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Individual movements of bats are triggered by their life requirements, limited by their recognition of the environment and risks of moving, and mediated by habitat selection. Mining adds fragmentation and heterogeneity to landscapes, with poorly understood consequences to the life activities of the bats. Cave dwelling bats spend most of their life cycles within caves, and as they constantly forage in external landscapes, their contribution in the input of organic matter to the caves is of paramount importance to the subterranean biodiversity. We investigated habitat selection by cave bats in a mosaic of Amazonian forests, iron-rich savannas and iron-caves, studying the movements of the aerial insect-catcher Furipterus horrens (Furipteridae) and of the foliage gleaning bat Lonchorhina aurita (Phyllostomidae), both cave-dependent in the area. We used radio telemetry to assess their use of habitats, under the prediction that these species prefer preserved habitats for their foraging bouts, avoiding human-modified habitats. We also anticipated larger areas and commuting distances for both species when foraging in disturbed landscapes. Thirty-one bats were monitored in conserved habitats, mining sites and pastures resulting in an average range of 415.1 ± 837.4 ha and average commuting distances of 2163 ± 2453 m (F. horrens) and 681.1 ± 1101 ha and 2781.5 ± 2333 m (L. aurita). Our results suggest that F. horrens are open space foragers, frequently recorded in cangas, and L. aurita are forest foragers that use all habitats proportionally to their availability in the landscape. We detected landscape-related effects mediated by seasonal variation in the maximum commuting distance performed by both species. These are the first radiotelemetry data available for F. horrens and L. aurita, delivering original baselines to understand their movement behaviors. This information sheds light into constraints related to the optimal and adjusted biological cycles of these two species and their range shifts under scenarios of disturbance and may subsidize programs for their conservation., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Tavares et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The complete mitochondrial genomes of the whip spiders Charinus carajas, C. ferreus, and Heterophrynus longicornis were sequenced, annotated, and compared with other mitogenomes of whip spiders and arachnids. The three new mitogenomes have the 37 genes usually observed in Metazoa: 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), plus a non-coding control region (CR). Most PCGs presented an ATN start codon, except cox1 in both Charinus species, initiating with TTA. Most PCGs terminated with stop codons TAA or TAG, except nad5 of C. carajas and cox3 of H. longicornis, which presented an incomplete stop codon (T). The Ka/Ks ratios were less than one for all the PCGs, indicating these genes are under purifying selection. All the tRNAs, except for serine 1 (trnS1), had the typical cloverleaf-shaped secondary structure. All the phylogenetic analyses resolved Charinus carajas and C. ferreus as monophyletic groups. Nonetheless, we did not recover the monophyly of Heterophrynus longicornis. The phylogenies under partitioned models did not recover suprageneric taxonomic groups as clades, but the Bayesian inference under the CAT infinite mixture model recovered the family Phrynidae and the superfamily Phrynoidea as monophyletic groups., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

It has been indicated that extreme sport activities result in a highly rewarding experience, despite also providing fear, stress and anxiety. Studies have related this experience to the concept of flow, a positive feeling that individuals undergo when they are completely immersed in an activity. However, little is known about the exact nature of these experiences, and, there are still no empirical results to characterize the brain dynamics during extreme sport practice. This work aimed at investigating changes in psychological responses while recording physiological (heart rate-HR, and breathing rate-BR) and neural (electroencephalographic-EEG) data of eight volunteers, during outdoors slackline walking in a mountainous environment at two different altitude conditions (1 m-low-walk- and 45 m-high-walk-from the ground). Low-walk showed a higher score on flow scale, while high-walk displayed a higher score in the negative affect aspects, which together point to some level of flow restriction during high-walk. The order of task performance was shown to be relevant for the physiological and neural variables. The brain behavior during flow, mainly considering attention networks, displayed the stimulus-driven ventral attention network-VAN, regionally prevailing (mainly at the frontal lobe), over the goal-directed dorsal attention network-DAN. Therefore, we suggest an interpretation of flow experiences as an opened attention to more changing details in the surroundings, i.e ., configured as a 'task-constantly-opened-to-subtle-information experience', rather than a 'task-focused experience'., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2024 de Sampaio Barros et al.)

