Biodiversity and Conservation最新文献

The reasonable construction of rare animal habitat ecological networks is an important way to maintain the stable development of wild species, and it is of great significance in biodiversity conservation. Based on the habitat suitability perspective, the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model was used to identify the ecological sources of the Giant Panda National Park; the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model and hydrological analysis principles were used to extract the ecological corridors and ecological nodes; the ant colony algorithm and kernel density analysis were introduced to identify the range of corridors and key restoration points; and the ecological network of giant panda habitat was constructed. We evaluated and analyzed the constructed ecological network and pointed out the key areas for ecological protection and restoration. The results show that the habitat suitability of the region as a whole is low, and the spatial differences are obvious. There is a pattern of high values in the east and north and low values in the west and south. 24 ecological sources were extracted, with a total area of 1737.63 km², mainly distributed in the central and northern regions. 55 ecological corridors were extracted, with a total length of 1667.816 km and a total area of 1312.08 km², which were widely distributed in the central part of the study area in a network pattern. 23 key ecological corridors and 14 key restoration points were identified, which are areas that should be considered in the construction of national parks in the future. Based on the ecological network characteristics of Giant Panda National Park, the future direction of future ecological restoration in the region was proposed. The research results are expected to provide a reference and basis for the construction of Giant Panda National Park and biodiversity protection.

Benefit-sharing mechanisms have been instrumental in securing the support of local communities living on the edge of protected areas, and in resolving human-wildlife conflicts. Understanding how current conservation policies influence benefit-sharing and the management of human-wildlife conflicts is vital for designing strong mechanisms to achieve both conservation and ethical community outcomes. Here we examined how benefit-sharing and human-wildlife conflicts are acknowledged and addressed within the current conservation policies (wildlife policies, legislations, regulations and strategic plans) using the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem (GSE) as a case study. The fourteen policies focusing primarily on wildlife conservation in Tanzania are analysed. We also drew on the findings of three studies conducted during 2021 and 2022 documenting community interactions with wildlife and adjacent protected areas. These studies covered the types of benefit provided by various conservation institutions to local communities, the effectiveness of benefit-sharing mechanisms, and the conservation-related losses incurred by communities. The study uncovered a wide range of benefits provided to local communities in the form of social amenities, livelihood support and employment. However, the losses and costs experienced are far greater than these benefits. Integrating these findings with policy analysis, we identified that the main limitations reducing the impacts of benefits in motivating positive conservation behaviours to be: losses of livestock and crops were more than four times the value of benefits/compensation offered to communities; a lack of details and clarity of benefit-sharing mechanisms; benefit/conservation rates that have not been indexed against inflation and; shortcomings in implementation. To achieve conservation outcomes, we recommend revising the conservation policies and legislation across the country in collaboration with local communities who experience the impacts of conservation in their day-to-day life. We also propose a coordinated approach for all conservation institutions managing wildlife to address widespread human-wildlife conflicts across the country effectively and to achieve better conservation outcomes rather than leaving that task to a single organization (i.e. Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority).

Identification of highly biodiverse areas has become a crucial step in protecting species richness, especially considering the rapid collapse of biodiversity and the limited funds available to avert, far less to reverse, these trends. Therefore, we aimed to identify the most important areas for the conservation of specified mammalian groups in Southern Asia, a region rich in biodiversity hotspots threatened by increasing rates of habitat loss and other anthropogenic activities. To achieve this, we modelled the occupancy of ungulates and of small, medium and large carnivorans at 20 study sites across the region and identified hotspots of species richness. We analysed the variation of estimated space use between different species groups and ranked areas according to their predicted importance for mammalian species conservation. Our results reveal a significant positive correlation in the spatial utilization patterns of competitive carnivores, yet no correlation among carnivores and their prey species, suggesting that anthropogenic impacts in the region are constraining species to coexist in only the few remaining suitable areas, superseding interactions between species guilds. Although the rank of site importance varied amongst species groups, we were able to identify a consensus on sites that are crucial for the conservation of all groups considered. Most of these top-ranking sites were located in the peninsular region of Thailand. We argue that, of the areas assessed, these sites represent the most important refuges for species conservation in the region, and their protection is critical for the maintenance of the biodiversity in Southern Asia.

