Lancet Planet Health
March 2024
Background: Climate change is expected to have profound effects on the distribution of venomous snake species, including reductions in biodiversity and changes in patterns of envenomation of humans and domestic animals. We estimated the effect of future climate change on the distribution of venomous snake species and potential knock-on effects on biodiversity and public health.
Methods: We built species distribution models based on the geographical distribution of 209 medically relevant venomous snake species (WHO categories 1 and 2) and present climatic variables, and used these models to project the potential distribution of species in 2070.
Background: Incomplete species inventories for Antarctica represent a key challenge for comprehensive ecological research and conservation in the region. Additionally, data required to understand population dynamics, rates of evolution, spatial ranges, functional traits, physiological tolerances and species interactions, all of which are fundamental to disentangle the different functional elements of Antarctic biodiversity, are mostly missing. However, much of the fauna, flora and microbiota in the emerged ice-free land of the continent have an uncertain presence and/or unresolved status, with entire biodiversity compendia of prokaryotic groups (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change is affecting the distribution of marine organisms worldwide, including venomous marine gastropods that offer risks to human health, but also potential pharmacological resources, such as Conus sp. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are valuable tools for predicting species distribution under climate change. The objective of our study was to evaluate the potential distribution of Conus geographus and C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGrasses (Family Poaceae) are among the most successful invasive plants in the world. Here we evaluate phylogenetic and biogeographic patterns of emergence of naturalized and invasive species among grasses globally. In our data, circa 19% of the grasses are currently catalogued as invasive and almost 38% are listed as naturalized; these are among the highest ratios for single families of organisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGreat environmental changes may affect the survival capability of a variety of organisms. Testudinidae is the most diverse family of terrestrial chelonians within the whole order (Testudines). Interestingly, however, the number of extinct species overcome the extant ones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe climatic changes of the next decades will modify human and livestock interactions with venomous animals; Some venomous species will disappear in the coming decades; Other venomous species will shift their distributions or increase their geographic ranges invading new countries that may not have specific antivenoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBody size and shape fundamentally determine organismal energy requirements by modulating heat and mass exchange with the environment and the costs of locomotion, thermoregulation, and maintenance. Ecologists have long used the physical linkage between morphology and energy balance to explain why the body size and shape of many organisms vary across climatic gradients, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbstractContinental mountain areas cover <15% of global land surface, yet these regions concentrate >80% of global terrestrial diversity. One prominent hypothesis to explain this pattern proposes that high mountain diversities could be explained by higher diversification rates in regions of high topographic complexity (HTC). While high speciation in mountains has been detected for particular clades and regions, the global extent to which lineages experience faster speciation in mountains remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify areas that present a higher risk of exposure to accidents with scorpions in Brazil.
Methods: We used techniques of spatial prioritisation to determine the most vulnerable localities to envenomation by four scorpion species. Our prioritisation integrated ecological niche models with health investment, antivenin availability, access to health care facilities and metrics of human impact data.
Evolutionary rate explanations for latitudinal diversity gradients predict faster speciation and diversification rates in richer, older and more stable tropical regions (climatic stability hypothesis). Numerous modern lineages have emerged in high latitudes, however, suggesting that climatic oscillations can drive population divergence, at least among extratropical species (glacial refugia hypothesis). This conflicting evidence suggests that geographical patterns of evolutionary rates are more complicated than previously thought.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge of the oribatid mite community from Patagonian steppe is scarce compared with other environments, such as the Andean-Patagonian forest. In the present research we identified oribatid mites under different environmental conditions: two Patagonian steppe types (grass and shrub), two soil characteristics (bare and covered soil) and two different seasons (autumn and spring). A total of 42 species/morphospecies were found, 13 were new records for Chubut and one was a new record for Argentina.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeographical gradients of body size express climate-driven constraints on animals, but whether they exist and what causes them in ectotherms remains contentious. For amphibians, the water conservation hypothesis posits that larger bodies reduce evaporative water loss (EWL) along dehydrating gradients. To address this hypothesis mechanistically, we build on well-established biophysical equations of water exchange in anurans to propose a state-transition model that predicts an increase of either body size or resistance to EWL as alternative specialization along dehydrating gradients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn integrative approach was used, combining morphological and molecular analyses, to provide the first report of Lysmata lipkei and L. vittata in Sergipe State, Brazil, and confirm that both species are invasive of the Atlantic Ocean. Lysmata shrimps were sampled in the estuary region of the Vaza-Barris river, Sergipe State, northeastern Brazil, and identified as L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeometric morphometrics were used to analyse ontogenetic trajectories in representatives of the Characiformes, Cichliformes, Cyprinodontiformes, Siluriformes, and Tetraodontiformes. It was not possible to differentiate any allometric growth patterns across groups, indicating that a phylogenetically conserved developmental pattern is widespread throughout Teleostei.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChagas disease represents one of the major health issue in Latin America. Epidemiological control is focused on disease vectors, so studies on the ecology of triatomine vectors constitute a central strategy. Recently, research at large spatial scale has been produced, and authors commonly rely on the assumption that geographical regions presenting good environmental conditions for most vector species are also those with high risk of infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe temporal pattern of co-occurrence of human beings and venomous species (scorpions, spiders, snakes) is changing. Thus, the temporal pattern of areas with risk of accidents with such species tends to become dynamic in time. We analyze the areas of occurrence of species of Tityus in Argentina and assess the impact of global climate change on their area of distribution by the construction of risk maps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistorically, studies aimed at prospecting and analyzing paleontological and neontological data to investigate species distribution have developed separately. Research at the interface between paleontology and biogeography has shown a unidirectional bias, mostly focusing on how paleontological information can aid biogeography to understand species distribution through time. However, the modern suit of techniques of ecological biogeography, particularly species distribution models (SDM), can be instrumental for paleontologists as well, improving the biogeography-paleontology interchange.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpatial patterns of genetic variation can help understand how environmental factors either permit or restrict gene flow and create opportunities for regional adaptations. Organisms from harsh environments such as the Brazilian semiarid Caatinga biome may reveal how severe climate conditions may affect patterns of genetic variation. Herein we combine information from mitochondrial DNA with physical and environmental features to study the association between different aspects of the Caatinga landscape and spatial genetic variation in the whiptail lizard Ameivula ocellifera.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerein we review the genus Physobates Hammer, 1962 and redescribe P. spinipes Hammer 1962 based on material collected in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After a morphological comparison among species of Tegoribatidae genera, we propose a new junior synonym, Paraphysobates Mahunka, 1985.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanisms of accumulation based on typical centromeric drive or of chromosomes carrying pericentric inversions are adjusted to the general karyotype differentiation in the principal Actinopterygii orders. Here, we show that meiotic drive in fish is also supported by preferential establishment of sex chromosome systems and B chromosomes in orders with predominantly bi-brachial chromosomes. The mosaic of trends acting at an infra-familiar level in fish could be explained as the interaction of the directional process of meiotic drive as background, modulated on a smaller scale by adaptive factors or specific karyotypic properties of each group, as proposed for the orthoselection model.
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