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Bird Richness and Abundance in Response to Urban Form in a Latin American City
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There is mounting evidence that urban areas influence biodiversity. Generalizations how- ever require that multiple urban areas on multiple continents be examined. Here we evaluated the role of urban areas on avian diversity for a South American city, allowing us to examine the effects of urban features common worldwide, using the city of Valdivia, Chile as case study. We assessed the number of birds and their relative abundance in 152 grid cells of equal size (250 m2) distributed across the city. We estimated nine independent variables: land cover diversity (DC), building density (BD), impervious surface (IS),municipal green space (MG),non-municipal green space (NG), domestic garden space (DG), distance to the periphery (DP), social welfare index (SW), and vegetation diversity (RV). Impervious surface represent 41.8% of the study area, while municipal green, non-municipal green and domestic garden represent 11.6%, 23.6% and 16% of the non- man made surface. Exotic vegetation species represent 74.6% of the total species identified across the city. We found 32 bird species, all native with the exception of House Sparrow and Rock Pigeon. The most common species were House Sparrow and Chilean Swallow. Total bird richness responds negatively to IS and MG, while native bird richness responds positively to NG and negatively to BD, IS DG and, RV. Total abundance increase in areas with higher values of DC and BD, and decrease in areas of higher values of IS, SW and VR. Native bird abundance responds positively to NG and negatively to BD, IS MG, DG and RV. Our results suggest that not all the general patterns described in previous studies, conducted mainly in the USA, Europe, and Australia, can be applied to Latin American cities, having important implications for urban planning. Conservation efforts should focus on non-municipal areas, which harbor higher bird diversity, while municipal green areas need to be improved to include elements that can enhance habitat quality for birds and other species. These findings are relevant for urban planning in where both types of green space need to be considered, especially non-municipal green areas, which includes wetlands, today critically threatened by urban development.
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CASRI Annual Report 2012
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The Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative Annual Report for 2012
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General Resources Holdings
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Education and Outreach
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Cerulean Warbler Forest Management Project
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The Cerulean Warbler project was initiated to allow the scientific and management communities to test forestry methods and use experimental harvesting of timber to enhance Cerulean Warbler habitat.
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Projects
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Climate, carbon cycling, and deep-ocean ecosystem
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Climate variation affects surface ocean processes and the production of organic carbon, which ultimately comprises the primary food supply to the deep-sea ecosystems that occupy 60% of the Earth’s surface. Warming trends in atmospheric and upper ocean temperatures, attributed to anthropogenic influence, have occurred over the past four decades. Changes in upper ocean temperature influence stratification and can affect the availability of nutrients for phytoplankton production. Global warming has been predicted to intensify stratification and reduce vertical mixing. Research also suggests that such reduced mixing will enhance variability in primary production and carbon export flux to the deep sea. The dependence of deep-sea communities on surface water production has raised important questions about how climate change will affect carbon cycling and deep-ocean ecosystem function. Recently, un- precedented time-series studies conducted over the past two decades in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic at >4,000-m depth have revealed unexpectedly large changes in deep-ocean ecosystems significantly correlated to climate-driven changes in the surface ocean that can impact the global carbon cycle. Climate-driven variation affects oceanic communities from surface waters to the much-overlooked deep sea and will have impacts on the global carbon cycle. Data from these two widely separated areas of the deep ocean provide compelling evidence that changes in climate can readily influence deep-sea processes. However, the limited geographic coverage of these existing time-series studies stresses the importance of developing a more global effort to monitor deep- sea ecosystems under modern conditions of rapidly changing climate.
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Connect the Connecticut
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Encompassing New England’s largest river system, the Connecticut River watershed provides important habitat for a diversity of fish, wildlife and plants — from iconic species like bald eagle and black bear to federally threatened and endangered species like shortnose sturgeon, piping plover, and dwarf wedgemussel.
