María Carmen Mandujano

• Dr.
• Professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico

Florivores modify the attributes of flowers while feeding, that affects the behavior and frequency of pollinators that visit flowers and setting of fruits and seed as a result of low pollen deposition. We determined the effect of experimental florivory on pollinators visitations, fruit-set, and seed-set of Opuntia cantabrigiensis. Four treatments w...

Five Selenicereus species are well-known in the fruit market as dragon fruit, pitahaya, or pitaya. Native to the New World, pitahayas are considered underutilized crops with nutraceutical properties and easily propagated with a distribution that could potentially be extended to dry climates. Our goal is to understand the relationships of wild and c...

Background and aims – Opuntia s.s. (Cactaceae) is one of the most diverse genera in the subfamily Opuntioideae, with approximately 220 species. The considerable morphological and anatomical diversity among these species has resulted in a remarkable adaptative plasticity, evident in both intra- and interspecific variability. Our study system is Opun...

La polinización es uno de los mutualismos mejor ejemplificados de la naturaleza, y ha sido reconocida un servicio ecosistémico indispensable con beneficios para las angiospermas y humanos. No obstante, en los últimos años se ha enfrentado a la disminución de los polinizadores y al bajo rendimiento de diversos cultivos. De forma que son necesarios m...

Premise Barriers at different reproductive stages contribute to reproductive isolation. Self-incompatibility (SI) systems that prevent self-pollination could also act to control interspecific pollination and contribute to reproductive isolation, preventing hybridization. Here we evaluated whether SI contributes to reproductive isolation among four...

Antecedentes y Objetivos: La capacidad de formar un banco de semillas es una de las estrategias que permite la regeneración poblacional de especies en ambientes impredecibles. El fotoblastismo positivo, la longevidad ecológica, el tamaño de la semilla y mecanismos de latencia suelen ser atributos de las semillas que forman bancos. En este estudio e...

In this study, we assess the effect of interannual climatic variation on resource allocation to vital rates in a cactus with biogeographical rarity (Thelocactus eucacanthus ssp. schmollii). Eight-year observations were used to relate vital rates to climatic data using population projection matrix models and Spearman correlations.

Simple Summary There is increasing evidence of declining bee populations due to anthropogenic factors. We assessed the abundance of nine wild bee species over a four-year study period, estimating changes through monthly captures. Apis mellifera, the Lasioglossum (Dialictus spp.) complex, and Macrotera sinaloana had the largest population sizes and...

El consumo de recompensas y estructuras forales por parte de las cucarachas silvestres, así como su función polinizadora en los ecosistemas naturales ha sido escasamente estudiado. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir las actividades que realiza Latiblattella tarasca en las fores y cladodios de cuatro especies de Opuntia (O. cantabrigiensis, O....

Background and aims – Opuntia s.s. (Cactaceae) is one of the most diverse genera, with approximately 200 species, as species have great morphological and anatomical variation, which have caused a high adaptive plasticity in the species, reflected in the intra- and interspecific variability. Our study system was Opuntia streptacantha Lem., which has...

Correct species identification is critical for studies on biodiversity, ecology, and conservation. Determining Opuntia s.s. species is difficult because they have similar traits and are phenotypically plastic. Taxonomic keys are based on vegetative traits rather than reproductive ones such as flowers, because they are assumed to be too similar. We...

Bdallophytum americanum (Cytinaceae) is an endoparasitic plant species, meaning only the flowers emerge from the host during the reproductive season. Reports on the pollination biology of this species state that its primary pollinators are carrion flies attracted by the smell of the flowers and nectar as a reward. However, the functional role of on...

Background and aims – Understanding the traits that lead to the invasion potential of invasive alien species (IAS) provides insight for their management. The reproductive traits of IAS help us understand the mechanisms that allow for their invasive potential, and colonization into new ranges. Asphodelus fistulosus is a native Mediterranean species...

Cloud forests are highly diverse mountain ecosystems, but habitat loss and fragmentation threaten many species with extinction. Demographic parameters are essential to implement effective conservation actions and to understand the mechanisms of species coexistence, but there are very few population models with transition matrices for fern species....

Bee population ecology is essential to determine and react to environmental impacts that affect population persistence. Land use change and pesticides lead to decreased populations, however, it is difficult to estimate their impact because information of wild bee populations is limited, even though they are important pollinators of flowering plants...

Biotic pollination is typically a mutualism between plants and their pollina-tors, where each partner receives a benefit. However, plants can resort to various reproductive strategies to attract pollinators. Within angiosperms, a group of plants known as endoparasites is comprised of only flowers or inflores-cences. These plants exhibit various rep...

