Browsing by Author "Root-Bernstein, Meredith"

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    A perspective on restoration with foundation plants across anthropogenic dry forests of the Southern Cone and the Sahel
    (2024) Root-Bernstein, Meredith; Addo-Danso, Shalom D.; Bestelmeyer, Brandon
    Rewilding is a flexible conservation approach that may be applicable to a wide variety of ecological, historical and socio-cultural contexts. We believe that comparative socio-ecological research on woodland habitat trajectories among contexts is an excellent opportunity to consider possible rewilding approaches. Here, we draw on a comparison between arid and seasonally dry woodlands of the Sahel region of Africa and the Southern Cone of South America. The two regions, while sharing a common Gondwanan floral origin, differ in terms of subsequent biogeographical processes and have different climatic gradients. Historically, both regions were colonised, although along different models, and the Southern Cone has experienced greater land-use change and agricultural modernisation. Culturally, both regions have indigenous populations with traditional management techniques and local ecological knowledge, although attention to these topics in research and conservation has had different emphases in each region. Rewilding, focusing on charismatic animals, has been proposed and implemented in some parts of the Southern Cone, but has hardly been mentioned for the Sahel. We discuss the applicability of potential rewilding models involving key plants for each region, and what a plant-focused rewilding practice could gain from a comparative approach in the two regions.
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    Acacia caven nurses endemic sclerophyllous trees along a successional pathway from silvopastoral savanna to forest
    (2017) Root-Bernstein, Meredith; Valenzuela, Rafael; Huerta, Margarita; Armesto, Juan J.; Jaksic Andrade, Fabián
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    An Eltonian proxy for restoring a lost browser-tree interaction
    (2024) Root-Bernstein, Meredith; Guerrero-Gatica, Matias; Rossle, Andoni Elorrieta; Fleming, Jory; Aguillar, Jorge Ramos; Rochefort, Benjamin Silva; Charles-Dominique, Tristan; Armesto, Juan; Jaksic, Fabian M.
    Many South American dry woodlands lack good historical or paleoecological baseline data to inform restoration and conservation. However, functionalist approaches such as those popularized by rewilding suggest that functional interactions producing target ecosystem processes are valid even without data confirming compositionalist values such as a long coevolutionary histories or known historical range overlaps of target species. In central Chile, the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) has been extirpated but is known to browse trees in other regions of South America, and the tree Vachellia [Acacia] caven shows adaptations to browsing but has no extant browsers within its Chilean range. Both species are native to Chile but there are no data to assess their historical levels of interaction. Here we test the hypothesis that they can act as mutual "Eltonian proxy" species: interacting species for which we lack sufficient data (the Eltonian shortfall) to prove they are not proxies. Specifically we predict that they have complementary adaptations such that guanacos will browse Vachellia [Acacia] caven and the latter will show adaptive responses to their browsing. We introduced five guanacos into an enclosure of Vachellia [Acacia] caven "espinal" woodland, and over two years measured the growth responses of individual branches, compared to branches of trees in an area without browsing. We predicted that Vachellia [Acacia] caven would show compensatory growth in response to guanaco browsing resulting in an increase in branching. Guanacos browsed throughout the two years. In the presence of guanaco browsing, Vachellia [Acacia] caven branches grew longer, grew more sub-branches, and showed more densely streamlined branch architectures. These results indicate that guanacos could be used to substitute anthropogenic pruning as a restoration and management technique in Vachellia [Acacia] caven "espinal" woodlands. However, other extinct megaherbivores or extirpated deer may also be key components of a past herbivore community to which Vachellia [Acacia] caven was adapted. Further attention to a network of multiple interacting browsers, and their indirect and nontrophic effects, is an area for further research.
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    Assessing Ecological Indicators for Remnant Vegetation Strips as Functional Biological Corridors in Chilean Vineyards
    (2021) Diaz-Forestier, Javiera; Abades, Sebastian; Pohl, Nelida; Barbosa, Olga; Godoy, Karina; Svensson, Gabriella L.; Undurraga, Maria, I; Bravo, Camila; Garcia, Camila; Root-Bernstein, Meredith; Armesto, Juan J.; Celis-Diez, Juan L.
    Mediterranean central Chile is globally recognized as a hotspot for terrestrial biodiversity due to its high endemism and massive habitat loss. However, within the rural landscape of central Chile, significant extents of natural areas remain, especially on less productive, steep slopes, and vegetation strips extending from the surrounding hills to agricultural areas. Accordingly, vegetation strips or corridors, within lowland farms, constitute key elements to support the conservation of biodiversity in rural landscapes. To assess the ecological performance of corridors in 22 commercials vineyards in central Chile, we characterized them in terms of width-, length-, area-, and perimeter-to-area ratios, as well as the number of connections with natural areas. Based on a set of previously defined ecological indicators (species, functional groups, and structural components), we compared their occurrence in corridors within vineyards and in the surrounding natural areas. We evaluated the effects of corridor attributes on the occurrence of the selected ecological indicators, using a generalized linear mixed model with each vineyard as a random factor. The area, width, and length of vegetation corridors varied widely (1.2-86.3 ha, 10.5-95 m, and 380-5000 m, respectively). We found significant differences in the occurrence of indicators between corridors and natural areas. All sampled ecological indicators in corridors showed a negative relationship with the distance to the nearest natural area. Vegetation strips within vineyards represent important opportunities for biodiversity conservation that significantly enhance habitat quality in the agricultural landscape for biodiversity and habitat connectivity.
