scholarly journals Influence of Landscape Structure on Kangaroo Abundance in a Disturbed Semi-Arid Woodland of Queensland.

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 104 ◽  
Author(s):  
CA Mcalpine ◽  
GC Grigg ◽  
JJ Mott ◽  
P Sharma

This paper develops a hierarchical landscape approach for investigating how landscape structure influences the abundance of eastern grey kangaroos, red kangaroos and common wallaroos on properties in a partially cleared semi-arid woodland of Queensland. This approach is applied to examine the extent to which a mosaic of spatial factors at a hierarchy of scales influences kangaroo abundance at the property level. the level of management interest. The analysis concludes that the structure of the property habitat mosaic, coupled with pasture productivity, is the most important influence for each species. Access to water was not a limiting factor. although it may be important locally. Grey kangaroos prefer an even mosaic of all habitat types on properties with productive grass-dominated pastures. Red kangaroos are positively associated with run-on areas and large-shrub regrowth patches. reflecting their foraging preferences for forbs and short grasses and their ability to use more open habitats. Wallaroos have a clumped density distribution associated with a heterogeneous mosaic of open habitats interspersed with fragmented forest patches and small to medium-grained shrub-regrowth patches. The research. \+bile not replicated. identifies linkages between tree clearing practices at the property level and increased large kangaroo abundance in the region, These linkages have been previously overlooked in thc kangaroo Inanagement debare. Therefore. any tree clearing guidelines dt.\eloped at the propert) level need to be sensitive to key ecological processes influencing kangaroo populations at both the landscape and property levels. If not, the sustainable management of total grazing pressure (livestock plus kangaroos) and biodiversity conservation will never become a reality. Key words: kangaroos, landscape structure, landscape change, pattern, process, scale

Author(s):  
Saikat Manna ◽  
Anirban Roy

Practice of conservation of biological diversity in India had been carried out since dates back and sacred groves, the socially protected forest patches, are such classic evidence. Since pre-Vedic period, India has its legacy of harbouring numerous sacred groves almost in every part ofthe country especially in the Western Ghats , and North-East Himalayan region. These small fragmented forest patches are well known especially for sustaining rich biological heritage, entailing ecological history of the region and being a local biodiversity hotspot through in-situ conservation of both floral and faunal components especially the rare and endemic ones. Sacred groves also represent ideal community organization for functioning of many ecological processes providing valuable ecosystem services like soil and water conservation, nutrient cycling and many more. Tn India, various systems of traditional conservation practices have been reported as the country is known for its socio-cultural diversity. In the past few decades, the existence of sacred groves is being challenged through serious lhrcals like cncroachment, loss of belief in taboos and many modern developmental practices. It is the need of hour to protect these ecological heritage by adopting integrated sustainable management practices through communlity involvement and convergence of various schemes of different sectors.


2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (4 suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. G. P. Favaro ◽  
L. H. Sipaúba-Tavares ◽  
A. Milstein

Abstract In Southeastern Brazil tilapia culture is conducted in extensive and semi-intensive flow-through earthen ponds, being water availability and flow management different in the rainy and dry seasons. In this region lettuce wastes are a potential cheap input for tilapia culture. This study examined the ecological processes developing during the rainy and dry seasons in three extensive flow-through earthen tilapia ponds fertilized with lettuce wastes. Water quality, plankton and sediment parameters were sampled monthly during a year. Factor analysis was used to identify the ecological processes occurring within the ponds and to construct a conceptual graphic model of the pond ecosystem functioning during the rainy and dry seasons. Processes related to nitrogen cycling presented differences between both seasons while processes related to phosphorus cycling did not. Ecological differences among ponds were due to effects of wind protection by surrounding vegetation, organic loading entering, tilapia density and its grazing pressure on zooplankton. Differences in tilapia growth among ponds were related to stocking density and ecological process affecting tilapia food availability and intraspecific competition. Lettuce wastes addition into the ponds did not produce negative effects, thus this practice may be considered a disposal option and a low-cost input source for tilapia, at least at the amounts applied in this study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1050
Author(s):  
Elvis Pantaleão Ferreira ◽  
José Thales Pantaleão Ferreira ◽  
Fabiana De Souza Pantaleão

