The role of environmental gradients and microclimates in structuring communities and functional groups of lizards in a rainforest-savanna transition area.

Environmental heterogeneity poses a significant influence on the functional characteristics of species and communities at local scales. Environmental transition zones, such as at the savanna-forest borders, can act as regions of ecological tension when subjected to sharp variations in the microclimate. For ectothermic organisms, such as lizards, environmental temperatures directly influence physiological capabilities, and some species use different thermoregulation strategies that produce varied responses to local climatic conditions, which in turn affect species occurrence and community dynamics. In the context of global warming, these various strategies confer different types of vulnerability as well as risks of extinction. To assess the vulnerability of a species and understand the relationships between environmental variations, thermal tolerance of a species and community structure, lizard communities in forest-savanna transition areas of two national parks in the southwestern Amazon were sampled and their thermal functional traits were characterized. Then, we investigated how community structure and functional thermal variation were shaped by two environmental predictors (i.e., microclimates estimated locally and vegetation structure estimated from remote sensing). It was found that the community structure was more strongly predicted by the canopy surface reflectance values obtained via remote sensing than by microclimate variables. Environmental temperatures were not the most important factor affecting the occurrence of species, and the variations in ecothermal traits demonstrated a pattern within the taxonomic hierarchy at the family level. This pattern may indicate a tendency for evolutionary history to indirectly influence these functional features. Considering the estimates of the thermal tolerance range and warming tolerance, thermoconformer lizards are likely to be more vulnerable and at greater risk of extinction due to global warming than thermoregulators. The latter, more associated with open environments, seem to take advantage of their lower vulnerability and occur in both habitat types across the transition, potentially out-competing and further increasing the risk of extinction and vulnerability of forest-adapted thermoconformer lizards in these transitional areas.

The distribution of bushmeat mammals in unflooded forests of the Central Amazon is influenced by poaching proxies.

Medium to large rainforest mammals are key conservation flagship groups that offer non-redundant ecosystem functions, but anthropic pressures, such as illegal hunting, may strongly affect their occupancy in Amazonia. We combined camera traps and occupancy models to assess the influence of distance from human settlements, the number of families per settlement and the synergetic effect of the average weight of 27 species on the occupancy probability of mammals. Specifically, we classified mammal species according to the game preferences of hunters (i.e. a group of species depleted for bushmeat, a group of species hunted for retaliation and a group of non-hunted species). We also accounted for the influence on the detection probability of each group of both the number of days each camera operated and the body weight of mammals. The occupancy probability of the bushmeat group (i.e. deer, peccaries, agoutis, pacas and armadillos) was lower at locations closer to human settlements. Still, the number of families correlated positively with occupancy, with the occupancy probability of the group being slightly higher at sites with more families. This difference was probably due to larger and more abundant crops and fruiting trees attracting wildlife at such sites. Conversely, the occupancy probability of the retaliation group (i.e. carnivores) and the non-hunted group (i.e. opossums, spiny rats, squirrels and anteaters) were indifferent to anthropogenic stressors. The detection probability of the non-hunted and particularly the most depleted species correlated negatively with body weight. This may suggest that larger species, especially those from the bushmeat group, are rarer or less abundant in the system, possibly because they are the preferable target of hunters. In the long term, locals will likely need to travel long distances to find harvest meat. Poaching also threatens food security since game bushmeat is an essential source of protein for isolated rural Amazonians.

Long-term Ecological Research: Chasing fashions or being prepared for fashion changes?

Long-term-ecological-research (LTER) faces many challenges, including the difficulty of obtaining long-term funding, changes in research questions and sampling designs, keeping researchers collecting standardized data for many years, impediments to interactions with local people, and the difficulty of integrating the needs of local decision makers with "big science". These issues result in a lack of universally accepted guidelines as to how research should be done and integrated among LTER sites. Here we discuss how the RAPELD (standardized field infrastructure system), can help deal with these issues as a complementary technique in LTER studies, allowing comparisons across landscapes and ecosystems and reducing sampling costs. RAPELD uses local surveys to understand broad spatial and temporal patterns while enhancing decision-making and training of researchers, local indigenous groups and traditional communities. Sampling of ecological data can be carried out by different researchers through standardized protocols, resulting in spatial data that can be used to answer temporal questions, and allow new questions to be investigated. Results can also be integrated into existing biodiversity networks. Integrated systems are the most efficient way to save resources, maximize results, and accumulate information that can be used in the face of the unknown unknowns upon which our future depends.

