Paulo Borges
Faculdade Casper Líbero, Comunicação, Graduate Student
Page 1. Research Signpost 37/661 (2), Fort PO, Trivandrum-695 023, Kerala, India Insect Ecology and Conservation, 2008: ISBN: 978-81-308-0297-8 Editor: Simone Fattorini 3 Insect and spider rarity in an oceanic island (Terceira, Azores):... more
Page 1. Research Signpost 37/661 (2), Fort PO, Trivandrum-695 023, Kerala, India Insect Ecology and Conservation, 2008: ISBN: 978-81-308-0297-8 Editor: Simone Fattorini 3 Insect and spider rarity in an oceanic island (Terceira, Azores): True rare and pseudo-rare species ...
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Oceanic islands host a disproportionately high fraction of endangered or recently extinct endemic species. We report on species extinctions among endemic Azorean beetles following 97% habitat loss since AD 1440. We infer extinctions from... more
Oceanic islands host a disproportionately high fraction of endangered or recently extinct endemic species. We report on species extinctions among endemic Azorean beetles following 97% habitat loss since AD 1440. We infer extinctions from historical and contemporary records and examine the influence of three predictors: geographical range, habitat specialization and body size. Of 55 endemic beetle species investigated (out of 63), seven can be considered extinct. Single-island endemics (SIEs) were more prone to extinction than multi-island endemics. Within SIEs restricted to native habitat, larger species were more extinction-prone. We thus show a hierarchical path to extinction in Azorean beetles: species with small geographical range face extinction first, with the larger bodied ones being the most threatened. Our study provides a clear warning of the impact of habitat loss on island endemic biotas.
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Human-caused disturbances can lead to the extinction of indigenous (endemic and native) species, while facilitating and increasing the colonisation of exotic species; this increase can, in turn, promote the similarity of species... more
Human-caused disturbances can lead to the extinction of indigenous (endemic and native) species, while facilitating and increasing the colonisation of exotic species; this increase can, in turn, promote the similarity of species compositions between sites if human-disturbed sites are consistently invaded by a regionally species-poor pool of exotic species. In this study, we analysed the extent to which epigean arthropod assemblages of four islands of the Azorean archipelago are characterised by nestedness according to a habitat-altered gradient. The degree of nestedness represents the extent to which less ubiquitous species occur in subsets of sites occupied by the more widespread species, resulting in an ordered loss/gain of species across environmental or ecological gradients. A predictable loss of species across communities while maintaining others may lead to more similar communities (i.e. lower beta-diversity). In contrast, anti-nestedness occurs when different species tend to ...
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Adjacency constraints along with harvest volume constraints are important in long term forest management planning. Simulated annealing (SA) has previously been successfully applied when addressing such constraints. The objective of this... more
Adjacency constraints along with harvest volume constraints are important in long term forest management planning. Simulated annealing (SA) has previously been successfully applied when addressing such constraints. The objective of this paper is to assess the performance of SA using three methods for generating candidate solutions. Biased probabilities in the management unit (MU) selection were introduced, one static and one dynamic. The rst one (Method 1) is the conventional (static) method. The two other methods were implemented through a search vector used in the candidate solution generator. These methods are based on (Method 2) the number of treatment schedules and standard deviation of NPV within MUs and (Method 3) the MU's potential improvement in the objective function value, the number of URM adjacency violations an MU is involved in, the period specic volume harvested in an MU and the number of times an MU is selected. The methods were tested on a large number of datas...
Species richness of six pasture arthropod assemblages (total arthropod species, total herbivore species, sucking and chewing herbivores, total predatory species and spiders) were regressed against several geographical variables (area,... more
Species richness of six pasture arthropod assemblages (total arthropod species, total herbivore species, sucking and chewing herbivores, total predatory species and spiders) were regressed against several geographical variables (area, distance from the nearest mainland, maximum elevation and geological age of the islands) of three Azorean islands (S. Maria, Terceira and Pico). The species were sampled by the fixed-quadrat size sampling
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In the Azores archipelago, a significant proportion of buildings are infested with the urban exotic drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis (Walker), causing major economical and patrimonial losses. This work aims to understand the potential... more
In the Azores archipelago, a significant proportion of buildings are infested with the urban exotic drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis (Walker), causing major economical and patrimonial losses. This work aims to understand the potential spread of this termite species in the Azores and estimate the costs for both treatment and reconstruction of infested buildings in the entire archipelago. A maximum entropy niche modeling process was used to determine the potential occurrence of the species on each island. Different scenarios were built using independent global and regional incidence and environmental data. Both projections reveal the same pattern. Generally, the probability of occurrence is higher near the coast line, where, in Azores, the majority of the towns and villages are located. We also predict that the infestation has potential to spread to yet unaffected towns and islands. It is estimated that the cost of treating all currently infested buildings in the archipelago is Euro 51 million, while reconstruction of the same buildings would rise the costs to Euro 175 million. We predict that the absence of a control strategy will cause a further expansion of the pest to more localities in the Azores. An estimate to future scenarios implies higher costs, with treatment and rebuilding values rising up to eight times the current values.
