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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona

@bothrops77.bsky.social
941 followers 430 following 101 posts

Landscape ecology, herpetology, functional and community ecology 🐸🐍🦎 Associate professor at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia). Passionate about science fiction, graphical novels, photography and heavy metal 🎸

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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
💚 Protecting alpine biodiversity means protecting evolutionary history, water security, unique species, and high-elevation ecosystems under rapid change. 📚 Paper: “Contrasting patterns of alpine biodiversity across mountains and taxa worldwide” 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414... #NatureCommunications
doi.org
Contrasting patterns of alpine biodiversity across mountains and taxa worldwide - Nature Communications
This study compares alpine biodiversity patterns for plants and vertebrates across mountains worldwide using an expert-validated dataset. Authors found strong variation among mountains and taxonomic g...
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Alpine biodiversity does not follow a latitudinal gradient: topography, past climate dynamics, glaciations and isolation all matter. Climate change is shrinking suitable habitat while many alpine specialist sp. are moving upslope—toward smaller and fragmented mountaintops #MountainConservation
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Neotropical alpine ecosystems in the Andes consistently emerge as global hotspots with high richness and proportion of alpine specialists. While, some temperate alpine regions (i.e. European Alps and North European Highlands) emerge as relative coldspots #Macroecology #BiodiversityPatterns
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
We also identified 14,649 vascular plant species in alpine ecosystems. Of these, 2,554 are alpine specialists. High mountain ecosystems are far richer—and more unique—than many global assessments have captured. #PlantDiversity #AlpinePlants
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
We found 2,165 vertebrate species in the alpine biome: 🦅 1,173 birds 🐐 711 mammals 🦎 281 reptiles Among them, 360 are alpine specialists—species restricted to high-elevation alpine zones. #Biodiversity #MountainEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The alpine biome occurs above the upper forest line in cold and extreme landscapes where life persists under harsh conditions. We built a global alpine biodiversity dataset including: ✔️ 32 mountain ranges ✔️ vascular plants ✔️ mammals ✔️ birds ✔️ reptiles #Biogeography #TropicalAndes #Páramo
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
🌎 Where is alpine biodiversity concentrated across the world’s mountains? Our study in @natcomms.nature.com shows that alpine biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in Neotropical regions, especially the Andes 🌐 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🧵👇 #MountainBiodiversity #AlpineBiodiversity
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
💚 Fragmented landscapes are not just degraded systems to abandon. If managed for heterogeneity and connectivity, they can remain functional reservoirs for tropical mammals. 📚 DOI: doi.org/10.1111/1365... #OpenScience #JournalOfAppliedEcology @britishecologicalsociety.org
doi.org
Meta‐analysis on the effects of composition and configuration of landscape on the functional diversity of tropical mammals
Our findings demonstrate that mammal functional richness in tropical regions requires integrating habitat amount and landscape configuration into land-use planning. Conservation strategies should mov...
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Conservation actions to protect mammal´ functional diversity should: ✅ protect small fragments ✅ restore corridors ✅ improve matrix permeability ✅ promote agroforestry and live fences ✅ include configuration metrics in land-use planning #LandUsePlanning #Conservation
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Important clarification: This does NOT mean “fragment more forests.” It means that in landscapes already transformed by people, small remnants, edges, live fences, corridors, and agroforestry matrices can still support functional diversity. #RestorationEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
The strongest positive responses appeared in the Atlantic Forest and Southwestern Amazonia. In highly transformed tropical hotspots, heterogeneous mosaics may help sustain critical ecosystem functions. #TropicalEcology #BiodiversityHotspots
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Configuration also matters. At the patch scale, patch size, patch shape, and proximity among patches positively influenced mammal functional diversity. Small fragments can act as ecological stepping stones—if they remain connected. #Connectivity #LandscapePlanning
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Landscape composition metrics—such as habitat cover and patch size—had positive effects, especially on functional richness. So yes: habitat amount still matters. But it is not the whole story. #FunctionalEcology #ConservationBiology #LandscapeEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Tropical landscapes are rarely simple. They are mosaics of crops, pastures, and cities; and for mammals, this spatial arrangement can shape which ecological functions persist. Functional diversity is not just about how many species live in a landscape. It asks: what do species do? #FunctionalTraits
