scholarly journals Rewilding the world's large carnivores

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 172235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wolf ◽  
William J. Ripple
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
World Region ◽  
Human Footprint ◽  
Carnivore Species ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa

Earth's terrestrial large carnivores form a highly endangered group of species with unique conservation challenges. The majority of these species have experienced major geographical range contractions, which puts many of them at high risk of extinction or of becoming ecologically ineffective. As a result of these range contractions and the associated loss of intact predator guilds, the ecological effects of these species are now far less widespread and common, with inevitable consequences for ecosystem function. Rewilding—which includes reintroducing species into portions of their former ranges—is an important carnivore conservation tool and means for restoring top-down ecological regulation. We conducted a global analysis of potential reintroduction areas. We first considered protected areas where one or more large carnivore species have been extirpated, identifying a total of 130 protected areas that may be most suitable for carnivore reintroduction. These protected areas include sites in every major world region, and are most commonly found in Mongolia ( n  = 13), Canada ( n  = 11), Thailand ( n  = 9), Namibia ( n  = 6), Indonesia ( n  = 6) and Australia ( n  = 6). We considered the sizes of protected areas, their levels of protection, the extent of human impacts within and around the protected areas, and the status of prey species in the protected areas. Finally, we used the ‘last of the wild’ approach to identify contiguous low human footprint regions within the former ranges of each species, identifying an additional 150 areas which could be the focus of conservation efforts to create conditions conducive to reintroductions. These low footprint regions were most commonly found in the USA ( n  = 14), Russia ( n  = 14), Canada ( n  = 10), China ( n  = 9) and Mauritania ( n  = 8). Together, our results show the global-scale potential for carnivore rewilding projects to both conserve these species and provide critical ecological and social benefits.

scholarly journals A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1780) ◽  
pp. 20133330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myla F. J. Aronson ◽  
Frank A. La Sorte ◽  
Charles H. Nilon ◽  
Madhusudan Katti ◽  
Mark A. Goddard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
The Status

Urbanization contributes to the loss of the world's biodiversity and the homogenization of its biota. However, comparative studies of urban biodiversity leading to robust generalities of the status and drivers of biodiversity in cities at the global scale are lacking. Here, we compiled the largest global dataset to date of two diverse taxa in cities: birds (54 cities) and plants (110 cities). We found that the majority of urban bird and plant species are native in the world's cities. Few plants and birds are cosmopolitan, the most common being Columba livia and Poa annua . The density of bird and plant species (the number of species per km 2 ) has declined substantially: only 8% of native bird and 25% of native plant species are currently present compared with estimates of non-urban density of species. The current density of species in cities and the loss in density of species was best explained by anthropogenic features (landcover, city age) rather than by non-anthropogenic factors (geography, climate, topography). As urbanization continues to expand, efforts directed towards the conservation of intact vegetation within urban landscapes could support higher concentrations of both bird and plant species. Despite declines in the density of species, cities still retain endemic native species, thus providing opportunities for regional and global biodiversity conservation, restoration and education.

scholarly journals Connectivity of Protected Areas: Effect of Human Pressure and Subnational Contributions in the Ecoregions of Tropical Andean Countries

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Luis Santiago Castillo ◽  
Camilo Andrés Correa Ayram ◽  
Clara L. Matallana Tobón ◽  
Germán Corzo ◽  
Alexandra Areiza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Human Pressure ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Human Footprint ◽  
The World ◽  
Andean Countries ◽  
Global Representation ◽  
Adequate Coverage ◽  
Limited Accuracy

Conservationists recognize the value of protected area (PA) systems, with adequate coverage, ecological representation, connection, and management to deliver conservation benefits. Yet, governments primarily focus on coverage, disregarding quantification of the other criteria. While recent studies have assessed global representation and connectivity, they present limitations due to: (1) limited accuracy of the World Database of Protected Areas used, as governments may report areas that do not meet the IUCN or CBD PA definitions or omit subnational PAs, and (2) failure to include human impacts on the landscape in connectivity assessments. We constructed a validated PA database for Tropical Andean Countries (TAC; Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Venezuela) and used the existing Protected-Connected-Land (ProtConn) indicator—incorporating the Global Human Footprint as a spatial proxy for human pressure—to evaluate TAC ecoregions’ representation and connectivity. We found that just 27% of ecoregions in the TAC are both protected and connected on more than 17% of their lands. As we included human pressure, we conclude that previous global ProtConn studies overestimate PA connectivity. Subnational PAs are promising for strengthening the representation of PA systems. If nations seek to meet Aichi target 11, or an upcoming post-2020 30% target, further efforts are needed to implement and report subnational conservation areas and appropriately evaluate PA systems.

