Antonio González-Rodríguez

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | UNAM · Institute of Ecosystem and Sustainability Research

The rapid expansion of avocado cultivation in Michoacán, Mexico, is one of the drivers of deforestation. We assessed the degree of fragmentation and functional connectivity of the remaining temperate forest within the Avocado Belt and prioritized patches that contribute the most to connectivity using a network-based approach and modelling different...

Antecedentes y Objetivos: Los individuos de Balmea stormiae (Rubiaceae) son árboles o arbustos hemiepífitos que habitan malpaíses con bosques de pino-encino en poblaciones disyuntas en Centroamérica y México. La especie se considera en peligro de extinción y particularmente se ha documentado que las poblaciones de Michoacán han estado expuestas a f...

Six bacteria (Bacillus velezensis 13, Bacillus subtillis 42, Pseudomonas fluorescens E221, Pseudomonas Poae EE12, Rahnella sp. EM1, and Serratia sp. EM2) isolated from the soil and litter of Mexican oak forests were characterized by identifying their ability to acquire phosphorus from different sources, analyzed for their biocontrol capabilities ag...

Oak hybridization have important effects on the structure of herbivorous insect communities and associated natural enemies. We tested the effects of hybridization between Q. magnoliifolia and Q. resinosa on insect gallers trophic networks and their parasitoids. We characterized the genotypes of 35 individuals of Q. magnoliifolia, 30 of Q. resinosa,...

The damselflies Hetaerininae, a subfamily of Calopterygidae, comprise four genera distributed from North to South America: Hetaerina, Mnesarete, Ormenophlebia and Bryoplathanon. While several studies have focused on the intriguing behavioral and morphological modifications within Hetaerina, little of the evolutionary history of the group is well un...

In this response, we address comments and clarify the rationale behind the choice of hypotheses aimed to describe the Quercus humboldtii phylogeography in the Colombian Andes. Finally, we explain our disagreement with the conclusions of a previous critique, since these are not necessarily adequate under the implemented population genetics approach.

Incomplete premating barriers in closely related species may result in reproductive interference. This process has different fitness consequences and can lead to three scenarios: niche segregation, sexual exclusion, or reproductive character displacement. In morphologically cryptic species, isolation barriers can be difficult to recognize. Here, we...

Background: Hybridization in nature occurs in numerous botanical families. In particular, the Cactaceae family contains lots of genera in which hybridization is reported. Questions: What are the patterns of reported natural hybridization in Cactaceae and their probable causes? Are there phylogenetic and evolutionary implications related to hybridi...

The mistletoe Psittacanthus schiedeanus, a keystone species in interaction networks between plants, pollinators, and seed dispersers, infects a wide range of native and non-native tree species of commercial interest. Here, using RNA-seq methodology we assembled the whole circularized quadripartite structure of P. schiedeanus chloroplast genome and...

Key message Oak species displayed high interspecific functional trait variation. The resource use strategy among oaks both at the above and belowground organs was guided by the fast-slow continuum. AbstractPlant functional ecology has focused on the study of functional strategies and general patterns of trait covariation. Mostly, studies intend to...

Tropical rain forest fragmentation is considered one of the principal drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide. Fragmentation and defaunation of tropical rain forests affect the maintenance of their biodiversity in a myriad of ways. Old-growth forest plant and animal species are more likely to suffer from local extinction, not only because fragments...

As demand for avocado climbs, avocado production in Michoacán - Mexico’s biggest avocado growing region - expands into new places. We use a spatial probit model to project the geographic distribution of likely future avocado expansion and analyze those results to determine (1) threats to specific forest types and (2) how the distribution of avocado...

Context: Gene flow in riparian ecosystems is influenced by landscape features such as orography, climate, and salinity. The 'downstream increase in genetic diversity' (DIGD) hypothesis states that the unidirectionality of the watercourse causes an accumulation of genetic diversity towards downstream populations, while upstream populations are more...

As demand for avocado climbs, avocado production in Michoacán - Mexico’s biggest avocado growing region - expands into new places. We use a spatial probit model to project the geographic distribution of likely future avocado expansion and analyze those results to determine (1) threats to specific forest types and (2) how the distribution of avocado...