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
🌐 Is conserving tropical mammals only about protecting more forest?🌎 Our study in @jappliedecology.bsky.social shows that habitat amount matters—but so does how habitat patches are arranged, connected, and embedded in human-modified landscapes besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧵👇
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Edges are not merely lines that delineate land cover types on a map; they are transition zones, or ecotones, where it is determined which species can survive, move, reproduce, or disappear following changes to the #landscape. #landscapeecology #conservationbiology #biologicalconservation
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
⚠️ Why does this matter? Because conservation guidelines cannot rely on evidence from a narrow set of regions, taxa, ecological variables and edge types. Not all edges are equal. Not all species respond the same way. #ConservationScience
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🌱 Knowledge gap 5: Edge contexts. Most studies focus on exotic pasture–old-growth forest ecotones. Urban, road, infrastructure, plantation, and agroforestry edges remain understudied. #HabitatFragmentation #UrbanEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
📊 Knowledge gap 4: We still mostly count species. Most studies focus on abundance and species richness. But we know far less about functional traits, thermal tolerance, biotic interactions, and phylogenetic diversity. #FunctionalEcology #EcoPhysiology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🐸🦎 Knowledge gap 3: Forgotten lineages. Research is dominated by anurans and squamates. Turtles and salamanders are rarely studied, while caecilians and crocodilians are entirely absent from the reviewed literature. #Herpetofauna #SpeciesConservation
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
⛰️ Knowledge gap 2: Elevation. 74% of studies were conducted below 500 m a.s.l. mainly in tropical rainforest and temperate mixed forests. Highland systems remain one of the largest blind spots in edge-effect research. #MountainEcology #TropicalEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🔍 Knowledge gap 1: Geography. Most studies are concentrated in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. The Palearctic, Oriental, Sino-Japanese, and Madagascan regions remain poorly studied. #Biodiversity #GlobalChange
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Why are amphibians and reptiles so vulnerable to edge effects? 🐸 Many depend strongly on humidity and temperature. 🦎 Many have limited dispersal. 🌡️ Small microclimatic shifts can affect movement, reproduction, and persistence. #Amphibians #Reptiles #herpetology #herpetofauna
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
When forests, savannas, wetlands, or mountain habitats are fragmented, edges emerge: transition zones between natural habitats and transformed matrices such as pastures, roads, crops, cities, or plantations. For herpetofauna, these edges can reshape dispersal and survival. #LandscapeEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🐸🦎🐊🐢What do we really know about edge effects on amphibians and reptiles?🌐🌎 We reviewed 100 studies published from 1968–2025 and found a major problem: evidence is concentrated in a few regions, taxa, habitats, and response variables. 🧵👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
🌎 Why it matters: Rare species occupy unique ecological niches and support functions that others cannot replace. 👉 Losing them means losing hidden ecosystem processes. Biodiversity is not just about how many species exist — it’s about how different they are.
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
🔍 What we found: • Species that diverge more from the community’s “functional average” are less abundant • Traits linked to flight and echolocation drive this pattern • Functional divergence can reduce abundance by up to 57% #FunctionalEcology #Biodiversity #Conservation #Bats
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
🦇🌿 Why are most species in nature rare?🌐 Our new study on Neotropical bats 🌎reveals a key insight: Rare species are not less successful, they are more functionally different. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @funecology.bsky.social @batconservation.bsky.social #Bats #Ecology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
🌱 Species like Dendrobates truncatus have great potential to become flagship species in environmental education. ✅ Turning fear into knowledge is key for amphibian conservation and their habitats. #Education #ScienceForConservation 🔗 Read the full article here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
💡 What are the challenges? ✔️ Low participation in conservation activities like monitoring, despite support for protection. ✔️ Women and people with higher education tend to recognize more the ecological importance of amphibians. #SocialChange #CommunityConservation
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
🔍 Key findings: ✔️ Skin color and leg function are key to associating amphibians with danger or usefulness to the ecosystem. ✔️ While fear and disgust remain common, over 85% support amphibian protection. #Conservation #EnvironmentalEducation
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
