Opportunistic citizen science databases are becoming an important way of gathering information on species distributions. These data are temporally and spatially dispersed and could have limitations ...regarding biases in the distribution of the observations in space and/or time. In this work, we test the influence of landscape variables in the distribution of citizen science observations for eight taxonomic groups. We use data collected through a Portuguese citizen science database (biodiversity4all.org). We use a zero-inflated negative binomial regression to model the distribution of observations as a function of a set of variables representing the landscape features plausibly influencing the spatial distribution of the records. Results suggest that the density of paths is the most important variable, having a statistically significant positive relationship with number of observations for seven of the eight taxa considered. Wetland coverage was also identified as having a significant, positive relationship, for birds, amphibians and reptiles, and mammals. Our results highlight that the distribution of species observations, in citizen science projects, is spatially biased. Higher frequency of observations is driven largely by accessibility and by the presence of water bodies. We conclude that efforts are required to increase the spatial evenness of sampling effort from volunteers.
Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) consolidate information from varied biodiversity observation sources. Here we demonstrate the links between data sources, EBVs and indicators and discuss how ...different sources of biodiversity observations can be harnessed to inform EBVs. We classify sources of primary observations into four types: extensive and intensive monitoring schemes, ecological field studies and satellite remote sensing. We characterize their geographic, taxonomic and temporal coverage. Ecological field studies and intensive monitoring schemes inform a wide range of EBVs, but the former tend to deliver short-term data, while the geographic coverage of the latter is limited. In contrast, extensive monitoring schemes mostly inform the population abundance EBV, but deliver long-term data across an extensive network of sites. Satellite remote sensing is particularly suited to providing information on ecosystem function and structure EBVs. Biases behind data sources may affect the representativeness of global biodiversity datasets. To improve them, researchers must assess data sources and then develop strategies to compensate for identified gaps. We draw on the population abundance dataset informing the Living Planet Index (LPI) to illustrate the effects of data sources on EBV representativeness. We find that long-term monitoring schemes informing the LPI are still scarce outside of Europe and North America and that ecological field studies play a key role in covering that gap. Achieving representative EBV datasets will depend both on the ability to integrate available data, through data harmonization and modeling efforts, and on the establishment of new monitoring programs to address critical data gaps.
•Terrestrial biodiversity observations can be organized into four types.•These types differ in taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage.•The representativeness of EBV datasets is affected by the underlying types of data.•Global datasets of population abundance are affected by the lack of long-term data.•New monitoring programs must address critical data gaps.
Because of the immense amount of infrastructure in cities, the introduction of vegetation into these constructions is expected to play a critical role in reducing the heat island effect, in ...mitigating the effects of climate change, and in supporting habitat connectivity and associated biodiversity. Although there is the perception that these solutions can improve the biodiversity of cities, their real value is still unclear. This paper focuses on two aspects of urban greening: green roofs and green walls. It provides a systematic review on biodiversity present in green roofs and walls, through an exhaustive worldwide literature analysis. Arthropods, bats, and birds were the three taxonomic groups analyzed in the papers included in our review. We observed a strong increase in the number of recent publications, thus demonstrating a growing interest in this topic. In summary, we found that green roofs/walls offered additional opportunities for plants and animals to thrive in urban environments because of habitat creation and greater spatial connectivity. In addition, the enhancement of other ecosystem services such as stormwater management and heat island mitigation was noted. By incorporating green features into urban design and planning, cities can support biodiversity while also improving the overall sustainability and livability of urban spaces.
