| 1. |
- Angeler, David
(författare)
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Local and landscape effects on temporary pond zooplankton egg banks: conservation implications
- 2009
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 18, s. 2373–2386-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding landscape correlates of local habitat integrity and community structure and the identification of spatial scales at which these associations operate are relevant for management and conservation of unique but globally threatened temporary ponds. We use a multivariate variance decomposition approach to determine taxon-specific associations of zooplankton communities banked in dry pond soils (rotifers, cladocerans, copepods) with local habitat features and landscape characteristics across four spatial scales (100 buffer strip, 1, 5, and 10 km scales). Results show similar degrees of correlation between rotifer and cladoceran communities with local habitat conditions (chiefly water quality). This is interpreted according to life-history traits of component species of wetland propagule banks. Associations with landscape features varied between communities with rotifers correlating with landscape structural features only at the buffer scale while cladocerans showed no significant correlations with landscape characteristics across all scales. Copepods were neither significantly associated with local nor landscape characteristics. The results of this study contrast strikingly with our previous population-based study, where populations of Triops cancriformis and Branchinecta orientales were significantly correlated with landuse features at the broadest scale. The combined results suggest that a three-way management scheme could be useful for conservation of zooplankton resting egg banks in this remnant wetland complex. These schemes could focus on the restoration of wetland water quality, the establishment of vegetated buffer strips around the ponds to counteract degradation resulting from runoff, and reforestation and/or the creation of hedgerows in agricultural catchments to avoid impacts resulting from broad-scale diffuse pollution fluxes.
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| 2. |
- Angelstam, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Using forest history and spatial patterns to identify potential high conservation value forests in Romania
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 22, s. 2023-2039
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Naturally dynamic forests have a high proportion of biotopes with old large trees, diverse vertical and horizontal structure at multiple scales, and much dead wood. As such, they provide habitat to species and ecosystem processes that forests managed for wood production cannot provide to the same degree. Whether termed old-growth, ancient, virgin, intact, primeval or continuity forests, a major challenge and need is to map such potential high conservation value forest for subsequent inclusion in functional habitat networks for biodiversity conservation in forest landscapes. Given that the delivery time of natural forest properties is much longer than of industry wood, we explore the usefulness of using historical maps to identify forests that have been continuously present for 220 years (potential old-growth) versus 140 years (potential aging forest) in a case study in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains (see Online Resource 1). While the total forest cover increased by 35 % over the past two centuries, the area of potential aging and potential old-growth forest declined by 56 and 34 %, respectively. Spatial modelling of edge effects and patch size for virtual species with different requirements indicated an even greater decrease in the area of functional habitat networks of old-growth and ageing forest. Our analyses show that compared to simple mapping of potential high conservation forests, the area of functional habitat patches is severely overestimated, and caution is needed when estimating the area of potential high conservation value forests that form functional habitat networks, i.e. a green infrastructure. In addition, the landscape and regional scale connectivity of patches needs to be considered. We argue that the use of historical maps combined with assessment of spatial patterns is an effective tool for identifying and analyzing potential high conservation value forests in a landscape context.
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| 3. |
- Anton, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Research needs for incorporating the ecosystem service approach into EU biodiversity conservation policy
- 2010
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 19:10, s. 2979-2994
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using a range of different methods including extensive reviews, workshops and an electronic conference, 70 key research recommendations and 12 priority research needs to integrate the ecosystem services approach into biodiversity conservation policy and funding were identified by a cross-disciplinary group of over 100 scientists and 50 stakeholders, including research funders and policy-makers. These recommendations focus on the ecological underpinning of ecosystem services, drivers that affect ecosystems and their services, biological traits and ecosystem services, the valuation of ecosystem services, spatial and temporal scales in ecosystem service assessment, indicators of ecosystem services, and habitat management, conservation policy and ecosystem services. The recommendations in this paper help steer the research agenda on ecosystem services into policy-relevant areas, agreed upon by funders, researchers and policy-makers. This research agenda will only succeed with increased collaboration between researchers across disciplines, thereby providing a challenge to the research community and research funders to work in new, interdisciplinary ways.
