Claudia E. Moreno

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• Doctora en Ecología y Manejo de Recursos Naturales
• Professor at Autonomous University of Hidalgo State

Quantifying biodiversity patterns in the context of human caused environmental degradation is a fundamental task to improve conservation strategies; yet, it can be difficult given the rapid increase of available analytical methods. To guide studies on the topic, in this brief essay we present four approaches, accompanied by empirical examples, that...

The role of deterministic and stochastic mechanisms in community assembly is a key question in ecology, but little is known about their relative contribution in dung beetle assemblages. Moreover, in human modified landscapes these mechanisms are crucial to understand how biodiversity can be maintained in productive agroecosystems. We explored the a...

Este libro presenta un amplio marco teórico, conceptual y metodológico para el estudio de la biodiversidad. Es una guía para emprender estudios sobre la diversidad de especies, de cualquier grupo biológico y ecosistema. Está dividido en tres secciones que integran una plataforma introductoria al por qué, cómo y para qué de la ciencia moderna de la...

Understanding the ecological and historical causes and processes that shape biodiversity distribution patterns remains a challenging and fundamental task in biogeography, ecology, and evolution. To address this issue, taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity can help us to assess the importance of ecological and historical factors that structure thes...

1. Ecological niche models and species distribution models (SDMs) are tools used to define a species’ niche based on presence records and to identify areas where appropriate ecological conditions converge, indicating zones of potential distribution for the species. SDMs help optimize conservation efforts, which is particularly important in countrie...

Los insectos encuentran en los cultivos agrícolas importantes recursos de alimentación, hábitat y lugares para su reproducción. Los cultivos, por su parte, también se benefician de la presencia de insectos. Aunque comúnmente se les identifica como nocivos, muchos insectos llevan a cabo contribuciones para el correcto funcionamiento del cultivo, com...

Rodents are one of the most abundant and diverse groups of mammals in arid zones. Their population and community dynamics are closely linked to climatic factors and pulses of primary productivity activation. In the future, climatic conditions in arid ecosystems could become more extreme as a consequence of climate change, which could affect the spe...

Owing to the rapid and ongoing anthropogenic changes impacting ecosystem functions and their interplay with biodiversity, there is a growing focus on assessing insect functional diversity. This emphasis helps to unravel key roles of insects on ecosystem processes and to identify the assembly mechanisms that regulate species coexistence. The ecologi...

Fishes are relevant indicators of reefs’ conservation status due to the wide variety of functions they perform in the ecosystem. Natural and anthropogenic-induced threats are causing declines in biomass and diversity locally, with immediate effects on trophic structure and ecosystem function. This study evaluated the spatial variation of species ri...

There has been a recent exponential growth in the study of functional trait ecology. Nonetheless, the study of functional traits and functional groups has been limited for terrestrial vertebrates. We conducted a classification update of functional groups (FG) of birds and mammals in Mexico, and determined the distribution patterns of FG species ric...

In recent decades, the interest in complexity of ant‐plant relationships has increased considerably. However, because the spatial and biological information generated on ant‐plant interaction networks is dispersed in the literature it is necessary to synthesise current information, detect knowledge gaps, and outline needs for research leading to th...

Aim: Aridity gradients are of great interest for understanding the responses of biodi-versity to water availability and water stress. However, little is known about the re-sponses of many animal groups, which are crucial for assessing the effects of climate change. Here, we study the effects of aridity on dung beetle communities, a group with well-...

The greatest challenge that we currently face is generating integrative conservation strategies to guar- antee the preservation not only of species richness, but also of ecological functions and evolutionary history. We propose to assess these different dimensions to identify areas of high multidimensional diversity (AMC), and exemplify this approa...

Forest restoration practices have increased globally, with positive consequences for biodiversity conservation. However, our understanding of the variation in ecosystem functioning recovery presented among different restoration strategies remains limited, and few studies have compared the functional diversity of contrasting faunal assemblages. Here...

Resumen Se describen la riqueza y diversidad beta de escarabajos tigre (Carabidae: Cicindelinae) en las 3 regiones y 14 provincias biogeográficas de México. Con información de bases de datos, colecciones entomológicas y literatura publicada se recabaron 6,501 registros pertenecientes a 4 tribus, 16 géneros y 122 especies de cicindelinos distribuida...

