1,721,036 research outputs found
Immediate impact of a hurricane on the structure of a tropical butterfly community: Impact of hurricane on butterflies
No full textMore intense and frequent hurricanes may lead to long-lasting effects to tropical ecosystems. Here we describe the immediate impact on the butterfly community of a lowland forest in Belize, following Hurricane Earl. Species richness and abundance increased post-hurricane, likely driven by convergence of the organisation between the canopy and understory communities
Data from: Immediate impact of a hurricane on the structure of a tropical butterfly community
No full textOpenAccessData_ButterflyManuscriptExcel file with four sheets. Providing data on the species and number of individuals caught in each trap before and after the hurricane; traits measured of individual butterflies caught in each trap before and after the hurricane, and the range and number of host plants for each butterfly species gathered from online sources; habitat variables measured within 5m radius of each trap before and after the hurricane; and data from six 100m transects walked within the study site to estimate the level of damage caused to the forest stand following the hurricane.,More intense and frequent hurricanes may lead to long-lasting effects to tropical ecosystems. Here we describe the immediate impact on the butterfly community of a lowland forest in Belize, following Hurricane Earl. Species richness and abundance increased post-hurricane, likely driven by convergence of the organisation between the canopy and understory communities.</span
A child's eye view of the insect world: perceptions of insect diversity
No full textInsects worldwide are undergoing unprecedented rates of decline, with many species severely threatened or already extinct. Despite their extreme diversity and functional importance in ecosystems, this extinction crisis has seldom gained media attention; endangered large mammals and birds receive much greater coverage. In the UK, where the insect fauna is relatively depauperate and well known, this bias has recently been redressed by a range of initiatives that highlighted the importance of insect conservation. This study investigated the popularity of different arthropod groups drawn by children (as part of one such event), in modern culture and in the scientific literature. Children's preference for insect groups strongly correlated with their representation in modern culture and in the scientific literature. However none of the measures of popularity of each group correlated with their abundance or conservation status in the UK. The profile of lesser-known groups therefore needs to be raised to reduce the chance that threatened taxa are overlooked for conservation action
Scientific research on animal biodiversity is systematically biased towards vertebrates and temperate regions: Biases in biodiversity research
No full textOver the last 25 years, research on biodiversity has expanded dramatically, fuelled by increasing threats to the natural world. However, the number of published studies is heavily weighted towards certain taxa, perhaps influencing conservation awareness of and funding for less-popular groups. Few studies have systematically quantified these biases, although information on this topic is important for informing future research and conservation priorities. We investigated: i) which animal taxa are being studied; ii) if any taxonomic biases are the same in temperate and tropical regions; iii) whether the taxon studied is named in the title of papers on biodiversity, perhaps reflecting a perception of what biodiversity is; iv) the geographical distribution of biodiversity research, compared with the distribution of biodiversity and threatened species; and v) the geographical distribution of authors’ countries of origin. To do this, we used the search engine Web of Science to systematically sample a subset of the published literature with ‘biodiversity’ in the title. In total 526 research papers were screened—5% of all papers in Web of Science with biodiversity in the title. For each paper, details on taxonomic group, title phrasing, number of citations, study location, and author locations were recorded. Compared to the proportions of described species, we identified a considerable taxonomic weighting towards vertebrates and an under-representation of invertebrates (particularly arachnids and insects) in the published literature. This discrepancy is more pronounced in highly cited papers, and in tropical regions, with only 43% of bio-diversity research in the tropics including invertebrates. Furthermore, while papers on vertebrate taxa typically did not specify the taxonomic group in the title, the converse was true for invertebrate papers. Biodiversity research is also biased geographically: studies are more frequently carried out in developed countries with larger economies, and for a given level of species or threatened species, tropical countries were understudied relative to temperate countries. Finally, biodiversity research is disproportionately authored by researchers from wealthier countries, with studies less likely to be carried out by scientists in lower-GDP nations. Our results highlight the need for a more systematic and directed evaluation of bio-diversity studies, perhaps informing more targeted research towards those areas and taxa most depauperate in research. Only by doing so can we ensure that biodiversity research yields results that are relevant and applicable to all regions and that the information necessary for the conservation of threatened species is available to conservation practitioners
The role of earthworms in nitrogen and solute retention in a tropical forest in Sabah, Malaysia: a pilot study
Full text linkCompounds of the 20 elements needed by living organisms are relatively soluble in water and therefore vulnerable to being leached and lost from terrestrial ecosystems during mineralization. Intact systems have thus acquired retention mechanisms that sequester nutrients and minimize losses. Such mechanisms should be particularly important where rainfall is very high but direct evidence of retention mechanisms in tropical forests is scarce (Snaddon et al. 2012, Turner et al. 2007)
Revisiting the population of the Ghost Crab, Ocypode cursor, on the sandy beaches of northern Cyprus after two decades: are there causes for concern?
No full textAs a key ecological link in food webs of sandy beaches, ghost crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) are important for the maintenance of sandy beach ecosystems due to their scavenger properties in temperate and tropical regions. A baseline study of Ocypode cursor had been carried out at Alagadi beach in northern Cyprus in 1994 and in order to address concerns that the species may be in decline on the island, the population was re-assessed over nine weeks during summer 2017. To enable comparison of data, standardised, indirect methods were used to determine population parameters such as burrow size, population size, distribution and density. Results indicated a significant, six-fold decline in population size. Average burrow densities in our study was up to 0.05 burrows/m2 in the general crab zone, while Strachan et al. (1999) had recorded up to 0.67 burrows/m2. Possible reasons or factors causing such effects were considered such as invasive pufferfishes Lagocephalus sceleratus and Torquigener flavimaculosus from the Red Sea, climate change in terms of warming sea water and air temperatures and increases in extreme weather conditions such as windiness, and anthropogenic in- terventions such as human trampling and effects of increase in urbanisation. The man- agement of sandy beaches and conservation of these species is urgent to re-stabilize the populations of O. cursor on the beaches of northern Cyprus
Biodiversity: oil-palm replanting raises ecology issues
No full textMore than one-third of the area on which oil palm is grown in Malaysia, some 1.4 million hectares (http://faostat.fao.org), has already passed peak yields and is due to be replanted. Replanting, which represents a new phase for the industry, must be carefully thought through and implemented to avoid repeating the disastrous effects of the initial clearance of primary forest on biodiversity and the environment.The productive life of an oil-palm crop is 25–30 years and, because the boom in oil-palm cultivation began in the mid-1980s, large areas of ageing oil palm in southeast Asia now need replacing. However, the long-term nature of the crop has allowed biological complexity to build up around it over time.There is therefore a risk that the replanting phase — just like the initial clearance for planting — will disrupt natural habitats by indiscriminate removal of vegetation and heavy disturbance of soil and hydrological systems.We suggest that large-scale replanting operations should be carried out carefully with a view to minimizing such adverse effects on the environment
Biodiversity technologies: tools as change agents
No full textA meeting on Biodiversity Technologies was held by the Biodiversity Institute, Oxford on the 27–28 of September 2012 at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. The symposium brought together 36 speakers from North America, Australia and across Europe, presenting the latest research on emerging technologies in biodiversity science and conservation. Here we present a perspective on the general trends emerging from the symposium. <br/
Dataset in support of the Southampton doctoral thesis 'Impact of landscape on bee diversity, diet, fitness, and behaviour'
No full textThis deposit contains the data underlying the above thesis. This includes:
The raw landscape metrics data for Belize.
Pollen taxa counts, their identification and the hive they were found in.
Honey bee learning counts, hive location and UK landscape metrics.</span
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