Southeastern Nicaragua Research Articles

Snell’s Law Applied to Tsunamis: Simulations and Observations

At the edge of a continental shelf, where the depth of the ocean column can vary rapidly by a factor of $$\sim $$ 20, tsunamis are expected to be severely refracted in application of Snell’s Law. We use beaming techniques applied to numerical simulations under the shallow-water approximation, in the geometry of two real-life provinces of the Pacific Basin featuring sharp bathymetric discontinuities and extended shelves (Southeastern Alaska and Nicaragua). We conclude that tsunamis do indeed undergo refraction under Snell’s Law with equivalent refraction indices as high as 5. We apply the same technique to actual records of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami by an array of seafloor pressure sensors off the coast of Southern California, and similarly observe Snell refraction despite a smaller velocity contrast and the presence of a shelf with extremely irregular bathymetry. Finally, we show numerically that for a source and a linear array of receivers both deployed on a well developed continental shelf bordering a deep basin, the tsunami will develop a head wave in all ways similar to the familiar case of refraction seismology.

First country record of Rhinobothryum bovallii (Andersson, 1916) (Squamata, Colubridae) from Nicaragua

We report on the first definite record of the False Tree Coral Snake, Rhinobothryum bovallii (Andersson, 1916), from Nicaragua based on one specimen from the Refugio Bartola, department of Río San Juan, southeastern Nicaragua. The newly found specimen narrows a 510 km distributional gap between occurrences from near the Honduran–Nicaraguan border and the nearest occurrence in Costa Rica.

First capture of Diclidurus albus Wied-Neuwied, 1820 (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Emballonuridae) from Nicaragua

We report on the first capture and photographs of the Northern Ghost Bat, Diclidurus albus Wied-Neuwied, 1820, from Nicaragua, based on one individual from the Reserva Silvestre Privada Refugio Bartola, department of Río San Juan, southeastern Nicaragua. We provide basic morphological measurements of the individual as well as a distribution map of previous visual sightings and acoustic recordings of this species from Nicaragua.

Mammals persist near communities practicing subsistence livelihoods in southeastern Nicaragua

Mammals persist near communities practicing subsistence livelihoods in southeastern Nicaragua

A revision of Astyanax (Characiformes: Characidae) in Central and North America, with the description of nine new species

ABSTRACTSince the restriction of Astyanax fasciatus to Brazil, most authors have assigned Central American and southern Mexican forms of Astyanax to A. aeneus. However, molecular studies support the hypothesis that more than one taxon is involved. With the aim of clarifying the number and status of species hidden behind the name ‘A. aeneus’, this revision comprises 80 populations of Astyanax (and ‘Bramocharax’) from Panama to Texas, with comparative material from South America, based on morphological characters (mostly osteological). Astyanax aeneus is hereby restricted to the Pacific slope, from Río Papagayo, Guerrero, to Honduras. Several species are resurrected from synonymy or redescribed: A. altior (restricted to north-western Yucatán), A. argentatus (Texas and northern Mexico), A. belizianus (central-southern Belize, Izabal, Caribbean Honduras), A. brevimanus (upper Usumacinta and Grijalva, Chiapas, Quiché, Alta Verapaz), A. finitimus (Veracruz, Tabasco, northern Chiapas), A. mexicanus (restricted to Colima and the Balsas River basin), A. nicaraguensis (Caribbean Nicaragua to Sixaola, Panama), A. orstedii (south-eastern Nicaragua, Costa Rica and westernmost Panama), A. panamensis (Pacific Panama), and A. petenensis (Campeche, Petén). Nine species are newly described: A. acatlanensis sp. nov. (inland Oaxaca and Puebla), A. bacalarensis sp. nov. (Quintana Roo, northern Belize, Petén), A. cubilhuitz sp. nov. (Alta Verapaz), A. macal sp. nov. (Maya Mountains, Belize), A. ocotal sp. nov. (Lake Ocotal, highland Chiapas), A. rioverde sp. nov. (San Luis Potosí), A. salvatoris sp. nov. (Tamazulapan, Oaxaca), A. tamiahua sp. nov. (northern Veracruz) and A. tehuacanensis sp. nov. (Papaloapan, Oaxaca). Others were already recognised as different from A. aeneus, among these A. cocibolca and A. nasutus, as well as species included before in the genus Bramocharax.http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:ABC57223-DF66-49B6-8FE0-87CFF5D3EA03

