Native Cerrado vegetation is a haven for birds on the current trajectory of climate change

Resumo A mudanca climatica ja e vista como uma das maiores ameacas a biodiversidade no seculo XXI. Poucos estudos direcionam a atencAo para seus efeitos em comunidades inteiras de hotspots ameacados. Neste trabalho, combinamos a modelagem de nicho climatico (ENM) com um futuro cenario climatico de emissoes de gases de efeito estufa para estudar as futuras mudancas na diversidade alfa e beta das aves do bioma Cerrado brasileiro, um hotspot da biodiversidade com alta velocidade de mudanca climatica e expansAo agricola. Esperavamos que o sul do Cerrado (altamente modificado) apresentasse a maioria das mudancas negativas. Em geral, encontramos resultados heterogeneos para mudancas na riqueza de especies, na diversidade beta taxonomica e funcional espacial e temporal, e na diferenciacAo ecologica media. Analisamos 1301 aves, 1115 Menos Preocupantes, 83 Quase Ameacadas, 63 Vulneraveis, 33 Em Perigo, cinco Criticamente em Perigo e duas Extintas na natureza. Ao contrario de um estudo anterior sobre mamiferos do Cerrado, espera-se que a riqueza de especies aumente no norte do Cerrado, onde a homogeneizacAo das comunidades (diminuicAo da rotatividade espacial) tambem deve ocorrer especialmente atraves de invasoes locais. Mostramos que a homogeneizacAo biotica crescente (similaridade entre as comunidades) ocorrera em dois grupos biologicos, mas atraves de subprocessos diferentes: extincoes locais para mamiferos e invasoes locais para aves. Acoes distintas de manejo da conservacAo devem ser direcionadas dependendo dos resultados das analises de diversidade alfa e beta espacial e temporal, por exemplo, controlando invasoes de especies no norte do Cerrado. Tambem mostramos prioridades em nivel de especies para as aves do Cerrado. Os estudos de conservacAo devem continuar estudando o Cerrado no Brasil mesmo durante a pandemia de covid, pois a situacAo ambiental no pais nAo e boa e os incentivos para estudos cientificos sAo quase inexistentes. Tambem consideramos que o norte do Cerrado poderia ser visto como um refugio potencial para outros grupos de organismos (morcegos, borboletas, sapos etc.). Portanto, e crucial que os tomadores de decisAo tomem medidas ambiciosas de conservacAo.

Peri-urban home gardens in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico are fundamental spaces of resistance

Objective: To determine the effects of neoliberal policies (including the Green Revolution), the urban sprawl (as a consequence of population growth), and the reduction of agricultural areas on peri-urban agriculture;however, the main focus is the forms of resistance against these pressures from the dominant system. Design/Methodology/Approach: Through participant observation, surveys, collection, and botanization we identified plant species, their diversity, uses, and richness. Home gardens in San Felipe Ecatepec, Chiapas, Mexico are a system, which consists of subsystems, functions, composition, and management, as well as a high number of species, high to moderate richness, and a surface that oscillates between 600 m2 and 2500 m2. Growing products next to the house provides healthy and fresh food, creates a useful and productive space, and preserves agrobiodiversity. It is an agroecosystem where each family and sitio or home garden interact with other families and other home gardens, integrating local knowledge and offering a space for families to live together. They can be considered spaces of resistance based on traditional knowledge, which also help to control their resources and to bolster individual and collective food sovereignty. Results: Home gardens in San Felipe Ecatepec, Chiapas, Mexico are a system, which consists of subsystems, functions, composition, and management, as well as a high number of species, high to moderate richness, and established on surfaces that oscillates between 600 m2 and 2,500 m2. Study Limitations/Implications: The research was carried out during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed an extra challenge to the field work. Findings/Conclusions: Growing products next to the house provides healthy and fresh food, creates a useful and productive space, and preserves agrobiodiversity. It is an agroecosystem where each family and sitio or home garden interact with other families and other home gardens, integrating local knowledge and offering a space for families to live together. They can be considered spaces of resistance based on traditional knowledge, which also help families to control their resources and to bolster individual and collective food sovereignty.

