Demographic trends and Streptococcus outbreaks in a synanthropic population of macaques (Macaca fascicularis), Bali (Indonesia)

The sympatric relationship between humans and primates is a contemporary widespread phenomenon. Several primate species are capable for exploiting human-modified habitats in association with people, but the most successful species in South-east Asia is probably the long-tailed macaque (M. fascicularis). The low predation pressures in zones of interface and the inclusion of human food in macaques' diet can lead to local overpopulations. On the other hand, the risk of epidemic disease is simultaneously increased by the high primate density and the proximity with human vectors. Data presented here represent 25 years-population dynamics of a long term commensal-living population of macaques in Ubud Monkey Forest (Indonesia). This population experienced a dramatic growth with an 11% annual increase rate. In June 2012, we counted 615 individuals divided in 5 groups with a very high density of 61 macaques per hectare. However, two Streptococcus outbreaks have also been reported over the same 25 years period, temporarily limiting the steep positive demographic trend of this population. The last epidemic event in July 2012 resulted in a 14% mortality affecting 3 out of 5 groups of the population. Besides the anthropic factors promoting population growth, epidemic diseases play a significant role in shaping the dynamics of this synanthropic population and could have important implications in the future both in terms of local management and local conservation status.

Planning for regional wildlife conservation in an area of intensive industrial development requires a strategic understanding of ecological and socioeconomic trade-offs associated with alternative land use options and effective methods for engaging the public in large-scale land use decisions. A stock and flow, spatially stratified model (ALCES) was used to conduct a scenario analysis of cumulative effects for a 693,345 km2 region in the Boreal and Taiga Plains ecozones of western Canada. This area contains the world's second largest oil deposit, nationally significant conventional and shale gas deposits, and an annual allowable timber harvest of over 26 million m3. The project assessed the long-term (50 year) implications of a range of land use scenarios to ecological and socioeconomic indicators. Scenarios assessed the influence of development rate and conservation strategies on indicators such as total anthropogenic footprint, moose habitat suitability, fisher habitat suitability, native fish population integrity, employment by resource sector, and gross domestic product. Results indicate both positive and negative impacts on wildlife from habitat alteration and loss, pollution, and human population increase and demonstrate the types of trade-offs that would be required to achieve wildlife conservation in the region. An online education tool is being developed to translate model results into a mechanism for engaging students and the public in conservation planning.

Tidal and sub-tidal habitats in Chesapeake Bay provide numerous benefits to people and nature, including fisheries production, water quality improvement, and shoreline protection. Yet, collective efforts that maximize the benefits from restoration of critical habitats are lacking. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the states of Maryland and Virginia and other federal agencies, are undertaking an effort to identify the most important habitats for protection and restoration in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. We are focusing on distinct habitat types - including benthic habitats, tidal wetlands, shorelines, and oyster reefs - and are using existing and novel GIS analyses, statistical analysis, and expert input to develop a common spatial framework and clear prioritization of protection and restoration projects throughout the Bay. This integration will help identify areas of overlap, allowing multiple restoration and conservation efforts to be consolidated, and provide larger ecological benefits for the same investment. In addition, it will identify areas of the Bay where permit reviews may be more or less complex due to due to the distribution of Essential Fish Habitat.

There is an urgent need to improve evaluation of the outcomes of conservation interventions. Evaluation requires both an objective and an ecological baseline to be specified. 'Biodiversity offsets' are increasingly widespread interventions that have a clear objective: 'no net loss' of biodiversity (NNL). We use offsets to analyze the effects of baseline choice on whether interventions meet stated objectives. We develop two complementary models. Our theoretical model evaluates the outcomes of idealized interventions under different ambient biodiversity trends. An empirical model of native grassland offsets in Australia translates these outcomes into a real-world scenario. Achieving NNL depends simultaneously upon baseline choice and biodiversity trends. Against a fixed baseline (biodiversity at some point in time), offsets are unlikely to achieve NNL for deteriorating ecosystems, but might for stable/improving ecosystems. But against relative baselines (that account for underlying trends), NNL is only plausibly achievable for deteriorating ecosystems. By extension, baseline choice determines conservation effort required. Uncertainty around compliance is a stronger determinant of success than uncertainty in underlying biodiversity trend. Finally, offsets can result in NNL for projects but not at landscape scale. Our results underline the importance of specifying clear conservation objectives (such as NNL) and ecological baselines, providing new insight on baseline choice.