Microfungi from Nicaragua in a Historical Collection Kept at the Herbarium of the Charles University in Prague

Abstract A set of historical specimens collected by the American mycologist Charles Leonard Smith in southeastern Nicaragua during 1896 and currently deposited at the Herbarium of the Charles University in Prague (PRC) was examined for the presence of microfungi. Despite the age of the specimens, twenty-two taxa were identified, seventeen of them to species level and other five to generic level. All of them are recorded for the first time from Nicaragua. Cryptophiale cf. kakombensis and Sporoschisma juvenile were found associated with their putative teleomorphic states. Historical facts surrounding the expedition source of these samples and bibliographical data about Smith are also given.

Species differences and geographic variation in the communal roosting behavior ofPrionostemmaharvestmen in Central American rainforests

Many species roost communally but the proximate causes and ultimate functions of this widespread behavior remain poorly understood. We studied the communal roosts of two undescribed species of harvestmen in the genus Prionostemma Pocock 1903 at a Caribbean rainforest site in southeastern Nicaragua. The species are quite similar in gross morphology but differ in body coloration, male genitalia, and roosting behavior. One species roosts primarily on spiny palms while the other species, which is darker in coloration, roosts inside buttress root cavities. In a mark-recapture study, the cavity-roosting species had higher levels of individual site fidelity than found previously in the spiny palm-roosting species, perhaps because suitable cavities are scarcer than spiny palms. The tree cavity aggregations were strongly male-biased, which our review of the literature suggests is unusual for harvestman roosts. The overall sex ratio of the spiny palm aggregations was 1∶1, but some roost sites were strongly male biased while others were strongly female biased. Removing all harvestmen from 10 spiny palm roost sites shifted the overall sex ratio toward males on subsequent days, but the sites with skewed sex ratios remained skewed in the same directions despite complete turnover in roost membership. These results are discussed in relation to mechanisms of roost formation and possible sex differences in vagility, microhabitat preferences and sensitivity to disturbance. Both species also occur at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica but neither forms roosting aggregations in spiny palms or tree cavities there. A possible explanation for the geographic variation is that roosting patterns change over time through cultural drift.

First Record of the Striped Yellow-Eared Bat,Vampyriscus nymphaea, (Stenodermatinae, Phyllostomidae) in Honduras.

The striped yellow-eared bat Vampyriscus nymphaea is known from southeastern Nicaragua to northwestern Ecuador. Here, we report the existence of this species in Honduras from a female captured in the eastern part of that country. The new record's site, in the Moskitia region of Honduras—an extensive forested region—is located over 400 km north of the previously recognized distributional limit of the species. On 28 July 2011, we captured one female in a mist net in Nueva Esperanza, Patuca National Park, Olancho, Honduras. The specimen was caught in a pastureland adjacent to a patch of forest. It fits descriptions of size and coloration given in the literature for this species. It also was compared with some voucher specimens at Texas Tech. Univ. The captured female was pregnant. We add a new bat species to the Honduras list which gets now to 103 species.

Preliminary plant inventory of the palm-swamps in the Caribbean of Costa Rica and Nicaragua

In the Caribbean slope of Isthmian Central America, plant associations dominated by the palms Raphia taedigera and Manicaria saccifera develop in poorly drained or waterlogged soils. These associations are known locally as yolillales or palm-swamps, although there are differences in the forest structure and plant diversity associated with both palm species. In this paper, we report the results of a preliminary inventory of tree species found in eight palm-swamps at five locations in southeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Costa Rica. Our data reveal low tree diversity in these swamps with only 60 species accounted in them. This figure is equivalent to close to 8% of the plant species known for this region. In general, R. taedigera dominates flooded areas with extensive hydroperiods and lower floristic diversity, while M. saccifera is often found in flooded forests with more structure and diversity.

