Nicolas Urbina-Cardona

🌱 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

📚 Published in @RevMexBiodiv
🔗 Article: revista.ib.unam.mx/index.php/bi...

🐸 Check out also our tadpole study from the Colombian Orinoco:
👉 www.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

#NeotropicalScience #OpenAccessScience #FreshwaterBiodiversity

🔍 Conserving permanent, shaded water bodies surrounded by intact forest is key for protecting larval amphibians like E. bivocata.
🌿 Changes in vegetation cover alter pond microhabitats and reduce their suitability.
#ConservationBiology #TropicalForests #AmphibianDecline

Lithobates vaillanti inhabits ponds in secondary vegetation and in recently cleared forest areas with silty substrate and leaf litter in secondary/tallied forest (24°C)

#Amphibians #RainforestConservation #TropicalBiology

🌿 Species-specific pond preferences in rainforest:
✔️ Exerodonta bivocata: permanent ponds with flow, rocks, and decapods in shaded primary forest (22°C)
✔️ Incilius valliceps: temporary ponds without predators, pH 7.2, in secondary forest with branches and litter
#Tadpoles #TropicalHerpetology

🌡️ Which variables best explain tadpole abundance?
📌 Water temperature
📌 Water flow
📌 pH
These and other biotic & environmental factors drive larval distributions across species.
#AquaticEcology #Herpetology #FreshwaterScience #AmphibianBiology

🐸🌱 Did you know that tadpoles of different species live in completely segregated ponds?
Our study in the tropical forests of SE Mexico explores how vegetation, altitude & water shape tadpole abundance:
revista.ib.unam.mx/index.php/bi...

#Tadpoles #Amphibians #TropicalEcology #GlobalChangeBiology

⚠️ Conservation of natural temporary ponds with structured vegetation and optimal microhabitat conditions (e.g., mid-range pH, native vegetation nearby) is critical to preserving amphibian biodiversity in productive landscapes.
#ConservationScience #AmphibianDeclines #TropicalConservation

🔬 We also discuss and highlight the value of considering functional traits—such as reproductive mode and physiological plasticity—to better understand tadpole responses to habitat modification.
#TraitBasedEcology #FreshwaterEcology #TropicalScience

Which habitat variables explained community structure?
✔️ Vegetation height within the pond
✔️ Number of cattle in the area
✔️ Distance to the nearest forest edge
✔️ Distance to nearby lentic water bodies
✔️ Water pH
#FunctionalEcology #LandscapeEcology #EnvironmentalGradients

🧬 Each species responded differently to habitat gradients:
• Leptodactylus insularum was restricted to natural ponds in savannas.
• Rhinella humboldti and Leptodactylus fragilis showed traits allowing them to thrive in disturbed, human-made water bodies.
#AmphibianDiversity #HabitatSpecialists

🌿 Natural temporary ponds hosted 72% of all individuals and 86% of the regional species pool.
In contrast, anthropogenic ponds had very low diversity and abundance, dominated by generalists like Rhinella humboldti, Leptodactylus fragilis and L. fuscus.
#FreshwaterBiodiversity #LandUseChange

🐸 We’re excited to share one of the few tadpole community ecology study in the Orinoco region. Water bodies formed by tractor tire tracks and cattle footprints hold much lower amphibian diversity than natural ponds.
👇🧵
🔗 www.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
#Tadpoles #Amphibians #CommunityEcology

📖 Want to know more?
Read the full paper here:
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
And explore our open dataset:
📚 data.mendeley.com/datasets/ht6...
🌍 Conserving dry forests also means protecting their frogs!
#OpenScience #FunctionalEcology #Herpetology

🌿 What can we do?
✅ Restore edges with native vegetation
✅ Promote agroecological corridors (e.g. silvopastoral systems)
✅ Prioritize conservation of high-elevation fragments, home to unique specialists
#EcologicalRestoration #Connectivity #Agroecology

🔬 And what shapes functional diversity?
📌 Elevation!
🌄 Higher elevation fragments showed more functional richness, evenness, and specialization.
Amphibians are finely tuned to their microclimates.
#FunctionalTraits #EcoPhysiology #AltitudinalGradients