Search results for "global biodiversity"
showing 10 items of 61 documents
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…
Paleohistological estimation of bone growth rate in extinct archosaurs
2012
The clade Archosauria contains two very different sister groups in terms of diversity (number of species) and disparity (phenotypic variation): Crurotarsi (taxa more closely related to crocodiles than to birds) and Ornithodira (pterosaurs and dinosaurs including birds). The extant species of Crurotarsi may constitute a biased sample of past biodiversity regarding growth patterns and metabolic rates. Bone histological characters can be conserved over hundreds of millions of years in the fossil record and potentially contain information about individual age at death, age at sexual maturity, bone growth rates, and basal metabolic rates of extinct vertebrates. Using a sample of extant amniotes,…
Plant invasions on small Mediterranean islands. An overview
2016
Biological invasions have become one of the main drivers of habitat degradation and a leading cause of biodiversity loss in island ecosystems worldwide. The spread of invasive species poses a particular environmental threat on the islands of the Mediterranean Basin, which are hot spots of biodiversity and contain rare habitats and endemic species, especially on small islands, which are highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Following a recent survey, in this paper we aim to provide an overview of the present-day non-native vascular flora of small Mediterranean islands based on a sample of 37 islands located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Italy. By comparing the cu…
Biodiversity dynamics and their driving factors during the Cretaceous diversification of Spatangoida (Echinoidea, Echinodermata)
2004
Abstract Variations in recorded diversity over time present a scrambled signal that is modulated by a large number of variables: the potential of particular life forms to generate evolutionary innovations, external constraints induced by the environment in its broad sense, the heterogeneity of the fossil record and the analytical artefacts due to sampling bias. A key question is how to characterise and quantify the separate input of any given factor in the overall diversity signal. This paper explores the structure of diversity data for spatangoid heart urchins and the sensitivity of recorded diversity to different factors of analytical bias (length of geological periods, proportion of pala…
Disjunct populations of European vascular plant species keep the same climatic niches
2015
Aim Previous research on how climatic niches vary across species ranges has focused on a limited number of species, mostly invasive, and has not, to date, been very conclusive. Here we assess the d ...
CHANGES IN COLLEMBOLA RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY ALONG A GRADIENTOF LAND-USE INTENSITY : A pan European study
2006
Changes in Collembola richness and diversity along a land-use intensity gradient were studied in eight European countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Hungary, UK, Ireland and Finland). In each country a set of six 1 km2 land-use units (LUUs) were selected forming a gradient ranging from natural forest to agricultural dominated landscapes, passing through mixed-use ones. In addition to data on Collembola, detailed information regarding landscape diversity and structure was collected for each LUU. A total of 47,774 individuals were identified from 281 species. Collembola reacted not only to changes in the diversity of the landscape, but also to the composition of that diversity and…
Traitpedia: a collaborative effort to gather species traits
2018
Abstract Summary Traitpedia is a collaborative database aimed to collect binary traits in a tabular form for a growing number of species. Availability and implementation Traitpedia can be accessed from http://cbdm-01.zdv.uni-mainz.de/~munoz/traitpedia. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Marine alien species in Italy: A contribution to the implementation of descriptor D2 of the marine strategy framework directive
2019
A re-examination of marine alien species or Non Indigenous Species (NIS) reported in Italian Seas, until December 2018, is provided, focusing on establishment success, year of first record, origin, potential invasiveness, and likely pathways, in particular. Furthermore, their distribution is assessed according to the marine subregions outlined by the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Adriatic Sea (ADRIA), Ionian Sea and Central Mediterranean Sea (CMED), and Western Mediterranean Sea (WMED). In Italy, 265 NIS have been detected with the highest number of species being recorded in the CMED (154 species) and the WMED (151 species) subregions, followed by the ADRIA (143) …
Hotspots in cold climate: Conservation value of woodland key habitats in boreal forests
2011
The concept of Woodland Key Habitats (WKH, small-scaled presumed hotspots of biodiversity) has become an essential component of biodiversity conservation in Fennoscandian and Baltic forests. There have been debates over the importance of WKHs in relation to the conservation of biodiversity in production forests. We applied a systematic review protocol and meta-analysis to summarize knowledge on comparisons of biodiversity qualities, such as dead wood and species richness, between WKHs and production forests in relevant countries. We also summarized the knowledge on the impact of edge effects by comparing WKHs surrounded by production forests to WKHs surrounded by clear cuts. Studies had bee…
Vier Dekaden Weberknechtforschung mit dem 64. Band der ‚Tierwelt Deutschlands‘ – Rückblick, aktueller Stand und Ausblick
2021
A short history of the Opiliones volume in ‘Die Tierwelt Deutschlands’ published by Martens (1978) is presented. The area under consideration comprises Central Europe expanded by large parts of Scandinavia, the British Isles, non-Mediterranean France, Benelux, the complete Alps and in the south-east those parts of Romania and Croatia whose fauna was sufficiently well known. Additions and changes which appeared since 1978 are highlighted: new species discovered in this area, taxonomic changes, important distributional records, as well as changes of faunal composition due to human-mediated influences and climate change are addressed. Perspectives for further research concern faunal inventory …