O Projeto Cisternas nas Escolas objetiva o fornecimento de água para as escolas rurais do Semiárido, utilizando ações estruturais mediante concepção de cisternas como tecnologia social para armazenamento de água pluvial, e ações não estruturais por meio de práticas educativas contextualizadas. Este trabalho objetiva apresentar um pioneiro diagnóstico da infraestrutura dos serviços de abastecimento de água as escolas rurais em que foram implantadas cisternas do Programa Cisternas nas Escolas na Microrregião Serrana dos Quilombos, no estado de Alagoas, especificamente no município de Santana do Mundaú, utilizando-se como metodologia a pesquisa exploratória e qualitativa, com emprego de entrevista semiestruturada e não estruturada, além do uso de questionário, fichas-relatório e registros fotográficos. Das cisternas implantadas nas escolas, apenas uma está sendo parcialmente utilizada. Estão todas elas totalmente desprovidas de acompanhamento técnico, sendo possível perceber a falta de interesse do executivo municipal na promoção da manutenção desses equipamentos. São fundamentais ações que elevem o empoderamento social a essas construções.  Cistern in Schools Program: case study in the mountainous microregion of quilombos in the state of Alagoas, Brazil The reality of many rural schools in the public system presents a still worrying scenario regarding access to water. The Cisterns in Schools Project aims to provide water for rural schools in the Semi-Arid and priority areas located in indigenous villages and quilombola communities, using structural actions through the design of cisterns as social technology for rainwater storage, and non-structural actions through contextualized educational practices. The work aims to present a pioneering diagnosis of the infrastructure of water supply services to rural schools in which cisterns of the Cisterns in Schools Program were implemented in the mountainous dos Quilombos Microregion in the state of Alagoas, specifically in the municipality of Santana do Mandau. The methodology was based on exploratory and qualitative research using semi-structured and unstructured interviews, using a questionnaire, report cards and photographic records. Of the cisterns installed in schools, only one is being partially used. They are all totally devoid of technical monitoring, being possible to perceive the lack of interest of the municipal executive in promoting the maintenance of this equipment. Keywords: Water supply, Education, Health.


Author(s):  
Aivars Tērauds ◽  
Oļgerts Nikodemus ◽  
Inga Rasa ◽  
Simons Bells

Landscape Ecological Structure in the Eastern Part of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve, Latvia Latvia is a country where the forest area has increased and habitat fragmentation has reversed compared with many other European countries. In order to examine the effect of this expansion on biodiversity, vegetation maps dating from 2002 and the years 1930-1936 were used for comparative landscape structure analyses while archive materials from forest plans, and data from the national forest management database were used for land use analysis. Four landscape ecoregions in the eastern side of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve were selected for analysis. Landscape structure indicators derived from landscape ecology were used for the ecological assessment of land use changes. The total number of forest patches had decreased over the study period, but mean patch size had increased for all types of landscape element. This general change was found to vary between different landscape units in the study area. The biggest change in the area of forest patches occurred in the Rūjiena drumlin field, where the amount of forest patches decreased least and forest area increased the most. This study showed that the internal structure of the forest matrix changed substantially. This finding has implications for biodiversity protection if this trend of land use change continues.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Cesano ◽  
Emilio Lèbre La Rovere ◽  
Martin Obermaier ◽  
Thais Corral ◽  
Laise Santos da Silva ◽  
...  

