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Alejandro
Lopera at his
home laboratory.
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Alejandro
Lopera works on dung beetle (Scarabaeinae) species richness
and ecology and the effect that forest fragmentation has on
this guild. He has worked in Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia
under the guidance of Dr. Adrian Forsyth of the Smithsonian
Institution. He knows well the Colombian dung beetle fauna
as well as some shared species from the other countries in which
he has worked. His studies with this group started in
1994 with his undergraduate thesis on the effects of fragmentation
on three dung beetle communities in Andean forests. After
several collecting trips to most of the regions of Colombia,
he broadened his knowledge of the systematics of this
group. He has conducted several museum trips to the National
Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, to
INBio in Costa Rica, and to Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
He is now working on dung beetle ecology and their role as nutrient
recyclers by dung removal and its impact on secondary seed removal
in fragmented forests of Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia. |
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PUBLICATIONS:
Amat, G.D., A. Lopera, and S. Amézquita. 1997. Patrones
de distribución de escarabajos coprófagos (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE)
en relicto de bosque altoandino, cordillera oriental de Colombia.
Caldasia 19: 191-204.
Amézquita, S.J., A. Forsyth, A. Lopera, and A. Camacho. 1999.
Comparación de la composición y riqueza de especies
de escarabajos coprófagos (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE) en remanentes de
bosque de la Orinoquía Colombiana. Acta Zoologica Méxicana (n.s.)
76: 113-126.
Escobar, F., C. A. Medina, A. Lopera-Toro, and S. J. Amézquita-Melo.
Los Coleópteros coprófagos (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae)
de Colombia: Diversidad y Distribución. En Sinopsis
de los Lamelicornia y Pectinocornia de America. México. In press.
Lopera, A. 1996. Distribución y diversidad de escarabajos
coprófagos (Scarabaeidae: Coleoptera) en tres relictos de
bosque altoandino (Cordillera Oriental, Vertiente Occidental,
Colombia). Trabajo de Grado. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
Santafé de Bogotá. |
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