查看更多>>摘要：? 2021Climate and land-use change are two primary drivers of global biodiversity loss, which increase the risks of extinction for giant panda, an umbrella and one of the most heavily invested species in conservation. Understanding how giant panda responds to these environmental changes thus is critical for developing long-term effective conservation strategies. However, until now most studies focused on only the effects of either climate change or land-use change on giant panda. So, if the potential combined effects of these processes are greater than either of them, the current conservation recommendations would be inappropriate or misleading. Here, based on two national survey data on giant panda occurrences across nearly thirty years, we quantified the variation of giant panda's population persistence as a function of land-use (measured as forest-cover) change, climate (measured as annual mean temperature (MAT), annual mean summer temperature (MAST) and annual mean precipitation (MAP)) change, and the synergistic effect of land-use and climate change. We found forest-cover change explained 38.1% of giant panda's persistence variation, while climate change explained 20.1% of the variation, and the synergistic effect of land-use and climate change explained only 1.5% of the variation. We confirmed that forest-cover change surpassed climate change or the synergistic effect between them as the greatest force driving giant panda's population persistence. Our findings highlighted the urgent need for a more comprehensive understanding of the relative effects of climate change by integrating climate change and land-use change rather than just focusing on climate change in tackling global biodiversity loss.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 The AuthorsSwidden agriculture is a widespread subsistence farming method in the tropics, which is being intensified as human populations grow. This study is the first to investigate the impacts of land degradation from swidden upon ant species (both native and introduced) across the full degradation gradient, from forest, to tree fallows, to shrub fallows, to exhausted land. Ant communities in closed canopy forests had higher species diversity and were taxonomically distinct, but as land became increasingly degraded, a significant reduction in overall and native species richness was detected, as were changes in overall community composition. Whilst native species decreased across the degradation gradient, introduced species increased. There was also a significant correlation in community compositional changes between native and introduced species which was independent from environmental factors. Co-occurrence analysis, however, suggested there was little evidence that introduced species were significantly impacting the communities of native species. This suggests these patterns are both separately driven by habitat degradation. Degraded fallow habitats were found to harbour unique and endemic species, including 22.4% of the species found in closed canopy forest. Together, our results highlight the potentially detrimental effects of further spread and increased intensification of swidden systems in tropical ecosystems. The conservation of existing closed canopy forests is of utmost importance but we also highlight that the fauna of degraded swidden habitats could still be important for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes across the tropics.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdLittle is known about how much continuous landscape transformation might affect the most vulnerable elements of biodiversity. In this study, we quantified changes in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) over the past 35 years across locations with threatened plants and in Natura 2000 (N2000) protected areas, in an environmentally heterogeneous region of Southern Europe. First, we estimated the intensity and duration of NDVI gains and losses based on Landsat time series using the LandTrendr algorithm in Google Earth Engine. Then, we tested: 1) whether populations of threatened plants were located in more stable sites than non-threatened plants (i.e., lower NDVI changes); 2) whether NDVI changes around populations of threatened plants differed across habitats and inside/outside N2000 areas, and 3) whether lower NDVI changes occurred in N2000 areas than unprotected areas, thereby indicating their effectiveness at preserving biodiversity. Threatened plants tended to be concentrated in sites with less change irrespective of the habitat where they occurred and their location within protected areas. Occurrence in stable sites also reduced the risk associated with small-sized populations. N2000 areas were in line with the overall greening trend but they experienced less loss events than the unprotected areas, thereby supporting their role in slowing down human-induced land cover changes. Our approach demonstrates how long-term remote sensing monitoring can help to assess the effects of both slow processes and drastic landscape transformation events on priority plants in a comprehensive and rapid manner. This method can identify hidden patterns in extensive regions and guide effective conservation management.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2021Citizen science (CS) can be an effective means for achieving conservation outcomes while also generating a range of benefits to participants. According to functionalist theory, similar activities may serve distinct psychological functions in different people. To understand how benefits are generated, we must, therefore, gain insight into citizen scientists' motivations. A question that has yet to be addressed, is the extent to which motivations and perceived benefits may affect participants' engagement and productivity. We surveyed participants in a diverse range of CS programmes in the South-east of England using a modification of the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI). We then linked variation in motivations and perceived benefits to participant-specific project outputs (effort and time invested) and outcomes (willingness to advocate for the cause). Citizen scientists were most motivated by personally held values and by the opportunity to engage with nature. However, the relative importance of the various motivators differed significantly between programmes. Participants most commonly reported altruistic benefits, e.g. contributing to community needs. The strongest drivers of personal investment appeared to be social motivations and the desire to learn or share knowledge. Those motivated by personally held values and by knowledge were also more likely to advocate. The modified VFI offers a nuanced understanding of citizen scientists' motivations and lays the foundation for an evidence-based approach to designing, implementing and evaluating CS. However, the study offers but a snapshot, and longitudinal studies will be crucial to capture the dynamic relationship between motivations, benefits and the factors that drive engagement and retention.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2021Parrots, and their fundamental role in the ecosystems played by the gradient of antagonistic-mutualistic interactions with plant communities, are currently under threat by anthropic activities. We reviewed scientific knowledge of antagonistic-mutualistic interaction between parrot and plant species, focusing on two key global change drivers: urbanization and species introduction. For this, we analyzed the state of knowledge on plant-parrot interactions considering their origin (native or non-native), and the environment type (natural, anthropic/non-urban and anthropic/urban) where interactions were studied. We analyzed 149 articles studying interactions between 126 parrot species and 1758 plant species. Most of these articles focused on the role of parrots as predators, as dispersers and/or pollinators, though very few studies focused on the net result of more than one interaction simultaneously. Articles focused mostly on native parrots interacting with native plants; although this changed with the environment type, single studies did not compare such differences. In natural and non-urban anthropic environments native parrots interacted mostly with native species. In urban areas both native and non-native parrots interacted with plants of both origins. We, here, provide recommendations based on our results and highlight important knowledge gaps to be filled related to interactions between parrot-plant along the antagonistic-mutualistic gradient, focusing on non-native species, and anthropic environments. Understanding the full range of the ecological interactions of parrots, and how they are affected by anthropic activities, will provide us with crucial information about the functioning of the environments they live in, which is also essential for the design of effective conservation strategies.
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