Vulnera Web- https://vulneraweb.com/
- assitant professor at Autonomous University of Madrid
Vulnera Web
- https://vulneraweb.com/
- assitant professor at Autonomous University of Madrid
Mapping Populations Under Climatic Threat
About
156
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Introduction
I seek to understand how the environment interacts with evolving phenotypes to determine where species can live, and on the consequences of such interaction over different organizational levels of nature (i.e. Individuals' phenotypes, population abundance, species' range size, community richness, etc). Lately, I am mostly focused in using that understanding for developing a new approach for forecasting species' vulnerability to climate change. Even thought most of my work focuses on lizards, I enjoy working with other organisms too. I use an array of approaches including field studies, laboratory experiments, museum data collection, geographic modelling and videogames.
Current institution
Publications
Publications (156)
Aim: We test the relationship between the voluntary thermal maximum (VTMax; the temperature at which an individual actively retreats to a colder site) and geographical/environmental features in the distribution of South American pitvipers. Additionally, we explore the evolution of environmental temperatures and VTMax in species' ranges.
Location:...
The highlands of the Guiana Shield (Pantepui) in northern South America harbor a unique fauna and flora. However, this diversity remains poorly documented, as many Pantepui massifs remain little explored or unexplored, mainly because their access is very challenging. Considering amphibians, 11 genera are endemic or sub-endemic to Pantepui, and one...
This research focuses on the effect of environmental factors on the phenology and distribution of the Tentyria species (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from Doñana National Park (SW Iberian Peninsula). Data are derived from the results of a project carried out 20 years ago, aimed at inventorying the coleopteran of the park. This information provides a f...
Aim: We investigated the relationship between thermal physiology, elevational distribution and thermal stress among nine closely related dendrobatid frogs during their aquatic stage by employing an integrated approach, combining thermal physiology, environmental temperature modelling and predictive assessments of current and future exposure to ther...
The accumulation of studies delimiting species in Amazonia has not only shed light on the patterns of its outstanding species richness but also allowed a better understanding of the processes of diversification within this immense region. Nevertheless, vast knowledge gaps remain even for prominent anuran species complexes, such as the Rhinella marg...
In Mediterranean climates, amphibian larvae often occupy temporary ponds where they must avoid deleterious temperatures and develop before these ponds dry out. We measured thermal heterogeneity in one of these ponds and discussed its relationship with development time and thermal tolerance in three observed species. We found large daily thermocline...
Variation in relative interspecific brain size has been correlated with cognitive capacities in different animal groups. Bird nest construction is one of the most remarkable animal abilities, and has reached the highest diversification in the Passeriformes. Yet, its relationship with brain size is not fully understood. Here, we used a dataset of 45...
High temperatures and low water availability often strike organisms concomitantly. Observing how organisms behaviorally thermohydroregulate may help us to better understand their climatic vulnerability. This is especially important for tropical forest lizards, species that are purportedly under greater climatic risk. Here, we observed the influence...
The iconic mountains of the Pantepui biogeographical region host many early-diverging endemic animal and plant lineages, concurring with Conan Doyle’s novel about an ancient “Lost World”. While this is the case of several frog lineages, others appear to have more recent origins, adding to the controversy around the diversi- fication processes in th...
Medusozoa (Cnidaria) are characterized by diverse life cycles, with different semaphoronts (medusa, medusoid, fixed gonophore, polyp) representing the sexual phase and carrying the gametes. Although egg size is often considered a proxy to understand reproductive and developmental traits of medusozoans, understanding of the processes influencing egg...
The time-to-thermal-death curve, or thermal death curve, seeks to represent all the combinations of exposure time and temperature that kill individuals of a species. We present a new theoretical function to describe that time in lizards based on traditional measures of thermal tolerance (i.e., preferred body temperatures, voluntary thermal maximum,...
Plasticity in the critical thermal maximum (CTmax) helps ectotherms survive in variable thermal conditions. Yet, little is known about the environmental mechanisms modulating its time course. We used the larvae of three neotropical anurans (Boana platanera, Engystomops pustulosus and Rhinella horribilis) to test whether the magnitude of temperature...
The development of evidence-based tools that help to monitor wildlife populations is essential to assess the success of management interventions. Here, we evaluated the reliability of a simple method to estimate the abundance of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), which is likely one of the most managed vertebrate species worldwide. Cooke'...
Global studies of organismal distribution and climatic vulnerability rely on the mostly untested assumption that heat tolerance restricts the maximum temperatures estimated at the warm edges of their geographic distribution (Tmax). Herein we test this assumption across the animal kingdom and examine whether the strength of restrictions depends on h...
Critical thermal limits (CTmax and CTmin) decrease with elevation, with greater change in CTmin, and the risk to suffer heat and cold stress increasing at the gradient ends. A central prediction is that populations will adapt to the prevailing climatic conditions. Yet, reliable support for such expectation is scant because of the complexity of inte...
We quantified functional traits (escape strategy, sprint speed and predatory performance) and population density across 10 lizard species representing morphotype stages in the acquisition of burrowing snake-like morphotypes (BSLM), from Brazil. We used phylogenetic mixed models to test if: (a) morphotype and substrate affects flight strategy and sp...
