Foraging habitats and diets of pollinating bat species in southern Thailand

We examined the foraging habitat preferences and diets of Old World nectarivorous bat species to assess how these important pollinators are responding to southern Thailand's changing landscape. From mist net captures at bat-pollinated plants, we compared nectar bat foraging activity in natural versus agricultural habitats. Additionally, pollen samples were collected from the fur of each netted individual to compare the diets of different species. Overall, nectar bat foraging activity in natural and agricultural habitats was not significantly different (P > 0.05, permutation t-test). However, analysis at a finer scale revealed that some bat species do exhibit significant preferences for certain habitats (P < 0.05, permutation ANOVA). Furthermore, bat species differed significantly in the amounts of each pollen species that they carried (P < 0.05, permutation ANOVA). Our results reveal that nectar bats are foraging in both natural and agricultural habitats, and are pollinating both native and cultivated plants. However, nectarivorous bat species exhibit distinct preferences for both habitat type and flower species, indicating that these pollinators have complementary roles in ecosystem functioning. The mixed agricultural farms used in southern Thailand appear to be suitable foraging habitat for nectar bats, and may serve as corridors connecting separate forest fragments and promoting the genetic diversity of bat-pollinated plants.

If we can recover marine fisheries and prevent future declines, we estimate wild fish can contribute at least 20% more to the global food supply. Much of this goal can be accomplished by focusing conservation efforts on the 30 countries with the largest marine fish catches, as a proxy for potential marine food production. These top 30 countries are divided nearly equally among emerging and developed nations. In this study we compared the potential to recover fisheries to feed people in 16 emerging economies, using 22 indicators of conservation, livelihoods, governance and markets. Our goal was to identify easily measurable indicators of the necessary pre-conditions to advance policy change which ensures the long-term sustainability of marine ecosystems and food fish production.

Understanding of the climate system and its representation within climate models has progressed such that many climate model outputs can now be used effectively to project the impact of climate on Living Marine Resources (LMRs). Limitations of present physical climate projections include coarse resolution, model biases, and inter-model spread. Manifestations of these issues can be particularly significant at regional scales and in coastal areas. Bias-corrections, ensemble approaches, and downscaling techniques provide ways forward, but the assumptions underlying these approaches must be carefully assessed for each application. Priority climate model developments include improved model resolution and accuracy, inter-annual to decadal scale predictions, and continued development of Earth System Models capable of simulating both the physical climate system and the biosphere. For LMRs, improved understanding of the multi-scale mechanisms that link LMRs and climate is needed to develop holistic models grounded in robust physiological and ecological principles that will hold in a changing climate. Achieving these objectives requires an extensive observational baseline with both detailed process studies to elucidate climate-LMR links, and long time series for detecting climate impacts and validating models. Efforts toward priority developments should occur in parallel and be informed by the continued application of existing tools and knowledge.

The challenge of integrating ecological information and stakeholder interests into large scale planning is increasingly addressed through collaborative efforts complemented by use of decision support tools and geographic information systems. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to addressing stakeholder values, scientific data and cultural resource information in a trans-boundary conservation effort at the landscape scale. The Greater Grand Canyon Landscape Assessment is a Grand Canyon National Park-led effort to assess the condition of select natural and cultural resources and prioritize areas for management across 2 million hectares spanning beyond the park's borders to adjacent lands. Our work involves a) developing spatial data layers, models and tools for decision support, b) convening a series of workshops with diverse stakeholders to explore options and scenarios for prioritization and c) developing an evaluative process to test hypotheses about the qualities necessary for stakeholders to effectively participate in deliberation and spatial analysis. This study illustrates the opportunity to move beyond general metrics of collaborative process evaluation to assess the quality of stakeholder interaction with the data that is often at the core of science-based planning processes. Greater understanding of the influences of science on the deliberative process will help to empower stakeholders and improve outcomes of collaborative planning and conservation.

A crucial consideration for detecting aquatic species using eDNA is the potential for degradation of DNA caused by environmental factors. DNA breaks down in water due to hydrolysis and is also affected by environmental conditions such as water temperature, UV light, and pH. Factors influencing eDNA degradation have obvious implications for species detection, but the degree to which environmental factors influence degradation rates is unknown. To address uncertainty about the effects of these factors on the persistence of eDNA in aquatic systems, we conducted an experiment to quantify degradation rates of DNA in water through time. We held bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) tadpoles in 3 L aquaria for 10 days at a density of 2 tadpoles per aquarium. Following removal of the tadpoles, we placed the aquaria in plant growth chambers with controlled temperature and UVB light conditions, manipulated pH, and inoculated each aquarium with representative freshwater bacteria. We used a full factorial experimental design with 3 levels each of UVB, pH, and temperature, and collected 250 mL water samples at 4 time steps. Levels of each environmental factor were selected to represent conditions at our concurrent eDNA sampling sites in Washington, Arizona, and Florida. The microcosm experiment allows us to quantify eDNA degradation rates in controlled conditions and use those rates to make generalized conclusions about the expected effects of temperature, UV, and pH in different systems.

