Untangling the complex food webs of tropical rainforest streams.

Food webs depict the tangled web of trophic interactions associated with the functioning of an ecosystem. Understanding the mechanisms providing stability to these food webs is therefore vital for conservation efforts and the management of natural systems. Here, we first characterised a tropical stream meta-food web and five individual food webs using a Bayesian Hierarchical approach unifying three sources of information (gut content analysis, literature compilation and stable isotope data). With data on population-level biomass and individually measured body mass, we applied a bioenergetic model and assessed food web stability using a Lotka-Volterra system of equations. We then assessed the resilience of the system to individual species extinctions using simulations and investigated the network patterns associated with systems with higher stability. The model resulted in a stable meta-food web with 307 links among the 61 components. At the regional scale, 70% of the total energy flow occurred through a set of 10 taxa with large variation in body masses. The remaining 30% of total energy flow relied on 48 different taxa, supporting a significant dependency on a diverse community. The meta-food web was stable against individual species extinctions, with a higher resilience in food webs harbouring omnivorous fish species able to connect multiple food web compartments via weak, non-specialised interactions. Moreover, these fish species contributed largely to the spatial variation among individual food webs, suggesting that these species could operate as mobile predators connecting different streams and stabilising variability at the regional scale. Our results outline two key mechanisms of food web stability operating in tropical streams: (i) the diversity of species and body masses buffering against random and size-dependent disturbances and (ii) high regional diversity and weak omnivorous interactions of predators buffering against local stochastic variation in species composition. These mechanisms rely on high local and regional biodiversity in tropical streams, which is known to be strongly affected by human impacts. Therefore, an urgent challenge is to understand how the ongoing systematic loss of diversity jeopardises the stability of stream food webs in human-impacted landscapes.

As teias alimentares representam um emaranhado de interações tróficas associadas ao funcionamento de um ecossistema. Compreender os mecanismos que proporcionam estabilidade a estas teias alimentares é, portanto, vital para os esforços de conservação e gestão dos sistemas naturais. Aqui, primeiro caracterizamos uma meta teia alimentar de riachos tropicais e cinco teias alimentares individuais usando uma abordagem hierárquica Bayesiana unificando três fontes de informação (análise de conteúdo estomacal, compilação de literatura, dados de isótopos estáveis). Com dados sobre biomassa em nível populacional e massa corporal medida individualmente, aplicamos um modelo bioenergético e avaliamos a estabilidade da cadeia alimentar usando um sistema de equações Lotka­Volterra. Em seguida, avaliamos a resiliência do sistema às extinções de espécies individuais usando simulações e investigamos os padrões de rede associados a sistemas com maior estabilidade. O modelo resultou em uma meta teia alimentar estável com 307 ligações entre os 61 componentes. Na escala regional, 70% do fluxo total de energia ocorreu através de um conjunto de dez taxa com grande variação nas massas corporais. Os restantes 30% do fluxo total de energia dependiam de 47 taxa diferentes, apoiando uma dependência significativa de uma comunidade diversificada. A meta teia alimentar foi estável contra extinções de espécies individuais, com uma maior resiliência em teias alimentares que abrigam espécies de peixes onívoros capazes de conectar múltiplos compartimentos da teia alimentar através de interações fracas e não especializadas. Além disso, estas espécies de peixes contribuíram amplamente para a variação espacial entre as cadeias alimentares individuais, sugerindo que estas espécies poderiam operar como predadores móveis conectando diferentes riachos e estabilizando a variabilidade à escala regional. Nossos resultados descrevem dois mecanismos principais de estabilidade da cadeia alimentar operando em riachos tropicais: (i) a diversidade de espécies e massas corporais que protegem contra distúrbios aleatórios e dependentes do tamanho (ii) alta diversidade regional e fracas interações onívoras de predadores que protegem contra a variação estocástica local na composição de espécies. Estes mecanismos dependem de uma elevada biodiversidade local e regional em riachos tropicais, que são conhecidos por serem fortemente afetados pelos impactos humanos. Portanto, um desafio urgente é compreender como a contínua perda sistemática de diversidade põe em risco a estabilidade das teias alimentares em paisagens impactadas pelo homem.

Understanding temporal variability across trophic levels and spatial scales in freshwater ecosystems.

A tenet of ecology is that temporal variability in ecological structure and processes tends to decrease with increasing spatial scales (from locales to regions) and levels of biological organization (from populations to communities). However, patterns in temporal variability across trophic levels and the mechanisms that produce them remain poorly understood. Here we analyzed the abundance time series of spatially structured communities (i.e., metacommunities) spanning basal resources to top predators from 355 freshwater sites across three continents. Specifically, we used a hierarchical partitioning method to disentangle the propagation of temporal variability in abundance across spatial scales and trophic levels. We then used structural equation modeling to determine if the strength and direction of relationships between temporal variability, synchrony, biodiversity, and environmental and spatial settings depended on trophic level and spatial scale. We found that temporal variability in abundance decreased from producers to tertiary consumers but did so mainly at the local scale. Species population synchrony within sites increased with trophic level, whereas synchrony among communities decreased. At the local scale, temporal variability in precipitation and species diversity were associated with population variability (linear partial coefficient, ß = 0.23) and population synchrony (ß = -0.39) similarly across trophic levels, respectively. At the regional scale, community synchrony was not related to climatic or spatial predictors, but the strength of relationships between metacommunity variability and community synchrony decreased systematically from top predators (ß = 0.73) to secondary consumers (ß = 0.54), to primary consumers (ß = 0.30) to producers (ß = 0). Our results suggest that mobile predators may often stabilize metacommunities by buffering variability that originates at the base of food webs. This finding illustrates that the trophic structure of metacommunities, which integrates variation in organismal body size and its correlates, should be considered when investigating ecological stability in natural systems. More broadly, our work advances the notion that temporal stability is an emergent property of ecosystems that may be threatened in complex ways by biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation.

BRAZIL ROAD-KILL: a data set of wildlife terrestrial vertebrate road-kills.

Mortality from collision with vehicles is the most visible impact of road traffic on wildlife. Mortality due to roads (hereafter road-kill) can affect the dynamic of populations of many species and can, therefore, increase the risk of local decline or extinction. This is especially true in Brazil, where plans for road network upgrading and expansion overlaps biodiversity hotspot areas, which are of high importance for global conservation. Researchers, conservationists and road planners face the challenge to define a national strategy for road mitigation and wildlife conservation. The main goal of this dataset is a compilation of geo-referenced road-kill data from published and unpublished road surveys. This is the first Data Paper in the BRAZIL series (see ATLANTIC, NEOTROPICAL, and BRAZIL collections of Data Papers published in Ecology), which aims make public road-kill data for species in the Brazilian Regions. The dataset encompasses road-kill records from 45 personal communications and 26 studies published in peer-reviewed journals, theses and reports. The road-kill dataset comprises 21,512 records, 83% of which are identified to the species level (n = 450 species). The dataset includes records of 31 amphibian species, 90 reptile species, 229 bird species, and 99 mammal species. One species is classified as Endangered, eight as Vulnerable and twelve as Near Threatened. The species with the highest number of records are: Didelphis albiventris (n = 1,549), Volatinia jacarina (n = 1,238), Cerdocyon thous (n = 1,135), Helicops infrataeniatus (n = 802), and Rhinella icterica (n = 692). Most of the records came from southern Brazil. However, observations of the road-kill incidence for non-Least Concern species are more spread across the country. This dataset can be used to identify which taxa seems to be vulnerable to traffic, analyze temporal and spatial patterns of road-kill at local, regional and national scales and also used to understand the effects of road-kill on population persistence. It may also contribute to studies that aims to understand the influence of landscape and environmental influences on road-kills, improve our knowledge on road-related strategies on biodiversity conservation and be used as complementary information on large-scale and macroecological studies. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.

Bacteria richness and antibiotic-resistance in bats from a protected area in the Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil.

Bats play key ecological roles, also hosting many zoonotic pathogens. Neotropical bat microbiota is still poorly known. We speculate that their dietary habits strongly influence their microbiota richness and antibiotic-resistance patterns, which represent growing and serious public health and environmental issue. Here we describe the aerobic microbiota richness of bats from an Atlantic Forest remnant in Southeastern Brazil, and the antibiotic-resistance patterns of bacteria of clinical importance. Oral and rectal cavities of 113 bats from Carlos Botelho State Park were swabbed. Samples were plated on 5% sheep blood and MacConkey agar and identified by the MALDI-TOF technique. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using Kirby-Bauer's antibiotic disc diffusion technique.We identified 596 isolates at the genus level and tentatively to the species level. Proteobacteria was the most abundant phylum in all the dietary guilds, representing 87% of the total identified samples. The most common bacteria within bat individuals were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella oxytoca and Serratia marcescens, and within bat species were Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas sp. and Staphylococcus sp. Frugivores presented the most diverse microbiota. In general, the antibiogram results indicated a low occurrence of resistance on eigth potentially pathogenic bacteria species. The resistance to antibiotics found on our samples was related mostly to the intrinsic resistance of the tested species.The low occurrence of resistant bacteria in our samples could be related to the well preserved environment where bats were caught. Once the major causes of resistance-acquiring are related to anthropic activites, the controlled access of tourists on certain regions of the Park seems to be effectively protecting the environment.

Second record of Lasiurus ebenus (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae), with comments on its taxonomic status.

Lasiurus ebenus was known only from the holotype, which was collected in 1991, in an Atlantic Forest remnant of Ilha do Cardoso State Park, southeastern Brazil. The species was described based on qualitative and quantitative morphological features. Since its original description, based on a single individual, the taxonomic status of Lasiurus ebenus has been questioned. Here we report a second record for the species that comes from Carlos Botelho State Park, São Paulo, ca. 100 km north from the type locality. This new record allowed us to confirm the validity of the species, by presenting additional data that fits in the distinction from sympatric congeners proposed on the original description of L. ebenus.