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Protected Areas (PAs) play a crucial role in the conservation and appreciation of the biological, ecological and socio-cultural elements of the landscape. These areas, in line with their creation objectives, provide various environmental services such as watershed protection, landscape and biodiversity preservation, and regulation of ecosystem processes. Additionally, they offer opportunities for research, education, and environmental training. Researchers from the Facultad de Agronomía, UNLPam are currently conducting two projects related to the theme of fire in Parque Nacional Lihué Calel, focusing on the impact of recurrent wildfires and the assessment of prescribed burns. Undertaking such investigations within a national park creates an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional working space, addressing various topics with the aim of transforming gathered information into practical management tools. Collaboration with PA technicians is essential to achieve the proposed objectives and serves as the link between information generation and effective implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative Biome States theory (ABS) helps to explain the presence of open biomes (grasslands, shrublands) in environments sufficiently warm and humid for the development of forest biomes. In these environments it is possible to find areas dominated by open biomes that, according to this theory, respond mainly to fire and herbivory. The aims of this work are to identify whether there are different types of forest biome-open biome ecotones based on woody composition, describe them and explore their relationship with livestock management and environmental variables, using a protected area in Uruguay as a case study. We sampled woody vegetation and other environmental variables in transects (delimited in 200m) in 10 sites across four livestock management systems. We identified two types of forest biome-open biome ecotones, one dominated by shrubland and the other dominated by grassland. Our results agree with the ABS theory and suggest the mechanisms determining the woody composition and the structure of the ecotone vegetation are cattle and use of fire and/or rotary cutter. The changes in vegetation structure and woody richness were partly abrupt, which is consistent with what is proposed by the ABS theory. However, the composition also interacted with site factors such as rockiness and distance to the watercourse, suggesting that site-level environmental variables are acting synergistically with vegetation removal to determine vegetation composition. We found that these ecotones are sensitive to management and environmental variables; so, it is necessary to incorporate this landscape and site heterogeneity to articulate productive activity with nature conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ensembles of beetles and the seasonal distribution of diversity attracted to carrion in an artificial forest result of the urbanization of the Protected Natural Area Sierra de Guadalupe in central Mexico was studied. Monthly samples were collected from June 2017 to May 2018 using four carrion traps type NTP-80. A total of 3,434 individuals belonging to 17 families and 58 species were collected, of which 13 were identified to the species level and 45 to morphospecies. The species estimators suggest that was registered between 77.3% (Chao 1) and 80.5% (ACE) of the species. The families Staphylinidae, Silphidae, Carabidae, Leiodidae, Histeridae and Nitidulidae grouped 95.8% of the total abundance and 67.2% of the species. The family Staphylinidae was the higher richness with 21 species, the remaining had less than five species, of which the family Silphidae was the most important with four species, and represented the necrophagous guilt which was the second most abundant making up 21% of all beetles collected after the predators (62%). The diversity was higher in rainy than in drought season, the faunistic similarity between seasons was low (J=0.37), with 32 species exclusive of rainy and four of drought season. In the area inhabit wide-ranging species adapted to perturbation conditions, an endemic species, and converge montane elements with species of semiarid environments, therefore, is important to maintain the connection of the artificial forest with the forest area in upper parts of the Sierra de Guadalupe, and conserve the fragments of xeric shrubland that are scarce in the basin of Mexican Valley, so as to mitigate the impact of the urbanization in the diversity of beetles associated to carrion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf functional traits in a plant community are the result of the effect of environmental conditions and have a direct impact on ecosystem properties and functioning. We analyzed the variations of five leaf functional traits in plant communities from central Argentina under different climatic conditions and anthropogenic use determining changes in physiognomy. Study sites were located in Córdoba province (Argentina) within four phytogeographic units categorized according to their climatic condition based on an aridity index; they were named as 'climatic units' 1, 2, 3 and 4, following a gradient from lower to higher temperature and aridity. In each climatic unit we selected six sites located in two physiognomies corresponding to different degrees of anthropogenic use: 3 sites in woodlands (less use), and 3 sites in grasslands/shrublands (more intense use). We measured five leaf traits (specific leaf area [SLA], leaf dry matter content [LDMC], leaf toughness, leaf thickness and decomposability), and we calculated the community weighted mean for each trait for each site. The variations in functional leaf traits were mainly determine by climatic conditions. The physiognomic change, because of anthropogenic use, also affected these variations, but this effect was conditioned by climate. Under colder and wetter climatic conditions, the removal of tree species result in communities dominate mainly by grasses with conservative foliar trait values (e.g., lower SLA, higher leaf toughness and lower decomposability). However, in warmer and drier climatic conditions, the removal of tree species did not imply a change in the functional strategy of the community as it resulted in an increase dominance of grasses and dicotyledonous shrub species with relatively lower foliar toughness and high decomposability. Our results show the interactive effect of climate and anthropogenic use on the variations in leaf functional traits and the complexity to predict the effects of such variations on ecosystem processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of botanical explorations carried out in the seasonally dry forests and shrub-lands of the eastern end of the Araya Peninsula, state of Sucre, Venezuela, the presence of Psidium