecting character states and the method for scaling transitions weights, rather than the number of character states, is what potentially biases phylogenetic analyses with quantitative characters.
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| 6. |
- Koehler, Joern, et al.
(författare)
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Systematics of Andean gladiator frogs of the Hypsiboas pulchellus species group (Anura, Hylidae)
- 2010
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Ingår i: Zoologica Scripta. - : Wiley. - 0300-3256 .- 1463-6409. ; 39:6, s. 572-590
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We revisit the taxonomic status of Andean species and populations of frogs of the Hypsiboas pulchellus group using multiple lines of evidence potentially indicative of evolutionary lineage divergence in anurans: differences in qualitative morphological or bioacoustic character states, no overlap in quantitative characters of advertisement calls, and monophyly of gene genealogies. We found qualitative and quantitative morphological characters to be extremely variable among species and populations of the group and thus of very limited use in assessing lineage divergence. In contrast, phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA and cytochrome b sequences resolved highly supported clades that are in concordance with bioacoustic differences. The results support the specific distinctness of most nominal species recognized in the group, including the Bolivian Hypsiboas balzani and Hypsiboas callipleura, two species that were considered to be synonymous, and revealed the presence of an undescribed species from southern Peru, which is here described as Hypsiboas gladiator sp. n. In contrast, Hypsiboas andinus and Hypsiboas riojanus were mutually paraphyletic, and showed no differences in morphology and acoustic characters. Consequently, we regard the former as a junior synonym of the latter. However, we discovered that populations of H. riojanus from central Bolivia exhibit some degree of genetic differentiation and advertisement call differences with respect to Argentine populations, but sampling of these Bolivian populations is too sparse to draw taxonomic conclusions. Our phylogenetic results support the hypothesis that ancestral lineages of the Andean H. pulchellus group experienced successive splitting events along a latitudinal gradient from north to south.
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| 7. |
- Padial, José M., et al.
(författare)
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A response to recent proposals for integrative taxonomy
- 2010
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Ingår i: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0024-4066 .- 1095-8312. ; 101:3, s. 747-756
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several proposals have been launched under the new concept 'integrative taxonomy' to frame the future development of species discovery and description. We consider that some of those proposals have failed to be truly integrative, by not acknowledging the limitations of operational definitions of species, by defending some kinds of evidence as universally superior, by considering taxonomy to be irreconcilable with population genetics, or by ignoring that the heterogeneity of evolutionary processes often precludes full character congruence in species. Here we defend a taxonomy where species exist, but not in any particular way everyone might want them to exist; a taxonomy open to data and methods from population biology, phylogeography and phylogenetics, as well as any other discipline providing evidence about the origin and evolution of species. This new taxonomy embraces all the consequences of considering species as lineages of reproductive populations, encouraging the use of as many lines of evidence as possible, but without negating that a single line may also be the only one providing evidence for a particular species. Species cannot only be those reproductive populations showing broad character congruence and/or reproductive isolation, due to the different degrees of character congruence, as well as of reproductive isolation, that result from the heterogeneity of evolutionary processes causing lineage splitting and divergence. Also, any kind of character - and not only those established by tradition or fashion - is potentially relevant as evidence of lineage divergence. To conciliate the authors who only see species supported by broad character congruence as good species hypotheses, we explain how a hypothesis can gain corroboration using single or multiple lines of evidence, even in cases of discordance with other lines of evidence. Finally, we propose guidelines to identify the expected degree of stability (preliminary, unstable, and stable) of species hypotheses. (C) 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101, 747-756.
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| 8. |
- Padial, José M., et al.
(författare)
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Deciphering the products of evolution at the species level: the need for an integrative taxonomy
- 2009
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Ingår i: Zoologica Scripta. - : Wiley. - 0300-3256 .- 1463-6409. ; 38:4, s. 431-447
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Progress in molecular techniques together with the incorporation of phylogenetic analyses of DNA into taxonomy have caused an increase in the number of species' discoveries in groups with morphological characters that are difficult to study or in those containing polytypic species. But some emerged criticisms plead for a taxonomic conservatism grounded either on the requirement of providing evidences of morphological distinctiveness or reproductive barriers to erect new species names. In a case study of taxonomic research on Neotropical frogs, we combine several lines of evidence (morphological characters, prezygotic reproductive isolation and phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA) to test the status of 15 nominal species and to assess the degree of agreement of the different lines of evidence. Our study reveals that morphology alone is not sufficient to uncover all species, as there is no other single line of evidence independently. Full congruence between lines of evidence is restricted to only four out of the 15 species. Five species show congruence of two lines of evidence, whereas the remaining six are supported by only one. The use of divergence in morphological characters seems to be the most conservative approach to delineate species boundaries because it does not allow the identification of some sibling reciprocally monophyletic species differing in their advertisement calls. The separate analysis of differences in advertisement calls (evidence of reproductive isolation) or of phylogenetic data alone also shows limitations, because they do not support some morphological species. Our study shows that only an integrative approach combining all sources of evidence provides the necessary feedback to evaluate the taxonomic status of existing species and to detect putative new ones. Furthermore, the application of integrative taxonomy enables the identification of hypotheses about the existence of species that will probably be rejected or changed, and those that can be expected to persist.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Padial, Jose M, et al.
(författare)
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Rediscovery, resurrection and redescription of Rhinella leptoscelis (Boulenger, 1912) (Anura : Bufonidae)
- 2009
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Ingår i: Zootaxa. - 1175-5326 .- 1175-5334. ; :2115, s. 56-64
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We resurrect Rhinella leptoscelis (Anura: Bufonidae) from the synonymy of R. veraguensis and redescribe it on the basis of the holotype, and recently collected specimens from Peru and Bolivia. Rhinella leptoscelis is well distinguished from all other species of the R. veraguensis group by its flat head with well developed orbitotympanic and postorbital crests, distinct tympanum, large parotoid glands, spiny tubercles on dorsal surfaces, long and slender extremities, dorsolateral row of conical, enlarged and elevated tubercles, webbing absent on fingers, basal and serrated webbing between toes, and first finger longer than second. This species is known from the humid forests of the Amazonian versant of the Andes from central Bolivia to southern Peru.
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