The milliped family Platyrhacidae (Polydesmida: Leptodesmidea) in the West Indies: Proposal of Hoffmanorhacus n. gen.; description and illustrations of males of Proaspis aitia Loomis, 1941; redescription of Nannorrhacus luciae (Pocock, 1894); hypotheses on origins and affinities; and an updated New World familial distribution.

In the New World, the milliped family Platyrhacidae (Polydesmida) is known or projected for Central America south of southeastern Nicaragua and the northern ¼ of South America, with disjunct, insular populations on Hispaniola (Haiti), Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre), and St. Lucia. Male near-topotypes enable redescription of Proaspis aitia Loomis, 1941, possibly endemic to the western end of the southern Haitian peninsula. The tibiotarsus of its biramous gonopodal telopodite bends strongly laterad, and the medially directed solenomere arises at midlength proximal to the bend. With a uniramous telopodite, P. sahlii Jeekel, 1980, on Guadeloupe, is not congeneric, and Hoffmanorhacus, n. gen., is erected to accommodate it. Nannorrhacus luciae (Pocock, 1894), on St. Lucia, is redescribed; also with a biramous telopodite, its tibiotarsus arises distad and diverges from the coaxial solenomere. The Antillean species do not comprise a clade and are only distantly related; rather than introductions, they plausibly reflect ancestral occurrences on the "proto-Antillean" terrain before it rifted from "proto-South America" in the Cretaceous/Paleocene, with fragmentation isolating modern forms on their present islands. Existing platyrhacid tribes are formally elevated to subfamilies as this category was omitted from recent taxonomies. Without unequivocal evidence to the contrary, geographically anomalous species should initially be regarded as indigenous rather than anthropochoric.

A New Cryptic Species of Salamander, Genus Oedipina (Caudata: Plethodontidae), from Premontane Elevations in Northern Nicaragua, with Comments on the Systematic Status of the Nicaraguan Paratypes of O. pseudouniformis Brame, 1968

We describe a new species of Oedipina (subgenus Oedipina) from premontane elevations of three isolated mountains in northern Nicaragua. The new cryptic species differs in molecular characters from its closest relatives: Oedipina cyclocauda (an Atlantic lowland species with a distributional range from central Panama to extreme southeastern Nicaragua) and Oedipina pseudouniformis. We regard all Nicaraguan specimens previously referred to as O. pseudouniformis to be conspecific with the new species herein described and restrict O. pseudouniformis as a Costa Rican endemic species. We also record the fourth known locality (and southernmost) of the Nicaraguan endemic O. nica and discuss additional species of Oedipina that are likely to be found in Nicaragua as field research continues in the country.

Integrating occupancy modeling and interview data for corridor identification: A case study for jaguars in Nicaragua

Corridors are critical elements in the long-term conservation of wide-ranging species like the jaguar (Panthera onca). Jaguar corridors across the range of the species were initially identified using a GIS-based least-cost corridor model. However, due to inherent errors in remotely sensed data and model uncertainties, these corridors warrant field verification before conservation efforts can begin. We developed a novel corridor assessment protocol based on interview data and site occupancy modeling. We divided our pilot study area, in southeastern Nicaragua, into 71, 6×6km sampling units and conducted 160 structured interviews with local residents. Interviews were designed to collect data on jaguar and seven prey species so that detection/non-detection matrices could be constructed for each sampling unit. Jaguars were reportedly detected in 57% of the sampling units and had a detection probability of 28%. With the exception of white-lipped peccary, prey species were reportedly detected in 82–100% of the sampling units. Though the use of interview data may violate some assumptions of the occupancy modeling approach for determining ‘proportion of area occupied’, we countered these shortcomings through study design and interpreting the occupancy parameter, psi, as ‘probability of habitat used’. Probability of habitat use was modeled for each target species using single state or multistate models. A combination of the estimated probabilities of habitat use for jaguar and prey was selected to identify the final jaguar corridor. This protocol provides an efficient field methodology for identifying corridors for easily-identifiable species, across large study areas comprised of unprotected, private lands.

