| 1. |
- Ralimanana, H., et al.
(författare)
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Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: Threats and opportunities
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 378:6623
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Madagascar’s unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar’s terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.4% of its land area and includes at least part of the range of the majority of described native species of vertebrates with known distributions (97.1% of freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals combined) and plants (67.7%). The overall figures are higher for threatened species (97.7% of threatened vertebrates and 79.6% of threatened plants occurring within at least one protected area). International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments and Bayesian neural network analyses for plants identify overexploitation of biological resources and unsustainable agriculture as the most prominent threats to biodiversity. We highlight five opportunities for action at multiple levels to ensure that conservation and ecological restoration objectives, programs, and activities take account of complex underlying and interacting factors and produce tangible benefits for the biodiversity and people of Madagascar.
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| 2. |
- Fernandez-Martinez, M., et al.
(författare)
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Towards a moss sclerophylly continuum: Evolutionary history, water chemistry and climate control traits of hygrophytic mosses
- 2019
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Ingår i: Functional Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0269-8463 .- 1365-2435. ; 33:12, s. 2273-2289
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mosses are amongst the oldest and simplest plants, they can be found almost everywhere in the world, and they condition the structure and function of many ecosystems. Their sensitivity to environmental changes makes them very interesting subjects of study in ecology, and understanding them can provide insights into the evolutionary history of plants. However, the study of moss traits and their relationship with their environment is far behind that of vascular plants. We sampled 303 assemblages of aquatic and semi-aquatic (hygrophytic) mosses growing in semi-natural springs distributed around the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula to study how moss traits vary depending on their evolutionary history, climate and water chemistry. To do so, we analysed 30 moss species and 17 traits using phylogenetic comparative methods and an extended RLQ analysis, accounting for spatial and phylogenetic information. We hypothesized that there is a sclerophylly continuum in mosses living across a gradient of high and low water conductivity springs that may mimic sclerophylly in vascular plants that live in stressful environments. Results indicated that life-forms and, especially, morphological traits were well preserved phylogenetically and responsive to water chemistry and climate. That combined with spatial autocorrelation in environmental variables resulted in a clustered distribution of phylogenetically closely related mosses in space. Mosses living in springs with a warm and dry climate that discharge hard water mainly presented species with needle-like leaves, were denser, and had lower water absorption capacity. The opposite was found in cold, humid and soft water springs. Synthesis. Our results suggest that climate and water chemistry are main determinants of traits of hygrophytic mosses and of species distributions. We found evidence of a potential sclerophylly continuum in moss traits, which we hypothesize may be mainly related to physical and physiological constraints produced by water chemistry. Our findings describe moss sclerophylly in a gradient of water conductivity similar to that found in vascular plants with water availability and temperature. Further experimental studies will be required to confirm the observations found in this study. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
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| 3. |
- Callaghan, C. T., et al.
(författare)
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Validation of a globally-applicable method to measure urban tolerance of birds using citizen science data
- 2021
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X. ; 120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding species-specific responses to urbanization is essential to mitigate and preserve biodiversity in the face of increasing urbanization, but a major challenge is how to estimate urban tolerances for a wide array of species applicable over disparate regions. A promising approach is to assess urban tolerance by integrating georeferenced information on species detections from citizen science data with estimations of urbanization intensity based on remotely-sensed night-time lights. While such citizen science urbanness scores (CSUS) are cost-effective, intuitive, and easily-repeatable anywhere in the world, whether the scores accurately describe urban tolerance still awaits empirical verification. By analysing > 900 bird species worldwide, we find that CSUS cor relates well with a standard measure of urban tolerance based on changes in abundance between urbanized and non-urbanized nearby habitats. Our analyses show that there is substantial variability in the relationship between these two metrics, but nevertheless highlights the potential for the CSUS approach in the future. Future improvements to the index, including incorporating rare species, and understanding the influence of intraspecific variability in response to urbanization, will be necessary to maximize the broad utility of the approach.
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| 4. |
- Fernandez-Martinez, M., et al.
(författare)
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Nitrate pollution reduces bryophyte diversity in Mediterranean springs
- 2020
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697. ; 705
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Anthropogenic activities and intensive farming arc causing nitrate pollution in groundwater bodies. These aquifers are drained by springs which, in the Mediterranean region, act as refugia for preserving biodiversity of species that need continuous water. Some springs are also used for drinking water for wild animals, livestock and humans, so if their water quality is compromised it can become a threat to public health. However, the impact of nitrate pollution on these biotic communities remains unknown. We sampled 338 assemblages of aquatic and semi-aquatic bryophytes (i.e., hygrophytic mosses and liverworts) growing in springs in a gradient of water conductivity, nitrate concentration and climate and distributed across the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula to investigate the impact of nitrate pollution on the diversity of bryophytes and moss functional traits in Mediterranean springs. Based on previous literature suggesting that increased nitrogen load decreases biodiversity in grasslands and freshwater ecosystems, we hypothesised that water nitrate pollution in springs decreases bryophyte diversity at the local and regional scales. Our results indicated that, at the local scale (spring), nitrate pollution reduced the number and the likelihood of finding a rare species in springs. Rare species were found in 4% of the springs with nitrate above 50 mg but in 32% of the springs with nitrate below 50 mg L-1. Moss, liv- erwort and overall bryophyte diversity were not directly affected by nitrate at the local scale but nitrate consistently decreased diversity of mosses, liverworts and rare bryophyte species at the regional scale. We also found that warmer and drier springs presented fewer bryophyte species. Our results show that the combination of nitrate pollution, increasing temperature and drought could severely threaten bryophyte diversity Mediterranean springs. Our results indicate that the absence of rare bryophytes could be used as a bioindicator of nitrate pollution in springs.
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| 5. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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