Diversity and distribution of avifauna at Warathenna-Hakkinda Environmental Protection Area in Kandy, Sri Lanka

The present study was carried out in the recently established Warathenna-Hakkinda EPA in the Kandy District, Sri Lanka to investigate the avifaunal diversity and conservation threats. Sampling was conducted in two main habitat types: river islands and riverine forests. Both point count (10 m radius) and line transect (200 m long) methods were utilized and maximum of 30 minutes was used to sample the birds in each point. Food habit, niche type, endemism, abundance, and diversity indices (Shannon & Margalef) were calculated to compare the two habitats in this area. A total of 74 bird species belonging to 61 genera and 35 families were encountered from the study site. Among these, seven species are endemic: Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, Crimson-fronted Barbet, Yellow-fronted Barbet, and Sri Lanka Hill Mynah; while six were migratory: Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Indian Pitta, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Yellow Wagtail, and Grey Wagtail and the rest were non-endemic natives. Most of them were canopy and sub canopy dwellers associated with riverine forests and islands. According to the National Red List of Sri Lanka, three species, the Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Sri Lanka Hill Mynah, and Alpine Swift, are listed as threatened. Ardeidae, Alcedinidae, Columbidae, Accipitridae, and Apodidae were the most species rich families in this habitat. Out of the sampled species, 31% and 25% of the birds were carnivores and insectivores, respectively, while 5% were nectarivores. According to the avifauna, the riverine forests are more diverse (Shannon index H’= 2.55; Margalef’s index M= 10.92) than the river islands (H’= 2.29; M= 5.07) in this landscape. The variety of habitats along the Mahaweli River at Warathenna appears to aid in sustaining a rich bird community and this Environmental Protection Area will help create a safe haven for the birds.

SIVIM Floodplain Forests – Database of riverine forests and scrubs from the Iberian Peninsula

“SIVIM Floodplain Forests“ (GIVD ID: EU-00-024) is a thematic database focused on vegetation plots of riverine forests and scrubs from the Iberian Peninsula and the Pyrenees (Spain, Portugal and southern France). It was registered in the GIVD in February 2016. The data are available both from EVA and sPlot in semi-restricted regime. The database includes both digitized relevés from the literature and unpublished data. Many digitized relevés were derived from SIVIM (GIVD ID EU-00-004) and BIOVEG (GIVD ID EU-00-011), with which SIVIM Floodplain Forests thus partly overlaps. Currently it contains 4,736 vegetation plots of floodplain forests, alder carrs, willow scrubs, and tamarisk and oleander thickets, 99% of them classified at association level. Plot size is available for 94.6% of the relevés. Plant taxonomy is standardized to Flora Iberica. The database has been used for studies on vegetation classification at Iberian and European level, as well as studies on plant invasion, fine-grain plant diversity and macroecological analyses, most of them via EVA. Abbreviations: BIOVEG = Vegetation-Plot Database of the University of the Basque Country; EVA = European Vegeation Archive; GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases; SIVIM = Iberian and Macaronesian Vegetation Information System.

A new diurnal gecko in the genus Gonatodes (Squamata: Sphaerodactylidae) from the foothills of the Serranía de San Lucas, Norosí-Colombia

We describe a new species of diurnal gecko, Gonatodes castanae sp. nov. from the foothills of the Serranía de San Lucas, municipality of Norosí, Department of Bolívar, Colombia. The new species differs from all species in the genus by the combination of the following characters: moderate size, subcaudal scale pattern type B (1’1’1’’), typically two rows of lateral scales on the digits, and aspects of color pattern in males (dorsum, flanks, limbs and tail with white ocelli on a black background) and females (dorsum, flanks, limbs and tail with brown to black reticulations and withe spots on a greenish-yellow background). The validity of the new species is also supported by molecular analyses. This species inhabits relicts of riverine forests at about 150 m above sea level (a.s.l.). Gonatodes castanae increases the number of known species in this genus to 34 and the species registered for Colombia to eight.

Relating pollen representation to an evolving Amazonian landscape between the last glacial maximum and Late Holocene

In contrast to temperate regions, relationships between basin characteristics (e.g., type/size) and fossil pollen archives have received little attention in Amazonia. Here, we compare fossil pollen records of a small palm swamp (Cuatro Vientos; CV) and a nearby large lake (Laguna Chaplin, LCH) in Bolivian Amazonia, demonstrating that palm swamps can yield Quaternary pollen archives recording the history of terrestrial vegetation beyond the basin margin, rather than merely a history of localized swamp vegetation dynamics. The pollen assemblages from these two contrasting basins display remarkable agreement throughout their late Quaternary history, indicating past drier climates supported savanna landscape during the last glacial maximum (LGM; 24,000–18,000 cal yr BP) and savanna/semideciduous forest mosaic during the middle Holocene (7000-4750 cal yr BP) at both regional (inferred from LCH) and local (inferred from CV) spatial scales. Additionally, the local-scale catchment of CV and the basin's proximity to the riverine forests of the Río Paraguá enables exploration of the extent of gallery/riverine forests during the LGM and middle Holocene. We show that, between 24,000–4000 cal yr BP, riverine/gallery rainforests were substantially reduced compared with present, challenging the hypothesis that gallery rainforests were important refugia for rainforest species during the drier LGM and middle Holocene.

An annotated checklist of myxomycetes from the Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean

The checklist provided herein contains 143 species and infra-specific taxa of myxomycetes representing six orders, 12 families and 29 genera known from the Seychelles Islands. These records are the result of 878 field collections and 468 samples processed with the use of the moist chamber techinque. The overall study involved expeditions to the granitic group of islands Mahé, Praslin, La Digue, Curieuse, Félicité, and data from the literature for the coral Aldabra atoll. The taxonomic structure of the myxomycete biota for the islands studied indicates a predominance of members of the order Physarales (74 taxa). Th e main genera are <em>Physarum</em> (38 species and two varieties), <em>Didymium</em> (17 species), <em>Cribraria</em> (11 species), <em>Arcyria</em> (eight species) and <em>Stemonitis</em> (six species and two varieties). For all six islands only a single species of myxomycete (<em>Physarum crateriforme</em>) was shared in common. For the total assemblage of species recorded from all of the islands, 4% species were abundant, 12% species were common, 29% were found occasionally, 42% were rare, and 13% species had only a single record. The most abundant species were <em>Arcyria cinerea</em>, <em>A. denudata</em>, <em>Diderma effusum</em>, <em>Hemitrichia calyculata</em>, <em>Physarum compressum</em>, and <em>P. melleum</em>. Based on data from 50 different localities with 90 collecting plots, 32% of all specimens were associated with coastal vegetation, 30% with lowland localities, 19% with intermediate forests, 9% with riverine forests, 8% with mountain forests, and only 2% with mangrove swamps. In general, this annotated checklist clearly shows that isolated tropical islands can support a diverse assemblage of myxomycetes.

Conflict, Alliance, Mobility, and Place in the Evolution of Identity in Portuguese Amazonia

This chapter reveals how the vast waterways of equatorial South America facilitated exploration and inter-ethnic contact that led to conflict as well as cooperation and migration. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Portuguese explorers, slave traders, and missionaries moved progressively upriver, descending natives to missions and settlements. Some Indian and African runaways subsequently escaped to riverine forests to evade exploitation. This chapter presents new evidence showing that runaways to remote tributaries would become the supposedly uncontacted “tribes” of twentieth-century ethnographers. Against the backdrop of the eighteenth-century demarcation of Spanish and Portuguese imperial boundaries, the occupation of geographic and ecological zones defined social and cultural identities.