Javier A. Simonetti

University of Chile · Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas

Due to the Aichi targets, the international community committed to the sustainable management of silvoagricultural activities and to the elimination or reform of detrimental subsidies relative to biodiversity conservation. In this context, countries should have implemented specific actions to address these commitments. In Chile, the Instruments of...

In Chile, promotion of activities in the silvoagricultural sector has been made through the implementation of Instruments of Productive Promotion, which are governmental interventions oriented to increase productive systems by applying economic incentives. However, its use has not been exempted of criticism due to the poor articulation and coordina...

Liolaemus nigroviridis habita en las “Islas del Cielo” de la cordillera de la Costa y de los Andes de la zona central de Chile. Para desarrollar planes de manejo para esta y otras especies que habitan estas cumbres, es útil contar con modelos de distribución potencial, los que otorgan información espacialmente explícita sobre las zonas probables de...

Liolaemus nigroviridis, lagarto endémico de Chile, habita en las “Islas del Cielo” de la cordillera de la Costa y de los Andes de la zona central. La conservación de esta y otras especies que habitan estas cumbres requiere contar con información actualizada sobre su distribución geográfica. En este marco: (i) revisamos tanto la literatura como las...

The conversion of native forest to forestry plantations is a worldwide practice, affecting biodiversity and host-parasite interactions. One of the most common timber plantations in the world are monocultures of Monterey pine (Pinus radiata). Using occupancy models, we analyzed the occurrence and prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts and Giardi...

We screened serum and fecal samples from huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) and pudus (Pudu puda) from southern Chile for Mycobacterium bovis and M. avium paratuberculosis (MAP). All but four samples were negative. The four positive sequences showed only 92-93% similarity with MAP and were detected in the populations from the remote Isla Riesco.

En el marco de la discusión para generar una nueva Constitución, la Universidad de Chile expone una serie de temas y enfoques en el tema ambiental, los cuales surgen de la discusión de distintos actores de la Universidad y la sociedad civil, con el propósito de representar la diversidad de miradas en esta temática.

PurposeLivestock is regarded as a source of parasites to wildlife populations, but no assessment of the nature and magnitude of parasite transmission from livestock to South American canids is available.Methods Here we systematically reviewed articles that evaluate protozoa, helminths and arthropods in wild canids living in areas with and without t...

Unlike most feral domestic animals, ranging behavior, diet dependence, and human socialization have been used as criteria to define feral dogs. These criteria can obstruct wildlife conservation if decisions depend on identifying ferality in dogs. We argue that diet dependence and human socialization are unnecessary to define ferality in situations...

Livestock guarding dogs are increasingly used to reduce carnivore-livestock conflicts, but no information is available to determine any adverse effects that these dogs may have on the health of wild carnivores. We assessed differences in prevalence, richness and severity of parasites in chilla fox (Lycalopex griseus) populations associated with liv...

Livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) are efficient at controlling predation upon livestock. LGDs create a safer landscape for livestock through accompaniment and the reduction of the abundance and distribution of wild carnivores. However, the effects of LGDs on livestock behavior, group dynamics, and use of space remain understudied. To understand LGDs’...

Land use changes and associated human activities modify environmental conditions for wild carnivores. Livestock husbandry among them is regarded a major threat to wild carnivores due to their persecution and retaliatory hunt for preying upon livestock albeit other land use changes could also trigger increased stress levels. To assess these differen...

Livestock guarding dogs reduce livestock predation by excluding carnivores and altering herbivore behavior through their presence. In Patagonia, invasive European hares compete with livestock for forage but change their behavior when exposed to native predator odors. In this experiment, we aimed to test if livestock guarding dog odor triggers fear...

Agroecological landscapes have the potential to simultaneously meet food security and biodiversity conservation goals but are hindered by emerging biodiversity conflicts. Here, we opt to view the social-ecological factors that decrease biodiversity impacts or increase tolerance of biodiversity in agroecological landscapes as system parameters for t...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-021-01888-8

Monoculture plantations of exotic Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) is a widespread practice which reduces richness and abundance of native species. The presence of shrub vegetation in mature pine plantations confers structural complexity, enabling the presence of native wildlife, and potentially mitigating the impacts of these plantations. However, li...

