Gustavo A. Zurita

National Scientific and Technical Research Council | conicet · IBS - Instituto de Biología Subtropical

The distribution of Digitonthophagus gazella in Argentina is updated. A total of 246 individuals were captured between 2012 and 2022, through different techniques, including manual collection, light traps, and baited pitfall traps. The species is present in ten provinces, six of which are first records. In addition, D. gazella was recorded for the...

KBA son las siglas en inglés de Key Biodiversity Areas, cuya traducción es “Áreas Clave para la Biodiversidad”. Es una herramienta que se desarrolla de la misma manera que las “listas rojas” para priorizar acciones de conservación y organizar actividades de desarrollo por medio de la creación de mapas globales de identificación de áreas de alto val...

Functional diversity has been defined as the value, range, distribution, and relative abundance of the functional traits of individuals that belong to an ecosystem. Thus, the functional response of organisms to environmental disturbances depends largely on their functional traits. Here, we evaluated dung beetle functional diversity associated to th...

Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant sp...

The replacement of native forest by cattle pastures reduces functional diversity; however, little is known about whether the changes depend on regional variation. Dung beetles are one of the most diverse and functionally important taxa; through organic matter burial, dung beetles improve soil quality. We collected dung beetles in native forests and...

Worldwide, natural ecosystems have been replaced by intensive productive systems. This has led to an extreme simplification of habitat structure and loss of ecosystem heterogeneity but also might reduce the opportunities for species co‐occurrence. Anthropogenic disturbances offer an opportunity to explore how the functional diversity of spiders wit...

The increasing demand for raw materials favours habitat conversion into tree plantations in different biomes over the world. In Argentina, fast-growing plantations occur in physiognomically contrasting biomes, such as the subtropical forest and grassland. Our objectives were to analyze variations in basic habitat metrics and their similarity to the...

Spiders are a highly diversified group of arthropods and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as ubiquitous predators, which makes them a suitable group to test a variety of eco-evolutionary hypotheses. For this purpose, knowledge of a diverse range of species traits is required. Until now, data on spider traits have been scattered acro...

1. The consequences of cattle raising on biodiversity have been extensively explored in the humid forests; however, its impact in dry forests is less understood. The Dry Chaco is the largest dry forest in South America and deforestation rates in this region are one of the highest in the world. Dung beetles play a key role in cattle dung burial, lea...

• Trophic ecology of dung beetles has been widely studied because of the important ecological role of these taxa. However, previous studies have focused on a limited number of potential food items (mainly vertebrate dung and carrion) and have used only one approach (either field or laboratory). Moreover, recent studies showed high abundance of dung...

In general, livestock activities affect the diversity and ecological functions of dung beetles. However, some practices associated with tree retention could reduce this problem while maintaining productivity. The objective of this study was to explore the influence of canopy cover on dung beetle biomass, their burial activity and changes in soil co...

In terrestrial ecosystems, insects face a wide range of temperatures among habitats and time; consequently, the thermal niche is one of the main determinants of habitat selection and temporal patterns of activity. The replacement of native forests changes micro-climatic conditions and reduces the diversity of dung beetles; however, the physiologica...

Species loss by habitat replacement operating as an ecological filter is a well‐known consequence of modern human activities. In contrast, the ecological and evolutionary response on species overcoming those filters in converted habitats has not been thoroughly explored. Species that persist are subject to novel and potentially stressful conditions...

The semideciduous Atlantic Forest is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world with a great diversity of spiders. Most spider-related studies in this ecosystem focused on species richness and composition; however, little is known about their trait diversity (including morphological, ecological and/or physiological traits). Two main datasets w...

The response of biological communities to human disturbances depends on factors acting at local and regional scale and on the interaction between them. We compared the response of native forest dung beetle communities to cattle grazing under regional contexts differing on precipitation patterns (Atlantic forest and humid and dry Chaco). Through mul...

La sustitución de ecosistemas naturales es una de las principales causas de pérdida de biodiversidad, ya que modifica las condiciones climáticas y recursos alimenticios para los organismos. En este trabajo se muestran los resultados de dos estudios ya publicados en el Bosque Atlántico de Argentina, uno asociado con el efecto de la perturbación de e...

Forest conversion into lands for different uses is a widespread practice in tropical and subtropical regions. Such anthropogenic disturbance drastically modifies environmental conditions and availability of resources for species (ecological niche). While many species usually disappear or become rare, other (resilient species) persist in the disturb...

The increasing global demand for lumber and pulp has led to the conversion of natural habitats into monocultures of fast-growing tree plantations. The environmental filtering model proposes that both environmental characteristics of anthropogenic habitats and biotic interactions act as a filter that can be passed through by some species of the regi...

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...

