scholarly journals Characterising the spatio-temporal threats, conservation hotspots, and conservation gaps for the most extinction-prone bird family (Aves: Rallidae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucile Lévêque ◽  
Jessie C. Buettel ◽  
Scott Carver ◽  
Barry W. Brook

ABSTRACTWith thousands of vertebrate species now threatened with extinction, there is an urgent need to understand and mitigate the causes of wildlife collapse. As distinct evolutionary clades can follow different routes to endangerment, there is value in taxon-specific analyses when assessing species’ vulnerability to threats and identifying gaps in conservation actions. Rails (Aves: Rallidae), being the most extinction-prone bird Family globally, and with one third of extant rail species now threatened or near-threatened, are an emphatic case in point. Yet even for this well-studied group, there is uncertainty in our understanding of what factors might be causing this vulnerability, whether the current threats are consistent with those that led to recent extinctions, and ultimately, what conservation actions might be necessary to mitigate further losses. Here, we undertook a global synthesis of the temporal and spatial threat patterns for Rallidae and determined conservation priorities and gaps. We found two key pathways in the threat pattern for rails. One follows the same trajectory as extinct rails, where island endemic and flightless rails are most threatened, mainly due to invasive predators. The second, created by the recent diversification of anthropogenic activities, involves continental rails (generally in the Neotropics), threatened most commonly by agriculture, natural-system modifications and residential and commercial development. Conservation efforts around most-at-risk species should be adapted according to the most relevant geographic scale (bioregions or countries), and principal locality type of the population (continental or island endemic). Indonesia, the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Cuba were the priority countries identified by our classification system incorporating species’ unique evolutionary features and level of endangerment, but also among the countries that lack conservation actions the most. Future efforts should predominantly target improvements in ecosystem protection and management, as well as ongoing research and monitoring. Forecasting the impacts of climate change on island endemic rails and disentangling the specific roles of extrinsic and intrinsic traits (like flightlessness), will be particularly valuable avenues of research for improving our forecasts of rail vulnerability.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 210262
Author(s):  
Lucile Lévêque ◽  
Jessie C. Buettel ◽  
Scott Carver ◽  
Barry W. Brook

With thousands of vertebrate species now threatened with extinction, there is an urgent need to understand and mitigate the causes of wildlife collapse. Rails (Aves: Rallidae), being the most extinction-prone bird family globally, and with one-third of extant rail species now threatened or near threatened, are an emphatic case in point. Here, we undertook a global synthesis of the temporal and spatial threat patterns for Rallidae and determined conservation priorities and gaps. We found two key pathways in the threat pattern for rails. One follows the same trajectory as extinct rails, where island endemic and flightless rails are most threatened, mainly due to invasive predators. The second, created by the diversification of anthropogenic activities, involves continental rails, threatened mainly by agriculture, natural system modifications, and residential and commercial development. Indonesia, the USA, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Cuba were the priority countries identified by our framework incorporating species' uniqueness and the level of endangerment, but also among the countries that lack conservation actions the most. Future efforts should predominantly target improvements in ecosystem protection and management, as well as ongoing research and monitoring. Forecasting the impacts of climate change on island endemic rails will be particularly valuable to protect rails.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamim Zaky Hadibasyir ◽  
Seftiawan Samsu Rijal ◽  
Dewi Ratna Sari

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was firstly identified in Wuhan, China. By 23rd January 2020, China’s Government made a decision to execute lockdown policy in Wuhan due to the rapid transmission of COVID-19. It is essential to investigate the land surface temperature (LST) dynamics due to changes in level of anthropogenic activities. Therefore, this study aims (1) to investigate mean LST differences between during, i.e., December 2019 to early March 2020, and before the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan; (2) to conduct spatio-temporal analysis of mean LST with regards to lockdown policy; and (3) to examine mean LST differences for each land cover type. MODIS data consist of MOD11A2 and MCD12Q1 were employed. The results showed that during the emergence of COVID-19 with lockdown policy applied, the mean LST was lower than the mean LST of the past three years on the same dates. Whereas, during the emergence of COVID-19 without lockdown policy applied, the mean LST was relatively higher than the mean LST of the past three years. In addition, the mean LST of built-up areas experienced the most significant differences between during the emergence of COVID-19 with lockdown policy applied in comparison to the average of the past three years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 2446-2464
Author(s):  
Murianny Katamara Silva de Oliveira ◽  
Eveline Almeida Ferreira ◽  
Nadjacleia Vilar Almeida ◽  
Eulene Francisco da Silva ◽  
Aline Almeida Vasconcelos

