- Landscape Ecologist with tendencies of unstructured anisotropic thinking, depending on context and scale...edit
Bee diversity and current status of native populations is barely known in cropland from semiarid Sergipe, where fruit production is a growing activity among small farmers. Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) is spread among small growers in... more
Bee diversity and current status of native populations is barely known in cropland from semiarid Sergipe, where fruit production is a growing activity among small farmers. Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) is spread among small growers in Canindé de São Francisco and Poço Redondo in Sergipe state, Northeastern Brazil, in semiarid Caatinga, causing landscape change and habitat loss. Available evidences support that cross-pollination provided by bees may increase seed set and fruit production, despite self-pollination. We aimed to access bee richness and abundance within Guava orchard and identify landscape parameters important to these patterns. Survey was conducted in ten Guava orchards during the flowering period (n=10) from May to December 2017. Nine bee species were recorded and the high density and generalist bees Trigona spinipes and Apis mellifera comprised 92% of the flower visitors. No other social native bees were found, and solitary bees were scarce. No significant influence ...
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1. Urban areas can host speciose bee communities due partially to the species‐rich combination of both native and alien plant species found in these landscapes. However, in intensively‐constructed zones, it could be expected to record a... more
1. Urban areas can host speciose bee communities due partially to the species‐rich combination of both native and alien plant species found in these landscapes. However, in intensively‐constructed zones, it could be expected to record a low plant diversity used by bees because of the high proportion of paved surfaces in these areas.
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Landscape structure can affect waterbird distributions across wetlands. In the Caribbean region, little focus has been given to the studies testing how waterbird communities are affected by the landscape structure of coastal wetlands. We... more
Landscape structure can affect waterbird distributions across wetlands. In the Caribbean region, little focus has been given to the studies testing how waterbird communities are affected by the landscape structure of coastal wetlands. We investigated the effects of landscape configuration on waterbird communities in southwestern Cuba and evaluated the contribution of the configuration of lagoons, mangrove and anthropogenic land use to waterbird diversity. Additionally, we identified the scale at which descriptors of waterbird community are most sensitive to landscape variables. We conducted waterbird surveys at 14 sampling points in coastal wetlands of southwestern Cuba during fall migration of 2016. Landscape structure was described with five landscape variables at three spatial scales. We found that at 6 km scale, mangrove mean patch area had a negative influence on waterbird abundance, while the percentage of landscape covered by lagoons had a positive effect at 2 km. However, a higher percentage of both mangroves and lagoons had an influence in waterbird composition variation at 2 km. The percentage of anthropogenic land use did not affect any response variable at the evaluated scales. Detecting the scale at which two important landscape resources (lagoons and mangroves) influence waterbird populations is an important tool for the successful management of these habitats. Study of these features could contribute to the adequate planning of protected areas along the coast of Cuba and the Caribbean.
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Esse trabalho teve como objetivo geral avaliar comparativamente a eficiencia dos quatros algoritmos parametricos de classificacao supervisionada por pixel mais utilizados no mapeamento da cobertura do solo, em uma area sob dominio do... more
Esse trabalho teve como objetivo geral avaliar comparativamente a eficiencia dos quatros algoritmos parametricos de classificacao supervisionada por pixel mais utilizados no mapeamento da cobertura do solo, em uma area sob dominio do Cerrado que apresenta uma vegetacao heterogenea, complexa e extremamente dinâmica, situada no Parque Municipal de Mucuge (12o59’18”S e 41o20’22’’W). Para isso foi utilizado uma imagem de alta resolucao espacial (KOMPSAT-2). Os algoritmos escolhidos foram de maxima verossimilhanca, paralelepipedo e a distância Euclidiana minima e de Mahalanobis. Para comparar e verificar qual foi o algoritmo parametrico que teve o melhor desempenho foram calculadas duas medidas que foram discordância de quantidade e de alocacao baseado em uma matriz de erro. Para avaliar se as classes produzidas pelo melhor classificador representavam bem a variacao estrutural da vegetacao da area de estudo foi realizada uma analise de variância (ANOVA) e o teste post-hoc de Tukey. De modo g...
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Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse biomes on the planet. Nevertheless, quantifying the abundance and species richness within megadiverse groups is a significant challenge. We designed a study to address this challenge by... more
Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse biomes on the planet. Nevertheless, quantifying the abundance and species richness within megadiverse groups is a significant challenge. We designed a study to address this challenge by documenting the variability of the insect fauna across a vertical canopy gradient in a Central Amazonian tropical forest. Insects were sampled over two weeks using 6-m Gressitt-style Malaise traps set at five heights (0 m–32 m–8 m intervals) on a metal tower in a tropical forest north of Manaus, Brazil. The traps contained 37,778 specimens of 18 orders of insects. Using simulation approaches and nonparametric analyses, we interpreted the abundance and richness of insects along this gradient. Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera had their greatest abundance at the ground level, whereas Lepidoptera and Hemiptera were more abundant in the upper levels of the canopy. We identified species of 38 of the 56 families of Diptera, finding that 527 out of 856 speci...
