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Papers by Carolina Laura Morales

Ciencia ciudadana y polinizadores de América del Sur, 2022

Ciência cidadã e polinizadores da América do Sul, 2022

Aim: Aggregated species occurrence data are increasingly accessible through public databases for ... more Aim: Aggregated species occurrence data are increasingly accessible through public databases for the analysis of temporal trends in species’ distributions. However, biases in these data present challenges for robust statistical inference. We assessed potential biases in data available through GBIF on the occurrences of four flower-visiting taxa: bees (Anthophila), hoverflies (Syrphidae), leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae), and hummingbirds (Trochilidae). We also assessed whether and to what extent data mobilisation efforts improved our ability to estimate trends in species’ distributions.Location: The Neotropics.Methods: We used five data-driven heuristics to screen the data for potential geographic, temporal and taxonomic biases. We began with a continental-scale assessment of the data for all four taxa. We then identified two recent data mobilisation efforts (2021) that drastically increased the quantity of records of bees collected in Chile available through GBIF. We compared the d...

Journal of Insect Conservation

A 35 años de su creación, el Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense brindó una charla abierta e... more A 35 años de su creación, el Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense brindó una charla abierta en la ciudad de Bariloche el pasado 30 de agosto, en coincidencia con el Día Internacional del Detenido Desaparecido. Desde La Patagonia estuvo allí presente

Volcanic eruptions are large-scale natural disturbances, which can negatively affect insect fauna... more Volcanic eruptions are large-scale natural disturbances, which can negatively affect insect fauna and the ecological interactions in which they are involved. The 2011 eruption of the volcanic complex Puyehue Cordón-Caulle (PCC) produced the deposition of 950 million tons of ash on Argentine Patagonia, creating an ash layer of varying thickness. Although experimental studies confirmed that PCC volcanic ash negatively affects survival and behavior in many insect taxa, including bees, the effects of ash deposition on the plant-pollinator interactions (PPI) of this group of insects in natural landscapes remained untested. We evaluated the effect of the gradient of increasing ash layer thickness (0-15cm) on: (1) number of wild bees visiting flowers and total bee richness in 16 raspberry fields after the eruption, (2) number of native (Bombus dahlbomii) and invasive (B. terrestris and B. ruderatus) bumble bees foraging on wild flowers in 10 sites before and after the eruption, and (3) the...

Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Dec 1, 2019

La biodiversidad esta siendo destruida a una tasa alarmante. Una de las principales causas de est... more La biodiversidad esta siendo destruida a una tasa alarmante. Una de las principales causas de esta perdida es el cambio de uso del suelo, que se basa en la agricultura y la ganaderia convencionales. Las practicas de manejo como el monocultivo y el uso intensivo de agroquimicos reducen el numero de especies de plantas, aves, insectos y otros grupos taxonomicos, a la vez que aumentan la abundancia relativa (dominancia) de pocas especies cultivadas y silvestres (e.g., malezas). Dado que casi 40% de la superficie terrestre se destina a la produccion de cultivos y de carne, es clave lograr una produccion agropecuaria compatible con la preservacion de la biodiversidad. Ademas de su valor por aspectos eticos, espirituales y de uso para generaciones futuras, en este articulo destacamos el rol de la biodiversidad en la produccion agropecuaria, y usamos a los polinizadores como ejemplo. Paradojicamente, la agricultura convencional esta destruyendo la diversidad de polinizadores, pero esta div...

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Advances in Ecological Research

Abstract Increasing honey demand and global coverage of pollinator-dependent crops within the con... more Abstract Increasing honey demand and global coverage of pollinator-dependent crops within the context of global pollinator declines have accelerated international trade in managed bees. Bee introductions into agricultural landscapes outside their native ranges have triggered noteworthy invasions, especially of the African honey bee in the Americas and the European bumble bee Bombus terrestris in southern South America, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Japan. Such invasions have displaced native bees via competition, pathogen transmission, and invaders' capacity to exploit anthropogenic landscapes. At high abundance, invasive bees can degrade the mutualistic nature of many of the flower-pollinator interactions they usurp, either directly by affecting flower performance or indirectly by reducing the pollination effectiveness of other flower visitors, with negative consequences for crop pollination and yield. We illustrate such effects with empirical examples, focusing particularly on interactions in the Americas between B. terrestris and raspberry and between the African honey bee and coffee. Despite high bee abundance and flower visitation in crops, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that agricultural landscapes of pollinator-dependent crops dominated by invasive bees will be less productive than landscapes with more diverse pollinator assemblages. Safeguarding future crop yield and aiding the transition to more sustainable agricultural landscapes and practices require we address this impact of invasive bees. Actions include tighter regulation of the trade in bees to discourage further invasions, reducing invasive bee densities and dominance, and active enhancement of ecological infrastructure from field to landscape scales to promote wild bee abundance and diversity for sustained delivery of crop pollination services.

