0000000001327705
AUTHOR
Stefano Canessa
Assessing mitigation options for an emerging fungal pathogen threatening European and Palearctic salamander diversity
Emerging wildlife diseases represent both a major driver of global biodiversity loss and one of the greatest challenges to conservation science. In spite of the recognized extent and magnitude of disease-driven declines worldwide, and of the considerable research targeting them, successful mitigation remains elusive. The amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) causes lethal chytridiomycosis in several palearctic salamander species. This pathogen, believed to have recently entered Europe from its native range in Asia, has already driven the rapid collapse of populations of fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) in the Low Countries and threatens to cause massive b…
Improving the contribution of citizen-science to monitoring programs requires integrated planning
Monitoring biodiversity is a fundamental tool for its conservation, as it provides information that can guide and eventually improve the effectiveness of management outcomes. Citizen-science is increasingly advocated as a complement to governmental monitoring programs to overcome scarcity of resources and deliver important information for policy-making. In this study, we used the spatial optimization tool Marxan to explore the advantages and limitations of combining government and citizen-science monitoring networks to achieve monitoring targets for bird species of conservation concern for the EU in Catalonia (NE Spain), a region where both schemes are well established. We designed and comp…