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Understanding how humans perceive animals is important for biodiversity conservation, however, only a few studies about this issue have been carried out in South America. We selected two Brazilian cities to assess people’s perceptions of birds: Bauru (São Paulo, Brazil) and Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil). From the available bird data for each city, we developed a questionnaire and applied it between September 2020 and June 2021. The data obtained were analyzed by simple counts, a Likert scale, and percentages. Also, human feelings related to birds were placed on the Free Word Cloud Generator website. Our study confirmed that most respondents were aware of the importance of birds to ecological balance and that respondents had a generally positive attitude towards most of the bird species. However, they disliked exotic species such as the Domestic Dove and the House Sparrow, which are associated with disease, dirt, and disgust. Respondents also underestimated the number of birds that can live in urban areas and the song of birds is still a sense less experienced and perceived by people. Understanding these human–biodiversity relationships can help guide public policies and environmental education activities.

Conservation strategies often assume uniform response to habitat loss and fragmentation among species. We investigated whether bird species' responses to habitat changes vary based on their distribution range and local environmental suitability. Additionally, we explored associations between sensitivity responses and species traits, like dispersal ability, habitat specialization, and distribution range size. Our study focused on the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, encompassing 179 landscape sites and 81 bird species. Using additive and interactive relationships and used principal component analysis to correlate species traits with sensitivity patterns. We found four distinct patterns of population sensitivity patterns: no effect of geographical range or environmental suitability (21% of the species), higher sensitivity at the geographical edges or low suitability (14%), lower sensitivity in core or better areas (11%) or both extremes responding similarly (11%), with species showing no response to landscape changes (43%). Biogeographic and landscape factors interactively influenced population abundance, resulting in antagonistic or synergistic effects. Population responses to habitat loss and fragmentation varied based on range position or environmental suitability but weren’t consistently explained by species traits. Given these nuanced results, conservationists must refrain from generalizing species sensitivity without accounting for distribution range position and environmental suitability. To ensure the long-term survival of biodiversity, conservation efforts should be tailored to each species' specific needs, taking into account their spatial position and the synergistic or antagonistic effects of environmental stressors. Such targeted conservation efforts will be crucial in mitigating the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on bird populations within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Climate change is one of the key drivers of the dramatic erosion of global biodiversity. Poikilothermic organisms, such as amphibians, are particularly prone to alterations in temperature and precipitation and are therefore expected to be severely impacted by global climate change. We evaluated: i) the potential effects of climate change on taxonomic and functional richness of amphibians in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, and ii) tested whether forest-dependent and open area species responded differently to climatic stressors. We applied an ensemble forecasting approach using point locality data to establish predictive maps of taxonomic and functional richness for different IPCC AR5 scenarios with two Representative Concentration Pathway trajectories (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) at two temporal projections (2050 and 2070). A significant decline in both taxonomic and functional richness of Atlantic Forest amphibians is expected over the coming decades under the evaluated climate scenarios. The core areas projected to maintain significantly high anuran richness in both components were in coastal high-altitude localities. We found negative effects (losses) to be more pronounced for taxonomic richness. Model outcomes indicate significant losses in both forest and open area species. A few remaining high-altitude sites will then play an important role as potential climatic refuges to safeguard anuran diversity, requiring a dynamic landscape approach as conservation strategy.

The increasing conversion of natural areas for anthropic land use has been a major cause of habitat loss, destabilizing ecosystems and leading to a biodiversity crisis. Passive acoustic sensors open the possibility of remotely sensing fauna on large spatial and temporal scales, improving our understanding of the current state of biodiversity and the effects of human influences. Acoustic indices have been widely used and tested in recent years, with an aim towards understanding the relationship between indices and the acoustic activity of several taxa in different types of environments. However, studies have shown divergent relationships between acoustic indices and the vocal activity of most soniferous taxa. A combination of indices has, in turn, been reported as a promising tool for representing biodiversity in different contexts. We used uni- and bivariate models to test different combinations of 8 common indices in relation to bird assemblage metrics. We recorded twenty-two study sites in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and three different types of environments in each site (forest, pasture, and swamp). Our results showed that 1) the best acoustic indices for explaining bird richness, abundance, and diversity were Bioacoustic and Acoustic Complexity; 2) the type of environment (forest, pasture, and swamp) influenced the performance of acoustic indices in explaining bird biodiversity, with the highest score model (biggest R2 value) being a combination between Acoustic Diversity and Bioacoustic indices. Our results do support the use of acoustic indices in monitoring the acoustic activity of birds, but combining indices is encouraged since it provided the best results. However, given the divergence we found across environments, we recommend that sets of indices are tested to determine which of them best describe the biodiversity pattern models for a specific habitat. Based on our results, we propose that biodiversity patterns can be predicted through acoustic patterns. However, the level of confidence will depend on the acoustic index used and on focal taxa of interest (i.e., birds, amphibians, insects, and mammals).

The biodiversity knowledge has several deficits. The wallacean shortfall—related to species distribution unknowledge—is one of the most studied shortfalls. It is important to identify gaps and biases in spatial biodiversity knowledge. However, to find out where the main biodiversity deficits are we need to know how the biodiversity spatial sampling changes according to spatial scale. Here we use an extensive dataset of Atlantic Forest primates to test spatial bias as a function of spatial scales and cell-size resolutions. Our findings indicate that the sampling coverage and spatial knowledge of Atlantic Forest primates are biased depending on spatial cell-size resolution and scale. We also show that from a broad-scale perspective (regional and global) primate spatial knowledge is spatially unbiased regardless of cell-size resolution considered. In contrast, in narrow-scale perspectives the knowledge may have or not spatial bias depending on the cell-size resolution. Our results suggest that sampling bias can be present or more pronounced in narrow-scale in a local perspective. Thus, the choice of scale and spatial resolution on ecological studies must consider the potential impacts of sampling bias accordingly to each scale and cell-size resolution.

