Harold W. Manter

The use of non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), particularly fossil fungi and algae, as palaeobiological proxies for Late Cretaceous palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstructions of warm-to-hot greenhouse conditions, can enhance our understanding of climate change impacts on modern Patagonian environments. This study aimed to reconstruct the Maastrichtian palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin (CAB, Chubut Province) by testing these NPPs as proxies using the Nearest Living Relative method (NLR). Moreover, using modern ecological requirements from open-source databases, such as GBIF and processing it with an open-source, cross-platform tool like QGIS, linked with Köppen-Geiger shapefiles, provided evidence of climate-driven palaeo-distribution patterns of fungal and algal diversity at CAB. Applying modern ecological requirements and biogeographic distribution data, we reconstructed the palaeoclimate as temperate with evenly distributed precipitation and warm summers, corresponding to the Cfb climate zone in Köppen-Geiger classifications. Additionally, our methodology produced reliable results regarding Cenozoic floras’ physiognomies based on fossil fungi, revealing a transition from sparsely wooded areas with palms and prairies to complex forest ecosystems with palms, deciduous trees, and shrubland. Furthermore, testing Cretaceous algae with the NLR method, for the first time, provided comprehensive insights into past water body characteristics, including trophic state and water quality.

AbstractAbstract. neighboring countries. Recently, an increase in biological surveys and access to natural preserves has led to a better understanding of species distributions in Nicaragua and across Central America. Here, we provide new departmental records for three species of didelphid, 18 chiropterans (Phyllostomidae, Molossidae, Vespertilionidae), one geomyid, and one mustelid from 21 sites across the country. This work underscores the need for additional sampling across Nicaragua to fill gaps in the known distribution of many species. This information can facilitate or inform conservation actions in established and proposed preserves in Nicaragua.

The biotic assembly of the Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico, was analysed under an evolutionary biogeographic framework. We undertook a parsimony analysis of endemicity with progressive character elimination of 194 plant and animal species, which allowed us to identify the archipelago as a complex area or node where Nearctic and Neotropical biotic components overlap. We undertook a cladistic biogeographic analysis using the phylogenetic information of 42 taxon-area cladograms, from which one general-area cladogram was obtained: (Revillagigedo, (Sonoran, (Baja California, (Veracruzan, Pacific Lowlands)))). These results suggest that the Revillagigedo Archipelago may be classified as a province, although we prefer to keep it as a district of the Pacific Lowlands province. We identified two cenocrons (temporally integrated set of taxa) that can be dated to the Pliocene–Pleistocene: one Nearctic that dispersed from the Baja California Peninsula, and another Neotropical where the species dispersed from the Pacific coast to the islands. The geological information and the general-area cladograms allowed us to propose a geobiotic scenario for the archipelago where the islands are probably the result of volcanism associated with the oceanic Mathematician Ridge, and the arrival of the cenocrons to the archipelago may have occurred during the Pliocene–Pleistocene, after the islands were available for colonisation.

Hotspots are priority marine or terrestrial areas with high biodiversity where delineation is essential for conservation, but equally important is their linkage to the environmental policies of the overall region. In this study, fish diversity presences were linked to abiotic conditions and differen…

In multiple regression Y ~ β0 + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X1 X2 + ɛ., the interaction term is quantified as the product of X1 and X2. We developed fractional-power interaction regression (FPIR), using βX1M X2N as the interaction term. The rationale of FPIR is that the slopes of Y-X1 regression along the X2 gr…