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Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

Link

Freshwater fish diversity in the western Amazon basin shaped by Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous

Ahmed Junaid

3 February 2025 5:24am

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02220-8

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Read "Freshwater fish diversity in the western Amazon basin shaped by Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous | Nature Ecology & Evolution" on Nature

Freshwater fish diversity in the western Amazon basin shaped by Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous | Nature Ecology & Evolution

South America is home to the highest freshwater fish biodiversity on Earth, and the hotspot of species richness is located in the western Amazon basin. The location of this hotspot is enigmatic, as it is inconsistent with the pattern observed in river systems across the world of increasing species richness towards a river’s mouth. Here we investigate the role of river capture events caused by Andean mountain building and repeated episodes of flooding in western Amazonia in shaping the modern-day richness pattern of freshwater fishes in South America, and in Amazonia in particular. To this end, we combine a reconstruction of river networks since 80 Ma with a mechanistic model simulating dispersal, allopatric speciation and extinction over the dynamic landscape of rivers and lakes. We show that Andean mountain building and consequent numerous small river capture events in western Amazonia caused freshwater habitats to be highly dynamic, leading to high diversification rates and exceptional richness. The history of marine incursions and lakes, including the Miocene Pebas mega-wetland system in western Amazonia, played a secondary role. Reconstructing river networks over the past 80 Ma reveals the role of Andean uplift in creating a dynamic habitat leading to increased fish species diversity in western Amazonia.

Nature
discussion

Guidance for a career changer

Manish Gadhvi

13 January 2025 10:30pm

Hello everyone,I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to this community as I’m currently transitioning into a career focused on data engineering and analysis, with a...

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Alexander Merdian-Tarko

29 January 2025 6:57pm

Hi Manish,

There are other related posts here on WILDLABS with some potentially interesting answers, e. g. this post. Perhaps you might find some useful information there in case you haven't seen it already. Volunteering in that area might also be an interesting entry point.

Cheers,

Alex

Manish Gadhvi

1 February 2025 4:42pm

Hey Frank, Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate your insights. It’s cool to see the different paths available in this field. I feel like I’m just starting out and trying to figure out which technologies are key in these industries. 

 

I’m aiming to move from a Data Analyst role to a Data Engineer as that seems to be a standard progression My background is in API and full-stack development with Java/Spring. Right now, I’m diving into Python data libraries and brushing up on my SQL skills. 

 

I’ve put together a simple data pipeline using the Open Weather API (check it out here: https://github.com/MGadhvi/weather-etl) and did some analysis on rhino sighting data from the IUCN (you can find it here: https://github.com/MGadhvi/iucn-rhino-analysis). I’m currently working on a similar project with a larger dataset from the IUCN, using Google Cloud Platform to handle the heavy lifting. 

 

I’m thinking it might be a good idea to find a data role elsewhere to get some experience before jumping into conservation efforts. It might be better to volunteer if possible to learn the ropes 

 

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated 

 

Best, Manish Gadhvi

Manish Gadhvi

1 February 2025 4:46pm

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your reply. I've used Kaggle before but I've never heard of the others.

I'm hoping to start volunteering at my local zoo soon as well so I'll see if there is anything I can do there

All the best,

Manish 

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discussion

Undergrad team available to tackle conservation problem statements

Colleen R O'Donnell

21 January 2025 6:37pm

Is anyone out there interested in pairing with an undergrad team of students to help you tackle your research problem?This is through the University of Maryland's environmental...

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Lucie Gallegos

31 January 2025 9:38pm

Hi Colleen,

Thank you for sharing this exciting opportunity. I am Lucie, International Development Manager of Natural Solutions. We are a company at the intersection of biodiversity and tech for over 15 years. We specialize in developing digital tools for conservation organizations, researchers, and policymakers, helping them collect, analyze, and visualize biodiversity data. More recently, we’ve been exploring new possibilities and began to analyze what we could propose to businesses to support them in understanding their dependencies and impacts on nature (impact assessment platforms that help companies quantify their environmental footprint, define relevant indicators, and develop actionable biodiversity strategies etc)

We would be interested in exploring whether this topic could be relevant for your students.

