Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Why should one find a particular set of small mammals at any particular site?  This question is at the heart of community ecology, and while no definitive and conclusive answer can yet be provided, this paper does summarize a body of research that has explored, and I think clarified, some of the factors that influence which species occur where and when.  The impacts of disturbances such as wildfire and sand mining are examined, along with the regeneration of vegetation and recolonization by small mammals that follow such disturbances in heathland and eucalypt forest in coastal eastern Australia.  I describe results from experiments that confirm that these small mammal species do indeed choose or select habitats, rather than just make use of the habitats that are available.  Further replicated, experimental removals, as manipulations of each species, one at a time, confirm that interspecific competition between these small mammal species is an important factor determining which species are found where and when, if the temporal aspect of succession is included.  Guild assembly rules are examined to illustrate how they may determine which species may or may not become part of a community.  Here, my review and synthesis illustrate how the major influences upon the community and landscape ecology of small mammals in the area examined are both spatially variable and temporally dynamic.

Information collected from a complete female juvenile individual of Gray's beaked whale (Mesoplodon grayi)  stranded on the Guanaqueros coast, Coquimbo Region in Chile (30°S) is provided.  Difficulties to differentiate specimens of Gray's beaked whale and Hector’s beaked whale (M. hectori) are discussed based on the use of diagnostic phenotypic characters, such as differences in color patterns and position of teeth on the lower jaw. The identification of the studied specimen as Gray's beaked whale was supported by a detailed review of cranial characters and molecular analyses.  Finally, we provide an updated list containing all known Chilean records for this species. 

In the Colombian Andes, most of the populations of Andean night monkeys (Aotus lemurinus) are found in fragmented landscapes due to the predominant changes in land use in the region.  Thus, forest fragments differ in shape, size, degree of isolation, and availability of resources.  These factors have had a differential effect on the ecology and permanence of their populations.  In order to determine the effect of fragmentation on A. lemurinus, we estimated its population density in a protected area of 489 ha of sub-Andean forest - at Otún Quimbaya Wildlife Sanctuary- which is structurally connected with other protected areas; then, we compared it with another study carried out in the unprotected Sub-andean forest fragments (900 ha) of Dapa, at the Valle del Cauca department.  To estimate its density, the distance sampling method was used with 31 linear transects, and the data were analyzed with the software Distance.  Landscape metrics was estimate with patch analyses tools with a Corine Land Cover information 1:100,000 scale.  The plant structure and diversity were measurement with transects to 50 x 4 m and taking account the trees with diameter at breast height over 10 cm.  We use average comparison to evaluate the similarities between patrons of the population density and explanatory variables.  A population density of 39 ind/km2 was found in our study, which is lower than the 113 ind/km2 found in the Dapa.  This relation was similar to relations of mean shape index, mean patch size and mean diameter at breast height, and inverse with the relations of proportion of the forest in the area, weighted cover index, plant diversity and density of trees.  It is likely that the protected area, by being connected and having a greater diversity of primates and trees, allows this population not to suffer from a crowding phenomenon, and that the population does not increase it carrying capacity due to the low presence of competing species, conversely to what could be occurring in the unprotected fragments.  Conversely, high density in Dapa could be reflect a system depletion in diversity and ecological processes.

