scholarly journals Influence of human population density on spatial distribution patterns of environmental suitability for triatomine vectors of Chagas disease

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anderson A. Eduardo ◽  
Lucas A. B. O. Santos ◽  
Mônica C. Rebouças ◽  
Pablo A. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Chagas Disease ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Climatic Variables ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Human Population Density ◽  
Environmental Suitability

AbstractPrevious work on Chagas Disease disease at large spatial scales has not explored how interaction with humans can affect projections for geographical distribution of environmental suitability of vector species. Here, we compare niche-based species distribution models with climatic variables as predictors (SDMclim) and with climatic variables + human population density (SDMHuman). Our results show that accounting for human population density helps refine the models to finer geographical scales. Also, different spatial patterns of accumulated environmental suitability were obtained by SDMclim and SDMHuman. Moreover, projections were more accurate for SDMHuman than for SDMclim. Our results show that considering human populations in SDMs for epidemiologically relevant triatomiane species can improve our understanding of macroecology and biogeography of environmental suitability for vectors of Chagas disease.

Assessing the importance of fishing impacts on Hawaiian coral reef fish assemblages along regional-scale human population gradients

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. D. WILLIAMS ◽  
W. J. WALSH ◽  
R. E. SCHROEDER ◽  
A. M. FRIEDLANDER ◽  
B. L. RICHARDS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Fish Biomass ◽  
Human Population Density ◽  
General Decline

SUMMARYHumans can impact coral reef fishes directly by fishing, or indirectly through anthropogenic degradation of habitat. Uncertainty about the relative importance of those can make it difficult to develop and build consensus for appropriate remedial management. Relationships between fish assemblages and human population density were assessed using data from 18 locations widely spread throughout the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) to evaluate the significance of fishing as a factor potentially driving fish trends on a regional scale. Fish biomass in several groups was negatively correlated with local human population density and a number of lines of evidence indicate that fishing was the prime driver of those trends. First, declines were consistently evident among fish groups targeted by fishers, but not among lightly fished or non-target groupings, which indicates that declines in target groups were not simply indicative of a general decline in habitat quality along human population gradients. Second, proximity to high human populations was not associated with low fish biomass where shoreline structure prevented ready access by fishers. Relatively remote and inaccessible locations within the MHI had 2.1–4.2 times the biomass of target fishes compared to accessible and populous locations, and may therefore function as partial refugia. However, stocks in those areas were clearly far from pristine, as biomass of large predators was more than an order of magnitude lower than at more intact ecosystems elsewhere in the Pacific.

Testing for human impacts in the mismatch of living and dead ostracode assemblages at nested spatial scales in subtropical lakes from the Bahamian archipelago

Paleobiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-782
Author(s):  
Andrew V. Michelson ◽  
Susan M. Kidwell ◽  
Lisa E. Park Boush ◽  
Jeanine L. Ash
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Human Population Density ◽  
Subtropical Lakes ◽  
Death Assemblages ◽  
Human Stress ◽  
Coarse Information

AbstractNaturally time-averaged accumulations of skeletal remains—death assemblages—provide reliable, albeit temporally coarse, information on the species composition and structure of communities in diverse settings, and their mismatch with local living communities usually signals recent human-driven ecological change. Here, we present the first test of live–dead mismatch as an indicator of human stress using ostracodes. On three islands along a gradient of human population density in the Bahamas, we compared the similarity of living and death assemblages in 10 lakes with relatively low levels of human stress to live–dead similarity in 11 physically comparable lakes subject to industrial, agricultural, or other human activities currently or in the past. We find that live–dead agreement in pristine lakes is consistently excellent, boding well for using death assemblages in modern-day and paleolimnological biodiversity assessments. In most comparison of physically similar paired lakes, sample-level live–dead mismatch in both taxonomic composition and species’ rank abundance is on average significantly greater in the stressed lakes; live–dead agreement is not lower in all samples from stressed lakes, but is more variable. When samples are pooled for lake-level and island-level comparisons, stressed lakes still yield lower live–dead agreement, but the significance of the difference with pristine lakes decreases—species that occur dead-only (or alive-only) in one sample are likely to occur alive (or dead) in other samples. Interisland differences in live–dead agreement are congruent with, but not significantly correlated with, differences in human population density. This situation arises from heterogeneity in the timing and magnitudes of stresses and in the extent of poststress recovery. Live–dead mismatch in ostracode assemblages thus may be a reliable indicator of human impact at the sample level with the potential to be a widely applicable tool for identifying impacted habitats and, perhaps, monitoring the progress of their recovery.

