Patrones de distribución y zonas prioritarias para la conservación de la avifauna de la costa del Pacífico de Guerrero, México

We modeled the environmental suitability conditions associated to the presence of 370 bird species along the Pacific coast of Guerrero state. Based on distribution models, regional patterns of richness, endemism and the accumulation at-risk species of birds were obtained. We used a complementarity analysis both for resident and aquatic birds and parsimony analysis of endemicity was performed in order to identify priority sites for conservation. Knowledge of the birds of the study area is incomplete according to the richness estimator (ICE: 77% of the total). The distributional patterns of bird species richness and endemism were more concentrated in the central-western area of the study region in the mountainous areas, except in the westernmost portion that also presented a large number of species in the lower areas coinciding with some lacustrine systems. The complementarity analysis for terrestrial birds identified 6 cells, the same number of cells for aquatic birds, and in both cases together harbored 100% of all species that were modeled. The parsimony analysis showed 2 areas of endemism, and some cells included in these areas were also identified in the complementarity analysis; hence, these areas should receive a higher level of prioritization. The conservation areas obtained in this study suggest a connectivity from the center to the west of the study area, region that coincides with findings in other studies using species importance for conservation.