Benefits of integrating complementarity into priority threat management

Conservation decision tools based on cost-effectiveness analysis are used to assess threat management strategies for improving species persistence. These approaches rank alternative strategies by their benefit to cost ratio but may fail to identify the optimal sets of strategies to implement under limited budgets because they do not account for redundancies. We devised a multi objective optimization approach in which the complementarity principle is applied to identify the sets of threat management strategies that protect the most species for any budget. We used our approach to prioritize threat management strategies for 53 species of conservation concern in the Pilbara, Australia. We followed a structured elicitation approach to collect information on the benefits and costs of implementing 17 different conservation strategies during a 3-day workshop with 49 stakeholders and experts in the biodiversity, conservation, and management of the Pilbara. We compared the performance of our complementarity priority threat management approach with a current cost-effectiveness ranking approach. A complementary set of 3 strategies: domestic herbivore management, fire management and research, and sanctuaries provided all species with >50% chance of persistence for $4.7 million/year over 20 years. Achieving the same result cost almost twice as much ($9.71 million/year) when strategies were selected by their cost-effectiveness ranks alone. Our results show that complementarity of management benefits has the potential to double the impact of priority threat management approaches.

Is lek breeding rare in bats?

Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) are among the most successful mammals and likely display the widest range of mating systems within the Class. One mating system that is underrepresented in the Chiroptera is lek breeding, which is characterized by aggregations of sexually displaying males that are visited by receptive females who appraise male displays and actively choose mates, yet receive no direct benefits such as assistance in parenting. Leks are thought to form when males can defend neither resources nor females, making it more economical to establish small breeding territories and self-advertise through sexual displays. Lekking is rare in mammals, and it has been suggested that a lack in the mobility required by females to economically seek out aggregations of sexually displaying males may explain this rarity. Bats, like birds, do not suffer reduced mobility and yet out of over a thousand described species, only one has been confirmed to breed in leks. We examine the rarity of lekking in bats by providing an overview on the current state of knowledge of their mating systems and discuss the ecological and social determinants for the observed trends, contrasted with the prerequisites of lek-breeding behaviour. We use the breeding behaviour of New Zealand's lesser short-tailed bat Mystacina tuberculata, which is believed to be a lek breeder, as a case study for the examination of potential lekking behaviour in bats, and highlight the importance of such research for the development of effective conservation strategies.

Using Bayesian Mixture Models That Combine Expert Knowledge and GIS Data to Define Ecoregions

Conservation planning and management programs typically assume relatively homogeneous ecological landscapes. Such “ecoregions” serve multiple purposes: they support assessments of competing environmental values, reveal priorities for allocating scarce resources, and guide effective on-ground actions such as the acquisition of a protected area and habitat restoration. Ecoregions have evolved from a history of organism–environment interactions, and are delineated at the scale or level of detail required to support planning. Depending on the delineation method, scale, or purpose, they have been described as provinces, zones, systems, land units, classes, facets, domains, subregions, and ecological, biological, biogeographical, or environmental regions. In each case, they are essential to the development of conservation strategies and are embedded in government policies at multiple scales.

Eco-crime and freshwater

The unsustainable and exploitative use of one of the most important but scarce resources on the planet - freshwater - continues to create conflict and human dislocation on a grand scale. Instead of witnessing nation-states adopting more equitable and efficient conservation strategies, powerful corporations are permitted to privatise and monopolise diminishing water reservoirs based on flawed neo-liberal assumptions and market models of the ‘global good’. The commodification of water has enabled corporate monopolies and corrupt states to exploit a fundamental human right, and in the process have created new forms of criminality. In recent years, affluent industrialised nations have experienced violent rioting as protestors express opposition to government ‘freshwater taxes’ and to corporate investors seeking to privatise drinking water. These water conflicts have included unprecedented clashes with police and deaths of innocent civilians in South Africa (BBC News, 2014a); the United Nations intervention in Detroit USA after weeks of public protest (Burns, 2014); and the hundreds of thousands of people protesting in Ireland (BBC News, 2014,b; Irish Times 2015). Subsequently, the commodification of freshwater has become a criminological issue for water-abundant rich states, as well as for the highly indebted water-scarce nations.

