Browsing by Author "Bravo, Camila"

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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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    Cell wall disassembly, metabolome and transcriptome analysis in sweet cherry fruit with induced surface pitting
    (2023) Ponce, Excequel; Nunez-Lillo, Gerardo; Bravo, Camila; Vidal, Juan; -Reyes, Patricio Tapia; Meneses, Claudio; Pedreschi, Romina; Fuentealba, Claudia
    Surface pitting is the main quality problem that develops during prolonged storage of sweet cherries. It appears as one or more depressions on the surface of the fruit and is associated with the collapse of cells under the skin of the fruit. However, this physiological disorder is not shown in all cultivars with the same intensity. This research aims to analyze the cell wall disassembly of two cultivars displaying contrasting susceptibility to damage after pitting induction. In addition, we evaluated the metabolomic and transcriptomic changes in sweet cherries during cold storage. Our results show that damage to 'Sweetheart' fruit was more severe than damage to 'Bing' fruit. No differences were observed in the cell wall composition between nonpitted and pitted cherries; however, the varietal differences during cold storage were the most significant. The resistant cultivar 'Bing' showed a longer sidechain of RG-I; instead, 'Sweetheart' PME and PG activity was more marked at the beginning of cold storage. The metabolomics analysis revealed several compounds related to the abiotic stress response, such as 3O-coumaroyl-D-quinic acid, chlorogenic acid, GABA and beta-sitosterol. Furthermore, transcriptomics showed a higher expression of stress-related hormones in the susceptible cultivar and cell wall remodeling-related genes in the resistant cultivar. In conclusion, the contrasting susceptivity to surface pitting in sweet cherries can be attributed to the varietal response to cold storage rather than the mechanical stress of pitting induction.
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    Combining point counts and autonomous recording units improves avian survey efficacy across elevational gradients on two continents
    (WILEY, 2021) Drake, Anna; de Zwaan, Devin R.; Altamirano, Tomas A.; Wilson, Scott; Hick, Kristina; Bravo, Camila; Ibarra Eliessetch, José Tomás; Martin, Kathy
    Accurate biodiversity and population monitoring is a requirement for effective conservation decision making. Survey method bias is therefore a concern, particularly when research programs face logistical and cost limitations. We employed point counts (PCs) and autonomous recording units (ARUs) to survey avian biodiversity within comparable, high elevation, temperate mountain habitats at opposite ends of the Americas: nine mountains in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and 10 in southern Chile. We compared detected species richness against multiyear species inventories and examined method-specific detection probability by family. By incorporating time costs, we assessed the performance and efficiency of single versus combined methods. Species accumulation curves indicate ARUs can capture ~93% of species present in BC but only ~58% in Chile, despite Chilean mountain communities being less diverse. The avian community, rather than landscape composition, appears to drive this dramatic difference. Chilean communities contain less-vocal species, which ARUs missed. Further, 6/13 families in BC were better detected by ARUs, while 11/11 families in Chile were better detected by PCs. Where survey conditions differentially impacted method performance, PCs mostly varied over the morning and with canopy cover in BC, while ARUs mostly varied seasonally in Chile. Within a single year of monitoring, neither method alone was predicted to capture the full avian community, with the exception of ARUs in the alpine and subalpine of BC. PCs contributed little to detected diversity in BC, but including this method resulted in negligible increases in total time costs. Combining PCs with ARUs in Chile significantly increased species detections, again, for little cost.Combined methods were among the most efficient and accurate approaches to capturing diversity. We recommend conducting point counts, while ARUs are being deployed and retrieved in order to capture additional diversity with minimal additional effort and to flag methodological biases using a comparative framework