Neuroptera is an order of insects with a moderate diversity of species numbers yet a high between-family morphological diversity, which has a significant ecological role as a predator. However, there are few studies focused on describing changes in species diversity along environmental gradients. We evaluated changes in the alpha and beta diversity...

Despite the long-standing interest in the organization of ant communities across elevational gradients, few studies have incorporated the evolutionary information to understand the historical processes that underlay such patterns. Through the evaluation of phylogenetic α and β-diversity, we analyzed the structure of leaf-litter ant communities alon...

β-diversity has been under continuous debate, with a current need to better understand the way in which a new wave of measures work. We assessed the results of 12 incidence-based β-diversity indices. Our results of gradual species composition overlap between paired assemblages considering progressive differences in species richness show that: (i) f...

Tropical ecosystems have undergone severe changes due to human activities such as land-use change for agriculture. However, in agricultural landscapes with remnants of native vegetation, high bird diversity may persist. Here we evaluated bird species richness, diversity, and composition in four landscape units with different matrices: cattle pastur...

Understanding the factors and mechanisms shaping differences in species composition across space and time (β‐diversity) in human‐modified landscapes has key ecological and applied implications. This topic is, however, challenging because landscape disturbance can promote either decreases (biotic homogenization) or increases (biotic differentiation)...

Despite the long-standing interest in the organization of ant communities across elevational gradients, few studies have incorporated the evolutionary information to understand the historical processes that underlay such patterns. Through the evaluation of phylogenetic α and β-diversity, we analyzed the structure of leaf-litter ant communities alon...

Aim Given their high environmental variation over relatively short distances, mountains represent ideal systems for evaluating potential factors shaping diversity gradients. Despite a long-standing interest in ecological gradients, ant diversity patterns and their related mechanisms occurring on mountains are still not well understood. Here, we (i)...

The relationships and linkages between biodiversity and ecosystem processes are critical issues in ecology. Manure removal is an ecosystem process related to several ecological functions performed by dung beetles. However, there is little information on manure removal by beetles in temperate ecosystems of Mexico. Using a linear model based on speci...

El garambullo (Myrtillocactus geometrizans) es una cactácea columnar endémica de México en la que se han reportado distintos órdenes de artrópodos como visitantes florales. En este trabajo se describen por primera vez los ensambles de artrópodos que usan los frutos de esta planta como alimento, sitio de refugio, de apareamiento o de captura de pres...

Urbanization is one of the most important causes of ecological changes and biodiversity loss worldwide, and forests in Latin America provide valuable scenarios to understand the ecological effects of this human-driven phenomenon due to its high urbanization rate. Our aim was to investigate how urbanization shapes species richness (SR) and compositi...

It is assumed that the transformation of native forest into agricultural felds and grazing grasslands negatively afects biological diversity, and there are multiple cases documenting this pattern. For example, when lowland tropical forests are transformed into extensive cattle pastures, dung beetle richness, abundance and diversity decrease. Howeve...

Dung beetles are key providers of several ecosystem processes such as dung removal, which is a critical function especially in livestock areas. Here we evaluate sheep dung removal activity by coexisting species of the genus Phanaeus MacLeay under laboratory conditions, to describe their role in this ecosystem function. We assessed the effect of fou...

Resumen La Sierra Madre del Sur de Guerrero, México, cuenta con paisajes variados y heterogéneos, que favorecen la presencia de una importante diversidad biológica. El objetivo de este trabajo es comparar diferentes atributos de la diversidad regional de mamíferos medianos y grandes en 8 paisajes con el uso de datos de fototrampeo, así como evaluar...

Urbanization is one of the most important causes of ecological changes and biodiversity loss worldwide, and forests in Latin America provide valuable scenarios to understand the ecological effects of this human-driven phenomenon due to its high urbanization rate. Our aim was to investigate how urbanization shapes species richness (SR) and compositi...

Understanding the mechanisms that drive the assembly of communities is a central goal in ecology, and phylogenetic approaches allows for the testing of hypotheses related to such mechanisms. We analyzed assembly mechanisms of cricetid rodents in an environmentally heterogeneous region of southern Mexico by assessing their phylogenetic diversity and...

Understanding wetland bird responses to landscape patterns is central for wetland management and bird conservation. This is particularly relevant on islands, where most of the global extinctions have occurred. In this study, we identified landscape patterns in wetlands on Cozumel Island that best explained abundance of birds grouped in 13 trophic g...

