Laboratorio de Análisis para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad
El Laboratorio de Análisis para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad (LACB) tiene como objetivo general contribuir al conocimiento, aprecio y conservación de la biodiversidad. En particular en lo relacionado con la comprensión de las consecuencias que el impacto humano tiene sobre las especies de animales silvestres y los procesos ecológicos en los que esta fauna está involucrada. La principal vía para abordar esta línea de investigación es a través del estudio de las interacciones bióticas. En estos estudios se abarca una variedad muy amplia de organismos tales como plantas, mamíferos y aves). Un sello distintivo del LACB es que busca tener un balance entre el conocimiento de historia natural y el empleo de métodos cuantitativos novedosos para abordar y resolver las preguntas de investigación. Además, en el laboratorio se le da mucha importancia a que a la par de publicar los resultados de investigación se comparta el conocimiento usando un lenguaje más accesible a través de artículos de divulgación, videos, pláticas y talleres.
Consulta aquí ejemplos de la investigación que se realiza en el LACB:
Únete al LACB
El LACB tiene siempre sus puertas abiertas para recibir estudiantes muy motivados e independientes que quieran fortalecer su formación académica a través de la realización de estudios (licenciatura/posgrado) y estancias de investigación en las líneas de trabajo que se manejan en el laboratorio.
Protected areas are of paramount relevance to conserving wildlife and ecosystem contributions to people. Yet, their conservation success is increasingly threatened by human activities including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and species overexploitation. Thus, understanding the underlying and proximate drivers of anthropogenic threats is urgently needed to improve protected areas' effectiveness, especially in the biodiversity-rich tropics. We addressed this issue by analyzing expert-provided data on long-term biodiversity change (last three decades) over 14 biosphere reserves from the Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot. Using multivariate analyses and structural equation modeling, we tested the influence of major socioeconomic drivers (demographic, economic, and political factors), spatial indicators of human activities (agriculture expansion and road extension), and forest landscape modifications (forest loss and isolation) as drivers of biodiversity change.
Water availability significantly influences bird and mammal ecology in terrestrial ecosystems. However, our understanding of the role of water as a limiting resource for birds and mammals remains partial because most of the studies have focused on surface water bodies in desert and semi-desert ecosystems. This study assessed the use of two types of surface water bodies (waterholes and epikarst rock pools) and one arboreal (water-filled tree holes) by birds and mammals in the seasonally dry tropical forests of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in southern Mexico. We deployed camera traps in 23 waterholes, 22 rock pools, and 19 water-filled tree holes in this karstic region to record visits by small, medium, and large-bodied birds and mammals during the dry and rainy seasons. These cameras were set up for recording videos documenting when animals were making use of water for drinking, bathing, or both.
The consumption of fruits and seeds by mammals can have a strong impact on the regeneration of tropical forests. Our knowledge of this biotic interaction has steadily increased recently but it remains fragmentary. This is largely due to most of the studies focusing on a small proportion of the diverse mammals and plants involved in these interactions and to the fact most commonly used methods provide just partial information about the whole seed dispersal/predation process. The use of camera traps has opened the opportunity to greatly improve our knowledge of the intricacies of frugivory and seed predation by increasing the likelihood to record very secretive animal species and providing detailed accounts of their behavior. Based on camera trap data we report acorn consumption of Quercus benthamii and Q. sapotifolia by the threatened Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii).