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ABSTRACT The Desertas Islands (Madeira, Portugal) are the sole home of one of the largest and rarest wolf spider species, Hogna ingens (Blackwall, 1857) (Araneae, Lycosidae). Despite its size, it inhabits a single valley in the North of... more
ABSTRACT The Desertas Islands (Madeira, Portugal) are the sole home of one of the largest and rarest wolf spider species, Hogna ingens (Blackwall, 1857) (Araneae, Lycosidae). Despite its size, it inhabits a single valley in the North of the Deserta Grande Island, Vale da Castanheira, currently invaded by the herb Phalaris aquatica. This invasive species competes with the native flora and was subject to several eradication experiments, namely through fire and chemicals. The objectives of this work were to: (1) estimate the current distribution and abundance of H. ingens and respective trends; (2) evaluate the impact of the invasive plant and eradication methods on the spider population; (3) suggest future measures for the recovery of the species; and (4) evaluate its conservation status according to the IUCN criteria. The current distribution of H. ingens covers 23 ha, a recent reduction from its original 83 ha, corresponding to the entire Vale da Castanheira. A total of 4447 and 4086 adults and 71,832 and 24,635 juveniles were estimated to live in the valley during 2011 and 2012, respectively. We found a significant negative impact of P. aquatica cover on the presence and abundance of H. ingens and that chemical treatment specifically directed towards the invasive plant species may be the only way to effectively recover the spider's habitat. We suggest (1) regular monitoring; (2) extend chemical treatments; (3) ex-situ conservation with future reintroduction of adults. Based on the current area of occupancy (AOO) of H. ingens and its recent decline in both AOO and number of individuals, it was recently classified as Critically Endangered by IUCN and we suggest its urgent inclusion in the Habitats Directive species lists.
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Analyses of species-diversity patterns of remote islands have been crucial to the development of biogeographic theory, yet little is known about corresponding patterns in functional traits on islands and how, for example, they may be... more
Analyses of species-diversity patterns of remote islands have been crucial to the development of biogeographic theory, yet little is known about corresponding patterns in functional traits on islands and how, for example, they may be affected by the introduction of exotic species. We collated trait data for spiders and beetles and used a functional diversity index (FRic) to test for nonrandomness in the contribution of endemic, other native (also combined as indigenous), and exotic species to functional-trait space across the nine islands of the Azores. In general, for both taxa and for each distributional category, functional diversity increases with species richness, which, in turn scales with island area. Null simulations support the hypothesis that each distributional group contributes to functional diversity in proportion to their species richness. Exotic spiders have added novel trait space to a greater degree than have exotic beetles, likely indicating greater impact of the reduction of immigration filters and/or differential historical losses of indigenous species. Analyses of species occurring in native-forest remnants provide limited indications of the operation of habitat filtering of exotics for three islands, but only for beetles. Although the general linear (not saturating) pattern of trait-space increase with richness of exotics suggests an ongoing process of functional enrichment and accommodation, further work is urgently needed to determine how estimates of extinction debt of indigenous species should be adjusted in the light of these findings.
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Philaenus spumarius is a widespread insect species in the Holarctic region. Here, by focusing on the mtDNA gene COI but also using the COII and Cyt b genes and the nuclear gene EF-1α, we tried to explain how and when its current... more
Philaenus spumarius is a widespread insect species in the Holarctic region. Here, by focusing on the mtDNA gene COI but also using the COII and Cyt b genes and the nuclear gene EF-1α, we tried to explain how and when its current biogeographic pattern evolved by providing time estimates of the main demographic and evolutionary events and investigating its colonization patterns in and out of Eurasia. Evidence of recent divergence and expansion events at less than 0.5 Ma ago indicate that climate fluctuations in the Mid-Late Pleistocene were important in shaping the current phylogeographic pattern of the species. Data support a first split and differentiation of P. spumarius into two main mitochondrial lineages: the "western", in the Mediterranean region and the…
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... The Holocene http://hol.sagepub.com/content/18/5/745 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/0959683608091794 2008 18: 745 The Holocene C. Andrade, RM Trigo, MC Freitas, MC Gallego, P. Borges and AM Ramos the... more
... The Holocene http://hol.sagepub.com/content/18/5/745 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/0959683608091794 2008 18: 745 The Holocene C. Andrade, RM Trigo, MC Freitas, MC Gallego, P. Borges and AM Ramos the Azores region ... Borges et al. ...
