查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdPredicting the occurrence of rare species is challenging, especially outside of their known ranges. However, this information is critical for assessing conservation status, guiding monitoring efforts, and directing conservation actions for species threatened with extinction. Furthermore, frequent updates are needed under changing climate and landscape and thus, shifting species' distribution. Data collected by community science projects may provide additional information about species occurrence, complementing standard surveys. We used data from a community science project, eBird, and species-specific environmental variables with Bayesian Networks (BNs) to predict the occurrence of 12 federally-protected birds in Canada outside archived known ranges. Our results indicate the number of presence records in the eBird database in the previous three years is a useful variable to include in models predicting species occurrence outside known ranges for 7 out of 12 species. Land cover variables were important predictors, but the distance between a given site and the known range of species was not. While low number and proportion of detections in input datasets were negatively correlated with model performance, our BNs correctly predicted more than half of the presences in independent datasets for 6 species. For these 6 species, BNs predicted additional 0.07 to 68.22% (mean 20.93%) area of occurrence beyond known ranges. This study suggests that community science data may help to fill some information gaps in standard surveys and could be used to update species occurrence information for rare species, particularly in combination with models (e.g., BNs) capable of making and updating predictions with limited data.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdIntraspecific genetic diversity (IGD), the fundamental dimension of biodiversity, is scarcely considered in the context of anthropogenic impact at regional and global scales. Here, encouraged by the knowledge about the effect of past climate changes that shaped IGD at the community level, we evaluated how current land use and future climate changes may erode mechanisms underlying genetic diversity and species richness of the native flora of the Patagonian steppe, a cold desert that covers 827,446 km2 in the southern cone of South America. About 36% of the Patagonian steppe could serve as Anthropocene refugia, with only 1.8% being protected areas at present. Moreover, 63% of the areas with the highest species richness and endemism, and 37% with the highest genetic diversity are outside the refugia areas. Human-driven changes threaten plant biodiversity mainly in northern Patagonia. We provide the first broad assessment of climate change and land-use effects on IGD for the Patagonian steppe. The conservation of the detected high genetic diversity and species-rich areas with moderate land use and projected low climate anomaly should be prioritized, whereas high-risk areas, those for which a high climatic anomaly is projected, deserve monitoring and mitigation policies. This approach which includes IGD as a biodiversity metric may be useful for other endangered ecoregions in the world, with promising results for biodiversity conservation.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdEffective prioritisation of research and conservation action for threatened species requires understanding the relative importance of the various pressures they face. This can be difficult for rare, cryptic, and data-deficient species, particularly when drivers of population decline are complex and indirectly impact one another. We developed a risk assessment-based approach that accounts for cascading ecological changes and indirect impacts between human and environmental pressures for threatened species, for application when data-dense assessment approaches are not possible. We applied this framework to the Critically Endangered red handfish (Thymichthys politus), one of the rarest and most threatened fishes in the world, currently only known from two highly localised populations in Australia's south-east. Our approach identified the unique life history strategy of handfishes, coastal warming, indirect ecological pressures caused by recreational fishing, urban development, and poaching as the greatest current threats to the persistence of the species. Mitigation options identified to have the greatest immediate reduction in extinction risk include an ex situ captive population and release program to bolster numbers in the wild, and engagement with the commercial sea urchin fishery to help reduce impact within critical habitat. Our risk assessment process may provide a useful framework for allowing managers to make more informed and supported decisions for other species that are similarly data-poor, and when decisions would otherwise necessarily rely on best guesses that do not consider their broader ecological, environmental and anthropogenic contexts.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 The AuthorsAn individual's ability to produce surviving descendants defines its evolutionary fitness, and loss of family lineages (i.e. having no surviving descendants or relatives) diminishes allelic diversity within closed populations. This high variance in individual reproductive success is difficult to detect and measure, so potential demographic impacts are poorly understood. We identify the frequency and demographic impacts of lineage loss from non-random juvenile mortality of brood mates in critically endangered wild orange-bellied parrots Neophema chrysogaster over 22 years. We posit that non-random juvenile mortality is the mechanism that underpins lineage loss and reproductive skew in animals with few opportunities to breed in their lives. Only ~8% of parrot mothers bred more than once and non-random juvenile mortality was more prevalent than expected by chance. Nine of ten wild maternal lineages died out in the wild population over only three years. Using population viability analysis and genetic data, we show non-random juvenile mortality results in lower observed heterozygosity than random mortality scenarios. Failure to account for diminished population genetic diversity when family lineages die out may result in worse conservation outcomes. High individual variance in reproductive success can result in rapid loss of most families from a population if there is no conservation intervention. We identify warning signs and management approaches to address this threat. Looking for and correcting lineage loss early may be an important practical step for conserving population genetic diversity of such species.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier Ltd<Regarding the paper untitled “Critical ecological thresholds for conservation of tropical rainforest in Human Modified Landscapes,” which was published in volume 2055 of the journal (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109023). We would like to respectfully acknowledge the inclusion of Aline Pingarroni as a co-author of this article. During her graduate studies, Aline initiated and collaborated to develop the conceptual and methodological framework for the above-mentioned article and provided important data for field experimental work of our study. Regrettably, she was not included as a co-author when the manuscript was first developed and published due to an error in communication, and we are eager to see this oversight rectified. As it stands, her contribution to the manuscript has not been rightfully acknowledged. We would like to amend the list of authors as follows: German Wies*, Aline Pingarroni, Sergio Nicasio Arzeta, and Miguel Martínez Ramos. All authors are in agreement with this request and we understand that modifications of this nature after the article is accepted necessitate a “Corrigendum” of the document. 