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Mutualistic plant-pollinator interactions play a key role in biodiversity conservation and eco-system functioning. In a community, the combination of these interactions can generate emergent properties, e.g., robustness and resilience to... more
Mutualistic plant-pollinator interactions play a key role in biodiversity conservation and eco-system functioning. In a community, the combination of these interactions can generate emergent properties, e.g., robustness and resilience to disturbances such as fluctuations in populations and extinctions. Given that these systems are hierarchical and complex, envi-ronmental changes must have multiple levels of influence. In addition, changes in habitat quality and in the landscape structure are important threats to plants, pollinators and their in-teractions. However, despite the importance of these phenomena for the understanding of biological systems, as well as for conservation and management strategies, few studies have empirically evaluated these effects at the network level. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the influence of local conditions and landscape structure at multiple scales on the characteristics of plant-pollinator networks. This study was condu...
Flowering plant species and their nectar-feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats and... more
Flowering plant species and their nectar-feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats and non-flying mammals as well as one lizard feed on nectar, often acting as pollinators and contributing to seed output of flowering plants. We present a dataset containing information on flowering plants visited by nectar-feeding vertebrates sampled at 166 localities in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. This dataset provides information about 1902 unique interactions among 515 species of flowering plants and 129 species of potential vertebrate pollinators and the patterns of species diversity across latitudes. All plant-vertebrate interactions compiled were recorded through direct observations of visits, and no inferences of pollinators based on floral syndromes were included. We also provide information on the most common plant traits used to understand the interactions between flowers and nectar-feeding vertebrates: plant growth form, corolla length, rate of nectar production per hour in bagged flowers, nectar concentration, flower color and shape, time of anthesis, presence or absence of perceptible fragrance by human, and flowering phenology as well as status of plant's threat status by IUCN classification. For the vertebrates, status of threat by IUCN classification, body mass, bill or rostrum size are provided. Information on the frequency of visits and pollen deposition on the vertebrate's body are provided when available on the original source. The highest number of unique interactions is recorded for birds (1771) followed by bats (110). For plants, Bromeliaceae contains the highest number of unique interactions (606), followed by Fabaceae (242) and Gesneriaceae (104). It is evident the geographical bias of the studies throughout the southeast of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and the highest efforts directed to flower-hummingbird interactions. However, it reflects a worldwide tendency of more plants interacting with birds than other vertebrate species. The lack of similar protocols among studies to collect basic data limit comparisons among areas and generalizations. Nevertheless, this dataset represents a notable effort to organize and highlight the importance of vertebrate pollinators on this hotspot of biodiversity on Earth and represents the data currently available. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications or scientific events.
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Measuring species richness of tropical forests is a major challenge. Such measurement is a key information in many senses, from an evolutionary perspective to conservation of threatened, fragile habitats. Data has gradually shown that the... more
Measuring species richness of tropical forests is a major challenge. Such measurement is a key information in many senses, from an evolutionary perspective to conservation of threatened, fragile habitats. Data has gradually shown that the canopy of tropical forest is a hugely complex component of the forest, but a precise assessment of the diversity of megadiverse groups in the canopy is still wanting. We collected large samples of insects were along a period of two weeks using 6-meter Gressitt-style Malaise traps set at five heights on a metal tower in a tropical forest north of Manaus—one trap at the ground level, one trap above the canopy (32 m) and three traps at intermediate levels (8, 16 and 24 m). The samples contained 37,778 specimens belonging to 18 order of insects. Fifty-seven families of flies (Diptera) were found, 39 of which were identified to 368 genera and 856 species. The species of these 39 families of flies fit into eight patterns of vertical distribution of abund...
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Earth has an extremely dynamic surface which changes naturally across time. In the last century, however, vegetation cover underwent severe modifications due to human demands for natural resources and food production. These changes are... more
Earth has an extremely dynamic surface which changes naturally across time. In the last century, however, vegetation cover underwent severe modifications due to human demands for natural resources and food production. These changes are deeply modifying the spatial distribution of native environments, which exist today mostly in small patches embedded in human dominated landscapes. This is even harsher in the tropics, where agricultural expansion is more intense. Ecologically, this means that native species have to cope with a heterogeneous set of new environments in which they did not evolve, bringing difficulties for the movement of foraging individuals. This can impair the encounters needed to establish biological interactions among individuals and different species. In this chapter, we explore how landscape changes can lead to variations in ecological networks structure and its consequences for biological and ecosystem services conservation. Although there is a general lack of complete and extensive studies regarding the effects of landscape changes on tropical ecological networks, there is growing evidence that, given a certain native vegetation cover, landscape heterogeneity may favor bigger and more complex networks across scales or ecological hierarchical levels. The relationship between landscape heterogeneity and the structure of ecological networks is however still an open field with many challenges and opportunities and a huge potential for application for conservation and environmental management.