The commodification and exploitation of fresh water: Property, human rights and green criminology

In recent years, both developing and industrialised societies have experienced riots and civil unrest over the corporate exploitation of fresh water. Water conflicts increase as water scarcity rises and the unsustainable use of fresh water will continue to have profound implications for sustainable development and the realisation of human rights. Rather than states adopting more costly water conservation strategies or implementing efficient water technologies, corporations are exploiting natural resources in what has been described as the “privatization of water”. By using legal doctrines, states and corporations construct fresh water sources as something that can be owned or leased. For some regions, the privatization of water has enabled corporations and corrupt states to exploit a fundamental human right. Arguing that such matters are of relevance to criminology, which should be concerned with fundamental environmental and human rights, this article adopts a green criminological perspective and draws upon Treadmill of Production theory.

Bayesian analysis of community dynamics

Elucidating the mechanisms responsible for the patterns of species abundance, diversity, and distribution within and across ecological systems is a fundamental research focus in ecology. Species abundance patterns are shaped in a convoluted way by interplays between inter-/intra-specific interactions, environmental forcing, demographic stochasticity, and dispersal. Comprehensive models and suitable inferential and computational tools for teasing out these different factors are quite limited, even though such tools are critically needed to guide the implementation of management and conservation strategies, the efficacy of which rests on a realistic evaluation of the underlying mechanisms. This is even more so in the prevailing context of concerns over climate change progress and its potential impacts on ecosystems. This thesis utilized the flexible hierarchical Bayesian modelling framework in combination with the computer intensive methods known as Markov chain Monte Carlo, to develop methodologies for identifying and evaluating the factors that control the structure and dynamics of ecological communities. These methodologies were used to analyze data from a range of taxa: macro-moths (Lepidoptera), fish, crustaceans, birds, and rodents. Environmental stochasticity emerged as the most important driver of community dynamics, followed by density dependent regulation; the influence of inter-specific interactions on community-level variances was broadly minor. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the structure and dynamics of ecological communities, by showing directly that environmental fluctuations rather than inter-specific competition dominate the dynamics of several systems. This finding emphasizes the need to better understand how species are affected by the environment and acknowledge species differences in their responses to environmental heterogeneity, if we are to effectively model and predict their dynamics (e.g. for management and conservation purposes). The thesis also proposes a model-based approach to integrating the niche and neutral perspectives on community structure and dynamics, making it possible for the relative importance of each category of factors to be evaluated in light of field data.

Mutations as molecular tools : The metabolic-rate dependent molecular clock and DNA barcoding of allied species