schenckianum Kiaersk. is reported for the first time for Venezuela and Psidium appendiculatum Kiaersk. for the first time for Sucre. Due to the current degradation of these wild ecosystems in the peninsula and the state in general, there is an urgent need to conduct rigorous surveys that provide more information on the geographical distribution of these and other species yet to be discovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of native forests in Northern Patagonia has great potential to provide multiple products with high market value, whose regional demand is growing continuously. Considering that economic profitability is key to guide sustainable forest management decisions, in this paper the effect of the discounting rate, which is a measure of the opportunity cost of funds and resources used in a project, was evaluated over the profitability of forest management options. Five management alternatives of native mixed shrublands through variable discount rates were analyzed. The costs and revenues were obtained from a woodshed experiment extraction in El Foyel, Río Negro (41°38'48.44" S; 71°29'59.06" O), consultation and local publications. It was found that with lower discount rates to 2.9 % the most attractive management alternative was the management that combined woodshed extractions and afforestation of Austrocedrus chilensis while at a higher discount rate, the most attractive alternative was the woodshed shrub management with intensive extraction. There was no rate that positioned the alternative replacement of the shrubland for afforestation of Pinus ponderosa as the best alternative. This work suggests that there are management alternatives of native forest that would be more profitable than that for single species forest plantations of P. ponderosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sesleria argentea inhabits in biotopes with glacial/periglacial morphology in South Iberian high mountains. Carici flaccae-Seslerietum argenteae ass. nova is a meadow in oozing soils. A micro-"borreguil" in peaty substrates with Carex lepidocarpa and Festuca iberica and meadows in streams with Carex distans were described. This vegetation contact with thorny shrublands of Berberis hispanica and juniper lands of Juniperus communis subsp. hemisphaerica; in intrazonal soils, contact scree vegetation with Achnatherum calamagrostis and Ligusticum lucidum. C. lepidocarpa and A. calamagrostis are new records to the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. S. argentea meadows, the micro-"borreguil" and scree vegetation are Southern European limit for their respective association, class and alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effects of desert scrub habitat fragmentation on resident and migrant populations of Red-tailed Hawk and American Kestrel, we conducted monthly raptor road surveys during two years, 2008 and 2009, in natural desert scrub areas and in fragmented areas of Baja California Sur, México. We recorded 1,806 records of the two raptor species. The most common was the American Kestrel with 1,164 (64.4%) records (51% found in fragmented area, and 49% in natural area). The Redtailed Hawk accounted for 642 records (35.6%) (70% in fragmented areas, and 30% in natural areas). The relative abundance and density of Red-tailed Hawk in the spring and summer were similar between areas, but in the fall and winter the abundances and densities were much higher in fragmented areas. The abundance of American Kestrel was similar between areas in all seasons. Density was similar between areas in spring, summer and winter but it was higher in fragmented areas in the fall. The desert scrub of Baja California Sur and fragmented areas inside a cultivated agricultural matrix is an important habitat for migrant populations of both raptor species as indicated by the results of the fall and winter seasons. We discuss on the raptor species tolerance to habitat changes (threshold concept) as a function of their body size and habitat specialization (for nesting and foraging activities) and on the effects of fragmentation of desert scrub habitats on the abundance and density of the Red-tailed Hawk and American Kestrel in southern Baja California peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of historic vegetation growth curves for both grasslands and shrublands in Mexico becomes a real challenge due to lack of statistics. Remote sensing technology using satellites, allows obtaining a first approximation through vegetation indices (VI). The present study discusses an indirect parametric modeling of the biomass growth curve in individual pixels of both Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), thus allowing their characterization using pre and post process algorithms. Results obtained through application of the algorithms discussed in the present paper, allow obtaining annual growth curves at 100 ha (AHVRR) and 6.25 ha (MODIS) scales that can be used in studies on climate change and on grassland/shrubland management in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the diversity of legumes in the northern part of the state of Nuevo León was undertaken. 38 genera, 94 species and 26 infraspecific taxa of legumes were recorded. The family Fabaceae comprises 18 genera and 42 species, Mimosaceae 10 and 30 and Caesalpiniaceae 10 and 22 respectivelly. The genera with highest number of species are Acacia (12), Dalea (10), Mimosa (6), Senna (5), Caesalpinia (4) and Bauhinia (4). Shrubby legumes are the most abundant in the zone, representing 47% (46 species); the herbaceous ones constitute 46% (45) and the arboreal ones comprise 7% (7). The highest number of taxa was recorded on semithorn shrubland (52) piedmont scrub (48), oak-pine forest (44), while the mezquite shrublands shelter the lowest number of species (23). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review is made of the endemic plants following the Megacoahuila concept, that increases the state area for more than 100%. The region has climatic and physiographic variation that leads to the development of at least 13 main vegetation types, the desert shrubland being the dominant one. A total of 350 species and infraspecific taxa are listed, representing 11.2% of the total flora. The desert shrubland (matorrales micrófilo y rosetófilo) is the vegetation with the highest endemism and the Cuatro Cienegas basin the richest locality. The areas with highest endemism are suggested to be considered biotic reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ipomoea rzedowskii is described as a new species to science, from the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Querétaro. This white flowered shrub grows in xerophilous shrublands on steep slopes east of Xichú and in the canyons of Estórax, Moctezuma and Tolimán rivers. This new taxon belongs to the series Arborescentes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]