Abstract Identifying deforested areas with high potential for natural forest recovery can be used as an aid for ecological restoration projects at large‐scale. However, accurate predictions that infer the resilience (i.e. recovery rate after deforestation) and stability (i.e. the ability of the ecosystem to maintain its functions) of early second‐growth forests are scarce at a regional scale. Here, we investigated the effect of climate, soil and topography on the resilience and stability of 165 early second‐growth forests throughout the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We also built prediction maps of potential resilience and stability to identify where reforestation could be optimized in the early stages of forest succession. We assessed the resilience and stability through an interannual plant primary productivity time series using a normalized difference vegetation index. Our analysis reveals that resilience was mainly associated with isothermality (i.e. diurnal temperature oscillation relative to the annual temperature oscillation) and precipitation of the warmest quarter. In turn, stability was mainly associated with the probability of bedrock occurrence, annual precipitation and precipitation seasonality. The prediction maps show a spatial pattern in which potential resilience and stability increase from north to south of the Atlantic Forest. Forest restoration can be optimized in regions with high potential resilience and stability, such as an isolated area on the north coast in the Bahia state and the southern region. However, restoration may require active practices and management in regions with low potential for both ecosystem properties, such as the north inland in the Bahia and Minas Gerais states. This ecosystemic approach can help achieve Atlantic Forest restoration commitments.

Cross-habitat movements are crucial for persistence of beneficial insects in agricultural landscapes; however, much remains unknown on how landscape structure affects the spillover of beneficial insects between crop and non-crop habitats. To estimate the effects of landscape structure on the spillover of beneficial insects we sampled predatory wasps in pairs of forest remnants and adjacent coffee plantations along a gradient of landscape composition and configuration. We used dissimilarity indices to estimate wasp spillover and we assumed that high dissimilarity means less flow (and thus less spillover) between forest and coffee habitats. We collected a total of 9847 wasps classified into 75 species and 23 genera. Wasp dissimilarity between habitats decreased with increasing forest cover in the surrounding landscape and did not respond to landscape diversity, edge density or pesticide usage. Our findings suggest that wasps forage in coffee plantations but seem to rely on forest remnants to find unmanaged nesting sites and a constant supply of resources that are not available in the agricultural matrix, and are neither in landscapes with high compositional diversity or edge density. Therefore, forest conservation and restoration should be incorporated in agro-environmental schemes designed to improve the spillover of beneficial insects and provision of ecosystem services within coffee farmlands.

Abstract Background There is growing evidence that individuals within populations can vary in both habitat use and movement behavior, but it is still not clear how these two relate to each other. The aim of this study was to test if and how individual bats in a Stunira lilium population differ in their movement activity and preferences for landscape features in a correlated manner. Methods We collected data on movements of 27 individuals using radio telemetry. We fitted a heterogeneous-space diffusion model to the movement data in order to evaluate signals of movement variation among individuals. Results S. lilium individuals generally preferred open habitat with Solanum fruits, regularly switched between forest and open areas, and showed high site fidelity. Movement variation among individuals could be summarized in four movement syndromes: (1) average individuals, (2) forest specialists, (3) explorers which prefer Piper, and (4) open area specialists which prefer Solanum and Cecropia. Conclusions Individual preferences for landscape features plus food resource and movement activity were correlated, resulting in different movement syndromes. Individual variation in preferences for landscape elements and food resources highlight the importance of incorporating explicitly the interaction between landscape structure and individual heterogeneity in descriptions of animal movement.

Recent studies have characterized the influence of agroecosystems on biodiversity. However, a set of components associated with the management of these areas is still neglected in landscape-level studies, especially in areas of recent agricultural intensification. The resources and conditions provided by agroecosystems to different species are highly variable in space and time, and failing to account for this variation may lead to misleading conclusions about the biodiversity status in these environments. In this perspective, we provide a conceptual overview to highlight why and which landscape components still need to be better explored to provide an adequate assessment of the agroecosystem effects on biodiversity. We used a Brazilian heterogeneous intensive-farming landscape as an example to outline the components that we believe are important for understanding biodiversity patterns in such landscapes. An in-depth description of agroecosystems can help us create better landscape-level management strategies and to design more effective green-way policies.

Mammals are important components of biodiversity that have been drastically and rapidly impacted by climate change, habitat loss, and anthropogenic pressure. Understanding key species distribution to optimize conservation targets is both urgent and necessary to reverse the current biodiversity crisis. Herein, we applied habitat suitability models for a key Neotropical forest ungulate, the white-lipped peccary (WLP Tayassu pecari), to investigate the effects of climate and landscape modifications on its distribution, which has been drastically reduced in Brazil. We used 318 primary records of WLP to derive habitat suitability maps across Brazil. Our models included bioclimatic, topographic, landscape, and human influence predictors in two modelling approaches. Models including all categories of predictors obtained the highest predictive ability and showed prevalence of suitable areas in forested regions of the country, covering 49% of the Brazilian territory. Filtering out small forest fragments (

Advances in technologies for data acquisition, storage and analysis have boosted Acoustic Ecology studies, but protocols are still lacking. There is a need of more research to understand which methodologies can be applied to answer ecological questions in different environments with varying temporal and spatial dynamics. Tropical forests are generally more complex than temperate ones, both in terms of use of acoustic space and species diversity. The seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) in Brazil, known as Caatinga, is a threatened biome, with two marked seasons that shape vegetation and animal activity patterns. In this study, we investigate the applicability of passive acoustics in monitoring SDTF, describing the soundscape and tracking diel patterns and seasonal changes. Combining multiple indices, visualization through false colour spectrograms and clustering, we describe the acoustic activity of the main faunal groups that compose the biophonic orchestra in a SDTF area in the Northeast of Brazil. Distinct patterns were found between day – when birds and wind were the main sound sources – and night – with Orthopterans occupying a large frequency band. Other sound sources in the SDTF soundscape included cicada, rain, and anthropogenic influence such as domestic animals, cars and gunshots. Clustering of eleven acoustic indices was useful to distinguish sound patterns from several sources, especially in the dry season. Further investigation within each cluster showed specific relationships among selected indices and different sound sources. Birds were associated with Entropy of the Spectral Peaks (EPS) and Orthopterans also had a relationship with EPS, as well as with Entropy of Average Spectrum (EAS) and High Frequency Cover (HFC). Variation in diel values of these selected indices, as well as the number of samples included in each cluster category, were successfully used to describe the acoustic activity of Birds and Orthopterans and to track changes between rainy and dry seasons. A better understanding of the soundscape dynamics in a highly seasonal tropical environment was achieved by applying cheap and reliable novel methodologies to study biodiversity in geopolitical regions where funding for conservation initiatives is limited.