Cross-habitat spillover may be the outcome of a process of habitat loss or degradation where the receiving habitat serves as a refuge for organisms. Once surface habitats are lost or degraded, animals can find underground refuge in caves. This paper is focused on testing whether taxonomic order richness inside caves is positively affected by the loss of the native vegetation cover surrounding caves; whether degradation of native vegetation cover predicts cave community composition; and whether there is a pattern of cave community clusters delimited by similarity in the effects of habitat degradation on animal communities. We gathered a comprehensive speleological dataset consisting of occurrence data of thousands of invertebrates and vertebrates sampled in 864 iron caves in the Amazon, to test the effects of both variables measured inside caves and surrounding landscapes on spatial variation in richness and composition of animal communities. We show that caves can work as refuges for the fauna in landscapes where the native vegetation cover surrounding them was degraded, which was evidenced by landcover change increasing the richness of cave communities and clustering caves by similarity in community composition. Therefore, habitat degradation on the surface should be a key variable when characterizing cave ecosystems for conservation prioritization and offset planning. Habitat degradation causing a cross-habitat spillover effect highlights the importance of maintaining the connection between caves by the surface, especially large caves. Our study can help guide industry and stakeholders working on the complex conciliation between land use and biodiversity conservation., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The leading causes of the worldwide decline in biodiversity are global warming, allied with natural habitat loss and fragmentation. Here, we propose an analysis of the synergistic effects of these two factors in 63 species of Amazonian lizards. We predicted that the high-climatic suitability areas of species would be significantly impacted by different deforestation scenarios and the resultant landscape structure and considered that forest-dwelling species would be especially susceptible to deforestation scenarios. We also pointed out species threatened by both drivers and suggested critical areas for their future conservation. According to our results, most species will face future reductions in suitable areas for their occurrence according to five different patterns, two of which represent significant risks for 15 species. Some of these species already deal with severe habitat loss and fragmentation of their current distribution ranges, whereas others will suffer a considerable area reduction related to future range shifts. We emphasize the importance of protected areas (PAs), especially indigenous lands, and the need to plan combined strategies involving PAs' maintenance and possible implementation of ecological corridors. Finally, we highlight eight species of thermoconformer lizards that constitute present and future conservation concerns related to the combined effects of climate change and habitat loss and that should be carefully evaluated in extinction risk assessments., Competing Interests: Daniel de Paiva Silva is an Academic Editor for PeerJ., (© 2022 Teixeira et al.)

Understanding the factors underpinning species abundance patterns in space and time is essential to implement effective cave conservation actions. Yet, the methods employed to monitor cave biodiversity still lack standardization, and no quantitative assessment has yet tried to optimize the amount and type of information required to efficiently identify disturbances in cave ecosystems. Using a comprehensive monitoring dataset for tropical iron caves, comprising abundance measurements for 33 target taxa surveyed across 95 caves along four years, here we provide the first evidence-based recommendations to optimize monitoring programs seeking to follow target species abundance through time. We found that seasonality did not influence the ability to detect temporal abundance trends. However, in most species, abundance estimates assessed during the dry season resulted in a more accurate detection of temporal abundance trends, and at least three surveys were required to identify global temporal abundance trends. Finally, we identified a subset of species that could potentially serve as short-term disturbance indicators. Results suggest that iron cave monitoring programs implemented in our study region could focus sampling efforts in the dry season, where detectability of target species is higher, while assuring data collection for at least three years. More generally, our study reveals the importance of long-term cave monitoring programs for detecting possible disturbances in subterranean ecosystems, and for using the generated information to optimize future monitoring efforts., Competing Interests: Rodolfo Jaffé is an Academic Editor for PeerJ. Matheus Simoes, Xavier Prous, Thadeu Pietrobon, and Iuri Viana Brandi are employees of Vale S.A., (© 2021 Trevelin et al.)

