Browsing by Subject "Sierra Madre Occidental"
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Item Biodviersityof Mexican Trout (Teleostei: Salmonidae: Oncorhynchus): Recent findings, conservation concerns, and management recommendations(Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, 2004-09) Mayden, Richard L.Until very recently the diversity of trout in Mexican rivers of the Sierra Madre Occidental has been very poorly understood and only the Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, and the Mexican Golden Trout, 0. chrysogaster, have been recognized. Recent efforts in the last decade by a binational organization of scientists and laypersons interested in the diversity and conservation of Mexican trout, Truchas Mexicanus, have revea led considerable diversity within the river systems of the Pacific Slope south to the Rio Acaponeta . These trout forms are highly differentiated and distinctive, and are considered native to these high-elevation river systems in pine-dominated forests. The increased occurrence of trout growout facilities and hatcheries within the range of these native Oncorhynchus and the escapes from these facilities threaten the native trout diversity through both introgressive hybridization and through resource competition, end products already known to occur in other trout populations in the other areas of North America exposed to exotic hatchery trout. Other threats to the native and previously unknown trout biodiversity in Mexico include timber harvesting, some pollutions associated with these activities, and siltation of critical habitats. Recommendations are provided to aid in the safe management and protection of this diversity which center around the future use of sterile trout in growout facilities and the use of undisturbed buffer zones along streams. The divergence observed in forms of Mexican trout is equivalent to the levels of divergence found between currently recognized subspecies of trout in the Rainbow and Cutthroat trout groups. Upon review of the diversity and divergence known to exist in these groups and our current understanding of conceptualizations of species, it is argued that the recognition of subspecies within these highly diverse trout lineages is inconsistent with the natural evolutionary history of these groups. The long-term use of the Biological Species Concept for these species is argued as not only inappropriate but an inadequate and illogical characterization of diversity. The logical consequences of hanging on to this concept as the operational and theoretical framework of trout diversity would necessitate the synonymization of all Rainbow and Cutthroat trout taxa as subspecies because of the known propensity of these groups to demonstrate introgressive hybridzation in some areas. These subspecies are considered va lid evolutionary lineages that are demonstrate divergence at morphological, genetic, and ecological characters that are well known to many trout taxonomists and biologists. All of these therefore qualify as Evolutionary Species that are easily diagnosable under the Phylogenetic Species Concept and should be recognized as valid species.Item Conservation of Mexican native trout and the discovery, status, protection and recovery of the Conchos trout, the first native Oncorhynchus of the Atlantic drainage in Mexico(Dirección de Publicaciones, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, 2007) Hendrickson, Dean A.; Neely, David A.; Mayden, Richard L.; Anderson, K.; Brooks, James E.; Camerana-Rosales, Faustino; Cutter, Ralph F.; Cutter, Lisa; De Los Santos Camarillo, Ana Belia; Ernsting, Guy W.; Espinosa-Pérez, Héctor; Findley, Lloyd T.; Garcia de León, Francisco J.; George, A. L.; Hatch, John; Kuhajda, Bernard R.; Mayden, Kyle E.; McNyset, Kristina M.; Nielsen, Jennifer L.; Pfeiffer, Frank W.; Propst, David L.; Ruiz-Campos, Gorgonio; St. Clair, E.; Tomelleri, Joseph R.; Varela-Romero, AlejandroThe Northwestern Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico is a rugged mountain range covering portions of Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, and is drained by multiple Pacific Slope Rivers to the west and the Casas Grandes, Conchos, and Nazas to the east. The overall area is topographically, climatically and biotically diverse, ranging from endorheic basins (Casas Grandes) to mountainous areas elevations up to 3348 m, average mean temperatures from 10-20°C and precipitation from 250-1100 mm/yr. The region is also geological complex that, combined with these other variables, provides a great diversity of both aquatic and terrestrial habitats conducive to both biotic endemicity and diversity. The overall diversity of the region has contribiited to the recent listing of this region by Conservation International as one of six new high-priority biodiversity hotspots. Our understanding of the aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity of this region, however, is poor and in urgent need of rapid investigation by collaborative communities. The combination of an incredibly rugged landscape, drug and bandit activities and indigenous peoples that have not always been welcoming to visitors has resulted in a general paucity of roads in the region, and the lack of access has limited inventory studies. Recently, however, access to the region has changed dramatically and many of the areas are now accessible enough for logging, mining, and agriculture practices, all exerting extreme pressures in some areas on the biodiversity. In addition to human-induced changes to these diverse ecosystems, impacts of invasive aquatic species are becoming more and more apparent, and the potential for severely reducing population sizes of species or their extirpation or extinction is real. While several invasive or exotic species are identified as potentially destructive to these communities, the exotic Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) that is derived from hatcheries or culture facilities within the region represents one of the most critical threats to the aquatic and semi-aquatic biodiversity. The native trout of mainland Mexico represent the southern- most salmonids, and are at imminent risk of introgression and/or replacement by feral Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. Our recent survey efforts have expanded the known diversity and ranges of each of several distinct forms, which we feel represent valid