scholarly journals Comparing morphological traits of legs of understory birds inhabiting forest areas with closed canopies and forest gaps

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Supalak Siri ◽  
Yuwadee Ponpituk ◽  
Mongkol Safoowong ◽  
Wimonmart Nuipakdee ◽  
Dokrak Marod ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Traits ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Classification Tree ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Evergreen Forest ◽  
Forest Disturbances ◽  
Forest Gaps ◽  
Understory Birds ◽  
Important Trait

Abstract. Siri S, Ponpituk Y, Safoowong M, Nuipakdee W, Marod D, Duangkae P. 2020. Comparing morphological traits of legs of understory birds inhabiting forest areas with closed canopies and forest gaps. Biodiversitas 21: 1041-1048. Bird species exhibit different adaptations depending on their habitats. The morphological traits of each species represent adaptations that are impacted by environmental changes. We conducted a 3-year study from 2015 to 2017 to compare the leg morphology of understory birds that occur under closed canopies and in forest gaps in a hill evergreen forest in northern Thailand, with gaps in the natural forest representing forest disturbances. We captured 64 bird species over the study period and measured 11 leg morphological features for each individual. Ground-foraging birds were generally long-legged and climbing birds generally short-legged. Understory species living in dense forest areas were significantly associated with long claws, toes, and tibiae, whereas species occurring in gaps and open areas tended to have shorter leg structures. Results from classification tree analysis revealed that digit claw length is the most important trait for predicting which habitat a species is most likely to occupy. Our findings suggest that understory birds with long leg structures that live under closed canopies are most vulnerable to forest disturbances or the conversion of forests to large-scale open areas.

scholarly journals The natural forest gaps maintenance diversity of understory birds in Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve, northern Thailand

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-189
Author(s):  
SUPALAK SIRI ◽  
YUWADEE PONPITUK ◽  
MONGKOL SAFOOWONG ◽  
DOKRAK MAROD ◽  
PRATEEP DUENGKAE
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Natural Forest ◽  
Evergreen Forest ◽  
Feeding Guilds ◽  
Forest Gap ◽  
Northern Thailand ◽  
Forest Gaps ◽  
Understory Birds

Siri S, Ponpituk Y, Safoowong M, Marod D, Duengkae P. 2019. The natural forest gaps maintenance diversity of understory birds in Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve, northern Thailand. Biodiversitas 20: 181-189. We compared the species composition and feeding guilds between under closed canopies and forest gaps in the low-elevation montane evergreen forest in Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve. Monthly mist netting was used to capture birds from January 2015 to December 2017. In total, 958 individual birds belonging to 65 species were captured over 25,920 sampling hours. Of the total number of birds, 475 were from 51 species (Shannon-Wiener index: H' 2.974) under closed canopies and 483 were from 47 species (H' 2.985) in forest gaps. The number of bird species in gaps increased rapidly and constantly through 1 year following gap creation. Forest gap localities contained 48% of the understory birds in the area. Foliage–gleaning insectivores were the dominant bird feeding guild in both areas. Some species such as Erythrura prasina is a nomadic bird were found on first year of the forest gap only. Overall, we found that the forest gaps created by natural disturbances in the Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve had no negative impact on the diversity of understory bird communities. The natural forest gap are created by intermediate disturbance promotes a relatively high biodiversity of birds in the ecosystem.

scholarly journals Prevalence and genetic diversity of avian haemosporidian parasites in wild bird species of the order Columbiformes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne R. Schumm ◽  
Dimitris Bakaloudis ◽  
Christos Barboutis ◽  
Jacopo G. Cecere ◽  
Cyril Eraud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Phylogenetic Reconstruction ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Avian Species ◽  
Blood Parasites ◽  
Migration Strategy ◽  
Haemosporidian Parasites ◽  
Multiplex Pcr Assay ◽  
And Migration