Animals with stable territories, specialized diets and narrow habitat choices, such as some woodpecker species, should concentrate foraging activity in areas of higher quality, a behavior consistent with the area-restricted search (ARS) behavior. The assessment of ARS behavior in specialized woodpeckers contributes to identify feeding areas importa...

We document the presence of a huemul population on Cabo León, Riesco Island, Chilean Patagonia 15 years after its first assessment, providing ecological insights for this southernmost coastal population. During Austral spring 2018 we recorded indirect signs of huemul presence and five individuals including one yearling across 35 km of trails, estim...

Native forests have been replaced by forestry plantations worldwide, impacting biodiversity. However, the effect of this anthropogenic land-use change on parasitism is poorly understood. One of the most important land-use change in Chile is the replacement of native forests by Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) plantations. In this study, we analyzed th...

Background Large woodpecker species with stable territories, specialized diets and narrow habitat choices, such as the Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus), are expected to adjust their movements based on the distribution of available resources within territories. Thus, Magellanic Woodpeckers should concentrate foraging activity in area...

Gomortega keule is an endangered tree species, the single extant species of a monotypic family. It is safeguarded only in one protected area. Its recruitment and germination are low, possibly in part because rodents prey on the seeds. However, it remains unknown if any rodent preys upon its large fruit and if so, to what extent. In this work we aim...

Replacement of native forests by exotic monoculture plantations is the principal driver of land change in central Chile; it reduces the richness and abundance of native mammals. The presence of shrub vegetation in mature pine plantation enhances habitat quality for small mammals. However, the role of structural complexity of shrub vegetation in you...

Native forest replacement by exotic forestry plantations and fragmentation may have different consequences for biodiversity. In the transition zone between the Mediterranean and Temperate Regions of Chile, native forests have been replaced and fragmented, and currently are surrounded by Pinus radiata plantations. However, the effects of these chang...

Between January 1 and February 10, 2017, the central southern area of Chile faced several mega-fires events that were considered the second largest of the history, 518,174 ha were affected. The devastating consequences of this fire also include the loss of 12 human lives, as well as an enormous financial cost in the fight against fires. Due to the...

Forestry plantations of Pinus radiata, managed through clearcutting method, would offer resistance to the movement of native fauna among remnants of native forest. In this study, we evaluate the possibilities of establishing connectivity corridors for native fauna in a forest landscape dominated by P. radiata, focusing on seven species with some le...

Article Impact Statement: Billions of native animal lives should not be ended by invasive species, even if we feel bad about eradication. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

La submesa Cambio de Uso del Suelo (CUS) tuvo como objetivo compilar y presentar en un informe la evidencia científica disponible sobre los cambios de uso del suelo y sus impactos en relación con las opciones de mitigación del cambio climático. Esta submesa contó con la participación de más de 30 científicos de diversas áreas de las ciencias ambien...

Land-use change can raise the risk of human exposure to zoonotic diseases by increasing abundance of reservoir hosts. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis on the associations between land-use change and the abundance of rodent species in relation to their reservoir status for rodent-borne diseases. Using the PREDICT database, we analyzed 58...

We performed a review of the literature on recent terrestrial fauna of Riesco Island, Magallanes. Information regarding taxa studied, topics covered, and locality of study was retrieved from 60 publications spanning the last 140 years.

Andes south virus (ANDV) is the etiologic agent of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) in Chile and southern Argentina. Farm and forestry workers have been identified as a group at high risk of acquiring HCPS caused by ANDV due to their close exposure to rodents or their secretions in rural areas. Therefore, investigation on the effect of la...

Mitigation of carnivore-human conflict due to domestic animal predation represents an imperative challenge. Although livestock management strategies aimed at reducing predation have recently received attention by wildlife managers and producers, the information regarding ecological attributes of studied predators, and environmental characteristics...

Conflicts between humans and wildlife could generate problems for biodiversity, and conflict management is important for avoiding biodiversity loss. Social acceptability of management actions for mitigating these conflicts can influence the success of wild carnivore management. Our study was carried out in southern Chile where we evaluated levels o...