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1. The positive abundance-occupancy and abundance-variance relationships are two of the most widely documented patterns in population and community ecology. 2. Recently, a general model has been proposed linking the mean abundance, the... more
1. The positive abundance-occupancy and abundance-variance relationships are two of the most widely documented patterns in population and community ecology. 2. Recently, a general model has been proposed linking the mean abundance, the spatial variance in abundance, and the occupancy of species. A striking feature of this model is that it consists explicitly of the three variables abundance, variance and occupancy, and no extra parameters are involved. However, little is known about how well the model performs. 3. Here, we show that the abundance-variance-occupancy model fits extremely well to data on the abundance, variance and occupancy of a large number of arthropod species in natural forest patches in the Azores, at three spatial extents, and distinguishing between species of different colonization status. Indeed, virtually all variation about the bivariate abundance-occupancy and abundance-variance relationships is effectively explained by the third missing variable (variance in abundance in the case of the abundance-occupancy relationship, and occupancy in the case of the abundance-variance relationship). 4. Introduced species tend to exhibit lower densities, less spatial variance in these densities, and occupy fewer sites than native and endemic species. None the less, they all lie on the same bivariate abundance-occupancy and abundance-variance, and trivariate abundance-variance-occupancy, relationships. 5. Density, spatial variance in density, and occupancy appear to be all the things one needs to know to describe much of the spatial distribution of species.
Research Interests: Soil, Community Ecology, Population Dynamics, Animal Ecology, Biological Sciences, and 17 moreEnvironmental Sciences, Azores, Animal, Female, Animals, Male, Performance Model, Power Law, Population Density, Species Distribution, Trees, Endemic species, Spatial Distribution, Introduced species, Arthropods, Ecosystem, and Metapopulation Dynamics
Research Interests: Conservation Biology, Nonparametric Statistics, Animal Ecology, Biodiversity, Biological Sciences, and 14 moreEnvironmental Sciences, Female, Animals, Male, Grain size, Cereals, Sample Size, Species Richness, Arthropods, Particle Size, Sampling strategy, Species Specificity, Species Area Relationship, and Predictive value of tests
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Methods We used ninety-seven published datasets to create island species–area relationships (ISARs) using the Arrhenius logarithmic form of the power model. Observed and predicted species richness of an archipelago and of each of its... more
Methods We used ninety-seven published datasets to create island species–area relationships (ISARs) using the Arrhenius logarithmic form of the power model. Observed and predicted species richness of an archipelago and of each of its islands were used to calculate two indices that determined whether the archipelago followed the ISAR. Archipelagic residuals (ArcRes) were calculated as the residual of the prediction provided by the ISAR using the total area of the archipelago, standardized by the total richness observed in the archipelago. We also tested whether ...
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Research Interests: Relational Database, Agricultural Policy, Mathematical Programming, Simulated Annealing, Applied Economics, and 11 moreDecision support system, Graphic User Interface Design, Forestry Sciences, Public Administration and Policy, Common Agricultural Policy, Land Use Pattern, Model Based Approach, Geographic Information System, Positive Mathematical Programming, Production Cost, and LINEAR PROGRAM
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Page 1. ECOGRAPHY 24: 6882. Copenhagen 2001 Phytophagous insects and web-building spiders in relation to pasture vegetation complexity Paulo AV Borges and Valerie K. Brown Borges, PAV and Brown, VK 2001. Phytopahgous ...
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Page 1. BiologicalJournal ofthe Linnean SocieQ (1999), 66: 373-410. With 12 figures Article ID: bijl. 1998.0285, available online at http://www.idcalibrary.com on 10 Ekl Effect of island geological age on the arthropod species richness of... more
Page 1. BiologicalJournal ofthe Linnean SocieQ (1999), 66: 373-410. With 12 figures Article ID: bijl. 1998.0285, available online at http://www.idcalibrary.com on 10 Ekl Effect of island geological age on the arthropod species richness of Azorean pastures PAUL0 AV BORGES* ...
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... Arthropods were grouped by taxonomic (Araneae, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Julida, Lepidoptera, Psocoptera, Thysanoptera, small orders), trophic (herbivores, predators, saprophages, fungivores) and colonization [introduced, native... more
... Arthropods were grouped by taxonomic (Araneae, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Julida, Lepidoptera, Psocoptera, Thysanoptera, small orders), trophic (herbivores, predators, saprophages, fungivores) and colonization [introduced, native (indigenous minus endemic) and endemic ...