During the last century,the coyote(Canis latrans)has increased its distribution in Central America.Before the 1980s,it had not been recorded in Panama.New records show that coyotes have crossed the Panama Canal,indica...During the last century,the coyote(Canis latrans)has increased its distribution in Central America.Before the 1980s,it had not been recorded in Panama.New records show that coyotes have crossed the Panama Canal,indicating that continues to expand;therefore,there is a possibility that it will reach northern South America.Our objectives were to identify potential coyote colonization routes to South America,and the variables that favor its expansion.We hypothesized that habitat fragmentation benefits coyote expansion.We applied 7 algorithms to model the potential distribution of the coyote,using 196 presence records and 12 variables.The models with better performance were used to generate a consensus model.Using our consensus model and the areas with highest probability of presence,a potential colonization route was generated between Central America and northern South America.This route lies through southern Costa Rica,along the Pacific coast of Panama to the south,to the Andean mountains in northern Colombia.The variables that explained potential coyote distribution were human population density,altitude,and percentage of crops with positive influence,and tropical broadleaf forests with negative in-fluence.These results indicate that human activities and deforestation are related to coyote distribution expansion.Actions can be implemented within the identified route to improve environmental management,in order to avoid the presence of the coyote in the ecosystems of northern South America.展开更多
Biosphere reserves are protected areas whose purpose is to combine conservation and sustainable development.However,their effectiveness has not been tested sufficiently,especially from an ecological and genetic ap...Biosphere reserves are protected areas whose purpose is to combine conservation and sustainable development.However,their effectiveness has not been tested sufficiently,especially from an ecological and genetic approach.In this sense,the Peromyscus genus represents an excellent bioindicator to address these questions,due to its short life and high evolutionary rate and fecundity.For conservation managers,genetic structure can increase the rate of loss of genetic diversity because alleles exclusive of a subpopulation are more likely to disappear as a consequence of genetic drift in comparison with a panmictic population.Here we analyzed the abundance,movement distances,morphology/morphometry and genetic structure of 3 populations of Mexican deer mouse(Peromyscus mexicanus)located in different protected zones of La Tigra National Park(Honduras).Our results are consistent among the 3 approaches and showed the highest values of abundance,morphometry and genetic diversity in the population located at the core zone,whereas non-statistically significant differences were found between buffer and transition zone populations,suggesting suitable effectiveness of conservation management in the core zone but a lack of ecological buffering function of the other zones.In addition,the low movement distances and high genetic structure among the studied populations provide evidence of poor conservation management in the buffer and transition zone.Thus,we discuss the utility of the novel methodology used in this work,combining morphometry,abundance and genetics,in testing the effectiveness of conservation strategies in biosphere reserves,and the value of the Peromyscus genus as a bioindicator.展开更多
文摘During the last century,the coyote(Canis latrans)has increased its distribution in Central America.Before the 1980s,it had not been recorded in Panama.New records show that coyotes have crossed the Panama Canal,indicating that continues to expand;therefore,there is a possibility that it will reach northern South America.Our objectives were to identify potential coyote colonization routes to South America,and the variables that favor its expansion.We hypothesized that habitat fragmentation benefits coyote expansion.We applied 7 algorithms to model the potential distribution of the coyote,using 196 presence records and 12 variables.The models with better performance were used to generate a consensus model.Using our consensus model and the areas with highest probability of presence,a potential colonization route was generated between Central America and northern South America.This route lies through southern Costa Rica,along the Pacific coast of Panama to the south,to the Andean mountains in northern Colombia.The variables that explained potential coyote distribution were human population density,altitude,and percentage of crops with positive influence,and tropical broadleaf forests with negative in-fluence.These results indicate that human activities and deforestation are related to coyote distribution expansion.Actions can be implemented within the identified route to improve environmental management,in order to avoid the presence of the coyote in the ecosystems of northern South America.
文摘Biosphere reserves are protected areas whose purpose is to combine conservation and sustainable development.However,their effectiveness has not been tested sufficiently,especially from an ecological and genetic approach.In this sense,the Peromyscus genus represents an excellent bioindicator to address these questions,due to its short life and high evolutionary rate and fecundity.For conservation managers,genetic structure can increase the rate of loss of genetic diversity because alleles exclusive of a subpopulation are more likely to disappear as a consequence of genetic drift in comparison with a panmictic population.Here we analyzed the abundance,movement distances,morphology/morphometry and genetic structure of 3 populations of Mexican deer mouse(Peromyscus mexicanus)located in different protected zones of La Tigra National Park(Honduras).Our results are consistent among the 3 approaches and showed the highest values of abundance,morphometry and genetic diversity in the population located at the core zone,whereas non-statistically significant differences were found between buffer and transition zone populations,suggesting suitable effectiveness of conservation management in the core zone but a lack of ecological buffering function of the other zones.In addition,the low movement distances and high genetic structure among the studied populations provide evidence of poor conservation management in the buffer and transition zone.Thus,we discuss the utility of the novel methodology used in this work,combining morphometry,abundance and genetics,in testing the effectiveness of conservation strategies in biosphere reserves,and the value of the Peromyscus genus as a bioindicator.
