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Semi‐arid and arid landscapes (dry‐lands) cover 41% of the Earth’s land surface over five continents. These areas are home to 55% of mammal species. Bats have the second highest species richness among mammals, and, although many species are adapted to arid conditions, they are particularly sensitive in these habitats and require conservation priority. Information on bats in arid and semi‐arid landscapes is scattered, patchy and focused on small‐scale studies; therefore, we undertook a systematic review using the PRISMA protocol to identify the current knowledge status, detect knowledge gaps and propose future research priorities. We analysed 346 published articles and evaluated 40 topics within five topic categories (taxa studied, methodologies used, biology, ecology and conservation). The most commonly studied topic categories were ecology and biology. However, we found a gap in the topic category conservation (including topics such as conservation status and roost conservation). Our network analysis of topics within the categories showed that most ecology papers were focused on distribution, species richness and habitat use. When we analysed keywords, we found that phylogeny, taxonomy and distribution demonstrated relatively high presence. Moreover, comparison of the percentage of studies conducted in dry‐lands and the percentage of land surface area covered by dry‐lands in the continents revealed that dry‐lands in Africa and Australia were especially under‐represented. Our review shows that knowledge of bats in semi‐arid and arid landscapes is biased towards new records of the distribution of species, as well as covering systematic/taxonomic and morphological aspects of bat biology. We suggest that research on conservation measures and guidelines to protect the bat species found in semi‐arid and arid landscapes should be prioritised, together with the sharing of knowledge with local practitioners and the development of citizen science programmes.

Natural regeneration has been proposed as a cost-effective forest restoration approach for both small and large-scale initiatives. However, attributes for assessing the success of forest restoration through natural regeneration may vary among them in spatial patterns depending on the scale of analysis and on environmental gradients. Here we analysed the spatial patterns of recovery completeness (i.e. how similar attributes in restored forests are to the same attributes in reference forests) in response to environmental factors in a Mediterranean forest landscape of Central Chile. We evaluated (1) forest recovery completeness using basal area (BA), quadratic mean diameter (QMD), adult species density (ASD), adult species richness (ASR), and seedling species richness (SSR); (2) the spatial congruence of recovery completeness estimated by each of these indicators; and (3) the environmental factors potentially shaping these spatial patterns. We used field measurements and geospatial information sources to quantify and predict indicator responses by fitting boosted regression tree models. To assess the spatial congruence of predictions we overlaid high-level recovery completeness values for all indicators. Overall recovery completeness in the study area was 72.7%, suggesting positive prospects for attaining fully restored forests. Recovery completeness had a resulted higher for diversity (92.3%-99.6%) than structural forest attributes (33.5%-76.9%); however, spatial congruence among recovery indicators was low due to the uneven spatial responses of each indicator. The maximum potential spatial congruence was, Universidad de La Frontera, Fundación de Apoyo a la Investigación del Estado de Sao Paulo

An understanding of human attitudes towards wildlife can be an essential element in the success or failure of a conservation initiative, policy or practice and represents one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species. Despite the ecosystem services bats provide, they often are a socially stigmatized group, misperceived and even hunted. This problem has been on the increase as a result of the Covid‐19 pandemic. We examined how aesthetic appeal and informational factors could influence human attitudes towards bats in a survey of 1966 participants from Spanish‐speaking countries. Gender, educational level, religiousness and previous experiences with bats were relevant variables to understand attitudes towards them. The results indicate that both aesthetic and informational stimuli increase the positive responses, reducing the negatives on the participants' attitudes. Our results show the importance of public attitudes to achieve conservation goals, especially in the context of human‐wildlife conflict. Bats are not charismatic animals and are still surrounded in mystery; however, our findings could benefit bat conservation plans, allowing the development of new communication strategies both locally and nationally and increasing public acceptance that will facilitate bat conservation., An understanding of human attitudes towards wildlife can be an essential element in the success or failure of a conservation initiative, policy or practice and represents one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species. Despite the ecosystem services bats provide, they often are a socially stigmatized group, misperceived and even hunted. This problem has been on the increase as a result of the Covid‐19 pandemic. We examined how aesthetic appeal and informational factors could influence human attitudes towards bats in a survey of 1966 participants from Spanish‐speaking countries. Gender, educational level, religiousness and previous experiences with bats were relevant variables to understand attitudes towards them. The results indicate that both aesthetic and informational stimuli increase the positive responses, reducing the negatives on the participants' attitudes. Our results show the importance of public attitudes to achieve conservation goals, especially in the context of human‐wildlife conflict.

