Biodiversity and Conservation (v.13, #3)

A long-term comparison of the benthic algal flora of Clare Island, County Mayo, western Ireland by Fabio Rindi; Michael D. Guiry (pp. 471-492).

The marine benthic algal flora of Clare Island, off County Mayo, western shore of Ireland, was investigated; collections of intertidal and subtidal marine algae were made at 16 sites along the eastern and southern shores in the years 1990, 1993 and 2000–2002. The data and observations obtained were compared with the results of a similar survey conducted by Arthur Disbrowe Cotton in 1910–1911. Considering the results of the original survey and the new survey together, the marine algal flora of the island currently totals 293 species; 224 species were recorded by Cotton in the original survey, whereas 223 species were identified in the present study. Most species are common to the original and the new list and the main differences are easily explainable; the new survey used SCUBA diving, which allowed the collection of several subtidal species not collected in 1910, and Cotton reported several microscopic green and brown algae, usually difficult to recognise in the field, which were not rediscovered. The most remarkable differences consist in the current presence of some large intertidal brown algae (Bifurcaria bifurcata, Cystoseira foeniculacea and Cystoseira nodicaulis) that were not reported in the survey of 1910. Two algae, Codium fragile subsp. tomentosoides and Asparagopsis armata, were introduced in Europe after the original survey. At present, the benthic algal assemblages of Clare Island still have basically the same structure and distribution as in 1910 and, if compared with other coastal areas of Europe, the intertidal marine environment of Clare Island appears remarkably well conserved.

Keywords: Algal flora; Alien introductions; Benthos; Biodiversity; Chlorophyta; Clare Island; Ireland; Marine algae; Phaeophyceae; Rhodophyta

Herbivory and climatic warming: a Mediterranean outbreaking caterpillar attacks a relict, boreal pine species by José A. Hódar; Regino Zamora (pp. 493-500).

Climate change can harm many species by disrupting existing interactions or by favouring new ones. This study analyses the foreseeable consequences of climatic warming in the distribution and dynamics of a Mediterranean pest that causes severe defoliation, the pine processionary caterpillar Thaumetopoea pityocampa, and the effects upon the relict Andalusian Scots pine Pinus sylvestris nevadensis in the Sierra Nevada mountains (southeastern Spain). We correlated a set of regional data of infestation by T. pityocampa upon Scots pine, from a broad ecological gradient, with climatic data for the period 1991–2001, characterized by alternating warm and cold winters. Defoliation intensity shows a significant association with previous warm winters, implying that climatic warming will intensify the interaction between the pest and the Scots pine. The homogeneous structure of the afforested pine woodlands favours the outbreak capacity of the newcomer, promoting this new interaction between a Mediterranean caterpillar pest and a boreal tree at its southern distribution limit.

Keywords: Climatic warming; Herbivory; Mediterranean mountains; Outbreaks; Plant–insect interactions; Range limits

Floristic inventory of secondary vegetation in agricultural systems of East-Amazonia by Renate Baar; Manoel Dos Reis Cordeiro; Manfred Denich; Horst Fölster (pp. 501-528).

Small farmers in the Bragantina (East-Amazonia, Brazil) traditionally apply a rotation of 2 years cultivation and 4–10 years forest fallow. More recently introduced pepper plantations fell fallow after fungus hazards. We studied the floristic composition of this young secondary vegetation by means of 92 vegetation relevés in 58 plots of forest fallow and 34 plots of pepper fallow with sizes ranging from 40 to 300 m². The age of the fallow vegetation ranged from 4 months to 10 years. We found 673 species belonging to 97 families. The list of plant species presented in the Appendix totals 827 species, including species collected in additional field surveys. The species are registered with scientific and local names as well as growth forms. The families with the largest numbers of species were Myrtaceae (34 species), Leguminosae (87), Sapindaceae (17), which contain mainly trees and shrubs, and Bignoniaceae (29), Connaraceae (12), Smilacaceae (22) with mainly vines, the forb dominated families Asteraceae (25), Euphorbiaceae (21), Rubiaceae (20), and Cyperaceae (16) and Poaceae (35). A comparison with local and regional inventories shows similarities to fallow vegetations and secondary forests, and floristic distance to primary forests.

Keywords: Agricultural land-use systems; East-Amazonia; Fallow vegetation; Family composition; Growth forms; Secondary vegetation; Tropical flora

Stand characteristics in colour-infrared aerial photographs as indicators of epiphytic lichens by Peter Ask; Sven G. Nilsson (pp. 529-542).