Background: Seedling establishment depends on the quality of the seeds and environmental conditions. Differential biomass allocation in emergent seedlings probably constitutes a relevant adaptive response of populations along environmental gradients. Questions: Are there differences in seed mass and biomass allocation in seedlings among Prosopis l...

Central-west and south of Mexico are particularly rich in oak species, coexisting from two to six species and generating gradients of oak diversity that could potentially affect community structure of canopy arthropods. We evaluated changes in canopy arthropod diversity of the Quercus laurina along a gradient of oak diversity in the central-west po...

Differentiation among populations, sometimes despite ongoing gene exchange, is a key step in speciation. Therefore, comparison of intra- and interspecific differentiation patterns is of great significance to understanding speciation. The genus Quercus is an interesting system to test speciation models in the presence of gene flow, due to its weak i...

The genus Bursera, includes~100 shrub and trees species in tropical dry forests with its center of diversification and endemism in Mexico. Morphologically intermediate individuals have commonly been observed in Mexican Bursera in areas where closely related species coexist. These individuals are assumed to result from interspecific hybridization, b...

Exploring the mechanisms that promote population divergence represents a central point in evolutionary ecology. Along their distribution, species commonly experience contrasting environmental conditions, which impose local selection pressures to which populations tend to adapt resulting, for example, in ways to deal with resource shortage or abunda...

The ecological literature has documented the effects of plant hybridization on phenotypic variation, and dominant, intermediate, or novel morphological, chemical and physiological traits in hybrids. It is important to understand the ecological consequences of hybridization by evaluating their impact on phenotypic expression of functional traits. We...

Premise: The mechanisms generating the geographical distributions of genetic diversity are a central theme in evolutionary biology. The amount of genetic diversity and its distribution are controlled by several factors, including dispersal abilities, physical barriers, and environmental and climatic changes. We investigated the patterns of genetic...

Zooxanthellae are dinoflagellate algae belonging to the family Symbiodiniaceae that provide energy and oxygenation to corals, allowing them to develop a high calcification rate. Additionally, some species of these algal symbionts seem to be related to coral resistance to particular environmental conditions, and such responses have a high potential...

The climatic and geological changes that occurred during the Quaternary, particularly the fluctuations during the glacial and interglacial periods of the Pleistocene, shaped the population demography and geographic distribution of many species. These processes have been studied in several groups of organisms in the Northern Hemisphere, but their in...

Patterns of genetic and phylogeographic structure and recent population history of plant species in the Mexican arid zones have been scarcely investigated. Prosopis laevigata is the most widely spread species of mesquite in Mexico, with extensive populations in the arid and semiarid zones of the central and northern plateaus and scattered presence...

Avocados have become a global commodity, and environmental and socioeconomic impacts in the regions where avocados are grown have increased in tandem with production. In this article, we synthesize the current state of knowledge about the impacts of avocado production in Michoacán, México, the global center of avocado production. Environmental impa...

The Red List of Oaks 2020 provides and analyzes IUCN Red List assessments for the estimated 430 species in the genus Quercus—the most complete and comprehensive global analysis of extinction risk for oaks. The only previous global assessment of oaks was published in 2007 and included just 175 species (~40% of the genus; Oldfield and Eastwood, 2007)...

Key message This paper shows the intraspecific plant responses in leaf morphology, herbivory and FA between mature and successional tropical dry forests, as well as the difficulty associated with understanding the relationship between FA and herbivory Abstract Understanding the processes that affect biotic interactions during secondary succession...

In plants, partial DNA sequences of chloroplasts have been widely used in evolutionary studies. However, the Cactaceae family (1500–1800 species) lacks molecular markers that allow a phylogenetic resolution between species and genera. In order to identify sequences with high variation levels, we compared previously reported complete chloroplast gen...

Plants from phosphorus (P) limited environments have developed various strategies for acquiring P from the soil, and for maintaining P homeostasis within the plant. We analyzed the mechanisms of phosphorus acquisition used by the grass Sporobolus airoides-rhizosphere microbiota during two years with contrasting annual rainfall in an extreme P-oligo...

