Herpetological misinformation and sensationalism: media framing on biological and ecological aspects of the golden lancehead (Bothrops insularis)

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  Herpetological misinformation and sensationalism: media framing on biological and ecological aspects of the golden lancehead (Bothrops insularis) Abstract The internet is currently one of the most important means of communication, which may include the circulation of misinformation. Snakes have always been a target of the sensationalist media, being pictured as scary and aggressive animals to be killed indiscriminately by humans. Such fear based on misinformation may compromise species conservation. Here, we address the spread of misinformation about Bothrops insularis and Queimada Grande Island in digital media, highlighting the negative impact on public perception and species conservation. The analysis of 230 online sources revealed that approximately 94% of them contained false information, many using sensationalist language, especially regarding the toxicity of the venom and the population density of the snake, as well as bringing contents that did not align with scientific d...

Dispersal limitation shapes distance-decay patterns of European spiders at the continental scale

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Dispersal limitation shapes distance-decay patterns of European spiders at the continental scale

Understanding the processes behind differences in species composition between sites (i.e. beta diversity) is a central question in ecology and biogeography. For this reason, beta diversity patterns have been widely studied across a wide range of territories, scales, times and taxa (e.g. Ávila et al., 2020; Pavlek & Mammola, 2020; Soininen et al., 2007; Steinbauer et al., 2012). At large scales, compositional differences between sites are commonly explained by two major processes, dispersal limitation and species sorting (Nekola & White, 1999; Soininen et al., 2007), which are not mutually exclusive (Gravel et al., 2006). Under dispersal limitation, even if areas with suitable conditions are available, species may not have the capacity to move across the required distances to colonize those areas, so their spatial distributions would not be in equilibrium with environmental conditions. As a result, the more spatially distant two sites are, the more dissimilar their communities are as well (Hubbell, 2001; Nekola & White, 1999). In turn, under species sorting, species are present or absent in a site depending on its biotic and abiotic characteristics (Leibold et al., 2004) and, in consequence, species distributions are constrained by environmental conditions (e.g. climate) and biotic interactions (e.g. competitive exclusion). In this case, the more different the biotic and abiotic characteristics of two sites, the more dissimilar their communities (Nekola & White, 1999).

Martín-Devasa, R., Jiménez-Valverde, A., Leprieur, F., Baselga, A., & Gómez-Rodríguez, C. Dispersal limitation shapes distance-decay patterns of European spiders at the continental scale. Global Ecology and Biogeography. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13810