Social support is one of the key factors that determines the success of protected areas. An ex-ante evaluation of the social support regarding the establishment process of protected areas could facilitate a more effective formation and hence improved management of such areas. Public backing for new parks could depend on several factors, including r...

Biodiversity is facing a crisis at global scale due to fragmentation and loss of natural habitats which are modifying their traditionally evaluation risk focus from species to eco systems. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) established an official standard for assessing the risk of collapse of ecosystems. Proposing a conceptu...

This study aimed to assess the association between habitat type, season, and host density, sex, mass, and body condition with the parasitism (i.e., prevalence and abundance) of two taxa of parasitic mites: Ornithonyssus sp. and Androlaelaps sp. (Mesostigmata) parasitising Abrothrix olivacea (Cricetidae). This study considered habitat types, includi...

There are two barriers to accomplishing restoration of ecosystems: insufficient information about historical baselines to guide restoration, and shifts between the actual baselines and perceptions about historical conditions. These two conditions generate a phenomenon called shifting baseline syndrome (SBS). Our study systematically reviewed and qu...

Land has traditionally been spared to protect biodiversity; however, this approach has not succeeded by itself and requires a complementary strategy in human-dominated landscapes: land-sharing. Human–wildlife conflicts are rampant in a land-sharing context where wildlife co-occur with crops or livestock, but whose resulting interactions adversely a...

Modifications in plant-mutualistic and plant-antagonistic interactions driven by habitat fragmentation may have far reaching consequences by affecting plant reproductive success and their microevolutionary dynamics. Mutualists (e.g., pollinators) and antagonists (e.g., herbivores) can exert non-additive effects on plant fitness, which is interprete...

Urbanization destroys and fragments natural habitats, resulting in a system of natural remnants embedded in an urban matrix. Urban natural remnants (UNRs) can provide multiple ecosystem services for urban areas. Nevertheless, the long-term provision of ecosystem services by UNRs depends on their capacity to retain the ecosystem processes supporting...

Rodents with leucism (a hypopigmentary congenital disorder) in the Neotropical region are rarely recorded. During field surveys in central Chile, we found in commercial Monterrey pine plantations a specimen of Abrothrix longipilis and a specimen of Abrothrix olivaceus with partial leucism. Another A. olivaceus exhibited complete leucism. To our kno...

Predation on domestic animals by carnivores is a persistent problem wherever carnivores and livestock co-occur. A wide range of management tools to reduce predation has been invoked. However, the evidence of their effectiveness is still limited for a broader range of species and conditions. Using a global analysis of domestic animal predation by na...

The replacement of native forests by Pinus radiata plantations modifies habitat availability and quality for wildlife, constituting a threat to species survival. However, the presence of understory in mature pine plantations minimizes the negative impacts of native forest replacement, rendering a secondary habitat for wildlife. Whether forest-dwell...

We report the presence of Alsodes vanzolinii (Donoso-Barros, 1974) in the Maule Region, Chile extending its known geographic distribution 160 km north of its type locality. The species was recorded in exotic young plantations of Pinus radiata D. Don 1836.

RESUMEN • El Hued‐hued Castaño (Pteroptochus castaneus) es una especie poco estudiada, endémica de Chile y Argentina. En este trabajo describimos observaciones realizadas durante ocho días sobre un nido con dos pichones de Hued‐hued Castaño en septiembre y octubre de 2015. El nido estaba ubicado en el borde de un camino, a 1 km de la Reserva Nacion...

Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity; the development of models that reliably predict its effects on species distributions is a priority for conservation biogeography. Two of the main issues for accurate temporal predictions from Species Distribution Models (SDM) are model extrapolation and unrealistic dispersal scenarios. We assessed t...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

Sustainable forest management of commercial monoculture plantations may be difficult to achieve in plantations of Monterrey pine because these commercial monocultures are managed under a clear cutting system, where the understory vegetation is initially damaged by harvesting, and subsequently, by herbicide application. Despite its marked structural...

