Guillermo Ibarra-Manríquez

National Autonomous University of Mexico | UNAM · Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad

The mutualism between Ficus species (Moraceae) and their pollinating wasps (Agaonidae) is a widely recognized coevolutionary model. In Ficus species from the Paleotropic, it has been determined that the ostiole acts as a morphological filter that affects the head dimensions of pollinating female wasps. Here, for the first time, the allometric relat...

The diversification of angiosperms has largely been attributed to adaptive radiation of their pollination and mating systems, which are relevant drivers of the macroevolution processes. The fig ( Ficus , Moraceae) and fig wasp (Agaonidae, Hymenoptera) interaction is an example of obligate mutualism. Passive and active pollination modes have been as...

In seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF's) drought risk driven by topography‐related factors determines vegetation structure, functional composition, and species diversity; however, the effect of slope aspect and topographic position on tree community dynamics are still poorly explored. In this paper, we studied the dynamics and structural attribu...

Aim Biogeographic regionalization classifies zones in terms of their biotas and contributes to understanding the ecological and historical factors that affect the distribution of species. We use Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) to complement missing information on species distribution and thus improve the accuracy of biogeographic boundaries. Loca...

We examined the variation in liana community composition and structure across geopedological land units to test the hypothesis that environmental heterogeneity is a driving force in liana community assembly. The study site was the Los Tuxtlas Tropical Biology Station, SE Mexico, a reserve that encompasses 640 ha of tropical rainforest. We sampled a...

Genetic diversity is a key component of evolution, and unraveling factors that promote genetic differentiation in space and time is a central question in evolutionary biology. One of the most diverse and ecologically important tree genera in tropical forests worldwide is Ficus (Moraceae). It has been suggested that, given the great dispersal capaci...

Protected areas are of paramount relevance to conserving wildlife and ecosystem contributions to people. Yet, their conservation success is increasingly threatened by human activities including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and species overexploitation. Thus, understanding the underlying and proximate drivers of anthropogenic threats is...

Mexico is a major center of evolutionary radiation for the genus Quercus , with oak species occurring across different habitat types and showing a wide variation in morphology and growth form. Despite representing about 20% of Mexican species, scrub oaks have received little attention and even basic aspects of their taxonomy and geographic distribu...

Antecedentes y Objetivos: La Alberca de Tacámbaro es uno de los tres lagos cráter que existen en Michoacán, México. El conocimiento que se tiene sobre la flora y vegetación de esta área protegida es inexistente. Por lo tanto, los objetivos del presente trabajo son: 1) elaborar una lista florística, 2) conocer el grado de endemismo de la flora y las...

Background: Our study presents the first assessment of the relationships between environmental heterogeneity and the palm community at the landscape scale at the northern boundary of tropical rainforest distribution in America. Question: How does landscape-level heterogeneity (edaphic, topographic as well as the density, diversity, and tree biomas...

Las regiones biogeográficas están definidas por especies endémicas o características, así como por rasgos fisiográficos particulares. La delimitación geográfica y florística de la provincia Depresión del Balsas (México) y sus biomas se llevó a cabo a partir del uso de capas cartográficas (subcuencas y elevación) y de registros de herbario de las pl...

Background: Heteroflorum (Fabaceae) is a monospecific genus endemic to western Mexico. Community attributes of the forest where H. sclerocarpum is found are scarcely known, as well as its similarity with other tropical seasonal forests. Question: What is the composition, structure, and diversity of the tropical deciduous forest where H. sclerocarp...

The syconium is the urn-shaped inflorescence shared by all species of the genus Ficus. The orifice at the apex of the syconium is called the ostiole, and it is covered by interlocking bracts. The ostiolar bracts can have different arrangements, which only allow the entry of mutualist wasps and promote reproductive isolation among Ficus species. Her...

Oaxaca is one of the five Mexican states with the highest biological richness and one of the most diverse in ethnic composition. Knowledge and use of plant resources have been part of their culture and maintenance in territories with different ecological, geological, and climatic conditions. Oaxaca contains 43.9% of the Mexican flora, with about 10...

