High Abundances of Species in Protected Areas in Parts of their Geographic Distributions Colonized during a Recent Period of Climatic Change

It is uncertain whether Protected Areas (PAs) will conserve high abundances of species as their distributions and abundances shift in response to climate change. We analyzed large datasets for 57 butterfly and 42 odonate species (including four that have recently colonized Britain). We found that 73 of 94 species with sufficient data for analysis were more abundant inside than outside PAs in the historical parts of their British distributions, showing that PAs have retained high conservation value. A significant majority (61 of 99 species) was also more abundant inside PAs in regions they have colonized during the last 30–40 years of climate warming. Species with relatively high abundances inside PAs in long-established parts of their distributions were also disproportionately associated with PAs in recently colonized regions, revealing a set of relatively PA-reliant species. Pas, therefore, play a vital role in the conservation of biodiversity as species’ ranges become more dynamic

Species prioritization for monitoring and management in regional multiple species conservation plans.

Successful conservation plans are not solely achieved by acquiring optimally designed reserves. Ongoing monitoring and management of the biodiversity in those reserves is an equally important, but often neglected or poorly executed, part of the conservation process. In this paper we address one of the first and most important steps in designing a monitoring program - deciding what to monitor. We present a strategy for prioritizing species for monitoring and management in multispecies conservation plans. We use existing assessments of threatened status, and the degree and spatial and temporal extent of known threats to link the prioritization of species to the overarching goals and objectives of the conservation plan. We consider both broad and localized spatial scales to capture the regional conservation context and the practicalities of local management and monitoring constraints. Spatial scales that are commensurate with available data are selected. We demonstrate the utility of this strategy through application to a set of 85 plants and animals in an established multispecies conservation plan in San Diego County, California, USA. We use the prioritization to identify the most prominent risk factors and the habitats associated with the most threats to species. The protocol highlighted priorities that had not previously been identified and were not necessarily intuitive without systematic application of the criteria; many high-priority species have received no monitoring attention to date, and lower-priority species have. We recommend that in the absence of clear focal species, monitoring threats in highly impacted habitats may be a way to circumvent the need to monitor all the targeted species

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

Background Indigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented. Methods Extensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data. Results Results show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production–even abandonment–was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as ‘food plants’ in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity. Conclusions Ngäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization

Bumblebee nest density and the scale of available forage in arable landscapes

1. Combining the needs of agricultural production with enhancing biodiversity requires a landscape-scale approach since the geographic scale at which most non-farmed species operate is unconstrained by farm boundaries. Bumblebees are a key component of farmland biodiversity as pollinators of both crops and wild flora. However, the factors determining their densities in such landscapes remain poorly understood. 2. Using a combination of remote-sensed landscape data and molecular markers, we quantify the effects of land use (oilseed rape, field beans and non-cropped areas, all of which provide suitable bumblebee forage), at various spatial scales to find the best predictor of colony density for the bumblebee Bombus pascuorum Scopoli in an arable landscape. 3. Estimated colony density was positively correlated with the area of all habitat categories within 1000 m of the sample site. No significant relationships were found for greater or lesser distances. This concurs with earlier estimates of the foraging range of this species. We found no evidence that nest sizes increased with forage availability, although our data do not allow us to categorically exclude this possibility. 4. It has long been suspected that forage availability limits bee abundance in agricultural landscapes but there is little direct evidence for this. Here we report a direct relationship between floral abundance and bumblebee nest density within a notionally fixed area. Importantly, we suggest that the forage availability within the previously published estimated foraging distance for this species at this location is a good predictor of the scale of impact of forage provision on nesting density

Coastal Habitat Survey : East Coast of Scotland and Clyde Estuary, 1977

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.To survey the coastal habitat of the East Coast of Scotland and the Clyde Estuary. Certain East Coast sections are omitted: Upper Forth, Cromarty Firth, Dornoch Firth.Main Topics:Variables For each kilometre square: the length of coastline and the length of coastal types; area covered by different habitats/land uses; height of cliffs and presence of cliff features, e.g. caves, stacks; presence or absence of: beaches and spits and associated features; inter-tidal flats and associated features; saltmarsh and associated features; sand dunes and associated features; data on water bodies; data on islands; woodlands; 16 types of development; recreational facilities; air photos and O.S. maps used in the survey

National Countryside Monitoring Scheme; Cumbria, 1945-1949, 1970-1976

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The objectives of the NCMS are to establish a standard technically robust system for providing quanitiative data on the distribution and extent of defined structural components of the rural landscape during the 1940s and as near to the present day as possible so as to be able to estimate the changes that have occurred over this period of time.Main Topics:Variables Broadleaved woodland, broadleaved plantation, coniferous woodland, coniferous plantation, mixed woodland, young plantation, parkland, scrub (tall), scrub (low), bracken, dwarf shrub heath lowland, dwarf shrub heath moorland, blanket mire, lowland raised mire, marginal inundation, standing natural water, standing man-made water, running natural water, running water, unimproved grassland, semi-improved grassland

The conservation of semi-natural upland woodland

SIGLELD:GPB-2636 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo