scholarly journals The Ecology of Nipah Virus in Bangladesh: A Nexus of Land-Use Change and Opportunistic Feeding Behavior in Bats

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Clifton D. McKee ◽  
Ausraful Islam ◽  
Stephen P. Luby ◽  
Henrik Salje ◽  
Peter J. Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Current System ◽  
Nipah Virus ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressure ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Roosting Behavior

Nipah virus is a bat-borne paramyxovirus that produces yearly outbreaks of fatal encephalitis in Bangladesh. Understanding the ecological conditions that lead to spillover from bats to humans can assist in designing effective interventions. To investigate the current and historical processes that drive Nipah spillover in Bangladesh, we analyzed the relationship among spillover events and climatic conditions, the spatial distribution and size of Pteropus medius roosts, and patterns of land-use change in Bangladesh over the last 300 years. We found that 53% of annual variation in winter spillovers is explained by winter temperature, which may affect bat behavior, physiology, and human risk behaviors. We infer from changes in forest cover that a progressive shift in bat roosting behavior occurred over hundreds of years, producing the current system where a majority of P. medius populations are small (median of 150 bats), occupy roost sites for 10 years or more, live in areas of high human population density, and opportunistically feed on cultivated food resources—conditions that promote viral spillover. Without interventions, continuing anthropogenic pressure on bat populations similar to what has occurred in Bangladesh could result in more regular spillovers of other bat viruses, including Hendra and Ebola viruses.

scholarly journals The ecology of Nipah virus in Bangladesh: a nexus of land use change and opportunistic feeding behavior in bats

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifton D. McKee ◽  
Ausraful Islam ◽  
Stephen P. Luby ◽  
Henrik Salje ◽  
Peter J. Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Current System ◽  
Nipah Virus ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressure ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Roosting Behavior

AbstractNipah virus is a bat-borne paramyxovirus that produces yearly outbreaks of fatal encephalitis in Bangladesh. Understanding the ecological conditions that lead to spillover from bats to humans can assist in designing effective interventions. To investigate the current and historical processes that drive Nipah spillover in Bangladesh, we analyzed the relationship between spillover events and climatic conditions, the spatial distribution and size of Pteropus medius roosts, and patterns of land use change in Bangladesh over the last 300 years. We found that 53% of annual variation in winter spillovers is explained by winter temperature, which may affect bat behavior, physiology, and human risk behaviors. We infer from changes in forest cover that a progressive shift in bat roosting behavior occurred over hundreds of years, producing the current system where a majority of P. medius populations are small (median of 150 bats), occupy roost sites for 10 years or more, live in areas of high human population density, and opportunistically feed on cultivated food resources – conditions that promote viral spillover. Without interventions, continuing anthropogenic pressure on bat populations similar to what has occurred in Bangladesh could result in more regular spillovers of other bat viruses, including Hendra and Ebola viruses.

scholarly journals Understanding of Forest Cover Dynamics in Traditional Landscapes: Mapping Trajectories of Changes in Mountain Territories (1824–2016), on the Example of Jeleniogórska Basin, Poland

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Jaworek-Jakubska ◽  
Maciej Filipiak ◽  
Anna Napierała-Filipiak
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Depth Analysis

Though on a global scale, for ecological reasons, increased forest cover is universally regarded as positive, on a local scale, the reforestation of arable land may pose threats to cultural landscapes by removing characteristic landscape features. Particularly vulnerable are marginal rural areas, e.g., mountain regions, where most traditional land use systems have survived and which are subject to the most spectacular land use change. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the issue of the management of forest cover in historical cultural landscapes in mountain territories in Poland within the context of widespread land use change in Eastern Europe. Land cover data were obtained from historical and contemporary aerial photographs, as well as topographic maps from five time points between 1824 and 2016. The study was conducted by means of spatio-temporal forest cover trajectory analysis (LCTA), transition and time–depth analysis, and land cover change calculations that were made by means of ArcGIS. Our research indicates that the rate of change has risen considerably in the last two decades, and the current share of forest cover is much bigger than that reflected in the official data. Eight principal forest cover trajectory types were identified. The biggest area is occupied by woodland of long-term stability. Another large group is constituted by forests created on the basis of arable land and grassland as a result of simple conversion at one point in time, mainly in the years 1824–1886 and 1939–1994. At the same time, a sizeable group is made up by areas that have been subject to unplanned cyclical or dynamic changes during various periods. A very important group is comprised new forests that were created in 1994–2016, predominantly as a result of natural succession, that are often not included in official land classifications. The constant expansion of woodlands has led to a shrinking of historical former coppice woodlands. This indicates that the current landscape management mechanisms in Poland are inadequate for protecting the cultural landscape. The barriers include the lack of intersectoral cooperation and the overlooking of the historical context of landscapes. The present situation calls not only for verification of the existing forest policy but also for increasing the role and engagement of local communities, as well as making comprehensive local development plans, all of which may be helped by the findings of our study and of similar research.