scholarly journals Global Analysis of Atmospheric Transmissivity Using Cloud Cover, Aridity and Flux Network Datasets

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1716
Author(s):  
Ankur Srivastava ◽  
Jose F. Rodriguez ◽  
Patricia M. Saco ◽  
Nikul Kumari ◽  
Omer Yetemen
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Cover ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Empirical Relationship ◽  
Aridity Index ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Empirical Models ◽  
Coefficient Of Determination ◽  
Crop Modeling ◽  
Atmospheric Transmissivity

Atmospheric transmissivity (τ) is a critical factor in climatology, which affects surface energy balance, measured at a limited number of meteorological stations worldwide. With the limited availability of meteorological datasets in remote areas across different climatic regions, estimation of τ is becoming a challenging task for adequate hydrological, climatic, and crop modeling studies. The availability of solar radiation data is comparatively less accessible on a global scale than the temperature and precipitation datasets, which makes it necessary to develop methods to estimate τ. Most of the previous studies provided region specific datasets of τ, which usually provide local assessments. Hence, there is a necessity to give the empirical models for τ estimation on a global scale that can be easily assessed. This study presents the analysis of the τ relationship with varying geographic features and climatic factors like latitude, aridity index, cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, diurnal temperature range, and elevation. In addition to these factors, the applicability of these relationships was evaluated for different climate types. Thus, empirical models have been proposed for each climate type to estimate τ by using the most effective factors such as cloud cover and aridity index. The cloud cover is an important yet often overlooked factor that can be used to determine the global atmospheric transmissivity. The empirical relationship and statistical indicator provided the best performance in equatorial climates as the coefficient of determination (r2) was 0.88 relatively higher than the warm temperate (r2 = 0.74) and arid regions (r2 = 0.46). According to the results, it is believed that the analysis presented in this work is applicable for estimating the τ in different ecosystems across the globe.

scholarly journals Remote Sensing Methods for the Biophysical Characterization of Protected Areas Globally: Challenges and Opportunities

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 384
Author(s):  
Javier Martínez-López ◽  
Bastian Bertzky ◽  
Simon Willcock ◽  
Marine Robuchon ◽  
María Almagro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Biophysical Characterization ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Scale Characterization

Protected areas (PAs) are a key strategy to reverse global biodiversity declines, but they are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic activities and concomitant effects. Thus, the heterogeneous landscapes within PAs, containing a number of different habitats and ecosystem types, are in various degrees of disturbance. Characterizing habitats and ecosystems within the global protected area network requires large-scale monitoring over long time scales. This study reviews methods for the biophysical characterization of terrestrial PAs at a global scale by means of remote sensing (RS) and provides further recommendations. To this end, we first discuss the importance of taking into account the structural and functional attributes, as well as integrating a broad spectrum of variables, to account for the different ecosystem and habitat types within PAs, considering examples at local and regional scales. We then discuss potential variables, challenges and limitations of existing global environmental stratifications, as well as the biophysical characterization of PAs, and finally offer some recommendations. Computational and interoperability issues are also discussed, as well as the potential of cloud-based platforms linked to earth observations to support large-scale characterization of PAs. Using RS to characterize PAs globally is a crucial approach to help ensure sustainable development, but it requires further work before such studies are able to inform large-scale conservation actions. This study proposes 14 recommendations in order to improve existing initiatives to biophysically characterize PAs at a global scale.

scholarly journals A systematic review of potential habitat suitability for the jaguar Panthera onca in central Arizona and New Mexico, USA

Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Eric W. Sanderson ◽  
Kim Fisher ◽  
Rob Peters ◽  
Jon P. Beckmann ◽  
Bryan Bird ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Panthera Onca ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Potential Habitat ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Conservation Plan

Abstract In April 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released its recovery plan for the jaguar Panthera onca after several decades of discussion, litigation and controversy about the status of the species in the USA. The USFWS estimated that potential habitat, south of the Interstate-10 highway in Arizona and New Mexico, had a carrying capacity of c. six jaguars, and so focused its recovery programme on areas south of the USA–Mexico border. Here we present a systematic review of the modelling and assessment efforts over the last 25 years, with a focus on areas north of Interstate-10 in Arizona and New Mexico, outside the recovery unit considered by the USFWS. Despite differences in data inputs, methods, and analytical extent, the nine previous studies found support for potential suitable jaguar habitat in the central mountain ranges of Arizona and New Mexico. Applying slightly modified versions of the USFWS model and recalculating an Arizona-focused model over both states provided additional confirmation. Extending the area of consideration also substantially raised the carrying capacity of habitats in Arizona and New Mexico, from six to 90 or 151 adult jaguars, using the modified USFWS models. This review demonstrates the crucial ways in which choosing the extent of analysis influences the conclusions of a conservation plan. More importantly, it opens a new opportunity for jaguar conservation in North America that could help address threats from habitat losses, climate change and border infrastructure.

Bausteine zu einer Geographie des Kapitalismus

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reciprocal Effects ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Socially Relevant

Elements of a geography of capitalism. Despite the variety of new approaches economic geography developed rather one-sided in the past decade. The regional and the firm lenses hardly enabled to recognize how economic processes and political power relations interact on different scales. These empirical deficits also express a restricted theoretical base. The approaches of the new “regional orthodoxy” claim to explain conditions of an improved competitiveness of firms and of regions. However, many socially relevant and spatially differentiated problems are ignored. In contrast, this paper argues for an integrative understanding of the capitalist economy in its historical dynamics and with its reciprocal effects for actors on various scales. In the course of neoliberal deregulation policies and globalization processes, a finance-dominated accumulation regime emerged in the USA which shapes the economy on a global scale. Institutional investors gained decisive control over investments. The political power relations and hierarchies between states remain important. Therefore, the paper suggests a shift of economic geographical research. In the perspective of an integrative geography of capitalism the paper outlines a research agenda of a geography of accumulation, a geography of production as well as a geography of power

Sweetpotato genetic resources: today and tomorrow

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Jarret ◽  
◽  
Noelle L. Anglin ◽  
David Ellis ◽  
Arthur Villordon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ipomoea Batatas ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Crop Wild Relatives ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Important Food ◽  
Germplasm Storage ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Status ◽  
Generation Sequencing

The sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is the sixth most important food crop on a global scale. While China accounts for about 80% of global production, Nigeria, Uganda, Indonesia and Tanzania are also large producers of sweetpotato. The chapter examines the origin and dispersal of sweetpotato, including archaeological data for the early distribution of the crop, before moving on to considering its general botany. The chapter considers in vitro germplasm storage in sweetpotato genebanks, as well as issues of quality control. The chapter looks at the importance of managing sweetpotato crop wild relatives (CWR) and examines plant quarantine and phytosanitary issues and the status of genebanks under international treaties. The chapter considers a number of specific issues associated with sweetpotato germplasm. Finally, the chapter looks at the application of next-generation sequencing to sweetpotato and its CWR, before looking ahead to future trends in this area.

Cold War consumption and the marketing of childhood in the Soviet Union and the United States, 1950-1960

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
The Cold War

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between childhood, consumption and the Cold War in 1950s America and the Soviet Union. The author argues that Soviet and American leaders, businessmen, and politicians worked hard to convince parents that buying things for their children offered the easiest way to raise good American and Soviet kids and to do their part in waging the economic battles of the Cold War. The author explores how consumption became a Cold War battleground in the late 1950s and suggests that the history of childhood and Cold War consumption alters the way we understand the conflict itself. Design/Methodology/Approach – Archival research in the USA and the Russian Federation along with close readings of Soviet and American advertisements offer sources for understanding the global discourse of consumption in the 1950s and 1960s. Findings – Leaders, advertisers, and propagandists in the Soviet Union and the USA used the same images in the same ways to sell the ethos of consumption to their populations. They did this to sell the Cold War, to bolster the status quo, and to make profits. Originality/Value – This paper offers a previously unexplored, transnational perspective on the role that consumption and the image of the child played in shaping the Cold War both domestically and abroad.