Understanding of people&rsquo, s landscape preferences is important for decision-making about land planning, particularly in the disturbance patterns that usually occur in rural-urban gradients. However, the use of different types of images concerning the same landscape may influence social preferences and thus perceptions of landscape management and planning decisions. We evaluated landscape preferences and perceptions in four landscapes of southern Chile. We specifically: (1) compared people&rsquo, s perceptions related to living in, visiting, the scenic beauty, well-being, risks, and level of landscape disturbance, and (2) evaluated the influence of the type of scene (i.e., eye-level or aerial images) in these preferences and perceptions. Preferences and perceptions resulted to be better when using eye-level (4.0 &plusmn, 1.1) than aerial (3.7 &plusmn, 0.6) images. In general, we observed a negative association between preferences and perceptions and the landscape disturbance, however, it was consistent when using aerial images but was masked when valuing landscape through eye-level images. Implications of these results are relevant because by far, most landscape preference studies use traditional eye-level images. Different types of scenes should be considered in order to embrace the landscape preferences and perceptions of all those involved and help decision-making in landscape planning.

Binary variables have two possible outcomes: occurrence or non-occurrence of an event (usually with 1 and 0 values, respectively). Binary data are common in ecology, including studies of presence/absence, alive/dead, and change/no-change. Logistic regression analysis has been widely used to model binary response variables. Unbalanced data (i.e., an extremely larger proportion of zeros than ones) are often found across a variety of ecological datasets. Sometimes the data are balanced (i.e., same amount of zeros and ones) before fitting the model, however, the statistical implications of balancing (or not) the data remain unclear. We assessed the statistical effects of balancing data when fitting a logistic regression model by studying both its statistical properties of the estimated parameters and its predictive capabilities. We used a base forest-mortality model as reference, and by using stochastic simulations representing different configurations of 0/1 data in a sample (unbalanced data scenarios), we fitted the logistic regression model by maximum likelihood. For each scenario we computed the bias and variance of the estimated parameters and several prediction indexes. We found that the variability of the estimated parameters is affected, with the balanced-data scenario having the lowest variability, thus, affecting the statistical inference as well. Furthermore, the prediction capabilities of the model are altered by balancing the data, with the balanced-data scenario having the better sensitivity/specificity ratio. Balancing, or not, the data to be used for fitting a logistic regression models may affect the conclusion that can arise from the fitted model and its subsequent applications.

Public urban green spaces provide people with many benefits. Understanding the relationship between public urban green spaces’ characteristics and human well-being components may assist in future planning and design of these spaces. This study performed a systematic bibliographic review to analyse the relationships between green spaces' specific characteristics and human well-being components. The green spaces characteristics found in 153 articles were divided in four groups: structure, biodiversity, naturalness, and others; while dimensions of human well-being were divided into four groups: health, security, good social relations, and freedom of choice and action. The number of green spaces and their percentage of vegetation cover and size (structure category) improved human well-being, in all aspects, especially in health. Structure and biodiversity are the characteristics most highly rated in the literature. These green spaces’ biodiversity and naturalness contribute to human well-being through improvements in health (particularly mental health) and good social relations. The most frequently methods used to assess the relationship of public urban green spaces and human well-being are mainly oriented towards studying perception of the green space’s users. This result highlights an opportunity to assess the congruence between methods evaluating perception and objective measurement. Our findings may provide tools for decision-makers to integrate green spaces into planning, identifying specific characteristics of public urban green spaces that promote human well-being and to face climate change.

