Showing papers by "Víctor Sánchez-Cordero published in 2014"
TL;DR: The aim was to analyze how climate change might affect the future shift of Chagas disease in North America using a maximum entropy algorithm to predict changes in suitable habitat based on vector occurrence points and predictive environmental variables.
Abstract: Background
Chagas disease kills approximately 45 thousand people annually and affects 10 million people in Latin America and the southern United States. The parasite that causes the disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, can be transmitted by insects of the family Reduviidae, subfamily Triatominae. Any study that attempts to evaluate risk for Chagas disease must focus on the ecology and biogeography of these vectors. Expected distributional shifts of vector species due to climate change are likely to alter spatial patterns of risk of Chagas disease, presumably through northward expansion of high risk areas in North America.
76 citations
TL;DR: Whether niche conservatism is a common pattern among vector species of Trypanosoma cruzi that inhabit North and Central America, a highly heterogeneous landmass in terms of environmental gradients, is analyzed and the hypothesis of niche conservatism could not be rejected for any of six sister species pairs.
Abstract: The niche conservatism hypothesis states that related species diverge in niche characteristics at lower rates than expected, given their lineage divergence. Here we analyze whether niche conservatism is a common pattern among vector species (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) of Trypanosoma cruzi that inhabit North and Central America, a highly heterogeneous landmass in terms of environmental gradients. Mitochondrial and nuclear loci were used in a multi-locus phylogenetic framework to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships among species and estimate time of divergence of selected clades to draw biogeographic inferences. Then, we estimated similarity between the ecological niche of sister species and tested the niche conservatism hypothesis using our best estimate of phylogeny. Triatoma is not monophyletic. A primary clade with all North and Central American (NCA) triatomine species from the genera Triatoma, Dipetalogaster, and Panstrongylus, was consistently recovered. Nearctic species within the NCA clade (T. p. protracta, T. r. rubida) diverged during the Pliocene, whereas the Neotropical species (T. phyllosoma, T. longipennis, T. dimidiata complex) are estimated to have diverged more recently, during the Pleistocene. The hypothesis of niche conservatism could not be rejected for any of six sister species pairs. Niche similarity between sister species best fits a retention model. While this framework is used here to infer niche evolution, it has a direct impact on spatial vector dynamics driven by human population movements, expansion of transportation networks and climate change scenarios.
55 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that despite mammals are a well-studied group compared with other vertebrates, they continue to offer interesting theoretical insights and challenges for their conservation and sustainable use.
Abstract: Mammals constitute one of the most conspicuous groups of terrestrial vertebrates showing internal and external characteristics that have allowed them to be successful in virtually all ecosystems worldwide. The objective of this revision is to update the current knowledge of mammals occurring in Mexico. In Mexico mammals constitute a highly diverse group, ranking third worldwide with 564 species, representing close to 10% of the total mammal fauna. The description of mammals in Mexico has been uneven through time; a significant increase occurred from 1700 to 1950. Mammals are distributed nationwide; a total of 77% of species are less than 5 kg, belonging to the Orders Rodentia, Chiroptera and Soricomorpha. Population trends are poorly documented in most species, but it is likely that populations have been negatively affected by human activities. We conclude that despite mammals are a well-studied group compared with other vertebrates, they continue to offer interesting theoretical insights and challenges for their conservation and sustainable use.
32 citations
TL;DR: Results indicate that A. jamaicensis bats are incapable of sustaining dengue virus replication and are unlikely to act as reservoirs for this virus.
Abstract: Dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease to humans. Bats are potential reservoirs for flaviviruses, including dengue virus (DENV). In this work, Artibeus jamaicensis bats were inoculated with two serotypes of DENV using different routes. For experimental inoculations (EI) 1 and 2, bats were inoculated subcutaneously or intraperitoneally with DENV-4; for EI-3 bats were inoculated intraperitoneally with DENV-1. Mock inoculated bats were kept as controls. In EI-4, bats were bitten by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with DENV-1 or 4. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays in plasma and spleen tissue collected from Day 1 to Days 9-17 after inoculation failed to reveal the presence of viral RNA in any of the samples. No evidence of circulating NS1 or specific anti-DENV IgG was detected in the plasma of the inoculated bats. These results indicate that A. jamaicensis bats are incapable of sustaining dengue virus replication and are unlikely to act as reservoirs for this virus.
