Conservation strategy maps: a tool to facilitate biodiversity action planning illustrated using the heath fritillary butterfly

1. The UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) identifies invertebrate species in danger of national extinction. For many of these species, targets for recovery specify the number of populations that should exist by a specific future date but offer no procedure to plan strategically to achieve the target for any species. 2. Here we describe techniques based upon geographic information systems (GIS) that produce conservation strategy maps (CSM) to assist with achieving recovery targets based on all available and relevant information. 3. The heath fritillary Mellicta athalia is a UKBAP species used here to illustrate the use of CSM. A phase 1 habitat survey was used to identify habitat polygons across the county of Kent, UK. These were systematically filtered using relevant habitat, botanical and autecological data to identify seven types of polygon, including those with extant colonies or in the vicinity of extant colonies, areas managed for conservation but without colonies, and polygons that had the appropriate habitat structure and may therefore be suitable for reintroduction. 4. Five clusters of polygons of interest were found across the study area. The CSM of two of them are illustrated here: the Blean Wood complex, which contains the existing colonies of heath fritillary in Kent, and the Orlestone Forest complex, which offers opportunities for reintroduction. 5. Synthesis and applications. Although the CSM concept is illustrated here for the UK, we suggest that CSM could be part of species conservation programmes throughout the world. CSM are dynamic and should be stored in electronic format, preferably on the world-wide web, so that they can be easily viewed and updated. CSM can be used to illustrate opportunities and to develop strategies with scientists and non-scientists, enabling the engagement of all communities in a conservation programme. CSM for different years can be presented to illustrate the progress of a plan or to provide continuous feedback on how a field scenario develops.

Conservation strategy maps: a tool to facilitate biodiversity action planning illustrated using the heath fritillary butterfly

1. The UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) identifies invertebrate species in danger of national extinction. For many of these species, targets for recovery specify the number of populations that should exist by a specific future date but offer no procedure to plan strategically to achieve the target for any species. 2. Here we describe techniques based upon geographic information systems (GIS) that produce conservation strategy maps (CSM) to assist with achieving recovery targets based on all available and relevant information. 3. The heath fritillary Mellicta athalia is a UKBAP species used here to illustrate the use of CSM. A phase 1 habitat survey was used to identify habitat polygons across the county of Kent, UK. These were systematically filtered using relevant habitat, botanical and autecological data to identify seven types of polygon, including those with extant colonies or in the vicinity of extant colonies, areas managed for conservation but without colonies, and polygons that had the appropriate habitat structure and may therefore be suitable for reintroduction. 4. Five clusters of polygons of interest were found across the study area. The CSM of two of them are illustrated here: the Blean Wood complex, which contains the existing colonies of heath fritillary in Kent, and the Orlestone Forest complex, which offers opportunities for reintroduction. 5. Synthesis and applications. Although the CSM concept is illustrated here for the UK, we suggest that CSM could be part of species conservation programmes throughout the world. CSM are dynamic and should be stored in electronic format, preferably on the world-wide web, so that they can be easily viewed and updated. CSM can be used to illustrate opportunities and to develop strategies with scientists and non-scientists, enabling the engagement of all communities in a conservation programme. CSM for different years can be presented to illustrate the progress of a plan or to provide continuous feedback on how a field scenario develops.

The use of land-sea warming contrast under climate change to improve impact metrics

A favoured method of assimilating information from state-of-the-art climate models into integrated assessment models of climate impacts is to use the transient climate response (TCR) of the climate models as an input, sometimes accompanied by a pattern matching approach to provide spatial information. More recent approaches to the problem use TCR with another independent piece of climate model output: the land-sea surface warming ratio (φ). In this paper we show why the use of φ in addition to TCR has such utility. Multiple linear regressions of surface temperature change onto TCR and φ in 22 climate models from the CMIP3 multi-model database show that the inclusion of φ explains a much greater fraction of the inter-model variance than using TCR alone. The improvement is particularly pronounced in North America and Eurasia in the boreal summer season, and in the Amazon all year round. The use of φ as the second metric is beneficial for three reasons: firstly it is uncorrelated with TCR in state-of-the-art climate models and can therefore be considered as an independent metric; secondly, because of its projected time-invariance, the magnitude of φ is better constrained than TCR in the immediate future; thirdly, the use of two variables is much simpler than approaches such as pattern scaling from climate models. Finally we show how using the latest estimates of φ from climate models with a mean value of 1.6—as opposed to previously reported values of 1.4—can significantly increase the mean time-integrated discounted damage projections in a state-of-the-art integrated assessment model by about 15 %. When compared to damages calculated without the inclusion of the land-sea warming ratio, this figure rises to 65 %, equivalent to almost 200 trillion dollars over 200 years.

