scholarly journals Anthropogenic disturbances and conservation of coastal environments in an oceanic archipelago

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-264
Author(s):  
Juan D. Delgado ◽  
Rodrigo Riera
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Anthropogenic Disturbances ◽  
Coastal Ecosystems ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Coastal Environments ◽  
Human Footprint ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Threatened Habitats

Oceanic islands are biotically fragile environments prone to suffer irreversible anthropogenic disturbances. The growth of the human population and the intensive occupation of the coastline are the cause of great ecological pressure on global insular coastal ecosystems. We review the current situation and future scenarios on a paradigmatic oceanic archipelago (Canary Islands, NE Atlantic Ocean), as a case study of the human footprint on marine coastal communities. The role of humans is pivotal, as we directly affect patterns of coastal occupation, pollution, invasive species or fishing. Here we synthesize the information that describes the current situation of the coastal ecosystems of the Canary Islands, indicating the main sources of environmental conflict and impacts. In addition, we review the state of the most relevant or threatened habitats and the taxonomic groups as actors of the main disturbances in the coastal ecosystems of the archipelago. We propose future general scenarios about expected changes, and foreseeable interactions that could occur to transform the coastal environments of the islands, in order to indicate areas susceptible to improvement for the conservation of these ecosystems. Integrative coastal actions are urgently needed for sustainable future scenarios to oppose deleterious trends such as tropicalization, fisheries collapse and extensive coastal degradation due to urbanization and infrastructure construction.

scholarly journals Rapid assessment of historic, current and future habitat quality for biodiversity around UK Natura 2000 sites

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. N. VOGIATZAKIS ◽  
M. T. STIRPE ◽  
S. RICKEBUSCH ◽  
M. J. METZGER ◽  
G. XU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Landscape Composition ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Alternative Future ◽  
European Development ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
Taxonomic Groups

SUMMARYChanges in landscape composition and structure may impact the conservation and management of protected areas. Species that depend on specific habitats are at risk of extinction when these habitats are degraded or lost. Designing robust methods to evaluate landscape composition will assist decision- and policy-making in emerging landscapes. This paper describes a rapid assessment methodology aimed at evaluating land-cover quality for birds, plants, butterflies and bees around seven UK Natura 2000 sites. An expert panel assigned quality values to standard Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) land-cover classes for each taxonomic group. Quality was assessed based on historical (1950, 1990), current (2000) and future (2030) land-cover data, the last projected using three alternative scenarios: a growth-applied strategy (GRAS), a business-as-might-be-usual (BAMBU) scenario, and sustainable European development goal (SEDG) scenario. A quantitative quality index weighted the area of each land-cover parcel with a taxa-specific quality measure. Land parcels with high quality for all taxonomic groups were evaluated for temporal changes in area, size and adjacency. For all sites and taxonomic groups, the rate of deterioration of land-cover quality was greater between 1950 and 1990 than current rates or as modelled using the alternative future scenarios (2000–2030). Model predictions indicated land-cover quality stabilized over time under the GRAS scenario, and was close to stable for the BAMBU scenario. The SEDG scenario suggested an ongoing loss of quality, though this was lower than the historical rate of c. 1% loss per decade. None of the future scenarios showed accelerated fragmentation, but rather increases in the area, adjacency and diversity of high quality land parcels in the landscape.

scholarly journals Modeling the Exposure of the Macaronesia Islands (NE Atlantic) to Marine Plastic Pollution

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cláudio Cardoso ◽  
Rui M. A. Caldeira
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Subtropical Gyre ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Cabo Verde ◽  
The North ◽  
African Coast ◽  
The North Atlantic