species. We discuss our discovery of multiple new species from the Sierra Madre Occidental and focus on a new species of trout restricted to the upper Conchos drainage, the first native species of Oncorhynchus known to occupy the Atlantic Slope in Mexico. Many of these taxa are restricted to small areas of intact habitat in headwater areas of high-elevation streams, and are at risk from a suite of human-associated perturbations, emerging diseases, and introduced species. These fishes occupy unique habitats, and represent a diverse portion of the Mexican montane ichthyofauna. The habitats on which they depend support a wide range of other aquatic organisms, most of which are grossly understudied. The discovery of the Conchos Trout derived primarily by GARP niche modeling of a subset of localities of previously sampled undescribed native Mexican trout, provides only a snapshot of the biodiversity awaiting to be discovered in this region. The rugged landscape of the Sierra Madre Occidental simply precludes routine sampling at easily accesible locations of streams and most sampling locations require time-intensive access. In an effort to rapidly assess the biodiversity of rivers of this region we employed this method to aid in predicting the most suitable and highly probable Mexican trout niches in the region. This method offered highly efficient and powerful results that not only predicted the occurrence of a previously unknown trout in the upper Rio Conchos but also provided excellent predictions of available habitats in drainages where previously unknown trout have been discovered by the Truchas Mexicanas team in the last nine years. Multiple threats exist to the biodiversity of the northern Sierra Madre Occidental, including uncontrolled introductions of exotic and invasive species, emerging diseases such as whirling disease, Myxobolus cerebralis, infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN), iridioviruses and pathogenic water mold, Saprolegnia ferax, land-use practices leading to habitat degradation via overgrazing, logging, deforestation and road construction, increasing human population growth, over-fishing or overharvesting of aquatic resources and global climate cliange reducing surface and ground water in the area and creating environments more conducive to the spread of invasive species, congregated and dense human populations, and emerging diseases. Immediate actions need to be developed to aid in public education as to the threats to these ecosystems, protection of areas, assessment of diversity, and sustainable development throughout the region that incorporates a likely highly successful ecotourism system for the region.Item El Diccionario Tarahumara –Alemán de Matthäus Steffel: Lengua y Cultura Rarámuri en el Siglo XVIII(Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, México, 2020) Merrill, William L.El Diccionario Tarahumara-Alemán de Matthäus Steffel: Lengua y Cultura Rarámuri en el Siglo XVIII, by William L. Merrill, in collaboration with Maria Brumm and Greta de León. Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico: Universidad de Sonora. 1103 pages. Tarahumara, an Indigenous language of northwestern Mexico, is spoken today by more than 80,000 people, who refer to themselves and their language as "Rarámuri". It is related to over thirty other languages that together form the Uto-Aztecan language family, distributed at European contact from the Great Basin of the western United States to Central America. The only extant dictionary of the Tarahumara language produced prior to the twentieth century was compiled in German by the Moravian Jesuit Matthäus Steffel, based on his experience as a missionary among the Tarahumaras between 1761 and 1767. The dictionary was published in Germany in 1809, but it contains hundreds of mistakes, both typographical and substantive, suggesting that Steffel did not have the opportunity to review it before his death in 1806. Fortunately, the majority of these mistakes can be corrected by comparison with a manuscript version of the dictionary that is preserved in the Moravian Provincial Archives, located in Brno, Czech Republic, where Steffel lived during the last three decades of his life. This volume offers the first Spanish translations and detailed analyses of both the published and manuscript versions of Steffel's Tarahumara-German dictionary, as well as exact transcriptions of the German originals of both works. Its principal objectives are to make the dictionary accessible to the Rarámuri people and to enhance its value as a source of data for research in linguistics and other disciplines. Steffel documented over 1100 Tarahumara words, along with diverse dimensions of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics of the language in the eighteenth century. The record he created indicates that, during the last 250 years, the Tarahumara language has undergone significant changes that have tended to distance it from other Uto-Aztecan languages. His dictionary is crucial to clarifying the historical relationships between Tarahumara and these languages as well as the nature and temporal framework of the changes that occurred. In addition, Steffel enriched his lexical entries with precise descriptions of a range of Tarahumara cultural practices and various aspects of life in colonial Mexico, and he provided the first descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Tarahumara region. The translations and transcriptions of the dictionary presented in this volume are complemented by overviews of Steffel=s life and his linguistic endeavors and evaluations of the significance of these works for research on Tarahumara language and cultural history. To transform his studies into reliable sources of linguistic data and to facilitate their use in linguistic research, the volume presents a technical analysis of his orthographic conventions, along with an extensive review of the errors identified in the works, a presentation of the words and glosses documented in the published dictionary in separate Tarahumara-Spanish and Spanish-Tarahumara vocabulary lists, and a compilation of these lexical items rendered in Steffel's orthography and modern phonetic notation. A glossary of the plant and animal terms that Steffel documented is presented separately with postulated scientific identifications of the taxa designated by them. An index of the principal topics