One of the most diverse and ecologically important tree genera in the tropics is Ficus. The characterization of developmental phases and morphological changes of its syconium is essential for facilitating pollination and dispersal studies, but only a few species in the Americas have been characterized. Ficus pringlei is endemic to Mexico for which...

Vegetation is a key biosphere component to supporting biodiversity on Earth, and its maintenance and proper functioning are essential to guarantee the well-being of humankind. From a broad perspective, a fundamental goal of vegetation ecology is to understand the roles of abiotic and biotic factors that affect vegetation structure, distribution, di...

Species in the Ficus (Moraceae) genus carry an inflorescence called syconium, formed by a fleshy, urn-shaped receptacle. This study aims to i) describe the embryology of Ficus tuerckheimii flowers at different developmental stages and ii) determine whether this species is pollinated actively or passively. The species is monoecious, with protogynous...

Background and Aims: One of the most diverse and ecologically important tree genera in the tropics is Ficus. The characterization of developmental phases and morphological changes of its syconium is essential for facilitating pollination and dispersal studies, but only a few species in the Americas have been characterized. Ficus pringlei is endemic...

Climate change models predict an increase in temperature and a decrease in amount and duration of precipitation in Tropical Dry Forests (TDF), which could strongly impact seed germination strategies, seedling establishment, growth rate, and phenology of the species. These climatic changes will vary between regions of a continent and between contine...

The great phenological diversification characteristic of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) suggests that these patterns result from a complex interplay between exogenous (e.g., climatic) and endogenous (e.g., morphological, physiological, anatomical) factors. Based on the well‐established relationships of wood density with water‐storing capaci...

Background: Lianas are an important woody component of tropical rain forests. We described and compared the composition, structure, and diversity of the liana community in one of the northernmost neotropical rain forests. Question: How much does this liana community differ in attributes with global patterns documented in other tropical and subtrop...

Regionalization through the analysis of species groups offers important advantages in conservation biology, compared to the single taxon approach in areas of high species richness. We use a systematic framework for biogeographic regionalization at a regional scale based on species turnover and environmental drivers (climate variables and soil prope...

As a result of field work carried out between 2012 and 2016, 2 types of tropical forests (deciduous and semideciduous) and the vascular flora contained within them in the communal land Llano de Ojo de Agua, located in Balsas Basin (Michoacán), are described. A total of 466 species (2 subspecies), 303 genera and 84 families were registered. Fabaceae...

The benefits provided by tropical rainforests are unevenly distributed throughout the landscape and are shaped by abiotic and biotic components that influence the spatial distribution and functional traits of the species involved. We tested whether environmental stratification of the rainforest in biophysical Landscape Units (LU), defined by topogr...

Antecedentes: El género Ficus incluye aproximadamente 850 especies, distribuidas en zonas tropicales de todo el mundo y para un bajo número de ellas, se ha descrito el desarrollo del sicono. El presente estudio aborda este tópico, caracterizando los cambios morfo-anatómicos del sicono de F. tuerckheimii. Pregunta: ¿Las fases de desarrollo del sico...

Bahía de Banderas in Jalisco, Mexico, contains important vegetation areas for the maintenance and nesting of Military Macaws Ara militaris. However, the forests of the region are not used randomly by Military Macaws across the landscape. This study aimed to evaluate differences in floristic composition, diversity and structure among forest patches...

In tropical dry forests, although seed germination and seedling establishment are in general limited by the seasonal availability of water, high interspecific variability, nonetheless, exists in terms of seedling traits and germination dynamics. Differences among species in seed germination and seedling traits may be related to other plant life-his...

Neoblechnum brasiliense (Blechnaceae) is common and widespread in South America but has been known from Mesoamerica by only one collection from Guatemala by Julian Steyermark in 1939. We discovered two new occurrences of the species, in Belize and Mexico, extending the range of the species over 1000 km north and west into northern Mesoamerica. We d...