Apodi, like many municipalities in the Northeast, underwent structural changes conducted by two main drivers: alternation of socioeconomic models and seasonal and prolonged periods of drought. Among the socioeconomic models, Apodi passed by large landowners, agrarian reform, expropriation of land for irrigated perimeters and installation of agribusiness companies. These conditions negatively impacted the vegetation cover, degrading the landscape and threatening the Lajedo de Soledade Archaeological Site (SALS) located in the middle of this landscape, an important cultural and environmental patrimony. In this context, the objective of this study was to analyze the spatio-temporal changes in the landscape around SALS and to infer about the influence of socioeconomic and environmental drivers. For this, a survey of the region's history, precipitation data, agricultural production of the main crops, and eight images captured by the TM and OLI sensors of the LANDSAT 5 and 8 satellites, between 1984 and 2018, were used. Precipitation data was modeled using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The images were classified using the SCP plugin (QGIS) and the quality was assessed using the Kappa Index. It was observed that there were three prolonged and extreme droughts events in the region: late 1980s and 1990s and between 2013 and 2017. The classification of the images indicated periods of dense vegetation reductions and exposed soil expansions, in the period of decay of cotton culture, and the reversal of these patterns after agrarian reform, with the establishment of family farming on an agroecological basis. This pattern was again reversed, with the lowest proportion of dense vegetation observed (5%) and and higher proportion of exposed soil (45%) observed in this landscape, during the period of installation of the irrigated perimeter for agribusiness. Thus, it was possible to infer that the alternation of socioeconomic models conditioned the spatio-temporal dynamics of the vegetation cover and was responsible for the environmental degradation conditions surrounding the SALS, these patterns being aggravated by the recurrence of periods of extreme and prolonged drought. During these periods, SALS was probably more vulnerable to the direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic activities common in this landscape.


1986 ◽  
Vol 2 (03) ◽  
pp. 145-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. Montemarano ◽  
B. P. Sack ◽  
J. P. Gudas ◽  
M. G. Vassilaros ◽  
H. H. Vanderveldt

The Naval Sea Systems Command has recently certified a lower-cost alternative steel to the HY-80 steel presently used in construction of naval surface ships. This alternative steel is based on the commercial development of high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels originally directed to the offshore oil exploration platform and gas line transmission industries. The certification is a result of an ongoing research and development program begun in 1980. This paper addresses several aspects of the HSLA steel development effort, including a discussion of the properties and metallurgy of this steel, and the cost savings which are achievable. Finally, the status of the current and planned Navy HSLA usage and the R&D program is described.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11n12) ◽  
pp. 1689-1705
Author(s):  
Dongjin Yu ◽  
Xinfeng Wang ◽  
Xiaoxiao Sun

The activeness of regional business entities, like restaurants, cinemas and shopping malls, represents the evolvement of their corresponding commercial districts, whose prediction helps practitioners grasp the trend of commercial development and provides support for urban layout. On the other hand, online social network services, such as Yelp, are generating massive online reviews toward business entities every day, which provide a solid data source for the prediction of regional commercial activeness and entity condition through big data technology rather than applying business data with limited access and poor time efficiency. Inspired by the outstanding performance of deep learning in the field of image and video processing, this paper proposes a deep spatio-temporal residual network (DSTRN) model for regional commercial activeness prediction using online reviews and check-in records of commercial entities. Furthermore, aiming at predicting business trend of entities, we also propose a novel multi-view entity condition prediction model (SBCE) based on online views, along with business attributes and regional commercial activeness. The experiments on the public Yelp datasets demonstrate that both DSTRN and SBCE outperform the compared approaches.


Oryx ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Stephenson ◽  
Voahangy Soarimalala ◽  
Steven M. Goodman ◽  
Martin E. Nicoll ◽  
Vonjy Andrianjakarivelo ◽  
...  

Abstract The mammal family Tenrecidae (Afrotheria: Afrosoricida) is endemic to Madagascar. Here we present the conservation priorities for the 31 species of tenrec that were assessed or reassessed in 2015–2016 for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Six species (19.4%) were found to be threatened (4 Vulnerable, 2 Endangered) and one species was categorized as Data Deficient. The primary threat to tenrecs is habitat loss, mostly as a result of slash-and-burn agriculture, but some species are also threatened by hunting and incidental capture in fishing traps. In the longer term, climate change is expected to alter tenrec habitats and ranges. However, the lack of data for most tenrecs on population size, ecology and distribution, together with frequent changes in taxonomy (with many cryptic species being discovered based on genetic analyses) and the poorly understood impact of bushmeat hunting on spiny species (Tenrecinae), hinders conservation planning. Priority conservation actions are presented for Madagascar's tenrecs for the first time since 1990 and focus on conserving forest habitat (especially through improved management of protected areas) and filling essential knowledge gaps. Tenrec research, monitoring and conservation should be integrated into broader sustainable development objectives and programmes targeting higher profile species, such as lemurs, if we are to see an improvement in the conservation status of tenrecs in the near future.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Moran ◽  
Keiichiro Kanemoto

Summary SentenceSpatially explicit footprints make it possible to locate biodiversity hotspots linked to global supply chains.Identifying species threat hotspots has been a successful approach for setting conservation priorities. One major challenge in conservation is that in many hotspots export industries continue to drive overexploitation. Conservation measures must consider not just the point of impact, but also the consumer demand that ultimately drives resource use. To understand which species threat hotspots are driven by which consumers, we have developed a new approach to link a set of biodiversity footprint accounts to the hotspots of threatened species on the IUCN Red List. The result is a map connecting global supply chains to impact locations. Connecting consumption to spatially explicit hotspots driven by production has not been done before on a global scale. Locating biodiversity threat hotspots driven by consumption of goods and services can help connect conservationists, consumers, companies, and governments in order to better target conservation actions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa N. Waylen ◽  
Hieu T. Nim ◽  
Luciano G. Martelotto ◽  
Mirana Ramialison

Abstract Unravelling spatio-temporal patterns of gene expression is crucial to understanding core biological principles from embryogenesis to disease. Here we review emerging technologies, providing automated, high-throughput, spatially resolved quantitative gene expression data. Novel techniques expand on current benchmark protocols, expediting their incorporation into ongoing research. These approaches digitally reconstruct patterns of embryonic expression in three dimensions, and have successfully identified novel domains of expression, cell types, and tissue features. Such technologies pave the way for unbiased and exhaustive recapitulation of gene expression levels in spatial and quantitative terms, promoting understanding of the molecular origin of developmental defects, and improving medical diagnostics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Heathcote ◽  
Alistair J. Hobday ◽  
Monique Spaulding ◽  
Melissa Gard ◽  
Greg Irons

Context Wildlife can be injured or orphaned through a range of (often anthropogenic) activities, creating need for volunteer rescuers and wildlife carers, of which a substantial number is active in Australia. However, the causes and contributing factors for rescued wildlife are rarely reported, which limits development of response options to these wildlife issues. An understanding of the distribution and number of rescuers and carers in relation to injured and orphaned wildlife allows training and outreach to be targeted around specific seasonal peaks, species and causes of injury. Aims and methods We conducted an analysis of 22723 reports over 7 years to the Bonorong Wildlife Rescue Service in Tasmania, Australia, to determine the frequency of species and types of human–wildlife interaction, the report distances from the central facility, and the report distribution relative to the registered rescuer and carer networks. Key results Mammals accounted for over half of all reports, followed by birds, reptiles and invertebrates. Road trauma was the predominant cause for report, followed by orphans. Disease reports and animal attack were also common. Overall, reporting was highest in late spring and summer, but different seasonality in specific causes and species suggests that targeted response options are needed at different times of year. Areas with higher reporting relative to the number of registered rescuers and carers show where volunteer recruitment can be focussed. Conclusions We used a wildlife reporting dataset to illustrate trends (such as seasonality and species vulnerability) and causes of human–wildlife interaction to inform potential response options. Implications Continued citizen reporting can assist wildlife managers to allocate resources, plan training or recruit additional volunteers, track emerging issues, such as disease and climate-related stressors, and guide the planning of public education and mitigation initiatives, particularly for human-related wildlife issues.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Wang

<p>Natural organic matter (NOM) played an important role in the riverine and global carbon cycle. In order to evaluate the impact of river discharge and anthropogenic activities on the spatio-temporal variability of NOM content and sources in Lancang River, China, a comprehensive study was conducted in two years from the head to the leave-boundary section. As results, the DOC value ranged among 0.91-2.80 mg/L, with sharp decrease in the middle reaches and downstream. While the SOC value significantly enhanced along the water flow, varied from 0.06% to 3.54%. The isotopic composition of organic carbon (δ13C) suggested that predominant contribution of NOM is C3 plants in the upper reach, algae and soil organic matter in the middle reach, and aquatic plants in the downstream. EEM-PARAFAC results proved that NOM in Lancang River is mainly terrestrial organic carbon, while in situ microbial transformed NOM is very low. Moreover, the sharp increase of dissolved CO2 concentration in the lower reaches confirmed the strong respiration of microorganisms due to the higher DO and water temperature, thus resulted in the significantly different fluctuations of DOC and SOC.</p>


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