Within the Neotropical genus Anastrepha, the nominal species Anastrepha fraterculus is widely distributed from Mexico through northern Argentina. Currently it is believed to comprises a complex of at least eight cryptic species—known as the Anastrepha fraterculus complex (AF complex)—three of which occur in Brazil: A. sp.1 aff. fraterculus, A. sp.2...
Evolutionary ecologists seek to understand how phenotypic evolution relates to population level traits. To document that, we quantified functional traits (escape strategy, sprint speed and predatory performance) and population density across 10 lizard species representing the acquisition of burrowing snake-like morphs (BSLM), from Brazil. We used p...
Thermal variation has complex effects on organisms and they respond to these effects through combined behavioral and physiological mechanisms. However, it is less clear how these traits combine in response to changes in body condition (e.g., size, hydration) and environmental factors that surround the heating process (e.g., relative humidity, start...
To understand species′ climatic vulnerability, our measures of species’ thermal tolerance should predict their geographic thermal limits. Yet, this assumption is ungranted. We tested if animals′ heat tolerance restrict the warmest temperatures they can live at (Tmax), distinguishing among species differently challenged by their thermal environment....
En este trabajo se actualizó la distribución de las especies de reptiles en la provincia de
Córdoba. Se usaron datos del Servidor de Información de Anfbios y Reptiles de España
(S.I.A.R.E.), el portal GBIF y observaciones propias. Para cada especie se comprobó su
presencia o ausencia en cuadrículas UTM de 10x10 km. Se encontraron registros de 21
es...
Critical thermal limits (CTmax and CTmin) are predicted to decrease with elevation, with greater change in CTmin, and the risk to suffer heat and cold stress increasing at the gradient ends. A central prediction is that populations will adapt to the prevailing climatic conditions. Yet, reliable support for such expectation is scant because of the c...
Since high temperatures and low water availability often strike organisms in parallel, observing how they behaviorally thermohydroregulate may help us to better understand their climatic vulnerability. This understanding is especially important for tropical lizards, purportedly under greater climatic risk. We observed the influence of hydration lev...
The outstanding biodiversity of the Guiana Shield has raised many questions about its origins and evolution. Frogs of the genera Adelastes, Otophryne and Synapturanus form an ancient lineage distributed mostly across this region. These genera display strikingly disparate morphologies and life-history traits. Notably, Synapturanus is conspicuously a...
Predicting the effects of high environmental temperatures and drought on populations requires understanding how these conditions will influence the thermoregulatory behavior and thermal tolerance of organisms. Ecto-therms show proportional (fine-tuned) and all-or-none (abrupt) responses to avoid overheating. Scattered evidence suggests that dehydra...
The Pantepui region of northern South America harbours an endemic fauna that differs dramatically from those of the surrounding lowland rainforests and savannas. A component of this unique fauna is Riolama, a poorly known genus of microteiid lizards with four described and two undescribed species restricted to tepui mountains. We here implement an...
Thermal variation has complex effects on organisms and they deal with it by combining behavioral and physiological thermal tolerance. However, we still do not understand well how these two types of traits relate to body condition (e.g. size, hydration) and environmental variables (e.g. relative humidity), some of which are typical aspects of therma...
Aim: Mapping Amazonian biodiversity accurately is a major challenge for integrated
conservation strategies and to study its origins. However, species boundaries and
their respective distribution are notoriously inaccurate in this region. Here, we generated
a georeferenced database of short mtDNA sequences from Amazonian frogs,
revised the species r...
The Pantepui region of northern South America harbours an endemic fauna that differs dramatically from those of the surrounding lowland rainforests and savannas. A component of this unique fauna is Riolama, a poorly known genus of microteiid lizards with four described and two undescribed species restricted to tepui mountains. We here implement an...
Within the semiarid Caatinga of Brazil, a biome dominated by a xeric arboreal-arbustive vegetation, many lizards are restricted to forest remnants associated with highlands. Although critical for conservation, data to understand the constraints on the distribution of those potential climate relicts are almost nonexistent. Here, we studied aspects o...
Ecological diversification often encompasses exposure to new thermal regimes given by the use of specific spatial (microhabitat) and temporal (activity periods) niches. Empirical evidence provides links between temperature and physiology (e.g. rates of oxygen consumption), fostering predictions of evolutionary changes in metabolic rates coupled wit...
DOI: 10.1111/zsc.12273; ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Reconquering the water: Evolution and systematics of South and Central American aquatic lizards (Gymnophthalmidae)
Sergio Marques-Souza1 | Ivan Prates2 | Antoine Fouquet3 | Agustín Camacho1 | Philippe J. R. Kok4 | Pedro M. S. Nunes5 | Francisco Dal Vechio1 | Renato Sousa Recoder1 | Nathalia Mejia1 | Mauro T...
The Cercosaurini tribe stands out from other Gymnophthalmidae lizards for including several species with morphological adaptations to aquatic lifestyle (“Crocodile-
Like Morphology” – CLM). Recent molecular phylogenies of Cercosaurini demonstrated the paraphyly of CLM species, implicitly suggesting that adaptations
to the aquatic life evolved more...