Federal efforts no longer represent a significant source of new land set aside for conservation. Today, private conservation easements and small, state-level acquisitions are the only new lands added to the conservation land base. Using state conservation databases from MA, we compared rates of modern private and public conservation since the 1960s. We used Classification and Regression Trees (CARTs) to examine the spatial relationship between forest conservation; development, US census derived measures of population density and wealth; and biophysical factors such as proximity to water and topography. Public efforts continue to conserve larger total and average areas of land, even though private interests began to outpace the government in total number of conserved parcels in the 1980s. CARTs (p$32879/yr), but "low" house value (

Recent initiatives, such as, the Digital Observatory of Protected Areas and the Map of Life are joining datasets on biodiversity, land cover and land use to deliver targeted information for the conservation community. By joining rich datasets, these initiates are creating sophisticated information systems (IS) to guide decision making. Biodiversity datasets (BD) are, however, often biased and incomplete. This shortcoming hampers their usefulness and cannot be easily resolved as we still lack tools to quantify the completeness of BD. Here, we propose a method to assess completeness of datasets on flowering plants. We use an asymptotic regression to model the relationship between the number of records and number of genus observed in 0.25 degree grid cells, thereby identifying data-deficient cells. Moreover we estimate the overlap between data-deficient cells and points of occurrence of data-deficient (DD) species, according to the IUCN. We apply our method to 1,527,584 records of plants collected in Africa. Around 80% of the cells can be classified as data-deficient and 60% of points of occurrence of DD species fall into data-deficient areas. This finding suggests that our knowledge on flowering plants is severely limited over vast areas of Africa. Integrating estimates of completeness of BD into IS could allow scientists and decision makers to be aware of knowledge shortfalls, offering them an opportunity to factor this into policy initiatives and conservation interventions.

Peru's southeastern Andes-Amazon region is home to rich biological and cultural diversity and is an emerging frontier for development threats. Developing habitat corridors is considered one of the few effective methods for responding to the risk of large-scale land conversion yet relatively few examples exist in implementation. The presentation will describe Amazon Conservation Association's strategy of creating landscape-level corridors as a means to maintain landscape connectivity while allowing for human use. ACA designed 3 interlinking corridors in southeastern Peru based on a land-use mosaic, which includes an array of rights-holders and land tenures in addition to conservation areas. Supported by both science and community engagement, each corridor design considers social and political dynamics as well as ecosystem processes. Anchored by large protected areas, these conservation corridors consist of a patchwork of land uses, which permit economic development while allowing for gene flow and species migration. Implementation of the corridors has included sustainable livelihoods activities such as agroforestry, agriculture, aquaculture and ecotourism, along with creation of several types of protected areas, reforestation, capacity building and strengthening governance, communications, and support for development of conservation finance mechanisms. The presentation will discuss the current state of these initiatives as well as obstacles to success and lessons learned.

Critiques of the Endangered Species Act have focused on the fact that only one percent of listed species have recovered and been delisted. But given that 77 percent of species have been listed for 30 years or less, while the average time-to-recovery specified in federal recovery plans is 46 years, this is an inappropriate measure of effectiveness. We reviewed official recovery plan goals and timelines for several hundred species, obtained their history of listing, downlisting and delisting, and quantified their population trend from year-of-listing to the present in order to judge the Act’s effectiveness according to its stated goals: 1) preventing extinction, 2) moving species toward recovery, and 3) achieving recovery within a specified time. We found that the Endangered Species is working well to avert extinction, place species on a recovering trend, and attain recovery in a timely fashion.

Forestry dominates land use in the US Gulf South. While timber products are essential to the region's economy, these lands are often alternatively managed to enhance wildlife habitat. They also provide forage for managed honey bee colonies between pollination contracts. With traditional forage lands becoming scarce and pollinators declining worldwide, maintaining sufficient habitat for wild and managed bees alike is imperative for successful conservation and agriculture. Despite a clear need, virtually nothing is known about the activities of pollinators on southern timberlands, and research on competition between wild and managed bees has proven contradictory. To examine this potential competition, flower visitors to titi (Cyrilla racemiflora) on timberlands were recorded over two years at sites with managed honey bee hives, sites without hives, and control sites. To examine pollination services among treatments and degree of pollinator dependence, eight plant species important as wildlife food resources were studied using a pollinator exclusion protocol. Flower visitation data suggest minimal bee competition, while control sites differed significantly from both treatments. Plant species showed pollinator dependence across sites, but small sample sizes may be an issue with the observed insignificant differences in fruit set. This ongoing project reveals important aspects of bee interactions and habitat use, and future analysis will benefit from forthcoming seasons of data.