Hetaerina americana Fabricius, 1798 has a long and irresolute taxonomic history. Several synonyms have been suggested (H. californica Hagen in Selys-Longchamps, 1859, H. basalis Hagen in Selys-Longchamps, 1859, H. texana Walsh, 1863, H. scelerata Walsh, 1863, etc.), related to the variation in the size of the wing spots as well as to the morphology...

Background: Phenotypic variability of tree species is often associated to environmental factors. Quercus castanea is a Mexican red oak with a wide geographical and altitudinal distribution along contrasting environments. It is the most abundant oak species in the Cuitzeo basin, which is characterized by highly heterogeneous environmental conditions...

Abstract The Mexican highlands are areas of high biological complexity where taxa of Nearctic and Neotropical origin and different population histories are found. To gain a more detailed view of the evolution of the biota in these regions, it is necessary to evaluate the effects of historical tectonic and climate events on species. Here, we analyze...

El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, que surgió en la Conferencia sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo, celebrada en Río de Janeiro en 1992, define la diversidad biológica como el conjunto de toda la variabilidad de los organismos que integran los complejos ecológicos que existen en ambientes terrestres, marinos y otros hábitats acuáticos. Esa d...

Ficus (Moraceae) is one of the most diverse genera of tree species in the world. The subgenus Spherosuke, section Americanae, comprises several species complexes because their diagnostic structures are extremely variable. Currently, there is not a phylogenetic hypothesis that can help solve the delimitation problems within these complexes, nor an i...

Aims Mechanisms of plant drought resistance include both tolerance and avoidance. Xylem vulnerability to embolism and turgor loss point are considered traits that confer tolerance, while leaf abscission and deciduousness characterizes the avoidance strategy. While these mechanisms are thought to trade-off expressing a continuum among species, littl...

The complete sequence of chloroplast genome (cpDNA) has been documented for single large columnar species of Cactaceae, lacking inverted repeats (IRs). We sequenced cpDNA for seven species of the short-globose cacti of Mammillaria and de novo assembly revealed three novel structures in land plants. These structures have a large single copy (LSC) th...

The tree of life is highly reticulate, with the history of population divergence emerging from populations of gene phylogenies that reflect histories of introgression, lineage sorting and divergence. In this study, we investigate global patterns of oak diversity and test the hypothesis that there are regions of the oak genome that are broadly infor...

Tropical dry forests are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. After habitat perturbation occurs, the habitat recovers naturally through ecological succession. This succession can modify functional attributes of plants, which in turn, can affect herbivorous insects’ performance. We analyzed morphological, functional, and chemical trait...

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), a widely used measure of developmental instability in plants and animals, which describes random differences in size and/or shape between the two sides of a bilateral character. We used FA as a tool to detect stress in three mangrove species (Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, Rhizophora mangle), growing in both...

Aim: To infer the geological and climatic factors that have shaped the genetic diversity and structure of a willow species (Salix humboldtiana) in three basins of Central Mexico. Location: Central Mexico. Methods: We collected samples from 11 populations across two hydrological basins (Balsas and Lerma) and one population from another basin (A...

Fragmentation transforms natural habitats into a set of structurally and functionally differentiated small and separated patches, and causes the loss of connectivity among populations. In this study, we used a multi-temporal approach (1986, 2011 and 2016), to analyze the patterns of habitat fragmentation and to identify critical zones for the maint...

Analyzing the magnitude and distribution of genetic variation within and among populations allows for hypothesis testing about historical demographic size changes, secondary contacts, refugia, and speciation patterns. Species distribution and genetic structure are greatly influenced by the complex life cycle and behavior of odonates. Hetaerina amer...

Network analysis is a powerful tool to understand community‐level plant‐pollinator interactions. We evaluate the role of floral visitors on plant fitness through a series of pollination exclusion experiments to test the effectiveness of pollinators of an Ipomoea community in the Pacific coast of México, including: (1) all flower visitors, (2) visit...

The tree of life is highly reticulate, with the history of population divergence buried amongst phylogenies deriving from introgression and lineage sorting. In this study, we test the hypothesis that there are regions of the oak ( Quercus , Fagaceae) genome that are broadly informative about phylogeny and investigate global patterns of oak diversit...

