Welcome to the 31st IUBS General Assembly and Conference on ...

Lily O RODRIGUEZ, 1 Germán FORERO, 2 Armin
NIESSER 3 <strong>and</strong> Reiner ZIMMERMANN 3
1GIZ – Perú. Biodiversity <strong>and</strong> Climate Change Project,Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH,
Calle Los Manzanos 119, Lima 27, San Isidro, Perú, 2 Nicholas
School of <strong>the</strong> Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
<strong>and</strong> 3 Forest Ecology <strong>and</strong> Remote Sensing Group, FEARS, Institut
fur Botanik 210, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
Email: lilyrodriguez@hotmail.com
Impacts of climate change on tropical ecosystems are
hardly documented, mainly because of lack of consistent
long‐term data. These data will be important for
adaptation <strong>and</strong> future management, underst<strong>and</strong>ing how
species <strong>and</strong> communities adapt <strong>to</strong> new situation <strong>and</strong>
modeling fur<strong>the</strong>r changes in <strong>the</strong> future, or even
establishing pro<strong>to</strong>cols for moni<strong>to</strong>ring biodiversity for
REDD+ projects. We established an altitudinal transect
(250–2250 m), in <strong>the</strong> Serranias del Sira (Sira Communal
Reserve), for moni<strong>to</strong>ring changes in biodiversity elements
<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> climate. Along <strong>the</strong> transect, we expect <strong>to</strong>
moni<strong>to</strong>r changes on altitudinal ranges, abundance <strong>and</strong>
phenology in different communities of birds, frogs <strong>and</strong>
vegetation. We did a 41‐year his<strong>to</strong>rical analysis on
altitudinal ranges of birds (Forero et al. 2011), showing
an average upward shift of 49 m for 55 bird species. The
shift is significantly upward, but also significantly smaller
than <strong>the</strong> 152 m one expects from warming in <strong>the</strong> region.
We also sampled for frogs in 100 m 2 plots (4 plots 100 m
of altitude) along <strong>the</strong> transect, <strong>to</strong> establish <strong>the</strong> baseline on
species relative densities. At <strong>the</strong> same time, we sampled
for <strong>the</strong> fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis,
which does not appear <strong>to</strong> have reached <strong>the</strong> area. For
vegetation, we established 5 plots of 1 ha, (RAINFOR type)
<strong>and</strong> characterized <strong>the</strong> composition of <strong>the</strong> flora of each
vegetation type. In <strong>the</strong>se plots we will be moni<strong>to</strong>ring
changes on composition trees (dbh > 10 cm), turnover
<strong>and</strong> growth, <strong>to</strong> be sampled every 5 years. At each plot,
we have also installed high‐resolution digital
dendrometers on 15 trees, <strong>and</strong> meteorological stations <strong>to</strong>
record wea<strong>the</strong>r conditions (temperature, precipitation,
humidity, radiation <strong>and</strong> wind). We present our
preliminary results after <strong>the</strong> first year of work in this
transect.
Multiple infections, parasitemia <strong>and</strong>
ultraviolet colouration in blue tits (Cyanistes
caeruleus)
Elisa PEREZ BADAS
MNCN‐CSIC, 2 Jose Gutierrez Abascal, 28006 Madrid. Email:
elisa.perez@mncn.csic.es
Blood parasites are widespread in birds across all
continents, with <strong>the</strong> exception of <strong>the</strong> Antarctica, where
vec<strong>to</strong>rs are absent. The most common genera are
Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, Leucocy<strong>to</strong>zoon,
Trypanosoma <strong>and</strong> nema<strong>to</strong>de larvae (microfilariae), but
little is known about <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong>se
parasites <strong>and</strong> secondary sexual selection signals, such as
plumage colour. Several studies have shown that more
parasitized birds are paler than those that are uninfected,
but none have assessed <strong>the</strong> effect of multiple infections
on plumage colour in <strong>the</strong> ultraviolet (UV‐A) range.
Therefore, using a population of blue tits in central Spain
in which all <strong>the</strong>se parasites are present, we measured UV
colouration (UV chroma) in <strong>the</strong> breast plumage in relation
<strong>to</strong> presence <strong>and</strong> abundance of blood parasites. We
determined <strong>the</strong> intensity of parasitic infections by
combining data from microscopic scanning of blood
smears <strong>and</strong> a quantitative PCR. A fragment of <strong>the</strong>
mi<strong>to</strong>chondrial cy<strong>to</strong>chrome gene of <strong>the</strong> parasites was
amplified from avian blood samples. We found a positive
significant correlation between parasitemia by
Haemoproteus <strong>and</strong> UV chroma. In addition <strong>to</strong> this, we
found that males that harboured infections by more
genera of parasites showed marginally significant
brighter UV chroma. Overall, while male ‘attractiveness’
<strong>and</strong> male survival has been associated with brighter UV
colouration in crown fea<strong>the</strong>rs, our results indicate that
breast plumage colouration may convey a different piece
of information, at least in terms of parasite load. Thus, we
speculate that <strong>the</strong> assessment of male status by females in
some bird species might be based on multiple signals.
N­methylmorpholine­N­oxide/alkali
preatreatment improved corncob
bioconversion processing <strong>to</strong> sugars for
bio­ethanol production
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