🌍🐸 🌐Amphibian conservation also depends on how we perceive them. Our study in the tropical dry forests of the Colombian Caribbean explores how morphological traits and sociodemographic factors influence people's perceptions and attitudes toward amphibians 🧵 #Amphibians #Biodiversity #TropicalEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Las perturbaciones naturales no solo cambian el paisaje, también reconfiguran la función ecológica de las comunidades animales. Conservar la heterogeneidad estructural del bosque es clave para mantener la diversidad funcional. 🌳 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
🌱 Las caídas de árboles actúan como filtros ambientales: ✔️Bajo el dosel cerrado se concentran especialistas con menor volumen funcional. ⚠️Esto limita los nichos disponibles y aumenta la competencia #EcologíaTropical #BosquesTropicales #RasgosFuncionales #EcologíaFuncional
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
📊 Analizamos cinco rasgos funcionales: biomasa, volumen, ancho cefálico, ancho de boca y longitud corporal de tres especies. Contrario a lo esperado, no fue el tamaño, sino el ancho de boca, el que explicó mejor la respuesta de las salamandras a las aperturas del dosel. 🍃
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Esta es una pregunta que poco se ha investigado, y que por primera vez se estudia desde la perspectiva de la ecología basada en rasgos funcionales. Nuestro nuevo estudio explora cómo las aperturas naturales del dosel influyen en los rasgos funcionales de tres especies de anfibios
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
🌳🐸 En los bosques nativos y selvas, la caída natural de árboles (por vientos, rayos o descomposición de la madera) genera dinámicas en el suelo, afectando a las especies animales. Se han preguntado 🌎¿Qué pasa con los anfibios cuando estos árboles caen en la selva tropical? 🌐
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
@nmouquet.bsky.social @ecol-evol.bsky.social #Entomology #Ecology #FunctionalTraits #UrbanTrees
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🔗 Read the full article "Scale-Dependent Effects of Landscape Heterogeneity on Butterfly Functional and Taxonomic Diversity in Andean Urban Parks" 🌐here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #FunctionalEcology #UrbanBiodiversity #Conservation #Butterflies
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🌍 Conservation conclusions: ✅ Protecting connectivity between parks and water bodies is key. ✅ Planting tall native trees promotes higher functional diversity. ✅ Creating ecological corridors between small and large parks supports species dispersal. #EcologicalRestoration
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🦋 How do small or fragmented parks affect butterflies? Smaller and fragmented parks show lower diversity and more homogenized species assemblages. ⚠️ We need parks with native vegetation and proximity to water bodies to promote biodiversity!
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🌳 What influences butterfly diversity in urban parks? ✔️ The height of native trees is strongly associated with functional diversity. ✔️ Connectivity between parks enhances both taxonomic and functional diversity.
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🌱🦋 Urban parks are critical for butterfly´ trait diversity! 🌐 Our new study investigates how vegetation structure and landscape heterogeneity affect butterfly diversity in urban parks in the Andean city of #Bogotá 🌎 👇🧵 #UrbanEcology #Conservation #FunctionalEcology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
🌱 Why is it important? Preserving Amazonian ecosystems requires enhancing forest connectivity and restoring native vegetation at the forest edges to mitigate the negative impacts of habitat fragmentation. 🐸🌐 #Biodiversity #Amphibians #LandscapeEcology #EcologicalRestoration #AmazonRainforest
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
✔️ Forest edges act as ecological filters, limiting the colonization of pasture species into forest interiors via environmental gradients and functional competition.
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
✔️ In pastures, environmental filtering plays a major role in shaping amphibian assemblages, while limiting similarity governs the assemblage in forest interiors. ✔️ Functional diversity is more influenced by landscape connectivity, leaf litter depth, and humidity rather than edge effects alone
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
🌍🐸🌐 What are the effects of forest edges on amphibian diversity in Amazonian floodplains? Our latest study sheds light on how environmental filters and limiting similarity shape the functional diversity of amphibian communities 🧪 Full article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
On this #WorldSnakeDay 🐍 I would like to share one of the few studies on the functional diversity of snakes, in this case used to understand the effects of landscape transformation and roadkill #SnakeWeek #SnakeWeek2025 @snakeweek.bsky.social @iucn-snake.bsky.social
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
🌱💡 What role do functional pollinator ecology studies play in adaptation to socio-environmental change? How can we integrate this scientific knowledge into public policies? #ScientificEducation #SocialChange #EnvironmentalPolicy #Pollination #Ecology
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Nicolas Urbina-Cardona @bothrops77.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
💡 Functional traits related to the amount of body hair in bees, which aid in pollen adhesion, showed no correlation with the total pollen amount, nor with granadilla pollen. #FunctionalTraits #Pollination #Biodiversity #Bees #Sustainability
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