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Consequences of widespread tree mortality triggered by drought and temperature stress
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Forests provide innumerable ecological, societal and climatological benefits, yet they are vulnerable to drought and temperature extremes. Climate-driven forest die-off from drought and heat stress has occurred around the world, is expected to increase with climate change and probably has distinct consequences from those of other forest disturbances. We examine the consequences of drought- and climate-driven widespread forest loss on ecological communities, ecosystem functions, ecosystem services and land–climate interactions. Furthermore, we highlight research gaps that warrant study. As the global climate continues to warm, understanding the implications of forest loss triggered by these events will be of increasing importance.
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Conservation Planning Process
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Dr. Robert Baldwin of Clemson University explains in this video the steps involved in the conservation planning process.
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Archive GIS
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GIS & Planning
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Contemporary Evolution of Reproductive Isolation and Phenotypic Divergence in Sympatry along a Migratory Divide
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Understanding the influence of human-induced changes on the evolutionary trajectories of populations is a fundamental problem [1, 2]. The evolution of reproductive isolation in sympatry is rare, relying on strong selection along steep ecological gradients [3–7]. Improved wintering conditions owing to human activities promoted the recent establishment of a migratory divide in Central European blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) [8, 9]. Here, we show that differential migratory orientation facilitated reproductive isolation of sympatric populations within <30 generations. The genetic divergence in sympatry exceeds that of allopatric blackcaps separated by 800 km and is associated with diverse phenotypic divergence. Blackcaps migrating along the shorter northwestern route have rounder wings and narrower beaks and differ in beak and plumage color from sympatric south- west-migrating birds. We suggest that distinct wing and beak morphologies are ecomorphological adaptations resulting from divergent, multifarious selection regimes during migration. We hypothesize that restricted gene flow accelerates the evolution of adaptive phenotypic divergence toward the contrasting selection regimes. Similar adaptive processes can occur in more than 50 bird species that recently changed their migratory behavior [10, 11] or in species with low migratory connectivity. Our study thus illustrates how ecological changes can rapidly drive the contemporary evolution of ecotypes.
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Correlations among species distributions, human density and human infrastructure across the high biodiversity tropical mountains of Africa
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This paper explores whether spatial variation in the biodiversity values of vertebrates and plants (species richness, range-size rarity and number or proportion of IUCN Red Listed threatened species) of three African tropical mountain ranges (Eastern Arc, Albertine Rift and Cameroon-Nigeria mountains within the Biafran Forests and Highlands) co-vary with proxy measures of threat (human population density and human infrastructure). We find that species richness, range-size rarity, and threatened species scores are all significantly higher in these three tropical African mountain ranges than across the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. When compared with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, human population density is only significantly higher in the Albertine Rift mountains, whereas human infrastructure is only significantly higher in the Albertine Rift and the Cameroon-Nigeria mountains. Statistically there are strong positive correlations between human density and species richness, endemism and density or proportion of threatened species across the three tropical African mountain ranges, and all of sub-Saharan Africa. Kendall partial rank-order correlation shows that across the African tropical mountains human popula- tion density, but not human infrastructure, best correlates with biodiversity values. This is not the case across all of sub-Saharan Africa where human density and human infra- structure both correlate almost equally well with biodiversity values. The primary conser- vation challenge in the African tropical mountains is a fairly dense and poor rural population that is reliant on farming for their livelihood. Conservation strategies have o address agricultural production and expansion, in some cases across the boundaries and into existing reserves. Strategies also have to maintain, or finalise, an adequate protected area network. Such strategies cannot be implemented in conflict with the local population, but have to find ways to provide benefits to the people living adjacent to the remaining for- ested areas, in return for their assistance in conserving the forest habitats, their biodiver- sity, and their ecosystem functions. Africa Biodiversity Human infrastructure Human population Tropical mountains
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Designing reserves for biodiversity
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What is the best way to design a new conservation reserve? There are multiple factors to consider, including species diversity, spatial extent, and future climate changes.
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