Publications by authors named "Jose Luis Mena"
Peru ranks among the three countries with the highest bird species diversity globally and a majority of those species are found in the Peruvian Amazon. However, birds in this area are currently facing serious anthropogenic threats. Genetic and genomic methods are becoming important tools for avian biodiversity monitoring and conservation planning.
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- Mercury from artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a global health risk due to its conversion to toxic methylmercury and its widespread environmental impact.
- In Madre de Dios, Peru, the study aimed to evaluate bats as bioindicators for mercury pollution by analyzing 290 bat fur samples from both ASGM and control sites.
- Results revealed high mercury concentrations in bats, particularly those that are insectivorous and piscivorous, indicating that ASGM severely contaminates local food webs and highlights the potential of certain bat genera to monitor mercury levels in impacted ecosystems.
Innovative techniques, such as environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, are now promoting broader biodiversity monitoring at unprecedented scales, because of the reduction in time, presumably lower cost, and methodological efficiency. Our goal was to assess the efficiency of established inventory techniques (live-trapping grids, pitfall traps, camera trapping, mist netting) as well as eDNA for detecting Amazonian mammals. For terrestrial small mammals, we used 32 live-trapping grids based on Sherman and Tomahawk traps (total effort of 10,368 trap-nights); in addition to 16 pitfall traps (1,408 trap-nights).
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