Resumen Con el objetivo de distinguir las especies que forman parte del complejo de Stenocereus griseus (Cactaceae), se revisaron caracteres morfológicos, datos de localización en ejemplares de herbario y registros en bases de datos de biodiversidad. Se documentaron características morfológicas de 307 ejemplares depositados en 7 herbarios y se proy...

Gardens and horticulturists play an increasingly important role in plant conservation, both in situ and ex situ. Integrated research and conservation of species intends to work across fields to connect science to conservation practice by engaging actors from different sectors, including gardens. The case of integrated conservation of Quercus brande...

In tropical dry forests, a high interspecific variation in the strategies of fruiting phenology has been documented. Therefore, phenological responses may be mediated by influence of environmental variables, functional plant attributes or phylogenetic inertia. During 2 years, we recorded the fruiting phenology of 151 species belonging to 5 differen...

Se evalúa la perdida de hábitat para diferentes especies del género Quercus en el estado de Michoacán de Ocampo, en diferentes escenarios de cambio climático.

Alternative life history strategies are mechanisms by which organisms are able to maximize fitness across a range of environmental conditions. Fitness is maximized by different strategies depending on context, resulting in trade-offs between life history strategies. Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) employ both migratory and resident life hist...

Understanding the factors that influence the diversity and composition of arthropod communities is a major topic in ecology. Canopy arthropod communities are a major constituent of biodiversity and show great variation in time and space according to different factors. Recently, genetic variation within tree species has attracted attention as a sign...

Arthropods are one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet. The genus Quercus (oak) presents potential interspecific gene flow and hybridization between species of the same section under sympatric conditions. Little is known about the effects of gene flow between oak trees on the structure of the canopy arthropod community. The objectiv...

DAÑO FOLIAR CAUSADO POR INSECTOS HERBÍVOROS Y SU ASOCIACIÓN CON LA ASIMETRÍA FLUCTUANTE EN Croton suberosus (Domínguez et al., 1989) EN BOSQUES MADUROS Y SECUNDARIOS EN CHAMELA, JALISCO RESUMEN. Los bosques tropicales secos ocupan el 46% de superficie de bosques tropicales a nivel mundial, en México los bosques tropicales secos se distribuyen en Yu...

Local adaptation is a critical evolutionary process that allows plants to grow better in their local compared to nonnative habitat and results in species‐wide geographic patterns of adaptive genetic variation. For forest tree species with a long generation time, this spatial genetic heterogeneity can shape the ability of trees to respond to rapid c...

Background Litter decomposition is a key process in the functioning of forest ecosystems, because it strongly controls nutrient recycling and soil fertility maintenance. The interaction between the litter chemical composition and the metabolism of the soil microbial community has been described as the main factor of the decomposition process based...

Raw data of nutrients in litter descomposition of two oaks species

Stoichiometric ratios of immobilized C, N and P in microbial biomass in litter effect (A–C) and site effect (D–F) Different uppercase letters indicate significant differences ( P < 0.05) between treatments.

Oaxaca state is one of the main hotspots of biodiversity in Mexico, containing almost 40% of the Mexican vascular flora, due to its high variability in habitat and climatic conditions coupled with high elevations in mountains and low elevations in valleys. We studied the genetic diversity and population structure of Quercus candicans, Quercus crass...

Yeasts are common soil inhabitants, but information about their ecology is limited. Here we examined the abundance of rhizosphere yeasts in six conventional maize agroecosystems in two different geographic areas in Mexico differing in soil characteristics and agricultural practices. In order to examine the plant growth promotion potential of maize...

Lower Central America is an important area to study recent population history and diversification of Neotropical species due to its complex and dynamic geology and climate. Phylogeographic studies in this region are few in comparison with other regions and even less for tree species. The aim of the present study was to characterize the phylogeograp...

The modification of the genetic/phenotypic composition of plant populations through artificial selection occurs both through time and space. We analyzed the role of human dispersal on the geographic distribution of maternal lineages of Crescentia cujete in Mesoamerica. We sampled 28 homegarden (224 individuals) and 12 wild populations (159 individu...