Wildfires and altered fire regimes continue to threaten global biodiversity. This has stimulated much research into the ecological impacts of fire and effective means of burning to maintain biodiversity focused on the broadly accepted paradigm that 'pyrodiversity begets biodiversity'. Much work has been carried out at the alpha diversity level in relation to the fire event. Uncertainty, however, remains regarding the relationship between beta diversity and the fire regime mosaic. Controlled burning for biodiversity conservation thus remains a controversial topic. We assessed the alpha and beta diversity of woody plants and birds in the sub-tropical woodlands of Australia. A systematic, nested hierarchical approach to sampling has been adopted in 28 study landscapes, selected to represent gradients in fire history. Preliminary results suggest a significant relationship between species richness of birds and the fire history at the site or alpha diversity level. Species richness at the landscape or beta diversity level was not significantly influenced by fire-mediated heterogeneity. Increasing habitat heterogeneity was associated with landscape level species richness of birds. Further analysis will allow insight into the relationship between fire-mediated heterogeneity and bird community composition. These findings will provide an understanding of the operational minimum level of spatial diversity, at appropriate spatial resolution for effective ecological fire management.

The biological and evolutionary significance of serpentine habitats has long been recognized in the ecological community due to the unique endemic flora in these areas of high local biodiversity. In this natural experiment we investigate the coevolution of requisite biotic (vegetation dynamics) and abiotic (bedrock and soil properties) variables that occur over an environmental gradient in the Mid-Atlantic, USA where multifaceted drivers and mesophication are accompanying afforestation on native serpentinite grasslands endangering local biodiversity and endemic species. Woodland vegetation history was inferred by depth profiling of shallow forest soils using stable carbon isotopes. Changing soil δ13C isotopic signatures in the forests and grassland/woodland ecotone record a history of afforestation. We use an integrated physiochemical dataset combining plot spatial data with temporal data from dendroecological tree cores to evaluate vegetation dynamics. Comparisons between geologic, pedologic and vegetation properties indicate broad correlations across the encroachment gradient. Data suggest that many former C4 dominated grassland areas that were first invaded by Coniferous species are now experiencing an increased dominance by Acer, Nyssa, and more mesic Quercus and Fagus tee species. This ecosystem, which took centuries to millennia to evolve, appears to be fading from ecological memory in a manner of a few decades.

The San Francisco Bay estuary provides critical habitat for over one million waterbirds annually. Although the landscape has been altered for well over a century by increasing levels of urbanization, and by the historic establishment of evaporator ponds for salt production, it remains heavily used by waterbirds. The area also hosts the west coast's largest tidal wetlands restoration project; the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is implementing a plan to convert thousands of acres of salt ponds into tidal and managed wetland habitat. While the restoration to tidal marsh will increase habitat for many species, it also will reduce the overall habitat available for waterbirds. Through adaptive management, the Project is committed to maintaining historic levels of waterbirds in this landscape. To inform these efforts, the USFWS, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, USGS and UC Davis have partnered to assess changes in bird population levels and community composition for nine waterbird guilds. Data collected during the early 1980s were compared with current data to identify significant changes that have occurred over 30 years. We identified significant increases in populations for some guilds, such as gulls, and declines at all or some locations for other guilds such as divers, terns and grebes. We provide recommendations for the Project's development and for future adaptive management to ensure abundant and diverse waterbird communities.

Reconciling the global goals of food security and climate stability requires shifting agricultural expansion away from forests and other high-carbon landscapes and toward lower-carbon landscapes. In May 2011, Indonesia instituted a two-year nationwide moratorium on new oil palm and timber concessions in primary forests and peat lands to address its deforestation, which contributes 3.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Using new high-resolution data on annual deforestation across Indonesia from 2000-2010, we provide the first estimates of the causal impacts of agricultural concessions on deforestation. We estimate that on average the designation of an oil palm (timber) concession increased average annual site-level deforestation by 60% (110%) relative to a counterfactual scenario in which a concession had not been designated at that site. If Indonesia's moratorium had been in place from 2000-2010 then emissions from deforestation would have been 578 MtCO2e (8.3%) lower over that period. A reduction of equivalent magnitude could have been achieved using a nationwide carbon-pricing instrument at $2.05/tCO2e in a mandatory program or $9.40/tCO2e in a voluntary program. If Indonesia's national target of 26-41% emission reductions is to be achieved, the current scope of the moratorium must be expanded to include clearing in existing concessions or outside of concessions, or carbon-pricing instruments must be implemented.

In a project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Nature Conservancy is evaluating the use of land facets to inform our traditional biodiversity based conservation priorities over 4 ecoregions (66.7M ha.) in the Northwest. We initiated this work asking: Which geophysical factors and what categorical breaks within factors best describe the distribution of ecological systems in the Pacific Northwest? Does the category selection influence how well existing biodiversity-based portfolios capture the diversity of land facets? Starting with the land facet classifications created by Schloss et al. we evaluated 9 geology vs. 9 soil categories; 3 vs. 4 slope breaks vs. a 5 category combination of slope and aspect; and 10 300m vs. 5 600m elevation breaks. Soil outperformed geology. The 3 slope and 2 elevation combinations performed equally well. A consideration when creating land facets using different classes is the number of potential facets. 3 slope breaks x 5 600m elevation breaks x 9 soil categories creates 135 possible land facets. 5 slope/aspect breaks x 10 300m elevation breaks x 9 soil categories defines 450 land facets. To evaluate whether the choice of slope and elevation breaks influences the ability of a biodiversity based portfolio to capture land facet diversity we created land facet maps using multiple combinations of slope, elevation and soil and looked at how well land facets are captured within the Conservancy’s biodiversity based ecoregion portfolios.

