Journal Information
Issue
Vol. 19. Issue 4.
Pages 399-504 (October - December 2021)
Essays and perspectives
How effective are conservation areas to preserve biodiversity in Mexico?
Armando Falcón-Brindis, Jorge L. León-Cortés, Marytania Montañez-Reyna
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:399-410
Highlights

  • Insects are threatened from the drivers of global habitat loss and fragamentation.

  • Insect diversity and conservation have been overlooked across conservation programs.

  • Poor taxonomy and sampling biases restrict the understanding of diversity patterns.

  • Erebidae moths are underrepresented across conservation polygons of southern Mexico.

  • Protected areas are not effectively at preserving hyperdiverse groups.

Open access
The lost road: Do transportation networks imperil wildlife population persistence?
Rafael Barrientos, Fernando Ascensão, Marcello D’Amico, Clara Grilo, Henrique M. Pereira
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:411-6
Highlights

  • The global road network is rapidly growing.

  • Population-level studies represent a minority on road ecology.

  • Most of them focused large mammals from high-income countries.

  • More research on threatened species from developing countries is need.

Open access
Research letters
Long-term contamination of the Rio Doce estuary as a result of Brazil’s largest environmental disaster
Fabrício Â. Gabriel, Amanda D. Ferreira, Hermano M. Queiroz, Ana Luisa S. Vasconcelos, Tiago O. Ferreira, Angelo F. Bernardino
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:417-28
Highlights

  • Long-term (>4.2 years) contamination and ecological risks of the Rio Doce estuary.

  • Sediment metal(loid)s concentrations support a continued potential adverse biological effect.

  • Despite a decrease in metal(loid)s concentration, the chronic contamination is still above reference values.

  • The Rio Doce estuary works as a sink for tailings and a source of toxic metal(loid)s.

Open access
Environmental diversity as a reliable surrogacy strategy of marine biodiversity: A case study of marine mammals
Yaiyr Astudillo-Scalia, Fábio Albuquerque, Beth Polidoro, Paul Beier
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:429-34
Highlights

  • Environmental diversity efficiently represents marine mammal diversity.

  • Environmental diversity is an effective abiotic surrogate for biodiversity conservation.

  • Environmental variables can be effectively used in marine biodiversity conservation.

Open access
Implications of unreliable species identification methods for Neotropical deer conservation planning
Pedro Henrique de Faria Peres, Francisco Grotta-Neto, Douglas Jovino Luduvério, Márcio Leite de Oliveira, José Maurício Barbanti Duarte
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:435-42
Highlights

  • Detection method information is absent in 38% of deer records in protected areas.

  • Most of the records (60%) used unsuitable methods for deer species identification.

  • Forest deer species are the most impacted regarding unreliable identification.

  • Greater scientific rigor on data acquisition is necessary for conservation planning.

Open access
Low contribution of Caribbean-based researchers to academic publications on biodiversity conservation in the insular Caribbean
Henri Vallès, Sophie Labaude, Etienne Bezault, Darren Browne, Amy Deacon, Reia Guppy, Aimara Pujadas Clavel, Frank Cézilly
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:443-53
Highlights

  • Review of peer-reviewed literature on biodiversity conservation in insular Caribbean between 2000 and 2015.

  • On a per year base, Caribbean-based authors found in 32% of papers, accounted for 22% of lead paper authorships, represented 17% of authors per paper.

  • No evidence of improvement in the above metrics over time.

  • Marked differences in paper contributions among Caribbean locations, with evidence of low intra-regional collaboration.

Open access
Combined impacts of climate and land use change and the future restructuring of Neotropical bat biodiversity
Fernando Gonçalves, Lilian P. Sales, Mauro Galetti, Mathias M. Pires
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:454-63
Highlights

  • The expansion of bat habitat generalists coupled with range contraction of bat habitat specialist will homogenize the Neotropical bat communities.

  • Warm-adapted bat species might expand their ranges towards higher altitudes, while mountain-top specialists will run out of suitable climate.

  • Monitoring programs will be important to track species that are predicted to become extinct and also the projected range expansion of sanguivorous bats.

  • The most effective way to protect Neotropical bat species will be increasing landscape connectivity and safeguarding the refugia highlighted here.

Open access
Avian assemblages associated with different grasslands managements in cattle production systems in the pampas of Argentina
Mariano Codesido, David Bilenca
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:464-74
Highlights

  • Ryegrass promotion sites (through the application of herbicide glyphosate) had lower vegetation cover <10 cm than other grazing sites.

  • Structure of bird communities varied among management treatments.

  • Ryegrass promotion sites had a negative effect on nearctic migrants.

  • Understanding ecological processes are benefitial for wildlife conservation.

Open access
Functional trait perspective on suitable habitat distribution of invasive plant species at a global scale
Chun-Jing Wang, Ji-Zhong Wan
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:475-86
Highlights

  • We used Maxent ecological niche modeling to quantify habitat suitability of invasive plant species (IPS).

  • Functional trait context dependence could affect suitable habitat distributions of IPS across different biomes.

  • We suggested to use community mean functional traits to predict suitable habitat distributions of IPS.

Open access
Most Mexican hummingbirds lose under climate and land-use change: Long-term conservation implications
David A. Prieto-Torres, Laura E. Nuñez Rosas, Daniela Remolina Figueroa, María del Coro Arizmendi
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:487-99
Highlights

  • Global climate and land-use changes will have a serious impact on individual species and communities of hummingbirds.

  • Existing protected areas showed an important reduction of surface across the species distribution and hotspot areas for future.

  • A large proportion of “safe places” does not match the areas targeted for agriculture expansion in future scenarios.

  • It is imperative that policy-makers promote policies that are resilient to both threats as soon as possible.

Open access
Opinion paper
Neglected diversity of crop pollinators: Lessons from the world’s largest tropical country
Ariadna Valentina Lopes, Rafaella Guimarães Porto, Oswaldo Cruz-Neto, Carlos A. Peres, Blandina Felipe Viana, Tereza Cristina Giannini, Marcelo Tabarelli
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. 2021;19:500-4
Highlights

  • Pollinators not yet reported as crop pollinators could likely contribute to agriculture.

  • The neglected diversity of bees as potential crop pollinators in Brazil is 88.4%.

  • The proportion of vertebrate pollinators not yet recorded as pollinating crops is 95.2%.

  • Many plant–pollinator interactions are off the conservation agenda for agricultural stability.

  • Efforts to protect agricultural pollinators should consider even species not yet recorded as crop pollinators.

Open access
Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation