Nicolas Urbina-Cardona

🌱 Species like Dendrobates truncatus have great potential to become flagship species in environmental education.
✅ Turning fear into knowledge is key for amphibian conservation and their habitats.
#Education #ScienceForConservation

🔗 Read the full article here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

💡 What are the challenges?
✔️ Low participation in conservation activities like monitoring, despite support for protection.
✔️ Women and people with higher education tend to recognize more the ecological importance of amphibians.
#SocialChange #CommunityConservation

🔍 Key findings:
✔️ Skin color and leg function are key to associating amphibians with danger or usefulness to the ecosystem.
✔️ While fear and disgust remain common, over 85% support amphibian protection.
#Conservation #EnvironmentalEducation

🌍🐸 🌐Amphibian conservation also depends on how we perceive them.
Our study in the tropical dry forests of the Colombian Caribbean explores how morphological traits and sociodemographic factors influence people's perceptions and attitudes toward amphibians
🧵 #Amphibians #Biodiversity #TropicalEcology

Las perturbaciones naturales no solo cambian el paisaje, también reconfiguran la función ecológica de las comunidades animales.
Conservar la heterogeneidad estructural del bosque es clave para mantener la diversidad funcional. 🌳
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🌱 Las caídas de árboles actúan como filtros ambientales:
✔️Bajo el dosel cerrado se concentran especialistas con menor volumen funcional.
⚠️Esto limita los nichos disponibles y aumenta la competencia
#EcologíaTropical #BosquesTropicales #RasgosFuncionales #EcologíaFuncional

📊 Analizamos cinco rasgos funcionales: biomasa, volumen, ancho cefálico, ancho de boca y longitud corporal de tres especies.
Contrario a lo esperado, no fue el tamaño, sino el ancho de boca, el que explicó mejor la respuesta de las salamandras a las aperturas del dosel. 🍃

Esta es una pregunta que poco se ha investigado, y que por primera vez se estudia desde la perspectiva de la ecología basada en rasgos funcionales. Nuestro nuevo estudio explora cómo las aperturas naturales del dosel influyen en los rasgos funcionales de tres especies de anfibios

🌳🐸 En los bosques nativos y selvas, la caída natural de árboles (por vientos, rayos o descomposición de la madera) genera dinámicas en el suelo, afectando a las especies animales. Se han preguntado 🌎¿Qué pasa con los anfibios cuando estos árboles caen en la selva tropical? 🌐

@nmouquet.bsky.social
@ecol-evol.bsky.social
#Entomology #Ecology #FunctionalTraits #UrbanTrees

🔗 Read the full article "Scale-Dependent Effects of Landscape Heterogeneity on Butterfly Functional and Taxonomic Diversity in Andean Urban Parks" 🌐here:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#FunctionalEcology #UrbanBiodiversity #Conservation #Butterflies

🌍 Conservation conclusions:
✅ Protecting connectivity between parks and water bodies is key.
✅ Planting tall native trees promotes higher functional diversity.
✅ Creating ecological corridors between small and large parks supports species dispersal. #EcologicalRestoration

🦋 How do small or fragmented parks affect butterflies?
Smaller and fragmented parks show lower diversity and more homogenized species assemblages.
⚠️ We need parks with native vegetation and proximity to water bodies to promote biodiversity!

🌳 What influences butterfly diversity in urban parks?
✔️ The height of native trees is strongly associated with functional diversity.
✔️ Connectivity between parks enhances both taxonomic and functional diversity.

🌱🦋 Urban parks are critical for butterfly´ trait diversity! 🌐
Our new study investigates how vegetation structure and landscape heterogeneity affect butterfly diversity in urban parks in the Andean city of #Bogotá 🌎
👇🧵 #UrbanEcology #Conservation #FunctionalEcology

🌱 Why is it important?
Preserving Amazonian ecosystems requires enhancing forest connectivity and restoring native vegetation at the forest edges to mitigate the negative impacts of habitat fragmentation. 🐸🌐
#Biodiversity #Amphibians #LandscapeEcology #EcologicalRestoration #AmazonRainforest

✔️ Forest edges act as ecological filters, limiting the colonization of pasture species into forest interiors via environmental gradients and functional competition.