Neotropical Entomology

Agricultural yield is the result of multiple factors and ecological processes (e.g., pollination,... more Agricultural yield is the result of multiple factors and ecological processes (e.g., pollination, fertilization, pest control). Understanding how the different factors interact is fundamental to designing management practices aimed to increase these yields, which are environmental friendly and sustainable over time. In this study, we focus on insect pollination and plant nutrition status, since they are two key factors that influence crop yield. The study was carried out in Northwest Patagonia Argentina, which is an area of intensive production of pears and apples of global importance, during the harvest seasons 2018 and 2019. The plant nutrition was estimated from leaf chlorophyll content. Biotic pollination benefits were evaluated by comparing fruit quantity (fruit to flower ratio) and quality (weight, size, and sugar concentration) from approximately 25 flowers exposed to pollinators and 25 flowers excluded to them per tree (a total of 160 apple trees and 130 pear trees). In addition, we estimated the visitation rate of pollinators to flowers and related it to fruit quality in apple. Despite different floral characteristics, we found in both crops a positive effect of insect pollination in both the quantity and the quality of the fruits. Interestingly, the nutrition of the trees, although variable, did not affect either the quantity or the quality of the fruits. Despite the weak effect of nutrition, we found no interaction between pollination and plant nutrition (i.e., additive effects). These results highlight the importance of agricultural practices that promote pollinators on farms.

Journal of Applied Ecology

Ciencia ciudadana y polinizadores de América del Sur, 2022

Ciência cidadã e polinizadores da América do Sul, 2022

Journal of Insect Conservation

Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Dec 1, 2019

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Advances in Ecological Research

Neotropical Entomology

Journal of Applied Ecology

Over the past decade, several countries have carried out monitoring programs of managed honey bee... more Over the past decade, several countries have carried out monitoring programs of managed honey bee colonies, which suggest beekeeping difficulties, with high colony loss rates all over the world. Although Latin America plays a major role in the global honey supply, information about trends in beekeeping activities and honey bee colony losses are lacking. Using the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) dataset and a synthesis of unpublished data of colony losses survey carried out over the last 7 years, we reveal a worrying situation of the beekeeping in this region. The Latin American trends in honey production and beehive numbers are drifting from the global pattern, and several high colony loss rates were registered in this region. These results reveal the presence of beekeeping difficulties in Latin America. However, the variability in methods of colony loss survey across initiatives prevent proper conclusion on loss rates. Efforts are needed to adapt, centralize and standardize methods to monitor honey bee health and colony losses across countries in Latin America, the main objective of the “colony losses” working group at the Latin- American Society for Bee Research, SOLATINA, a large-scale platform created in 2017 to coordinate bee research pro- grams in Latin America.

Vida Silvestre, 2007

Outreach article in spanish

Global Change Biology, 2019

The global increase in the proportion of land cultivated with pollinator-dependent crops implies ... more The global increase in the proportion of land cultivated with pollinator-dependent crops implies increased reliance on pollination services. Yet agricultural practices themselves can profoundly affect pollinator supply and pollination. Extensive mon-ocultures are associated with a limited pollinator supply and reduced pollination, whereas agricultural diversification can enhance both. Therefore, areas where agricultural diversity has increased, or at least been maintained, may better sustain high and more stable productivity of pollinator-dependent crops. Given that >80% of all crops depend, to varying extents, on insect pollination, a global increase in agricultural pollinator dependence over recent decades might have led to a concomitant increase in agricultural diversification. We evaluated whether an increase in the area