Burrowing activity by armadillos in agroecosystems of central Argentina: Biogeography, land use, and rainfall effects

Abba, Agustín M.; Zufiaurre, Emmanuel; Codesido, Mariano; Bilenca, David

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2014.11.001

Cited by 28 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…One major change is when farmers switch from a till system, where crop stubble is plowed down following harvest, to a no-till system, where crop stubble is allowed to remain standing and the soil is not plowed. Two major changes occur as farming switches from a till to a no-till system: the amount of post-harvest grain in fields and the vegetation structure ( Moorcroft et al 2002 ; Whittingham et al 2006 ; Abba et al 2015) . As a result of no-till farming, a large amount of waste grain to remaining in standing stubble; this leads to a larger total food resource for birds that is available for a much longer time period ( Bucher and Ranvaud 2006) .…”

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confidence: 99%

The seasonal role of field characteristics on seed-eating bird abundances in agricultural landscapes

et al. 2016

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In temperate agroecosystems, avian responses in abundance and distribution to landscape attributes may be exacerbated by the coupling of natural seasons and farming practices. We assessed the seasonal roles of field type, field use in the surroundings, and distance from a field to the nearest woodlot on the abundance of seed-eating birds in a 225,000 km2 study area in the Pampas of central Argentina. During spring-summer and autumn of 2011–2013, we randomly selected 392 fields and used transect samples to collect data on abundance and presence of seed-eating bird species. We recorded a total of 11,579 individuals belonging to 15 seed-eating bird species. We used generalized lineal mixed models to relate bird abundance to field type, field use in the surroundings, and distance to the nearest woodlot. In spring-summer (breeding season) most bird responses were associated with their nesting requirements. Species that build their nests in trees, such as eared doves Zenaida auriculata, picazuro pigeons Patagioenas picazuro, and monk parakeets Myiopsitta monachus, were more abundant in fields closer to woodlots, whereas grassland yellow-finches Sicalis luteola, which nest at areas with tall grasses, were more abundant in fields with livestock use patches in the field surroundings. In autumn (non-breeding season), most bird responses were associated with foraging and refuge needs. The high abundance of eared doves in crop stubbles and the association of pigeons at field surroundings dominated by croplands or at crop stubbles surrounded by livestock use fields revealed the intimate association of these species to sites with high availability of food resources. In addition, both picazuro pigeons and spot-winged pigeons Patagioenas maculosa were associated with woodlots, which provide suitable roosting sites. Our results show that in temperate agroecosystems, the relationships between field characteristics and seed-eating bird abundances vary with season.

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confidence: 99%

The seasonal role of field characteristics on seed-eating bird abundances in agricultural landscapes

et al. 2016

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“…We still do not know much about anthropogenic effects on armadillos' populations Superina 2010, Superina et al 2014;Rodrigues et al 2020). Correctly identifying armadillo burrows may increase our knowledge of species-specific habitat use, density, activity, behavior (McDonough et al 2000;Abba et al 2005Abba et al , 2015Arteaga and Venticinque 2008;Desbiez et al 2018), and even ecosystem services such as bioturbation (Sawyer et al 2012), and ecosystem-engineering (Desbiez and Kluyber 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noninvasive Low‐cost Method to Identify Armadillos' Burrows: A Machine Learning Approach

Rodrigues

Nogueira

Chiarello

2021

Wildlife Society Bulletin

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Having accurate information about population parameters of armadillos (Mammalia, Cingulata) is essential for the conservation and management of the taxon, most species of which remain poorly studied. We investigated whether we could accurately identify 4 armadillo species (Euphractus sexcinctus, Dasypus novemcinctus, Cabassous tatouay, and Cabassous unicinctus) based on burrow morphometry. We first selected published studies that reported measurements of width, height, and angle of the burrows used by the 4 species of armadillos. Then, using such data we simulated burrow measurements for each of the 4 species of armadillos and we created predictive models through supervised machine learning that were capable of correctly identifying the species of armadillos based on their burrows' morphometry. By using classification algorithms such as Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbor, Support Vector Machine, Naive Bayes, and Decision Tree C5.0, we achieved the overall accuracy for the classification task by about 71%, including an overall Kappa index by about 61%. Euphractus sexcinctus was the most difficult species to discriminate and classify (approximately 68% of accuracy), whereas C. unicinctus was the easiest to discriminate (approximately 93% of accuracy). We found that it was possible to identify similar-sized armadillos based on the measurements of their burrows described in the literature. Finally, we developed an R function (armadilloID) that automatically identified the 4 species of armadillos using burrow morphology. As the data we used represented all studies that reported the morphometry of burrows for the 4 species of armadillos, we can generalize that our function can predict armadillo species beyond our data.

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“…There are no natural streams or rivers in the region and the only wetlands are temporary ponds and permanent, mostly saline lakes (Soriano et al 1992). The fauna of Inland Pampa is poorly known compared to other parts of the Buenos Aires province; this is true not only for amphibians, but also for other groups such as birds and mammals (Narosky and Di Giacomo 1993;Teta et al 2010;González-Fischer et al 2012;Abba et al 2015). Available information on the amphibian communities of northwestern Buenos Aires province is scarce and decades old (Barrio 1964(Barrio , 1965Gallardo 1965Gallardo , 1970Gallardo , 1974, all of it before major agriculturization began in the 1990s (Bilenca et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amphibians of northwestern Buenos Aires province, Argentina: checklist, range extensions and comments on conservation

Agostini

Saibene

Roesler

et al. 2016

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Abstract:Northwestern Buenos Aires province is located within the Pampas region of Argentina. Agricultural practices have extensively modified native grasslands in a relatively short period, leaving no intact pristine areas. Based on data collected between 2006 and 2015 at 153 ponds in agricultural landscapes, we compiled an annotated list of the amphibians of northwestern Buenos Aires province. We report 13 extant species of amphibians, which represent 43% of the known amphibian diversity in Buenos Aires province, and extend the ranges of three species. Three species found only in herpetological collections extend the list to 16 species. Our study is the first long-term survey of amphibians conducted in this part of Argentina and provides valuable information for future conservation actions across agricultural landscapes.

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Burrowing activity by armadillos in agroecosystems of central Argentina: Biogeography, land use, and rainfall effects

Cited by 28 publications

References 36 publications

The seasonal role of field characteristics on seed-eating bird abundances in agricultural landscapes

The seasonal role of field characteristics on seed-eating bird abundances in agricultural landscapes

Noninvasive Low‐cost Method to Identify Armadillos' Burrows: A Machine Learning Approach

Amphibians of northwestern Buenos Aires province, Argentina: checklist, range extensions and comments on conservation

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