Would this align with your students' interests and skill sets? Additionally, could you share more details on the timeline and any constraints—when would the project start, and what are the expected deliverables?

Looking forward to discussing this further! My email is lucie_gallegos@natural-solutions.eu 
Don't hesitate to reach out!

Best, 

Lucie

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Link

Latin American/Caribbean Conservation Research Grant

Ahmed Junaid

31 January 2025 3:52pm

American Ornithological Society (AOS)

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discussion

The transmission range of animal tracking tags.

Chittakon Amonsin

16 December 2024 1:13pm

Hello everyone, I have some questions about radio telemetry used for animal tracking. As you may know, using radio signals for tracking animals is very important. I’m currently...

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Peter Apps

10 January 2025 1:41pm

There was research on this in the very early days of VHF radio tracking. I presume what you are interested in is the period between audible bleeps vs the easeof detecting a mximum as an antenna is rotated to get a directional fix. If memory serves the optimum between battery life and ease of use was either an interval of 0.8s or a frequency of 0.8 Hz (so an interval of 1.2 s). The low end of your adjustment range would be midway between those two - the res tof the range would be very hard to use.

Kyler Abernathy

10 January 2025 4:06pm

Hi Chittakon,

I think an 'ideal' optimization between transmission interval and battery life would depend on the application.  As I think Peter has indicated, longer transmission intervals could make it very difficult to determine direction, particularly on a moving animal. If you were not trying to find direction and/or locate the transmitter - maybe just detecting presence or absence - then a longer interval could work.  cheers

Matthew Stanton

29 January 2025 10:43pm

Choice of pulse interval on VHF transmitters really comes down to how mobile your study animal is and how complex the tracking environment is.

I have used pulse intervals down to 2 seconds on animals that spend a lot of time sitting still. This does save on power but if you are used to a faster pulse interval, it can be a real lesson in patience when you are trying to get an accurate bearing on the transmitter. For animals that are constantly on the move, don't even think about going slower than 1 second, particularly if the transmitter is likely to be intermittently blocked by habitat features.

Other ways of saving power can be to have periods when the transmitter is scheduled to sleep (when you are unlikely to be tracking) or to have bursts of pulses (say 1 minute on, one minute off).

Another important feature to consider is ensuring that the transmission has a stable pulse strength and frequency. There is nothing as frustrating as a transmitter that fluctuates in signal strength.

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event

1st International Conference on Drones and Unmanned Systems (DAUS' 2025)

Rick Spaulding

28 January 2025 5:29pm

The inaugural International Conference on Drones and Unmanned Systems (DAUS' 2025) focuses on the design, development and applications of drones, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), Unmanned underwater vehicles (...

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Anna Vallery

7 February 2025 6:51pm

I am disappointed I won't be able to make this meeting, but I am looking forward to any notes or updates that come from it! 
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article

INSTANT DETECT 2.0 - ALPHA TESTING

Sam Seccombe

28 January 2025 3:18pm

The worst thing a new conservation technology can do is become another maintenance burden on already stretched field teams. This meant Instant Detect 2.0 had to work perfectly from day 1. In this update, Sam Seccombe...

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Link

Collaring Elephants and Post Release Monitoring

Kasi Amor Kalande

28 January 2025 3:16pm

This leads to an exciting blog we did recently, it also includes a spatial map indicating elephant movement tracks of an orphaned elephant who self released himself into the wild (Kafue National Park). Cartography was done using ArcGIS Pro. If you're interested in animal...

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discussion

Help Shape the Future of the WILDLABS Geospatial Group!

Elsa Carla De Grandi

7 December 2024 2:43pm

Hello Geospatial community!First of all, a big thank you for being part of this amazing community.As you may know, @VAR1 , @ahmedjunaid  and I are the new WILDLABS Geospatial...

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Elsa Carla De Grandi

7 January 2025 5:49pm

Happy New Year Geospatial community! Don't forget to fill in the survey. Closing date is 19th January.

We'd love to hear from you! 

Elsa Carla De Grandi

27 January 2025 8:24pm

We're extending the survey deadline! Please don't forget to let us know if you would like to speak about your work at one of the future Geospatial community events. 

Many thanks!

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