Understanding the impacts of anthropogenic climate change requires knowing how animals avoid heat stress, and the consequences of failing to do so. Animals primarily use behavior to avoid overheating, but biologists' means for measuring and interpreting behavioral signs of stress require more development. Herein, we develop the measurement of behav...
The current proposal about the variation of standard metabolic rates (SMR) in snakes predicts that SMR is influenced by the feeding frequency (frequent or infrequent feeders). However, feeding frequency in snakes is poorly studied and hard to quantify under natural conditions. Alternatively, foraging strategy was studied for a large number of speci...
Zoologists rely on mechanistic niche models of behavioral thermoregulation to understand how animals respond to climate change. These models predict that species will need to disperse to higher altitudes to persist in a warmer world. However, thermal stress and thus thermoregulatory behavior may depend on atmospheric oxygen as well as environmental...
The lizard genus Psilophthalmus was originally described from the sandy deposits at the northern end of Serra do Espinhaço, in Santo Inácio, state of Bahia, but since then it has been recorded in other Brazilian localities of the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, and Sergipe. Here, we review the collected specimens based on molecular markers (mitochon...
Understanding methodological and biological sources of bias during the measurement of thermal parameters is essential for the advancement of thermal biology. For more than a century, studies on lizards have deepened our understanding of thermal ecophysiology, employing multiple methods to measure thermal preferences and tolerances. We reviewed 129...
Patterns of range size evolution are important for developing an evolutionary biogeographical theory and supporting conservation actions. Determining those patterns is however hampered by multiple factors acting on range size and by our uncertainty with regard to species' phylogenetic relationships and geographic distribution. In addition, given th...
The evolution of fossoriality in Squamata often leads to a phenotypic syndrome involving snake‐like body form, relatively low preferred temperature ( T P ) and low critical maximum temperatures (CT max ). However, how traits interacted among them and with the environment during the evolution of such syndrome remains poorly understood.
We studied th...
More than a century after its discovery by Ernest Garbe, and almost 80 years after its original description, we obtained a series of specimens of the earless gymnophthalmid Anotosaura collaris, the type species of the genus, up to now known only by a single specimen. On the basis of the material obtained at and close to the type locality we redescr...
More than a century after its discovery by Ernest Garbe, and almost 80 years after its original description, we obtained a
series of specimens of the earless gymnophthalmid Anotosaura collaris, the type species of the genus, up to now known
only by a single specimen. On the basis of the material obtained at and close to the type locality we redescr...
The relationship between changes in body form (limb reduction and body elongation) and geographical range size was investigated across 68 species of Lerista, a species-rich clade of Australian scincid lizards that exhibits extensive interspecific variability in both body form and range size.
Lerista occurs across the entire Australian mainland, wit...
A new species of Bachia of the bresslaui group, Bachia geralista sp. nov., is described from Planalto dos Gerais, an old and partially dissected plateau extending along the Cerrados of Bahia, Minas Gerais and Tocantins states, Brazil. The new species is morphologically similar to B. bresslaui, with which it has been confused; however head scalation...
The genus Amazonella Lundblad, 1931 was originally described for an Amazonian species of water mite (Lundblad 1931: 63). Unaware its existence, Fouquet et al. (2012) re-delimited Dendrophryniscus Jiménes de la Espada, 1870 a genus of small Neotropical toads on the basis of molecular and morphological data, and proposed Amazonella as the name for a...
The genus Amazonella Lundblad, 1931 was originally described for an Amazonian species of water mite (Lundblad 1931: 63). Unaware its existence, Fouquet et al. (2012) re-delimited Dendrophryniscus Jiménes de la Espada, 1870 a genus of small Neotropical toads on the basis of molecular and morphological data, and proposed Amazonella as the name for a...
The genus Amazonella Lundblad, 1931 was originally described for an Amazonian species of water mite (Lundblad 1931: 63). Unaware its existence, Fouquet et al. (2012) re-delimited Dendrophryniscus Jiménes de la Espada, 1870 a genus of small Neotropical toads on the basis of molecular and morphological data, and proposed Amazonella as the name for a...
The thermal limits of individual animals were originally proposed as a link between animal physiology and thermal ecology. Although this link is valid in theory, the evaluation of physiological tolerances involves some problems that are the focus of this study. One rationale was that heating rates shall influence upper critical limits, so that ecol...
Natural history aspects of the Neotropical gecko Phyllopezus pollicaris were studied at Estação Ecológica Serra Geral do Tocantins, in the Cerrado region of Central Brazil. Despite initial prospection at different types of habitats, all individuals were collected at sandstone outcrops within savannahs. Most individuals were observed at night, but s...
Dendrophryniscus is an early diverging clade of bufonids represented by few small-bodied species distributed in Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest. We used mitochondrial (414 bp of 12S, 575 bp of 16S genes) and nuclear DNA (785 bp of RAG-1) to investigate phylogenetic relationships and the timing of diversification within the genus. These molecular d...