1. Germán Wies?,1 2. Sergio Nicasio Arzeta1 3. Miguel Martínez Ramos1 4. Aline Pingarroni1 > The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022Protected areas are intended as tools in reducing threats to wildlife and preserving habitat for their long-term population persistence. Studies on ranging behavior provide insight into the utility of protected areas. Vultures are one of the fastest declining groups of birds globally and are popular subjects for telemetry studies, but continent-wide studies are lacking. To address how vultures use space and identify the areas and location of possible vulture safe zones, we assess home range size and their overlap with protected areas by species, age, breeding status, season, and region using a large continent-wide telemetry datasets that includes 163 individuals of three species of threatened Gyps vulture. Immature vultures of all three species had larger home ranges and used a greater area outside of protected areas than breeding and non-breeding adults. Cape vultures had the smallest home range sizes and the lowest level of overlap with protected areas. Rüppell's vultures had larger home range sizes in the wet season, when poisoning may increase due to human-carnivore conflict. Overall, our study suggests challenges for the creation of Vulture Safe Zones to protect African vultures. At a minimum, areas of 24,000 km2 would be needed to protect the entire range of an adult African White-backed vulture and areas of more than 75,000 km2 for wider-ranging Rüppell's vultures. Vulture Safe Zones in Africa would generally need to be larger than existing protected areas, which would require widespread conservation activities outside of protected areas to be successful.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 The AuthorsProtected areas (PAs) are one of the main strategies to protect biodiversity and its ecosystem services globally. Plants are a critical component of biodiversity, playing a key role in almost every aspect of life, and Fabaceae is the third most diverse plant family worldwide with many useful species. We evaluated the diversity of uses of Fabaceae, how much of this diversity is encompassed by the Argentina's PAs network, and the relationship between species' conservation status and their uses. To do so, we used literature review, species distribution models (SDM), diversity metrics of use, conservation status, and gap analysis. We found that 72% of species (520) had at least one reported use. Prosopis species were the taxa with the most uses. Environmental, Medicine, and Animal food were the most diverse use classes. PAs with low to medium species richness supported the highest proportion of species with uses, and in regions, with higher species richness, the redundancy of uses increased. Most of the Fabaceae species from Argentina provide a valuable resource for people and animals, and fortunately, many of these uses are represented in PAs network. However, all use classes have between 8 and 25% of their species threatened, and most species (548) did not achieve conservation targets, highlighting the need for conservation efforts to safeguard these species. We demonstrated that integrating different species characteristics, data sources, and diversity metrics is an effective way to evaluate the contribution of PAs to conserve the utilitarian aspects of biodiversity on a large-scale.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdHybridisation between domestic and wild taxa can pose severe threats to wildlife conservation, and human-induced hybridisation, often linked to species' introductions and habitat degradation, may promote reproductive opportunities between species for which natural interbreeding would be highly unlikely. Using a biome-specific approach, we examine the effects of a suite of ecological drivers on the European wildcat's genetic integrity, while assessing the role played by protected areas in this process. We used genotype data from 1217 putative European wildcat samples from 13 European countries to assess the effects of landcover, disturbance and legal landscape protection on the European wildcat's genetic integrity across European biomes, through generalised linear models within a Bayesian framework. Overall, we found European wildcats to have genetic integrity levels above the wildcat-hybrid threshold (ca. 83%; threshold = 80%). However, Mediterranean and Temperate Insular biomes (i.e., Scotland) revealed lower levels, with 74% and 46% expected genetic integrity, respectively. We found that different drivers shape the level of genetic introgression across biomes, although forest integrity seems to be a common factor promoting European wildcat genetic integrity. Wildcat genetic integrity remains high, regardless of landscape legal protection, in biomes where populations appear to be healthy and show recent local range expansions. However, in biomes more susceptible to hybridisation, even protected areas show limited effectiveness in mitigating this threat. In the face of the detected patterns, we recommend that species conservation and management plans should be biome- and landscape-context-specific to ensure effective wildcat conservation, especially in the Mediterranean and Temperate Insular biomes.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022Fire suppression policies and “active management” in response to wildfires are being carried out by land managers globally, including millions of hectares of mixed conifer and dry ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of the western USA that periodically burn in mixed severity fires. Federal managers pour billions of dollars into command-and-control fire suppression and the MegaFire (landscape scale) Active Management Approach (MFAMA) in an attempt to contain wildfires increasingly influenced by top down climate forcings. Wildfire suppression activities aimed at stopping or slowing fires include expansive dozerlines, chemical retardants and igniters, backburns, and cutting trees (live and dead), including within roadless and wilderness areas. MFAMA involves logging of large, fire-resistant live trees and snags; mastication of beneficial shrubs; degradation of wildlife habitat, including endangered species habitat; aquatic impacts from an expansive road system; and logging-related carbon emissions. Such impacts are routinely dismissed with minimal environmental review and defiance of the precautionary principle in environmental planning. Placing restrictive bounds on these activities, deemed increasingly ineffective in a change climate, is urgently needed to overcome their contributions to the global biodiversity and climate crises. We urge land managers and decision makers to address the root cause of recent fire increases by reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors, reforming industrial forestry and fire suppression practices, protecting carbon stores in large trees and recently burned forests, working with wildfire for ecosystem benefits using minimum suppression tactics when fire is not threatening towns, and surgical application of thinning and prescribed fire nearest homes.
NSTL
Elsevier