A team of 79 scientists from more than 50 institutions partnered to gather all available information regarding Mexican ants since 1894, the year in which the first geographical record of an ant is known for the country. In this new study, including more than 21,000 records, we showed that there are ~900 species of ants in Mexico, which are distribu...

A team of 79 scientists from more than 50 institutions partnered to gather all available information regarding Mexican ants since 1894, the year in which the first geographical record of an ant is known for the country. In this new study, including more than 21,000 records, we showed that there are ~900 species of ants in Mexico, which are distribu...

A team of 79 scientists from more than 50 institutions partnered to gather all available information regarding Mexican ants since 1894, the year in which the first geographical record of an ant is known for the country. In this new study, including more than 21,000 records, we showed that there are ~900 species of ants in Mexico, which are distribu...

Conducting multi-faceted biodiversity assessments can provide a comprehensive vision of the organization of ecological communities over space and time. In this study, the spatio-temporal species diversity and α and β functional diversity of lizard assemblages were evaluated in four vegetation types over a two-season annual cycle. Additionally, site...

Mexico is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with an important proportion of endemism mainly because of the convergence of the Nearctic and Neotropical biogeographic regions, which generate great diversity and species turnover at different spatial scales. However, most of our knowledge of the Mexican ant biota is limited to a few we...

In this data paper, we compiled all the available published and unpublished geographic information (including both incidence and abundance records) about native and exotic ant species recorded within Mexico over 124 years (from 1894–2018). After exhaustive filtering, the updating of information and the curation of synonyms, our data set contains 21...

Background: Human activities (e.g., logging and grazing) have perturbed the few beech forests that persist in the Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico. However, basic information about ecological relationship in beech forests are scarce. Questions: How are the relationship among structural components in a forest with high dominance of Fagus grandiflora s...

La diversidad beta, entendida como cambio en la composición de especies entre sitios, se suele evaluar con índices de disimilitud basados en el número de especies compartidas y los números de especies exclusivas a cada sitio. En las últimas dos décadas han surgido distintas propuestas que resaltan la necesidad de dividir esta disimilitud de especie...

In the tropics, changes in land use are a major concern given that the transformation of natural ecosystems to degraded environments for human use occurs rapidly and is associated with deforestation, fragmentation, isolation, among other impacts. Scarab beetles are well represented in tropical and warm temperate ecosystems due to their high diversi...

Bat communities' responses to land use change in neotropical montane forests have scarcely been studied. We hypothesized that, like in lowland forests, a montane agricultural area will have a lower species richness, abundance, diversity and species composition of understory phyllostomid bats than a native forest (montane cloud forest and pine-oak f...

Biodiversity is multidimensional and different mechanisms can influence different dimensions. The spatial distribution of these dimensions can help in conservation decisions through the location of complementary areas with high diversity. We analyzed congruence in spatial patterns of species richness and functional diversity of cricetid rodents in...

Los pequeños roedores juegan un papel fundamental en los ecosistemas que habitan, ya que desempeñan funciones importantes. Para conocer la diversidad de ratones en el estado de Oaxaca, consultamos la base de datos de la Colección Mastozoológica del CIIDIR, IPN, Unidad Oaxaca, y literatura especializada. Se analizó la riqueza taxonómica, distribució...

Certain agroecosystems can contribute to regional biodiversity conservation and to the maintenance of ecosystem services. Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia albicarpa) crops on the Mexican Plateau could fulfill these roles, but little is known about their potential. The objective of this study was to analyze the diversity of bee communities in prickly pe...

The disturbance of natural environments affects, among others, the diversity of dung beetle assemblages, which could have serious consequences for the ecological processes regulated by these insects. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare species diversity and functional groups of dung beetle assemblages both in the native forest a...

Edge effects alter insect biodiversity in several ways. However, we still have a limited understanding on simultaneous responses of ecological populations and assemblages to ecotones, especially in human modified landscapes. We analyze edge effects on dung beetle populations and assemblages between livestock pastures and native temperate forests (J...

This study describes for the first time the vertical distribution of the Coleoptera of a tropical dry-forest of the Mexican Pacific. Even when some studies about the diverstiy and distributional patterns of insect communities in tropical dry forests of Mexican Pacific Coast have been made, there is no information about local ecological patterns, su...

