Biotropica最新文献

Annual meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) provide a window into emerging research priorities, conceptual shifts, and methodological advances in tropical biology and conservation. Here, we synthesize lessons and outcomes from the 61st ATBC Annual Meeting (ATBC 2025) held in Oaxaca, México, and situate them within the broader trajectory of ATBC conferences to identify continuities, emerging directions, and gaps. ATBC 2025 convened 1161 participants from 63 countries, providing a timely platform to examine how research in tropical biology and conservation is responding to accelerating socioecological change. Analyses of symposia, oral and poster presentations, and plenary sessions revealed three overarching messages. First, compound disturbances—such as interactions between land-use change and climate extremes—are increasingly reshaping tropical ecosystems and require integrative research and management approaches. Second, effective conservation and restoration depend on equity-centered frameworks that meaningfully engage Indigenous Peoples and local communities through collaborative governance and coproduced knowledge. Third, rapid methodological innovation—from microbiome studies to artificial intelligence and remote sensing—continues to expand analytical capacity, although its transformative potential depends upon socially grounded and place-based contexts. The meeting also highlighted science–action linkages, exemplified by the “Declaration on the Social–Ecological Impacts of Agave Monocultures for Mezcal Production” and ATBC's carbon offset initiative developed with CORENCHI, a community-led civil association conserving tropical cloud forests in Oaxaca. Although challenges remain, ATBC 2025 illustrated the evolving role of ATBC conferences as platforms for integrative, action-oriented science to advance conservation and sustainability in the tropics.

Urban environments can generate substantial spatial and temporal variation in pollinator assemblages, floral traits, and resource availability, yet how plant reproduction is maintained under such heterogeneous conditions remains poorly understood, particularly in tropical cities. In Nicotiana glauca (Solanaceae), floral traits and pollinator assemblages vary among natural populations, but information from urban environments is lacking. We investigated pollination dynamics and reproductive success of N. glauca across a heterogeneous urban landscape in the high tropical Andes by integrating flower visitation, floral trait variation, functional morphology, and reproductive output. Flower visitation varied strongly among visitor groups, times of day, and urban regions. Hummingbirds were the only legitimate pollinators, whereas bees acted exclusively as nectar robbers. We report Colibri coruscans and Elliotomyia chionogaster as pollinators of N. glauca for the first time. Despite pronounced spatial and temporal variation in floral traits and visitor assemblages, including complete spatial turnover between hummingbird species, fruit set remained consistently high (> 90%) across all urban regions. No fruits were produced in pollinator-excluded flowers, suggesting dependence on animal-mediated pollination. Although flower tube length generally exceeded hummingbird bill length, both species appeared functionally compatible with the flowers and carried pollen on their beaks during visitation. Our results show that N. glauca maintains high reproductive success across heterogeneous urban environments, through hummingbird-mediated pollination, highlighting the resilience of some plant–pollinator interactions in rapidly urbanizing tropical landscapes.

Understanding the drivers of community assembly in extreme and dynamic environments, such as intertidal rockpools, requires the integrated assessment of environmental filtering, species traits, phylogeny, and species interactions. This study aimed to quantify the multi-faceted drivers of rockpool fish assemblage structure by examining: (a) the association with physical and structural pool attributes, (b) the influence of species functional traits and phylogenetic relatedness, (c) residual co-occurrence patterns suggestive of species interactions, and (d) temporal and spatial dynamics. The assemblage was dominated by a few resident species (e.g., Bathygobius ramosus, Tomicodon zebra), which comprised 72% of total abundance. Rockpool volume and substratum rugosity were the primary environmental drivers, explaining a substantial portion of the variation in abundance for most of the 15 species studied. While species' traits (e.g., body size, trophic level, water column position) were associated with ~28%–67% of the niche variation across environmental gradients, there was no significant phylogenetic signal in species responses. After accounting for these environmental, spatial, temporal, and trait-based factors, significant positive residual co-occurrences were prevalent, most notably a strong association between B. ramosus and Abudefduf concolor suggesting potential facilitative interactions or shared unmeasured niche axes. These findings demonstrate that the structure of intertidal rockpool fish assemblages is predominantly filtered by key structural habitat features. The lack of a phylogenetic signal and the prevalence of positive co-occurrences highlight that species-specific traits and potential facilitative interactions, rather than evolutionary history, are critical in shaping these dynamic communities.

Our first assessment of Pholidoscelis erythrocephalus nesting behavior indicates this species creates complex communal nesting sites. Considering the novelty of our nesting data for a Pholidoscelis species, this new knowledge aids our understanding of the reproductive ecology, biodemographics, and conservation of this widely distributed genus.

The genus Ravenala (Strelitziaceae) comprises six species of arborescent herbs endemic to Madagascar and iconic to this global biodiversity hotspot. We examined how Ravenala density responds to environmental gradients, land-use type, accessibility and canopy disturbance. The study was conducted in north-eastern Madagascar, a region heavily affected by deforestation in recent decades. We carried out species-specific terrestrial sampling in different land-use types (fallow land, vanilla agroforests and forest fragments) in human-modified landscapes and in old-growth forest. Visual detection in high-resolution satellite imagery extended observations of Ravenala at genus level across human-modified landscapes. Both, the terrestrial and the satellite-based approach indicated high but variable Ravenala densities. Ravenala density in human-modified landscapes increased with distance from settlements. The four encountered Ravenala species differed in response to disturbance and other factors. R. grandis and R. menahirana declined under higher disturbance levels, whereas R. madagascariensis increased in density with greater disturbance and reached highest densities in fallow land. In the old-growth forest, both R. blancii, which was recorded exclusively in the old-growth forest, and R. menahirana were less frequent in plots containing thicket-forming vegetation (bamboo and wild cardamom). Elevation responses diverged, with R. blancii increasing and R. menahirana decreasing in density at higher elevations. Divergent responses of different Ravenala species to habitat and disturbance suggest that reduction of human-induced canopy disturbance in human-modified landscapes and protection of old-growth forests are needed to safeguard all four encountered species.

We investigated vertical stratification of mite communities (Oribatida, Mesostigmata, and Prostigmata) along tropical tree architecture in Cát Tiên National Park, Vietnam. We examined two phylogenetically unrelated but architecturally similar tree species, Haldina cordifolia and Dipterocarpus alatus; both are tall trees with straight cylindrical trunks, fissured bark, spreading crowns, and large leaves. To investigate potential interaction between sampling method and observed ecological patterns, we compared two methods—Tullgren–Berlese and substrate washing—for extraction of mites from tree bark. Across forest floor and arboreal samples, we identified 140 species of Oribatida, 70 species of Mesostigmata, and 57 species of Prostigmata. Numerically, arboreal acarofauna was dominated by Oribatida. Tree species identity did not influence total mite species richness, community composition of all Acari and Oribatida, or Oribatida abundance. Mesostigmata and Prostigmata were more abundant on H. cordifolia. Microhabitat had a significant effect on the abundance of arboreal Mesostigmata and Prostigmata but not Oribatida, and on species richness and community composition of arboreal acarofauna, with certain species restricted to specific tree zones irrespective of tree species. Assemblages formed three clusters: communities of (i) soil, litter, and trunk base, (ii) bark on upper trunk, and (iii) canopy branches and leaves. Substrate washing yielded higher abundances of Oribatida and Prostigmata and a higher number of detected species than Tullgren–Berlese extraction, with each method capturing a different species assemblage. To avoid bias, a complementary combination of methods is recommended for comprehensive assessment of arboreal mite biodiversity.