Ethnobotany of the Rama of Southeastern Nicaragua and Comparisons with Miskitu Plant Lore1

Ethnobotany of the Rama of Southeastern Nicaragua and Comparisons with Miskitu Plant Lore. The Rama are one of the three Amerindian groups of eastern Nicaragua. This is the first systematic study of Rama ethnobotany. A total of 249 plant species, in 190 genera and 78 families, were documented as useful. Included are 190 species used as medicinals, 80 as food plants, and 99 for other uses. The ethnobotanical lore of two distinct indigenous groups, the Rama and Miskitu, were compared. Out of 249 species used by the Rama, 171, or 69%, were used by both groups, and 78 unique species were used by the Rama. These results have important implications for the understanding of ethnobotany as they demonstrate how unrelated indigenous groups sharing the same ecosystem, though separated by some physical distance, can have significantly similar ethnobotanical lore.

Ethnomedicine of the Rama of Southeastern Nicaragua

The Rama are one of three indigenous groups of eastern Nicaragua. A total of 206 plant species, in 157 genera and 70 families, were documented as medicinals in three years of fieldwork. Most (75%) Rama medicinals are native to eastern Nicaragua, and are used to treat more than 30 human ailments. Over 70% have some bioactive principle, most are herbs (37%) or trees (36%), and leaves are the most frequently utilized plant part. Most herbal remedies are prepared as decoctions and are administered orally. Most medicinal plants are wild, but some important species are introduced domesticates native to the New World and Old World tropics. The Rama people are the most highly acculturated group of eastern Nicaragua, and accordingly, their use of the native flora has changed the most. In addition, this group occupies a small area, and has few unaltered traditional practices left. Therefore, this study is important because it provides a written record of the oral history of a group whose cultures and natural resources are disappearing very quickly.

Ecology and Reproduction of Anolis capito in Rain Forest of Southeastern Nicaragua

Abstract We studied the ecology of Anolis capito in the rain forest of southeastern Nicaragua during late dry season of 1993. These cryptic anoles live low on trunks in shaded rain forest and are active throughout the day but appear to spend most of their time in shade. Body temperatures averaged 28.8 ± 0.5°C, which is 1.3°C higher than substrate temperatures and 1.7°C higher than air temperatures. Females were larger and reach sexual maturity at a larger SVL than males. Females in late dry season often contain two oviductal eggs that differed in shell condition indicating that they were not ovulated simultaneously. Females had evidence of as many as four clutches (two oviductal eggs and two different-sized enlarged vitellogenic follicles) suggesting rapid clutch production. The diet consists of a variety of invertebrates, with grasshoppers, homopterans, insect larvae, and roaches dominating volumetrically. On average, these lizards contained 1.6 ± 0.1 prey items. Prey size varied with lizard size, but no...

Habitat Linkages and the Conservation of Tropical Biodiversity as Indicated by Seasonal Migrations of Three‐Wattled Bellbirds

Abstract: Using radiotelemetry, we discovered that the Three‐wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata), one of Central America's largest frugivorous birds, has the most complex migratory pattern yet recorded for a tropical species. The annual migration cycle included 2‐ to 5‐month stopovers in four distinct life zones: two middle‐elevation and two lowland sites separated by as much as 200 km. We captured and radio‐tagged bellbirds during 4 years between July and September in middle‐elevation forest fragments of the Pacific slope, 6 km from Monteverde in the Tilaran mountain range of north‐central Costa Rica. These habitats, which exist almost exclusively as small, isolated fragments on private farms, are poorly represented (<2%) in Costa Rica's system of protected areas. During September and October, the bellbirds migrated from this site to the northeast into the lowland Atlantic forest of southeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Costa Rica. In Costa Rica these habitats have been heavily fragmented. In Nicaragua they remain intact but are highly threatened. In November and December, the bellbirds migrated from these Atlantic forests to heavily modified, little‐protected forests along the Pacific coast of southwestern Costa Rica, where they remained until March. Here, most individuals utilized forest remnants and second growth on private property. In March the Bellbirds moved from the coastal areas to middle‐elevation (1000–1800 m) moist forest on the Atlantic slope of the Tilaran mountains sites, where they bred. In June and July, they left the breeding area and moved back across the continental divide of the Tilaran Mountains to return to the middle‐elevation Pacific slopes where they had been captured. Our findings demonstrate the complicated ecological integration of geographically dispersed tropical ecosystems and the need for comprehensive conservation strategies that include representation of the full array of regional habitats and a greater emphasis on maintaining connectivity. The bellbird's migratory pattern reveals serious inadequacies in protected‐area networks of Costa Rica, a country that is considered to have one of the best systems of national parks and reserves in the Neotropics.