Predicting plant community assembly is challenging in part because the influence of environmental conditions via plant functional strategies and the relevance of mechanisms of community assembly change across habitats and these changes remain poorly studied. To assess how environmental conditions drive species sorting in a tropical dry forest, we u...

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...

Community nurseries within natural protected areas (NPAs) represent an attractive option to link biodiversity conservation with socioeconomic development, yet their functioning lacks proper assessment. Here, we analyse the national context of community nurseries in Mexican NPAs and suggest a specific framework to evaluate their viability. First, we...

A major obstacle faced by reforestation/restoration programs is an insufficient supply of high-quality seed. Seed collection is commonly based on opportunistic strategies that only consider availability and distance to seed sources, but not seed quality. Although for commercial timber species from temperate ecosystems the selection of individuals w...

Dung beetles relocate vertebrate feces under the soil surface, and this behavior has many ecological consequences. In tropical forests, for example, seeds defecated by mammals that are subsequently buried by dung beetles are less likely to suffer predation. While the effects of dung beetles on the fate of defecated seeds have been relatively well s...

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...

For the first time in a Neotropical Ficus species (Ficus petiolaris Kunth), the external and internal structural changes in its syconia are described, together with the development of its fig wasps. Ficus petiolaris is endemic to Mexico and represents the northernmost limit of the geographical distribution of the genus in America. Considering the l...

Based on botanical explorations, review of literature, and herbarium specimens (ENCB, GUADA, IBUG, IEB, MEXU, MO, XAL and ZEA), we report 5 species of the genus Combretum in western Mexico (1 and 4 of the subgenera Cacoucia and Combretum, respectively). One species (C. igneiflorum) is endemic to Mexico. Description of the species includes synonyms...

We identified some interactions between fruits/seeds of Heteroflorum sclerocarpum (Leguminosae) and terrestrial mammals of a Mexican tropical dry forest. The mammals that consume the fruits and seeds of this species were detected using camera traps, and by observations in captivity and field, it was determined how mammals manipulate these structure...

Economic incentives to offset carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with deforestation and other human activities affecting forest ecosystems depend on robust estimates of changes in forest carbon (C) stocks. Such stocks are difficult to assess in heterogeneous landscapes where the soil properties and the forest structure and functionality vary...

Background: La Chinantla, a topographically and geomorphologically complex region, and probably the most humid in the country, hosts a diverse but largely unknown biota, particularly at higher elevations. Questions: How many plant species are present in La Chinantla? How are these species distributed along the elevational gradient encompassed in th...

Significance Identifying and explaining regional differences in tropical forest dynamics, structure, diversity, and composition are critical for anticipating region-specific responses to global environmental change. Floristic classifications are of fundamental importance for these efforts. Here we provide a global tropical forest classification tha...

p>Editorial: The knowledge of the flora de Mexico</p

Tropical rainforests harbor a high diversity of tree species, offering a potentially rich array of timber (TFP) and non-timber (NTFP) forest products. The supply of such products has been commonly evaluated at the local (plot) scale; however, little is known about how their availability and diversity change at the landscape scale, particularly in h...

Los bejucos o lianas son plantas trepadoras leñosas que comienzan su vida de manera similar a los árboles (pueden mantenerse erectos de manera independiente), pero cuando crecen se vuelven incapaces de sostenerse por sí mismas, por lo que necesitan apoyarse o sujetarse en alguna estructura cercana para poder desarrollarse. Las lianas habitan en la...

In seasonal plant communities, it is recognized that topography-related variation in water availability and solar radiation determine vegetation structure and community composition; however, the effects on functional structure, particularly through changes in resource use strategies of plants are still poorly understood. This study examines the eff...

The propagation in nurseries of native plant species potentially useful for agroforestry, silvopastoral and restoration programs is hindered by an inadequate supply of high quality seed. Limitations in our knowledge on the phenological patterns of native species result in the lack of efficient collecting protocols. Here we analyze the reproductive...