Relationships between air pollution, population density, and lichen biodiversity in the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 593-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Troy McMULLIN ◽  
Lindsay L. BENNETT ◽  
Owen J. BJORGAN ◽  
Danielle A. BOURQUE ◽  
Charlotte J. BURKE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Pollution Load ◽  
Human Population Density ◽  
Local Pollution ◽  
Niagara Escarpment

AbstractThe fragmented ecosystems along the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve provide important habitats for biota including lichens. Nonetheless, the Reserve is disturbed by dense human populations and associated air pollution. Here we investigated patterns of lichen diversity within urban and rural sites at three different locations (Niagara, Hamilton, and Owen Sound) along the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario, Canada. Our results indicate that both lichen species richness and community composition are negatively correlated with increasing human population density and air pollution. However, our quantitative analysis of community composition using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicates that human population density and air pollution is more independent than might be assumed. The CCA analysis suggests that the strongest environmental gradient (CCA1) associated with lichen community composition includes regional pollution load and climatic variables; the second gradient (CCA2) is associated with local pollution load and human population density factors. These results increase the knowledge of lichen biodiversity for the Niagara Escarpment and urban and rural fragmented ecosystems as well as along gradients of human population density and air pollution; they suggest a differential influence of regional and local pollution loads and population density factors. This study provides baseline knowledge for further research and conservation initiatives along the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve.

scholarly journals Mountain definitions and their consequences

Alpine Botany ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Körner ◽  
Davnah Urbach ◽  
Jens Paulsen
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Short Communication ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Mountainous Terrain ◽  
Human Population Density

AbstractMountains are rugged structures in the landscape that are difficult to delineate. Given that they host an overproportional fraction of biodiversity of high ecological and conservational value, conventions on what is mountainous and what not are in need. This short communication aims at explaining the differences among various popular mountain definitions. Defining mountainous terrain is key for global assessments of plant species richness in mountains and their likely responses to climatic change, as well as for assessing the human population density in and around mountainous terrain.

scholarly journals Human population density correlates with phylogenetic diversity and plant vulnerability in southern Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Maurin ◽  
T.J. Davies ◽  
K. Yessoufou ◽  
B.H. Daru ◽  
B.S. Bezeng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Human Population Density

scholarly journals Reptile diversity of Sinos River Basin

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Fernanda Moser ◽  
Fernanda Rodrigues de Avila ◽  
Roberto Baptista de Oliveira ◽  
Juliano Morales de Oliveira ◽  
Márcio Borges-Martins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Urban Region ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Human Population Density ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Medical Importance ◽  
Scientific Collections

Abstract This work aimed to catalog the species of reptiles of the Sinos River Basin based on records from scientific collections and data collected in the field. We recorded 65 species, including 46 snakes, nine lizards, five turtles, four amphisbaenians and one caiman. Snakes composed most of the recorded specimens (91.3%), and the three most representative are venomous and of medical importance. The most urban region of the basin (Lowland) has the highest number of records. This fact may be a reflection of the high human population density in this region, which would have favored the encounter of specimens and their sending to scientific collections and research centers. It is worth highlighting that most species with few specimens in the collections are also rarely observed in the wild, such as Clelia hussani and Urostrophus vautieri. This observation makes it feasible that these populations are small or that they are declining.

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