AbstractDiseases can play a role in species decline. Among them, haemosporidian parasites, vector-transmitted protozoan parasites, are known to constitute a risk for different avian species. However, the magnitude of haemosporidian infection in wild columbiform birds, including strongly decreasing European turtle doves, is largely unknown. We examined the prevalence and diversity of haemosporidian parasites Plasmodium, Leucocytozoon and subgenera Haemoproteus and Parahaemoproteus in six species of the order Columbiformes during breeding season and migration by applying nested PCR, one-step multiplex PCR assay and microscopy. We detected infections in 109 of the 259 screened individuals (42%), including 15 distinct haemosporidian mitochondrial cytochrome b lineages, representing five H. (Haemoproteus), two H. (Parahaemoproteus), five Leucocytozoon and three Plasmodium lineages. Five of these lineages have never been described before. We discriminated between single and mixed infections and determined host species-specific prevalence for each parasite genus. Observed differences among sampled host species are discussed with reference to behavioural characteristics, including nesting and migration strategy. Our results support previous suggestions that migratory birds have a higher prevalence and diversity of blood parasites than resident or short-distance migratory species. A phylogenetic reconstruction provided evidence for H. (Haemoproteus) as well as H. (Parahaemoproteus) infections in columbiform birds. Based on microscopic examination, we quantified parasitemia, indicating the probability of negative effects on the host. This study provides a large-scale baseline description of haemosporidian infections of wild birds belonging to the order Columbiformes sampled in the northern hemisphere. The results enable the monitoring of future changes in parasite transmission areas, distribution and diversity associated with global change, posing a potential risk for declining avian species as the European turtle dove.

scholarly journals Impact of the municipal merger on watershed management: a study of Lake Kasumigaura, Japan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Mizunoya ◽  
Noriko Nozaki ◽  
Rajeev Kumar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Watershed Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Reduction Rate ◽  
Oxygen Demand ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Pollution Reduction ◽  
Lake Kasumigaura ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn the early 2000s, Japan instituted the Great Heisei Consolidation, a national strategy to promote large-scale municipal mergers. This study analyzes the impact that this strategy could have on watershed management. We select the Lake Kasumigaura Basin, the second largest lake in Japan, for the case study and construct a dynamic expanded input–output model to simulate the ecological system around the Lake, the socio-environmental changes over the period, and their mutual dependency for the period 2012–2020. In the model, we regulate and control the following water pollutants: total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and chemical oxygen demand. The results show that a trade-off between economic activity and the environment can be avoided within a specific range of pollution reduction, given that the prefectural government implements optimal water environment policies, assuming that other factors constraining economic growth exist. Additionally, municipal mergers are found to significantly reduce the budget required to improve the water environment, but merger budget efficiency varies nonlinearly with the reduction rate. Furthermore, despite the increase in financial efficiency from the merger, the efficiency of installing domestic wastewater treatment systems decreases drastically beyond a certain pollution reduction level and eventually reaches a limit. Further reductions require direct regulatory instruments in addition to economic policies, along with limiting the output of each industry. Most studies on municipal mergers apply a political, administrative, or financial perspective; few evaluate the quantitative impact of municipal mergers on the environment and environmental policy implications. This study addresses these gaps.

scholarly journals A Phylogenomic Supertree of Birds

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca T. Kimball ◽  
Carl H. Oliveros ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
Noor D. White ◽  
F. Keith Barker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Divide And Conquer ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Sequence Capture ◽  
Branch Lengths ◽  
Supertree Methods

It has long been appreciated that analyses of genomic data (e.g., whole genome sequencing or sequence capture) have the potential to reveal the tree of life, but it remains challenging to move from sequence data to a clear understanding of evolutionary history, in part due to the computational challenges of phylogenetic estimation using genome-scale data. Supertree methods solve that challenge because they facilitate a divide-and-conquer approach for large-scale phylogeny inference by integrating smaller subtrees in a computationally efficient manner. Here, we combined information from sequence capture and whole-genome phylogenies using supertree methods. However, the available phylogenomic trees had limited overlap so we used taxon-rich (but not phylogenomic) megaphylogenies to weave them together. This allowed us to construct a phylogenomic supertree, with support values, that included 707 bird species (~7% of avian species diversity). We estimated branch lengths using mitochondrial sequence data and we used these branch lengths to estimate divergence times. Our time-calibrated supertree supports radiation of all three major avian clades (Palaeognathae, Galloanseres, and Neoaves) near the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. The approach we used will permit the continued addition of taxa to this supertree as new phylogenomic data are published, and it could be applied to other taxa as well.

scholarly journals Variability in larval gut pH regulation defines sensitivity to ocean acidification in six species of the Ambulacraria superphylum

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1864) ◽  
pp. 20171066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Hu ◽  
Yung-Che Tseng ◽  
Yi-Hsien Su ◽  
Etienne Lein ◽  
Hae-Gyeong Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ph Regulation ◽  
Gastric Ph ◽  
Differential Sensitivity ◽  
Larval Stages ◽  
Regulatory Systems ◽  
Alkaline Conditions ◽  
Gut Ph