Pollen descriptions of the 90% of liana flora (81 species of30 families) from the Estación de Biología Tropical «Los Tuxtlas», Veracruz, Mexico, are presented. Data on apertures, exine, polarity, symmetry, shape and size of the pollen grains data are included. Observations were made by using light microscope and the main features of each taxa are i...

Based on herbarium stud ies and fie ld obsc1vations, five species of Ficus subgenus Pharmacosycea are recognized for Veracruz: Ficus insipida Willd., F. lapathifolia (Liebm.) Miq., F. maxima Mill., F. petenensis Lundell and F. yoponensis Desv. A key, descriptions, partial synonymy, distribution maps, and illustrations are provided.

In this work a key is presented to assist in the identification of the 96 species (comprising 36 genera) of Rubiaceae occurring in the "Los Tuxtlas" region of Veracruz, Mexico. Some basic aspects of the geographic distribution and economic importance of the Rubiaceae are presented together with a bibliographic revision of the main taxonomic and flo...

The propagation in nurseries of native plant species potentially useful for agroforestry, silvopastoral and restoration programs is hindered by an inadequate supply of high quality seed. Limitations in our knowledge on the phenological patterns of native species result in the lack of efficient collecting protocols. Here we analyze the reproductive...

The Neotropical genus Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae) is an excellent model system for macroevolutionary and biogeographic studies owing to its remarkable species diversity (ca. 650 spp.) and varied morphological and ecological adaptations to epiphytic and saxicolous habitats. Recent phylogenetic studies have greatly improved our knowledge about generic...

Premise of the study: Analyses of the influence of temporal variation in abiotic factors on flowering phenology of tropical dry forest species have not considered the possible response of species with different growth forms and pollination syndromes, while controlling for phylogenetic relationships among species. Here, we investigated the relation...

Background: Knowing the floristic composition of the Monarch Butterfly Reserve is a critical piece of information necessary for its conservation. Question: i) How many plant species (total and endemic to Mexico) are found in the core zones of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR)? ii) What are the most frequent growth forms found in this...

Questions: What is the magnitude of the differences in environment and chronic human disturbance between contrasting slope aspects and topographic positions in a seasonally dry tropical forest? What is the effect of such topography-related differences on composition, structure and diversity attributes of the tree community of this forest? Location:...

Analysis of social-ecological systems is becoming increasingly used since the framework provides a valuable set of variables for understanding relationships between people and ecosystems. This interaction focuses on the use and management of natural resources that, in many cases, are common-pool resources. In Mexico, common-pool resources have long...

Se presenta el registro fotográfico de Puma yagouaroundi (yaguarundí) en el área de amortiguamiento de la Reserva de la Biosfera Zicuirán-Infiernillo. Las fotografías fueron tomadas con cámaras trampa instaladas de octubre de 2013 a octubre de 2014. Con esta evidencia se documenta la presencia de esta especie en la parte baja de la depresión del Ba...

Fenología de los árboles del bosque mesófilo de la Reserva de la biosfera. El Triunfo, Chiapas.

Aim Tropical forests store 25% of global carbon and harbour 96% of the world's tree species, but it is not clear whether this high biodiversity matters for carbon storage. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning, and no such study exists for the tropics. Locatio...

Through an exhaustive literature review, field exploration and revision of herbaria, the presence of 861 native species of lianas in Mexico is documented, pertaining to 250 genera and 59 families. A total of 25.9% (n = 224) of the species and three genera are endemic to Mexico. The 15 most diverse families account for 80.1% of the species and 85.7%...

Master's thesis poster

This study, conducted over a period of 2 years (2007–2009), analyzes the relationship of abiotic factors with the flowering phenology of 143 species in a Neotropical temperate forest; these forests are similar to those of temperate latitudes in terms of physiognomy and temperature regime, but differ in terms of the biogeographic origins of part of...

Through a bibliographic and herbarium review, an analysis was conducted of the dispersal spectrum of woody plants in various locations of the tropical deciduous forest of America. Our aim was to determine whether modifications to the dispersal spectrum exist among different floristic groups, particularly in the floristic checklist or within plots o...