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Invasive species can reach high abundances and dominate native environments. One of the most impressive examples of ecological invasions is the spread of the African sub-species of the honey bee throughout the Americas, starting from its... more
Invasive species can reach high abundances and dominate native environments. One of the most impressive examples of ecological invasions is the spread of the African sub-species of the honey bee throughout the Americas, starting from its introduction in a single locality in Brazil. The invasive honey bee is expected to more negatively impact bee community abundance and diversity than native dominant species, but this has not been tested previously. We developed a comprehensive and systematic bee sampling scheme, using a protocol deploying 11,520 pan traps across regions and crops for three years in Brazil. We found that invasive honey bees are now the single most dominant bee species. Such dominance has not only negative consequences for abundance and species richness of native bees but also for overall bee abundance (i.e., strong "numerical" effects of honey bees). Contrary to expectations, honey bees did not have stronger negative impacts than other native bees achieving similar levels of dominance (i.e., lack of negative "identity" effects of honey bees). These effects were remarkably consistent across crop species, seasons and years, and were independent from land-use effects. Dominance could be a proxy of bee community degradation and more generally of the severity of ecological invasions.
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Land-use change is having a negative effect on pollinator communities, and these changes in community structure may have unexpected impacts on the functional composition of those communities. Such changes in functional composition may... more
Land-use change is having a negative effect on pollinator communities, and these changes in community structure may have unexpected impacts on the functional composition of those communities. Such changes in functional composition may impact the capacity of these assemblages to deliver pollination services, affecting the reproduction of native and wild plants. However, elucidating those relationships requires studies in multiple spatial scales because effects and consequences are different considering biological groups and interactions. In that sense, by using a multi-trait approach, we evaluated whether the landscape structure and/or local environmental characteristics could explain the functional richness, divergence, and dispersion of bee communities in agroecosystems. In addition, we investigated to what extent this approach helps to predict effects on pollination services. This study was conducted in an agroecosystem situated in the Chapada Diamantina region, State of Bahia, Br...
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Background How landscape modifications affect functional diversity of floral characteristics pertinent to pollinators is poorly known. Flowers possess functional traits that sometimes coevolved with pollinators, crucial for the... more
Background How landscape modifications affect functional diversity of floral characteristics pertinent to pollinators is poorly known. Flowers possess functional traits that sometimes coevolved with pollinators, crucial for the maintenance of both pollinator and plant communities. We evaluated how richness and functional diversity of available understory flowers respond to forest cover and landscape heterogeneity in a multiscale analysis. Plants in bloom were sampled from 25 landscapes in the understory of Atlantic Forest fragments in Brazil. Species were classified into functional groups regarding flower characteristics relevant to pollination. Landscape heterogeneity and forest cover were measured in buffers ranging from 200 to 2000 m from sampling units and their correlation with plant richness and functional diversity was assessed using generalized linear models and further model selection through Akaike’s second-order information criterion. Results Plants’ richness and function...
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Bees foraging strategy is affected by the distribution and abundance of flower resources, mainly nectar and pollen. Homing-time of female Xylocopa cearensis (Ducke) bees to their nests was assessed through a simple translocation method.... more
Bees foraging strategy is affected by the distribution and abundance of flower resources, mainly nectar and pollen. Homing-time of female Xylocopa cearensis (Ducke) bees to their nests was assessed through a simple translocation method. The hypothesis addressed was that resource distribution in the landscape level influences bee homing time. The study area comprises about 300ha in a sand dune field with patchy shrubs in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The mean homing time after translocation was 60 min (sd = 4.36 min; n= 03), except for one bee that did not returned. The translocation technique was successfully applied to large solitary bees, since they do return to their own nest and can be easily recognized when arriving. Also, bees returned carrying pollen, what suggests foraging activity after translocations. Results evidence landscape functional connectivity since bees were able to move through local habitats. Further studies should address movement cost tradeoffs and its consequences...
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1. In recent years, there has been a fast development of models that adjust for imperfect detection. These models have revolutionized the analysis of field data, and their use has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of sampling design... more
1. In recent years, there has been a fast development of models that adjust for imperfect detection. These models have revolutionized the analysis of field data, and their use has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of sampling design and data quality. There are, how-ever, several practical limitations associated with the use of detectability models which restrict their relevance to tropical conservation science. 2. We outline the main advantages of detectability models, before examining their limitations associated with their applicability to the analysis of tropical communities, rare species and large-scale data sets. Finally, we discuss whether detection probability needs to be controlled before and/or after data collection. 3. Models that adjust for imperfect detection allow ecologists to assess data quality by esti-mating uncertainty and to obtain adjusted ecological estimates of populations and communi-ties. Importantly, these models have allowed informed decisions to be ma...
