scholarly journals Recovery of Spider Communities After a Spontaneous Summer Fire in the Forb-Bunchgrass Steppe of Eastern Ukraine

Hacquetia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Polchaninova

Abstract Recently, anthropogenic fires in protected areas have become more frequent. I studied the response of the spider community after an extensive summer fire in the ‘Striltsivskyi Steppe’ Reserve in eastern Ukraine. A total of 117 spider species was found in the pre-fire period, 40 species were registered in the first and 89 species in the third post-fire year. Herb-dwelling spiders began to colonize burnt plots in July, when juveniles of the new generation began dispersing. In September, their abundance was similar to that of undisturbed steppe and within three years, the spider assemblages recovered almost completely. Cursorial ground-dwellers in the first post-fire year decreased in species richness and increased in activity density. In the third year, their species diversity and activity density became much higher than in control plots. Some xerophilous species benefited from the fire. Litter dwellers are extremely vulnerable. During the three post-fire years, their numbers and diversity did not recover. Some rare species with a patchy geographical distribution disappeared from the local fauna. Such a reaction of endangered species is the main restriction on the use of fire as a conservation management. The prerequisite for its implementation is maintaining relevant refuges for threatened species.

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 101-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Lee Grismer ◽  
Perry L. Wood, Jr. ◽  
Nikolay A. Poyarkov ◽  
Minh D. Le ◽  
Fred Kraus ◽  
...  

The gekkonid genus Cyrtodactylus is the third most speciose vertebrate genus in the world, containing well over 300 species that collectively range from South Asia to Melanesia across some of the most diverse landscapes and imperiled habitats on the planet. A genus-wide phylogeny of the group has never been presented because researchers working on different groups were using different genetic markers to construct phylogenies that could not be integrated. We present here Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference mitochondrial and mito-nuclear phylogenies incorporating of 310 species that include dozens of species that had never been included in a genus-wide analysis. Based on the mitochondrial phylogeny, we partition Cyrtodactylus into 31 well-supported monophyletic species groups which, if used as recommended herein, will increase the information content of future integrative taxonomic analyses that continue to add new species to this genus at an ever-increasing annual rate. Data presented here reiterate the outcome of several previous studies indicating that Cyrtodactylus comprises an unprecedented number of narrow-range endemics restricted to single mountain tops, small islands, or karst formations that still remain unprotected. This phylogeny can provide a platform for various comparative ecological studies that can be integrated with conservation management programs across the broad diversity of landscapes and habitats occupied by this genus. Additionally, these data indicate that the true number of Cyrtodactylus remains substantially underrepresented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávio Eduardo Vilas Boas Júnior ◽  
Amanda Da Silva Ferreira ◽  
Marcos Magalhães De Souza

The fragmentation process that has altered natural environments has been widely discussed, as it causes changes in communities and compromises different environmental functions. In this sense, this study was based on the evaluation of fragmentation on araneofauna of semideciduous seasonal forest fragments, phytophysiognomy belonging to the Atlantic Forest. The study was conducted in three fragments in the municipality of Inconfidentes, southern Minas Gerais, from April 2014 to March 2015. The results showed that there is a similarity in the composition of spider species among the sampled fragments and that the size of the fragment is positively correlated with species richness. Our data show that smaller fragments must be preserved and that agricultural areas maintain the integrity of adjacent forest areas to benefit from the predation dynamics that spiders exert on pests that affect plantations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 291-297
Author(s):  
Tünde Szmatona-Túri ◽  
Diána Vona-Túri

Our investigation targeted the diversity of spider communities of meadows under nature conservation management and the relationship between mowing and the spider diversity. The study sites represented by six grasslands on three localities of Mátra mountain of Hungary. All three localities were contained a hay meadow and a not mowed meadow. Hay meadows had the richest spider communities.  In the control habitats, the equitability and the Shannon-Wiener diversity were lower than in the mowed grasslands. According to the Bray-Curtis similarity index significant differences were observed between spider assemblages of mowed and control habitats. The prevention of succession effects so rich structure of the vegetation where diverse spider communities can live. Our results suggest that mowing is a suitable management for maintaining a high biodiversity in mountain grasslands.