The desert pocket gopher (Geomys arenarius) is a fossorial herbivorous rodent of the family Geomyidae.  Its distribution range is restricted to New Mexico and Texas, in the United States of America, and northern Chihuahua, in México.  The Médanos de Samalayuca Flora and Fauna Protection Area (MSFFPA) is located in northern Chihuahua.  Different economic activities are carried out in this region, mainly irrigated crops of pecans (Carya illinoinensis).  Populations of G. arenarius have been recorded within these areas.  Therefore, the objective of this work was to define the extent of the trophic niche and the changes in the physical condition of G. arenarius in a ranch within the MSFFPA over three contrasting seasons (dry, wet, and post-wet).  Forty G. arenarius specimens were collected from Arantxa Ranch.  Morphometric measurements and the weight of collected individuals were recorded, and the digestive tract was removed to prepare histological slides.  Seven 25 m²-quadrants were established, and the species of the vegetation cover were recorded and collected for reference.  The Seasonal Fitness Index (IK) and Levin’s Niche Breadth Index were calculated.  Males had higher average measurements and weight than females.  The IK was 2.82 ± 0.47 in males and 2.64 ± 0.61 in females. Significant differences in the IK between seasons were only found in females.  The correlation between IK and plant cover was strong for males and females.  The diet mainly comprised Physalis hederifolia, Dimorphocarpa wislizeni, and Cenchrus incertus.  Levin’s index showed that G. arenarius is a specialist rodent.  Sexual dimorphism was evident, with males larger than females.  The physical condition index of gophers is influenced by resource availability. In other studies, this parameter has been related to changes in food availability.  It has been reported that gophers tend to feed mainly on crops; however, pecan cultivation was not a major element in the diet of the desert pocket gopher, as it feeds on the vegetation associated with crops.  Gophers are considered generalists; nonetheless, the present study showed that G. arenarius is a specialist, although this may be a consequence of anthropogenic activities.

Entrevista con Antonio Pizzo, director de la Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma del CSIC.

This article analyses the enactment in Mexico of the 1963 electoral reform, an interesting case of controlled political opening implemented by the authoritarian post-revolutionary regime then prevailing in the country, considered here the most distant antecedent of the Mexican democratic transition which operated at the end of the 20th century. This text begins by exposing the conformation (in the early decades of the last century) of the post-revolutionary authoritarian state and the birth of the National Action Party (PAN), a right-wing political institute that for decades stood as the only opposition authorized by the regime. Likewise, episodes are mentioned in which a political opposition of a certain size was formed (as in the electoral junctures of 1940, 1946 and 1952) and important social movements of the middle of the century (such as those led by teachers and railroad workers) that, starting from economic demands, became a serious questioning of the authoritarianism of the governments of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). These factors would lead to the promulgation of the electoral reform of 1963, with which the PRI sought to electorally channel social discontent and political dissidence without risking their dominance, opening small spaces to the opposition in the lower house. 

German reunification was one of the most significant changes at the end of the Cold War. It not only put to an end the bipolar system that characterised the conflict between the two principal superpowers, but also to the international order that arose after the World War II. The process supposed such a considerable transformation for Europe that none of the countries which belonged to the EEC remained indifferent. This paper will approach to the attitude that Spain took towards the institutional and geostrategic changes of the German unification in the context of European integration and the end of the Cold War.

In December 1903, Antonio Maura appointed José Ferrándiz as Minister of the Navy, a competent sailor who had also obtained administrative experience during Sánchez de Toca’s previous ministry. Ferrándiz was aware of the terrible situation of the Navy and supported by Maura, he presented a naval reform project to change the administrative structure of the Navy. The planning was only twelve new torpedo boats, but the project aroused bitter opposition led by Admiral Beranger and supported by senior officers fearful of losing their privilege. They used the press, the reports issued to the parliamentary commission created to study the reform and the tribune of the Congress of Deputies to expose their disapproval of the government’s project. The fundamental criticism was the penury of new naval constructions. Opposition newspapers showed their censure of the government project as well, especially, El Imparcial, which was the voice of Rafael Gasset, who was very displeased by the suppression of his projects on hydraulic works and local roads. The fall of Antonio Maura first government took place in December 1904, when the bill was still being discussed in Congress, therefore, it made its approval impossible. 

This article is aimed to analyse the social-moral control exerted during the first years of Francoism in rural and urban areas of Huesca and Zaragoza. Thus, developing a perspective of “social history from below”, we attend some dimensions such as, on the one hand, the disciplining of social practices in festive and leisure spaces; and, on the other, the surveillance exerted over the behaviour of subjects that were considered as “immoral”. This allows us to highlight the strategies of everyday resistance used by ordinary people to maintain spheres of autonomy —for instance, with the celebration of carnivals and clandestine dances—; as well as to infer fundamental aspects of Franco’s governmentality.