Histoplasma capsulatum, the fungus causing histoplasmosis, has a strong impact on public health. Histoplasmosis is one of the most prevalent systemic mycoses in the Americas and occurs in several mammalian species. Bats are important in the epidemiological cycle of histoplasmosis because they disseminate the fungus throughout the environment. The aim of the present study was to investigate natural H. capsulatum infection in bats located in forested areas, which have undergone anthropogenic perturbations, as well as in the urban areas of the state of Pará. Twenty-two species of bats were captured in 18 municipalities of Pará; the samples obtained from these animals were subjected to nested PCR for amplification of H. capsulatum DNA. The HCI/HCII and HCIII/HCIV primers were used, and the final 210-pb fragment was amplified. Of the 100 bats analysed, two were confirmed to be positive for H. capsulatum. Samples amplified by nested PCR were sequenced and found to share identity and have 100% match with H. capsulatum DNA. H. capsulatum was detected in the area of study: the state of Pará has a wide diversity of bat species, and the region under investigation is situated in the north of the state, which suffers the most severe environmental and climatic changes. Therefore, it is essential to elucidate the distribution of H. capsulatum hosts in this region to facilitate the implementation of effective disease surveillance., (© 2020 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Despite the importance of climate-adjusted provenancing to mitigate the effects of environmental change, climatic considerations alone are insufficient when restoring highly degraded sites. Here we propose a comprehensive landscape genomic approach to assist the restoration of moderately disturbed and highly degraded sites. To illustrate it we employ genomic data sets comprising thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms from two plant species suitable for the restoration of iron-rich Amazonian Savannas. We first use a subset of neutral loci to assess genetic structure and determine the genetic neighbourhood size. We then identify genotype-phenotype-environment associations, map adaptive genetic variation, and predict adaptive genotypes for restoration sites. Whereas local provenances were found optimal to restore a moderately disturbed site, a mixture of genotypes seemed the most promising strategy to recover a highly degraded mining site. We discuss how our results can help define site-adjusted provenancing strategies, and argue that our methods can be more broadly applied to assist other restoration initiatives., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Despite the wide variety of variables commonly employed to measure the success of rehabilitation, the assessment and subsequent definition of indicators of environmental rehabilitation status are not simple tasks. The main challenges are comparing rehabilitated sites with target ecosystems as well as integrating individual environmental and eventually collinear variables into a single tractable measure for the state of a system before effective indicators that track rehabilitation may be modeled. Furthermore, a consensus is lacking regarding which and how many variables need to be surveyed for a reliable estimation of rehabilitation status. Here, we propose a multivariate ordination to integrate variables related to ecological processes, vegetation structure, and community diversity into a single estimation of rehabilitation status. As a case, we employed a curated set of 32 environmental variables retrieved from nonrevegetated, rehabilitating and reference sites associated with iron ore mines from the Urucum Massif, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. By integrating this set of environmental variables into a single estimation of rehabilitation status, the proposed multivariate approach is straightforward and able to adequately address collinearity among variables. The proposed methodology allows for the identification of biases towards single variables, surveys or analyses, which is necessary to rank environmental variables regarding their importance to the assessment. Furthermore, we show that bootstrapping permitted the detection of the minimum number of environmental variables necessary to achieve reliable estimations of the rehabilitation status. Finally, we show that the proposed variable integration enables the definition of case-specific environmental indicators for more rapid assessments of mineland rehabilitation. Thus, the proposed multivariate ordination represents a powerful tool to facilitate the diagnosis of rehabilitating sites worldwide provided that sufficient environmental variables related to ecological processes, diversity and vegetation structure are gathered from nonrehabilitated, rehabilitating and reference study sites. By identifying deviations from predicted rehabilitation trajectories and providing assessments for environmental agencies, this proposed multivariate ordination increases the effectiveness of (mineland) rehabilitation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Xenarthrans-anteaters, sloths, and armadillos-have essential functions for ecosystem maintenance, such as insect control and nutrient cycling, playing key roles as ecosystem engineers. Because of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting pressure, and conflicts with domestic dogs, these species have been threatened locally, regionally, or even across their full distribution ranges. The Neotropics harbor 21 species of armadillos, 10 anteaters, and 6 sloths. Our data set includes the families Chlamyphoridae (13), Dasypodidae (7), Myrmecophagidae (3), Bradypodidae (4), and Megalonychidae (2). We have no occurrence data on Dasypus pilosus (Dasypodidae). Regarding Cyclopedidae, until recently, only one species was recognized, but new genetic studies have revealed that the group is represented by seven species. In this data paper, we compiled a total of 42,528 records of 31 species, represented by occurrence and quantitative data, totaling 24,847 unique georeferenced records. The geographic range is from the southern United States, Mexico, and Caribbean countries at the northern portion of the Neotropics, to the austral distribution in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. Regarding anteaters, Myrmecophaga tridactyla has the most records (n = 5,941), and Cyclopes sp. have the fewest (n = 240). The armadillo species with the most data is Dasypus novemcinctus (n = 11,588), and the fewest data are recorded for Calyptophractus retusus (n = 33). With regard to sloth species, Bradypus variegatus has the most records (n = 962), and Bradypus pygmaeus has the fewest (n = 12). Our main objective with Neotropical Xenarthrans is to make occurrence and quantitative data available to facilitate more ecological research, particularly if we integrate the xenarthran data with other data sets of Neotropical Series that will become available very soon (i.e., Neotropical Carnivores, Neotropical Invasive Mammals, and Neotropical Hunters and Dogs). Therefore, studies on trophic cascades, hunting pressure, habitat loss, fragmentation effects, species invasion, and climate change effects will be possible with the Neotropical Xenarthrans data set. Please cite this data paper when using its data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using these data., (© 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of America.)