La taxonomía y diversidad de los coleópteros asociados a cactáceas en descomposición es poco conocida en México, a pesar de ser un país con alta diversidad y endemismo de cactáceas. En este trabajo se estudió la diversidad coleópteros asociados a cactáceas de un matorral crasicaule dentro de la reserva de la biósfera “Barranca de Metztitlán”, en el...

Para equilibrar la conservación de la biodiversidad y las necesidades alimentarias humanas, es crucial reconocer paisajes agrícolas que puedan mantener la diversidad biológica local. En el Altiplano Mexicano los cultivos de nopal tunero (Opuntia albicarpa Scheinvar) son agroecosistemas perennes con estructura vegetal compleja, pero poco se sabe de...

The Madrean sky islands of North America, in southern Arizona and adjacent Sonora, harbor a great diversity of vertebrates, but data about the distribution and abundance of mammal species in this region are needed to develop strategies for their management and conservation. We used camera traps to record medium and large mammals in 4 sky islands in...

Natural habitats have drastically regressed due to rapid changes in land-use during recent decades, generating a decrease in species diversity. In light of natural habitat destruction worldwide, there is a need to adopt an integrative approach to the study of biodiversity in order to better assess the magnitude of diversity loss in landscapes affec...

La ecología del paisaje (EP) es una ciencia interdisciplinaria en rápido crecimiento, especialmente en México. A pesar de su relevancia teórica y aplicada, carecemos de trabajos que sinteticen su situación actual y futura en México, particularmente dentro de las ciencias biológicas. En esta revisión identificamos: i) regiones, ecosistemas generales...

The multi-dimensional analysis of biodiversity addresses several components, including the number of species, as well as their ecological and evolutionary identities. This approach can lead to key biodiversity patterns that remain covered when only species richness is studied. The convergence of the Nearctic and Neotropical biogeographic regions in...

Tropical forest restoration is increasingly seen as an activity that may counteract or reduce biodiversity loss. However, few studies monitor fauna or consider measures of functional diversity to assess restoration success. We assessed the effect of a tropical montane forest restoration program on species and functional diversity, using amphibians...

En este trabajo se presenta una síntesis sobre la diversidad de escarabajos de la familia Scarabaeidae en el estado de Hidalgo, el que se sustenta con registros de la literatura, así como en las colectas realizadas durante el proyecto FOMIX durante el periodo del año 2006 al 2012. Previo a este periodo se habían registrado en el estado 86 especies,...

Wind energy has rapidly become an important alternative among renewable energies, and it is generally considered clean. However, little is known about its impact at the level of ecological communities, especially in biodiversity hotspots. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a highly biodiverse region in Mesoamerica, and has the highest potential for gene...

Tropical dry forests are complex and diverse ecosystems threatened by multiple anthropogenic factors, such as habitat disturbance caused by land use change. We assessed species and functional diversity of lizard communities in areas with different levels of tropical dry forest disturbance in the Chamela region, Mexico. Functional richness, function...

La diversidad funcional es un enfoque de investigación que determina las relaciones entre diversidad, estructura y funcionamiento de las especies al interior de los ecosistemas, evaluando en ellas las contribuciones que resultan clave para el entorno. La contribución funcional de los organismos podría ser inversamente proporcional a su diversidad n...

La diversidad funcional es la variedad de funciones que desempeñan las especies en los ecosistemas. Su estudio en comunidades animales todavía es incipiente y, por ello, el objetivo de esta revisión es aportar información de referencia sobre los conceptos básicos relativos a la cuantificación de la diversidad funcional y sus aplicaciones en vertebr...

Functional diversity in animal communities: a review with emphasis on vertebrates Functional diversity is the variety of functional roles that species have in ecosystems. As its study in animal communities is still emerging, the aim of this review is to provide an informative reference on the basic concepts and advances in the quantification of fun...

La medida de biodiversidad más frecuentemente utilizada es la riqueza de especies, y resulta especialmente importante detectar cuántas veces es mayor la riqueza de una comunidad con respecto a otra, es decir, la proporción de riqueza o diferencia relativa en el número de especies entre comunidades. Para calcular esta proporción de riqueza, es neces...

