Suchergebnisse

With rapid urban expansion, biodiversity conservation and human asset protection often require different regimes for managing wildfire risk. We conducted a controlled, replicated experiment to optimise habitat restoration for the threatened Australian pink-tailed worm-lizard, Aprasia parapulchella while reducing fire fuel load in a rapidly developing urban area. We used dense addition of natural rock (30 % cover) and native grass revegetation (Themedatriandra and Poasieberiana) to restore critical habitat elements. Combinations of fire and herbicide (Glyphosate) were used to reduce fuel load and invasive exotic species. Rock restoration combined with herbicide application met the widest range of restoration goals: it reduced fire fuel load, increased ant occurrence (the primary prey of A. parapulchella) in the short-term and increased the growth and survival of native grasses. Lizards colonised the restored habitat within a year of treatment. Our study documents an innovative way by which conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human asset protection can be overcome. ; This project was supported by funds from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government.

Habitat fragmentation can have several adverse genetic impacts on populations. Assessing the extent of these threatening processes is essential in conservation management. In the present study, we investigated the genetic population structure of the endangered pygmy bluetongue lizard, Tiliqua adelaidensis, which is now restricted to a few small fragments of its previously more extensive grassland habitat. The aim of our study was to investigate genetic diversity and gene flow both among and within sample sites. The information will assist in making recommendations for habitat conservation and translocation programs. We collected DNA from 229 individuals from six isolated sample sites and genotyped them for 16 polymorphic microsatellite loci. Across all six sample sites, observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.75 to 0.82. There was no evidence of population bottlenecks and little evidence of inbreeding due to consanguineous mating. Genetic differentiation was low to moderate although significant for all pairs of sample sites (FST = 0.021–0.091). Results from Bayesian clustering analyses revealed distinct clusters in the overall sample and suggested restricted gene flow between sample sites separated by distances ranging from 1.7 to 71.6 km. By using spatial autocorrelation, we also found a significant genetic structure within sample sites at distances up to 30 m, suggesting restricted gene flow even in small patches of continuous habitat. It will be important to preserve this finely clustered population structure in captive breeding and translocation programs. Increasing opportunities for gene flow through habitat corridors or population augmentation may help maintain genetic diversity and prevent an increase in differentiation. Although endangered species do not always present model systems for studying fragmentation, our approach shows how important genetic information can be acquired to aid conservation in highly fragmented ecosystems.

© 2018 by the authors. ; Conserving animals and plants in fire-prone landscapes requires evidence of how fires affect modified ecosystems. Despite progress on this front, fire ecology is restricted by a dissonance between two dominant paradigms: 'fire mosaics' and 'functional types'. The fire mosaic paradigm focuses on animal responses to fire events and spatial variation, whereas the functional type paradigm focuses on plant responses to recurrent fires and temporal variation. Fire management for biodiversity conservation requires input from each paradigm because animals and plants are interdependent and influenced by spatial and temporal dimensions of fire regimes. We propose that better integration of animal-based and plant-based approaches can be achieved by identifying common metrics that describe changes in multiple taxa; linking multiple components of the fire regime with animal and plant data; understanding plant-animal interactions; and incorporating spatial and temporal characteristics of fires into conservation management. Our vision for a more integrated fire ecology could be implemented via a collaborative and global network of research and monitoring sites, where measures of animals and plants are linked to real-time data on fire regimes. ; Kelly was funded by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and a Victorian Postdoctoral Research Fellowship delivered by veski on behalf of the Victorian Government. Brotons and Pausas were funded by the Government of Spain on Project CGL2017-89999-C2 and CGL2015-64086-P, respectively. Smith was supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship FIRESCAPE-746191 under the EU H2020 Programme for Research and Innovation.

Fire has been a source of global biodiversity for millions of years. However, interactions with anthropogenic drivers such as climate change, land use, and invasive species are changing the nature of fire activity and its impacts. We review how such changes are threatening species with extinction and transforming terrestrial ecosystems. Conservation of Earth's biological diversity will be achieved only by recognizing and responding to the critical role of fire. In the Anthropocene, this requires that conservation planning explicitly includes the combined effects of human activities and fire regimes. Improved forecasts for biodiversity must also integrate the connections among people, fire, and ecosystems. Such integration provides an opportunity for new actions that could revolutionize how society sustains biodiversity in a time of changing fire activity. ; The workshop leading to this paper was funded by the Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions. L.T.K. was supported by a Victorian Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Victorian Government), a Centenary Fellowship (University of Melbourne), and an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant (LP150100765). A.R. was supported by the Xunta de Galicia (Postdoctoral Fellowship ED481B2016/084-0) and the Foundation for Science and Technology under the FirESmart project (PCIF/MOG/0083/2017). A.L.S. was supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (746191) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation. L.R. was supported by the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program through the Threatened Species Recovery Hub. L.B. was partially supported by the Spanish Government through the INMODES (CGL2014-59742-C2-2-R) and the ERANET-SUMFORESTS project FutureBioEcon (PCIN-2017-052). This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station.

When plants establish outside their native range, their ability to adapt to the new environment is influenced by both demography and dispersal. However, the relative importance of these two factors is poorly understood. To quantify the influence of demography and dispersal on patterns of genetic diversity underlying adaptation, we used data from a globally distributed demographic research network comprising 35 native and 18 nonnative populations of Plantago lanceolata. Species-specific simulation experiments showed that dispersal would dilute demographic influences on genetic diversity at local scales. Populations in the native European range had strong spatial genetic structure associated with geographic distance and precipitation seasonality. In contrast, nonnative populations had weaker spatial genetic structure that was not associated with environmental gradients but with higher within-population genetic diversity. Our findings show that dispersal caused by repeated, long-distance, human-mediated introductions has allowed invasive plant populations to overcome environmental constraints on genetic diversity, even without strong demographic changes. The impact of invasive plants may, therefore, increase with repeated introductions, highlighting the need to constrain future introductions of species even if they already exist in an area. ; This research was supported by a Science Foundation Ireland grant to Y.M.B. (European Research Council Development Programme15/ERCD/2803). A.L.S. was supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (746191) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation. Additional support came from: Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) (Academia Award to S.M.-B.), Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2015-64001-P/MINECO/FEDER to S.M.-B.), Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (Institutional Research Funding IUT20–29 to M.P.), European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence Ecol Change to M.P.), New Zealand Ministry for Business Innovation (Employment's Strategic Science Investment Fund to R.G.) and Academy of Finland (285746 to S.R.)