31 citations
Sofia University1, University of Los Andes2, Silesian University3, University of Cape Town4, University of Kansas5, University of Pretoria6, University of Ljubljana7, Central University of Venezuela8, University of Indonesia9, University of Warsaw10, Universidade Federal de Goiás11, Grand Valley State University12, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta13, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research14
TL;DR: In this article, a group of colleagues, a network of researchers active in scholarly publishing, spans four continents and multiple disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, as well as diverse political and economic situations.
Abstract: A level playing field is key for global participation in science and scholarship, particularly with regard to how scientific publications are financed and subsequently accessed. However, there are potential pitfalls of the so-called “Gold” open-access (OA) route, in which author-paid publication charges cover the costs of production and publication. Gold OA plans in which author charges are required may not solve the access problem, but rather may shift the access barrier from reader to writer. Under such plans, everyone may be free to read papers, but it may still be prohibitively expensive to publish them. In a scholarly community that is increasingly global, spread over more and more regions and countries of the world, these publication access barriers may be quite significant. In the present paper, a global suite of colleagues in academe joins this debate. The group of colleagues, a network of researchers active in scholarly publishing, spans four continents and multiple disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, as well as diverse political and economic situations. We believe that this global sampling of researchers can provide the nuance and perspective necessary to grasp this complex problem. The group was assembled without an attempt to achieve global coverage through random sampling. This contribution differs from other approaches to the open-access problem in several fundamental ways. (A) It is scholar-driven, and thus can represent the ‘other side of the coin’ of scholarly communication. (B) It focuses on narrative report, where scholars were free to orient their responses as they saw fit, rather than being confined to binary or scalar choices. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, (C) it distinguishes among institutions and countries and situations, highlighting inequalities of access among wealthy and economically-challenged nations, and also within countries depending on the size and location of particular institutions.
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assessed the landscape (forest cover, degree of fragmentation, and matrix composition) and patch metrics (tree basal area, patch size, and isolation) that best predicted the abundance and diversity of small terrestrial rodents in the Lacandona rainforest, Mexico.
Abstract: Identifying the main factors that shape biological communities in human-modified tropical landscapes has key ecological and conservation implications. In these emerging landscapes, the maintenance of biodiversity may depend on both forest patch and landscape attributes, but this topic has been poorly investigated. Here we assessed the landscape (forest cover, degree of fragmentation, and matrix composition) and patch metrics (tree basal area, patch size, and isolation) that best predicted the abundance and diversity of small terrestrial rodents in the Lacandona rainforest, Mexico. In 2011 and 2012, we sampled rodent communities in 12 sites (9 patches and 3 areas within a continuous forest). We assessed the landscape characteristics within a 100-ha buffer from the center of each site. In total, we captured 78 individuals in 2011 and 82 individuals in 2012 from four species: Desmarest's Spiny Pocket Mouse (Heteromys desmarestianus), Rice Rat (Oryzomys sp.), Mexican Deermouse (Peromyscus mexicanus), and Tolt...
18 citations
TL;DR: A new species of small-eared shrew (Soricidae, Cryptotis) from the Lacandona rain forest, Chiapas, southern Mexico is described in this article.
Abstract: The diversity and distribution of mammals in the American tropics remain incompletely known. We describe a new species of small-eared shrew (Soricidae, Cryptotis) from the Lacandona rain forest, Chiapas, southern Mexico. The new species is distinguished from other species of Cryptotis on the basis of a unique combination of pelage coloration, size, dental, cranial, postcranial, and external characters, and genetic distances. It appears most closely related to species in the Cryptotis nigrescens species group, which occurs from southern Mexico to montane regions of Colombia. This discovery is particularly remarkable because the new species is from a lowelevation habitat (approximately 90 m), whereas most shrews in the region are restricted to higher elevations, typically . 1,000 m. The only known locality for the new shrew is in one of the last areas in southern Mexico where relatively undisturbed tropical vegetation is still found. The type locality is protected by the Mexican
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the self-similarity hypothesis of beta-diversity across spatial scales using geographic distribution ranges of 2 513 species and compared the beta diversity patterns of four groups of terrestrial vertebrates, across 7 spatial scales (from ~10 km2 to 160 000 km2), within 5 different (historically and environmentally) regions in Mexico:Northwest, Northeast, Centre, Southeast and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Abstract: Patterns of diversity are scale dependent and beta-diversity is not the exception. Mexico is megadiverse dueto its high beta diversity, but little is known if it is scale-dependent and/or taxonomic-dependent. We explored thesequestions based on the self-similarity hypothesis of beta-diversity across spatial scales. Using geographic distributionranges of 2 513 species, we compared the beta-diversity patterns of 4 groups of terrestrial vertebrates, across 7 spatialscales (from ~10 km2 to 160 000 km2), within 5 different (historically and environmentally) regions in Mexico:Northwest, Northeast, Centre, Southeast and the Yucatan Peninsula.