The unusual rate and extent of environmental changes due to human activities may exceed the capacity of marine organisms to deal with this phenomenon. The identification of physiological systems that set the tolerance limits and their potential for phenotypic buffering in the most vulnerable ontogenetic stages become increasingly important to make large-scale projections. Here, we demonstrate that the differential sensitivity of non-calcifying Ambulacraria (echinoderms and hemichordates) larvae towards simulated ocean acidification is dictated by the physiology of their digestive systems. Gastric pH regulation upon experimental ocean acidification was compared in six species of the superphylum Ambulacraria. We observed a strong correlation between sensitivity to ocean acidification and the ability to regulate gut pH. Surprisingly, species with tightly regulated gastric pH were more sensitive to ocean acidification. This study provides evidence that strict maintenance of highly alkaline conditions in the larval gut of Ambulacraria early life stages may dictate their sensitivity to decreases in seawater pH. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and understanding pH regulatory systems in marine larval stages that may contribute to substantial energetic challenges under near-future ocean acidification scenarios.

scholarly journals Assessing the Vulnerability of Marine Fisheries in China: Towards an Inter-Provincial Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Chen ◽  
Weiteng Shen ◽  
Bing Yu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Vocational Training ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Marine Fisheries ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Adaptation Measures

China’s marine fisheries are undergoing large-scale environmental changes associated with climate change, marine pollution, and overfishing. The assessment of marine fisheries vulnerability has become extremely necessary for fisheries management and sustainable development. However, studies on China’s marine fisheries vulnerability remains sparse. This study aimed to provide an analysis of the inter-provincial level vulnerability of China’s marine fisheries under multiple disturbances. The vulnerability measure was composed of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity indicators specific to marine fisheries based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) definitions. Results showed that Liaoning, Hebei, Fujian, and Hainan provinces appeared to be the most vulnerable; Shanghai appeared to be less vulnerable among China’s 11 coastal provinces; and the key sources of vulnerability differed considerably among coastal regions. The high vulnerability regions could be divided into two different patterns according to the combination of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, but they all had one thing in common: relatively low adaptive capacity. While some existing coercive measures to reduce dependence on fisheries were found to be helpful in China, the reality showed that appropriate adaptation measures such as improving fishermen’s education level and increasing vocational training may be helpful in enhancing the existing policy effectiveness.

scholarly journals Methods of Landscape Valorization and Possibilities of Its Application in Hunting Area Categorisation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szewczyk Grzegorz ◽  
Krzysztof Lipka ◽  
Piotr Wężyk ◽  
Karolina Zięba-Kulawik ◽  
Monika Winczek
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Environmental Values ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Forest Habitats

As a result of environmental changes, assessment indexes for the agricultural landscape have been changing dramatically. Being at the interface of human activity and the natural environment, hunting is particularly sensitive to environmental changes, such as increasing deforestation or large-scale farming. The classical categorisation of hunting grounds takes into account the area, forest cover, number of forest complexes, fertility of forest habitats, lack of continuity of areas potentially favourable to wild animals. Landscape assessment methods used in architecture often better reflect the actual breeding and hunting value of a given area, especially in relation to fields and forests. The forest-field mosaic, large spatial fragmentation as well as interweaving of natural environment elements with buildings do not have to be the factors that limit the numbers of small game. Identification of the constituents of architectural-landscape interiors: content and significance assessment, determination of the functional role or assessment based on the general environmental values being represented take into account factors important for the existence of game, in particular small game.

scholarly journals Use of Citizen Science Data for Characterizing Patterns and Drivers of Avian Altitudinal Migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Yu Tsai ◽  
Chie-Jen Ko ◽  
Ya-Jung Lu ◽  
Chia Hsieh ◽  
Mao-Ning Tuanmu
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Migration Behavior ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Altitudinal Migration

Altitudinal migration, the seasonal and repeateing movement of animal individuals between breeding and non-breeding areas at different elevations, is a common and important but understudied behavior in birds. Difficulty in characterizing avian altitudinal migration has prevented a comprehensive understanding of both patterns and drivers of this behavior. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated altitudinal migration patterns and underlying mechanisms for a major proportion (~70%) of an entire resident bird community on a subtropical island with an almost 4000-m elevational gradient. We quantified migration tendency of individual bird species based on the seasonal shift in the elevational distribution of their occurrence records in the eBird database. We then built phylogeny-controlled regression models to examine the associations between the birds’ migration tendencies and their functional traits to test major hypotheses on the mechanisms of altitudinal migration. The results showed a common but variable altitudinal migration behavior among the 118 species examined, with 40 and 11 species conducting post-breeding downhill and uphill migration, respectively. The species that have a narrower thermal tolerance range, can tolerate lower temperatures, have a smaller body size, have a more diverse or invertebrate-rich diet, or use an open nest had a higher downhill migration tendency. In contrast, no traits examined showed consistent associations with the uphill migration tendency. This suggests that post-breeding downhill and uphill migrations are driven by different processes and current hypotheses can only explain the former, but not the latter. This relatively comprehensive study demonstrated the power of citizen science data to provide new insights into an old research question from a novel perspective. Using the same approach, we are investigating the behavior in mountain regions around the world. With the global analysis, we will be able to understand the general patterns and mechanisms of avian altitudinal migration and also investigate their variation among mountain regions in different climate zones. In the face of rapid environmental changes in mountain ecosystems, the approach used in this study may also provide essential information for the conservation of mountainous biodiversity.