Opuntia is the most diverse and widespread genus in the Cactaceae; several species have broad distribution ranges and have successfully adapted to distinct habitats. One explanation for their success is the diversity of their reproductive systems. Opuntia macrocentra is one of the most common widespread species in North American deserts. A previous...

Seedlings recruitment is key to maintaining populations and depends on diverse biotic interactions and abiotic factors before and after seed dispersal. Cacti recruitment is infrequent and occurs at sporadic pulses associated with rainy years. Furthermore, biotic interactions can limit seeds availability due to scarce or inefficient pollinators, dis...

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum o “vidrillo” es una planta suculenta invasora que reduce lariqueza y la biomasa de las especies en las áreas que invade. Se presenta un diagnóstico de laszonas invadidas y se precisa la información sobre su fenología reproductiva para determinar losmomentos de control. Los registros de herbario en gbif y de presencia e...

En esta nota hacemos una contribución a las interacciones que pueden ocurrir entre los nopales y las abejas, más allá de la polinización, mediante la descripción de la visita de Apis mellifera a tunas de los nopales Opuntia streptacantha y Opuntia robusta, abriendo un panorama poco estudiado y documentado. De acuerdo con lo que se reporta para otra...

Background and aims - Understanding the traits that lead to the invasion potential of alien invasive species (AIS) provides insight for their management. The reproductive traits of AIS help us to understand the mechanisms that allow for their invasive potential, and colonization into new ranges. Asphodelus fistulosus is a native Mediterranean speci...

La distribución de las especies de Opuntia s.s. en México se determinó a escala estatal, ecorregión y biomas. Posteriormente en las entidades federativas con la mayor presencia de especies se precisó la superposición que tienen con la mancha urbana. Asimismo, se determinaron los principales patrones de riqueza de especies. Con base en una revisión...

Until recently, little research has focused on determination of the population dynamics of invasive species and evaluating their genetic variation. Consequently, not much is known of what drives clonal invasive species and their demography. Here, we describe the population dynamics of Kalanchoe delagoensis (Crassulaceae), considered invasive to sev...

Seedlings recruitment is key to maintaining populations and depends on diverse biotic interactions before and after seed dispersal. Cacti recruitment is infrequent and occurs at sporadic pulses associated with rainy years. Furthermore, biotic interactions can limit seeds availability due to scarce or inefficient pollinators, dispersers or to antago...

Miners used to take canaries with them when descending underground to work. They acted as an early warning for them, and many miners’ lives were saved. There are also environmental canaries, under and above ground, but unfortunately, they are usually ignored. In the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB), the mismanagement and overexploitation of water have l...

Bdallophytum oxylepis is a rare and endemic species belonging to the Cytinaceae family, a root holoparasitic plant in which most resources are allocated to attracting pollinators. This species is gynomonoecious with intra-individual variation in flower size and sex. Moreover, the flowers exhibit sapromyophilous traits, as do other species of Bdallo...

This book takes readers on a journey through the history of water in the Coahuila desert. It starts by describing the beauty and mysteries of the landscape, and then explores the rock art of the original desert cultures in Coahuila, offering readers a glimpse of the sacred nature of water in the desert, as well as the rituals surrounding it. Moving...

Until recently, little focus has been given to determine the population dynamics of invasive species and evaluate their genetic variation. Consequently, not much is known of what drives clonal invasive species and their demography. Here we describe the population dynamics of Kalanchoe delagoensis (Crassulaceae), considered invasive to several count...

Metamasius spinolae es un insecto fitófago que ataca las estructuras vegetativas de algunos géneros de la familia Cactaceae. El objetivo del trabajo es dar a conocer los hábitos florívoros y frugívoros de M. spinolae. Entre 2017 y 2018, observaciones mensuales se realizaron para registrar la incidencia de ataque de este coleóptero y describir el da...

The dynamics of plant populations are often limited by the early stages in their life cycles. However, information regarding seed bank dynamics and how these may influence the whole life cycle of plant species is remarkably scarce or not considered explicitly. This lack of knowledge is due mainly to the challenges in quantifying seed vital rates. S...

Germination is a fundamental process in cacti life cycles. The evaluation of germination in habitat may face some methodological concerns, such as the loss of seeds by biotic and abiotic factors and the cross contamination of experimental plots with foreign seeds. We evaluated the viability of a method for the germination Cephalocereus polylophus (...