Competing Claims on Disputed Lands: The Complexity of Resource Tenure in the Nicaraguan Interior

This essay analyzes the complexity and contradiction of resource-tenure regimes on tropical forest frontiers by drawing on a case study carried out in the department of Río San Juan, southeastern Nicaragua. The main attention is given to competing claims over productive resources and to contradictory relationships between the diverse modalities of resource control. The resource struggles emerging in Río San Juan are analyzed in the context of larger political-economic and socio-legal processes to understand the wider relations of politics and power that affect local resource access. The main goal is to reveal how control over resources is defined and contested in the everyday reality of legal pluralism where multiple legal orders intersect in people's lives, and where the conflicts over whose law applies, and who gets what resources and why, have increasing significance.

Competing Claims on Disputed Lands: The Complexity of Resource Tenure in the Nicaraguan Interior

This essay analyzes the complexity and contradiction of resource-tenure regimes on tropical forest frontiers by drawing on a case study carried out in the department of Río San Juan, southeastern Nicaragua. The main attention is given to competing claims over productive resources and to contradictory relationships between the diverse modalities of resource control. The resource struggles emerging in Río San Juan are analyzed in the context of larger political-economic and socio-legal processes to understand the wider relations of politics and power that affect local resource access. The main goal is to reveal how control over resources is defined and contested in the everyday reality of legal pluralism where multiple legal orders intersect in people's lives, and where the conflicts over whose law applies, and who gets what resources and why, have increasing significance.

Heavy poaching in prime habitat: the conservation status of the West Indian manatee in Nicaragua

This study provides an overview of the conservation status of the West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus in Nicaragua, including data on habitat availability, manatee distribution and relative abundance, and current threats. The data is based on surveys from boats and extensive interviews with local people. Nicaragua harbors one of the largest areas of habitat suitable for manatees in Central America. The species has an almost continuous distribution along the country's eastern, Caribbean coast and inland in some watercourses. There are larger groups of manatees in brackish lagoons than in freshwater rivers. Seasonal migrations and lengthy daily travels influenced by tides have been reported. The main threats to these manatees include poaching and incidental drowning in fishing nets, while boat traffic, pollution and habitat loss presently seem to be negligible factors in Nicaragua. Poaching is widespread along the coast and it is estimated that c. 40 manatees are killed annually throughout the country. Enforcement of hunting laws and protected areas is almost non-existent, with the exception of the Southeastern Nicaragua Biosphere Reserve. This may explain why manatees have disappeared from a few areas and become rare in others. Unless restrictions are imposed on poaching and on the use of gill nets within inland wetlands, the West Indian manatee may become rare throughout Nicaragua in the near future.

Post-agriculture versus post-hurricane succession in southeastern Nicaraguan rain forest

We compared five-year old forests developing after agriculture to those recovering from Hurricane Joan (1988) and to the pre-hurricane forest, at two sites in tropical rain forest in southeastern Nicaragua. We used non-parametric cluster analysis to group transects by their species compositions, and compared their species richness, estimated total species richness, dominance, density and basal area. Post-agriculture transects showed distinctive species compositions and lower diversity than post-hurricane transects, which were in turn more similar to the pre-hurricane forest. These results are similar to those found by other researchers in the Amazon and in Puerto Rico. Land use history was more important than proximity in the landscape in determining the composition and structure of post-disturbance forests in this region.