Conservation efforts in terrestrial environments have focused on preserving patches of natural habitats and restoring disturbed habitats, with the main goal of transforming them into forests or habitats that resemble the original conditions. This approach tends to overlook the importance of conserving early successional vegetation (e.g., riverside vegetation, natural regeneration, young secondary forests), which often includes a large number of species (e.g., plants and animals) associated with or restricted to these habitats. In this paper we want to bring to attention the importance of preserving early successional vegetation, and to encourage scientists to investigate, e.g., the diversity, distribution, and species interactions occurring in these habitats. To address these goals, we focus on two main objectives: (1) to identify the common types of early successional vegetation in the Costa Rican Central Valley; and (2) to use some case studies to draw attention to the importance that such areas have as reservoirs of a large portion of the diversity unique to early successional stages. We first include an example to show the diversity of plants in small forest patches immersed in a large urbanized area. We provide general information on the insects that occur in early successional vegetation in urban areas, and in further detail examples of butterflies. Additionally, we provide examples of birds and mammals that are restricted to early successional vegetation, and how the reduction of this vegetation type affects species conservation. Finally, we encourage scientists to investigate these early successional habitats, particularly those species exclusive to early successional stages. Special attention should be paid to endemic species and those with a restricted distribution. Information of this type will make conservation of the diversity contained in these habitats possible.
Deforestation and changes in land use have reduced the tropical dry forest to isolated forest patches in northwestern Costa Rica. We examined the effect of patch area and length of the dry season on nestedness of the entire avian community, forest fragment assemblages, and species occupancy across fragments for the entire native avifauna, and for a subset of forest dependent species. Species richness was independent of both fragment area and distance between fragments. Similarity in bird community composition between patches was related to habitat structure; fragments with similar forest structure have more similar avian assemblages. Size of forest patches influenced nestedness of the bird community and species occupancy, but not nestedness of assemblages across patches in northwestern Costa Rican avifauna. Forest dependent species (species that require large tracts of mature forest) and assemblages of these species were nested within patches ordered by a gradient of seasonality, and only occupancy of species was nested by area of patches. Thus, forest patches with a shorter dry season include more forest dependent species.
Tweedy’s Crab-eating Rat, Ichthyomys tweedii Anthony, 1921, was described based on just a few specimens, and many aspects of its biology remains unclear. The species has only been previously reported to occur in two geographically disjunct areas in Panama and Ecuador. We report a new record of this species for southern Costa Rica. Our new record is the first for this species and the genus for Costa Rica, as well as the northernmost expression of the genus.
Abstract:The Rufous Tree Rat, Diplomys labilis, is known to range geographically from Central Panamá to Colombia and probably Ecuador. It occurs in a variety of habitat types where it moves by the branches in the high canopy at night. We report the Rufous Tree Rat for Costa Rica, ranging outside its geographical distribution about 490 km west from its type locality.
Ichthyomyini, a morphologically distinctive group of Neotropical cricetid rodents, lacks an integrative study of its systematics and biogeography. Since this tribe is a crucial element of the Sigmodontinae, the most speciose subfamily of the Cricetidae, we conducted a study that includes most of its recognized diversity (five genera and 19 species distributed from southern Mexico to northern Bolivia). For this report we analyzed a combined matrix composed of four molecular markers (RBP3, GHR, RAG1, Cytb) and 56 morphological traits, the latter including 15 external, 14 cranial, 19 dental, five soft-anatomical and three postcranial features. A variety of results were obtained, some of which are inconsistent with the currently accepted classification and understanding of the tribe. Ichthyomyini is retrieved as monophyletic, and it is divided into two main clades that are here recognized as subtribes: one to contain the genus Anotomys and the other composed by the remaining genera. Neusticomys (as currently recognized) was found to consist of two well supported clades, one of which corresponds to the original concept of Daptomys. Accordingly, we propose the resurrection of the latter as a valid genus to include several species from low to middle elevations and restrict Neusticomys to several highland forms. Numerous other revisions are necessary to reconcile the alpha taxonomy of ichthyomyines with our phylogenetic results, including placement of the Cajas Plateau water rat (formerly Chibchanomys orcesi) in the genus Neusticomys (sensu stricto), and the recognition of at least two new species (one in Neusticomys, one in Daptomys). Additional work is necessary to confirm other unanticipated results, such as the non-monophyletic nature of Rheomys and the presence of a possible new genus and species from Peru. Our results also suggest that ichthyomyines are one of the main Andean radiations of sigmodontine cricetids, with an evolutionary history dating to the Late Miocene and subsequent cladogenesis during the Pleistocene.
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