The constant increase of marine plastic pollution poses an unprecedented risk to oceanic islands, which become increasingly exposed to a hazard of which they have very little control. Located in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Macaronesia is comprised by the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, and Cabo Verde. Although past studies suggest that most plastic items collected on these islands are from offshore regions, their actual sources remain unclear to present date. As such, we focus on the characterization of the potential sources and pathways of plastic particles reaching the Macaronesia archipelagos. This is achieved by combining modeled datasets for ocean currents, winds and waves with a Lagrangian tool used to track virtual particles released around the archipelagos for a 10-year period, making a distinction between surface and submerged particles. Global drifter trajectories are also assessed, selecting those that intercept the archipelagos. Our results demonstrate that the North Atlantic subtropical gyre is the most conspicuous feature in particles and drifter trajectories. The Gulf Stream acts as the main pathway for all archipelagos at a regional scale, though with less significance to Cabo Verde. Surface particles are connected to regional sources in a shorter timescale than mixed particles, mainly because of the wind. Intercepting high-windage particle trajectories are dominant at the center of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, demonstrating that particles originating from the North Atlantic “garbage patch” are most likely to intercept the archipelagos if considerably exposed to the wind. Regarding the connectivity to sources, all archipelagos are significantly exposed to areas of intensive fishing activity, mainly those located in the Gulf Stream (Azores), in international waters off the Portuguese coast (Madeira and Canary Islands) and along the Northwestern African coast (Cabo Verde). The east coasts of Central and North America are the main sources of land-based particles reaching the Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands, whereas the Northwestern African coast is the main source for land-based particles reaching Cabo Verde. Our results demonstrate how vulnerable the Macaronesian archipelagos are to marine plastic pollution, highlighting the urgency for international cooperation to mitigate the exposure of oceanic islands to marine plastic pollution.

scholarly journals A reappraisal of the role of humans in the biotic disturbance of islands

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUAN D. DELGADO ◽  
RODRIGO RIERA ◽  
RICARDO A. RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
PABLO GONZÁLEZ-MORENO ◽  
JOSÉ MARÍA FERNÁNDEZ-PALACIOS
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Anthropogenic Disturbances ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Habitat Transformation ◽  
Ecosystem Size ◽  
Biotic Disturbance ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

SUMMARYTraditionally, islands have been used as ecological and biogeographical models because of their assumed ecological simplicity, reduced ecosystem size and isolation. The vast number of Earth's oceanic islands play a key role in maintaining global biodiversity and serve as a rich source of evolutionary novelty. Research into the factors determining diversity patterns on islands must disentangle natural phenomena from anthropogenic causes of habitat transformation, interruption and enhancement of biological fluxes and species losses and gains in these geographically and ecologically limited environments. The anthropogenic ecological forcing of communication through global transport has profound implications regarding island–continent links. Anthropogenic disturbances along continental margins and insular coasts contribute to shaping island biotas in ecological time, but also have evolutionary consequences of global resonance. Patterns of human landscape and resource use (geographical space and ecological communities and species), as well as increasing ecological connectivity of oceanic islands and mainland, are chief driving forces in island biogeography that should be reappraised. Global indirect effects of human activities (i.e. climate change) may also affect islands and interact with these processes. We review the implications of direct and indirect anthropogenic disturbances on island biotic patterns, focusing on island size, isolation and introduced exotic species, as well as the unsettled issue of oceanic island ecological vulnerability.

scholarly journals ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION ABOUT MARINE AND COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS: EVALUATION THROUGH A RESEARCH INSTRUMENT BASED ON MODEL OF ECOLOGICAL VALUES

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-405
Author(s):  
Suzana Ursi ◽  
Naomi Towata
Keyword(s):  
Basic Education ◽  
Coastal Ecosystems ◽  
Coastal Environment ◽  
Environmental Perception ◽  
Coastal Environments ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Biology Teachers ◽  
Research Instrument ◽  
Coastal City ◽  
Ecological Values

The first aim of research is to propose a research instrument based on Wiseman and Bogner’s Model of Ecological Values, the “Coastal Environment Questionnaire” (CEQ), specifically developed to evaluate the Environmental Perception about marine and coastal ecosystems. The second aim is to explore, using CEQ, the position on the categories from Model of Ecological Values of some basic education students and some pre-service biology teachers from cities located near coastal areas from Brazil. CEQ was modified from “The Environment Questionnaire” (TEQ), which consists of a questionnaire composed of 16 items with Likert-type responses. The first process to have elaborated the new instrument changed the general situations described in the items of TEQ (most related with land environments) to situations related to marine and coastal environments. CEQ has been used with: 63 pre-service biology teachers from a non-coastal city; 79 basic education students from a non-coastal city; and 74 basic education students from a coastal city. All pre-service teachers were placed at Preservation+Utilization- category (100%). However, most students were placed at the Preservation+Utilization- category (around 70%), followed by Preservation+Utilization+ (around 25%), regardless their city location. It is expected that CEQ can be useful on research aim to better understand the perception about marine and coastal environments, contributing to development and evaluation of future Environmental Educational program focus on these important ecosystems. Keywords: basic education students, Coastal Environment Questionnaire (CEQ), environmental perception, Model of Ecological Value, pre-service biology teachers.