Citizen science has become a mainstream approach to collect information and data on many different scientific subjects. In this study, we assess the effectiveness of engagement and meaningful ...experience of participants in citizen science projects. We use motivational measures calculated from a web survey where respondents answered questions regarding to their motivation to participate in BioDiversity4All, a Portuguese citizen science project. We adapted the intrinsic motivation inventory (IMI) and considered seven categories of measurement: Interest/Enjoyment, Perceived Competence, Effort/Importance, Perceived Choice, Value/Usefulness, Project Relatedness, and Group Relatedness each of them with statements rated on a seven-point Likert scale. We received 149 survey responses, corresponding to 10.3 % of BioDiversity4All Newsletter's receivers. We analyzed for possible differences among the categories pertaining to gender, age, level of education and level of participation in the project. Finally, we assessed the different patterns of motivation existing among the users. No statistical differences were found between genders, age classes and levels of education for the averages in any category of analysis. However, IMI categories presented different results for respondents with different levels of participation. The highest value of Interest/Enjoyment and Perceived Competence was obtained by the group of respondents that participate a lot and the lowest by the ones that never participated. Project Relatedness had the highest value for all groups except for the group that never participated. This group had completely different motivations from the other groups, showing the lowest levels in categories such as Perceived Competence, Value/Usefulness, Project Relatedness and Group Relatedness. In conclusion, the results from our work show that working deeply on people's involvement is fundamental to increase and maintain their participation on citizen science projects. If, for initial recruitment and in countries with low participation culture, mechanisms of external motivation may be necessary, to guarantee higher levels of long term participation, citizen science projects should foster intrinsic motivations which can be done by incorporating in project design experiences of relatedness, capacity building, positive feedback and adapted participation modes. Keywords: Citizen Science, Self Determination Theory, Intrinsic Motivation
We present a dataset that assembles occurrence records of alien tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) in the Iberian Peninsula, a coherent biogeographically unit where introductions of ...alien species have occurred for millennia. These data have important potential applications for ecological research and management, including the assessment of invasion risks, formulation of preventive and management plans, and research at the biological community level on alien species. This dataset summarizes inventories and data sources on the taxonomy and distribution of alien tetrapods in the Iberia Peninsula, comprising known locations from published literature, expert knowledge and citizen science platforms. An expert-based assessment process allowed the identification of unreliable records (misclassification or natural dispersion from native range), and the classification of species according to their status of reproduction in the wild. Distributional data was harmonized into a common area unit, the 10 × 10 km Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system (n = 6,152 cells). The year of observation and/or year of publication were also assigned to the records. In total, we assembled 35,940 unique distribution records (UTM × species × Year) for 253 species (6 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 218 birds and 13 mammals), spanning between 1912 and 2020. The species with highest number of distribution records were the Mediterranean painted frog
Discoglossus pictus
(n = 59 UTM), the pond slider
Trachemys scripta
(n = 471), the common waxbill
Estrilda astrild
(n = 1,275) and the house mouse
Mus musculus
(n = 4,043), for amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, respectively. Most alien species recorded are native to Africa (33%), followed by South America (21%), Asia (19%), North America (12%) and Oceania (10%). Thirty-six species are classified by IUCN as threatened in their native range, namely 2 Critically Endangered (CR), 6 Endangered (EN), 8 Vulnerable (VU), and 20 species Near Threatened (NT). Species maps are provided in DataSet1, as well R code and GIS layers to update them as new records are obtained.
Fungal diversity notes is one of the important journal series of fungal taxonomy that provide detailed descriptions and illustrations of new fungal taxa, as well as providing new information of ...fungal taxa worldwide. This article is the 11th contribution to the fungal diversity notes series, in which 126 taxa distributed in two phyla, six classes, 24 orders and 55 families are described and illustrated. Taxa in this study were mainly collected from Italy by Erio Camporesi and also collected from China, India and Thailand, as well as in some other European, North American and South American countries. Taxa described in the present study include two new families, 12 new genera, 82 new species, five new combinations and 25 new records on new hosts and new geographical distributions as well as sexual-asexual reports. The two new families are
Eriomycetaceae
(Dothideomycetes, family
incertae sedis
) and
Fasciatisporaceae
(
Xylariales
, Sordariomycetes). The twelve new genera comprise
Bhagirathimyces
(
Phaeosphaeriaceae
),
Camporesiomyces
(
Tubeufiaceae
),
