Study of the relationship between roads, relief, land use, and natural vegetation in the Ibiuna Plateau - SP, focusing on landscape ecology

Roads facilitate access by deforestation agents, being relevant in studies approaching conservationist matters in rainforests. It is important to understand the relationship between road distribution, relief, land use, and forest coverage in order to evaluate where forests are more vulnerable. This study aimed at: 1) understanding the relationship between relief and density and road connectivity in three moments in time; and 2) evaluating the relationship between distance from roads and forest coverage, farmlands and rural and urban facilities in a fragmented Atlantic Forest landscape in three moments in time. Maps of roads, altitude, and land use and coverage were used. Chi-square tests showed that: 1) density and road connectivity did not present significant relationship with the relief; and 2) forest areas occupy areas distant from the roads, while farmlands and rural and urban facilities occupy areas nearer the roads. Roads and land use, regardless of relief, influence forest coverage distribution. Thus, we suggest that roads are taken into account in conservationist strategies and environmental planning.

New features of Cuban endemic Pinguicula filifolia (Lentibulariaceae) and considerations on its habitat and ecology

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Artisanal fisheries in urban reservoirs: a case study from Brazil (Billings Reservoir, São Paulo Metropolitan Region)

Billings Reservoir is an urban reservoir located in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region. Tt supports 101 active artisanal fishermen. To describe this fishery, landings were recorded daily between February 1996 and January 1997 at Colonia (23 degrees 50' 57 S; 46 degrees 40' 02 W). In every landing, a data collector recorded catch, effort, fishing gears and fishing grounds. A total of 147 593 kg of fish were recorded in 3515 fishing trips. The exotic Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L.), was the main species exploited (81.4% of the annual catches). Five other species were also targeted: the characid Astyanax eigenmaniorum (Cope) (13.0% of the annual catches); the erythrinid Hoplias aff malabaricus (Block) (2.1%); the exotic cyprinid Cyprinus carpio L. (Campos & Fernandez-Yepez) (2.4%); the curimatid Cyphocharax modestus L. (1.1%); and the pimelodid Rhamdia sp. (0.1%). Two main groups of fishermen were discriminated using Principal Components Analysis; these were associated with the type of fishing gear and fishing strategies, i.e. those who exploited Nile tilapia with cast nets and beating gill nets, and those who exploited other species with set gill nets. Management and maintenance of this fishery should consider the positive top-down effects that Nile tilapia could have in controlling eutrophication and also the social benefits.

Phytoplankton primary productivity in an urban eutrophic reservoir (São Paulo, Brazil)

The aim of this study was to analyze temporal ..d vertical variation of the biomass and of phytoplankton primary productivity in an urban eutrophic reservoir, in relation to the physical and chemical characteristics of the water. The physical and chemical variables of the water were defined in the limnetic region of the reservoir, at depths of 0.0; 0.5; 1.0; 2.0; 3.0 and 4.0 meters. Three samples were taken to define both the physical and chemical variables, concomitantly with the biomass (chlorophyll-a and phaeophytin) and phytoplankton primary productivity (C-14 method). Based on data obtained on differences in depth of the mixture zone and the euphotic zone, it is hypothesised that, depending on the time of the year, phytoplankton is conditioned by differences in the light and nutrient regimes, which change according to the constant loads of nutrients thrown into the system. The highest concentration of chlorophyll-a in the photic zone of the limnetic region was observed in November 2000 (1,197.3 mg Chl L -1) and the lowest in November 1999 (94.0 mg ChI L -1), whereas the profiles of primary activity of phytoplankton presented the highest rates on the surface of the water column, with values varying from 84.7 (May 2000) to 1,376.7mg C m -3 h -1 (December 2000). Annual primary productivity was calculated at 1,567.0gC m -2y -1, considered euproductive. The primary productivity profiles reported in this study are typical of aquatic eutrophic systems, rich in plankton and with low light penetration. It can be stated that Garças Lake is a system that suffers from anthropogenic impact, through receiving large loads of organic pollution, reflecting on the physical and chemical characteristics of the water and on the high values of biomass and primary phytoplankton activity. © National Institute of Ecology, New Delhi.

Indicators of soil degradation in urban forests: Physical and chemical parameters

The fragmentation of forest habitats in urban areas has aroused increasing interest in recent years according to the growing environmental problems. The fragmentation of theses ecosystems is caused, in general, by the pressure of housing, agriculture and industry, causing losses in biodiversity and problems of soil degradation in the border areas of theses remnants. The establishment of indicators of soil degradation becomes essential for the implementation of conservation and reclamation. This study analyzes physical and chemical characteristics of soil under different forms of vegetation in the forest surrounding the Quilombo Forest, located in Campinas/SP - Brazil, and examines the possibility of using these indices as indicators of environmental degradation in urban remnants. The parameters analyzed were: specific weight natural (γn), specific weight of solids (γs) Ca, P, K, Mg, pH, organic matter, H + Al, Sum of Base (SB) Percent Base Saturation (V%), Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC). The study shows that in general the different forms of land used in the study area significantly changed (or according to) the physical aspects of soil The porosity and voids of the soil stood out as the best indicators of soil physical degradation in the layer 0-20 cm deep. In relation to chemical indices, the soil under the cultivation of cane sugar had a significantly higher pH, K, Ca, Mg and sum of bases. The areas of forest showed higher levels of phosphorus, organic matter and CEC, indicating the importance of maintaining vegetation and replacement for the cycling of organic matter.