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    Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non-native plant establishment
    (2021) Root-Bernstein, Meredith; Munoz, Cesar; Armesto, Juan
    Different conceptions of disturbance differ in the degree to which they appeal to mechanisms that are general and equivalent, or species-, functional group-, or interaction-specific. Some concepts of disturbance, for example, predict that soil disturbances and herbivory have identical impacts on species richness via identical mechanisms (reduction in biomass and in competition). An alternative hypothesis is that the specific traits of disturbance agents (small mammals) and plants differentially affect the richness or abundance of different plant groups. We tested these hypotheses on a degu (Octodon degus) colony in central Chile. We ask whether native and non-native forbs respond differently to degu bioturbation on runways versus herbivory on grazing lawns. We ask whether this can explain the increase in non-native plants on degu colonies. We found that biopedturbation did not explain the locations of non-native plants. We did not find direct evidence of grazing increasing non-native herbs either, but a grazing effect appears to be mediated by grass, which is the dominant cover. Further, we provide supplementary evidence to support our interpretation that a key mechanism of non-native spread is the formation of dry soil conditions on grazing lawns. Thus, ecosystem engineering (alteration of soil qualities) may be an outcome of disturbances, in which each interacts with specific plant traits, to create the observed pattern of non-native spread in the colony. Based on these results, we propose to extend Jentsch and White (Ecology, 100, 2019, e02734) concept of combined pulse/ disturbance events to the long-term process duality of ecosystem engineering/ disturbance.
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    History of canids in Chile and impacts on prey adaptations
    (2021) Silva Rochefort, Benjamin; Root-Bernstein, Meredith
    Artiodactyl prey species of Chile, especially guanacos (Lama guanicoe), are reported to be very susceptible to predation by pack-hunting feral dogs. It has been previously suggested that guanacos and endemic South American deer may have evolved in the absence of pack-hunting cursorial predators. However, the paleoecology of canid presence in southern South America and Chile is unclear. Here, we review the literature on South American and Chilean canids, their distributions, ecologies, and hunting behavior. We consider both wild and domestic canids, including Canis familiaris breeds. We establish two known antipredator defense behaviors of guanacos: predator inspection of ambush predators, for example, Puma concolor, and rushing at and kicking smaller cursorial predators, for example, Lycalopex culpaeus. We propose that since the late Pleistocene extinction of hypercarnivorous group-hunting canids east of the Andes, there were no native species creating group-hunting predation pressures on guanacos. Endemic deer of Chile may have never experienced group-hunting selection pressure from native predators. Even hunting dogs (or other canids) used by indigenous groups in the far north and extreme south of Chile (and presumably the center as well) appear to have been used primarily within ambush hunting strategies. This may account for the susceptibility of guanacos and other prey species to feral dog attacks. We detail seven separate hypotheses that require further investigation in order to assess how best to respond to the threat posed by feral dogs to the conservation of native deer and camelids in Chile and other parts of South America.
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    Local Territorial Practices Inform Co-Production of a Rewilding Project in the Chilean Andes
    (2023) Guerrero-Gatica, Matias; Reyes, Tamara Escobar; Rochefort, Benjamin Silva; Fernandez, Josefina; Elorrieta, Andoni; Root-Bernstein, Meredith
    Co-production of conservation projects is favored by incorporating local ecological knowledge into project design and implementation. Using a mixed method approach, we asked how the territorial practices and knowledge of cowboys and livestock farmers inform their attitudes to this proposed project. We predicted that cowboy territorial practices would be reduced in diversity compared to the past, and that this may be associated with a reduction in coping or adaptation capacity in the face of environmental challenges. We further predicted that due to growing environmental and social pressures reducing traditional livelihood opportunities for this group, they are likely to see the guanaco reintroduction project in a conflictual and negative light. We additionally predicted that they would perceive local carnivorous species in a conflictual and negative way. We found that territorial practices among the sample had indeed decreased in diversity. The sample coped with changing socio-ecological conditions by taking up other jobs. However, we also found that they had majority favorable views on the guanaco reintroduction project. Yet their knowledge of current guanaco behavior led them to believe that the project would fail. However, they also observed that pumas and condors changed their behaviors. We suggest that there are opportunities to co-produce knowledge about the possibility of flexible and adaptive guanaco behavior, which may lead to restoration and create more sustainable future scenarios, by engaging with the territorial practices and local ecological knowledge of cowboys and livestock farmers.
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    Where Forest Policy and Social Support Collide: Perceptions and Knowledge of Landholders About Forest Management in Central Chile
    (2023) Zorondo-Rodriguez, Francisco; Gomez-Fernandez, Nicolas A.; Bondoux, Arthur; Alfonso, Amanda; Carrasco-Oliva, Gabriela; Abasolo, Francisco; Rodriguez-Gomez, Gloria; Root-Bernstein, Meredith; Garcia, Claude A.
    Public perceptions and knowledge of forestry institutions are key for effective governance. Drawing from research among landholders in Chile through structured questionnaires, we examine the role that knowledge of forest regulations and agencies plays in relation to public perceptions of the forestry agency, and how tenure of forest land affects this association. Multivariate regressions showed a U-shaped relationship between perceptions and knowledge, explained by ownership of forested land. Landholders with more hectares of native forest reported a negative relationship between knowledge and perception, whereas landowners with fewer hectares of native forest reported a positive association. Our results suggest a forest management paradox: forestry institutions are established to sustainably manage and conserve biodiversity, especially for native threatened forests; nonetheless, the perceptions of landholders with greater areas of forest, who should be the targeted partners of these institutions, appear to become more negative as their knowledge of forestry institutions increased. Our results provide key information for adapting forestry institutions to socio-ecological contexts to produce effective outcomes..