Rural communities worldwide face a decrease of critical ecosystem services caused by replacement of native forests by commercial plantations. Replacement of native forest by commercial plantations decreases water provisioning, with possible negative impacts over well-being. We tested this hypothesis in Central Chile. We assessed subjective well-bei...

We report a new locality for Batrachyla taeniata, which fills a 290 km gap in its geographic distribution. The records add a new type of habitat for B. taeniata, which was recorded in commercial plantations of Pinus radiata.

Although the Levins model has made important theoretical contributions to ecology, its empirical support has not been conclusively established yet. We used published colonization and extinction data from 55 metapopulations to calculate their Levins equilibrium patch occupancy. Over all species, there were not significant differences between the obs...

Predictive modeling in conservation science is a powerful tool to inform decision making, especially when data are scarce. Predictions offer an opportunity to develop proactive strategies that may alleviate pressures on species (Cardillo & Meijard 2012). On such grounds, we advanced the most likely population trends of poorly known species of Boliv...

Anthropogenic climate change is a major threat to biodiversity, and the development of models that reliably predict their effects on species distributions is a priority to conservation biogeography. Common issues to temporal predictability of Species Distribution Models (SDM) are model extrapolation and realistic incorporation of dispersal capaciti...

Land use change can reduce the wealth and wellbeing of a nation by modifying its biodiversity. We used value transfer methodology to estimate changes in the value of ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems in El Salvador, a country particularly impacted by natural disasters. Ecosystem services (1998–2011) provided annually only by natural...

Native vegetation development in forestry plantations may depend on seed dispersal, seed predation and seed germination. These processes may depend on distance to native forest fragments and presence of understory. In this study we evaluated the effect of distance to native forests on seed rain and seed predation and the effect of presence of under...

Total ecosystem service value (ESV in US$/yr, 2007 price levels) estimated for each biome in El Salvador using de Groot et al. coefficients, and the overall change and rate of change between 1998 and 2011.

Total ecosystem service value in El Salvador (ESV in US$/yr, 2007 price levels) estimated for each service, overall change between 1998 and 2011, and tendency to increase or decrease.

Previous ecosystem service valuations of land use change and percentage of decline reported in ESV.

Estimated areas and land use change in El Salvador from 1998 to 2011. Columns correspond to the absolute (ha) and relative (%) areas of each biome in 1998, 2011 and the difference in absolute and relative area.

Replacement of native forests by forest plantations may change the composition and abundance of small mammals, thus influencing the foraging behavior of mesocarnivores in these human-created habitats. We assessed how differences in prey abundance between native forests and exotic plantations in southern Chile may explain the prey selection of four...

Context Disentangling the relative effects of forest loss versus fragmentation on species distribution and abundance is crucial for adopting efficient biodiversity conservation actions, which could change with the nature of the landscape matrix. Objectives We tested the moderating effect of landscape matrix on insectivorous bats response to forest...

Replacement of native forests by forest plantations may change the composition and abundance of small mammals, thus influencing the foraging behavior of mesocarnivores in these human-created habitats. We assessed how differences in prey abundance between native forests and exotic plantations in southern Chile may explain the prey selection of four...

Biological traits explain extinction at the species level, but what factors explain collapse at the ecosystem level? Using ecosystem Red List criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, we calculated risk of collapse in El Salvador's ecosystems and determined that it is nonrandom, indicating the existence of explaining factors...

The southern Big-Eared Brown Bat, Histiotus magellanicus, is a poorly known vespertilionid occurring only in southern Chile and Argentina, where it appears to be restricted to Valdivian Temperate Forests and Magellanic Subpolar Forests. Here we report the first record of H. magellanicus in the Maulino Temperate Forest of central Chile, a Mediterran...

Forestry plantations supporting native species exhibit a dense understory, which might reduce bat activity within plantations. We compared bat activity in Monterrey pine plantations with and without an under-story in central Chile. Total activity did not differ be-tween plantations with a developed understory and those without it, being higher on-t...

The recognition that growing proportions of species worldwide are endangered has led to the development of comparative analyses to elucidate why some species are more prone to extinction than others. Understanding factors and patterns of species vulnerability might provide an opportunity to develop proactive conservation strategies. Such comparativ...