Mutation and recombination are the fundamental processes leading to genetic variation in natural populations. This variation forms the raw material for evolution through natural selection and drift. Therefore, studying mutation rates may reveal information about evolutionary histories as well as phylogenetic interrelationships of organisms. In this thesis two molecular tools, DNA barcoding and the molecular clock were examined. In the first part, the efficiency of mutations to delineate closely related species was tested and the implications for conservation practices were assessed. The second part investigated the proposition that a constant mutation rate exists within invertebrates, in form of a metabolic-rate dependent molecular clock, which can be applied to accurately date speciation events. DNA barcoding aspires to be an efficient technique to not only distinguish between species but also reveal population-level variation solely relying on mutations found on a short stretch of a single gene. In this thesis barcoding was applied to discriminate between Hylochares populations from Russian Karelia and new Hylochares findings from the greater Helsinki region in Finland. Although barcoding failed to delineate the two reproductively isolated groups, their distinct morphological features and differing life-history traits led to their classification as two closely related, although separate species. The lack of genetic differentiation appears to be due to a recent divergence event not yet reflected in the beetles molecular make-up. Thus, the Russian Hylochares was described as a new species. The Finnish species, previously considered as locally extinct, was recognized as endangered. Even if, due to their identical genetic make-up, the populations had been regarded as conspecific, conservation strategies based on prior knowledge from Russia would not have guaranteed the survival of the Finnish beetle. Therefore, new conservation actions based on detailed studies of the biology and life-history of the Finnish Hylochares were conducted to protect this endemic rarity in Finland. The idea behind the strict molecular clock is that mutation rates are constant over evolutionary time and may thus be used to infer species divergence dates. However, one of the most recent theories argues that a strict clock does not tick per unit of time but that it has a constant substitution rate per unit of mass-specific metabolic energy. Therefore, according to this hypothesis, molecular clocks have to be recalibrated taking body size and temperature into account. This thesis tested the temperature effect on mutation rates in equally sized invertebrates. For the first dataset (family Eucnemidae, Coleoptera) the phylogenetic interrelationships and evolutionary history of the genus Arrhipis had to be inferred before the influence of temperature on substitution rates could be studied. Further, a second, larger invertebrate dataset (family Syrphidae, Diptera) was employed. Several methodological approaches, a number of genes and multiple molecular clock models revealed that there was no consistent relationship between temperature and mutation rate for the taxa under study. Thus, the body size effect, observed in vertebrates but controversial for invertebrates, rather than temperature may be the underlying driving force behind the metabolic-rate dependent molecular clock. Therefore, the metabolic-rate dependent molecular clock does not hold for the here studied invertebrate groups. This thesis emphasizes that molecular techniques relying on mutation rates have to be applied with caution. Whereas they may work satisfactorily under certain conditions for specific taxa, they may fail for others. The molecular clock as well as DNA barcoding should incorporate all the information and data available to obtain comprehensive estimations of the existing biodiversity and its evolutionary history.

Potential and economics of forestry options for carbon sequestration in India

There is a need to understand the carbon (C) sequestration potential of the forestry option and its financial implications for each country.In India the C emissions from deforestation are estimated to be nearly offset by C sequestration in forests under succession and tree plantations. India has nearly succeeded in stabilizing the area under forests and has adequate forest conservation strategies. Biomass demands for softwood, hardwood and firewood are estimated to double or treble by the year 2020. A set of forestry options were developed to meet the projected biomass needs, and keeping in mind the features of land categories available, three scenarios were developed: potential; demand-driven; and programme-driven scenarios. Adoption of the demand-driven scenario, targeted at meeting the projected biomass needs, is estimated to sequester 78 Mt of C annually after accounting for all emissions resulting from clearfelling and end use of biomass. The demand-driven scenario is estimated to offset 50% of national C emission at 1990 level. The cost per t of C sequestered for forestry options is lower than the energy options considered. The annual investment required for implementing the demand-driven scenario is estimated to be US$ 2.1 billion for six years and is shown to be feasible. Among forestry options, the ranking based on investment cost per t of C sequestered from least cost to highest cost is; natural regeneration-agro-forestry-enhanced natural regeneration (< US$ 2.5/t C)-timber-community-softwood forestry (US$ 3.3 to 7.3 per t of C).

Evaluation of census techniques to estimate the density of slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus) in Southern India

Reliable estimates of species density are fundamental to planning conservation strategies for any species; further, it is equally crucial to identify the most appropriate technique to estimate animal density. Nocturnal, small-sized animal species are notoriously difficult to census accurately and this issue critically affects their conservation status, We carried out a field study in southern India to estimate the density of slender loris, a small-sized nocturnal primate using line and strip transects. Actual counts of study individuals yielded a density estimate of 1.61 ha(-1); density estimate from line transects was 1.08 ha(-1); and density estimates varied from 1.06 ha(-1) to 0.59 ha(-1) in different fixed-width strip transects. We conclude that line and strip transects may typically underestimate densities of cryptic, nocturnal primates.