Seeds and seedlings are the most critical stages of cacti life cycles. From the thousands of seeds produced in a reproductive season, only a small fraction successfully germinate, the rest are lost to predation, go dormant, and remain viable in the seed bank, or lose viability. These early stages often depend on facilitation by nurse plants for ger...

A nurse–protégé relationship is a frequent facilitation interaction in deserts that allows the recruitment of new individuals of many species. Our aim wasto evaluate the relationship of Echinocereus enneacanthus during its life cycle and its nurse plants in the brousse tigrée (tiger bush) vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert. The population structur...

The success of biological invasions depends on two important components: The set of species traits that improves their ability to become invasive (invasiveness) and characteristics of the receiving ecosystem (invasive potential). Descriptions of these two components have yielded information that can lead to evaluate the risk posed by a specific spe...

Seeds and seedlings are the most critical stages of cacti life cycles. From the thousands of seeds produced in a reproductive season, only a small fraction successfully germinate, the rest are lost to predation, go dormant and remain viable in the seed bank or lose viability. These early stages often depend on facilitation by nurse plants for germi...

Castilleja tenuiflora is a facultative root hemiparasitic plant that has colonized a disturbed lava field in central Mexico. To determine the effects of hemiparasitism on the population dynamics of the parasite, we identified a set of potential hosts and quantified their effects on the vital rates of C. tenuiflora during 2016–2018. Connections betw...

Seed and seedling are the most critical stages of cacti life cycle. From the thousands of seeds produced in a reproductive season, only a small fraction gets to germinate, the rest gets lost due to predation or gets potentially buried in the seed bank. These early stages depend on facilitation by nurse plants for germination and seedling recruitmen...

The dynamics of plants populations are often limited by the early stages in their life cycles. The question if the columnar cacti have or not a seed bank in predictable environments. Yet, information regarding seed bank dynamics and how these may influence the full life cycle of plant species is remarkably scarce or ignore. This lack of knowledge i...

Abstract. Threatened species frequently have a J-shaped population structure, which indicates a reduction in seed set and poor or nonexistent recruitment. Altered population structures may be due to disrupted demographic processes that result in low reproductive success or small population size. Peyote—Lophophora diffusa Croizat (Bravo)—is a rare,...

The globose cactus Ariocarpus fissuratus, known as “living rock,” is renowned for the singular morphology of its extremely cryptic single stem/taproot, which results in a resemblance of their tubercles to rocky soil. Their beauty has placed Ariocarpus among the top rated illegally traded cactus. In the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin, important populations o...

Grusonia bradtiana “viejito” (old man cactus) is an endemic species from Cuatro Ciénegas Basin and nearby areas. Grusonia includes 17 clonal species distributed along North American deserts which grow in dense cushion or shrubs. Grusonia bradtiana reproduces sexually by flowering and fruiting, forming seeds with new genetic combinations (new genets...

Desert plants have several adaptations to cope with harsh environmental conditions; these adaptations range from the ability to store water to the diversification of reproductive modes, displaying sexual reproduction and clonality. Grusonia bradtiana is an endemic cactus from Coahuila which dominates vegetation at bajada landforms of Cuatro Ciénega...

Samolus ebracteatus var. coahuilensis (Primulaceae) is a perennial creeping herb common in riparian habitats in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin. It grows on the border of water bodies and in zones where water becomes available due to disturbance. Its distribution in the terminal part of the Churince system expanded to newly formed sinkholes and to the su...

Bajadas are transition zones between the foothills of the mountainous areas and the valleys in the arid zones of North America; given their microclimatic characteristics (geomorphological composition, high humidity, and low solar radiation) they are probably a refuge for many plant species; however, there are no reports for the bajadas in the Cuatr...

Ariocarpus fissuratus is a subglobose cactus, endemic of the Chihuahuan Desert, from San Luis Potosí, Mexico to south of Texas, restricted to limestone soils. Its stem resembles the soil surface where it grows; therefore, it is commonly known as “living rock” or falso peyote. Under harsh conditions, its taproot shrinks, enhancing its survival by ma...

Disturbance can open new habitats that follow different plant colonization patterns. The Churince hydrological system from the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin has been desiccating progressively since 2003 because of the disturbance of the underground hydrological flow. The terminal lagoon and the last part of the Churince river have had no surface water sinc...

Lophophora williamsii, commonly known as “peyote” or “divine cactus”, has a wide distribution in the Chihuahuan Desert, but is under threat due to over-harvesting for religious ceremonies or psychedelic tourism, and many populations no longer exist. Natural populations can be rehabilitated or aided by sowing seeds or reintroducing specimens, which...