16 citations
TL;DR: The tapir centroamericano (Tapirus bairdii) es el especie de mamifero de afinidad neotropical mas grande de la actualidad as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Resumen. El tapir centroamericano (Tapirus bairdii), es la especie de mamifero de afinidad neotropical mas grande de la actualidad. Tiene un papel ecologico sumamente importante en los bosques tropicales debido a los procesos de herviboria, depredacion y dispersion de semillas. Sin embargo, debido a la perdida de habitat y la presion por caceria, se considera que la especie se encuentra en peligro de extincion. Utilizando fototrampas y contando con la participacion informada de los pobladores, se documento la presencia de varios individuos de esta especie en Totontepec Villa de Morelos, sierra Mixe, Oaxaca. Las evidencias sugieren la existencia de una poblacion reproductiva y confirma estudios anteriores que han sugerido su presencia en la zona. Palabras clave: sierra Madre de Oaxaca, conservacion, fototrampas, monitoreo participativo.
10 citations
TL;DR: The humerus, a useful structure to delimit species and reconstruct phylogenetic relationships within the genus Cryptotis, is described and corroborates its taxonomic relatedness with the cryptotis goldmani species group and yields a more comprehensive knowledge of the ecology and evolution within this group.
Abstract: The broad-clawed shrew Cryptotis griseoven- tris Jackson, 1933, is poorly known ecologically and behaviorally because distributional records are rela- tively scarce. Here, we provide new records based on 11 specimens deposited in mammal collections, more than 50 years since the last confirmed record. Historical records and specimens are reexamined and discussed. We suggest that C. griseoventris occurs in a small area ( < 5000 km 2 ) above 2100 m dominated by pine oak and cloud forests in Los Altos de Chiapas, M e xico, and is likely endangered due to habitat deforestation. We also describe the humerus, a useful structure to delimit spe- cies and reconstruct phylogenetic relationships within the genus Cryptotis . The morphology of their humerus corroborates its taxonomic relatedness with the Cryp- totis goldmani species group and yields a more compre- hensive knowledge of the ecology and evolution within this group.
4 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: A global suite of colleagues in academe, a network of researchers active in scholarly publishing, spans four continents and multiple disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, as well as diverse political and economic situations, which distinguishes among institutions and countries and situations.
Abstract: A level playing field is key for global participation in science and scholarship, particularly with regard to how scientific publications are financed and subsequently accessed. However, there are potential pitfalls of the so-called “Gold” open-access (OA) route, in which author-paid publication charges cover the costs of production and publication. Gold OA plans in which author charges are required may not solve the access problem, but rather may shift the access barrier from reader to writer. Under such plans, everyone may be free to read papers, but it may still be prohibitively expensive to publish them. In a scholarly community that is increasingly global, spread over more and more regions and countries of the world, these publication access barriers may be quite significant. In the present paper, a global suite of colleagues in academe joins this debate. The group of colleagues, a network of researchers active in scholarly publishing, spans four continents and multiple disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, as well as diverse political and economic situations. We believe that this global sampling of researchers can provide the nuance and perspective necessary to grasp this complex problem. The group was assembled without an attempt to achieve global coverage through random sampling. This contribution differs from other approaches to the open-access problem in several fundamental ways. (A) It is scholar-driven, and thus can represent the ‘other side of the coin’ of scholarly communication. (B) It focuses on narrative report, where scholars were free to orient their responses as they saw fit, rather than being confined to binary or scalar choices. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, (C) it distinguishes among institutions and countries and situations, highlighting inequalities of access among wealthy and economically-challenged nations, and also within countries depending on the size and location of particular institutions.