Jubaea chilensis es un arbol endemico de la zona central de Chile (31o15’-35o22’ S). Las principales amenazas actuales a su conservacion estarian asociadas a diferentes limitantes a su regeneracion natural, en especial la intensa cosecha de sus semillas. El analisis de patrones espaciales de distribucion puede ser una importante herramienta para entender la dinamica de los bosques y la interaccion entre los individuos. En este trabajo se estudio el patron espacial de reclutamiento de la especie y se identificaron las condiciones favorables para su regeneracion. Se estimo una notoria agrupacion espacial entre los individuos de regeneracion para todos los rangos de distancia analizados, y a su vez una distribucion dependiente de los individuos adultos, agrupandose mayormente cercano a ellos. Por otra parte, la modelacion espacial revelo que la regeneracion natural de J. chilensis se relaciona significativamente con sitios de mayor cobertura vegetacional, y especialmente en sitios con una mayor radiacion solar. Los resultados sugieren que la regeneracion agrupada de J. chilensis se deberia a la asociacion de condiciones ambientales propicias para el establecimiento de nuevos individuos, su mecanismo de dispersion de semillas y escape de la depredacion, herbivoria y cosecha de sus semillas, lo que estaria determinando la estructura espacial de la poblacion. A su vez, los resultados confirman un efecto nodriza, facilitador de la regeneracion natural de la especie.

Deforestation is widely studied throughout the world. However, a less evident issue is the effect of climate change and drought on remnants of native forests. The objective of this work was to understand the geographic variations in resistance to drought of the Mediterranean sclerophyllous forests of central Chile. These forests have been historically reduced and fragmented and in recent years were subjected to the most prolonged drought occurred between 2010 and 2017. Using data from the MODIS satellite sensor, temporal trends in the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were quantified. We related these trends with different environmental variables to understand the effects of geographical variation and forest type as indicators of resistance to drought. We observed a significant direct effect of drought, attributable to the reduced precipitation in central Chile, and a significantly reduced NDVI in near one-third of the region forests (browning). However, NDVI and therefore forest productivity were more stable in some mesic sites such as ravine bottoms, but not on south-facing slopes. This suggests that under a regime of reduced precipitations, a greater available soil humidity would be a more important factor than the fact of receiving less solar radiation. Finally, the highest degree of browning was observed in semi-arid sclerophyllous forest dominated by species tolerant to drought. Our findings emphasize the need to consider topographic site conditions to adequately assess forest productivity and vulnerability where local wet conditions could provide drought refuges. This recent drought may be analogous to forecasted warmer and drier climate conditions with more frequent and severe droughts, so our results may serve as a general framework for climate-smart decisions in highly threatened forest restoration and conservation. Fil: Miranda, Alejandro. Universidad de La Frontera; Chile. Universidad de Chile; Chile. Universidad Austral de Chile; Chile Fil: Lara, Antonio. Universidad Austral de Chile; Chile. Universidad de Chile; Chile Fil: Altamirano, Adison. Universidad de La Frontera; Chile Fil: Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario; Argentina Fil: González, Mauro Eduardo Javier. Universidad de Chile; Chile. Universidad Austral de Chile; Chile Fil: Julio Camarero, Jesus. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología; España

The presence and attributes of perch trees in degraded areas may promote seed dispersal. We evaluated the effect of the distance from remnant forest fragments on seed rain of different fleshy-fruit tree species and examined whether the seed rain is favoured by some traits of the perch trees (Acacia caven), such as canopy diameter and tree height. The study was carried out in two localities of central Chile with extensive “espinales” adjacent to remnant fragments of sclerophyllous forest. We installed 210 seed traps under the same number of A. caven trees along 10 transects in the two study areas. We set up the seed traps between 1 and 100 m away from forest fragments. We found a significant negative relationship between seed rain and distance. We also found a positive relationship between seed rain and the height and canopy diameter of the perch tree. Our results suggest that different woody species are able to disperse into the espinal, and that bigger A. caven trees are better perches than smaller individuals. We propose that at distances up to at least 100 m from forest fragments, seed availability does not limit natural regeneration into espinales.

