Showing papers in "Biological Conservation in 2001"

TL;DR: The simulations suggest that the first priority for conservation should be habitat preservation and restoration, information on movement rates of organisms is critical for predicting extinction thresholds and conservation strategies should consider the quality of the whole landscape, including the matrix.

TL;DR: Whether changes in behaviour in response to human presence are likely to be good measures of the relative susceptibility of species, and whether their use may result in confusion when determining conservation priorities are discussed.

TL;DR: Scanning electron microscopy and histological techniques revealed the presence of a chytridiomycosis infection in the skin of the toads, providing evidence that supports chy TRD as the most plausible cause of the decline of the species in the area.

TL;DR: In this paper, the diurnal movement patterns of Triturus vulgaris (Triturus cristatus), Pelobates fuscus, Bufo bufo, Rana temporaria, and Rana arvalis were investigated during five breeding seasons (1994-1998).

TL;DR: Monitoring of aspen stands in Yellowstone National Park to determine if reintroduced wolves are influencing elk browsing patterns and aspen regeneration through a trophic cascades interaction appears to have altered elk foraging behaviors.

TL;DR: The reasons why so many species of birds have declined in the eucalypt woodlands and associated habitats across the agricultural zone of southern Australia are reviewed and how the findings of research can inform managers will make management more effective in achieving conservation of regional avifaunas are suggested.

TL;DR: A majority of empirical tests have failed to support the hypothesis that avian nest predation increases near habitat edges, but the few studies containing reliable predator identification have explained their results with species-specific predator behavior and its relation to habitat and landscape features.

TL;DR: The authors investigated the macroinvertebrate fauna of Elkhorn Slough (ES), an estuary in central California, and revealed 56 known exotic species at ES, a surprising diversity considering the rather modest search effort, the relatively natural setting of this estuary, and the lack of international shipping.

TL;DR: The strong decrease in the number of butterfly species in Flanders (north Belgium) in the 20th century is illustrated using data from a national butterfly mapping scheme and concrete measures to preserve threatened butterfly populations are focused on.

TL;DR: The authors in this paper showed that grass margins and weedy winter stubbles constitute important food-rich habitats for cirl buntings and other farmland birds, and should be encouraged in future agri-environment agreements and schemes.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the factors affecting connectivity between the two main sources and the rest of local populations in a small and fragmented population of Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) in SW Spain.

TL;DR: In this article, a combination of the three methods, in which ecologically scaled landscape indices (ESLI) are compared to spatial standards derived from both analysis of distribution data and PVA-type simulations, is presented.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of individual habitat features on site occupation by lizards using a presence-absence transformation of lizard abundance data and multiple logistic regression.

TL;DR: The impact of recreational SCUBA diving on coral reefs of the Cayman Islands, British West Indies, was assessed from 63 10-m video transects, filmed on reefs in the West Bay area of Grand Cayman.

TL;DR: Given that patch size alone does not appear to adequately account for variation in faunal abundance, it is suggested that restoration efforts might best focus upon locating areas with similarity of landscape context or patch characteristics other than patch size.

TL;DR: The intensity and scope of pest control undertaken at Mainland islands is greater than has normally been the case previously, as has been monitoring of results and conservation outcomes as discussed by the authors, and preliminary results suggest that declines in monitored species have been arrested and ecological processes re-vitalised.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used data collected at field survey sites in north-east New South Wales to develop models predicting the abundance of vascular plant and vertebrate fauna species as a function of regional-scale environmental variables.

TL;DR: The impact of introduced social wasps provides a warning of the damage exotic ants could cause if they were to invade honeydew beech forest in New Zealand and current control tools are unable to reduce wasp populations over large tracts of forest.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed an approach to schedule conservation action in production landscapes based on two characteristics of potential conservation areas: vulnerability (the likelihood or imminence of destruction or alteration of native vegetation) and irreplaceability the likelihood that an area will be needed to contribute to a set of conservation targets nominated for the region's features.

TL;DR: In this paper, a stepwise regression analysis between several land-use and socioeconomic parameters and the density of alien species in European and North African countries was conducted, and it was found that the parameters that best explained the density and the extent of terrestrial transport networks and the percentage of protected areas were the landuse variables that best accounted for the density.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the consequences of this depletion of a potentially significant habitat-structural element on the terrestrial vertebrates of the floodplain forests and found that ground and CWD-using birds are more prevalent, and in richer diversity, in the vicinities of accumulations of woody debris.

TL;DR: A mark-recapture study was used to estimate trends in annual abundance of green and loggerhead turtles resident in southern Great Barrier Reef (sGBR) waters between 1985-1992 as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: Groombridge et al. as discussed by the authors used binomial statistics to look for taxonomic patterns among the world's freshwater fish families currently at risk of extinction and found that families that inhabit well-studied regions of the world contain more threatened species.

TL;DR: In this paper, the terrestrial and aquatic attributes of 70 farm dams and five semi-natural waterbodies in the upper Shoalhaven catchment, south-eastern Australia, were examined.

TL;DR: The status of New Zealand's endemic shorebirds is reviewed and the impact on them of various threats, particularly predation by introduced mammals is examined.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated relationships between the composition of bird communities and remnant and landscape attributes including area, shape, vegetation type and position in the landscape, and found that vegetation type was the strongest determinant of the bird communities.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored a range of individual and situational risk factors associated with divers who damaged corals in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, where recreational divers were followed for 10-15 min, and all contacts with, and damage to corals were recorded.

TL;DR: Density of reindeer was 79% lower within 2.5 km from power lines compared with background areas, and increased with increasing distance from infrastructure for comparable habitat, and was lowest in the undisturbed areas with the highest density of grazing animals.

TL;DR: The results provide the first experimental evidence that shorebirds perceive dogs as posing more of a threat than humans on foot, and that their subsequent avoidance response is greater, and recommend that human activity, particularly the walking of dogs, should be limited near nesting sites.

TL;DR: In this paper, a comparison of the status of the alien vascular plant species in contrasted environmental and historical situations of the French islands of the southern Indian Ocean (Ile de la Possession, in the Crozet archipelago, Iles Kerguelen and Ile Amsterdam) is presented.