No abstract

Women are underrepresented in professional spaces, particularly at leadership positions. In science, the participation in editorial boards of journals is evidence of a high reputation within a specialty or field. Therefore, female presence in editorial boards can be used as a proxy for female presence and leadership in academic spaces. Here, we assessed the gender composition in editorial boards of 31 biodiversity conservation (BC) journals included in the Web of Science and obtained information on current and past editorial boards of these journals. We found pervasive gender bias in the editorial boards of the main scientific BC journals. Current editorial boards were composed of 1251 editors, of which only 28.7% were women. Nevertheless, gender biases are becoming smaller over time. Our projections indicate that BC journals may achieve gender balance in their editorial boards by the year 2038. We argue that a diverse and inclusive editorial board has greater chances to propose innovative solutions to conservation problems . Thus, the academic community, editors and journals must take proactive measures to achieve gender balance. Given that most editors are men, hiring women still depends on them; and these men need urgently to take their share of responsibility and be actors of change. More broadly, journals and science decision-makers must commit to their importance in the movement and start, for example, to hire and support women's work.

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Species interactions are one dimension of a niche. Niche overlap arises when two species share an interaction partner. In pollination systems, environmental and biotic factors affect niche overlap. Here, we explored the effects of climate seasonality, plant and bat richness, morphological traits, and phylogenetic distance in shaping the niche overlap of Neotropical bat–plant pollination networks. We examined a dataset of 22 bat–plant pollination networks in the Neotropical region. We measured niche overlap in bats and plants with the Morisita‐Horn index (ĈH) and used a SAR model to test the relationships between niche overlap and both abiotic and biotic factors. We found a lower niche overlap among bats in communities composed of phylogenetically distant bat species. Moreover, plant and bat overlap was lower in regions with higher precipitation seasonality. Our results indicate that climate seasonality and bat evolutionary history drive niche overlap in Neotropical bat–plant pollination interactions. These findings suggest that a higher precipitation seasonality promotes the emergence of temporal modules, which reduces niche overlap, likely due to seasonal species phenologies. Furthermore, the method used to record the interactions affects the degree of niche overlap. Interactions recorded with pollen samples tend to have higher niche overlap than direct observations. The responses of morphological traits and phylogenetic distances in bat niche overlap were uncoupled, suggesting an effect of historical processes independent of morphological traits. Our findings reinforce the importance of evolutionary history and ecological processes in imprinting patterns of interaction niche overlap. Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material

Male researchers dominate scientific production in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, potential mechanisms to avoid this gender imbalance remain poorly explored in STEM, including ecology and evolution areas. In the last decades, changes in the peer-review process towards double-anonymized (DA) have increased among ecology and evolution (EcoEvo) journals. Using comprehensive data on articles from 18 selected EcoEvo journals with an impact factor >1, we tested the effect of the DA peer-review process in female-leading (i.e., first and senior authors) articles. We tested whether the representation of female-leading authors differs between double and single-anonymized (SA) peer-reviewed journals. Also, we tested if the adoption of the DA by previous SA journals has increased the representativeness of female-leading authors over time. We found that publications led by female authors did not differ between DA and SA journals. Moreover, female-leading articles did not increase after changes from SA to DA peer-review. Tackling female underrepresentation in science is a complex task requiring many interventions. Still, our results highlight that adopting the DA peer-review system alone could be insufficient in fostering gender equality in EcoEvo scientific publications. Ecologists and evolutionists understand how diversity is important to ecosystems’ resilience in facing environmental changes. The question remaining is: why is it so difficult to promote and keep this “diversity” in addition to equity and inclusion in the academic environment? We thus argue that all scientists, mentors, and research centers must be engaged in promoting solutions to gender bias by fostering diversity, inclusion, and affirmative measures.

El papel de las reservas privadas generalmente se subvalora debido a su pequeño tamaño y su distribución discontinua. Para examinar su relevancia en la conservación de los mamíferos, con este trabajo abordamos tres objetivos: 1) identificar el patrón de tamaño, altitud y distribución de las reservas privadas colombianas del Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas - SINAP, 2) examinar, como estudio de caso, la riqueza de mamíferos y patrones geográficos de doce reservas, y 3) identificar la contribución de las pequeñas reservas a la conservación de mamíferos colombianos. Para el primer objetivo, analizamos el tamaño, altitud y distribución de las reservas privadas del SINAP discriminadas por provincias biogeográficas. Para los subsiguientes objetivos, evaluamos la relación entre la riqueza de mamíferos, con área, altitud y conectividad en las doce reservas. Encontramos que la mayoría de las reservas privadas tienen áreas menores a 100 ha, están entre los 1500 y 2500 m y se ubican en la provincia Norandina. En el conjunto de las doce reservas examinadas, encontramos una riqueza de 224 especies de once órdenes de mamíferos, con un promedio de 42,7 especies (19 murciélagos y 23,7 mamíferos no voladores). Encontramos una relación positiva entre el área y la riqueza total de mamíferos y de mamíferos no voladores, y entre la altitud y la riqueza de mamíferos no voladores. Además, identificamos que las reservas conservan principalmente mamíferos pequeños, aunque pueden ser refugio para especies medianas y grandes. Resaltamos que estas reservas contribuyen significativamente a la conservación de los mamíferos en Colombia.

Sloths and anteaters form the monophyletic order Pilosa, which is currently represented by only 16 extant species distributed exclusively in the Neotropics. This present‐day low species richness is an inheritance of the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, where over 65 Pilosa species known from the fossil record went extinct. The large number of species lost in the recent past suggests that this group is greatly vulnerable to extinction. Here, we propose long‐term priority conservation areas for the order Pilosa, considering different future climate change scenarios, biotic stability, and the multiple dimensions of the group's biodiversity, such as species richness, species endemism, and phylogenetic diversity. Projections of species distribution for future scenarios show increased fragmentation and clear habitat loss as the Amazon Forest is replaced by savanna‐like habitats. Conservation solutions were highly congruent for the different dimensions of biodiversity, with priority areas emerging mainly in the Atlantic Forest, Amazonian wetlands, highlands of Ecuador, and the Central American isthmus. Expanding the currently protected areas network by 6% with the proposed priority areas, independently of which future climatic scenario is considered, can increase sloths and anteaters' coverage in the future by 12%. As a group of high phylogenetic and ecological importance, future conservation planning should deliberately aim to protect areas favorable to Pilosa, especially given the current scenario of environmental dismantling and neglect of critical Neotropical biomes. Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.