Intensification of urbanization has been shown to be associated with taxonomic and functional modifications of biological communities, leading to changes in trophic interactions. These changes may reduce the delivery of ecosystem services provided by urban ecosystems. For instance, predation on herbivorous insects is an important ecological process operating in urban biological communities. Specifically, on one hand, herbivorous insects serve as food resources for many organisms, and on the other hand predation on herbivorous insects may reduce pest populations on urban vegetation. In this study, we assessed the relationship between urbanization intensity and bird and arthropod predation pressure on herbivorous insects across the streetscape of Xalapa (Mexico), a Neotropical city with half a million people immersed in a cloud forest context. We exposed dummy caterpillar models at 16 sites across the streetscape and two sites in a peri-urban cloud forest patch, comprising a wide range of urbanization intensities. We observed that in streets where the proportion of built cover was higher, dummy caterpillars’ attack probability was substantially lower. Moreover, we observed that caterpillars were most often attacked by arthropods (62.41%), followed by birds (21.53%), independent of built cover. Our study provides evidence that built cover surrounding streets may negatively influence the interactions between herbivorous insects and their natural enemies.

Although sound classification in soundscape studies are generally performed by experts, the large growth of acoustic data presents a major challenge for performing such task. At the same time, the identification of more discriminating features becomes crucial when analyzing soundscapes, and this occurs because natural and anthropogenic sounds are very complex, particularly in Neotropical regions, where the biodiversity level is very high. In this scenario, the need for research addressing the discriminatory capability of acoustic features is of utmost importance to work towards automating these processes. In this study we present a method to identify the most discriminant features for categorizing sound events in soundscapes. Such identification is key to classification of sound events. Our experimental findings validate our method, showing high discriminatory capability of certain extracted features from sound data, reaching an accuracy of 89.91% for classification of frogs, birds and insects simultaneously. An extension of these experiments to simulate binary classification reached accuracy of 82.64%,100.0% and 99.40% for the classification between combinations of frogs-birds, frogs-insects and birds-insects, respectively.

Background A key challenge for conservation biology in the Neotropics is to understand how deforestation affects biodiversity at various levels of landscape fragmentation. Addressing this challenge requires expanding the coverage of known biodiversity data, which remain to date restricted to a few well-surveyed regions. Here, we assess the sampling coverage and biases in biodiversity data on fruit-feeding butterflies at the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, discussing their effect on our understanding of the relationship between forest fragmentation and biodiversity at a large-scale. We hypothesize that sampling effort is biased towards large and connected fragments, which occur jointly in space at the Atlantic forest. Methods We used a comprehensive dataset of Atlantic Forest fruit-feeding butterfly communities to test for sampling biases towards specific geographical areas, climate conditions and landscape configurations. Results We found a pattern of geographical aggregation of sampling sites, independently of scale, and a strong sampling bias towards large and connected forest fragments, located near cities and roads. Sampling gaps are particularly acute in small and disconnected forest fragments and rare climate conditions. In contrast, currently available data can provide a fair picture of fruit-feeding butterfly communities in large and connected Atlantic Forest remnants. Discussion Biased data hamper the inference of the functional relationship between deforestation and biodiversity at a large-scale, since they are geographically clustered and have sampling gaps in small and disconnected fragments. These data are useful to inform decision-makers regarding conservation efforts to curb biodiversity loss in the Atlantic Forest. Thus, we suggest to expand sampling effort to small and disconnected forest fragments, which would allow more accurate evaluations of the effects of landscape modification.

The intensive shift on land cover by anthropogenic activities have led to changes in natural habitats and environmental contamination, which can ultimately impact and threat biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as pollination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of native forest and human-modified land covers on the concentrations of chemical elements accumulated in the neotropical pollinator bee T. angustula. Eight landscapes, within an Ecological Corridor in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, with gradients of forest cover, spatial heterogeneity and varying land covers were used as sampling unities. Bees collected in traps or through actives searches had the concentration of 21 chemical elements determined by ICP-MS. Results show a beneficial effect of forested areas on the concentrations of some well-known toxic elements accumulated in bees, such as Hg, Cd, and Cr. Multivariate Redundancy Analysis (RDA) suggests road as the most important driver for the levels of Cr, Hg, Sb, Al, U, As, Pb and Pt and bare soil, pasture and urban areas as the landscape covers responsible for the concentrations of Zn, Cd, Mn, Mg, Ba and Sr in bees. The results reinforce the potential use of T. angustula bees as bioindicators of environmental quality and also show that these organisms are being directly affected by human land use, offering potential risks for the Neotropical ecosystem. Our study sheds light on how land covers (native forest and human-modified) can influence the levels of contaminants in insects within human-dominated landscapes. The generation of predictions of the levels of toxic metals and metalloids based on land use can both contribute to friendly farming planning as well as to support public policy development on the surrounding of protected areas and biodiversity conservation hotspots.

Human activities have modified the landscape composition. The changes in the landscape structure can be evaluated by metrics, which are influenced, among other factors, by the number of cover classes used for the landscape classification (thematic resolution). In high thematic resolutions, landscape covers that can influence biological responses are identified and detailed. In low thematic resolutions, this detail level is lower because it aggregates different landscape covers in a few classes. However, how the thematic resolution influences our ability to understand landscape structure on biodiversity is poorly explored, particularly for pollinators. Here we asked how thematic resolution affects the explanatory power of landscape composition on explaining Euglossini bees (richness and abundance) within 15 landscapes composed mainly of coffee and pasture. To address this issue, we quantified the association between five attributes of the euglossine bee community and landscape composition: landscape cover classes (%) and landscape heterogeneity. Moreover, we also evaluated how the thematic resolution influences bee responses to landscape structure. We found a strong and positive influence of landscape heterogeneity in low thematic resolutions (i.e., few cover classes on maps) over the richness and rare species abundance. We also observed that- in addition to the forest cover in the landscape- the pasture cover (%) quantified in high thematic resolution positively influenced the total abundance and abundance of common and intermediate species. Our study highlights the importance of maintaining compositional heterogeneity for the orchid bee community in agroecosystems, and forest cover for the biological requirements and conservation of these pollinators. Moreover, the use of different thematic resolutions showed how specific types of landscape covers influence the euglossine community attributes. This can highlight the species preferences for habitats and landscape covers. Thus, we call the attention of landscape ecologists to the importance of the definition of thematic resolution, as our ability to quantify the association between biological responses and landscape structure may be influenced by the number of classes used when building thematic maps.