• We assessed differences in the alpha and beta diversity of dung beetles in native forest and two livestock systems (with and without canopy cover) typical of the Argentine Chaco region and related the dung beetle assemblages to environmental conditions. • Dung beetles were sampled in native forest and two livestock systems in the spring (2015–20...

Urbanization is an expanding process worldwide, causing major threats to biodiversity through both species extinction and biotic homogenization. Most studies focusing on urban ecosystems have been conducted in temperate forests of the Northern hemisphere; the ecological and socioeconomic contexts, however, may influence biodiversity responses to ur...

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...

The loss of natural habitats is one of the main drivers of biodiversity decline. Anthropogenic land uses preserving biotic and abiotic conditions of the native ecosystem are more suitable to preserve the native biodiversity. In this study, we explored changes in species richness and composition in different land uses of the southern Atlantic forest...

The livestock affects the biodiversity and the conservation of forests, in turn, these effects may vary depending on the regional context in which they occur. The hypothesis is that the effect of livestock on the richness of dung beetles in subtropical forests is influenced by the regional climate differences present in these forests. Dung beetles...

Two adjacent habitats separated by an abrupt transition often cause strong alterations in environmental conditions resulting in what is called the edge effect. The structural similarity between the adjacent habitats determines how abrupt the transition is. We explored the response of spider communities to the edge effect in mature pine plantations...

The native vegetation within tree plantations increases the suitability for native biodiversity; however, the re-generation of this vegetation depends on the movement of seeds from the native forest by vertebrates and wind. In the present study, we examined functional patterns of seed dispersal between the native forest and tree plantations with di...

• The degradation and replacement of natural ecosystems affect species abundance, diversity and interspecific interaction through the modification of resource availability and environmental conditions. Land uses preserving the forest canopy show higher species richness and similarity to the native forest. • In this study, we explored changes in the...

The replacement of native forests by high-density tree plantations affects the richness and composition of animal communities through the modification of the resource availability, hydrological regimes, nutrient cycles and soil structure. Previous studies have been conducted mainly on birds and mammals, whereas few have explored the response of anu...

The replacement of native forests by tree plantations affects the diversity of biological communities, particularly in highly diverse tropical and subtropical ecosystems such as the semi-deciduous Atlantic forest. Previous studies in this ecosystem have focused on vertebrates, while only a few studies have been performed on the relationship between...

Tolerance to extreme temperatures, thermal limits, and the mechanisms of thermoregulation are related to internal functions of insects and partly define their ecological niche. We study the association between daily activity of dung beetles from the Monte Desert in Argentina and their tolerance to high temperatures. Results indicate that for all th...

Aim: Due to intrinsic differences in the sensitivity to habitat grain among species, studies performed at different extent are necessary to understand the consequences of forest loss and fragmentation. Using a large database, we explored the responses of birds to changes in forest cover and the role of habitat specialization in the strength of this...

In landscapes dominated by agriculture, conspicuous edges often occur between landscape elements. However, there is disagreement about the existence and intensity of edge effects, and information about species-specific responses remains scarce. Studying such edge effects can help elucidate functional landscape connectivity and contribute to agricul...

The degradation and replacement of native ecosystems affects both their taxonomic and functional biodiversity. However, native species may find a gradient of habitat suitability in different land uses within a region. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of land use on the taxonomic and functional diversity of dung beetle assemblages in...

La ganadería constituye a nivel global una de las principales causas de pérdida de ecosistemas naturales. El disturbio de los ambientes naturales afecta la diversidad funcional de escarabajos estercoleros, lo que puede tener marcadas consecuencias en los procesos ecológicos mediados por este grupo de especies. El objetivo de este proyecto fue evalu...

The presence of the recently described fungus-farming ant genus and species Cyatta abscondita is reported in the northwestern region of Misiones Province in Argentina. A single worker of C. abscondita was collected in a pitfall trap in a mature plantation of Pinus taeda in the Atlantic Forest biome. This finding expands the distribution of the genu...

La diversidad funcional es uno de los componentes de la ecología que mejor describe los efectos de los usos de la tierra sobre las comunidades de fauna y flora. Estudios previos han reportado que el reemplazo del bosque Atlántico por distintos usos de la tierra afecta la diversidad taxonómica de los ensambles de escarabajos copró-necrófagos, sin em...

El disturbio antrópico afecta la diversidad y composición de los ensambles biológicos en relación a 1) la intensidad y características del disturbio y 2) las características del pool regional de especies. Un mismo disturbio puede afectar las comunidades de manera diferente según el bioma. Los escarabajos estercoleros (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) co...

Primary tropical rain forests are being rapidly perforated with new edges via roads, logging, and pastures, and vast areas of secondary forest accumulate following abandonment of agricultural lands. To determine how insectivorous Amazonian understory birds respond to edges between primary rain forest and three age classes of secondary forest, we ra...

