| 1. |
- Zamora, Juan Carlos, et al.
(författare)
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Considerations and consequences of allowing DNA sequence data as types of fungal taxa
- 2018
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Ingår i: IMA Fungus. - : INT MYCOLOGICAL ASSOC. - 2210-6340 .- 2210-6359. ; 9:1, s. 167-185
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11th International Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.
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| 2. |
- Bjärstig, Therese, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Between protocol and reality : Swedish municipal comprehensive planning
- 2018
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Ingår i: European Planning Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0965-4313 .- 1469-5944. ; 26:1, s. 35-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spatial planning using a landscape approach has been recognized as being essential for reconciling ecological, cultural and socioeconomic dimensions in sustainable development (SuD). Although embraced as a concept, there is a lack of planning tools capable of incorporating multi-level, multifunctional and multi-sectoral perspectives, especially in a rural context. The departure point in this paper is the legal requirements for municipal comprehensive planning (MCP) in Sweden and an e-mail survey about incentives, stakeholder involvement, policy integration and implementation in MCP in all 15 Swedish mountain municipalities. The purpose of this explorative study is to examine whether MCP could be a tool in planning for SuD. Results indicate a general lack of resources and a low status of MCP that affect, and even limit, stakeholder involvement, policy integration and implementation. However, legal requirements for MCP are targeted at SuD, and municipal personnel responsible for planning appreciate the potential of MCP. Therefore, there is potential to develop the MCP into an effective landscape planning tool. To accomplish this, the status of an active planning process has to be raised, the mandate of the local planning agency has to be secured, and residents and land users have to be involved throughout the planning process.
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| 3. |
- Chapron, Guillaume, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating wolf (Canis lupus) population size from number of packs and an individual based model
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ecological Modelling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3800 .- 1872-7026. ; 339, s. 33-44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Estimating wildlife population-size is fundamental for wildlife management and conservation. However, making monitoring of population size less resource demanding while still keeping a high monitoring accuracy and precision remains a recurrent challenge. One proposed alternative to count individuals is to instead focus on counting a segment of the population that is easier to monitor but at the same time well informative on total population size. We show how total population size can be estimated from group counts by using an individual-based population model in a social living species. We developed a wolf (Canis lupus) specific Individual Based Model and used Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to fit this population model to the time series of annual number of packs, reproductions and pairs obtained from Scandinavian monitoring data. Model informative priors were obtained with data from collared individuals by the Scandinavian wolf research project. The fitted model was then used to estimate a conversion factor from number of packs to total number of individuals and to number of reproductions. There was a good fit between the retained simulations by ABC and the observed Scandinavian wolf population trajectory. The fitted simulations returned a conversion factor of 8.0 (95% CI = 6.62-10.07) from number of packs to total population size and of 1.0 (95% CI = 0.93-1.12) to number of reproductions in December. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the conversion factor from packs to total population size was positively correlated with pup survival and litter size and negatively correlated with subadult, vagrant and adult survivals. Using an individual based model allowed us to model the full complexity of demographic traits of a social-living species such as the wolf. The flexibility of the model also meant that the conversion factor could be estimated for any month during the year. Our approach to estimate total population size from counts of groups requires having a population model where both individuals and groups are explicitly described and can be applied to other wolf populations and group-living species where counting all individuals over a large area is unfeasible.
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