Panama City Fisheries Resources Office: FY 2006 Annual Report

HIGHLIGHTS FOR FY 2006 1. Captured and tagged 475 Gulf sturgeons in five Florida rivers and one bay. 2. Documented Gulf sturgeon marine movement and habitat use in the Gulf of Mexico. 3. Assisted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with the collection of Gulf sturgeon, implantation of acoustic tags, and monitoring of fish in a study to examine movement patterns and habitat use in Pensacola and Choctawhatchee bays post-Hurricane Ivan. 4. Provided technical assistance to Jon “Bo” Sawyer in completing a study – Summer Resting Areas of the Gulf Sturgeon in the Conecuh/Escambia River System, Alabama-Florida – for acquiring a Degree of Master of Science at Troy University, Alabama. 5. Coordinated tagging and data collection with NOAA observers aboard trawlers while collecting Gulf sturgeon during dredging operations in the coastal Gulf of Mexico. 6. Hosted the 7th Annual Gulf Sturgeon Workshop. 7. Implemented Gulf Striped Bass Restoration Plan by coordinating the 23rd Annual Morone Workshop, leading the technical committee, transporting broodfish, coordinating the stocking on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system, and evaluating post-stocking success. 8. Continued updating and managing the Freshwater Mussel Survey Database, a Geographic Information System (GIS) database, for over 800 unique sites in the Northeast Gulf (NEG) drainages in Alabama (AL), Georgia (GA), and Florida (FL). 9. Formed a recovery implementation team for listed mussels in the ACF river basin and oversaw grant cooperative agreements for 14 listed and candidate freshwater mussels in the NEG watersheds. 10. Initiated a project in the Apalachicola River to relocate mussels stranded as a result of drought conditions, and calculate river flows at which mussels would be exposed. 11. Initiated a project in Sawhatchee Creek, Georgia to determine the status of threatened and endangered (T&E) freshwater mussels and target restoration projects, population assessments, and potential population augmentation to lead toward recovery of the listed species. 12. Initiated a study to determine the age and growth of the endangered fat threeridge mussel (Amblema neislerii). 13. Provided technical assistance to the Panama City Ecological Services office for a biological opinion on the operations of Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam and its effects on the listed species and designated and proposed critical habitat in the Apalachicola River, Florida. 14. Assisted with a multi-State, inter-agency team to develop a management plan to restore the Alabama shad in the ACF river system. 15. Conducted fishery surveys on Tyndall AFB, Florida and Ft. Benning, Georgia and completed a report with recommendations for future recreational fishery needs. 16. Provided fishery technical assistance to four National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) (i.e., Okefenokee NWR, Banks Lake NWR, St. Vincent NWR, and St. Marks NWR). 17. Initiated an Aquatic Resources and Recreation Fishing Survey on Department of Defense facilities located in Region 4. 18. Identified 130 road-stream crossings on Eglin AFB for rehabilitation and elimination of sediment imputs. 19. Continued the Aquatics Monitoring Program at Eglin AFB to assess techniques that determine current status and sustainability of aquatic habitat and develop a measure to determine quality or degradation of habitat. 20. Assisted Eglin AFB Natural Resource managers in revising the installation’s Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP) and its associated component plans. 21. Coordinated recovery efforts for the endangered Okaloosa darter including population/life history surveys, stream restoration, and outreach activities. 22. Initiated a comprehensive status review of the Okaloosa darter with analyses performed to assess available habitat, preferred habitats, range expansions/reductions/fragmentations, population size, and probability of extinction. 23. Assisted the Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) under a Memorandum of Agreement to develop conservation strategies, implement monitoring and assessment programs, and secure funds for aquatic management programs in six watersheds in northwest Florida and southeast Alabama. 24. Entered into a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Air Force to encourage the conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources at Hurlburt Field, Florida. 25. Multiple outreach projects were completed to detail aquatic resources’ conservation needs and opportunities; including National Fishing Week, Earth Day, several festivals, and school outreach.

Homestead fish pond and the environment in Nigeria

Homestead fish culture is a recent innovation for mass production of fish at backyard in Nigeria. The processes of pond construction often have resulted in soil disturbances, vegetation losses, and creation of new aquatic environment. The paper discusses homestead ponds in Nigeria, their potential impact on the environment which includes erosion, over flooding, pest and disease, accident risk, undesired fossil fuel production, vegetation destruction and fish genetic conservation, strategies for environmental management in relation to pond construction are suggested

Climate change adaptation and planning: An example from Kailua Beach, Oahu, Hawaii