Functional diversity is the variability in the functional roles carried out by species within ecosystems. Changes in the environment can affect this component of biodiversity and can, in turn, affect different processes, including some ecosystem services. This study aimed to determine the effect of forest loss on species richness, abundance and fun...

Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) play a crucial role in natural ecosystems and grazing areas because they are actively involved in dung removal and other ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. We assess the manure removal process performed by dung beetles on a cattle ranch with temperate forest remnants in the Mexican Tr...

Quantifying differences in species composition among communities provides important information related to the distribution, conservation and management of biodiversity, especially when two components are recognized: dissimilarity due to turnover, and dissimilarity due to richness differences. The ecoregions in central Mexico, within the Mexican Tr...

Data used in this paper. Number of records of each species considered in this study, for the four groups of terrestrial vertebrates in the six ecoregions of Hidalgo, Mexico. (XLSX)

Dissimilarity between ecoregions. Pairwise dissimilarity values between ecoregions in Hidalgo, Mexico, for the species and taxonomic composition of terrestrial vertebrates. (DOCX)

Se evalúa la diversidad alfa y beta (disimilitud) de escarabajos Melolonthinae, Rutelinae y Dynastinae registrados en 8 estudios faunísticos de la Faja Volcánica Transmexicana. La diversidad alfa se analizó utilizando 2 medidas: la riqueza de especies y la diversidad taxonómica. Como se esperaba, la diversidad taxonómica y la riqueza de especies si...

Functional diversity is the variability in the functional roles carried out by species within ecosystems. Changes in the environment can affect this component of biodiversity and can, in turn, affect different processes, including some ecosystem services. This study aimed to determine the effect of forest loss on species richness, abundance and fun...

RESUMEN. Los escarabajos coprófagos (Scarabaeinae) poseen diferentes usos de horarios y microambientes, estos factores temporales y espaciales por el uso del recurso alimenticio promueven cierto sobrelapamiento entre las especies. Los objetivos de este estudio fueron evaluar los patrones de actividad diaria y su tendencia hacia microambientes de lo...

Both the impact of habitat modification on the food preferences of species and its impact on ecosystem functioning are poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed food selection by dung beetles in 80 tropical forest fragments and their adjacent cattle pastures in the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Ten pitfall traps were placed at each sit...

Escarabajos y servicios de limpieza

The loss and degradation of forests in tropical regions have modified tree cover, creating deforested landscapes. It has been suggested that there are thresholds in these landscapes beyond which the diversity, distribution, abundance, and fitness of different biological groups can be affected. In this study, the ecological habitat thresholds were d...

We analyzed the effect of selective logging on litter fauna parameters (abundance, richness and diversity) and litter decomposition (remaining dry mass) over time in a temperate pine-oak (Pinus spp.-Quercus spp.) forest in central México. An unmanaged and a managed forest were compared using a litter bag field experiment. Litter fauna was quantifie...

As rearing livestock spread in Mexico, cattle dung became the main alternative food source for dung beetles in pastures (Amézquita and Favila 2010). The role of these beetles is fundamental to ecosystem functioning and recovery, given their contribution to several ecological processes includ-ing dung removal, nutrient cycling, secondary seed disper...

Hidalgo es un estado del país dotado de una notable riqueza biológica que, sin embargo, no conocemos en detalle hasta ahora. Conocerla y conservarla es muy importante para seguir obteniendo de ella los beneficios ambientales que proporciona. Tradicionalmente la flora y la fauna son consideradas como conjuntos de especies sin relación entre sí. Esta...

AimWe analysed the effects of grazing on the diversity and structure of dung beetle communities to see whether the biogeographical and ecological contexts influence dung beetle responses. We hypothesized that the responses of dung beetle communities are modulated by both the ecological conditions resulting from the transformation of native vegetati...

Las zonas arqueológicas (ZAs) representan un patrimonio cultural por ser un vestigio material de las culturas de nuestros antepasados; sin embargo, se desconoce su potencial para la conservación biológica. Nuestro objetivo fue evaluar la diversidad de murciélagos en las ZAs Dzibilchaltún y Kabah en Yucatán, México, destacando su potencial para la c...

Reptiles exhibit high species richness and endemism in deserts of northern Mexico. However, high species richness does not necessarily represent the taxonomic diversity of this group in the context of the regional reptile richness. Here, we determined the species richness, similarity, and taxonomic diversity of Chihuahuan Desert reptile assemblages...