Research Interests: Zoology and Apidologie
Agriculture driven landscape changes has caused worldwide forest loss and fragmentation, seriously affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services, amongst which pollination is remarkably important. Bees are an essential pollinator group... more
Agriculture driven landscape changes has caused worldwide forest loss and fragmentation, seriously affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services, amongst which pollination is remarkably important. Bees are an essential pollinator group for forest plant populations and food production in tropical landscapes. They are also dependent on forested environments which are essential to maintain their diversity and pollination services. We analyzed bee diversity in contrasting forest and adjacent non-forest patches to evaluate if bees can use complementary non-native environments in heterogeneous altered tropical landscapes. The effect of landscape level heterogeneity and forest amount on bee diversity was also assessed. Our hypothesis was that bee communities would be more rich and diverse inside the forest understory, but due to supplementary foraging behaviors they would be more abundant in non-forested areas where flower availability is higher. We actively sampled bees visiting flowers w...
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Recent studies suggest that habitat amount is the main determinant of species richness, whereas habitat fragmentation has weak and mostly positive effects. Here, we challenge these ideas using a multi-taxa database including 2230... more
Recent studies suggest that habitat amount is the main determinant of species richness, whereas habitat fragmentation has weak and mostly positive effects. Here, we challenge these ideas using a multi-taxa database including 2230 estimates of forest-dependent species richness from 1097 sampling sites across the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. We used a structural equation modeling approach, accounting not only for direct effects of habitat loss, but also for its indirect effects (via habitat fragmentation), on the richness of forest-dependent species. We reveal that in addition to the effects of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation has negative impacts on animal species richness at intermediate (30–60%) levels of habitat amount, and on richness of plants at high (>60%) levels of habitat amount, both of which are mediated by edge effects. Based on these results, we argue that dismissing habitat fragmentation as a powerful force driving species extinction in tropical forest landscapes is premature and unsafe
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Understanding the effects of anthropogenic changes on groups that perform key ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest control, is essential for conservation and maintenance of these groups in landscapes. We aimed to understand... more
Understanding the effects of anthropogenic changes on groups that perform key ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest control, is essential for conservation and maintenance of these groups in landscapes. We aimed to understand how landscape heterogeneity and the natural vegetation loss affect the diversity of bees, wasps and their parasitoids in a resource limited semiarid environment. We sampled bees and wasps that nest in pre-existing cavities in 20 landscapes, for two years, in Ubajara National Park, in northeastern of Brazil. We recorded eleven species of bees, nine of wasps and six of parasitoids in 657 trapnests. Landscape heterogeneity had different effects on bees, wasps and their parasitoids. Landscape configuration had stronger effect than composition. Bee abundance decreased according to the complexity of the spatial arrangement of landscape units, while wasp abundance increased. Our study shows that in semiarid regions some species may have different responses t...
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The fauna of Euglossini bees is poorly known in savanna regions, making it difficult to understand how these bees use open vegetation environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of landscape structure on species... more
The fauna of Euglossini bees is poorly known in savanna regions, making it difficult to understand how these bees use open vegetation environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of landscape structure on species abundance and composition of Euglossini bees in naturally heterogeneous savanna landscapes. Nine sites were sampled monthly using six traps with chemical baits. Three aromatic essences (eucalyptol, methyl salicylate and vanillin) were used to attract the Euglossini. Surrounding environmental conditions were measured using three independent variables, calculated in multiple scales: index of local vegetation and two landscape indices (Shannon Diversity and area-weighted shape). We compared the competing hypotheses through model selection based on Second-order Akaike Information Criterion (AICc). The four competing hypothesis were: (1) The local vegetation complexity favors Euglossini bees species richness and/or abundance (local vegetation hypothesis); (2...
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Mutualistic plant-pollinator interactions play a key role in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning. In a community, the combination of these interactions can generate emergent properties, e.g., robustness and resilience to... more
Mutualistic plant-pollinator interactions play a key role in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning. In a community, the combination of these interactions can generate emergent properties, e.g., robustness and resilience to disturbances such as fluctuations in populations and extinctions. Given that these systems are hierarchical and complex, environmental changes must have multiple levels of influence. In addition, changes in habitat quality and in the landscape structure are important threats to plants, pollinators and their interactions. However, despite the importance of these phenomena for the understanding of biological systems, as well as for conservation and management strategies, few studies have empirically evaluated these effects at the network level. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the influence of local conditions and landscape structure at multiple scales on the characteristics of plant-pollinator networks. This study was conducte...