The University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program (UHSG) in partnership with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL) is developing a beach and dune management plan for Kailua Beach on the eastern shoreline of Oahu. The objective of the plan is to develop a comprehensive beach management and land use development plan for Kailua Beach that reflects the state of scientific understanding of beach processes in Kailua Bay and abutting shoreline areas and is intended to provide long-term recommendations to adapting to climate change including potential coastal hazards such as sea level rise. The development of the plan has lead to wider recognition of the significance of projected sea level rise to the region and provides the rational behind some of the land use conservation strategies. The plan takes on a critical light given global predictions for continued, possibly accelerated, sea-level rise and the ongoing focus of intense development along the Hawaiian shoreline. Hawaii’s coastal resource managers are faced with the daunting prospect of managing the effects of erosion while simultaneously monitoring and regulating high-risk coastal development that often impacts the shoreline. The beach and dune preservation plan is the first step in a more comprehensive effort prepare for and adapt to sea level rise and ensure the preservation of the beach and dune ecosystem for the benefit of present and future generations. The Kailua Beach and Dune Management plan is intended to be the first in a series of regional plans in Hawaii to address climate change adaptation through land use planning. (PDF contains 3 pages)

Comunidade de mamíferos em uma paisagem fragmentada no município de Cachoeiras de Macacu, RJ

A Mata Atlântica sofre fortes pressões antrópicas desde o descobrimento do Brasil. Desse contexto surge a necessidades de estudos que busquem os efeitos dessa degradação sobre a biodiversidade desse bioma. Mamíferos são bons bioindicadores da qualidade ambiental dos ecossistemas a eles associados. Sendo assim, esse estudo objetivou a busca da relação entre a estrutura da comunidade de mamíferos e a estrutura da cobertura vegetal de uma paisagem do município de Cachoeiras de Macacu, RJ. Os resultados apontaram para uma relação entre a distância entre os fragmentos e sua composição, ou seja, quanto mais próximos os fragmentos estão entre si, mais semelhantes eles são em relação a composição da comunidade de mamíferos. Nessa perspectiva, refletimos sobre a importância da Teoria de Biogeografia de Ilhas e da Teoria de Metapopulações no pensar de estratégias conservacionistas e entendemos que elas podem ajudar na construção de modelos complexos sobre a composição das espécies de mamíferos.

Ecologia do jacaré de papo amarelo (Caiman latirostris, Daudin 1802) em ambiente urbano no município do Rio de Janeiro

Estudos ecológicos em meio urbano servem de subsídios à estratégias de conservação, propostas de manejo e/ou adequações dos planejamentos urbanos. No presente estudo analisei a ecologia do jacaré de papo amarelo em meio urbano no muncípio do Rio de Janeiro. O estudo foi realizado em um complexo de lagoas inseridos em meio a cidade do RJ. O complexo lagunar de Jacarepaguá está situado entre os principais bairros que mais cresceram nos últimos dez anos, tais como: Barra da Tijuca, Recreio dos Bandeirantes e a região de Jacarepaguá. Estudei o crescimento corpóreo do jacaré de papo amarelo e o seu desenvolvimento até a idade da primeira reprodução. O processo de crescimento individual é fundamental para todos os organismos, e seus respectivos estudos têm sido um assunto de preocupação ao manejo e conservação de espécies. Os dados para análise da taxa de crescimento individual compreenderam de recapturas de diferentes animais após intervalos conhecidos (data da recaptura - data da captura). Realizei um total de 20 recapturas de jacarés dentre 352 capturas. A maioria dos estudos de crescimento de jacarés foram realizadas em regiões mais frias, de latitudes mais baixas, logo os efeitos climáticos podem ser um fator importante no desenvolvimento desses animais. Após determinar a idade dos jacarés procurei analisar a distribuição de classes etárias utilizando a idade dos animais, e a razão sexual para entender a dinâmica da população através de sua estrutura etária e sexo. Foi feito uma distribuição por classes etárias e razão sexual dos indivíduos da população e a distribuição dos estágios de idade subsidiaram uma tabela de vida para C. latirostris em meio urbano. Foram capturados 68 (19,3%) jacarés juvenis, 180 (51,1%) sub adultos, e 104 (29,6%) adultos. A razão sexual para os jacarés capturados no Complexo Lagunar de Jacarepaguá foi de 3,3:1 (macho:fêmea), onde capturei 213 (78,7%) machos para 65 (21,3%) fêmeas e 90 jacarés juvenis onde não é possível identificar o sexo devido a idade. A taxa líquida de crescimento da população apresentou um valor negativo, o que corrobora a hipótese alternativa que a população estaria diminuindo. Conclui que a população de jacarés no complexo lagunar de Jacarepaguá não está crescendo. Devido a interação com o meio urbano ser cada vez mais intensificada realizei uma pesquisa sócio ambiental para entender qual é a relação da população humana em relação ao convívio com os jacarés em seu dia a dia na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Desta forma, foi realizado um estudo com o objetivo de identificar as percepções ambientais e concepções das pessoas em relação ao convívio com jacarés nos bairros do Recreio dos Bandeirantes e Barra da Tijuca, no Rio de Janeiro. Os dados coletados representaram conceituações negativo-positivas que os entrevistados apresentaram sobre a relação com os jacarés em áreas urbanas no município do Rio de Janeiro. Por meio deste estudo, conclui-se que há uma carência de elaboração de propostas de desenvolvimento, de estratégias de educação ambiental e melhor divulgação sobre noções ecológicas para a preservação de jacarés e seus ambientes, tanto para a população como para os responsáveis técnicos dos programas sócioambientais do município.

