Search results for "CONSERVATION"

2021

Sustainable forest management plays a key role for forest biodiversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services (BES), including the important service of carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation. Forest managers, however, find themselves in the increasingly complex planning situation to balance the often conflicting demands in BES. To cope with this situation, a prototype of a decision support system (DSS) for strategic (long-term) planning at the forest enterprise level was developed in the present project. The DSS was applied at three case study enterprises (CSEs) in Northern Switzerland, two lowland and one higher-elevation enterprise, for a 50-year time horizon (2010 to 2060…

Selecting submerged macrophyte species for replanting in Mediterranean eutrophic wetlands

2020

Abstract The criteria to select submerged plant species for restoration still need further evaluations for a better understanding of their suitability prior to undertaking large plantings which represent a large effort in terms of economical and human resources. In this study, previously to the restoration of a eutrophic area (Tancat de la Pipa) within the Albufera de Valencia Natural Park, the growth of three submerged plants (Ceratophyllum demersum, Myriophyllum spicatum and Stuckenia pectinata), an amphibious species (Ranunculus sceleratus), and three charophytes species (Chara vulgaris, Tolypella glomerata and Nitella hyalina) has been evaluated under controlled laboratory conditions in…

Differences in time and space use between two sympatric Acrocephalus warblers with similar diets

2016

Capsule: We found high diet overlap and different uses of space and time between Moustached Warblers Acrocephalus melanopogon and Reed Warblers Acrocephalus scirpaceus breeding in sympatry at a marshland in Spain. Aims: To study the degree of diet overlap between both species, their space use on a local scale and their breeding phenologies. Methods: We studied the breeding phenologies of the two species by standardized ringing activity. Spatial distribution was investigated by point counts. We determined diet composition from emetic samples and we collected invertebrates by standardized sweep-netting to estimate food availability. Results: Diet and prey selection were similar among species.…

Genetic admixture despite ecological segregation in a North African sparrow hybrid zone (Aves, Passeriformes, Passer domesticus × Passer hispaniolens…

2019

Under different environmental conditions, hybridization between the same species might result in different patterns of genetic admixture. Particularly, species pairs with large distribution ranges and long evolutionary history may have experienced several independent hybridization events over time in different zones of overlap. In birds, the diverse hybrid populations of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) provide a striking example. Throughout their range of sympatry, these two species do not regularly interbreed; however, a stabilized hybrid form (Passer italiae) exists on the Italian Peninsula and on several Mediterranean islands. The spa…

The genus isoetes (Isoetaceae): A provisional checklist of the accepted and unresolved taxa

2016

Isoetes is a widely distributed lycophyte genus of at least 200 species occurring in diverse habitats. The species can be difficult to identify because Isoetes, with its apparent simplicity of form and conserved morphology, provides few diagnostic features to reliably distinguish its species. The last worldwide monograph, published nearly a century ago, listed 77 taxa. The first step in producing a flora or monograph of all known species of a genus is to compile a list of the acceptable species names. The list presented here is a compilation of 192 accepted names representing taxa from regions around the world: chromosome numbers were assigned to 101 of them, with polyploidy settled on 46.7…

Effects of a mobile disturbance pattern on dynamic patch networks and metapopulation persistence

2021

Abstract Motivation Certain early-succession habitats may emerge only at restricted locations following disturbance. Therefore, whether disturbances tend to occur at certain sites or not can significantly affect habitat availability and metapopulation persistence of early-successional habitat specialists. Available models that combine metapopulation and landscape processes do not address how to model mobile, spatially shifting disturbance intensities independent of factors of site suitability. We present a model that allows the study on how a mobile disturbance pattern, of either natural or anthropogenic origin, affects patch network and metapopulation dynamics in realistic, heterogeneous l…

Trans-equatorial migration routes, staging sites and wintering areas of a High-Arctic avian predator: the Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus).

2013

The Long-tailed Skua, a small (,300 g) Arctic-breeding predator and seabird, is a functionally very important component of the Arctic vertebrate communities in summer, but little is known about its migration and winter distribution. We used lightlevel geolocators to track the annual movements of eight adult birds breeding in north-east Greenland (n = 3) and Svalbard (n = 5). All birds wintered in the Southern Hemisphere (mean arrival-departure dates on wintering grounds: 24 October-21 March): five along the south-west coast of Africa (0–40uS, 0–15uE), in the productive Benguela upwelling, and three further south (30–40uS, 0–50uE), in an area extending into the south-west Indian Ocean. Diffe…

Marine reserves: size and age do matter

2008

Marine reserves are widely used throughout the world to prevent overfishing and conserve biodiversity, but uncertainties remain about their optimal design. The effects of marine reserves are heterogeneous. Despite theoretical findings, empirical studies have previously found no effect of size on the effectiveness of marine reserves in protecting commercial fish stocks. Using 58 datasets from 19 European marine reserves, we show that reserve size and age do matter: Increasing the size of the no-take zone increases the density of commercial fishes within the reserve compared with outside; whereas the size of the buffer zone has the opposite effect. Moreover, positive effects of marine reserve…

Combining spatial prioritization and expert knowledge facilitates effectiveness of large-scale mire protection process in Finland

2019

Conservation resource allocation involves a complex set of considerations including species, habitats, connectivity, local to global biodiversity objectives, alternative protection and restoration actions, while requiring cost-efficiency and effective implementation. We present a national scale spatial conservation prioritization analysis for complementing the network of protected mires in Finland. We show how spatial prioritization coupled with regional targets and expert knowledge can facilitate structured decision-making. In our application, discussion between experts was structured around the prioritization model enabling integration of quantitative analysis with expert knowledge. The u…

Predicting shifting sustainability trade-offs in marine finfish aquaculture under climate change

2018

Defining sustainability goals is a crucial but difficult task because it often involves the quantification of multiple interrelated and sometimes conflicting components. This complexity may be exacerbated by climate change, which will increase environmental vulnerability in aquaculture and potentially compromise the ability to meet the needs of a growing human population. Here, we developed an approach to inform sustainable aquaculture by quantifying spatio-temporal shifts in critical trade-offs between environmental costs and benefits using the time to reach the commercial size as a possible proxy of economic implications of aquaculture under climate change. Our results indicate that optim…