Policies for conserving the tiger and the elephant present contrasting approaches to saving not just these charismatic megavertebrates but the overall biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes in India. Conservation of the tiger, exemplified by "Project Tiger" launched in 1973, has focused on individual protected areas, ensuring strict protection and eliminating all human use of as large "inviolate" areas as possible; this is generally regarded as an exclusionary model of wildlife conservation. Conservation of the elephant, as outlined by "Project Elephant" in 1992, has advocated a landscape approach to management of the species, acknowledged the inevitable presence of people and agriculture, and emphasized the need to mitigate animal-human conflicts; this approach is thought to be a more inclusive model of conservation. Implementation of both these flagship conservation projects has, however, faced challenges and aberrations resulting in serious conflicts between people, parks, tourism and authority. In this talk I contrast these two approaches to wildlife conservation in India, review current legislation for habitat protection and indigenous peoples' rights, and argue for a convergence of conservation thinking and policy. This should take into consideration a metapopulation dynamics framework for larger mammals at the scale of landscapes and, at the same time, ensure social justice for local people who may be adversely impacted by conservation policy and implementation.

The Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) is tasked with coordinating the recovery of Puget Sound, a complex ecoregion in Washington State under intense development pressure. To track progress of recovery efforts, a set of high-level ecological and human health indicators was developed. Since then, the indicators have received external review by the WA State Academy of Sciences, decision-makers, and other stakeholders. In response to this input, PSP evaluated an expanded set of indicators to reflect a more comprehensive and cohesive assessment of key attributes and components of ecosystem conditions. To aid in the assessment, an overarching ecosystem framework describing key attributes and relationships among biophysical components of the ecosystem was created, along with more focused, topical conceptual models describing links between key drivers, pressures, and specific ecosystem components and attributes. The framework and models integrated existing findings from recent social science research supported by PSP. The process of creating the models involved stakeholder input from federal, state, and local jurisdictions, as well as tribes, academia, and non-profits. The indicators developed via this process will be used collaboratively and adaptively to track the overall health and of recovery of Puget Sound.

Connection to nature is a central component of human health and well being, and as urbanization continues to increase in scale and intensity around the world there is mounting concern that people are becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Despite this, almost nothing is known about how we should design our cities to maintain people's access to nature. Here, for the first time, we quantify the impact of future urban growth on people's access to nature using spatially explicit, statistical models to predict local extinctions of bird species around people's homes in the city of Brisbane, Australia. We discovered that changes in people's access to nature depend on the form of urban growth. Under a sprawling form of urban growth, with lower residential densities and fewer interstitial green spaces, we predict severe declines in bird species richness around the home. Additionally, there is a significant, positive correlation between these declines and socioeconomic status; less affluent areas of the city experience the greatest declines in bird species richness around homes. Our results suggest that cities built to minimize further isolation from nature are characterized by high residential density and large interstitial green spaces. However, without careful planning, increased residential density may diminish the size and quality of backyards which may limit people's opportunities to interact and connect with nature, negatively affecting health and well being.

In many instances around the world, knowledge of marine systems is limited and the cost of acquiring new data is high. Therefore, we need to know whether more readily available data is sufficient to design comprehensive and representative reserve systems. Here, we designed sixteen reserve systems based on the intersection of four kinds of domains (environmental domains; weighted environmental domains; pre-defined bioregions of the Great Barrier Reef; random) and four combinations of two constraints (cost to commercial fisheries, and clumping of reserves). To measure the efficacy of each reserve system, we evaluate how well 842 species collected at 1155 sites from the Great Barrier Reef seabed were represented. We found that 10-22% of species had less than 10% of their biomass conserved under any of the reserve combinations, and that the number of species reaching a 30% conservation target was similar to random. We conclude that the large number of species that fall well short of the conservation target is unacceptable for a representative reserve system. Random reserve design is equally as effective as any of the combinations tested here. In this shallow water tropical marine ecosystem, seabed biota is not adequately conserved using environmental domains, and biological data is needed to inform the design process. Our study highlights that caution should be taken when designing reserves without biological data.

An endangered species, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are in global decline. Encompassing a third of all Asian elephants is the captive elephant population, with approximately 16,000 individuals. Within the Lao PDR only an estimated 600 wild and 480 captive elephants remain. Captive Lao elephants play an important role in the conservation of both elephant populations yet until now no robust conservation management has been applied to the Lao captive elephant population. Our objective is to determine population viability for Lao captive elephants and create conservation management strategies suitable for the local Lao context. We assessed demographic data from >80% of the captive Lao elephant population and applied VORTEX software to create seven conservation management scenarios. Results indicate that without improved management the current population is likely to be extinct in 107 years (r = -0.099). Population supplementation, increased reproductive rates and reduced mortality rates will give captive Lao elephants an additional 140 years of longevity. However to ensure long term persistence it is essential that management focuses also on in situ breeding programs and a cessation in calf exportation. With captive populations declining in other range nations and captive elephant management providing conservation benefits to wild populations, there is a case for managing all Asian elephants as a single management unit.