Marine animal forests (MAFs) are benthic ecosystems dominated by structure-forming invertebrates (e.g., corals, sponges) that provide critical structural habitat and ecosystem services globally. The objective of this paper is to synthesize current knowledge on the role of MAFs in supporting biodiversity, regulating climate, and delivering economic value. Furthermore, it explores how emerging technologies are revolutionizing the study of these ecosystems. The paper concludes by outlining urgent research priorities required to guide conservation efforts and secure the vital services these ecosystems provide.

Marine wetlands are intertidal areas with depths less than six meters, which stand out for their high biodiversity and the ecosystem services they offer. They are important environments for various species of aquatic birds, especially those belonging to the Anatidae family, which includes ducks, swans and geese. The objective of this work was to study the diversity of waterfowl present in the Caulín marine wetland, located in Chiloé, southern Chile. During the winter seasons of 2012, 2014 and 2015, the diversity of waterfowl was monitored using the transect technique. The Caulín marine wetland is an important site for the conservation of waterfowl, hosting nine species, of which four are classified as conservation problems and five are species of hunting permitted in Chile. The observed diversity and high abundance of some species, such as the Black-necked swan (Cygnus melancoryphus) and the Yellow-billed Teal (Anas flavirostris), highlight the ecological relevance of this wetland as refuge and feeding area for aquatic birds. Finally, it is recommended that the Canal de Chacao Hunting Prohibited Area continue to exist, along with the implementation and strengthening of specific conservation measures that address local threats

In aquatic insects, body size and shape are key traits that may indicate phenotypic plasticity or adaptations to their hydrological landscape. Liodessus chilensis is a small and poorly-known aquatic beetle that inhabits permanent and temporary bodies of water. Accompanying the report of the species in different habitats of Navarino Island, an update of its description is presented. Additionally, body shape variation of different populations of L. chilensis is evaluated. Geometric morphometric analysis and multivariate regressions on the body shape of L. chilensis show variation mainly in the posterior part of the elytra and could indicate plasticity linked to the nature of the habitats in which they occur. The population of temporary pools presents shorter and broader elytra in their terminal part, while those that inhabit peat bogs and wetlands are longer and elongated. Additionally, a positive allometric effect was found, indicating that in addition to the differences in body shape, populations inhabiting temporary pools tend to be smaller in size. The plasticity of forms of L. chilensis as well as their permanent and temporary habitats can be considered as sentinels of environmental changes. These results are relevant for the Magallanes region, which has recently been declared prone to drought.

The Fuegian snipe Gallinago stricklandii (Gray, 1845) is one of the most enigmatic members of the family Scolopacidae Rafinesque, 1815. It is the least known species of the Gallinago genus and inhabits throughout the range of the biome of South American temperate forests, between the Maule region (36°S) and Cape Horn (56°S). In this biogeographical range, its reproductive and migratory habits are still poorly known. In this study, we report observations conducted between the years 2002 and 2023 in the Cape Horn National Park, with an emphasis on the most recent fieldwork on Horn Island. On this island, between January and October 2023, we recorded the autoecology of a family group composed of two adults and one juvenile. One of these adults was captured, banded, and measured in February 2023 (55°57.896’S - 67°13.478’W). The family group of G. stricklandii on Horn Island resided there during the summer, fall, winter, and spring seasons. This behavior contrasts with the migratory habit of the Magellanic snipe G. magellanica (King 1828), a better-known sympatric species. In addition to the resident habits of this family group and other individuals of G. stricklandii, we report new information about the morphology, feeding, and reproductive habits in the southern end of its distribution. This information recorded at the southern extreme of the American continent will enable new studies about this species and open up comparative analyses with other species of the cosmopolitan Scolopacidae family, which includes the world’s northernmost breeding birds at the boreal extreme of the Americas

The environmental characteristics and geomorphological landscape in the sub-Antarctic Magellanic ecoregion underpin a biological diversity that evolved adapting to the microhabitats produced by these heterogeneous ecological conditions. The high level of endemism found in these biological communities is nowadays protected thanks to the creation of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR), a natural laboratory at the southern end of the sub-Antarctic Magellanic ecoregion. Studies produced in this region offer a valuable knowledge of its biological, ecological and cultural facets in a state still scarcely impacted by anthropogenic activities. The retreat of glaciers present along the channels and fjords of the CHBR due to global climate change impacts the marine benthic and macroalgae communities hosted in these water bodies. European expeditions in the 18th and 19th centuries pioneered the works which provided our current knowledge about this subantarctic marine flora. Nevertheless, there is still a gap of taxonomic information of macroalgae diversity in the CHBR. To solve this gap, with support of the Cape Horn Internationional Center (CHIC), we created the Sub-Antarctic Cryptogamic Herbarium (SCH) hosted at the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Marine Ecosystems Laboratory (LEMAS), University of Magallanes. In 2020, the New York Botanical Garden indexed the SCH in its Index Herbariorum. This indexation granted by this world-renowned institution places the SCH's biological collection as the world's southernmost cryptogamic repository. As such, the SCH's botanical collection is currently the only gateway to the subantarctic ecosystem's biological legacy. The catalogue below provides information about the ecological and morphological characteristics of macroalgae deposited in the SCH, with particular focus on those species present in the CHBR. We identified 54 species. Among them 23 belong to the Rhodophyta division (43%), 19 species to the Chlorophyta division (35%), and 12 species to the Ochrophyta division (22%). In the context of rapid global change, involving increasingly threatened taxa due to human impact, baseline studies and records deposited at the SCH will provide an essential tool for assessing patterns of change and defining conservation practices to protect the rich biodiversity of these sub-Antarctic ecosystems.

