Biology

Biological diversity conservation within natural reserves has been prioritized, but conservation efforts outside protected areas (where most human activities take place) have been very little considered. In this scenario, an alternative agricultural practice that may reduce the impacts of fragmentation in outer landscapes is a perforation process, which involves conservation in agricultural fields surrounded by continuous forests. Such practices enhance the positive impact of ecological services on fields. In this study we analyzed the biological diversity state in perforation fields and their surrounding forests. The analysis was done using dung beetles as biological indicators. A nested pattern in dung beetles distribution was found, which ordered the surrounding continuous forest sites as the ones with the highest species richness, followed by the perforation fields, and placed the fragmentation practice fields (continuous agricultural fields surrounding forest patches) with the lowest one. Indicator species for perforation fields and surrounding continuous forests were chosen. In general, perforation practice fields differed in composition, based upon functional groups richness and identity; it also contained a higher species richness than the fragmentation practice. Agricultural practices that enhance biological diversity conservation such as perforation, should be recommended and considered in natural resource management by local communities in order to take advantage of ecological services that otherwise may be gradually lost.

Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is a precolumbian Maya city located at the base of the highlands in the lowlands of west-central
Guatemala. It is the only Classic-period center in the southern Maya Lowlands that based its economy on the production
of an important raw material for export: salt. Because of its economic role and its location along a major trade route,
Salinas de los Nueve Cerros had a particularly long history of occupation. The site has evidence of a large sedentary population
starting during the Middle Preclassic (by ca. 800 B.C.) that continued several hundred years beyond the Classic
collapse, before finally being abandoned ca. A.D. 1200. The salt source was located in the center of the city. This presents
a rare opportunity to test the degree of elite control over the production of a non-elite resource. Production during the
Classic period does appear to have been tightly controlled by elites, as evinced by the presence of multiple administrative
structures and elite tombs throughout the salt-working zone, located less than 100 m from the site epicenter.

La Reserva de la Biosfera Maya (RBM) es un área protegida de relevancia nacional, regional y mundial por la diversidad biológica asociada y los beneficios que se obtienen de esta. En su plan maestro se plantea el conjunto de elementos de conservación a partir de los cuales se orientan estrategias y se evalúa la efectividad de manejo de dicha reserva, entre los cuales se incluye a Tapirella bairdii (tapir), por lo que es importante contar con un monitoreo de esta especie como una  herramienta para la administración de esta reserva. En el 2015 se inició el desarrollo de un protocolo de monitoreo basado en la estimación de la probabilidad de ocupación  y el presente estudio constituye la continuación de esta iniciativa a través de la implementación de las temporadas de muestreo en los años 2017 y 2018. Se registró la presencia del tapir en cinco zonas núcleo de la RBM empleando trampas cámara y se estimó la probabilidad de ocupación. Los valores estimados sugieren una relación  de la ocupación con la integridad ecológica, en la cual hay una mayor ocupación en áreas con menor perturbación. Se generaron modelos con cinco covariables relacionadas con amenazas potenciales, sin embargo fue el modelo nulo el que se seleccionó de acuerdo al criterio definido. Los resultados sugieren que la integridad ecológica en las áreas de estudio está siendo afectada como consecuencia de las presiones antrópicas por lo que es necesario el fortalecimiento de aquellas con menores valores de ocupación.