Search results for "Conservation"

Individual and Environmental Determinants of Daily Black Grouse Nest Survival Rates at Variable Predator Densities

2010

Nest predation in ground nesting black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) inhabiting managed boreal forests is arguably the single most important cause of nesting failure. Little is known, however, about indirect effects of other factors, such as maternal or environmental properties, and to what extent maternal and habitat qualities interact with varying levels of predator densities. Using an information-theoretical approach, we studied maternal and environmental determinants of daily nest survival rates under variable predator densities of 210 individual black grouse hens in central Finland. Environmental determinants were far more important than maternal ones, and the effects were more apparent at hi…

Loss of a freshwater copepod species from El Junco Lake, Galápagos following the introduction and eradication of the Nile tilapia

2021

An undescribed diaptomid copepod probably belonging to a new Mastigodiaptomus species has been discovered and was very abundant in El Junco Lake (San Cristóbal Island, Ecuador) from 1966 until 2004. The species was not found in samples from 2007, 2008 or 2018. The loss of this key species from the lake coincides with the illegal introduction of Nile tilapia to El Junco Lake in 2005 and its subsequent eradication in 2008. The disappearance of this biogeographically and ecologically important copepod population may be explained by direct mechanisms of predation and competition, by a combination of both processes, and by indirect mechanisms linked to alterations in the lake ecosystem. The effe…

2015

Songs in passerine birds are important for territory defense and mating. Speciation rates in oscine passerines are so high, due to cultural evolution, that this bird lineage makes up half of the extant bird species. Leaf warblers are a speciose Old-World passerine family of limited morphological differentiation, so that songs are even more important for species delimitation. We took 16 sonographic traits from song recordings of 80 leaf warbler taxa and correlated them with 15 potentially explanatory variables, pairwise, and in linear models. Based on a well-resolved molecular phylogeny of the same taxa, all pairwise correlations were corrected for relatedness with phylogenetically independe…

2021

Technical Note: Comparison of Techniques for Evaluating the Relative Preference by Sheep Among Saltbush Clones

2004

This research compared 4 field methods of evaluating the relative preference by sheep of 28 clones of saltbush (Atriplex halimus L.). The methods were as follows. 1) Leaf dots (LD): 8 leaves per shrub were marked on the lower surface with a small dot using a water-resistant, nontoxic ink. 2) Twig marks (TM): 2 current-year twigs per shrub were marked with 3 lines using the same ink approximately in the middle of the basal, median, and apical thirds. 3) Branch length (BL): 2 branches per shrub were marked with ink at the base of the current year's growth. The twigs were measured from the marked point to the top, before and after sheep browsing. 4) Ocular estimation (OE): the percentage of th…

We need to appreciate common synanthropic plants before they become rare: Case study in Latgale (Latvia)

2020

Local ecological knowledge holds great potential in contributing to sustainable resource management and conservation activities. For this reason, the authors choose to analyse an ethnobotanical dataset from the Baltic Sea region by exploring the relationship between plants and humans on the basis of three main categories: habitat characteristics, distribution in the wild and plant sensitivity to human impact beyond physical distance. The study provides empirical evidence of widespread usage of so-called common species which are widely distributed in the territory and benefit from human activity. When considering the data via the intensity of use, based on detailed use-reports (DUR), the mai…

Agricultural landscapes and biodiversity conservation: a case study in Sicily (Italy)

2015

The diversity of life is made up not only of the diversity of plants and animal species, habitats and ecosystems, but also of the diversity of human cultures. These diversities interact with one another in complex ways and express the mutual adaptation between humans and the environment at local level. Sicilian traditional agro-ecosystems, due to the history of the territory and the resulting social and economic context, are configured in a heterogeneous mosaic rich in residual features of environmental value, which enhance the connectivity of the ecological network and support a high proportion of species that are rare or of conservation concern. As a case study we analyzed the characteris…

Understanding properly the `potential natural vegetation' concept

2010

This is a response to critical comments concerning the inappropriate use of the potential natural vegetation (PNV) concept made in a recent contribution to the Commentary section of this journal. We consider that the PNV concept has been misinterpreted. PNV has been used extensively in several European countries since the mid-1950s and was never intended to be used to make a prediction of what vegetation would dominate in an area if human influence were removed. PNV maps express hypothetical assumptions of what corresponds to dominant or natural vegetation in each area. Remnants of the vegetation of the past provided by palaeopalynology and other disciplines provide valuable information for…

New national and regional Annex I Habitat records: from #37 to #44

2022

In this contribution, Italian new data concerning the distribution of the Annex I Habitats 3150, 3170*, 3260, 4090, 91L0, 91M0, 9340 are reported. In detail, 20 new occurrences in Natura 2000 sites are presented and 30 new cells are added in the EEA 10 km × 10 km reference grid. The new data refer to the Italian administrative regions of Campania, Lazio, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, and Umbria.

Effects of temporal abiotic drivers on the dynamics of an allometric trophic network model

2023

Current ecological research and ecosystem management call for improved understanding of the abiotic drivers of community dynamics, including temperature effects on species interactions and biomass accumulation. Allometric trophic network (ATN) models, which simulate material (carbon) transfer in trophic networks from producers to consumers based on mass-specific metabolic rates, provide an attractive framework to study consumer–resource interactions from organisms to ecosystems. However, the developed ATN models rarely consider temporal changes in some key abiotic drivers that affect, for example, consumer metabolism and producer growth. Here, we evaluate how temporal changes in carrying ca…