The dynamic interplay between anthropogenic activities and biodiversity conservation necessitates a nuanced understanding of habitat change, especially in contexts marked by transitions from grasslands to forested areas. This investigation utilised three threatened butterfly species—the Marsh Fritillary, Apollo, and Large Blue—as models to explore how grassland associated species respond to altered environmental conditions. The methodology encompassed extensive field surveys and statistical analyses with ecological niche modelling to determine their current and future distributions on the Island of Gotland. The species were surveyed under distinct years from 2017 to 2020 in a total of 3333 hectares in a 6000 hectare area—the Marsh Fritillary in 2017 (1232 hectares), Apollo in 2019 (2346 hectares), and Large Blue in 2020 (2256 hectares). Results revealed that the estimated current extents of suitable habitats were 49,104 hectares for the Marsh Fritillary (15.6% of the island), 45,646 hectares for Apollo (14.5%), and 33,089 hectares for Large Blue (10.5%). In general, increased forest and shrub cover and decreased heterogeneity negatively affected butterfly occupancy, but each species exhibited unique habitat preferences. The predictive modelling demonstrated that continued succession would reduce the amount of habitats predicted to be suitable and generated alarming forecasts—a twofold increase in forest and shrub cover suggests habitat declines of 41%, 47%, and 65% for the Marsh Fritillary, Apollo, and Large Blue, respectively. Given these findings, proactive measures are imperative for strategically managing these habitats to preserve landscape heterogeneity and accommodate diverse ecological needs. This study is important to conservation management providing, crucial insights amid anthropogenic and ecological changes.

This paper offers an insight on present status of on-farm conservation of landrace diversity in the European Union. The review initially examines the types of materials that are the object of on-farm conservation, assesses the current status of maintenance and reproduction within farms and gardens, explores the motivations that drive ongoing conservation efforts as a foundation for future enhancement and identifies the key actors involved and their respective roles. Secondarily, it reviews European Union policies and their provisions supporting the conservation of crop diversity in the fields, with a particular focus on regulations pertaining to the commercialization of landrace seeds. Given that the availability of propagation material remains a primary constraint to the widespread dissemination of landraces, the review also includes current achievements and identifies constraints that could be mitigated. The discussion highlights how to continue and intensify the development and implementation of agro-environmental and seed policies as well as how further collection, documentation, study and promotion of the traditional farmers’ knowledge ̶ associated with the development, production and utilization of the traditional local products ̶ can improve the present situation. It is hoped that the model applied in the European Union could be also useful in other regions of the world.

There are growing evidences that indicate the Himalayan region is warming rapidly with more warming in high elevation areas. The elevation-dependent warming (EDW) accelerates the rate of change in mountain ecosystems, including cryosphere, hydrology, biodiversity and socio-economic systems. Here, we present temperature lapse rates (TLRs) based on primary data from 21 stations for three elevation transects leading to treeline (Western Himalaya: WH; Central Himalaya: CH; Eastern Himalaya: EH) representing different climate regimes along the Indian region of Himalayan Arc. TLRs were calculated using high temporal resolution data collected for 2 years (2017–2018) from complex Himalayan terrain. The annual mean TLR increased with decreasing moisture, being markedly higher for dry WH transect (− 0.66 °C/100 m) than at moderately moist CH (− 0.52 °C/100 m) and characteristically moist EH transect (− 0.50 °C/100 m). The One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) confirms that the TLR varied spatially, declining from West to East across the Himalayan Arc, and significantly differed seasonally. The lowest mean TLRs were found during the winter season (EH: − 0.46 °C/100 m; CH: − 0.40 °C/100 m; WH: − 0.31 °C/100 m). The monthly TLR for EH transect varied within a narrower range (− 0.32 °C/100 m to − 0.54 °C/100 m), than for CH transect (− 0.24 °C/100 m to − 0.68 °C/100 m), and WH transect (− 0.26 °C/100 m to − 0.90 °C/100 m). The lowest monthly TLR occurred in December (− 0.24 °C/100 m to − 0.32 °C/100 m) for all three transects. The relationship of TLR with rainfall and saturation vapor pressure was analyzed for CH transect to find out influence of these factors on seasonal variation in lapse rate. Moisture, snow albedo and reflectance are the factors which largely control the TLR along the elevation transects. The shallow TLR and higher growing season temperature values (9.2 ± 1.8 °C, 10.0 ± 1.4 °C, and 7.8 ± 1.7 °C), than normally found at treelines, may suggest that treeline environment in Himalaya is warming more rapidly than lowland areas. TLR was lowest in December due to reduced albedo and EDW, which influence treeline dynamics, snow and moisture regime, surface energy balance, species distribution, and growing season of alpine vegetation. The findings of this study provide useful insights to re-parameterize the climate models over the Himalayan region. This study facilitates in improving interpolation of air temperature for ecological studies in un-gauged and data-sparse regions, especially for the alpine region of Himalaya where observed data are extremely scarce.