El ostión del sur (Austrochlamys natans) es un molusco de importancia comercial, que desde 1970 ha formado parte de los desembarques pesqueros artesanales en Magallanes. Producto de la intensa explotación efectuada en la década de los 90, la autoridad pesquera estableció una veda permanente a partir del año 2001, no existiendo, hasta ahora, antecedentes recientes sobre su estado. Durante 2021, se realizó una evaluación poblacional en bahía Parry, zona histórica de extracción ubicada en el Área Marina Costera Protegida de Múltiples Usos (AMCP-MU) seno Almirantazgo, donde esta especie es objeto de conservación. Se ejecutaron dos campañas de evaluación directa, realizándose estimaciones de densidad, abundancia, biomasa, estructura poblacional y determinación del estatus poblacional utilizando un modelo de análisis de pseudo-cohortes basado en la longitud. Se identificaron tres bancos naturales, con una superficie de 150.646 m2 y densidades que oscilaron entre 102 y 209 individuos/m2. Los bancos estaban conformados en más de un 99%, por ejemplares adultos en edad reproductiva. La talla y densidad promedio, aumentó de 72,8 a 75,5 cm de alto valvar y de 49 a 150 individuos/m2 entre el 2009 y 2021 respectivamente, justificado por una baja en la presión de pesca y el efecto combinado de la veda y creación del AMCP-MU. La condición del stock es de una población ligeramente sobreexplotada (37% biomasa virginal), se recomienda mantener los actuales niveles de esfuerzo de pesca para sostener una explotación sustentable. Se propone la creación de una zona de preservación, para realizar investigaciones sobre asentamiento y conectividad entre bancos.

Breeding phenology of rockhopper penguin

Long-term socio-ecological research requires comprehensive assessments of biodiversity that overcome historical taxonomic biases, such as the strong focus on the vascular flora. This is particularly relevant at high latitudes where the richness of non-vascular plant species exceeds that of vascular species. Additionally, with respect to geographical regions, there is also a marked bias towards ecological and conservation research in the northern hemisphere. In contrast, few studies have investigated patterns of non-vascular species richness in relation to conservation priorities at sub- Antarctic latitudes, particularly in the sub-Antarctic Magellanic ecoregion. In this work, we contribute to overcome such taxonomic, geographical and ecoregional biases by moving outside these limits, and therefore “changing the lenses” that are commonly used to assess and conserve biodiversity. We implemented these new “biocultural lenses” by including, for the first time, bryophytes in the floristic inventory of the southernmost island of the American continent: Gonzalo Island (56°31’16.8’’S; 68°42’53.5’’W) in the Diego Ramírez Archipelago, Chile. The first bryological exploration of the Diego Ramírez archipelago, SW of Cape Horn, revealed a bryophyte flora composed of 14 species, eight liverworts and six mosses. This number of non-vascular plant species almost doubles the eight vascular plants present on the island. Consequently, with our study, we aim to fill a critical gap in the knowledge of the flora of the Diego Ramírez archipelago, and establish an integral floristic characterization for the long-term socio-ecological research and conservation of the southernmost archipelago of South America. Based on the field material collected, the new nomenclatural combination Chiloscyphus secundifolius (Hook. f. & Taylor) J.J.Engel is proposed. The moss flora comprises Amblystegium serpens, a widespread moss, yet hitherto unknown for sub-Antarctic Chile. The bryoflora of Diego Ramírez has its greatest affinities with that of the sub-Antarctic Magellanic ecoregion and Maritime Antarctica. None of the liverworts present on Gonzalo Island occurs on continental Antarctica; in contrast, four of the six mosses are shared between these two areas.

