Biology subjects

Iova, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Iova, B..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Lost to science for 126 years: Indigenous Knowledge and Camera Trapping Document the Critically Endangered Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon Otidiphaps insularis

We combined questionnaires collecting local ecological knowledge with passive and directed camera trapping and bird surveys to scientifically document the Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon Otidiphaps insularis for the first time since 1896. This species is endemic to Fergusson Island, in eastern Papua New Guinea, and is New Guineas most endangered terrestrial bird species. Indigenous subsistence-based hunters who participated in this research as informants had high levels of local bird knowledge and helped direct camera trapping for one of two successful camera trap captures. Local participants also shared traditional ecological knowledge about the Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon, including legends, chants, and a local name for this taxon, Auwo. The scarcity of observations over the course of a month-long expedition, its obscurity to the majority of local respondents interviewed, and prevalent threats from habitat destruction and introduced alien species further support its current Red List status (CR). Our results provide a case study for leveraging local ecological knowledge in combination with standardized survey techniques and may be an especially effective strategy for determining the status of other undocumented or data-deficient species in the southwest Pacific.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

An ornithological survey of Fergusson Island, D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, reveals new island records and noteworthy natural history observations

Fergusson Island lies off the southeastern end of New Guinea and is the largest landmass in the DEntrecasteaux and Trobriand Island Endemic Bird Area. We conducted audiovisual and camera trapping surveys in eastern Fergusson in September 2022 and recorded 97 bird species, documenting breeding and vocalizations for several of the EBAs endemic taxa. Notably, we provide the first confirmed documentation of the "lost" insularis subspecies of Pheasant Pigeon Otidiphaps nobilis (often recognized as a distinct species, Black-naped Pheasant-pigeon), in 126 years, observations of eight bird species not previously recorded from Fergusson, and nesting of Goldies Bird-of-Paradise Paradisea decora and the endemic crookshanki taxon of Capped White-eye Zosterops fuscicapilla (or Oya Tabu White-eye). Our new distributional records were mostly either migratory species or species found in open habitats, highlighting the value of surveying across seasons and habitats. We summarise our results and provide comments on distributional records, breeding behaviour, and vocalizations.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Geological drivers of diversification in Papuan microhylid frogs

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWStudies of the Papuan region have provided fundamental insights into both the evolutionary processes generating its exceptional biodiversity, as well support for alternative hypotheses of geological history. Lying at the junction of five tectonic plates, this region has experienced a turbulent geological history that has not only produced towering mountains allowing elevational specialization, and island archipelagos of varying distance promoting vicariance, but also active margins where land masses have collided and been subsequently rifted apart creating a mosaic of intermixed terranes with vastly different geological histories which may influence the evolutionary history of its biota. Asterophryine frogs are a hyperdiverse clade representing half the worlds microhylid diversity (over 360 species) centered on New Guinea and its satellite islands. We show that vicariance facilitated by geological history, and not elevational specialization best explain this far and wide distribution of a clade that should have poor dispersal abilities. Thus, some of the predictions of island biogeography theory are supported if informed by geological history. We recovered a mainland tectonic unit, the East Papua Composite Terrane (EPCT), as the center of origin for Asterophryinae and no fewer than 71 instances of what appear to be long-distance dispersal events, 29 of which are between mainland regions, with 42 from the mainland to the islands, some presently as far as 200 km away from source populations over open ocean. Furthermore, we find strong support for a "Slow and Steady" hypothesis for the formation of the northern margin of New Guinea by many separate accretion events during the Miocene, over other major geological alternatives, consistent with the 20 M year age of the clade and arrival via the EPCT. In addition, the historical biogeography of our frogs strongly support an affiliation of the Louisiade Archipelago and Woodlark Island with the Owen Stanley Mountain range on the EPCT, and the recent proximity of the large New Britain island. Our results show that Asterophryinae did not have to repeatedly and independently disperse across and large ocean barriers to the offshore islands, but that the current distribution can be explained through vicariance and short-distance oceanic dispersal as historical land connections disappeared and islands slowly became separated from each other. We show that islands have a life history, undergoing changes in area through island-building and erosion, but also change in distance from other land masses, with consequent opportunities for dispersal, isolation, and cladogenesis of their biotas. More broadly, we can begin to see how the geological history of the Papuan region can result in the rapid accumulation and staggering number of extant species.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

A large nuclear and mitochondrial sequence dataset for phylogenetic analysis of the hyperdiverse Asterophryinae frogs of the New Guinea region with data on lifestyle, GPS coordinates, elevation, and multispecies communities with accompanying code

The data provided here is related to the article "Resolving the Deep Phylogeny: Implications for Early Adaptive Radiation, Cryptic, and Present-day Ecological Diversity of Papuan Microhylid Frogs" [1]. The dataset is based on 233 tissue samples of the subfamily Asteroprhyinae, with representatives from all recognized genera, in addition to three outgroup taxa. The sequence dataset contains over 2400 characters per sample for five genes (three nuclear loci: BDNF, NXC-1, and SIA; and two mitochondrial loci: ND4 and CYTB) and is 99% complete. New primers were designed for all loci and accession numbers for the raw sequence data are provided. The sequences are used with geological time calibrations to produce time-calibrated Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic reconstructions using BEAST2 and IQTREE. Lifestyle data (arboreal, scansorial, terrestrial, fossorial, semi-aquatic) were collected from the literature and field notes and used to infer ancestral character states for each lineage. Collection location data (GPS and elevation data) were used to verify sites where multiple species or candidate species co-occur. All sequence data, alignments, and associated metadata (voucher specimen number, species identification, type locality status, GPS, elevation, site with species list, and lifestyle) as well as the code to produce all analyses and figures are provided.

evolutionary biology↗