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| 4. |
- Azeria, Ermias T., et al.
(författare)
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Biogeographic patterns of the East African coastal forest vertebrate fauna
- 2007
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 16:4, s. 883-912
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The archipelago-like coastal forest of East Africa is one of the highest priority ecosystems for biodiversity conservation worldwide. Here we investigate patterns of species richness and biogeographic distribution among birds, mammals and reptiles of these forests, using distribution data obtained from recently published reviews and information collated by the WWF Eastern Africa Coastal Forest Ecoregion Programme. Birds and mammals species were divided into forest specialists and generalists, and forest specialist reptiles into 'coastal' and 'forest' endemics. The species richness of birds and generalist mammals increased with area, and is probably a result of area-dependent extinction. Only in birds, however, species richness increased with decreasing isolation, suggesting possible isolation-dependent colonization. Forest diversity, associated to altitudinal range, is important for specialist birds and mammals, whose species richness increased with wider altitudinal range. The number of relict coastal endemic and forest endemic reptiles was higher in forests with wider altitudinal ranges and on relatively higher altitude, respectively. Such forests have probably provided a suitable (and perhaps stable) environment for these species through time, thus increasing their persistence. Parsimony analysis of distributions (PAD) and cluster analyses showed geographical distance and general ecological similarity among forests as a determinant factor in bird distribution patterns, with compositional similarity decreasing with increasing inter-forest distance. Compositional similarity patterns of mammals among the forests did not show a strong geographical correspondence or a significant correlation with inter-forest distance, and those of reptiles were not resolved, with very low similarity levels among forest faunas. Our results suggest that the relative importance (and causal relationship) of forest attributes affecting the distribution of the East African coastal forest vertebrate fauna varies depending on life history traits such as dispersal ability and forest specialization. The groupings in PAD are partly congruent with some of the previous classifications of areas of endemism for this region, supporting the 'naturalness' of these regions.
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| 5. |
- Bengtsson, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Taxonomic and functional diversity of farmland bird communities across Europe: effects of biogeography and agricultural intensification
- 2011
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 20, s. 3663-3681
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In eight European study sites (in Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Estonia and Sweden), abundance of breeding farmland bird territories was obtained from 500 x 500 m survey plots (30 per area, N = 240) using the mapping method. Two analyses were performed: (I) a Canonical Correspondence Analysis of species abundance in relation to geographical location and variables measuring agricultural intensification at field and farm level to identify significant intensification variables and to estimate the fractions of total variance in bird abundance explained by geography and agricultural intensification; (II) several taxonomic and functional community indices were built and analysed using GLM in relation to the intensification variables found significant in the CCA. The geographical location of study sites alone explains nearly one fifth (19.5%) of total variation in species abundance. The fraction of variance explained by agricultural intensification alone is much smaller (4.3%), although significant. The intersection explains nearly two fifths (37.8%) of variance in species abundance. Community indices are negatively affected by correlates of intensification like farm size and yield, whereas correlates of habitat availability and quality have positive effects on taxonomic and functional diversity of assemblages. Most of the purely geographical variation in farmland bird assemblage composition is associated to Mediterranean steppe species, reflecting the bio-geographical singularity of that assemblage and reinforcing the need to preserve this community. Taxonomic and functional diversity of farmland bird communities are negatively affected by agricultural intensification and positively affected by increasing farmland habitat availability and quality.