Carnivores have long been used as model organisms to examine mechanisms that allow coexistence among ecologically similar species. Interactions between carnivores, including competition and predation, comprise important processes regulating local community structure and diversity. We use data from an intensive camera-trapping monitoring program across eight Neotropical forest sites to describe the patterns of spatiotemporal organization of a guild of five sympatric cat species: jaguar (Panthera onca), puma (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) and margay (Leopardus wiedii). For the three largest cat species, we developed multi-stage occupancy models accounting for habitat characteristics (landscape complexity and prey availability) and models accounting for species interactions (occupancy estimates of potential competitor cat species). Patterns of habitat-use were best explained by prey availability, rather than habitat structure or species interactions, with no evidence of negative associations of jaguar on puma and ocelot occupancy or puma on ocelot occupancy. We further explore temporal activity patterns and overlap of all five felid species. We observed a moderate temporal overlap between jaguar, puma and ocelot, with differences in their activity peaks, whereas higher temporal partitioning was observed between jaguarundi and both ocelot and margay. Lastly, we conducted temporal overlap analysis and calculated species activity levels across study sites to explore if shifts in daily activity within species can be explained by varying levels of local competition pressure. Activity patterns of ocelots, jaguarundis and margays were similarly bimodal across sites, but pumas exhibited irregular activity patterns, most likely as a response to jaguar activity. Activity levels were similar among sites and observed differences were unrelated to competition or intraguild killing risk. Our study reveals apparent spatial and temporal partitioning for most of the species pairs analyzed, with prey abundance being more important than species interactions in governing the local occurrence and spatial distribution of Neotropical forest felids., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta. The dataset includes 700 primate communities, 8,121 single species occurrences and 714 estimates of primate population sizes, covering most natural forest types of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and some other biomes. On average, primate communities of the Atlantic Forest harbor 2 ± 1 species (range = 1-6). However, about 40% of primate communities contain only one species. Alouatta guariba (N = 2,188 records) and Sapajus nigritus (N = 1,127) were the species with the most records. Callicebus barbarabrownae (N = 35), Leontopithecus caissara (N = 38), and Sapajus libidinosus (N = 41) were the species with the least records. Recorded primate densities varied from 0.004 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta guariba at Fragmento do Bugre, Paraná, Brazil) to 400 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta caraya in Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our dataset reflects disparity between the numerous primate census conducted in the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to the scarcity of estimates of population sizes and densities. With these data, researchers can develop different macroecological and regional level studies, focusing on communities, populations, species co-occurrence and distribution patterns. Moreover, the data can also be used to assess the consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and disease outbreaks on different ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, species invasion or extinction, and community dynamics. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this Data Paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data., (© 2018 by the The Authors. Ecology © 2018 The Ecological Society of America.)

The present study attempts to better identify the neurophysiological changes occurring during flow experience and how this can be related to the mobilization of attentional resources. Self-reports of flow (using a flow feelings scale) and attention (using thought probes), autonomic activity (heart rate, heart rate variability, and breathing rate), and cerebral oxygenation (using near-infrared spectroscopy) in two regions of the frontoparietal attention network (right lateral frontal cortex and right inferior parietal lobe) were measured during the practice of two simple video games (Tetris and Pong) played at different difficulty conditions (easy, optimal, hard, or self-selected). Our results indicated that an optimal level of difficulty, compared with an easy or hard level of difficulty led to greater flow feelings and a higher concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin in the regions of the frontoparietal network. The self-selected, named autonomy condition did not lead to more flow feelings than the optimal condition; however, the autonomy condition led to greater sympathetic activity (reduced heart rate variability and greater breathing rate) and higher activation of the frontoparietal regions. Our study suggests that flow feelings are highly connected to the mobilization of attentional resources, and all the more in a condition that promotes individuals' choice and autonomy.

The advantages of mist-netting, the main technique used in Neotropical bat community studies to date, include logistical implementation, standardization and sampling representativeness. Nonetheless, study designs still have to deal with issues of detectability related to how different species behave and use the environment. Yet there is considerable sampling heterogeneity across available studies in the literature. Here, we approach the problem of sample size optimization. We evaluated the common sense hypothesis that the first six hours comprise the period of peak night activity for several species, thereby resulting in a representative sample for the whole night. To this end, we combined re-sampling techniques, species accumulation curves, threshold analysis, and community concordance of species compositional data, and applied them to datasets of three different Neotropical biomes (Amazonia, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado). We show that the strategy of restricting sampling to only six hours of the night frequently results in incomplete sampling representation of the entire bat community investigated. From a quantitative standpoint, results corroborated the existence of a major Sample Area effect in all datasets, although for the Amazonia dataset the six-hour strategy was significantly less species-rich after extrapolation, and for the Cerrado dataset it was more efficient. From the qualitative standpoint, however, results demonstrated that, for all three datasets, the identity of species that are effectively sampled will be inherently impacted by choices of sub-sampling schedule. We also propose an alternative six-hour sampling strategy (at the beginning and the end of a sample night) which performed better when resampling Amazonian and Atlantic Forest datasets on bat assemblages. Given the observed magnitude of our results, we propose that sample representativeness has to be carefully weighed against study objectives, and recommend that the trade-off between logistical constraints and additional sampling performance should be carefully evaluated.