Eriocamporesia
(
Cryphonectriaceae
),
Eriomyces
(
Eriomycetaceae
),
Neomonodictys
(
Pleurotheciaceae
),
Paraloratospora
(
Phaeosphaeriaceae
),
Paramonodictys
(
Parabambusicolaceae
),
Pseudoconlarium
(Diaporthomycetidae, genus
incertae sedis
),
Pseudomurilentithecium
(
Lentitheciaceae
),
Setoapiospora
(
Muyocopronaceae
),
Srinivasanomyces
(
Vibrisseaceae
) and
Xenoanthostomella
(
Xylariales
, genera
incertae sedis
). The 82 new species comprise
Acremonium chiangraiense
,
Adustochaete nivea
,
Angustimassarina camporesii
,
Bhagirathimyces himalayensis
,
Brunneoclavispora camporesii
,
Camarosporidiella camporesii
,
Camporesiomyces mali
,
Camposporium appendiculatum
,
Camposporium multiseptatum
,
Camposporium septatum
,
Canalisporium aquaticium
,
Clonostachys eriocamporesiana
,
Clonostachys eriocamporesii
,
Colletotrichum hederiicola
,
Coniochaeta vineae
,
Conioscypha verrucosa
,
Cortinarius ainsworthii
,
Cortinarius aurae
,
Cortinarius britannicus
,
Cortinarius heatherae
,
Cortinarius scoticus
,
Cortinarius subsaniosus
,
Cytospora fusispora
,
Cytospora rosigena
,
Diaporthe camporesii
,
Diaporthe nigra
,
Diatrypella yunnanensis
,
Dictyosporium muriformis
,
Didymella camporesii
,
Diutina bernali
,
Diutina sipiczkii
,
Eriocamporesia aurantia
,
Eriomyces heveae
,
Ernakulamia tanakae
,
Falciformispora uttaraditensis
,
Fasciatispora cocoes
,
Foliophoma camporesii
,
Fuscostagonospora camporesii
,
Helvella subtinta
,
Kalmusia erioi
,
Keissleriella camporesiana
,
Keissleriella camporesii
,
Lanspora cylindrospora
,
Loratospora arezzoensis
,
Mariannaea atlantica
,
Melanographium phoenicis
,
Montagnula camporesii
,
Neodidymelliopsis camporesii
,
Neokalmusia kunmingensis
,
Neoleptosporella camporesiana
,
Neomonodictys muriformis
,
Neomyrmecridium guizhouense
,
Neosetophoma camporesii
,
Paraloratospora camporesii
,
Paramonodictys solitarius
,
Periconia palmicola
,
Plenodomus triseptatus
,
Pseudocamarosporium camporesii
,
Pseudocercospora maetaengensis
,
Pseudochaetosphaeronema kunmingense
,
Pseudoconlarium punctiforme
,
Pseudodactylaria camporesiana
,
Pseudomurilentithecium camporesii
,
Pseudotetraploa rajmachiensis
,
Pseudotruncatella camporesii
,
Rhexocercosporidium senecionis
,
Rhytidhysteron camporesii
,
Rhytidhysteron erioi
,
Septoriella camporesii
,
Setoapiospora thailandica
,
Srinivasanomyces kangrensis
,
Tetraploa dwibahubeeja
,
Tetraploa pseudoaristata
,
Tetraploa thrayabahubeeja
,
Torula camporesii
,
Tremateia camporesii
,
Tremateia lamiacearum
,
Uzbekistanica pruni
,
Verruconis mangrovei
,
Wilcoxina verruculosa
,
Xenoanthostomella chromolaenae
and
Xenodidymella camporesii
. The five new combinations are
Camporesiomyces patagoniensis
,
Camporesiomyces vaccinia
,
Camposporium lycopodiellae
,
Paraloratospora gahniae
and
Rhexocercosporidium microsporum
. The 22 new records on host and geographical distribution comprise
Arthrinium marii
,
Ascochyta medicaginicola
,
Ascochyta pisi
,
Astrocystis bambusicola
,
Camposporium pellucidum
,
Dendryphiella phitsanulokensis
,
Diaporthe foeniculina
,
Didymella macrostoma
,
Diplodia mutila
,
Diplodia seriata
,
Heterosphaeria patella
,
Hysterobrevium constrictum
,
Neodidymelliopsis ranunculi
,
Neovaginatispora fuckelii
,
Nothophoma quercina
,
Occultibambusa bambusae
,
Phaeosphaeria chinensis
,
Pseudopestalotiopsis theae
,
Pyxine berteriana
,
Tetraploa sasicola
,
Torula gaodangensis
and
Wojnowiciella dactylidis
. In addition, the sexual morphs of
Dissoconium eucalypti
and
Phaeosphaeriopsis pseudoagavacearum
are reported from
Laurus nobilis
and
Yucca gloriosa
in Italy, respectively. The holomorph of
Diaporthe cynaroidis
is also reported for the first time.
Opportunistic citizen data documenting species observations – i.e. observations collected by citizens in a non-standardized way – is becoming increasingly available. In the absence of scientific ...observations, this data may be a viable alternative for a number of research questions. Here we test the ability of opportunistic species records to provide predictions of the realized distribution of species and if species attributes can act as indicators of the reliability and completeness of these data. We use data for 39 reptile and amphibian species across mainland Portugal as a case study. We collected distribution data from two independent sources: a national citizen-science project and a scientific. We measure and compare the climatic niche width of the species as represented by each of the two data sources. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) were used to relate a set of response variables describing the species’ morphology, life-history, communication, type of locomotion, habitat and geographic distribution, to observed differences in niche widths. We also performed species distribution models (SDMs) for each of the two types of data using generalized additive models. We found that 12 species had more than 50% of their climate niche covered by citizen science data. Results from GLMMs suggested that the number of grid cells in which a species occurs and its use of forest habitat were positively related to the comprehensiveness of the sampling of climatic niches by citizen science data. Variation in the p of SDMs for both types of data (as measured by the true skill statistic; TSS) was highly similar but SDMs from citizen science data had an overall lower performance. Nevertheless a few species achieved good predictions (TSS>0.6) using these data. We conclude that species observations in citizen science projects can provide accurate predictions of species realized distributions, however, efforts should be made to identify the conditions under which these data are more likely to provide reliable representations of the species niches.