Loss of native forest is a key conservation concern globally, for reasons of biodiversity, climate change and ecosystem services. Landscape measures are used widely to characterize forest loss and associated landscape structure, but often without regard for structure imposed by the data used, and associated assumptions. Notably, forest loss is often expressed simply as net change in forest cover over time, but this approach does not account for turnover (i.e. the gross losses and gains of forest). It also ignores forest age (e.g. young regrowth forest or mature forest), which is significant in conservation terms. We investigate the effects of removing common data constraints on landscape characterization, as typically used in landscape dynamic analyses. We produced fine-resolution (0.0225 ha) classified maps from satellite imagery of the temperate Araucania Region of Chile, for 1986, 1999 and 2008. We calculated areas of land-use classes and associated landscape indices. Landscape measures and trends through time varied markedly around the region, with forest loss and fragmentation confined to areas not designated as protected. Net (‘headline’) figures masked very large turnover through time, with about 30% of unprotected land switching land use each decade. Accounting for this, in unprotected areas the loss of established native forest was 2.4% and 3.5% per year in the two time periods, much higher than equivalent ‘standard’ figures. Using finer-resolution data increased estimates of native forest loss and reversed temporal trends in patch density and mean patch size, compared with the commonly-used National Vegetation Classification (6.25 and 4.5 ha resolution). Interestingly, mean patch size of native forest actually switched, from a decreasing trend to an increasing one, with continued deforestation. We conclude that landscape characterization can lead to effective conservation practices, but it is necessary to use appropriate data resolution, define the data domain carefully and examine change through time, including the degree of dynamism (turnover) within the landscape: our results suggest a strong need to consider continuity of forest cover as well as overall totals.

Ulex europaeus (gorse) is an invasive shrub deemed as one of the most invasive species in the world. U. europaeus is widely distributed in the south-central area of Chile, which is considered a world hotspot for biodiversity conservation. In addition to its negative effects on the biodiversity of natural ecosystems, U. europaeus is one of the most severe pests for agriculture and forestry. Despite its importance as an invasive species, U. europaeus has been little studied. Although information exists on the potential distribution of the species, the interaction of the invasion process with the spatial dynamic of the landscape and the landscape-scale factors that control the presence or absence of the species is still lacking. We studied the spatial and temporal dynamics of the landscape and how these relate to U. europaeus invasion in south-central Chile. We used supervised classification of satellite images to determine the spatial distribution of the species and other land covers for the years 1986 and 2003, analysing the transitions between the different land covers. We used logistic regression for modelling the increase, decrease and permanence of U. europaeus invasion considering landscape variables. Results showed that the species covers only around 1 % of the study area and showed a 42 % reduction in area for the studied period. However, U. europaeus was the cover type which presented the greatest dynamism in the landscape. We found a strong relationship between changes in land cover and the invasion process, especially connected with forest plantations of exotic species, which promotes the displacement of U. europaeus. The model of gorse cover increase presented the best performance, and the most important predictors were distance to seed source and landscape complexity index. Our model predicted high spread potential of U. europaeus in areas of high conservation value. We conclude that proper management for this invasive species must take into account the spatial dynamics of the landscape within the invaded area in order to address containment, control or mitigation of the invasion.

Chile has more than half of the temperate forests in the southern hemisphere. These have been included among the most threatened eco-regions in the world, because of the high degree of endemism and presence of monotypic genera. In this study, we develop empirical models to investigate present and future spatial patterns of woody species richness in temperate forests in south-central Chile. Our aims are both to increase understanding of species richness patterns in such forests and to develop recommendations for forest conservation strategies. Our data were obtained at multiple spatial scales, including field sampling, climate, elevation and topography data, and land-cover and spectrally derived variables from satellite sensor imagery. Climatic and land-cover variables most effectively accounted for tree species richness variability, while only weak relationships were found between explanatory variables and shrub species richness. The best models were used to obtain prediction maps of tree species richness for 2050, using data from the Hadley Centre's HadCM3 model. Current protected areas are located far from the areas of highest tree conservation value and our models suggest this trend will continue. We therefore suggest that current conservation strategies are insufficient, a trend likely to be repeated across many other areas. We propose the current network of protected areas should be increased, prioritizing sites of both current and future importance to increase the effectiveness of the national protected areas system. In this way, target sites for conservation can also be chosen to bring other benefits, such as improved water supply to populated areas., Universidad de Chile, Ministerio de Planificación y Política Económica