Este artigo descreve a experiência da coalizão Adapta Sertão na experimentação e disseminação de sistemas produtivos que possam tornar o agricultor familiar do Semiárido mais resiliente aos impactos da variação climática atual e da mudança do clima no futuro. Durante as experimentações, a coalizão teve que enfrentar várias barreiras ligadas à falta de integração entre políticas públicas existentes e projetos pilotos em comunidades locais. Hoje, a adaptação à mudança do clima não está sendo considerada na implementação de obras hídricas de pequeno e médio porte, que são de grande importância porque, geralmente, conseguem beneficiar as faixas de população mais pobres e mais suscetíveis aos impactos climáticos. As experiências mostram que é preciso desenvolver, com urgência, políticas públicas inovadoras que consigam integrar o acesso à água com a disseminação de tecnologias de adaptação e de sistemas produtivos mais resilientes à seca.  Palavras - chave: medidas de adaptação, agricultura familiar, semiárido, tecnologia.  The experience of the Adapta Sertão Coalition in Disseminating Climate Change Adaptation Technologies and Strategies for Family Farmers in Semi Arid Brazil  ABSTRACTThis paper describes the experience of the Adapta Sertão coalition in testing and experimenting production systems that have the potential to make small farmers of semi-arid Brazil more resilient to current and future climate change impacts. During the different testing, the coalition had to overcome several barriers linked to a lack of integration between current public policies. For example, today climate change is not considered in the design and implementation of small and medium hydraulic infrastructures. This limits the benefits to the target groups (small farmers) that are more likely to be affected by climate change. The experiences show that it is urgent and necessary to develop public policies to better integrate access to water, dissemination of climate resilient technologies and implementation of production systems more adequate to the semi arid conditions.  Keywords: adaptation measures, family farming, semi-arid, technology.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Saltus ◽  
Todd Swannack ◽  
S. McKay

Habitat suitability models are widely adopted in ecosystem management and restoration, where these index models are used to assess environmental impacts and benefits based on the quantity and quality of a given habitat. Many spatially distributed ecological processes require application of suitability models within a geographic information system (GIS). Here, we present a geospatial toolbox for assessing habitat suitability. The Geospatial Suitability Indices (GSI) toolbox was developed in ArcGIS Pro 2.7 using the Python® 3.7 programming language and is available for use on the local desktop in the Windows 10 environment. Two main tools comprise the GSI toolbox. First, the Suitability Index Calculator tool uses thematic or continuous geospatial raster layers to calculate parameter suitability indices based on user-specified habitat relationships. Second, the Overall Suitability Index Calculator combines multiple parameter suitability indices into one overarching index using one or more options, including: arithmetic mean, weighted arithmetic mean, geometric mean, and minimum limiting factor. The resultant output is a raster layer representing habitat suitability values from 0.0 to 1.0, where zero is unsuitable habitat and one is ideal suitability. This report documents the model purpose and development as well as provides a user’s guide for the GSI toolbox.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haijun Yuan ◽  
Weizhen Zhang ◽  
Huaqun Yin ◽  
Runyu Zhang ◽  
Jianjun Wang

Abstract Microbial beta diversity has been recently studied along the water depth in aquatic ecosystems, however its turnover and nestedness components remain elusive especially for multiple taxonomic groups. Based on the beta diversity partitioning developed by Baselga and Local Contributions to Beta Diversity (LCBD) partitioning by Legendre, we examined the water-depth variations in beta diversity components of bacteria, archaea and fungi in surface sediments of Hulun Lake, a semi-arid lake in northern China, and further explored the relative importance of environmental drivers underlying their patterns. We found that the relative abundances of Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Euryarchaeota and Rozellomycota increased towards deep water, while Acidobacteria, Parvarchaeota and Chytridiomycota decreased. For bacteria and archaea, there were significant (P < 0.05) decreasing water-depth patterns for LCBD and LCBDRepl (i.e., species replacement), while increasing patterns for total beta diversity and turnover, implying that total beta diversity and LCBD were dominated by species turnover or LCBDRepl. Further, bacteria showed a strong correlation with archaea regarding LCBD, total beta diversity and turnover. Such parallel patterns among bacteria and archaea were underpinned by similar ecological processes like environmental selection. Total beta diversity and turnover were largely affected by sediment total nitrogen, while LCBD and LCBDRepl were mainly constrained by water NO2−-N and NO3−-N. For fungal community variation, no significant patterns were observed, which may be due to different drivers like water nitrogen or phosphorus. Taken together, our findings provide compelling evidences for disentangling the underlying mechanisms of community variation in multiple aquatic microbial taxonomic groups.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document