Abstract A decline in species number often occurs after forest fragmentation and habitat loss, which usually results in the loss of ecological functions and a reduction in functional diversity in the forest fragments. However, it is uncertain whether these lost ecological functions are consistently maintained throughout continuous forests, and so the importance of these functions in continuous forests remains unknown. Point counts were used to assess both the taxonomic and functional diversity of specialist and generalist birds from sampling in a continuous primary forest compared with forest fragments in order to investigate the responses of these groups to forest fragmentation. We also measured alpha and beta diversity. The responses of specialists and generalists were similar when we assessed all bird species but were different when only passerines were considered. When examining passerines we found lower total taxonomic beta diversity for specialists than for generalists in the continuous forest, while taxonomic beta diversity was higher in the fragmented forest and similar between bird groups. However, total functional beta‐diversity values indicated clearly higher trait regularity in continuous forest for specialists and higher trait regularity in fragments for generalists. Specialists showed significantly higher functional alpha diversity in comparison with generalists in the continuous forest, while both groups showed similar values in fragments. In passerines, species richness and alpha functional diversity of both specialist and generalist were explained by forest connectivity; but, only fragment size explained those parameters for specialist passerines. We suggest that considering subsets of the community with high similarity among species, as passerines, provides a better tool for understanding responses to forest fragmentation. Due to the regularity of specialists in continuous forest, their lost could highly affect functionality in forest fragments.

Changes in Earth's climatic conditions may affect the geographic distributions of species causing variations in diversity patterns through space and time. Projections of species distributions over time can measure how future climate scenarios will affect communities. We investigated how climate changes scenarios will influence primate biodiversity patterns in the Atlantic Forest. Specifically: (i) where are the largest changes in species richness expected? (ii) the spatial pattern of beta diversity will undergo homogenisation or heterogenisation? and (iii) where will occur the major changes in temporal beta diversity? We generated current and future species distribution models for Brazilian Atlantic Forest primates. We analysed the changes in the spatio-temporal patterns of alpha and beta diversity. Current high richness patterns will be maintained in future scenarios, with richer areas concentrated in the coastal zones. Regions closer to Cerrado will face a reduction in primate richness. Changes in richness will occur predominantly due to species loss. Communities will be more spatially heterogeneous in the future, with increased beta diversity. The heterogenisation may be driven by the reduction of species geographic distributions. The highest temporal changes will occur mainly in the midwest and the central region of the biome. Climate changes will cause primates diversity changes in both space and time. These changes will not be homogeneous through the Atlantic Forest. Our study is informative at a large spatial scale, providing an outlook on the impact of climate change on primate diversity, and indicating places of primates’ biodiversity maintenance, loss or gain due to climate change.

Plants are one of the most vulnerable groups to fragmentation and habitat loss, that may affect community richness, abundance, functional traits, and genetic diversity. Here, we address the effects of landscape features on adaptive quantitative traits and evolutionary potential, and on neutral genetic diversity in populations of the Neotropical savanna tree Caryocar brasiliense. We sampled adults and juveniles in 10 savanna remnants within five landscapes. To obtain neutral genetic variation, we genotyped all individuals from each site using nine microsatellite loci. For adaptive traits we measured seed size and mass and grown seeds in nursery in completely randomized experimental design. We obtained mean, additive genetic variance (Va) and coefficient of variation (CVa%), which measures evolvability, for 17 traits in seedlings. We found that landscapes with higher compositional heterogeneity (SHDI) had lower evolutionary potential (CVa%) in leaf length (LL) and lower aboveground dry mass (ADM) genetic differentiation (QST). We also found that landscapes with higher SHDI had higher genetic diversity (He) and allelic richness (AR) in adults, and lower genetic differentiation (FST). In juveniles, SHDI was also positively related to AR. These results are most likely due to longer dispersal distance of pollen in landscapes with lower density of flowering individuals. Agricultural landscapes with low quality mosaic may be more stressful for plant species, due to the lower habitat cover (%), higher cover of monocropping (%) and other land covers, and edge effects. However, in landscapes with higher SHDI with high quality mosaic, forest nearby savanna habitat and the other environments may facilitate the movement or provide additional habitat and resources for seed disperses and pollinators, increasing gene flow and genetic diversity. Finally, despite the very recent agriculture expansion in Central Brazil, we found no time lag in response to habitat loss, because both adults and juveniles were affected by landscape changes.

The ecoacoustics approach for environmental recordings analysis is used to understand and identify big ecological patterns related to different sound sources, like animals, humans and the environment itself. Sounds can vary according to several features that can be on its surroundings or far away, therefore they are very much reliant on scale. Because humans are changing the environment so much and we cannot account for all those changes in the same speed as they happen, we need fast evaluation tools, such as remote sensing and acoustic monitoring (considered the equivalent of spatial remote sensing for sounds). Considering that the scale of effect was never measured for soundscapes before, we aimed to see in what scale different acoustic indices were responsive. Also, we tested how acoustic indices are influenced by natural vegetation cover. We recorded environmental sounds in Atlantic Forest fragments during three months on the rainy season. Then we calculated different acoustic indices and the percentage of natural vegetation cover in different scales. Our results corroborated our initial hypotheses: different indices respond to different scales and their medians varied according to the amount of vegetation cover on the surroundings. More studies are needed with less fragmented areas, to test indices behaviour in a continuum, but we consider this work an important starting point to understand acoustic indices behaviour in tropical areas, especially in such degraded and threatened area as Atlantic Forest.