First sighting of endangered bird species Sokoke pipit was made in Msubugwe forest. The species was encountered during a survey to establish the bird list. One individual bird was sighted by eye with other three recorded through their calls. The forest where the species was recorded is one of few remaining evergreen coastal forests in eastern Tanzania. This forest as for other coastal forests in Tanzania is facing severe anthropogenic deleterious factors including tree cutting. This kind of exploitation has previously destroyed Vikindu that was one among evergreen coastal forests in the same region and was also known to host good population of Sokoke pipit. The species is now locally extinct in Vikindu area following disappearance of its habitats. The same 'missile' that lead Sokoke pipit to local extinction in Vikindu forest is now aiming at Msubugwe. Following habitat destruction in Msubugwe, patches that once held vibrant stands of native trees are currently being encroached by grasses and inhospitable woody habitats. These new emerging habitats are unwelcome to the Sokoke pipit and thus are placing the species at high risk of local extinction in the Msubugwe. As more than seventy percent of Msubugwe forest has been destroyed, protection measures are therefore needed to stop habitat destruction if the forest and the bird species are to persist. We recommend stringent control measures to stop tree cutting in the forest for conservation of the bird species and its habitat.

Understanding the factors governing animal movement has long been a fundamental problem in ecology and conservation biology, and technological advances make it possible to explore this problem in ever more detail. Relocation data often consist of a complex mixture of different movement behaviors, and decomposing this mix into its component parts is a key challenge in movement ecology. Composite random walk models have been the main tools employed in analyses of multiple movement behaviors or "modes". They can, however, be difficult to fit to data, are often parameter rich, and they require that the timescale(s) governing the movement process is (are) reasonably close to the data sampling rate. Here, we show how the semi-variance function (SVF) of a stochastic movement process offers both an alternative approach to identifying multiple movement modes, and a solution the sampling rate problem. We describe how a family of continuous-space, continuous-time stochastic movement models, representing a wide range of behaviors, can be expressed in terms of their SVFs. We then connect these SVFs to relocation data via variogram regression and compare them using standard model selection techniques. We illustrate our approach using Mongolian gazelle relocation data, and show that gazelle movement is characterized by a slow, ballistic foraging mode with a 10 hour timescale, a fast, diffusive patch search mode with a 2 month timescale, and an asymptotic diffusion mode on longer timescales.

Uncertainty in the definition and identification of critical habitats has been a source of controversy in the US and Canada. To address this issue, scientists have recommended that critical habitat be defined as the subset of habitat required for long-term viability or recovery of the species, with population viability as the criterion for identifying critical habitats. However, the extent to which these recommendations are followed in practice has not been evaluated. In this study, I address this knowledge gap by reviewing US Federal Register documents on critical habitat designation as well as Canadian Recovery Strategies or Action Plans, and using content analysis to identify the approaches used to identify critical habitats and the factors that influence their use. For the majority of the species in the study, critical habitats were identified based on locations known to be currently occupied. Where only a portion of known occupancy is identified as critical, selection of these habitats was often based on the disproportionate importance of sites for meeting species needs, or the consistent use or presence of the species. Findings from this review reveal that scientific recommendations for identifying critical habitats are not well implemented, likely due to the limited availability of data. In light of this, evaluating the effectiveness of alternative approaches will be useful in informing the debate on the validity of existing and proposed critical habitat designations.

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) system on the east coast of central Florida, one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in North America, is being impacted by growing urbanization and human behaviors. In particular, recreational motorized boating activity is threatening the habitat and its biodiversity. Keystone species (oysters, seagrasses, marsh grasses, and mangroves) in the area have been negatively impacted by boat propeller scars, boat strikes, eroded shorelines, and boat wake induced dead oyster reefs. Through collaboration with social scientists, we hope that a community-based social marketing (CBSM) program with innovative approaches to increase voluntary Ecologically Responsible Recreational Boating (ERRB) will help protect these habitats. Eco-sensitive zones in Mosquito Lagoon (northernmost IRL) warranting better protection have been identified using GIS and field reconnaissance, and will be used to create a smart phone navigational application to assist recreational boaters in identifying these zones. We are recording boating activity and shoreline erosion at highly impacted and ecologically-stable control sites before and after the CBSM program. We will analyze any changes in boater activity, erosion, reef death, or prop scarring following the CBSM program to determine its effectiveness in protecting the estuary from negative human impacts.