Change in agricultural land use constrains adaptation of national wildlife refuges to climate change

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER M. HAMILTON ◽  
WAYNE E. THOGMARTIN ◽  
VOLKER C. RADELOFF ◽  
ANDREW J. PLANTINGA ◽  
PATRICIA J. HEGLUND ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Business As Usual

SUMMARYLand-use change around protected areas limits their ability to conserve biodiversity by altering ecological processes such as natural hydrologic and disturbance regimes, facilitating species invasions, and interfering with dispersal of organisms. This paper informs USA National Wildlife Refuge System conservation planning by predicting future land-use change on lands within 25 km distance of 461 refuges in the USA using an econometric model. The model contained two differing policy scenarios, namely a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario and a ‘pro-agriculture’ scenario. Regardless of scenario, by 2051, forest cover and urban land use were predicted to increase around refuges, while the extent of range and pasture was predicted to decrease; cropland use decreased under the business-as-usual scenario, but increased under the pro-agriculture scenario. Increasing agricultural land value under the pro-agriculture scenario slowed an expected increase in forest around refuges, and doubled the rate of range and pasture loss. Intensity of land-use change on lands surrounding refuges differed by regions. Regional differences among scenarios revealed that an understanding of regional and local land-use dynamics and management options was an essential requirement to effectively manage these conserved lands. Such knowledge is particularly important given the predicted need to adapt to a changing global climate.

scholarly journals Soil carbon response to land-use change: Evaluation of a global vegetation model using meta-data

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia S. Nyawira ◽  
Julia E. M. S. Nabel ◽  
Axel Don ◽  
Victor Brovkin ◽  
Julia Pongratz
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Carbon Gain ◽  
Meta Data ◽  
Vegetation Models ◽  
Global Vegetation

Abstract. Global model estimates of soil carbon changes from past land-use changes remain uncertain. We develop an approach for evaluating dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) against existing observational meta-data on soil carbon changes following land-use change. Using the DGVM JSBACH, we perform idealized simulations where the entire globe is covered by one vegetation type, which then undergoes a land-use change to another vegetation type. We select the grid cells that represent the climatic conditions of the meta-data and compare the mean simulated soil carbon changes to the meta-data. Our simulated results show model agreement with the meta-data on the direction of changes in soil carbon for some, but not all land-use changes, while the magnitude of simulated changes is smaller than in the meta-data. The conversion of crop to forest results in soil carbon gain of 10 % and that of forest to crop to a loss of −15 % compared to a gain of 42 % and loss of −40 %, respectively, in the meta-data. However, the conversion of crop to grass results in a small soil carbon loss (−4 %), while the meta-data indicate a gain in soil carbon of 38 %. These model deviations from the meta-data are substantially reduced by explicitly accounting for crop harvesting and switching off burning in grasslands in the model. We conclude that our idealized simulation approach provides an appropriate framework for evaluating DGVMs against meta-data and that this evaluation helps to identify the causes of deviation of simulated soil carbon changes from the meta-data.

scholarly journals Synergistic Interaction of Climate and Land-Use Drivers Alter the Function of North American, Prairie-Pothole Wetlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6581
Author(s):  
Owen P. McKenna ◽  
Samuel R. Kucia ◽  
David M. Mushet ◽  
Michael J. Anteau ◽  
Mark T. Wiltermuth
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
North American ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Prairie Pothole ◽  
Wetland Ecosystems ◽  
Wetland Drainage ◽  
Prairie Pothole Wetlands ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Atmospheric Inputs

Prairie-pothole wetlands provide the critical habitat necessary for supporting North American migratory waterfowl populations. However, climate and land-use change threaten the sustainability of these wetland ecosystems. Very few experiments and analyses have been designed to investigate the relative impacts of climate and land-use change drivers, as well as the antagonistic or synergistic interactions among these drivers on ecosystem processes. Prairie-pothole wetland water budgets are highly dependent on atmospheric inputs and especially surface runoff, which makes them especially susceptible to changes in climate and land use. Here, we present the history of prairie-pothole climate and land-use change research and address the following research questions: 1) What are the relative effects of climate and land-use change on the sustainability of prairie-pothole wetlands? and 2) Do the effects of climate and land-use change interact differently under different climatic conditions? To address these research questions, we modeled 25 wetland basins (1949–2018) and measured the response of the lowest wetland in the watershed to wetland drainage and climate variability. We found that during an extremely wet period (1993–2000) wetland drainage decreased the time at which the lowest wetland reached its spill point by four years, resulting in 10 times the amount of water spilling out of the watershed towards local stream networks. By quantifying the relative effects of both climate and land-use drivers on wetland ecosystems our findings can help managers cope with uncertainties about flooding risks and provide insight into how to manage wetlands to restore functionality.