Fusarium
is a genus of ubiquitous fungi that comprises mycotoxigenic animal and plant pathogens. These fungi have the ability to exploit a wide range of substrates and hosts, indicating their great ...potential for enzyme production; however, this aspect is understudied. Therefore, the present study aimed for revaluating the identity of twenty-three
Fusarium
strains maintained in the University Recife Mycology (URM) culture collection, Brazil, and to evaluate their potential for proteases production and the milk-clotting activity of these proteases. According to phylogenetic analysis of translation elongation factor 1-alpha (
TEF1
) gene partial sequences, these strains belonged to 12 species representing four species complexes:
Fusarium concolor
,
F. fujikuroi
,
F. incarnatum-equiseti
, and
F. oxysporum
. Four of these species are putatively novel to science. Notably, novel associations of
Fusarium
spp. with certain hosts/substrates were documented. The proteolytic activity ranged from 1.67 U ml
−1
to 22.03 U ml
−1
among the evaluated fungal isolates, with specific proteolytic activity reaching 205.86 U mg
−1
. The values for coagulant activity and specific activity were up to 157.14 U ml
−1
and 1,424.11 U mg
−1
, respectively. These results indicate the potential of URM
Fusarium
strains as a source for the production of enzymes of industrial interest. Additionally, they reinforce the importance of applying DNA-based methods for reviewing the identification of fungal strains preserved in biodiversity repositories.
Human activities and recent changes in sanitary regulations are currently shaping the availability of carrion resources across ecosystems. How changes in regulations influence demographic parameters ...in avian scavengers is still poorly known. We combine photographic observations gathered by citizens and observational data from research projects in northern Spain to examine if the age structure of Eurasian Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) populations at different trophic resources (natural randomly-distributed carcasses, predictable resources supplementary feeding sites and farms, and landfills) varied in relation to modifications of sanitary regulations from 2004 onwards. We found that the proportion of immature birds increased significantly after the introduction of new European sanitary regulations allowing farmers to dispose of livestock carcasses in the field, rather than incinerating them. Also, we found that the age structure varied significantly between food resources, such that we detected a higher fraction of immatures at landfills, as well as in sites where carrion was highly clumped. These findings reveal that loss of natural randomness in carrion availability may elicit age-dependent effects on the spatial distribution of the vultures at the mesoscale which may ultimately affect population structure. Our findings shed light on challenges on how to manage food subsidies to preserve avian scavenger populations in an increasingly anthropized world.
Fusarium incarnatum
-
equiseti
species complex (FIESC) is considered as one of the richest insecticolous species.
Fusarium
species synthesize toxic secondary metabolites that are not fully ...understood. Mycotoxin production and pathogenicity on germinating seeds, seedlings, and leaves must be carefully studied for the use of
Fusarium
species in the biological control of insect pests. In this study, we evaluated the mycotoxin production and phytopathogenic potential of entomopathogenic strains of
Fusarium sulawesiensis
(1),
F. pernambucanum
(3), and
F. caatingaense
(23). The phytopathogenicity tests of
F. caatingaense
(URM 6776, URM 6777, URM 6778, URM 6779, and URM 6782) were performed during the development of bean (
Phaseolus vulgaris
,
Vigna unguiculata
, and
Phaseolus lunatus
), and corn (
Zea mays
) seedlings, using four treatments (soil infestation with the inoculum, spraying on leaves, root dip, and negative control). The mycotoxins, monoacetyl-deoxynivalenols (AcDON), deoxynivalenol (DON), beauvericin (BEA), fusarenone-X (FUS), T-2 toxin (T2), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), and zearalenone (ZEA), were detected in the study; BEA (detected in 25 strains) and FUS (detected in 21 strains) were found to be predominant. None of the strains showed any ability to cause disease or virulence in beans and corn. The FIESC strains showed a highly variable production of mycotoxins without the potential to be used as phytopathogenic agents for the cultures tested.
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