Background: Systems for range of motion (ROM) measurement such as OptoTrak, Motion Capture, Motion Analysis, Vicon, and Visual 3D are so expensive that they become impracticable in public health systems and even in private rehabilitation clinics. Telerehabilitation is a branch within telemedicine intended to offer ways to increase motor and/or cognitive stimuli, aimed at faster and more effective recovery of given disabilities, and to measure kinematic data such as the improvement in ROM., Materials and Methods: In the development of the RehabGesture tool, we used the gesture recognition sensor Kinect(®) (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) and the concepts of Natural User Interface and Open Natural Interaction., Results: RehabGesture can measure and record the ROM during rehabilitation sessions while the user interacts with the virtual reality environment. The software allows the measurement of the ROM (in the coronal plane) from 0° extension to 145° flexion of the elbow joint, as well as from 0° adduction to 180° abduction of the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint, leaving the standing position. The proposed tool has application in the fields of training and physical evaluation of professional and amateur athletes in clubs and gyms and may have application in rehabilitation and physiotherapy clinics for patients with compromised motor abilities., Conclusions: RehabGesture represents a low-cost solution to measure the movement of the upper limbs, as well as to stimulate the process of teaching and learning in disciplines related to the study of human movement, such as kinesiology.

Pitheciids are known for their frugivorous diets, but there has been no broad-scale comparison of fruit genera used by these primates that range across five geographic regions in South America. We compiled 31 fruit lists from data collected from 18 species (three Cacajao, six Callicebus, five Chiropotes, and four Pithecia) at 26 study sites in six countries. Together, these lists contained 455 plant genera from 96 families. We predicted that 1) closely related Chiropotes and Cacajao would demonstrate the greatest similarity in fruit lists; 2) pitheciids living in closer geographic proximity would have greater similarities in fruit lists; and 3) fruit genus richness would be lower in lists from forest fragments than continuous forests. Fruit genus richness was greatest for the composite Chiropotes list, even though Pithecia had the greatest overall sampling effort. We also found that the Callicebus composite fruit list had lower similarity scores in comparison with the composite food lists of the other three genera (both within and between geographic areas). Chiropotes and Pithecia showed strongest similarities in fruit lists, followed by sister taxa Chiropotes and Cacajao. Overall, pitheciids in closer proximity had more similarities in their fruit list, and this pattern was evident in the fruit lists for both Callicebus and Chiropotes. There was no difference in the number of fruit genera used by pitheciids in habitat fragments and continuous forest. Our findings demonstrate that pitheciids use a variety of fruit genera, but phylogenetic and geographic patterns in fruit use are not consistent across all pitheciid genera. This study represents the most extensive examination of pitheciid fruit consumption to date, but future research is needed to investigate the extent to which the trends in fruit genus richness noted here are attributable to habitat differences among study sites, differences in feeding ecology, or a combination of both., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Purpose: Chromatic contrast is a technique used in some areas of medicine to provide better visualization of biological tissues. Based on principles of color composition, a new illumination system was constructed using colored emitting diodes to reproduce the spectral range of visible light. This technique was devised to be used in indirect ophthalmoscopes to improve the visualization of the posterior segment of the eye., Methods: The original illumination system of a general purpose indirect ophthalmoscope was substituted by a system of color-emitting diodes., Results: Using an electronic interface it was possible to control the intensity of the color lights and therefore generate different wavelengths in the visible spectrum of the light. Preliminary tests undertaken in a mechanical model of the human eye generated very clear and homogenous colors. However in vivo examinations with patients were performed in our laboratory at the IFSC-USP and UNIFESP, and obtained the preliminary results show the possibilities of the chromatic contrast technique, and may represent in the future a differential in the analyses of the posterior segment of the eye., Conclusion: The use of color-emitting diodes to reproduce the spectral range of the visible light in indirect ophthalmoscopes seems to be a promising technological advance in the fundoscopy of the eye. This is an innovation that can yield better quality examinations with indirect ophthalmoscopes.