Information about forest biodiversity has so far been collected mostly by using field inventories, but it is desirable to find other methods that can cover large areas at a lower cost. In a forest landscape covering 2000 ha in southern Sweden we tested if colour-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs on the scale of 1:30000 can be used to interpret forest stand characteristics correlated to the occurrence of epiphytic lichens that are Red-listed or otherwise indicate high nature conservation value (‘signal species’). Using logistic regression we found that the interpreted stand variables tree height and crown structure class were significantly correlated to the occurrence of Red-listed species. For signal species, the variables tree height, percentage of southern deciduous trees and crown structure class were significantly correlated to the occurrence. The logistic regression models successfully predicted a significantly higher probability to find Red-listed species in the stands that actually contained such species compared to stands without Red-listed species. The same was true for stands with signal species. We conclude that interpretation of CIR aerial photographs could be a useful method to find certain groups of epiphytic lichens in surveys covering large areas.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Colour-infrared aerial photographs; Deciduous forest; Epiphytic lichens; Logistic regression; Red-listed species; Southern Sweden

What saved the whales? An economic analysis of 20th century whaling by Viktoria Schneider; David Pearce (pp. 543-562).

Catches of whales show a historically cyclical pattern, with catches declining as stocks of the financially most attractive species fell, but expanding as substitute species were caught. Total combined catch peaked in the early 1960s and fell thereafter to the current regulated levels. While it is widely thought that international whaling agreements account for the current stable stock levels, economic analysis reveals that market forces leading to reduced catch were already in place well before the agreements took hold. To some extent, therefore, catches were destined to decline as whale products ceased to be commercially attractive on a large scale. Using econometric analysis, the paper shows the various forces at work: declining stocks, the rise of substitute products, internationally increasing environmentalism, and rising incomes. Of these forces, stock decreases, which resulted in high unit catch costs, and income growth, which reduced rather than increased demand, were the most important factors, with regulation following, rather than leading, catch changes.

Keywords: Catch; Economics; Income; International agreements; Substitutes; Whales

Tree diversity change in remaining primary mixed-broadleaved Korean pine forest under climate change and human activities by Xiongwen Chen; Bai-Lian Li (pp. 563-577).

Studying biodiversity change in existing typical ecosystems of the world under possible global climate change and local human activities is important for diversity conservation. An adapted forest dynamics model is used to simulate tree diversity change of the remaining primary mixed-broadleaved Korean pine forest (RPMKPF) in northeast China under global climate change and local human activities for the next 50 years. Human activities include logging, which removes all big trees (DBH > 50 cm), removing all individuals of each single species and all species of each functional type (shade tolerant, shade intolerant and medium type tree species). As results for RPMKPF, the α index of tree diversity decreases under climate change, but it increases significantly under a combination of climate change and logging. Removing all individuals of each single species significantly affects the tree diversity of the ecosystem. After the removal of shade tolerant species, both α and β _c indices of tree diversity experience a significant change. The α index decreases significantly under climate change when shade intolerant or medium type tree species are removed, but the β _c index does not change significantly. The results of this study have implications for tree diversity management in RPMKPF under climate change and human activities.

Keywords: α diversity; β _c diversity; Logging; Medium type species; Removing species; Shade intolerant species; Shade tolerant species

Pollen flow of cultivated rice measured under experimental conditions by Zhiping Song; Bao-Rong Lu; Jiakuan Chen (pp. 579-590).

The pollen flow pattern of a cultivated rice variety, Minghui-63, was studied at horizontal and vertical levels under experimental conditions. Data obtained from pollen traps for six designed populations (as pollen sources) at different intervals showed that the dispersal of rice pollen decreased with the increase of distance from pollen sources and that the rice pollen flow was significantly influenced by weather conditions, particularly by wind direction and speed. For a mean wind speed of 2.52 m/s in a downwind direction, the observed distance of rice pollen dispersal was 38.4 m, indicating that rice pollen grains normally disperse at a relatively small range. However, the maximum distance of rice pollen flow could be up to 110 m, using regression analysis of pollen flow and wind speed, when the wind speed reached 10 m/s in this study. The frequency of pollen flow was positively correlated with pollen source size within a given range, suggesting that pollen flow will occur effectively at a considerable rate in rice fields with sufficiently large pollen sources. In addition, many more pollen grains were detected at the height of 1.0–1.5 m than at 2.0 m, indicating that rice pollen mainly disperses at relatively low heights. Results from this study are useful both for minimizing transgene escape from transgenic rice and in situ conservation of wild relatives of rice, as well as for hybrid seed production, where an effective isolation buffer zone needs to be established.