Our goal was to analyze the amount and distribution of tree cover and green spaces in relation to urban zoning and census data of Rio Claro, SP, based on the integration between academic knowledge and the public authorities as an auxiliary tool in the planning and management of the urban forest. We found 11.88 km² of tree cover and 170 green areas within the urban perimeter. However, their spatial distribution is unbalanced once tree cover is concentrated in the city peripheries, while the green areas are concentrated in central areas. We propose alternatives to reduce the imbalance of tree cover and green areas between regions of the city. In the formulation of the current Master Plan, the active participation of undergraduate and graduate students in the creation and approval of amendments to the bill allowed the insertion of important elements for more sustainable management of the municipal landscape.

Changes in landscape structure can affect essential population ecological features, such as dispersal and recruitment, and thus genetic processes. Here, we analyze the effects of landscape metrics on adaptive quantitative traits variation, evolutionary potential, and on neutral genetic diversity in populations of the Neotropical savanna tree Tabebuia aurea. Using a multi-scale approach, we sampled five landscapes with two sites of savanna in each. To obtain neutral genetic variation, we genotyped 60 adult individuals from each site using 10 microsatellite loci. We measured seed size and mass. Seeds were grown in nursery in completely randomized experimental design and 17 traits were measured in seedlings to obtain the average, additive genetic variance (Va) and coefficient of variation (CVa%), which measures evolvability, for each trait. We found that habitat loss increased genetic diversity (He) and allelic richness (AR), and decreased genetic differentiation among populations (FST), most likely due to longer dispersal distance of pollen in landscapes with lower density of flowering individuals. Habitat amount positively influenced seed size. Seeds of T. aurea are wind-dispersed and larger seeds may be dispersed to short distance, increasing genetic differentiation and decreasing genetic diversity and allelic richness. Evolvability (CVa%) in root length decreased with habitat amount. Savanna trees have higher root than shoot growth rate in the initial stages, allowing seedlings to obtain water from water tables. Landscapes with lower habitat amount may be more stressful for plant species, due to the lower plant density, edge effects and the negative impacts of agroecosystems. In these landscapes, larger roots may provide higher ability to obtain water, increasing survival and avoiding dying back because of fire. Despite the very recent agriculture expansion in Central Brazil, landscape changes are affecting neutral and adaptive variation in T. aurea. Several populations have low additive genetic variation for some traits and thus, may have limited evolvability, which may jeopardize species long-term persistence. The effect of habitat loss on highly variable neutral loci may only be detected after a certain threshold of population size is attained, that could become dangerously small masking important losses of heterozygosity endangering species conservation.

Labeling of samples is a recurrent and time-consuming task in data analysis and machine learning and yet generally overlooked in terms of visual analytics approaches to improve the process. As the number of tailored applications of learning models increases, it is crucial that more effective approaches to labeling are developed. In this paper, we report the development of a methodology and a framework to support labeling, with an application case as background. The methodology performs visual active learning and label propagation with 2D embeddings as layouts to achieve faster and interactive labeling of samples. The framework is realized through SoundscapeX, a tool to support labeling in soundscape ecology data. We have applied the framework to a set of audio recordings collected for a Long Term Ecological Research Project in the Cantareira-Mantiqueira Corridor (LTER CCM), localized in the transition between northeastern São Paulo state and southern Minas Gerais state in Brazil. We employed a pre-label data set of groups of animals to test the efficacy of the approach. The results showed the best accuracy at 94.58% in the prediction of labeling for birds and insects; and 91.09% for the prediction of the sound event as frogs and insects.

Although mining activities are required to supply human needs, the academic participation on the allocation and planning of mining activities is reduced. We presented our experience in the participatory review of Rio Claro's (São Paulo, Brazil) master plan. In 2015, Rio Claro City Hall triggered a multi-agent discussion about new perspectives on local environmental planning to improve human life quality. Representatives of economic sectors were invited for public consultations, while civil society was neglected. The academic participation was represented by amendment proposals that intended to represent common interests of society (e.g.: reducing the impacts of clay extraction on the population). We discuss the need of greater appreciation of university outreach initiatives for their high impact on public issues. Academia may ensure an equitable balance of interests between different sectors of society, aiding in the pursuit of quality of life improvement and natural resources preservation for future generations.

The human-induced introductions of marmoset species (Callithrix genus) threaten the native species persistence within Brazilian biodiversity hotspots. Invasive marmosets can hybridize with native congeners reducing the genetic integrity on native populations. However, no study quantified the spatial extent of these invasions and which species can be impacted by a hybridization process. Here, we predicted the range expansion and hence the potential geographic overlap between Callithrix species, particularly in Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, to discuss management strategies. We hypothesized that marmosets endemic to the Atlantic Forest are more threatened by invasive congeners than other marmosets. We generated species distribution models for six Callithrix species using four algorithms, six environmental layers and 445 georeferenced localities extracted from literature published since 2000. Suitability maps for each species were binarized using a 20-percentile threshold and overlapped to predict invasion and quantify hybridization potential risks. All Callithrix species had potential to expand their range within the Atlantic Forest although suitable habitats for C. flaviceps and C. kuhlii were more limited. C. jacchus and C. penicillata have already expanded their range to different biomes and our model shows that they can spread even further. The potential hybridization zones were identified within the distribution range of all species, and more markedly within Atlantic Forest species ranges. For assuring the ecosystem equilibriums, we urge to prevent the biological invasions and to control the human-induced Callithrix introductions and expansions within Neotropical hotspots. Keywords: Biological invasion, Habitat suitability, Hybridization risk, Primate conservation, Species distribution model

Several viruses from the genus Orthohantavirus are known to cause lethal disease in humans. Sigmodontinae rodents are the main hosts responsible for hantavirus transmission in the tropical forests, savannas, and wetlands of South America. These rodents can shed different hantaviruses, such as the lethal and emerging Araraquara orthohantavirus. Factors that drive variation in host populations may influence hantavirus transmission dynamics within and between populations. Landscape structure, and particularly areas with a predominance of agricultural land and forest remnants, is expected to influence the proportion of hantavirus rodent hosts in the Atlantic Forest rodent community. Here, we tested this using 283 Atlantic Forest rodent capture records and geographically weighted models that allow us to test if predictors vary spatially. We also assessed the correspondence between proportions of hantavirus hosts in rodent communities and a human vulnerability to hantavirus infection index across the entire Atlantic Forest biome. We found that hantavirus host proportions were more positively influenced by landscape diversity than by a particular habitat or agricultural matrix type. Local small mammal diversity also positively influenced known pathogenic hantavirus host proportions, indicating that a plasticity to habitat quality may be more important for these hosts than competition with native forest dwelling species. We found a consistent positive effect of sugarcane and tree plantation on the proportion of rodent hosts, whereas defaunation intensity did not correlate with the proportion of hosts of potentially pathogenic hantavirus genotypes in the community, indicating that non-defaunated areas can also be hotspots for hantavirus disease outbreaks. The spatial match between host hotspots and human disease vulnerability was 17%, while coldspots matched 20%. Overall, we discovered strong spatial and land use change influences on hantavirus hosts at the landscape level across the Atlantic Forest. Our findings suggest disease surveillance must be reinforced in the southern and southeastern regions of the biome where the highest predicted hantavirus host proportion and levels of vulnerability spatially match. Importantly, our analyses suggest there may be more complex rodent community dynamics and interactions with human disease than currently hypothesized.

After obtaining certification of the absence of transmission of the Trypanosoma cruzi by Triatoma infestans in 2006, other native species of protozoan vectors have been found in human dwellings within municipalities of the State of Paraná, Southern Brazil. However, the spatial distribution of T. cruzi vectors and how climatic and landscape combined variables explain the distribution are still poorly understood. The goal of this study was to predict the potential distribution of T. cruzi vectors as a proxy for Chagas disease transmission risk using Ecological Niche Models (ENMs) based on climatic and landscape variables. We hypothesize that ENM based on both climate and landscape variables are more powerful than climate-only or landscape-only models, and that this will be true independent of vector species. A total of 2,662 records of triatomines of five species were obtained by community-based entomological surveillance from 2007 to 2013. The species with the highest number of specimens was Panstrongylus megistus (73%; n = 1,943), followed by Panstrongylus geniculatus (15.4%; 411), Rhodnius neglectus (6.0%; 159), Triatoma sordida (4.5%; 119) and Rhodnius prolixus (1.1%; 30). Of the total, 71.9% were captured at the intradomicile. T. cruzi infection was observed in 19.7% of the 2,472 examined insects. ENMs were generated based on selected climate and landscape variables with 1 km2 spatial resolution. Zonal statistics were used for classifying the municipalities as to the risk of occurrence of synanthropic triatomines. The integrated analysis of the climate and landscape suitability on triatomines geographical distribution was powerful on generating good predictive models. Moreover, this showed that some municipalities in the northwest, north and northeast of the Paraná state have a higher risk of T. cruzi vector transmission. This occurs because those regions present high climatic and landscape suitability values for occurrence of their vectors. The frequent invasion of houses by infected triatomines clearly indicates a greater risk of transmission of T. cruzi to the inhabitants. More public health attention should be given in the northern areas of the State of Paraná, which presents high climate and landscape suitabilities for the disease vectors. In conclusion, our results-through spatial analysis and predictive maps-showed to be effective in identifying areas of potential distribution and, consequently, in the definition of strategic areas and actions to prevent new cases of Chagas' disease, reinforcing the need for continuous and robust surveillance in these areas.

The effects of streets on biodiversity is an important aspect of urban ecology, but it has been neglected worldwide. Several vegetation attributes (e.g. street tree density and diversity) have important effects on biodiversity and ecological processes. In this study, we evaluated the influences of urban vegetation-represented by characteristics of street trees (canopy size, proportion of native tree species and tree species richness)-and characteristics of the landscape (distance to parks and vegetation quantity), and human impacts (human population size and exposure to noise) on taxonomic data and functional diversity indices of the bird community inhabiting streets. The study area was the southern region of Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil), a largely urbanized city in the understudied Neotropical region. Bird data were collected on 60 point count locations distributed across the streets of the landscape. We used a series of competing GLM models (using Akaike's information criterion for small sample sizes) to assess the relative contribution of the different sets of variables to explain the observed patterns. Seventy-three bird species were observed exploiting the streets: native species were the most abundant and frequent throughout this landscape. The bird community's functional richness and Rao's Quadratic Entropy presented values lower than 0.5. Therefore, this landscape was favoring few functional traits. Exposure to noise was the most limiting factor for this bird community. However, the average size of arboreal patches and, especially the characteristics of street trees, were able to reduce the negative effects of noise on the bird community. These results show the importance of adequately planning the urban afforestation process: increasing tree species richness, preserving large trees and planting more native trees species in the streets are management practices that will increase bird species richness, abundance and community functional aspects and consequently improve human wellbeing and quality of life.

Small felids influence ecosystem dynamics through prey and plant population changes. Although most of these species are threatened, they are accorded one of the lowest research efforts of all felids, and we lack basic information about them. Many felids occur in sympatry, where intraguild competition is frequent. Therefore, assessing the role of interspecific interactions along with the relative importance of landscape characteristics is necessary to understand how these species co-occur in space. Here, we selected three morphologically similar and closely related species of small Neotropical cats to evaluate the roles of interspecific interactions, geomorphometry, environmental, and anthropogenic landscape characteristics on their habitat use. We collected data with camera trapping and scat sampling in a large protected Atlantic forest remnant (35,000 ha). Throughout occupancy modeling we investigated whether these species occur together more or less frequently than would be expected by chance, while dealing with imperfect detection and incorporating possible habitat preferences into the models. We used occupancy as a measure of their habitat use. Although intraguild competition can be an important determinant of carnivore assemblages, in our system, we did not find evidence that one species affects the habitat use of the other. Evidence suggested that proximity to the nature reserve (a more protected area) was a more important driver of Neotropical spotted cats' occurrence than interspecific interactions or geomorphometry and environmental landscape characteristics-even though our entire study area is under some type of protection. This suggests that small felids can be sensitive to the area protection status, emphasizing the importance of maintaining and creating reserves and other areas with elevated protection for the proper management and conservation of the group.

