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Background: Defining Andean anurans through their altitudinal limits has been a common practice in species lists, studies of responses to climate change among others, especially in the northern Andes. At least three proposals to differentiate Andean anurans from lowland anurans through elevation and at least one to differentiate Andean anurans from high mountain anurans have been formulated. However, the most frequently used altitudinal limits are not based on theoretical or numerical support, but on observations or practical definitions. Additionally, these proposals have been applied equally to different portions of the Andes, ignoring the fact that even between slopes of the same mountain, environmental conditions (and therefore the distribution of species) may differ. The objective of this work was to evaluate the concordance between the altitudinal distribution of anurans in the Colombian Andes and four different altitudinal delimitation proposals. Methods: We constructed our study area in a manner that allowed us to include species from the Andean region (as traditionally defined) and adjacent lowlands, because if the boundaries criteria were applied they would separate the species of the latter by themselves. We divided the study area into eight entities according to the watershed and the course of the most important rivers. We conducted a bibliographic search for all anurans in the cordilleras and inter-Andean valleys of Colombia and complemented the search with information on anurans for the region available in the GBIF. After curing the species distribution points, we generated elevation bands of 200 m amplitude for both the study area and for each Andean entity. Subsequently, we performed a cluster analysis to evaluate the grouping of the elevation bands according to their species composition. Results: In none of the cases (neither for the entire study area nor for any of the entities) we found a correspondence of any of the traditionally used boundaries and the altitudinal distribution of Anurans in the Andean region of Colombia. Instead, on average, the altitudinal delimitation proposals arbitrarily spanned the altitudinal distribution of about one third of the species distributed in the study area. Conclusions: We suggest that, although, based on our results, some Andean entities can be divided according to the altitudinal composition of the species that occur in them, we did not find any results that support the idea of a generalizable altitudinal limit for the Colombian Andes. Thus, to avoid biases in studies that may later be used by decision makers, the selection of anuran species in studies in the Colombian Andes should be based on biogeographic, phylogenetic or natural history criteria and not on altitudinal limits as they have been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaitania is a rural town located in the Andes mountain range, very close to where the Colombian armed conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas began in the mid-1960s. In this context, a situated research and education project was conducted with state, civil and community organisations, including the Agency for the Reincorporation and Normalization of the Colombian Government, coffee producer associations in the south of Tolima, the Nasa Wes'x indigenous community and 150 excombatants, as well as teachers and students from the Design Program of the University of Ibagué, Colombia. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how creative (design) work can be organically transformed from the instrumental to the creative, favouring autonomous ways of learning. This project established collective reflection-action processes that worked in conjunction with four critical learning objectives, as specified by the Bachelor Design Program. Workshops were conducted for the co-creation of a collective brand of coffee that brought together victims and victimisers in a joint process of reconciliation and memory sharing. Through generation of a special coffee brand called The Third Agreement - which is now being commercialised - memory of the territory's autonomous peace processes and the community's self-validation efforts were recovered and developed. Critical skills were also developed in students and communities so that they could understand the implications of producing a design that would capture the market, while also recognising the importance of building transition paths for participants, especially in the contexts of war and peace. The students' reflections led to the construction of new praxis distinctions, such as plandisposición (planning-disposition), escuchacción (active-action-listening), honest-synthesis and sentipensar-actuar (feeling-thinkingacting), which indicate critical awareness of how design can open possibilities for creating futures in which many worlds co-exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A new species, Ateuchus tona, from the eastern Andes of Colombia is described and illustrated. The unique set of characters of this species, particularly the unusual sexual dimorphism in the sixth abdominal ventrite, which is largely expanded medially only in males, clearly separates this species from all other known species of Ateuchus. The species was found in 2004 during a single sampling event in a protected area. Since in Colombia most of the cloud forests are subject to extensive deforestation, additional sampling is needed to gather information about the species' conservation status. Additionally, two species, A. parvus and A. freudei, new to Colombia are presented rising the number of the Ateuchus species known for the country to eleven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterized bird communities in two paramo complexes (Frontino-Urrao and Sonsón) in the department of Antioquia, Colombia, including the transition zones and the upper boundaries of cloud forests. We recorded 197 bird species (40 families), of which 7 presented some threat category, 1 is almost threatened, 5 are endemic, 15 near endemic, 4 boreal migratory species and 1 austral migratory species. We point out 12 species that are relevant, either due to their degree of national threat or because they represent geographic or altitudinal range extensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to validate the accuracy of the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) dataset at representing climate variability over various time scales. The study is carried out in Antioquia, in northwestern Colombia, and uses statistically independent information provided by 75 rain gauges located at different sites from 1981 to 2018. In this study, statistical metrics are used to analyze the error structure of the CHIRPS data. Resilient methods for validation are included based on Gauss-Markov diagnostic problems and influence points, leverage, and outliers in the form of the trimmed least squares boot method and principal component analysis. To represent the performance of CHIRPS more accurately at estimating precipitation at different time scales, a comparison is made using 12 specific rain gauge located in different subregions of Antioquia, which had well-differentiated climatic characteristics. The results show that the accuracy of CHIRPS estimates is conditioned by geographic and climatic characteristics of the region in which precipitation events occur. CHIRPS works well in most weather conditions in Antioquia, even during the most intense periods of ENSO. However, it does better in the Andean subregions and underperforms in warmer regions. This study finds that CHIRPS is a rainfall data source that can be considered for analyzing seasonal and interannual variability and spatial precipitation patterns. It provides good spatio-temporal coverage and is particularly suitable for areas with few rainfall gauges. However, its accuracy is minimal for daily analysis. • The tropical climate and geographical diversity influence the accuracy of CHIRPS. • Accuracy of CHIRPS data allow identifying monthly rainfall oscillatory patterns. • The LTS and bootstrap validation was consistent in all the stations analyzed. • CHIRPS adequately reproduces seasonal, interannual, and ENSO rainfall patterns. • Methods for correcting bias of the CHIRPS data are required in some subregions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]