Ada Sánchez-Mercado PhD.
Email: asanchez@ivic.gob.ve / adayelitza@yahoo.es
Research interest
I am postdoctoral researcher at the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas in the Spatial Ecology laboratory since 2011, my research focused on understanding how threats (poaching, habitat loss, etc.), landscape variables (latitude, altitude, etc.), and biotic associations (herbivory) could affect species distribution range and abundance. I use analysis methods that make the best use of the limited information available in tropical countries, usually scarce and incomplete. For example, I used presence record from literature and interviews and species distribution and population models to predict Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) populations response in Venezuela to poaching and fragmentation, but also I applied demographic, genetic, and population viability analyses on the captive population to evaluate whether population management goals developed in other contexts are appropriately applied to the conservation of Andean bears in their natural ranges. More recently, I combine bird surveys and historical sources to estimate changes distribution of Amazon parrots in Venezuela using occupancy models approach.
But sometimes the problem is not the scarcity of data, but how integrates them to visualize and understand large-scale pattern in distribution. I have been focused in this topic during the last year during my postdoctoral work in Kirstenbosh Research Centre in South Africa, using information about butterfly and hostplant association to evaluate the role of plant in determine species distribution at global and national scales.
Publications
Ferrer-Paris, J.R., Sánchez-Mercado, A., Viloria, A.L., Donaldson, J., (2013). Congruence and diversity of butterfly-host plant associations at higher taxonomic levels. PLoS ONE 8, e63570. doi:63510.61371/journal.pone.006357.
Ferrer-Paris JR, Rodríguez JP, Good T, Rodríguez-Clark KM & Sánchez-Mercado A (2013) Systematic, large-scale national biodiversity surveys: NeoMaps as a model for tropical region. Diversity and Distributions. Diversity and Distributions, 19, 215–231.
Ferrer-Paris JR, Sánchez-Mercado A & Rodríguez JP (2013) Optimización del muestreo de invertebrados tropicales: Un ejemplo con escarabajos coprófagos (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) en Venezuela. Revista de Biología Tropical 61: 89-110.
Rodríguez GA, Rodríguez JP, Ferrer-Paris JR & Sánchez-Mercado A (2012) A nation-wide standardized bird survey scheme for Venezuela. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124: 230-244.
Sánchez-Mercado A, Ferrer-Paris JR (2010). Mapping species distributions: Spatial inference and prediction by Janet Franklin (2009), xviii + 320 pp., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9780521876353 (hbk), GBP 70.00; 9780521700023 (pbk), GBP 35.00. Oryx 44: 615-615.
Rodríguez, JP, Ferrer-Paris JR, Mavárez, J, Rodríguez-Clark KM & Sánchez-Mercado, AY (2010). Más y mejor información científica para 2010: Año Internacional de la Diversidad Biológica. Interciencia 35: 160-160.
Sánchez-Mercado A, Yerena E, Monsalve D, García-Rangel S & Torres D (2010) Efectividad de las iniciativas de educación ambiental para la conservación del oso andino (Tremarctos ornatus) en la cordillera andina. En: De Oliveira-Miranda RL, J., Rodríguez-Ferraro A, Rojas-Suárez F, editores. Ciencia y conservación de especies amenazadas en Venezuela: Conservación Basada en Evidencias e Intervenciones Estratégicas. Caracas, Venezuela: Provita. pp. 137-146.
Monsalve-Dam D, Sánchez-Mercado A, Yerena E, García-Rangel S & Torres D (2010) Efectividad de las áreas protegidas para la conservación del oso andino (Tremarctos ornatus) en los andes suramericanos. En: De Oliveira- Miranda RL, J., Rodríguez-Ferraro A, Rojas-Suárez F, editors. Ciencia y conservación de especies amenazadas en Venezuela: Conservación Basada en Evidencias e Intervenciones Estratégicas. Caracas, Venezuela: Provita. pp. 127-136.
Sánchez-Mercado, A, Ferrer-Paris, JR, Yerena, E, García-Rangel, S & Rodríguez-Clark, KM (2008). Factors affecting poaching risk to Andean bears in the Cordillera de Mérida, Venezuela: Space, parks, and people. Oryx, 42 (3): 437–447.
García-Rangel, S, Yerena, E, Monsalve, D, Torres, D, Bracho, AE, Martínez, Z, Gómez, I & Sánchez-Mercado, A (2007). Action Plan for Andean Bear Conservation in Venezuela (2006-2016): Executive Summary. International Bears News 16 (4): 18 – 22.
Yerena, E, Monsalve, D, Torres, D. Sánchez-Mercado, A, García-Rangel, S, Bracho, A. E, Martínez, Z & Gómez, I (2006). Plan de acción para la conservación del oso andino (Tremarctos ornatus) en Venezuela (2006-2016). Fundación Andígena, FUDENA, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas.
Rodríguez-Clark, KM & Sánchez-Mercado, A (2006). Population management of threatened taxa in captivity within their natural ranges: Lessons from Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in Venezuela. Biological Conservation 129: 134-148.
Rodríguez, JP, Fajardo, L, Herrera, I. Sánchez, A & Reyes, A (2004). Conservation and management of the yellow-shouldered parrot (Amazona barbadensis) on the islands of Margarita and La Blanquilla, Venezuela. In H. R. Akçakaya, M. Burgman, O. Kindvall, C. Wood, P. Sjören-Gulve, J. Hattfield, and M. McCarthy, editors. Species Conservation and Management: Case Studies. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. Pages 361-370.