Hiago Ermenegildo’s scientific contributions

Executar investigações científicas com a ajuda do público é uma forma de diminuir o distanciamento entre a academia e a sociedade, mas essa pode ser uma tarefa complexa. Neste manuscrito, compartilhamos nossas experiências em quatro investigações ornitológicas realizadas pelo projeto de ciência cidadã "Eu vi uma ave usando pulseiras!?". Destacamos como os erros cometidos e desafios vivenciados ajudaram a gradativamente moldar os atuais objetivos deste projeto. O projeto iniciou em 2016 com a intenção de mensurar a área de vida de aves em um remanescente florestal contando com a ajuda do público. Cada ave era marcada com anilhas com cores e sequências exclusivas e o público era recrutado para visitar o local. Ao encontrar uma ave anilhada, o público deveria reportar o ponto exato do encontro, data, hora e as cores das anilhas. Embora na primeira tentativa o baixo número de cidadãos engajados (n=10) não foi suficiente para coletar os dados necessários à investigação sobre espécies florestais, a mesma metodologia de monitoramento foi oportu-namente testada em outras investigações que demandavam informações sobre indivíduos de aves. Movido pela curiosidade de vários cidadãos, estudamos o comportamento de seriemas e corruíras no ambiente urbano, e os impactos que comedouros podem causar nas comunidades de aves. Mesmo com uma equipe reduzida e bastante rotativa, pouco fomento e limitações tecnológicas, entre 2016 e 2023 o projeto anilhou 515 aves de 94 espécies em sete localidades e conseguiu gerar 986 registros de aves anilhadas com a atuação de 329 cida-dãos. Estes resultados e o sucesso das investigações realizadas determinaram o escopo de atuação futura do projeto. Esperamos que a trajetória do projeto expressa neste manuscrito inspire outros brasileiros a contornar possíveis desafios ao executar seus projetos de ciência cidadã.

Many studies have shown the positive and negative impacts of feeding wild birds using feeders; however, none of them considered case studies in Brazil. In 2020, social isolation measures imposed by COVID-19 boosted Brazilians’ interest in bird feeders, encouraging a group of birders to create an event (called JaneLives) to broadcast simultaneous live images of feeders across the country. Using the structure of JaneLives and relying on volunteers, we investigated which species visit Brazilian bird feeders, and discussed the effectiveness of our opportune citizen science initiative implemented during this event. Forty-eight feeders (19 urban and 29 non-urban) included in six biomes were sampled during nine JaneLives sessions (May–November 2020). The audience watched 133 species, 104 of which were visiting feeders. Non-urban feeders (n = 94) had higher richness than urban feeders (n = 68), but there were shared and unique species in both strata. Thraupidae, Turdidae, small, and medium birds (< 90 g) were the most common at the feeders. Owners of 23 feeders did data sampling at least once, while the other 25 feeders were sampled by 25 online birders (94.8% of their bird records were reliable). The narration that accompanied each JaneLives session enabled the audience to learn about Brazilian birds and increased environmental awareness. Audience numbers declined over the events, but the number of online birders was not affected. Ecolodges and parks that broadcasted their feeders received new clients afterwards. The events generated social interaction and pragmatic discussions about the usage of feeders, indicating that our citizen science initiative has potential for future research

A Floresta Nacional de Ipanema (FNI), além de sua importância ambiental e histórica, é um relevante atrativo turístico regional. A demanda social por mais e melhores atividades recreacionais em contato com a natureza na UC aumentou nas últimas décadas e culminou em um projeto de abertura de vias de escalada de forma sustentável na FNI. A execução do projeto é fruto de um trabalho conjunto do Instituto Manacá com o ICMBio, e teve apoio financeiro da SOS Mata Atlântica. Para execução do projeto, foram mapeadas área com potencial para escalada no Morro Araçoiaba e áreas de ocorrência ou nidificação do urubu-rei (Sarcoramphus papa), buscando identificar locais apropriados para implementação de vias de escalada que não impactassem no comportamento da espécie. Após essa etapa, foram realizadas diferentes atividades para estruturar a atividade na FNI como capacitação dos condutores, implantação de vias de escalada e abertura e sinalização de trilhas, elaboração do plano de uso público para prática de escalada, elaboração de um guia digital para os escaladores, entre outros produtos e serviços. Dos 17 setores de escalada mapeados, foram implantados 5, com diferentes vias de escalada em cada setor. Após a abertura dos setores de escalada, notou-se a presença contínua de escaladores na FNI e a maior parte desse público avaliou o atrativo como excelente ou bom. O desafio é continuar monitorando os impactos da atividade e envolvendo a comunidade de escaladores na gestão da FNI e na solução de possíveis problemas ocasionados pela atividade.

Conservation decision is a challenging and risky task when it aims at prioritizing species or protected areas (PAs) to prevent extinction while ensuring fair treatment of all stakeholders. Better conservation decisions are those made upon a broader evidence base that includes both ecological and social considerations. However, in some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth — tropical forests, for instance — multicriteria decision-making has been constrained by the following (i) ecological and social datasets available have been obtained in an independent, non-integrated manner, with social data typically more scarce than ecological ones, and (ii) capacity in social and/or interdisciplinary data analysis among decision-maker is limited. We describe a conservation prioritization exercise that combined findings from independent ecological and social research conducted in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and propose methods to integrate, analyze and visualize data. We found that the outcomes based on combined ecological and social research findings were, in some cases, different from those based on any of these lines of evidence alone. Indeed, the input from relatively basic social research significantly changed the outcomes of decision-making based on the results of ecological research. Results corroborate the importance and cost-effectiveness of broadening the interdisciplinary evidence base for conservation decision-making, even when social data is scarce and analytical capacity is limited.

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal‐central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation‐related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data.

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.