| 1. |
- Downey, Harriet, et al.
(författare)
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Training future generations to deliver evidence-based conservation and ecosystem management
- 2021
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Ingår i: Ecological Solutions and Evidence. - : Wiley. - 2688-8319. ; 2:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. To be effective, the next generation of conservation practitioners and managers need to be critical thinkers with a deep understanding of how to make evidence-based decisions and of the value of evidence synthesis.2. If, as educators, we do not make these priorities a core part of what we teach, we are failing to prepare our students to make an effective contribution to conservation practice.3. To help overcome this problem we have created open access online teaching materials in multiple languages that are stored in Applied Ecology Resources. So far, 117 educators from 23 countries have acknowledged the importance of this and are already teaching or about to teach skills in appraising or using evidence in conservation decision-making. This includes 145 undergraduate, postgraduate or professional development courses.4. We call for wider teaching of the tools and skills that facilitate evidence-based conservation and also suggest that providing online teaching materials in multiple languages could be beneficial for improving global understanding of other subject areas.
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| 2. |
- Lebigre, Christophe, et al.
(författare)
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Limited indirect fitness benefits of male group membership in a lekking species
- 2014
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 23:21, s. 5356-5365
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In group living species, individuals may gain the indirect fitness benefits characterizing kin selection when groups contain close relatives. However, tests of kin selection have primarily focused on cooperatively breeding and eusocial species, whereas its importance in other forms of group living remains to be fully understood. Lekking is a form of grouping where males display on small aggregated territories, which females then visit to mate. As females prefer larger aggregations, territorial males might gain indirect fitness benefits if their presence increases the fitness of close relatives. Previous studies have tested specific predictions of kin selection models using measures such as group-level relatedness. However, a full understanding of the contribution of kin selection in the evolution of group living requires estimating individuals' indirect fitness benefits across multiple sites and years. Using behavioural and genetic data from the black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), we show that the indirect fitness benefits of group membership were very small because newcomers joined leks containing few close relatives who had limited mating success. Males' indirect fitness benefits were higher in yearlings during increasing population density but marginally changed the variation in male mating success. Kin selection acting through increasing group size is therefore unlikely to contribute substantially to the evolution and maintenance of lekking in this black grouse population.
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| 3. |
- Statham, Mark J., et al.
(författare)
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Genetic analysis of European red foxes reveals multiple distinct peripheral populations and central continental admixture
- 2018
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 197, s. 257-266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Temperate terrestrial species in Europe were hypothesized to have been restricted to southern peninsular refugia (Iberia, Italy, Balkans) during the height of the last glacial period. However, recent analyses of fossil evidence indicate that some temperate species existed outside these areas during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in particular, could have been distributed across the southern half of the continent, potentially forming one continuous population. To investigate these hypotheses, we used 21 nuclear microsatellite loci and two fragments (768 bp) of mitochondrial DNA to characterize the population structure among a continent-wide sample of 288 European red foxes. We tested whether European red foxes clustered into discrete populations corresponding to the hypothetical peninsular refugia. Additionally, we sought to determine if distinct northern populations were formed after post-glacial recolonization. Our results indicated that only the foxes of Iberia appeared to have remained distinct over a considerable period of time (32–104 kya). Spanish red foxes formed their own genotypic cluster; all mtDNA haplotypes were endemic and closely related, and together both the mitochondrial and nuclear datasets indicated this population contributed little to postglacial recolonization of Northern Europe. In contrast, red foxes from Italy and the Balkans contributed significantly to, or were part of, a wider, admixed population stretching across mid-latitude Europe. In Northern Europe, we identified a Scandinavian population that had an ancestral relationship with red foxes to the south, and a more recent relationship with those to the east, in Russia. We also resolved two distinct populations on the islands of Ireland and Britain that had been separated from one another, and from those on the continent, since the late Pleistocene/mid Holocene (∼4–24 kya).
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