Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

Both the global average per capita consumption of meat and the total amount of meat consumed are rising, driven by increasing average individual incomes and by population growth. The consumption of different types of meat and meat products has substantial effects on people's health, and livestock production can have major negative effects on the environment. Here, we explore the evidence base for these assertions and the options policy-makers have should they wish to intervene to affect population meat consumption. We highlight where more research is required and the great importance of integrating insights from the natural and social sciences.

Meat consumption, health, and the environment

Genetic Data Analysis: Methods for Discrete Population Genetic Data

Deserts and arid regions are generally perceived as bare and rather homogeneous areas of low diversity. The Sahara is the largest warm desert in the world and together with the arid Sahel displays high topographical and climatic heterogeneity, and has experienced recent and strong climatic oscillations that have greatly shifted biodiversity distribution and community composition. The large size, remoteness and long-term political instability of the Sahara-Sahel, have limited knowledge on its biodiversity. However, over the last decade, there have been an increasing number of published scientific studies based on modern geomatic and molecular tools, and broad sampling of taxa of these regions. This review tracks trends in knowledge about biodiversity patterns, processes and threats across the Sahara-Sahel, and anticipates needs for biodiversity research and conservation. Recent studies are changing completely the perception of regional biodiversity patterns. Instead of relatively low species diversity with distribution covering most of the region, studies now suggest a high rate of endemism and larger number of species, with much narrower and fragmented ranges, frequently limited to micro-hotspots of biodiversity. Molecular-based studies are also unravelling cryptic diversity associated with mountains, which together with recent distribution atlases, allows identifying integrative biogeographic patterns in biodiversity distribution. Mapping of multivariate environmental variation (at 1 km × 1 km resolution) of the region illustrates main biogeographical features of the Sahara-Sahel and supports recently hypothesised dispersal corridors and refugia. Micro-scale water-features present mostly in mountains have been associated with local biodiversity hotspots. However, the distribution of available data on vertebrates highlights current knowledge gaps that still apply to a large proportion of the Sahara-Sahel. Current research is providing insights into key evolutionary and ecological processes, including causes and timing of radiation and divergence for multiple taxa, and associating the onset of the Sahara with diversification processes for low-mobility vertebrates. Examples of phylogeographic patterns are showing the importance of allopatric speciation in the Sahara-Sahel, and this review presents a synthetic overview of the most commonly hypothesised diversification mechanisms. Studies are also stressing that biodiversity is threatened by increasing human activities in the region, including overhunting and natural resources prospection, and in the future by predicted global warming. A representation of areas of conflict, landmines, and natural resources extraction illustrates how human activities and regional insecurity are hampering biodiversity research and conservation. Although there are still numerous knowledge gaps for the optimised conservation of biodiversity in the region, a set of research priorities is provided to identify the framework data needed to support regional conservation planning.

Unravelling biodiversity, evolution and threats to conservation in the Sahara‐Sahel

https://www.viridispython.com/info/papers/Wildlife-laundering-through-breeding-farms-illegal-harvest-population-declines-and-a-means-of-regulating-the-trade-of-green-pythons-morelia-viridis-from-indonesia.pdf

Wildlife laundering through breeding farms: Illegal harvest, population declines and a means of regulating the trade of green pythons (Morelia viridis) from Indonesia

The annual life cycle of pond breeding amphibians is characterized by periodical migrations between three critical habitats: breeding, post breeding - feeding - and hibernating. The breeding season starts with the migration of the reproductive adults toward the breeding site and is characterized by intense manifestations in behavior and development of secondary sexual characters. Time spent in the water is strongly influenced by the outcome of success in courtship, insemination and/or fertilization. The aim of this review is to summarize some major findings of the main research directions regarding the reproductive dynamics of temperate (and especially European) amphibians. These are presented in detail for the most studied European species: Triturus vulgaris, Bufo bufo, B. calamita and Rana temporaria.

The reproductive dynamics of temperate amphibians: a review

Human-induced alteration of natural habitats has the potential to impact on the genetic structuring of remnant populations at multiple spatial scales. Species from higher trophic levels, such as snakes, are expected to be particularly susceptible to land-use changes. We examined fine-scale population structure and looked for evidence of sex-biased dispersal in smooth snakes (Coronella austriaca), sampled from 10 heathland localities situated within a managed coniferous forest in Dorset, United Kingdom. Despite the limited distances between heathland areas (maximum <6 km), there was a small but significant structuring of populations based on eight microsatellite loci. This followed an isolation-by-distance model using both straight line and ‘biological’ distances between sampling sites, suggesting C. austriaca's low vagility as the causal factor, rather than closed canopy conifer forest exerting an effect as a barrier to dispersal. Within population comparisons of male and female snakes showed evidence for sex-biased dispersal, with three of four analyses finding significantly higher dispersal in males than in females. We suggest that the fine-scale spatial genetic structuring and sex-biased dispersal have important implications for the conservation of C. austriaca, and highlight the value of heathland areas within commercial conifer plantations with regards to their future management.

/pdf/fine-scale-population-genetic-structure-and-sex-biased-3agt0icjvj.pdf

Fine-scale population genetic structure and sex-biased dispersal in the smooth snake ( Coronella austriaca ) in southern England

Chemoreception and kin discrimination by neonate smooth snakes, Coronella austriaca

/pdf/conserving-dryland-biodiversity-xoky0skpa5.pdf

Conserving dryland biodiversity

https://cris.brighton.ac.uk/ws/files/6477770/Crooks_et_al_Microplastics_JEMBE_Revisions.pdf

Angelo P. Pernetta

Papers

The reproductive dynamics of temperate amphibians: a review

Fine-scale population genetic structure and sex-biased dispersal in the smooth snake ( Coronella austriaca ) in southern England

Chemoreception and kin discrimination by neonate smooth snakes, Coronella austriaca

Conserving dryland biodiversity

Brain food?: Trophic transfer and tissue retention of microplastics by the velvet swimming crab (Necora puber)