scholarly journals Microbial bioenergetics of coral-algal interactions

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ty N.F. Roach ◽  
Maria L. Abieri ◽  
Emma E. George ◽  
Ben Knowles ◽  
Douglas S. Naliboff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Output ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Maximal Power Output ◽  
Bioenergetic Analysis ◽  
Lower Oxygen ◽  
Thermodynamic Mechanism ◽  
Oxygen Concentrations

Human impacts are causing ecosystem phase shifts from coral- to algal-dominated reef systems on a global scale. As these ecosystems undergo transition, there is an increased incidence of coral-macroalgal interactions. Mounting evidence indicates that the outcome of these interaction events is, in part, governed by microbially mediated dynamics. The allocation of available energy through different trophic levels, including the microbial food web, determines the outcome of these interactions and ultimately shapes the benthic community structure. However, little is known about the underlying thermodynamic mechanisms involved in these trophic energy transfers. This study utilizes a novel combination of methods including calorimetry, flow cytometry, and optical oxygen measurements, to provide a bioenergetic analysis of coral-macroalgal interactions in a controlled aquarium setting. We demonstrate that the energetic demands of microbial communities at the coral-algal interaction interface are higher than in the communities associated with either of the macroorganisms alone. This was evident through higher microbial power output (energy use per unit time) and lower oxygen concentrations at interaction zones compared to areas distal from the interface. Increases in microbial power output and lower oxygen concentrations were significantly correlated with the ratio of heterotrophic to autotrophic microbes but not the total microbial abundance. These results suggest that coral-algal interfaces harbor higher proportions of heterotrophic microbes that are optimizing maximal power output, as opposed to yield. This yield to power shift offers a possible thermodynamic mechanism underlying the transition from coral- to algal-dominated reef ecosystems currently being observed worldwide. As changes in the power output of an ecosystem are a significant indicator of the current state of the system, this analysis provides a novel and insightful means to quantify microbial impacts on reef health.

scholarly journals ECOTOURISM IN RUSSIA: MAIN DESTINATIONS AND TOURIST ARRIVALS

2017 ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
Александр ДОРОФЕЕВ ◽  
Alexander DOROFEEV ◽  
Лидия БОГДАНОВА ◽  
Lidiy BOGDANOVA ◽  
Елена ХОХЛОВА ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Natural Areas ◽  
The People ◽  
Specially Protected Natural Areas ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Protected Natural Areas ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Ecological Tourism ◽  
Specially Protected Areas

The concept of “ecological tourism” both in the world and in Russia has appeared in the second half of the twentieth century, although people traveled with natural-focused purposes, including around the protected areas, much earlier. The article presents several definitions of ecotourism, including the two given by the authors. The authors note that ecotourism can be developed in two ways: as a journey on any remaining natural areas or as tour, excursion exclusively within specially protected natural areas (SPNA). The second option is successfully developed in many Englishspeaking countries. The article confirms this fact using the original modern data on the dynamics of visits to the most famous national parks in the USA. Based on the analysis of literature and Internet sources it is concluded that the governance of the Russian Federation considers it necessary to develop eco-tourism in our country according to the second “North American” concept. In this case, the people attending the state protected areas – national parks and reserves with educational and recreational goals should be considered as eco-tourists. Based on this assumption the authors of the article give modern official data concerning the number of specially protected areas of different types in Russia as main destinations of ecotourism. The article presents the diagrams showing the quantitative characteristics of the infrastructure for ecotourists in specially protected areas: visitor centers, museums, ecological paths and routes. The dynamics of tourist arrivals in the reserves and national parks of Russia for the period 2001-2016 years is analyzed. In the final part of the article the main problems of eco-tourists recording are identified.

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