Se realizó un inventario de la diversidad taxonómica de las comunidades de escarabajos estercoleros en sistemas ganaderos bajo tres modalidades en el bosque Atlántico de Argentina: 1) parquizados, ganadería en bosque nativo, 2) silvopastoriles, ganadería en plantaciones de pino, 3) potreros, ganadería en pastizales abiertos. Se registraron un total...

Se realizó un inventario de la diversidad taxonómica de las comunidades de escarabajos estercoleros en sistemas ganaderos, bajo tres modalidades en el bosque Atlántico de Argentina: 1) parquizados, ganadería en bosque nativo, 2) silvopastoriles, ganadería en plantaciones de pino, 3) potreros, ganadería en pastizales abiertos. Se registraron un tota...

The spatial distribution of species, functional traits and phylogenetic relationships at both the regional and local scales provide complementary approaches to study patterns of biodiversity and help to untangle the mechanisms driving community assembly. Few studies have simultaneously considered the taxonomic (TBD), functional (FBD) and phylogenet...

El objetivo de este proyecto fue evaluar la influencia de diferentes usos de la tierra en la riqueza y composición del ensamble de escarabajos estercoleros del bosque Atlántico del Alto Paraná. Durante el verano 2014 se realizaron muestreos de estercoleros utilizando trampas de caída cebadas. Se trabajó en diferentes ambientes: cultivos de yerba ma...

Cuantificar el efecto de borde es clave para comprender a escala local y del paisaje, la dinámica e impacto de la transformación y fragmentación de los hábitats naturales. Este trabajo tuvo como objetivo evaluar el efecto de borde sobre la riqueza, abundancia y diversidad de escarabajos coprófagos en el ecotono bosque–café de sol. Se consideraron l...

Edge effect is a key process influencing populations and communities, particularly in fragmented landscapes. A general analytical framework has been proposed to quantify the strength of the edge effects (extent and magnitude); however, factors determining the later remain poorly explored. Using a continuous approach we explore the response of dung...

The species-area relationship (SAR) gives a quantitative description of the increasing number of species in a community with increasing area of habitat. In conservation, SARs have been used to predict the number of extinctions when the area of habitat is reduced. Such predictions are most needed for landscapes rather than for individual habitat fra...

Landscape simulators are widely applied in landscape ecology for generating landscape patterns. These models can be divided into two categories: pattern-based models that generate spatial patterns irrespective of the processes that shape them, and process-based models that attempt to generate patterns based on the processes that shape them. The lat...

Description and implementation of Dinamica EGO landscape generator. (DOC)

Comparison of the attributes of the real and simulated landscapes for the landscape generators G-RaFFe, Qrule and Simmap. (DOCX)

Principal Component Analysis for the performance of all models in reproducing realistic spatial patterns. (DOCX)

1. The suitability of human-modified habitats for native species and the response of species to habitat edges are two important ecological processes that affect species and communities in fragmented landscapes. However, field studies generally analyse these two processes separately. We extended a recently proposed continuous approach to link these...

Bird species are adapted to certain ranges of physical conditions and will respond to environmental heterogeneity depending on their ability to exploit a broad range of resources and their tolerance to new environmental conditions. We used the rufous-collared sparrow as a model to explore how the abundance of generalist passerine birds may vary alo...

Traditional approaches to the study of species persistence in fragmented landscapes generally consider a binary classification of habitat being suitable or unsuitable; however, the range of human-modified habitats within a region may offer a gradient of habitat suitability (or conservation value) for species. We identified such a gradient by compar...

Studies dealing with community similarity are necessary to understand large scale ecological processes causing biodiversity loss and to improve landscape and regional planning. Here, we study landscape variables influencing patterns of community similarity in fragmented and continuous forest landscapes in the Atlantic forest of South America, isola...

The search for mechanisms determining community composition is currently in the core of ecological research. Human land use may promote species invasions or local extinctions by altering the environmental conditions, which can drastically change the composition of local communities. Understanding community responses to human activities will help de...

Selective logging is one of the main economical activities in tropical and subtropical forests. While most of the effects of this activity on bird communities have been studied by comparing exploited vs. non-exploited areas; the use of human-created treefall gaps by birds is relatively unknown. We studied habitat structure, resource abundance (frui...

The Araucaria Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura setaria (Furnariidae) is a globally Near Threatened species. Its habitat, the araucaria (Araucaria angustifolia) rainforest of south-east Brazil and north-east Argentina, is highly fragmented and reduced to nearly 10% of its original range. The species has also been recorded in commercial araucaria plantati...

In the current scenario of a fragmented Atlantic Forest, with less than 7% of the original cover remaining, the dominant agricultural and agroforestal matrices should be incorporated into conservation planning. However, little information is available on the conservation value of different land uses, especially those of commercial tree plantations....