La conservación biocultural requiere cada vez más colaboraciones transdisciplinarias que incluyen distintas disciplinas, instituciones y actores. La colaboración entre científicos y la Armada de Chile ha sido una efectiva forma de abordar este requerimiento. Esta colaboración inter-institucional entre la Armada y el Programa de Conservación Biocultural Subantártica (Universidad de Magallanes, Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad y Fundación Omora en Chile, y Universidad de North Texas en EE.UU.) nos ha permitido iniciar el año 2016 estudios ornitológicos a largo plazo en el archipiélago Diego Ramírez, que incluye las islas más australes del continente americano. Hasta ahora su avifauna había sido estudiada exclusivamente durante la época estival, pese a que las regiones subpolares son especialmente sensibles al cambio climático y que las aves constituyen uno de los grupos de animales más sensibles y de más rápida respuesta al cambio climático, modificando sus períodos de migración, residencia y anidación, sus tamaños poblacionales y sus ámbitos de distribución latitudinal. Además, estudios en la Reserva de la Biosfera Cabo de Hornos, contigua al archipiélago Diego Ramírez, sugieren que algunas especies podrían estar ampliando sus ámbitos de distribución latitudinal y cambiando sus fechas de migración. El objetivo de este trabajo es iniciar un monitoreo sistemático de la composición de especies y de las fechas de anidación, migración y/o residencia de la avifauna del archipiélago Diego Ramírez en el extremo sur de la ecorregión subantártica de Magallanes. Presentamos los primeros registros invernales, otoñales y avistamientos durante otras épocas del año de la avifauna de la isla Gonzalo del archipiélago Diego Ramírez. En tres expediciones: en la estación reproductiva austral (verano; 29 noviembre-1 diciembre, 2016), en invierno (20 22 julio, 2017) y en otoño (28 marzo-1 abril, 2018), se monitorearon aves usando redes de niebla y confeccionando listas de especies a partir de observaciones en trabajo de campo. Para el registro de aves a lo largo del año, se contó con los registros fotográficos realizados por José Mella (coautor) y José Mejía, funcionarios de la Alcaldía de Mar Islas Diego Ramírez de la Armada de Chile entre los años 2014 y 2018. Se iniciaron nuevos registros fotográficos con personal capacitado de la Armada de Chile en el Faro de la isla Gonzalo. En total se detectaron 33 especies pertenecientes a 16 familias. Diez de estas especies representan nuevos registros para el archipiélago: yeco (Phalacrocorax brasiíianus Gmelin, 1789), garza boyera (Bubulcus ibis (Linnaeus, 1758)), halcón peregrino (Falco peregrinus Tunstall, 1771), colegial (Lessonia rufa Gmelin, 1789), zorzal (Turdus falcklandii Quoy & Gaimard, 1824), chincol (Zonotrichia capensis Müller, 1776), jilguero (Spinus barbatus Molina, 1782), golondrina de dorso negro (Pygochelidon cyanoleuca patagonica d’Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) , golondrina de mar de vientre negro (Fregetta tropica Gould, 1844) y petrel damero (Daption capense capense Linnaeus, 1758). Algunos de estos nuevos registros podrían estar asociados al calentamiento global y a una reciente ampliación de los ámbitos de distribución latitudinal y/o de los períodos de residencia de estas aves. Entre las 33 especies, 26 fueron registradas en primavera-verano, 22 en otoño y 14 en invierno. Sin embargo, nueve fueron avistadas sólo ocasionalmente, y será necesario determinar en el futuro si se trata de especies residentes o migrantes que son raramente avistadas o si son visitantes ocasionales. Respecto al estado de conservación, según la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la UICN, la avifauna del archipiélago Diego Ramírez incluye una especie en peligro (albatros de cabeza gris, Thalassarche chrysostoma Forster, 1785), tres especies vulnerables y cuatro casi amenazadas. El monitoreo en estas islas provee una línea de base para evaluar el estado de las poblaciones frente a nuevas amenazas de cambio global, entre las que destaca la amenaza potencial de especies invasoras. Es crucial prevenir el arribo de especies exóticas invasoras que se encuentran en otras islas subantárticas, tales como ratas (Rattus spp.), ratones (Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758), gatos (Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758) y visones norteamericanos (Neovison vison Schreber, 1777), que están presentes en la Reserva de la Biosfera Cabo de Hornos ubicada a menos de 100 km hacia el norte del archipiélago Diego Ramírez. El trabajo colaborativo con la Armada de Chile ha sido esencial para iniciar estos estudios ornitológicos de largo plazo, asociados al sitio de Estudios Ecológicos a Largo Plazo Isla Gonzalo-LTER que forma parte de la Red Chilena de Sitios de Estudios Socio-Ecológicos a Largo Plazo (LTSER-Chile) y de la Red Internacional de Estudios Ecológicos a Largo Plazo (ILTER). Un énfasis en este sitio será combinar el monitoreo de avifauna con la detección de potenciales especies invasoras.