covered in the published dictionary also is provided.Item Species in the spotlight: Treasures of the Sierra Madre – Mexico’s little-known native trout diversity(International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 2020) Hendrickson, Dean A.Few individuals on our planet do not know what trout and salmon are. They are usually recognised as highly palatable, and often colourful species, and most who know them likely visualize cold, beautiful, pristine, free flowing, alpine or forest streams and rivers as their typical habitats. Many will also know of the remarkable migrations taken by some species, moving from their birth locations in rivers to oceans and then returning to their birthplaces to spawn and die. Some may recognise their importance as prized targets of anglers, particularly fly fishers, who spare no expenses to go after these trophies. Many others who might not be so familiar with the characteristics just mentioned may likely recognise species of this family as the tasty, and usually relatively costly fish found frozen or on ice in grocery stores and fish markets, or in cans, or smoked, or served in restaurants. Their flesh, often pink or rosy-coloured, is prized worldwide. There is no doubt that fishes in this family (Salmonidae) are well known in most of the developed and developing countries of the world and that some have become extremely economically and globally important commercial species that support large-scale recreational as well as wild commercial fisheries, and are massively produced by global aquaculture. At the same time many are also imperilled to some degree. Before this project, the Red List database contained 140 species of Salmonids. Here we’ll focus on the genus Oncorhynchus, commonly known as the Pacific salmons and trout, which prior to this project was represented in the Red List by six species. Then, setting aside the many “salmon” of this genus, we’ll focus only on trout, specifically those of a large and diverse lineage, best known for one species, the famous rainbow trout (O. mykiss). Originally known only from California and other Pacific drainages of the U.S., rainbow trout have long been a prized target of anglers, and the species has been bred in captivity for at least 150 years. High demand for it for both sport fisheries, as well as wild and captive protein production, resulted in it now being established on every continent. It has become not only one of the world’s most important recreational fishing species, but also one of the planet’s most widely cultured vertebrates. It is effectively global agriculture’s “fish version” of the chicken, with global aquaculture production of the species in 2014 reaching 812,940 metric tonnes valued at nearly 4 billion US$ (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) n.d.) That rainbow trout of global fishery and aquaculture fame is known to be one of about 10 closely related subspecies of what is called the “coastal rainbow” branch of the evolutionary tree of the genus. Most of those are from California, but two native Mexican taxa have long been recognised as part of this lineage, O. m. nelsoni (Nelson’s trout – recently reviewed by (Ruiz Campos, 2017)) of the northernmost mountains of Baja California, and O. chrysogaster (the Mexican golden trout – recently covered by multiple contributors (Ruiz-Luna & Garcia De León, 2016). Recent genetic studies (AbadíaCardoso et al., 2015) confirm those relationships and reveal, from specimens collected by the bi-national group of researchers known as Truchas Mexicanas (Hendrickson et al., 2003), that Mexico’s share of the diversity in this lineage is much greater. At least 10 more, still undescribed species of native trout reside in remote, rugged and isolated corners of the Sierra Madre Occidental extending as far south as the high mountains between Mazatlán and Ciudad Durango. Truchas Mexicanas’ fieldwork left no doubt that most share a need for conservation actions to help their often small and fragmented populations persist, and some are critically imperilled (Camarena-Rosales et al., 2006; Hendrickson et al., 2007; Hendrickson & Tomelleri 2019). While their formal descriptions have been delayed for various reasons, recent genetic validation of their distinctiveness, and clear need for recognition of the need for conservation actions on their behalf, led those studying them to petition the IUCN to add them to the Red List while their descriptions are being finalized. That petition was accepted and their assessments were completed as part of this project.Item The transformation of Tarahumara agriculture in Chihuahua, Mexico(2011-05) Rudow, Joshua Martin; Doolittle, William Emery; Knapp, Gregory W.; Perez, Francisco L.The Tarahumara are one of the most isolated and intact indigenous groups in Mexico. Their agriculture has traditionally been practiced within the steep canyons and uplands of the Sierra Madre Occidental in southwestern Chihuahua. Adapting to these rugged conditions, the Tarahumara developed a variety of agricultural techniques that allowed them to be self-sufficient in food production and independent of external inputs. As varied and ingenious as their techniques are, they share one main objective -- to overcome the lack of organic matter in the stony mountain soils. Since the arrival of the Spaniards, the addition of organic matter has involved large amounts of animal manure to increase organic matter in the soil and maintain fertility. The focus of this study is to investigate new agricultural techniques that the Tarahumara are adopting due to the pressures of globalization and alleged climate change. These new technologies may still include many traditional agricultural methods, but they are increasingly using commercially available fertilizers and other modern agricultural additions, thereby losing self-sufficiency. This study includes in depth interviews with 28 Tarahumara farmers to better understand the modern agricultural techniques, their motivations, and overall sustainability. Soil samples determined the viability of Tarahumara agricultural techniques on soil fertility by examining the visual description, organic matter content, soil texture, and a chemical analysis. The analyses showed that traditional Tarahumara agricultural practices are efficient and sustainable, while modern additions are often ill-suited for their environment and are disruptive to Tarahumara culture.