Background: Hantavirus disease in humans is rare but frequently lethal in the Neotropics. Several abundant and widely distributed Sigmodontinae rodents are the primary hosts of Orthohantavirus and, in combination with other factors, these rodents can shape hantavirus disease. Here, we assessed the influence of host diversity, climate, social vulnerability and land use change on the risk of hantavirus disease in Brazil over 24 years. Methods: Landscape variables (native forest, forestry, sugarcane, maize and pasture), climate (temperature and precipitation), and host biodiversity (derived through niche models) were used in spatiotemporal models, using the 5570 Brazilian municipalities as units of analysis. Results: Amounts of native forest and sugarcane, combined with temperature, were the most important factors influencing the increase of disease risk. Population at risk (rural workers) and rodent host diversity also had a positive effect on disease risk. Conclusions: Land use change—especially the conversion of native areas to sugarcane fields—can have a significant impact on hantavirus disease risk, likely by promoting the interaction between the people and the infected rodents. Our results demonstrate the importance of understanding the interactions between landscape change, rodent diversity, and hantavirus disease incidence, and suggest that land use policy should consider disease risk. Meanwhile, our risk map can be used to help allocate preventive measures to avoid disease.

Movement is a key spatiotemporal process that enables interactions between animals and other elements of nature. The understanding of animal trajectories and the mechanisms that influence them at the landscape level can yield insight into ecological processes and potential solutions to specific ecological problems. Based upon optimal foraging models and empirical evidence, we hypothesized that movement by thrushes is highly tortuous (low average movement speeds and homogeneous distribution of turning angles) inside forests, moderately tortuous in urban areas, which present intermediary levels of resources, and minimally tortuous (high movement speeds and turning angles next to 0 radians) in open matrix types (e.g., crops and pasture). We used data on the trajectories of two common thrush species (Turdus rufiventris and Turdus leucomelas) collected by radio telemetry in a fragmented region in Brazil. Using a maximum likelihood model selection approach we fit four probability distribution models to average speed data, considering short-tailed, long-tailed, and scale-free distributions (to represent different regimes of movement variation), and one distribution to relative angle data. Models included land cover type and distance from forest-matrix edges as explanatory variables. Speed was greater farther away from forest edges and increased faster inside forest habitat compared to urban and open matrices. However, turning angle was not influenced by land cover. Thrushes presented a very tortuous trajectory, with many displacements followed by turns near 180 degrees. Thrush trajectories resembled habitat and edge dependent, tortuous random walks, with a well-defined movement scale inside each land cover type. Although thrushes are habitat generalists, they showed a greater preference for forest edges, and thus may be considered edge specialists. Our results reinforce the importance of studying animal movement patterns in order to understand ecological processes such as seed dispersal in fragmented areas, where the percentage of remaining habitat is dwindling.

Conservationists often have difficulty obtaining financial and social support for protected areas that do not demonstrate their benefits for society. Therefore, ecosystem services have gained importance in conservation science in the last decade, as these services provide further justification for appropriate management and conservation of natural systems. We used InVEST software and a set of GIS procedures to quantify, spatialize and evaluated the overlap between ecosystem services-carbon stock and sediment retention-and a biodiversity proxy-habitat quality. In addition, we proposed a method that serves as an initial approach of a priority areas selection process. The method considers the synergism between ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Our study region is the Iron Quadrangle, an important Brazilian mining province and a conservation priority area located in the interface of two biodiversity hotspots, the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes. The resultant priority area for the maintenance of the highest values of ecosystem services and habitat quality was about 13% of the study area. Among those priority areas, 30% are already within established strictly protected areas, and 12% are in sustainable use protected areas. Following the transparent and highly replicable method we proposed in this study, conservation planners can better determine which areas fulfill multiple goals and can locate the trade-offs in the landscape. We also gave a step towards the improvement of the habitat quality model with a topography parameter. In areas of very rugged topography, we have to consider geomorfometric barriers for anthropogenic impacts and for species movement and we must think beyond the linear distances. Moreover, we used a model that considers the tree mortality caused by edge effects in the estimation of carbon stock. We found low spatial congruence among the modeled services, mostly because of the pattern of sediment retention distribution.

Known as the “king of spices”, black pepper (Piper nigrum), a perennial crop of the tropics, is economically the most important and the most widely used spice crop in the world. To understand its suitable bioclimatic distribution, maximum entropy based on ecological niche modeling was used to model the bioclimatic niches of the species in its Asian range. Based on known occurrences, bioclimatic areas with higher probabilities are mainly located in the eastern and western coasts of the Indian Peninsula, the east of Sumatra Island, some areas in the Malay Archipelago, and the southeast coastal areas of China. Some undocumented places were also predicted as suitable areas. According to the jackknife procedure, the minimum temperature of the coldest month, the mean monthly temperature range, and the precipitation of the wettest month were identified as highly effective factors in the distribution of black pepper and could possibly account for the crop's distribution pattern. Such climatic requirements inhibited this species from dispersing and gaining a larger geographical range.

Mosquitoes are vectors of arboviruses that can cause encephalitis and hemorrhagic fevers in humans. Aedes serratus (Theobald), Aedes scapularis (Rondani) and Psorophora ferox (Von Humboldt) are potential vectors of arboviruses and are abundant in Vale do Ribeira, located in the Atlantic Forest in the southeast of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The objective of this study was to predict the spatial distribution of these mosquitoes and estimate the risk of human exposure to mosquito bites. Results of the analyses show that humans are highly exposed to bites in the municipalities of Cananéia, Iguape and Ilha Comprida. In these localities the incidence of Rocio encephalitis was 2% in the 1970s. Furthermore, Ae. serratus, a recently implicated vector of yellow fever virus in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, should be a target for the entomological surveillance in the southeastern Atlantic Forest. Considering the continental dimensions of Brazil and the inherent difficulties in sampling its vast area, the habitat suitability method used in the study can be an important tool for predicting the distribution of vectors of pathogens.Mosquitos são vetores de arbovírus que podem causar encefalites e febres hemorrágicas em humanos. Aedes serratus (Theobald), Aedes scapularis (Rondani), e Psorophora ferox (Von Humboldt) são vetores potenciais de arbovírus e são abundantes no Vale do Ribeira, Mata Atlântica, sudeste do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. O objetivo desse estudo foi inferir a distribuição espacial desses mosquitos e estimar o risco da exposição humana às picadas de mosquitos. Os resultados das análises indicaram que os humanos estão altamente expostos às picadas nos municípios de Cananéia, Iguape e Ilha Comprida. Nessas localidades a incidência de encefalite Rocio foi 2% na década de 1970. Adicionalmente, Ae. serratus, que foi recentemente implicado vetor do vírus da febre amarela no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, deveria ser alvo da vigilância entomológica no sudeste da Mata Atlântica. Considerando a extensão territorial do Brasil e as inerentes dificuldades em amostrar esse vasto território, a modelagem de habitat empregada nesse trabalho poderia ser utilizada para a vigilância de vetores de patógenos.