Wild species collected in Mexico are important resources for the subsistence of its inhabitants. Particularly in the arid and semi-arid regions of northeastern Mexico, where agriculture and livestock are limited by climatic conditions, human groups that inhabit these sites depend on the rich diversity of its flora and fauna. The largest desert in N...

Riparian species colonize habitats induced by disturbance along the hydrologic Churince System in Cuatro Ciénegas (Coahuila, Mexico), like sinkholes and the river and lacustrine dry beds, the dry riverbank, and the surrounding flatland. Among the colonizers of newly opened habitats, dominant species are scarce. They include Samolus ebracteatus var....

Reproductive systems are life attributes important in defining the demography and genetic constitution of invasive alien species populations. We describe the phenology, floral behavior and floral visitors in Mexican populations of Leonotis nepetifolia considered invasive in America, Asia and Oceania. The mating system was determined through pollina...

Antecedentes: La estructura poblacional es un atributo demográfico que se define en parte por el reclutamiento de las especies. Una aproximación para describir la estructura es estimando un ajuste log-normal a la distribución de tallas diamétricas en cactáceas columnares, lo que indicaría si hay un ajuste unimodal o multimodal. Pregunta: ¿Cómo es...

Environmental and specific diversity in the Chihuahuan desert in general, and in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in particular, has long been recognized as outstanding. This book provides a global ecological overview, together with in-depth studies of specific processes. The Chihuahuan desert is the warmest in North America, and has a complex geologic, c...

The Semi-Arid Zone of Querétaro and Hidalgo (SAZQH), central México, is a relevant place in terms of richness, endemism, and threatened species of Cactaceae. The region has been inhabited and transformed along the ages; modifications include regional infrastructure milestones that have done irreversible damages to key, emblematic Cactaceae species....

Cacti are a taxonomically complex group, which contains species that share similar morphological characters that sometimes makes identification difficult. We report the case of Coryphantha poselgeriana, which is an endemic species of northern Mexico and that for a long time the species found in the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve had been mistakenly ident...

Seed traits of hybrid seeds and pure seeds were compared to explore if there are ecological advantages on seeds of hybrid origin, under the hypothesis of hybrid vigor, in which it is expected that hybrids outperform pure species and eventually replace original parent species. Hybrid seeds and pure parent seeds that were analyzed came from crosses...

Conservation of mangrove ecosystems is one of the major global environmental challenges of this century. To propose viable strategies for its conservation, it is necessary to produce an adequate cartography that enables, among other things, accurate differentiation among plant communities. Google Earth Pro (GEP) images were evaluated as a tool to c...

Rhizophora mangle is the most common species of mangrove within its range and a major component of coastal ecosystems in the tropics and subtropics. Its phenology is affected by seasonal variations in temperature, salinity, and precipitation, all of which may be altered by impending climate change. In this work, the monthly leaf, flower, and fruit...

The diverse offspring of clonal species differ in their dispersability, influencing genotypic diversity and clonal structure. Here, we determined dispersal patterns and their impact on genetic structure in Opuntia microdasys, a self‐incompatible cactus with three dispersal units (one sexual and two clonal). We analyzed dispersal, using experiments...

Demographic analyses and ecological niche modeling (ENM) are two popular tools that address species persistence in relation to environmental conditions. Classic demography provides detailed information about the mechanisms that allow a population to grow or remain stable at a local scale, while ENM infers distributions from conditions suitable for...

Data for the selection of the models that link demographic parameters to bioclimatic variables. Three models were tested in every case: ID, a linear model relating the parameters with the climatic variables without any transformation; Log, as before, but log-transforming the bioclimatic variable; and Inv, in which the reciprocal (multiplicative inv...

Demographic model. Table A Number of individuals and clones. This table shows the number of individuals and clones registered each year of the demographic study. Figure A Comparison of the observed size distribution (black bars = and that projected by the demographic model (red line). (DOCX)

Model selection statistics. The best models are shown in red. The model with lowest AIC is shown in bold characters, while the next best models (DAIC <2) are shown in italics. The model that was selected for simulating population dynamics is shown with a yellow background. This model was selected based on two criteria: First, the sum of the AIC val...

Demographic parameters. Table A. Parameters for survival and growth functions. Table B. Parameters for fecundity functions. No reproduction was recorded in the years for which there are no parameters. (DOCX)

Alien invasive species have strategies that can maintain fitness in a variety of environments. This flexibility is associated with environmental tolerance in several traits, such as allocation of resources to shoots versus roots, clonal versus sexual reproduction, and survival of seedlings. These traits were explored in the chandelier plant ( Kalan...