The teleconnection of the tropical Atlantic to Indo-Pacific sea surface temperatures on inter-annual to centennial time scales: a review of recent findings

In this paper, the teleconnections from the tropical Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific region from inter-annual to centennial time scales will be reviewed. Identified teleconnections and hypotheses on mechanisms at work are reviewed and further explored in a century-long pacemaker coupled ocean-atmosphere simulation ensemble. There is a substantial impact of the tropical Atlantic on the Pacific region at inter-annual time scales. An Atlantic Niño (Niña) event leads to rising (sinking) motion in the Atlantic region, which is compensated by sinking (rising) motion in the central-western Pacific. The sinking (rising) motion in the central-western Pacific induces easterly (westerly) surface wind anomalies just to the west, which alter the thermocline. These perturbations propagate eastward as upwelling (downwelling) Kelvin-waves, where they increase the probability for a La Niña (El Niño) event. Moreover, tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies are also able to lead La Niña/El Niño development. At multidecadal time scales, a positive (negative) Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation leads to a cooling (warming) of the eastern Pacific and a warming (cooling) of the western Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. The physical mechanism for this impact is similar to that at inter-annual time scales. At centennial time scales, the Atlantic warming induces a substantial reduction of the eastern Pacific warming even under CO2 increase and to a strong subsurface cooling.

Studies of micronuclei and other nuclear abnormalities in red blood cells of Colossoma macropomum exposed to methylmercury

The frequencies of micronuclei (MN) and morphological nuclear abnormalities (NA) in erythrocytes in the peripheral blood of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), treated with 2 mg.L^-1 methylmercury (MeHg), were analyzed. Two groups (nine specimens in each) were exposed to MeHg for different periods (group A - 24 h; group B - 120 h). A third group served as negative control (group C, untreated; n = 9). Although, when compared to the control group there were no significant differences in MN frequency in the treated groups, for NA, the differences between the frequencies of group B (treated for 120 h) and the control group were extremely significant (p < 0.02), thus demonstrating the potentially adverse effects of MeHg on C. macropomum erythrocytes after prolonged exposure.

Early osseointegration to hydrophilic and hydrophobic implant surfaces in humans

To evaluate the rate and degree of osseointegration at chemically modified moderately rough, hydrophilic (SLActive) and moderately rough, hydrophobic (SLA) implant surfaces during early phases of healing in a human model.

The growth response of planted red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) to alternative thinning regimes

Red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) plantations have been established in Michigan with expectations of mixed final product goals: pulpwood, boltwood and possibly sawlogs. The effects of alternative treatments on tree and stand attributes were examined in: the Atlantic Mine trial, thinned in spring 2006 with three alternatives: (1) every fifth row removal plus crown thinning, (2) every third row removal plus crown thinning and (3) every third row removal plus thinning from below; the Crane Lake trial, thinned in fall 2004 with two alternatives: (1) every third row removal and (2) every third row removal plus thinning from above; the Middle Branch East trial, thinned in fall 2004 with two alternatives: (1) every third row removal plus one in three remaining trees and (2) every third row removal plus one in five remaining trees. All trials included control plots where no thinning was applied. The trials were established in the field as a randomized complete block experiments, in which individual trees were measured in 3-4 fixed-area plots located within each treatment unit. Growth responses of diameter at breast height, height, live crown length, stand basal area and stand volume were examined along with their increments. The Tukey multiple comparison test was used to detect significant differences between treatments in their effect on tree growth response. The results showed that diameter increment increased with increasing thinning intensity and was significantly larger in thinned plots compared to unthinned. Treatments did not substantially affect average tree height increment. Stand basal area increment was significantly larger in the control plot only the year after the harvest. Volume increment was significantly larger in controls, but did not differ considerably among remaining treatments. However, the ratio of volume increment to standing volume was significantly smaller in unthinned plots compared to thinned. Since thinning treatments in all trials hardly ever differed significantly in their effect on stand growth response, mainly due to the relatively short time of the evaluation, heavier thinnings should be favored due to higher volume increment rates and shorter time needed to reach desirable diameters. Nevertheless, economic evaluation based on obtained results will be conducted in the future in order to make final decisions about the most profitable treatment.