Keywords: Ecological risk; In situ conservation; Oryza sativa ; Pollen flow; Rice; Transgene escape

Local community attitudes to wildlife utilisation in the changing economic and social context of Mongolia by D.G. Pratt; D.C. Macmillan; I.J. Gordon (pp. 591-613).

In recent years illegal hunting has increased in Mongolia, putting considerable pressure on large mammals populations. The causes for this phenomenon lie in increasing rural poverty, ineffective policies to regulate hunting, as well as a ready market for many wildlife products in the Chinese medicine markets of east Asia. It is now accepted that biodiversity is ultimately lost or conserved at the local level and it is therefore imperative that the perspectives of the local people are better understood if wildlife management programmes are to be sustainable. This research uses a ‘grounded theory’ approach to investigate local community attitudes to wildlife utilisation and to explore what local people consider as a sustainable wildlife management strategy in remoter regions of Mongolia. The findings clearly suggest that the current situation is not conducive to sustainability either of wildlife populations or human livelihoods. Important changes are needed if sustainability is to be achieved, including alterations to property rights, greater government support, and improved marketing skills and employment opportunities from wildlife. Linked to all of the above points is the need to address the serious information deficit experienced in rural Mongolia to enable local people to examine critically the issues at hand and to participate actively in solutions.

Keywords: Community attitudes; Mongolia; Poaching; Wildlife utilisation

Mapping and monitoring of coastal wetlands of Çukurova Delta in the Eastern Mediterranean region by Süha Berberoglu; K. Tuluhan Yilmaz; Coskun Özkan (pp. 615-633).

The aim of this research was to link vegetation characteristics, such as spatial and temporal distribution, and environmental variables, with land cover information derived from remotely sensed satellite images of the Eastern Mediterranean coastal wetlands of Turkey. The research method was based on (i) recording land cover characteristics by means of a vegetation indicator, and (ii) classifying and mapping coastal wetlands utilizing a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of Çukurova Deltas in Turkey. Vegetation characteristics of various habitats, such as sand dunes, salt marshes, salty plains and afforestation areas, were identified by field surveys. A Landsat TM image of 4 July 1993 was pre-processed and then classified using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithm and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). As a result of this supervised classification, the land cover types were classified with a largest accuracy of 90.2% by ANN. The classified satellite sensor imagery was linked to vegetation and bird census data, which were available through literature in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment to determine the spatial distribution of plant and bird biodiversity in this coastal wetland. The resulting data provide an important baseline for further investigations such as monitoring, change detections and designing conservation policies in this coastal ecosystem.

Keywords: Coastal wetlands; East Mediterranean; Habitat mapping; Land cover classification; Remote sensing

The re-stocking of captive-bred ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata variegata) into the Betampona Reserve, Madagascar: methodology and recommendations by Adam Britt; Charles Welch; Andrea Katz; Bernard Iambana; Ingrid Porton; Randall Junge; Graham Crawford; Cathy Williams; David Haring (pp. 635-657).

Since November 1997 the Madagascar Fauna Group has released 13 captive-bred black and white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata variegata) into the Betampona Reserve in eastern Madagascar. The release programme has three major aims: (1) to assess the ability of captive-bred V. v. variegata to adapt to life in their natural habitat; (2) to investigate the contribution that such a release programme can make to reinforcing the existing small wild population of V. v. variegata in Betampona; and (3) to contribute to the long-term protection and conservation of the reserve. Criteria for the selection of release candidates, veterinary screening and pre-release experience in naturalistic environments are described and discussed. Methods for post-release monitoring of health and behaviour are covered in detail. The importance of considering the social dynamics of the species involved is emphasised. The survival of five of the releasees, plus successful reproduction and integration with the wild population have led to the conclusion that the release was a success.

Keywords: Captive breeding; Conservation; Madagascar; Prosimians; Re-introduction

Hierarchical Partitioning Public-domain Software by Ralph Mac Nally; Christopher J. Walsh (pp. 659-660).

Book Review: Ecoagriculture; Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity (pp. 661-662).

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Biodiversity and Conservation (v.13, #3)