Marine Resource Recovery Following the COVID-19 Event in Southern Thailand

This study investigated coral and reef fish recovery following the COVID-19 event between low and high environmental disturbance reefs at Racha Yai Island, Southern Thailand. Three and four 50-m permanent line transects were set at low and high environmental reefs to collect the percent of live coral cover, fish diversity and abundance, and fish trophic-functional groups based on diet and habitat use. Our results showed a significant rise in the percentage of live coral cover, the number of individual fish, the number of fish species, and species richness at both bays following the COVID-19 lockdown due to a crucial reduction in human activities on the reef. In addition, there were increases in the number of corallivore fishes belonging to Chaetodontidae and Pomacentridae families and a reduction of omnivorous fish at the fish-feeding tourist attraction reefs due during the COVID-19 lockdown due to reducing fish-feeding tourism. This indicated that restricted human activities and reduced anthropogenic stress on a coral reef may have substantial short-term impacts on reef fish diversity. Our insights could help designate guidelines to manage tourist impacts on coral reefs and aid in their prolonged persistence. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee C.E.J, Tehran, Iran.

Informing the design of urban green and blue spaces through an understanding of Europeans' usage and preferences

In light of global climate change and the biodiversity crisis, making cities more resilient through an adjusted design of urban green and blue spaces is crucial. Nature-based solutions help address these challenges while providing opportunities for nature experiences, and providing cultural ecosystem services that support public health. The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated stressors highlighted the interrelated socio-ecological services provided by nature-based solutions like urban green and blue spaces. This pan-European study therefore aimed to enhance the socio-ecological understanding of green and blue spaces to support their design and management. Using an online survey, green and blue space preferences, usage, and pandemic-related changes in greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies were examined. Greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies were associated with respondents' (N = 584 from 15 countries) geographical location, dominant type of neighbourhood greenspace and greenspace availability during the pandemic, but not greenspace perceptions or sociodemographic background. Greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies were generally high;however, Southern Europeans reported lower greenspace visit and outdoor recreation frequencies both before and during the pandemic than Northern Europeans. Many Southern Europeans also reported having few neighbourhood greenspaces and low greenspace availability during the pandemic. The most common outdoor recreational activity among respondents before the pandemic was walking or running with the most frequently stated purpose of time spent outdoors being restorative in nature (i.e. relaxing or calming down). Most Europeans had positive perceptions of green and blue spaces with preferences for structurally diverse and natural or unmanaged green elements. This highlights the importance of accessible green and blue spaces both in everyday life and during times of crisis. Stakeholders, their preferences, and regional and cultural differences should be included in the co-design of urban green and blue spaces to maximize their potential for both people and nature. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Dispersal of bacteria and stimulation of permafrost decomposition by Collembola

Contrary to most soils, permafrost soils have the atypical feature of being almost entirely deprived of soil fauna. Abiotic constraints on the fate of permafrost carbon after thawing are increasingly understood, but biotic constraints remain scarcely investigated. Incubation studies, essential to estimate effects of permafrost thaw on carbon cycling, typically measure the consequences of permafrost thaw in isolation from the topsoil and thus do not account for the effects of altered biotic interactions because of e.g. colonization by soil fauna. Microarthropods facilitate the dispersal of microorganisms in soil, both on their cuticle (ectozoochory) and through their digestive tract (endozoochory), which may be particularly important in permafrost soils, considering that microbial community composition can strongly constrain permafrost biogeochemical processes.Here we tested how a model species of microarthropod (the CollembolaFolsomia candida) affected aerobic CO2 production of permafrost soil over a 25 d incubation. By using Collembola stock cultures grown on permafrost soil or on an arctic topsoil, we aimed to assess the potential for endo- and ectozoochory of soil bacteria, while cultures grown on gypsum and sprayed with soil suspensions would allow the observation of only ectozoochory.The presence of Collembola introduced bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) absent in the no-Collembola control, regardless of their microbiome manipulation, when considering presence–absence metrics (unweighted UniFrac metrics), which resulted in increased species richness. However, these introduced ASVs did not induce changes in bacterial community composition as a whole (accounting for relative abundances, weighted UniFrac), which might only become detectable in the longer term.CO2 production was increased by 25.85 % in the presence of Collembola, about half of which could be attributed to Collembola respiration based on respiration rates measured in the absence of soil. We argue that the rest of the CO2 being respired can be considered a priming effect of the presence of Collembola, i.e. a stimulation of permafrost CO2 production in the presence of active microarthropod decomposers. Overall, our findings underline the importance of biotic interactions in permafrost biogeochemical processes and the need to explore the additive or interactive effects of other soil food web groups of which permafrost soils are deprived.