scholarly journals The Juggernaut of Modernity Collapses. The Crisis of Social Planification in the Post COVID-19 era

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Lusardi ◽  
Stefano Tomelleri
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Instrumental Rationality ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Technological Processes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Millennium

This article arises from the urgent need to reflect on the current situation resulting from the dramatic consequences of a crisis which appears to be epochal and which, as sociologists, questions us at first hand. This is to understand the socio-cultural, economic and technological processes that triggered it and to attempt to imagine future scenarios. At the dawn of the third millennium, it seems as if the juggernaut of modernity, with its dream of unlimited progress and cargo of unconditional trust in instrumental rationality, has abruptly slowed down. The pandemic challenges contemporary society to develop a different weltanschauung, alternative to the performative and conformist idea of social planification supported by the neoliberal paradigm. It compels us to finally acquire the consciousness that the complexity of knowledge and global interdependency require collective awareness, political participation, and shared responsibility.

scholarly journals Estimating retention benchmarks for salvage logging to protect biodiversity

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Thorn ◽  
Anne Chao ◽  
Kostadin B. Georgiev ◽  
Jörg Müller ◽  
Claus Bässler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practice ◽  
Economic Capital ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
The World ◽  
Disturbed Forest ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Threatened Habitats ◽  
Unique Species

Abstract Forests are increasingly affected by natural disturbances. Subsequent salvage logging, a widespread management practice conducted predominantly to recover economic capital, produces further disturbance and impacts biodiversity worldwide. Hence, naturally disturbed forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, with consequences for their associated biodiversity. However, there are no evidence-based benchmarks for the proportion of area of naturally disturbed forests to be excluded from salvage logging to conserve biodiversity. We apply a mixed rarefaction/extrapolation approach to a global multi-taxa dataset from disturbed forests, including birds, plants, insects and fungi, to close this gap. We find that 75 ± 7% (mean ± SD) of a naturally disturbed area of a forest needs to be left unlogged to maintain 90% richness of its unique species, whereas retaining 50% of a naturally disturbed forest unlogged maintains 73 ± 12% of its unique species richness. These values do not change with the time elapsed since disturbance but vary considerably among taxonomic groups.

The “Cobra-preta” of São Tomé Island, Gulf of Guinea, is a new species of Naja Laurenti, 1768 (Squamata: Elapidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4324 (1) ◽  
pp. 121 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS M. P. CERÍACO ◽  
MARIANA P. MARQUES ◽  
ANDREAS SCHMITZ ◽  
AARON M. BAUER
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Biogeographic History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Morphological And Molecular Data ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
A New Species

The Cobra-Preta (black snake in Portuguese) of Sao Tomé Island in the Gulf of Guinea has historically been referred to as Naja (Boulengerina) melanoleuca (Squamata: Elapidae). Its presence on the island has been traditionally explained as an introduction from the mainland by Portuguese settlers, supposedly to control the rat population. This explanation has been widely accepted by local authorities and even international conservation agencies. The taxonomic identity of this snake has remained undisputed by all taxonomists who have published about it, with the exception of L. Capocaccia in 1961. Arguments supporting the human introduction hypothesis are weak and are contradicted by historical, morphological and molecular data. Further, the biogeographic history of the Gulf of Guinea oceanic islands and recent insights on the taxonomic identity and evolutionary history of other taxonomic groups occurring there suggest that the Cobra-Preta, in fact, represents a distinct lineage of the melanoleuca group, endemic to São Tomé. We here describe the Cobra Preta as a new species. The new species differs from N. (B.) melanoleuca, its sister species, by a distinct coloration ventral pattern and the type of contact of the sublingual scales. Data on the toxicology, distribution, ecology, folklore and conservation status of the new species are presented. 

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