Conservação in vitro de germoplasma de Petiveria alliacea L. utilizando cultura de tecidos e criopreservação

A implementação de estratégias visando à conservação de espécies medicinais apresenta grande importância, tanto do ponto de vista ecológico quanto econômico. Petiveria alliacea L., espécie da família Phytolacaceae, conhecida como guiné, erva-de alho, erva-tipi ou amansa-senhor, pode ser encontrada desde a América Central até a América do Sul. Esta espécie possui ampla utilização medicinal, devido à presença, em sua composição, de vários polissulfetos, como o DTS (dibenziltrissulfeto), com propriedades antifúngica, antineoplásica e imunomodulatória, entre outras. O objetivo deste trabalho foi a conservação in vitro de germoplasma de Petiveria alliacea obtido de diferentes populações ocorrentes no Rio de Janeiro, através de métodos baseados em cultura de tecidos e criopreservação. Plantas obtidas através da germinação in vitro foram utilizadas como matrizes para a micropropagação através da multiplicação de meristemas pré-existentes em meio MS sem reguladores de crescimento, e embriões somáticos foram obtidos de forma direta a partir da cultura de explantes foliares das linhagens estudadas (Magé MG; Marechal Hermes MH; Niterói NT; Vila Isabel VI e Planta envasada AL), em presença de PIC (20μM) e 2,4D (22,6 μM), após 60 dias de cultivo. Os ápices caulinares das plantas micropropagadas e os embriões somáticos obtidos foram submetidos à criopreservação através de técnicas de vitrificação, encapsulamento-vitrificação e encapsulamento-desidratação, com a avaliação da pré-cultura e de soluções crioprotetoras (PVS2 e PVS3), em diferentes concentrações e tempos de exposição. Os resultados mostraram uma taxa de 100% de germinação in vitro. As condições para a pré-cultura de ápices foram padronizadas, entretanto não foram obtidos resultados positivos após o descongelamento. Por outro lado, os embriões da linhagem AL (linhagem embriogênica em cultura há 24 meses) mantiveram sua capacidade multiplicativa (100%) (embriogênese secundária) quando submetidos à desidratação em sacarose (0,5M) e expostos às soluções de vitrificação PVS2 e PVS3 pelos menores tempos (15 e 30 minutos). Os diferentes meios de recuperação apresentaram respostas variáveis em relação à capacidade multiplicativa dos embriões. O encapsulamento/vitrificação foi a técnica que promoveu maior tolerância dos embriões ao congelamento. A recuperação dos embriões através de multiplicação após a criopreservação abre uma perspectiva de conservação de genótipos com alta produção de polissulfetos, de interesse para a indústria farmacêutica