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research.

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%-18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost.

From species descriptions to diversity patterns: the validation of taxonomic data as a keystone for ant diversity studies reproducibility and accuracy.

Research findings in natural sciences need to be comparable and reproducible to effectively improve our understanding of ecological and behavioural patterns. In this sense, knowledge frontiers in biodiversity studies are directly tied to taxonomic research, especially in species-rich tropical regions. Here we analysed the taxonomic information available in 470 studies on Brazilian ant diversity published in the last 50 years. We aimed to quantify the proportion of studies that provide enough data to validate taxonomic identification, explore the frequency of studies that properly acknowledge their taxonomic background, and investigate the primary resources for ant identification in Brazil. We found that most studies on Brazilian ant diversity (73.6%) explicitly stated the methods used to identify their specimens. However, the proportion of papers that provide complete data for the repository institutions and vouchered specimens is vanishingly small (5.8%). Additionally, only 40.0% of the studies consistently presented taxon authorities and years of description, rarely referencing taxonomic publications correctly. In turn, the number of specialists and institutions consulted for ant identification in Brazil has increased in the last years, along with the number of studies that explicitly provide their taxonomic procedures for ant identification. Our findings highlight a shift between generations regarding the recognition of taxonomy as fundamental science, deepening our understanding of biodiversity.

Seasonal flooding decreases fruit-feeding butterfly species dominance and increases spatial turnover in floodplain forests of central Amazonia.

The seasonal flood pulse in Amazonia can be considered a primary driver of community structure in floodplain environments. Although this natural periodic disturbance is part of the landscape dynamics, the seasonal inundation presents a considerable challenge to organisms that inhabit floodplain forests. The present study investigated the effect of seasonal flooding on fruit-feeding butterfly assemblages in different forest types and strata in central Amazonia. We sampled fruit-feeding butterflies in the canopy and the understory using baited traps in adjacent upland (unflooded forests-terra firme), white and blackwater floodplain forests (várzea and igapó, respectively) during the low- and high-water seasons. Butterfly abundance decreased in the high-water season, especially of dominant species in várzea, but the number of species was similar between seasons in the three forest types. Species composition differed between strata in all forest types. However, the flood pulse only affected butterfly assemblages in várzea forest. The ß-diversity components also differed only in várzea. Species replacement (turnover) dominated the spatial ß-diversity in igapó and terra firme in both seasons and várzea in the high-water season. Nonetheless, nestedness was relatively higher in várzea forests during the low-water season, mainly due to the effect of dominant species. These results emphasize the importance of seasonal flooding to structure butterfly assemblages in floodplain forests and reveal the idiosyncrasy of butterfly community responses to flooding in different forest types. Our results also suggest that any major and rapid changes to the hydrological regime could severely affect floodplain communities adapted to this natural seasonal hydrological cycle, threatening the existence of these unique environments.

Effects of Amazonian flying rivers on frog biodiversity and populations in the Atlantic rainforest.

Given the speed at which humans are changing the climate, species with high degrees of endemism may not have time to avoid extinction through adaptation. We investigated through teleconnection analysis the origin of rainfall that determines the phylogenetic diversity of rainforest frogs and the effects of microclimate differences in shaping the morphological traits of isolated populations (which contribute to greater phylogenetic diversity and speciation). We also investigated through teleconnection analysis how deforestation in Amazonia can affect ecosystem services that are fundamental to maintaining the climate of the Atlantic rainforest biodiversity hotspot. Seasonal winds known as flying rivers carry water vapor from Amazonia to the Atlantic Forest, and the breaking of this ecosystem service could lead Atlantic Forest species to population decline and extinction in the short term. Our results suggest that the selection of morphological traits that shape Atlantic Forest frog diversity and their population dynamics are influenced by the Amazonian flying rivers. Our results also suggest that the increases of temperature anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean due to global warming and in the Amazon forest due to deforestation are already breaking this cycle and threaten the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest hotspot.

Efectos de los ríos voladores de la Amazonía sobre la diversidad y las poblaciones de ranas en la Mata Atlántica Resumen Con la velocidad a la que la humanidad está alterando el clima, puede que las especies con un nivel elevado de endemismo no cuenten con tiempo suficiente para adaptarse y evitar la extinción. Usamos un análisis de teleconexión para investigar el origen de las precipitaciones que determinan la diversidad filogenética de las ranas selváticas y los efectos de las diferencias microclimáticas sobre la determinación de las características morfológicas de las poblaciones aisladas, las cuales contribuyen a una mayor especiación y diversidad filogenética. También utilizamos este análisis para investigar cómo la deforestación en la Amazonía puede afectar los servicios ambientales que son fundamentales para mantener el punto caliente de biodiversidad que es la Mata Atlántica. Los ríos voladores son vientos estacionales que transportan vapor de agua desde la Amazonía hasta la Mata Atlántica; la interrupción de este servicio ambiental podría derivar en la declinación poblacional y la extinción a corto plazo de las especies en este ecosistema. Nuestros resultados sugieren que los ríos voladores de la Amazonía influyen sobre la selección de las características morfológicas que determinan la diversidad de ranas y sus dinámicas poblacionales en la Mata Atlántica. Nuestros resultados también sugieren que el incremento de anomalías térmicas en el Océano Atlántico, causadas por el calentamiento global, y en la Amazonía, causadas por la deforestación, ya están interrumpiendo este ciclo y son una amenaza para la biodiversidad del punto caliente que es la Mata Atlántica.

Direct and indirect effects of geographic and environmental factors on ant beta diversity across Amazon basin.

Understanding the direct and indirect effects of niche and neutral processes in structuring species diversity is particularly challenging because environmental factors are often geographically structured. Here, we used Structural Equation Modeling to quantify direct and indirect effects of geographic distance, the Amazon River's opposite margins, and environmental differences in temperature, precipitation, and vegetation density (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index-NDVI) on ant beta diversity (Jaccard's dissimilarity) across Amazon basin. We used a comprehensive survey of ground-dwelling ant species from 126 plots distributed across eight sampling sites along a broad environmental gradient. We found that geographic distance and NDVI differences were the major direct predictors of ant composition dissimilarity. The major indirect effect was that of temperature through NDVI, whereas precipitation neither had direct or indirect detectable effects on beta diversity. Thus, ant compositional dissimilarity seems to be mainly driven by a combination of isolation by distance (through dispersal limitation) and selection imposed by vegetation density, and indirectly, by temperature. Our results suggest that neutral and niche processes have been similarly crucial in driving the current beta diversity patterns of Amazonian ground-dwelling ants.

Eighty-four per cent of all Amazonian arboreal plant individuals are useful to humans.

Plants have been used in Amazonian forests for millennia and some of these plants are disproportionally abundant (hyperdominant). At local scales, people generally use the most abundant plants, which may be abundant as the result of management of indigenous peoples and local communities. However, it is unknown whether plant use is also associated with abundance at larger scales. We used the population sizes of 4,454 arboreal species (trees and palms) estimated from 1946 forest plots and compiled information about uses from 29 Amazonian ethnobotany books and articles published between 1926 and 2013 to investigate the relationship between species usefulness and their population sizes, and how this relationship is influenced by the degree of domestication of arboreal species across Amazonia. We found that half of the arboreal species (2,253) are useful to humans, which represents 84% of the estimated individuals in Amazonian forests. Useful species have mean populations sizes six times larger than non-useful species, and their abundance is related with the probability of usefulness. Incipiently domesticated species are the most abundant. Population size was weakly related to specific uses, but strongly related with the multiplicity of uses. This study highlights the enormous usefulness of Amazonian arboreal species for local peoples. Our findings support the hypothesis that the most abundant plant species have a greater chance to be useful at both local and larger scales, and suggest that although people use the most abundant plants, indigenous people and local communities have contributed to plant abundance through long-term management.

The Program for Biodiversity Research in Brazil: The role of regional networks for biodiversity knowledge, dissemination, and conservation.

The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all biodiversity research stakeholders. Operating since 2004, it has installed long-term ecological research sites throughout Brazil and its logic has been applied in some other southern-hemisphere countries. The program supports all aspects of research necessary to understand biodiversity and the processes that affect it. There are presently 161 sampling sites (see some of them at Supplementary Appendix), most of which use a standardized methodology that allows comparisons across biomes and through time. To date, there are about 1200 publications associated with PPBio that cover topics ranging from natural history to genetics and species distributions. Most of the field data and metadata are available through PPBio web sites or DataONE. Metadata is available for researchers that intend to explore the different faces of Brazilian biodiversity spatio-temporal variation, as well as for managers intending to improve conservation strategies. The Program also fostered, directly and indirectly, local technical capacity building, and supported the training of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. The main challenge is maintaining the long-term funding necessary to understand biodiversity patterns and processes under pressure from global environmental changes.

For emergency only: terrestrial feeding in Coimbra-Filho's titis reflects seasonal arboreal resource availability.

Terrestriality in Platyrrhine primates is primarily associated with low arboreal resource availability, low predation risk when on the ground and increased contact time with human observers. To test the relationship between these variables and ground use frequency, we studied a group of endangered Coimbra-Filho's titi monkeys (Callicebus coimbrai) in a 14-ha forest fragment in north-eastern Brazil. Terrestriality data were collected on a monthly basis (33 months) using scan sampling procedures from July 2008 to July 2012. Overall, Coimbra-Filho's titi monkeys were recorded during 0.6% of observation time (113 out of 18,164 scans) on the ground. Most of the time on the ground was spent feeding on young leaves (71 records) and the least amount of time on fruits (14 records). Availability of arboreal foods, rainfall, and time of contact with human observers did not influence overall terrestrial behaviour (ground use). However, the timing and nature of the monkeys' terrestrial feeding was strongly related to the absence of arboreal fruit (ß-estimate = -3.078) and young leaf (ß-estimate = -3.515) food resources. We suggest that terrestrial feeding by Coimbra-Filho's titi monkeys could be an adaptation to low arboreal fruit availability and the exploitation of alternative food resources.

Air transportation, population density and temperature predict the spread of COVID-19 in Brazil.

There is evidence that COVID-19, the disease caused by the betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is sensitive to environmental conditions. However, such conditions often correlate with demographic and socioeconomic factors at larger spatial extents, which could confound this inference. We evaluated the effect of meteorological conditions (temperature, solar radiation, air humidity and precipitation) on 292 daily records of cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the 27 Brazilian capital cities during the 1st month of the outbreak, while controlling for an indicator of the number of tests, the number of arriving flights, population density, proportion of elderly people and average income. Apart from increasing with time, the number of confirmed cases was mainly related to the number of arriving flights and population density, increasing with both factors. However, after accounting for these effects, the disease was shown to be temperature sensitive: there were more cases in colder cities and days, and cases accumulated faster at lower temperatures. Our best estimate indicates that a 1 °C increase in temperature has been associated with a decrease in confirmed cases of 8%. The quality of the data and unknowns limit the analysis, but the study reveals an urgent need to understand more about the environmental sensitivity of the disease to predict demands on health services in different regions and seasons.

Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests.

The sensitivity of tropical forest carbon to climate is a key uncertainty in predicting global climate change. Although short-term drying and warming are known to affect forests, it is unknown if such effects translate into long-term responses. Here, we analyze 590 permanent plots measured across the tropics to derive the equilibrium climate controls on forest carbon. Maximum temperature is the most important predictor of aboveground biomass (-9.1 megagrams of carbon per hectare per degree Celsius), primarily by reducing woody productivity, and has a greater impact per °C in the hottest forests (>32.2°C). Our results nevertheless reveal greater thermal resilience than observations of short-term variation imply. To realize the long-term climate adaptation potential of tropical forests requires both protecting them and stabilizing Earth's climate.

Dissemination of COVID-19 in cities and riverine communities in Central Amazonia / Disseminação da COVID-19 em cidades e comunidades ribeirinhas da Amazônia Central

The population of small towns and riverine communities in Amazonia are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 due to the absence of basic health care infrastructure in the region. The objective of this study was to (1) evaluate the effect of social distancing measures in the dissemination of COVID-19 in small towns, and (2) to estimate the impact of reducing contact between rural and urban populations on the contamination of riverine communities of Central Amazon. Our results indicate that social distancing can significantly reduce the speed of dissemination of COVID-19 in the population of small towns. However, we also observed that even in towns with intense actions to combat COVID-19, social distancing is below the ideal 70% isolation mark. Regarding the contamination of riverine communities, we observed that the reduction in the number of visits and duration of stay, as well as the interruption of visits during the five weeks with larger probability of contamination has major impact on delaying the arrival of COVID-19 in these vulnerable populations. We recommend that, given the low effectiveness of social distancing measures and the rapid contamination of urban populations, each municipality should evaluate implementing more restrictive measures such as a full or partial lockdown. Our results also suggest that three measures can be effective in delaying the arrival of COVID-19 in riverine communities of Amazonia: (1) the reduction in the number of visits that each community makes to a town, (2) the reduction in duration of each visit, and (3) avoiding visits during the five weeks with the largest number of infected people in towns. It is imperative that implementation of any of the restrictive measures suggested in this publication be accompanied by a vast communication campaign as well as social assistance actions for the rural population and poor families of small towns to guarantee their basic needs for survival.

As populações da Amazônia são extremamente vulneráveis à COVID-19 devido ao intenso fluxo entre as localidades rurais e as sedes municipais e à falta de infraestrutura de saúde básica adequada na região. O objetivo deste estudo foi (1) avaliar o efeito da medida de distanciamento social sobre a disseminação da COVID-19 em sedes municipais e (2) estimar o impacto da redução do contato entre a população rural e urbana sobre a contaminação de localidades rurais da Amazônia Central, região do Médio Solimões. Nossos resultados indicam que o distanciamento social pode reduzir significativamente a velocidade de contaminação da população em sedes municipais. No entanto, mesmo em sedes municipais com atividade intensa no combate à COVID-19, o distanciamento social está muito abaixo do ideal de 70%. Observamos também que a redução do número de visitas e do tempo de permanência durante cada visita, além da interrupção do fluxo durante as cinco semanas com maior probabilidade infecção têm impacto marcante sobre a velocidade de chegada da COVID-19 nas localidades rurais. Recomendamos que, dada a baixa efetividade de medidas de distanciamento social e o rápido contágio nas sedes municipais, cada município avalie a implementação de lockdown. Nossos resultados sugerem também que três medidas podem ser eficientes em atrasar a chegada da COVID-19 às localidades rurais: (1) a redução no número de visitas que cada uma faz a um centro urbano, (2) a redução do tempo de permanência durante cada visita e (3) evitar qualquer ida às sedes municipais durante as cinco semanas com maior número de pessoas infectadas. Destacamos que todas as medidas restritivas sugeridas precisam ser acompanhadas por uma ampla campanha de conscientização e ações de assistência à população rural e às famílias mais carentes das sedes municipais para garantir acesso a itens básicos para sua sobrevivência.

Occurrence of triatomines (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in domestic and natural environments in Novo Remanso, Itacoatiara, Amazonas, Brazil.

INTRODUCTION: The present study reports the presence of triatomines in natural, peridomestic, and intradomicile environments in Itacoatiara municipality, state of Amazonas, a non-endemic region for Chagas disease. METHODS: Active search was performed inside tree trunks, and palm trees, residences, and peridomiciles localized near the forest area. RESULTS: Twenty adults and ten triatomines nymphs were collected, fifteen of which were from natural forests, thirteen from intradomiciles, and two from peridomicile areas. CONCLUSIONS: The new records of adults and nymphs of triatomines in the intra- and peridomiciles suggest the adoption of prophylactic measures for vector surveillance in the study area.

From a bat's perspective, protected riparian areas should be wider than defined by Brazilian laws.

Riparian areas around streams are those areas in which biological communites are directly influenced by the stream. The size of protected riparian areas and their conservation has become a controversial topic after changes implemented in the Brazilian Forest Code (BFC): a set of laws that regulates the size of Permanent Protection Areas (PPA). Here, we investigate the influence of distance from water bodies on bat-species and guild composition in a lowland Amazonian rainforest. Our hypotheses were that bat assemblages would change depending on the distance to the water body and that the abundance of herbivorous bats (frugivorous and nectarivorous) would be greater in areas close to water. Bats were captured with mist-nets in 24 riparian and 25 non-riparian plots within a trail grid in an old-growth terra-firme forest, northeast of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Each plot was sampled three times in a total of 7056 net-hours. We captured 1191 bats, comprising 51 species. We used model selection based on AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) to compare linear and piecewise regressions to estimate the ecological thresholds for different bat assemblages. Piecewise models with one breakpoint were more parsimonious than linear models for abundance data, and the species and guild composition of animalivorous and frugivorous bats. Animalivorous-bat abundance increased from the stream to about 181 m, and frugivorous-bat abundance decreased within 50 m of the stream. The patterns of guild abundance suggest that frugivorous bats may need greater access to streams than animalivorous bats. The most conservative model suggests that most of the variation in bat composition occurs close to the stream and extends to up 114 m from the banks. Therefore, the 30 m wide strip of riparian forest protected by Brazilian law would maintain a relatively small fraction of bat-species assemblages in Ducke Reserve, and is insufficient to represent most of the assemblage-composition variation within the riparian zone. The suggestion to reduce the width of the protected riparian zone from 30 to 15 m for streams smaller than 10 m wide, as is under discussion, would likely be prejudicial for bat assemblages.

Occurrence of triatomines (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in domestic and natural environments in Novo Remanso, Itacoatiara, Amazonas, Brazil

Abstract INTRODUCTION The present study reports the presence of triatomines in natural, peridomestic, and intradomicile environments in Itacoatiara municipality, state of Amazonas, a non-endemic region for Chagas disease. METHODS Active search was performed inside tree trunks, and palm trees, residences, and peridomiciles localized near the forest area. RESULTS: Twenty adults and ten triatomines nymphs were collected, fifteen of which were from natural forests, thirteen from intradomiciles, and two from peridomicile areas. CONCLUSIONS: The new records of adults and nymphs of triatomines in the intra- and peridomiciles suggest the adoption of prophylactic measures for vector surveillance in the study area.

Urban waste disposal explains the distribution of Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) in an Amazonian metropolis: management implications for birdstrikes and urban planning.

Collision rates between aircraft and birds have been rising worldwide. The increases in both air traffic and population sizes of large-bodied birds in cities lacking urban planning result in human-wildlife conflicts, economic loss and even lethal casualties. Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) represent the most hazardous bird to Brazilian civil and military aviation on the basis of their flight behavior, body mass and consequently physical damage to aircraft following collisions. This study investigated how storage apparatus and type of organic residue discarded in public street markets modulate the spatial distribution and abundance of urban Black Vultures in the largest city in the Amazon (Manaus, Brazil). We estimated Black Vulture abundance in relation to the type of solid human waste (animal or plant), the type of waste storage containers and market sizes in terms of the number of vendor stalls at 20 public markets. We also visually quantified the abundance of Black Vultures in urban markets in relation to air traffic. Our results suggest that urban solid waste storage procedures currently used (or the lack thereof) are related to the occurrence and abundance of Black Vultures. Moreover, storage type and the proportion of animal protein (red meat and fish) within rubbish bins directly affects foraging aggregations in vultures. We recommend that policymakers should invest more efforts in building larger and more resistant closable waste containers to avoid organic solid waste exposure. We also identified five outdoor markets as urgent priorities to improve waste disposal. Finally, our waste management guidelines would not only reduce aviation collision risks but also benefit human health and well-being in most cities.

Dominance-diversity relationships in ant communities differ with invasion.

The relationship between levels of dominance and species richness is highly contentious, especially in ant communities. The dominance-impoverishment rule states that high levels of dominance only occur in species-poor communities, but there appear to be many cases of high levels of dominance in highly diverse communities. The extent to which dominant species limit local richness through competitive exclusion remains unclear, but such exclusion appears more apparent for non-native rather than native dominant species. Here we perform the first global analysis of the relationship between behavioral dominance and species richness. We used data from 1,293 local assemblages of ground-dwelling ants distributed across five continents to document the generality of the dominance-impoverishment rule, and to identify the biotic and abiotic conditions under which it does and does not apply. We found that the behavioral dominance-diversity relationship varies greatly, and depends on whether dominant species are native or non-native, whether dominance is considered as occurrence or relative abundance, and on variation in mean annual temperature. There were declines in diversity with increasing dominance in invaded communities, but diversity increased with increasing dominance in native communities. These patterns occur along the global temperature gradient. However, positive and negative relationships are strongest in the hottest sites. We also found that climate regulates the degree of behavioral dominance, but differently from how it shapes species richness. Our findings imply that, despite strong competitive interactions among ants, competitive exclusion is not a major driver of local richness in native ant communities. Although the dominance-impoverishment rule applies to invaded communities, we propose an alternative dominance-diversification rule for native communities.