Educar para prevenir los visitantes no deseados julio/agosto 2018 | 94 Educar para prevenir: los visitantes no deseados y ¿qué son las especies invasoras? Educate to prevent: unwanted visitors and what are alien invasive species? Resumen Las invasiones de especies no nativas han sido por mucho tiempo un tema silencioso, pero con un impacto difícilm...

We evaluate the conservation status of a Mexican endemic cacti population using demographic models.

Under unpredictable environments, such as arid regions, seed dormancy mechanisms are important for plant populations perpetuation. Many plant species have light requirements to germinate, then photoblastism and dormancy mechanisms have been associated with seed banks. In arid regions, water is a limiting factor for seed germination and seedling est...

Arid and semi-arid environments contain relatively high species diversity and are subject to intense use, in particular extensive cattle grazing. The expansion of perennial species in to the grasslands decreases the value of the rangeland, because it makes necessary to control the shrubs, which is not practical in the long term. This paper is a bib...

Antecedentes y Objetivos: La familia Cactaceae tiene el mayor número de especies listadas en riesgo de extinción, pero la información biológica y poblacional de estas especies, necesaria para determinar su riesgo poblacional y su estatus de conservación en las listas rojas, es escasa o insu-ficiente. El estatus de Astrophytum ornatum es vulnerable,...

In community ecology, the knowledge of abiotic factors, that determine intraspecific variability in ecophysiological and functional traits, is important for addressing major questions, such as plant community assembly and ecosystem functioning. Mangroves have several mechanisms of resistance to salinity and most species exhibit some xeromorphic fea...

El estudio de la morfometría floral puede proporcionar información acerca del sistema sexual de una especie. La medición de características reproductivas desde funcionales a morfológicas a nivel de flor (como la disposición temporal y espacial de los órganos sexuales) nos puede dar indicios de las condiciones en las que ocurre la autogamia y/o la e...

Plant fitness is reduced by pollen limitation when the amount and quality of pollen deposited on stigmas is restricted. Pollen limitation has direct implications in mating system and floral evolution, and negatively affects population dynamics. We assessed pollen limitation in the cactus Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus from the western Chihuahuan Desert...

Online trade of CITES listed species has become a persistent threat which is difficult to measure and control. The use of online markets is growing day by the day as technology becomes more available and familiar to people of all ages and interests. Species trade can now be propagated remotely hardly without any real human interaction. We develop a...

Online trade of CITES listed species has become a persistent threat which is difficult to measure and control. The use of online markets is growing day by the day as technology becomes more available and familiar to people of all ages and interests. Species trade can now be propagated remotely hardly without any real human interaction. We develop a...

El género Mammillaria es de los más diversificados dentro de la familia Cactaceae, México es su centro de diversificación, y los estudios que analicen detalladamente los ciclos de vida de especies pertenecientes a este género son necesarios para determinar el estado de sus poblaciones y planear estrategias de conservación. Mammillaria humboldtii (C...

The niche breadth of a species reflects its ability to inhabit different conditions, and to use different resources, hence, species with wider niche are expected to be more resilient to anthropogenic derived climate change. We estimated the niche breadth of all species of the genus Astrophytum from macro-environmental variables and measures of loca...

Despite efforts for a complete phylogeny of Cactaceae, generic circumscription and species level relationships remain unsolved. Within Astrophytum one species is assigned to a different genus (Digitostigma) and two are often treated as a single species (A. myriostigma and A. coahuilense). Astrophytum is endemic to the Chihuahuan Desert, but may als...

Abies hickelii is an endangered fir species, restricted to Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico; on the ear of Orizaba Mountain, Veracruz, its area of distribution is used for grazing and logging. Stands of A. hickelii protect the upper Jamapa River basin in Veracruz. In order to assess whether the species is in danger we performed a quantitative d...

Mammillaria humboldtii is a globose cactus, endemic to the state of Hidalgo, prized by collectors and subject to illegal logging so is currently listed as endangered. A population was studied in the Biosphere Reserve Metztitlán Canyon, Hidalgo order to describe some aspects related to the reproductive biology of the species, such as flowering ph...

Introducción La fenología estudia los ciclos de los seres vivos en relación con los factores climáticos. Los manglares son plantas que se desarrollan en las costas de las regiones tropicales, altamente vulnerables a los efectos tempranos del cambio climático, como el aumento del nivel del mar, intrusión salina, cambios en la precipitación, y cambio...