scholarly journals New kid on the block: Research of alpine-lake macroinvertebrates in the Tatra Mountains enhanced by DNA barcoding and metabarcoding

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondrej Vargovčík ◽  
Zuzana Čiamporová-Zaťovičová ◽  
Fedor Čiampor Jr
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Alpine Lakes ◽  
Alpine Lake ◽  
Tatra Mountains ◽  
Aquatic Communities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Tatra Mountains

State of ecosystems and biodiversity protection are becoming the key interests for modern society due to climate change and negative human impacts (Leese 2018). Environmental changes in freshwaters are indicated also by benthic communities, especially in sensitive ecosystems like alpine lakes (Fjellheim 2009). Moreover, remoteness and isolation of alpine lakes make them a source of biodiversity, which is worth conserving (Hamerlík 2014). A promising tool for efficient large-scale monitoring of aquatic communities is DNA metabarcoding (Leese 2018). In this study, we applied metabarcoding to analyse macrozoobenthos of 12 lakes in the Tatra Mountains, using benthic bulk samples and eDNA filtered from water (Fig. 1). In compliance with recent publications, eDNA amplified with BF3/BR2 primers resulted in high percentage of non-invertebrate reads (Leese 2021). Based on in silico tests with the obtained sequences, we confirm that the recently developed EPTDr2n primer enables minimizing non-target amplification even with eDNA filtered from alpine-lake water (Elbrecht and Leese 2017). This ability is facilitated by 3’ end of the primer and we observed the two important mismatches in non-target sequences from our study (Leese 2021). Thus, our future analyses of eDNA (and bulk-sample fixative) will benefit from the new primer. Concerning bulk samples, a wide range of invertebrate taxa was assigned to the OTUs and they showed good congruence with previous studies using morphological determination (e.g. Krno 2006). Certain differences with (and among) the previous records per lake were observed, which could suggest ecological changes, but at the moment the influence of sampling error cannot be excluded. In eDNA, several taxa were congruent with the previous records, but their amount and read abundance was considerably lower due to non-target amplification. Apart from that, filling gaps in barcoding databases remains one of our priorities, as identification to species or genus level was not yet possible for some invertebrate OTUs. In addition, we subjected the NGS data to denoising and abundance-filtering in order to explore haplotype-level diversity (Andújar 2021). Although more comprehensive conclusions will be possible only after obtaining data from more lakes and years, already the two metabarcoding experiments presented here enabled us to efficiently detect within-species genetic diversity and identify a large variety of taxa, including groups that would otherwise be omitted or very challenging to identify. This underlines the potential of DNA methods to provide valuable ecological and biodiversity data across the tree of life for modern biomonitoring. This study was realized with support from VEGA 2/0030/17 and VEGA 2/0084/21.

Construction of an Indicator System for Integrated Assessment of Environmental Quality of the Dianchi Basin

2011 ◽  
Vol 356-360 ◽  
pp. 903-907
Author(s):  
Ai Jun Li ◽  
Yan Ying Guo ◽  
Feng He ◽  
Rui Jia Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Integrated Assessment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Indicator System ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Regional Environmental Quality

There are few indicator systems available for monitoring and assessing the environmental quality of large-scale regions. We constructed an indicator system for integrated assessment of the environmental quality of the Dianchi Basin. First, the definition of regional environmental quality is determined by both the supply of materials and energy in the region and the extent to which the region is polluted. Second, the indicator categories used for assessment mainly comprise vegetation biomass and the concentrations of various pollutants. Third, owing to spatial heterogeneity of a region, evaluation of the regional environment first requires division into sub-regions, each of which should be relatively homogeneous with regard to physical conditions (e.g. marine and terrestrial) and appearance (e.g. vegetation cover). Finally, the mathematical models for assessing regional environmental quality can be built according to the relationships between the various indicators, the sub-regions and regional environmental quality. The indicator system built using this approach can reflect environmental changes over time and identifies reasons for environmental variation.

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