Every year, autochthonous cases of Plasmodium vivax malaria occur in low-endemicity areas of Vale do Ribeira in the south-eastern part of the Atlantic Forest, state of São Paulo, where Anopheles cruzii and Anopheles bellator are considered the primary vectors. However, other species in the subgenus Nyssorhynchus of Anopheles (e.g., Anopheles marajoara) are abundant and may participate in the dynamics of malarial transmission in that region. The objectives of the present study were to assess the spatial distribution of An. cruzii, An. bellator and An. marajoara and to associate the presence of these species with malaria cases in the municipalities of the Vale do Ribeira. Potential habitat suitability modelling was applied to determine both the spatial distribution of An. cruzii, An. bellator and An. marajoara and to establish the density of each species. Poisson regression was utilized to associate malaria cases with estimated vector densities. As a result, An. cruzii was correlated with the forested slopes of the Serra do Mar, An. bellator with the coastal plain and An. marajoara with the deforested areas. Moreover, both An. marajoara and An. cruzii were positively associated with malaria cases. Considering that An. marajoara was demonstrated to be a primary vector of human Plasmodium in the rural areas of the state of Amapá, more attention should be given to the species in the deforested areas of the Atlantic Forest, where it might be a secondary vector.

A criação de unidades de conservação -UCs tem sido feita, em todo o mundo, sem umprocedimento sistemático, de modo que as áreasprotegidas nem sempre representam a biodiversidadeda região em que estão situadas. Espera-se que asUCs representem a biodiversidade regional e queas mantenham protegidas de ameaças externas.Uma vez que não é possível preservar todasas áreas naturais remanescentes, é necessáriopriorizá-las, buscando representar ao máximo suabiodiversidade. Estudos teóricos sobre métodos deseleção de reservas são unânimes em afirmar que,para priorização, as áreas devem ser comparadascom base no mesmo tipo de informação e com omesmo nível de detalhe. O presente estudo tevecomo objetivo a indicação de áreas para a criaçãode novas unidades de conservação do complexo deecossistemas da Mata Atlântica na região da Serrado Mar/Paranapiacaba, Estado de São Paulo. Uma vezque não existem inventários com o mesmo nível dedetalhe para todas as áreas, utilizaram-se atributosbiofísicos e indicadores de integridade dos recursosnaturais, como representantes (surrogates) dadiversidade biológica e da persistência do ecossistemanas áreas analisadas. Seis áreas, previamenteselecionadas ad hoc, foram caracterizadas e submetidasao protocolo de avaliação, baseado em 13 critérios.O resultado é um portfolio de áreas, individualmentedescritas e hierarquicamente classificadas deacordo com a prioridade para a conservação dosecossistemas do complexo Mata Atlântica naregião, que poderá nortear ações concretas para acriação de novas áreas protegidas.Palavras-chaves: seleção de reservas; FlorestaAtlântica; prioridades deconservação.The practice of reserve selection hasgenerally not been systematic and new reserveshave often been located in places that do notcontribute to the representation of biodiversity ofthe region they are situated in. Reserves shouldrepresent regional biodiversity and separate it fromprocesses that threaten its persistence. Since wecannot protect all remaining natural ecosystems,we have to prioritize them. Reserve selectiontheory says that it is preferable to compare areaswith the same kind of information at the same levelof detail. With the aim of indicating new reservesof the Atlantic Forest ecosystems in São PauloState, we used biophysical attributes, integrity ofnatural resources and external influences assurrogates for biodiversity or persistence, since noequivalent biodiversity inventories are availablefor the region as a whole. Maps and information onthe existing reserves were also analyzed, searchingfor complementarity. Six areas, located in the Serrado Mar/Paranapiacaba region, previously indicatedon the basis of ad hoc procedure, were evaluatedbased upon thirteen criteria. The result is aportfolio of areas, individually described, andclassified according to their priority for AtlanticForest conservation, as a tool for decision makingin the real-world.

Forest fragmentation and habitat loss are among the major current extinction causes. Remaining fragments are mostly small, isolated and showing poor quality. Being primarily arboreal, Neotropical primates are generally sensitive to fragmentation effects. Furthermore, primates are involved in complex ecological process. Thus, landscape changes that negatively interfere with primate population dynamic affect the structure, composition, and ultimately the viability of the whole community. We evaluated if fragment size, isolation and visibility and matrix permeability are important for explaining the occurrence of three Neotropical primate species. Employing playback, we verified the presence of Callicebus nigrifrons, Callithrix aurita and Sapajus nigritus at 45 forest fragments around the municipality of Alfenas, Brazil. We classified the landscape and evaluated the metrics through predictive models of occurrence. We selected the best models through Akaike Selection Criterion. Aiming at validating our results, we applied the plausible models to another region (20 fragments at the neighboring municipality of Poço Fundo, Brazil). Twelve models were plausible, and three were validated, two for Sapajus nigritus (Area and Area+Visibility) and one for Callicebus nigrifrons (Area+Matrix). Our results reinforce the contribution of fragment size to maintain biodiversity within highly degraded habitats. At the same time, they stress the importance of including novel, biologically relevant metrics in landscape studies, such as visibility and matrix permeability, which can provide invaluable help for similar studies in the future and on conservation practices in the long run.