Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza

North American population estimates of waterbirds, vultures and hawks from migration counts in Veracruz, México

Summary Continental-scale bird population estimates are used as a decision-support tool in conservation plans. The calculation of these estimates includes the use of density values and survey data from one or multiple sources extrapolated to the geographic scale of interest. In this paper, we use migration count data from a migration monitoring project in Veracruz, Mexico, to revise existing North American population estimates of seven species of waterbirds, New World vultures, and diurnal raptors. In two species of waterbirds, we suggest that existing estimates are low and propose a mechanism to correct these figures. In the remaining five cases, we also determine present estimates are low, but use our data to provide new continental-scale values. We discuss the importance of refining population estimates using data from a diverse suite of field methods as a means to overcome the limitations of the single-survey-based estimates. Resumen Las estimaciones de poblaciones de aves a escala continental son utilizadas como una herramienta

Capacity building to advance the United Nations sustainable development goals: An overview of tools and approaches related to sustainable land management

ABSTRACT The United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) provide an ambitious and comprehensive framework for addressing the development needs on a global, regional, and national scale. In order for the SDG targets to be obtainable, diverse stakeholders need the technical, institutional, and organizational capacity to implement the wide variety of initiatives covered under these goals. Inspired by a 2016 workshop, this article synthesizes capacity-building themes and strategies for the following approaches to sustainable development, specifically related to forestry, restoration, agriculture, and other forms of land management. Using three case studies from the authors’ experience, we present approaches to building local capacity for sustainable land management (SLM) in the tropics. These projects have taken different steps in order to build technical and leadership capacity as well as develop management or financial skills, and offer insight into various approaches that may be used in order to improve the effectiveness and long-term impact of SLM efforts. By presenting a range of tools and approaches to capacity building, the authors hope that this synthesis can serve as a valuable guide for the development of diverse capacity-building initiatives required to meet the SDGs.

Using Birds to Assess and Track Forest Restoration

We present a simple method to use birds to assess and track the restoration of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests using birds as indicator species. The method is composed of three pieces: a classification of disturbance phases, the collection of species- and assembly-level bird data, and the matching of these two data sets to understand its relationships. We were able to select three species of resident and three species of Neotropical migrants exclusively associated to each of the four habitat phases, as well as some characteristics at the assembly level that help understand the condition of habitats, prescribe restoration intervention plans, and to track its progress over time. The approach described here is intended to be of simple application, aimed for practitioners, and be easily replicated in other places.

Noteworthy bird records from northeastern Peru reveal connectivity and isolation in the western Amazonian avifauna

ABSTRACT Amazonian bird species often have patchy spatial distributions, and previous work has attributed this pattern to habitat specialization and dispersal limitation; however, we know comparatively little about the origins and maintenance of the isolated populations that constitute a patchy distribution. In this study, we ask whether patchy populations are interconnected by dispersal. We formulated 2 alternative hypotheses: (1) patchy populations are relicts of ancient connectivity or dispersal; and (2) patchy populations are centers of local abundance embedded in a matrix of contemporary dispersal or diffuse intervening populations. We confronted these hypotheses with circumstantial evidence derived from a unique suite of noteworthy bird records and geological observations from northeastern Peru. We found support for both hypotheses in different species, and sometimes within single species at different spatial scales. Phenotypically differentiated populations in relictual habitat patches provide strong support for the first hypothesis, whereas populations in recently created, ephemeral habitat patches provide strong support for the second. Colonizations of anthropogenic habitats are further examples of the second process, and they indicate ongoing changes in the porous connectivity of upper Amazonia. These results highlight the need for a conservation approach that accounts for metapopulation dynamics across patchy species ranges.

Ten simple rules for successfully completing a graduate degree in Latin America

Ten simple rules for successfully completing a graduate degree in Latin America Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza*, Gabriela I. Salazar-Rivera1☯, Magdiel Láinez1☯, Marı́a Guadalupe Ruiz-Gómez1☯, Carlo A. Domı́nguez-Eusebio1☯, Griselda Cristóbal-Sánchez2☯, Issaac A. Teodosio Faustino3☯, Edel Pérez-López, Meagan L. Campbell, Marcus Vinicius Merfa, Ivonne Tatiana Latorre Beltrán, Fernanda Armas, Claudio MotaVargas

What Does the Swainson's Hawk Migration Phenology Tell us about its Migration Ecology?

Resumen Estudiamos la fenologia de la migracion otonal de Buteo swainsoni para determinar si las diferencias en la temporalidad de la migracion de adultos y juveniles pueden explicar los patrones bimodales de estacionalidad. Cuantificamos el numero de adultos, juveniles e individuos de edad indeterminada mediante fotografias digitales de individuos migratorios en dos sitios de estudio de migracion en Veracruz, Mexico, un area de importancia mundial para las aves migratorias. Durante la temporada de migracion de 2015, encontramos que la proporcion de cada clase de edad registrada en periodos de tres dias vario a lo largo de la temporada. Sin embargo, no encontramos evidencia concluyente de migracion diferencial entre adultos y juveniles. Nuestros resultados pueden obedecer a tres razones: (1) que los patrones bimodales de la fenologia de la migracion de B. swainsoni no son causados por diferencias entre clases de edad, sino que podrian obedecer a diferencias entre sexos o entre poblaciones de diferentes or...