Helminths and Pentastomida of two synanthropic gecko lizards, Hemidactylus mabouia and Phyllopezus pollicaris, in an urban area in Northeastern Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Space-time analysis of the urban-rural grafient in the metropolitan area of Madrid and ist surroundings -Guadalajara and Toledo.

According to UN provisions in the period from 2007 to 2050 world population will grow up to 9200 million people. In fact, for the first time in history, in the year 2008 world urban population became higher than rural population. The increase of urban areas and their transport infrastructures has influenced agricultural land use due to their irreversible change, especially when they remain as periurban vacant land, losing their character and identity. In the Europe of the nineties, the traditional urban-rural gradient, characterized by a neat contact between both land types, has become so complex that it has change to a gradient in which it is difficult to separate urban and rural land uses. [Antrop 2004]. A literature review has been made on methodologies used for the urban-rural gradient analysis. One of these methodologies was selected that integrates ecological characterization based on the use of spatial metrics and geographical characterization based on spatial components. Cartographical sources used were Corine Land Cover at 1: 100000 scale and the Spanish Land Use Information System at 1:25000 scale. Urban-rural gradient paradigm is an analysis methodology, coming from landscape ecology, which enables to investigate how urbanization provokes changes in ecological patterns and processes into landscape. [Hahs and McDonnell 2006].The present research adapt this methodology to study the urban-rural gradient in the outskirts of Madrid, Toledo and Guadalajara. Both scales (1:25000 and 1:100000) were simultaneously used to reach the next objectives: 1) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in relation to distance to the town centre and major infrastructures. 2) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in the fringe of protected areas. The paper presents a new approach to the urban-rural relationship which allows better planning and management of urban áreas.

Characteristics of nonpoint source urban runoff and its effects on stream ecosystems /

Mode of access: Internet.

Comparison of rural and urban attitudes to the conservation of Asian elephants in Sri Lanka: empirical evidence

There has been little study of economic and general attitudes towards the conservation of the Asian elephant. This paper reports and analyses results from surveys conducted in Sri Lanka of attitudes of urban dwellers and farmers towards nature conservation in general and the elephant conservation in particular. The analyses are based on urban and a rural sample. Contingent valuation techniques are used as survey instruments. Multivariate logit regression analysis is used to analyse the respondents' attitudes towards conservation of elephants. It is found that, although some variations occurred between the samples, the majority of the respondents (both rural and urban) have positive attitudes towards nature conservation in general. However, marked differences in attitudes toward elephant conservation are evident between these two samples: the majority of urban respondents were in favour of elephant conservation; rural respondents expressed a mixture of positive and negative attitudes. Overall, considerable unrecorded and as yet unutilised economic support for conservation of wild elephants exists in Sri Lanka. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applying network analysis to the conservation of habitat trees in urban environments: a case study from Brisbane, Australia

In Australia more than 300 vertebrates, including 43 insectivorous bat species, depend on hollows in habitat trees for shelter, with many species using a network of multiple trees as roosts, We used roost-switching data on white-striped freetail bats (Tadarida australis; Microchiroptera: Molossidae) to construct a network representation of day roosts in suburban Brisbane, Australia. Bats were caught from a communal roost tree with a roosting group of several hundred individuals and released with transmitters. Each roost used by the bats represented a node in the network, and the movements of bats between roosts formed the links between nodes. Despite differences in gender and reproductive stages, the bats exhibited the same behavior throughout three radiotelemetry periods and over 500 bat days of radio tracking: each roosted in separate roosts, switched roosts very infrequently, and associated with other bats only at the communal roost This network resembled a scale-free network in which the distribution of the number of links from each roost followed a power law. Despite being spread over a large geographic area (> 200 km(2)), each roost was connected to others by less than three links. One roost (the hub or communal roost) defined the architecture of the network because it had the most links. That the network showed scale-free properties has profound implications for the management of the habitat trees of this roosting group. Scale-free networks provide high tolerance against stochastic events such as random roost removals but are susceptible to the selective removal of hub nodes. Network analysis is a useful tool for understanding the structural organization of habitat tree usage and allows the informed judgment of the relative importance of individual trees and hence the derivation of appropriate management decisions, Conservation planners and managers should emphasize the differential importance of habitat trees and think of them as being analogous to vital service centers in human societies.

Testing alternative models for the conservation of koalas in fragmented rural-urban landscapes

Predicting the various responses of different species to changes in landscape structure is a formidable challenge to landscape ecology. Based on expert knowledge and landscape ecological theory, we develop five competing a priori models for predicting the presence/absence of the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in Noosa Shire, south-east Queensland (Australia). A priori predictions were nested within three levels of ecological organization: in situ (site level) habitat (< 1 ha), patch level (100 ha) and landscape level (100-1000 ha). To test the models, Koala surveys and habitat surveys (n = 245) were conducted across the habitat mosaic. After taking into account tree species preferences, the patch and landscape context, and the neighbourhood effect of adjacent present sites, we applied logistic regression and hierarchical partitioning analyses to rank the alternative models and the explanatory variables. The strongest support was for a multilevel model, with Koala presence best predicted by the proportion of the landscape occupied by high quality habitat, the neighbourhood effect, the mean nearest neighbour distance between forest patches, the density of forest patches and the density of sealed roads. When tested against independent data (n = 105) using a receiver operator characteristic curve, the multilevel model performed moderately well. The study is consistent with recent assertions that habitat loss is the major driver of population decline, however, landscape configuration and roads have an important effect that needs to be incorporated into Koala conservation strategies.