scholarly journals Landscape-scale forest loss as a catalyst of population and biodiversity change

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 368 (6497) ◽  
pp. 1341-1347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gergana N. Daskalova ◽  
Isla H. Myers-Smith ◽  
Anne D. Bjorkman ◽  
Shane A. Blowes ◽  
Sarah R. Supp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Loss ◽  
Species Replacement ◽  
Level Shifts ◽  
Biodiversity Change ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Globally Distributed

Global biodiversity assessments have highlighted land-use change as a key driver of biodiversity change. However, there is little empirical evidence of how habitat transformations such as forest loss and gain are reshaping biodiversity over time. We quantified how change in forest cover has influenced temporal shifts in populations and ecological assemblages from 6090 globally distributed time series across six taxonomic groups. We found that local-scale increases and decreases in abundance, species richness, and temporal species replacement (turnover) were intensified by as much as 48% after forest loss. Temporal lags in population- and assemblage-level shifts after forest loss extended up to 50 years and increased with species’ generation time. Our findings that forest loss catalyzes population and biodiversity change emphasize the complex biotic consequences of land-use change.

scholarly journals River Basin Hydrological Balance Evaluation in Term of the Land Use Change Impact

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Beáta Novotná ◽  
Ján Čimo ◽  
Branislav Chvíla ◽  
Gabriela Pozníková
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Change Effect ◽  
Dry Conditions

Abstract Assessment of the land use impact on the processes of water balance in the river basin should be an indispensable part of integrated river basins management. This paper compares climatic conditions occurring during the long-term period (1951-1980), following the situation immediately after dry conditions (1993-1999) and extremely rainy dates (2009-2012) with emphasis to estimate the runoff components in the Žitava river basin: the Obyce sub-catchment, situated in its upper part (74.5 km2) in the Slovak Republic. Modelling of the land use change effect on the total hydrology balance of the river basin characteristics was performed using the hydrological model WaSiM-ETH. The model was applied to evaluate the vegetation type influence and the water balance change in the presently mostly forested river basin (1), altering its replacement by the permanent grasses (2) and bushes (3), with emphasis to different total water balance characteristics change. The present state land use data were taken from the Corine Land Cover of the Slovak Republic. Model results show that actual evapotranspiration would decrease from -1.3% in case of bushes in 2009 up to -32.5% in case of grass in 2011. However, 13.3% rise was considered for bushes in 2010. Total annual discharge shows its increment in all observed changes from 5.9% for bushes in 2010 up to 65.3% for grass in 2012. Only in case of bushes in 2011 there was observed slight decrease of about -3.1%. Regarding the very expected land use change, especially in connection with the ongoing global climate change, the estimation of the hydrology balance components is of utmost significance.

scholarly journals Towards more integration of physiology, dispersal and land-use change to understand the responses of species to climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. jeb238352
Author(s):  
Christian Hof
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Dispersal Capacity ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis

ABSTRACTThe accelerating biodiversity crisis, for which climate change has become an important driver, urges the scientific community for answers to the question of whether and how species are capable of responding successfully to rapidly changing climatic conditions. For a better understanding and more realistic predictions of species' and biodiversity responses, the consideration of extrinsic (i.e. environment-related) and intrinsic (i.e. organism-related) factors is important, among which four appear to be particularly crucial: climate change and land-use change, as extrinsic factors, as well as physiology and dispersal capacity, as intrinsic factors. Here, I argue that these four factors should be considered in an integrative way, but that the scientific community has not yet been very successful in doing so. A quantitative literature review revealed a generally low level of integration within global change biology, with a pronounced gap especially between the field of physiology and other (sub)disciplines. After a discussion of potential reasons for this unfortunate lack of integration, some of which may relate to key deficits e.g. in the reward and incentive systems of academia, I suggest a few ideas that might help to overcome some of the barriers between separated research communities. Furthermore, I list several examples for promising research along the integration frontier, after which I outline some research questions that could become relevant if one is to push the boundary of integration among disciplines, of data and methods, and across scales even further – for a better understanding and more reliable predictions of species and biodiversity in a world of global change.

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