With the on-going efforts in digitising museum collections, increased participation of citizen scientists, and greater accessibility to research data, accurately determining global patterns of diversity has become more achievable. Here, we used occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, with annotation of authoritative taxonomy, to evaluate the taxonomic richness of marine gastropods and to identify global species hotspots for this group. We also reviewed the availability of genetic resources within hotspots to detect potentially important regions where reference sequences for identifying these organisms are wanting. We find 33,268 unique and valid species under 3291 genera belonging to 380 gastropod families that have been recorded from 1662 to 2023. Globally, only 12.1% of reported species are linked to a COI barcode, whilst 27.1% of the families are represented with complete mitogenomes. Georeferenced records show the wide albeit disparate distribution of observations and species counts. The compiled dataset, published by organisations that are restricted to 55 countries, reveal a seeming lack of local submissions, but nonetheless demonstrates the growing contribution of citizen science platforms. We present 28 marine provinces across the globe as putative gastropod species hotspots and call for further work and stronger involvement, particularly within COI barcoding cold spots, to address the observed genetic reference inequity. Lastly, we highlight the important and relevant role of open and inclusive science to biodiversity monitoring and research.

Climate change threatens species and ecosystems globally, including forest ecosystems that support rich invertebrate diversity. Saproxylic beetles, that depend on old-growth trees and deadwood, are facing increasing pressure. Consequently, conserving these beetles has become a priority for EU Member States. We developed ensemble species distribution models for five saproxylic beetles for current and three future time horizons under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and two Global Circulation Models. We used a systematic conservation planning approach to assess the effectiveness and resilience to climate change of the Romanian Natura 2000 network for saproxylic beetles while identifying areas for prospective protected area expansion to meet EU conservation targets. Our study revealed that under all scenarios and time horizons, the saproxylic beetles may lose over 80% of their suitable habitat and restrict their distribution to higher elevations. According to the conservation prioritization analysis, we found that, when considering 30% of the landscape as being protected, an average of 85% of species distribution is retained within priority areas overlapping the Carpathian Mountains, while for the current protected area coverage (18% of Romania’s terrestrial area), the existing Natura 2000 network does not perform satisfactorily, with only ~ 30% of the saproxylic species distributions falling within the network. Our results corroborate previous findings on saproxylic beetle range shifts and contractions due to climate change. Furthermore, our findings question the effectiveness of the current Natura 2000 network, as it is currently inadequate for protecting these species. To achieve the goals of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 of protecting at least 30% of the EU’s territory, we advocate the expansion of the Natura 2000 sites to future suitable saproxylic beetle habitats.

In tropical forests, most plant species rely on frugivorous animals for seed dispersal services. Such mutualisms are imperiled by defaunation, which disproportionately affects large-bodied vertebrates and may impact the interactions of the large-seeded plants they disperse. However, frugivore-mediated seed dispersal (zoochory) may not be the only mechanism ensuring the dispersal of a given plant species. With a focus on large-seeded canopy trees in the genus Canarium in the rainforests of Madagascar, thought to be dispersed by large-bodied lemur species, we investigated the contribution of multiple dispersal mechanisms to the movement of large seeds. Specifically, we (1) examined the potential for dispersal by abiotic factors, such as winds and runoff associated with frequent cyclones, (2) documented the animal species that could effectively contribute to their primary and secondary seed dispersal, and (3) determined how non-lemur and abiotic dispersal compare to the imperiled function of extant, though threatened, lemur primary dispersers. Using field observations and experiments, we found that wind, water, and secondary dispersal can move seeds considerable distances away from the parent plants, though they were less effective at long-distance dispersal than primary dispersers (i.e., large-bodied lemurs). For secondary dispersal, we found that dispersal distance is positively correlated with predation, potentially reducing dispersal effectiveness. Future comparisons with predation of primary or abiotically dispersed seeds will be necessary. Our research highlights the role of understudied mechanisms in the dispersal of large-seeded plants in Madagascar. Understanding the existence and impact of non-lemur dispersers in these imperiled forests can help complete our understanding of the mechanisms that shaped their astounding biodiversity and may mediate their response to ongoing environmental change.

Sea turtles spend the majority of their lives at foraging grounds. These areas are important for population persistence but generally occur in coastal habitats, which are under increasing human pressure. Identifying key foraging areas is therefore an important step to understanding critical sea turtle habitats, and therefore their threats. Isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C) from skin tissues of 90 green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting at the regionally important rookery of Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles, were analyzed with samples collected during two periods: 51 samples from March to September 2021, and 39 samples from January to April 2022. These analyses were complemented by nine satellite tracks to identify key foraging areas. Hierarchical clustering and discriminant function analysis identified two main foraging areas: the East African coast (Tanzania and Somalia) and northern Madagascar. Isotopic values indicated that the majority of green turtles nesting at Aldabra forage at one of these two areas, with slightly more green turtles visiting the East African coast. Geographical isotopic patterns were not found latitudinally, suggesting a potential limit to this approach for coastal areas in the Western Indian Ocean. However, we found longitudinal variation of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N that few studies have reported. This is the first study in this region to combine satellite telemetry and stable isotope analysis to assign likely foraging areas of green turtles and advances understanding of the complex migration patterns and foraging ecology of this species. We demonstrate the potential and the limitations of stable isotope analysis for identifying/characterizing green turtle foraging areas in this region.