Contribution of the herbarium of the national center of floristics of Cote d'Ivoire in the fight against the symptoms caused by the COVID-19 disease: a bibliographic synthesis

This study was undertaken to identify herbal remedies that may be involved in the symptomatic management of COVID-19 disease. From a list of 247 medicinal plants, a bibliographic study was carried out with the richness, the floristic composition, the methods of preparation and use and the active principles of the plants as a variable. The importance value of these plants was also calculated. A Principal Component Analysis showed the links between the parts of plants used, the methods of preparation, the symptoms of COVID-19 disease that can be treated and the active ingredients. The results show that 226 medicinal plants divided into 190 genera and 79 families can be used to treat the symptoms of COVID- 19 disease namely otolaryngologic signs, pulmonary signs and general signs. Of these, twenty-eight (28) can relieve the majority of symptoms of COVID-19 disease. These symptoms are rhinorrhea, cough, fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, and muscle aches. These plants are mainly prepared in the form of a decoction and administered mainly orally. They mainly contain flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids, tannins, steroids, terpenoids, saponosides, essential oils, mucilages, quinones, coumarins. The importance value of these plants is between 85.71 and 57.14%. The results also showed that eight (8) groups of medicinal plants can be distinguished according to the organs used, the methods of preparation, the symptoms of the COVID-19 disease treated and the active ingredients. The results of this study could serve as a database for the formulation of improved traditional drugs in the management of symptoms of COVID-19 disease in Cote d'Ivoire.

Medium and large-sized mammals from Isla Santay National of Recreation Area in western Ecuador

Future research should prioritize both the preservation of ecological processes and the understanding of the negative effects of human impacts on local biodiversity. Unfortunately, Western Ecuador has suffered several environmental problems over a prolonged period, such as deforestation, illegal hunting, and rapid change in land use (Dodson & Gentry 1991, Parker & Carr 1992), causing declines in mammalian species. [...]the loss of large herbivores affects seed dispersal and recruitment, the loss of carnivores decreases predatory activity and nutrient recycling, and the decline of other mammalian species impacts pollination (Rumiz 2010). [...]to aid in mammal management and conservation, it is important to document current species richness and evaluate potential threats (Cervera et al. 2016, Lizcano et al. 2016). [...]there are 21 protected areas that include coastal-marine landscapes, mangroves, the humid forest of Chocó, and Tumbesian dry forests (MAE 2015).

Diversity Monitoring of Coexisting Birds in Urban Forests by Integrating Spectrograms and Object-Based Image Analysis

In the context of rapid urbanization, urban foresters are actively seeking management monitoring programs that address the challenges of urban biodiversity loss. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has attracted attention because it allows for the collection of data passively, objectively, and continuously across large areas and for extended periods. However, it continues to be a difficult subject due to the massive amount of information that audio recordings contain. Most existing automated analysis methods have limitations in their application in urban areas, with unclear ecological relevance and efficacy. To better support urban forest biodiversity monitoring, we present a novel methodology for automatically extracting bird vocalizations from spectrograms of field audio recordings, integrating object-based classification. We applied this approach to acoustic data from an urban forest in Beijing and achieved an accuracy of 93.55% (±4.78%) in vocalization recognition while requiring less than ⅛ of the time needed for traditional inspection. The difference in efficiency would become more significant as the data size increases because object-based classification allows for batch processing of spectrograms. Using the extracted vocalizations, a series of acoustic and morphological features of bird-vocalization syllables (syllable feature metrics, SFMs) could be calculated to better quantify acoustic events and describe the soundscape. A significant correlation between the SFMs and biodiversity indices was found, with 57% of the variance in species richness, 41% in Shannon’s diversity index and 38% in Simpson’s diversity index being explained by SFMs. Therefore, our proposed method provides an effective complementary tool to existing automated methods for long-term urban forest biodiversity monitoring and conservation.