✔️ In pastures, environmental filtering plays a major role in shaping amphibian assemblages, while limiting similarity governs the assemblage in forest interiors.
✔️ Functional diversity is more influenced by landscape connectivity, leaf litter depth, and humidity rather than edge effects alone

🌍🐸🌐 What are the effects of forest edges on amphibian diversity in Amazonian floodplains?
Our latest study sheds light on how environmental filters and limiting similarity shape the functional diversity of amphibian communities

🧪 Full article:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

On this #WorldSnakeDay 🐍 I would like to share one of the few studies on the functional diversity of snakes, in this case used to understand the effects of landscape transformation and roadkill

#SnakeWeek
#SnakeWeek2025

@snakeweek.bsky.social
@iucn-snake.bsky.social

🌱💡 What role do functional pollinator ecology studies play in adaptation to socio-environmental change? How can we integrate this scientific knowledge into public policies? #ScientificEducation #SocialChange #EnvironmentalPolicy #Pollination #Ecology

💡 Functional traits related to the amount of body hair in bees, which aid in pollen adhesion, showed no correlation with the total pollen amount, nor with granadilla pollen. #FunctionalTraits #Pollination #Biodiversity #Bees #Sustainability

🐝 The invasive species Apis mellifera, while the most abundant and large-bodied bee, DOES NOT carry pollen from native species nor from granadilla, making it a POOR pollinator for these crops. #Pollination #ApisMellifera #InvasiveSpecies #Ecology #Biodiversity

a cartoon of bees and flowers with the cn logo in the lower right corner ALT: a cartoon of bees and flowers with the cn logo in the lower right corner

🔬 Body size in NATIVE bees is crucial for efficient pollen transport. Studies on insect pollinators can boost productivity and protect biodiversity. 🌻📚 #Sustainability #Pollinators #Ecology #AgriculturalEcology #Biodiversity

🌍🐝 Today, on #WorldBeeDay, we present our work on pollination in Passiflora crops. Understanding the functional traits of bees enhances agricultural production! 🌱🍯 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#Pollination
@agroecologymap.bsky.social @global-ecology.bsky.social @savethebees.bsky.social

1. Anuran diversity was more influenced by landscape configuration (e.g., number of patches, water bodies) than composition.
2. Abundance was linked to structurally complex vegetation (e.g., rosettes, scrublands).
#LandscapeEcology #AmphibianConservation #TropicalEcology #DroneTechnology #Ecology

✔️ At 50m, larger contiguous habitats increased abundance, while fragmentation reduced it.
✔️ At 100m to 200m water bodies and scrubby vegetation like Chusquea spp. were key for species persistence, such as Dendropsophus molitor, which need water for larval development. @amphibianspecies.bsky.social

✔️ Landscape configuration is a crucial factor for species persistence.
✔️ Limited mobility: Species success depends on their movement between vegetation mosaics in these high-altitude ecosystems.
✔️ Conservation efforts should focus on maintaining connectivity and vegetation complexity.

#amphibians

✔️ Landscape configuration (number of water bodies, patches of dense scrub with Chusquea spp.) had a greater impact on anuran diversity than habitat composition.
✔️ Abundance: Positive correlation with complex vegetation types like rosettes and dense scrublands.
#Biodiversity #TropicalEcology

🌍🐸 How does environmental heterogeneity influence amphibian diversity in Andean highlands?
We evaluate the heterogeneity of a natural páramo ecosystem using drone imagery at a resolution of 4 cm/pixel. @landscape.bsky.social
🔗 rdcu.be/elt8u
#LandscapeEcology #AmphibianConservation #DroneTechnology