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| 6. |
- Berg, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing agri-environmental schemes for semi-natural grasslands during a 5-year period: can we see positive effects for vascular plants and pollinators?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 28, s. 3989-4005
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An important function of agri-environmental schemes (AES) is to change management of pastures to better conserve biodiversity. However, the effects of most AES on biodiversity are poorly understood, especially when it comes to effects of AES management over time. The main aim of this study is to investigate if the species richness and abundance of grassland specialists of vascular plants and two important insect pollinator groups (bumblebees and butterflies) differ over time (5 years) in pastures with AES management (two value levels; general values and special values) and pastures without AES management. We also investigate if local vegetation characteristics and landscape composition relate to species richness in semi-natural grasslands. Using data from more than 400 sites we found that species richness of vascular plants (grassland specialists) was higher in pastures with AES management (for special and general values) compared to those without AES, which implies that these schemes do have value of the conservation of plant diversity. However, species richness and abundance of butterflies (grassland specialists) and bumblebees (all species) did not differ significantly among the three AES categories. We found no evidence that the type of AES management caused any changes in species richness of plants, butterflies or bumblebees during the 5 year period of our investigation. It appears that AES management that encourages uniform and minimum levels of grazing can have both positive and negative effects on biodiversity. For example, pollinators may benefit from a lower grazing intensity that could increase flower richness and heterogeneity in vegetation height. However, low grazing intensity may lead to increased cover of trees and shrubs, which can have negative effects for both insect pollinators and vascular plants. The effects of landscape composition were weak and only species richness of bumble bees were associated with landscape composition. Designing management regimes to maintain suitably heterogeneous vegetation layer, and continued long-term monitoring of biodiversity will be critical for safeguarding culturally and functionally important semi-natural grasslands.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Blasi, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Historical and citizen-reported data show shifts in bumblebee phenology over the last century in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 32:5, s. 1523-1547
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bumblebees are a key taxon contributing to the provision of crop pollination and ecosystem functioning. However, land use and climate change are two of the main factors causing bee decline across the world. In this study, we investigated how the flight period of bumblebee spring queens has shifted over the last century in Sweden, and to what extent such shifts depended on climate change, landscape context, latitude, and the phenology of bumblebee species. We studied ten species of bumblebees and used observations from museum specimens covering 117 years from the southernmost region in Sweden (Scania), combined with citizen-reported observations during the past 20 years across Sweden. We found that the flight period of bumblebees has advanced by 5 days on average during the last 20 years across Sweden. In the agriculture-dominated region of Scania, we found that in the late 2010s bumblebee spring queen activity in simplified landscapes had advanced by on average 14 days, compared to 100 years ago. In addition, in simplified landscapes the flight period of early species was significantly earlier compared to in complex landscapes. Our results provide knowledge on the intraspecific variation of phenological traits, indicating that early species (often common species) exhibit a higher plastic response to the environment, which may facilitate adaptation to both climate and landscape changes, compared to the late species of which many are declining.
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| 10. |
- Brunet, Jörg
(författare)
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Restoration of beech forest for saproxylic beetles-effects of habitat fragmentation and substrate density on species diversity and distribution
- 2009
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 18, s. 2387-2404
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influence of spatial location and density of beech snags on species diversity and distribution patterns of saproxylic beetles was studied in a 2,400 ha forest landscape in southern Sweden. Complete snag surveys were combined with a beetle survey using small window traps directly attached to the beech snags. The density of beech snags a parts per thousand yen30 cm dbh varied between one and seven snags per ha within the study area, corresponding to 1.1-5.1 m(3)/ha. A total of 2,610 specimens of 180 saproxylic beetles species were trapped, of which 19 species were red-listed. Within the study area, the number of red-listed and formerly red-listed species was highest around traps in old-growth stands, intermediate in managed stands contiguous with old-growth and lowest in managed stands isolated from old-growth by a two km-wide zone without beech forest. Logistic regressions revealed negative relationships between distance to old-growth forest and occurrence of eleven species, among them six red-listed or formerly red-listed species. The number of non red-listed species was not correlated with isolation from old-growth forest. The number of red-listed species also increased with snag density within 200-300 m around the traps. Our results suggest that red-listed species generally have a lower dispersal capacity than other saproxylic beetles. We conclude that retention of dead wood close to existing populations is more beneficial for red-listed species than an even distribution of snags across the forest landscape.
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