1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (S1) ◽  
pp. 63-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald W. Griffiths ◽  
W. Keller

Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled from three lake basins before and after a reduction in acidity, a result of reduced acid emissions from the smelting industry in Sudbury, Ontario. The number of taxa and macroinvertebrate density were greater in the later surveys of the lakes than expected by chance alone. Species richness and macroinvertebrate density were higher in all littoral habitats and in profundal habitats of two lake basins. Species richness showed little change and macroinvertebrate density was lower in the profundal habitat of the third lake basin. Increased survival, probably as a result of reduced chemical toxicity, best accounted for the higher species richness and benthic density. Trout predation, through a numerical response, probably masked these responses in the profundal habitat of the third lake basin because the refuge area from predation (i.e. region of the hypolimnion low in dissolved oxygen) was small. These data indicate that biological recovery of industrially acidified lakes is possible solely by reducing emissions, provided that recolonizing species are not locally extinct.


Author(s):  
Sean L. Malloy

This chapter examines the intersection of the domestic and international developments that shaped the creation of black-led movements that looked beyond the borders of the United States for support and legitimacy in the 1960s. By the mid-1960s, the notion that black Americans should seek solidarity with the Third World rather than looking to Washington for help had attracted advocates ranging from Williams to Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Vicki Garvin, Harold Cruse, and groups such as the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). The successes—and failures—of these pioneering figures helped pave the way for a new generation of activists, including key figures in the birth and development of the Black Panther Party.


2021 ◽  
pp. 16-40
Author(s):  
Tom O’Donoghue ◽  
Judith Harford

In the latter half of the eighteenth and early decades of the nineteenth century the priests’ leadership role in Ireland increased, aided by the relaxation of the Penal Laws and the eventual granting of Catholic Emancipation throughout the United Kingdom in 1829. Concurrently, a new generation of reforming bishops shook off the approach of caution of their predecessors towards government and became increasingly assertive about Catholic interests, including in education. That assertiveness is central in the considerations of this chapter. Developments in relation to the role of the Catholic Church (the Church) in Irish society from the decades prior to the Great Famine of 1845–48 are outlined. Relations between the Church and the State on education from the establishment of the Irish National School System in 1831 to the advent of national independence in 1922 are then examined. In the third section the activity of ‘the triumphalist Church in Ireland’ for the period from 1922 to the introduction of ‘free second-level education’ in 1967 is detailed.


2022 ◽  
pp. 226-239
Author(s):  
Onur Ugurlu ◽  
Nusin Akram ◽  
Vahid Khalilpour Akram

The new generation of fast, small, and energy-efficient devices that can connect to the internet are already used for different purposes in healthcare, smart homes, smart cities, industrial automation, and entertainment. One of the main requirements in all kinds of cyber-physical systems is a reliable communication platform. In a wired or wireless network, losing some special nodes may disconnect the communication paths between other nodes. Generally, these nodes, which are called critical nodes, have many undesired effects on the network. The authors focus on three different problems. The first problem is finding the nodes whose removal minimizes the pairwise connectivity in the residual network. The second problem is finding the nodes whose removal maximizes the number of connected components. Finally, the third problem is finding the nodes whose removal minimizes the size of the largest connected component. All three problems are NP-Complete, and the authors provide a brief survey about the existing approximated algorithms for these problems.


ZooKeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 802 ◽  
pp. 67-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maija Štokmane ◽  
Inese Cera

Calcareous fens are one of the most species-rich habitats of the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. In spite of this species richness, however, calcareous fens are still rather poorly investigated. Consequently, the data of the fen-associated spider fauna are also largely lacking. The aim of the research was to study the spider fauna of the calcareous fens of Latvia and to draw conclusions about what kind of spider species and ecological groups typically inhabit calcareous fen habitats. Spiders were sampled in the summer months of 2010, 2011, and 2012 at nine different calcareous fens of the coastal lowland of Latvia. The spider collection was performed by pitfall traps and a sweep net. The examined material comprised 6631 adult spider individuals representing 21 families and 149 species. The main spider ecological groups that dominated in the studied calcareous fens were hygrophilous and photophilous species which largely reflect the main properties of our studied habitats, all of which were wet, open mire habitats. Nevertheless, the fen arachnofauna consisted also of spider groups which are less typical for moist, sun-exposed, and alkaline environments, like xerophilous, sciophilous, and sphagnophilous species, respectively. Finally, several spider species collected in this study have not been previously reported for the spider fauna of Latvia, and many more might still be undiscovered in these unique and poorly investigated habitats. Therefore, it is suggested that calcareous fens deserve special attention and they should definitely be investigated further.


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