After the native population of Oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana) in Japan disappeared, a reintroduction project was implemented in 2005. All released storks and most wild-fledged storks were ...individually identified using colored rings on their legs. The size of the reintroduced population reached 256 by the end of 2021. In this study, we investigated the causes of stork injury and death in wild populations to clarify important medical issues for successful reintroduction. During the survey, 153 of 412 (78 released and 334 fledged storks) storks were injured or died between 2005 and 2021. At least 49.7% of the injuries and deaths were directly caused by human activities. Entanglement with pest control measures (such as bird- and beast-proofing nets) and accident with electrical and telecommunication equipment are two major causes of injury and death of reintroduced Oriental storks in Japan. It is important to recognize that these anthropogenic threats have a significant impact on the establishment and maintenance of the reintroduced populations of Oriental storks in Japan. Therefore, it is necessary to implement countermeasures against these threats to establish human and Oriental storks coexistence, which is a major goal of reintroduction.
The conservation of plants has not generated the sense of urgency—or the funding—that drives the conservation of animals, although plants are far more important for us. There are an estimated 500,000 ...species of land plants (angiosperms, gymnosperms, ferns, lycophytes, and bryophytes), with diversity strongly concentrated in the humid tropics. Many species are still unknown to science. Perhaps a third of all land plants are at risk of extinction, including many that are undescribed, or are described but otherwise data deficient. There have been few known global extinctions so far, but many additional species have not been recorded recently and may be extinct. Although only a minority of plant species have a specific human use, many more play important roles in natural ecosystems and the services they provide, and rare species are more likely to have unusual traits that could be useful in the future. The major threats to plant diversity include habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and anthropogenic climate change. Conservation of plant diversity is a massive task if viewed globally, but the combination of a well-designed and well-managed protected area system and ex situ gap-filling and back-up should work anywhere. The most urgent needs are for the completion of the global botanical inventory and an assessment of the conservation status of the 94% of plant species not yet evaluated, so that both in and ex situ conservation can be targeted efficiently. Globally, the biggest conservation gap is in the hyperdiverse lowland tropics and this is where attention needs to be focused.
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•An indicator of the conservation status of useful wild plant species is presented.•Useful wild plants worldwide are poorly conserved, especially ex situ.•Periodic calculations of the ...indicator will assess progress toward global targets.
Plants are essential sources of food, medicine, shelter, fuel, feed, and forage, and provide a wide range of additional ecosystem and cultural services to humanity. In recognition of the tremendous value of useful plants and of the increasing threats to their persistence, international agreements including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture have created ambitious conservation targets which must be measured through quantitative indicators so as to facilitate the development and implementation of strategies aimed at safeguarding their genetic diversity. Gaps in the current list of functioning indicators for these targets suggest that the development of effective measurements of the state of conservation of the genetic diversity within useful plants is a major challenge. Here we present a gap analysis indicator methodology that provides a pragmatic estimate of the comprehensiveness of conservation of the genetic diversity within useful wild plants, both ex situ and in situ. The methodology compares the geographic and ecological variation evident from analyses of the ‘site of collection’ of samples of plant taxa that are safeguarded in genebanks and other living plant repositories, as well as the variation evident in the proportion of species’ ranges inhabiting protected areas, against the full range of geographic and ecological variation in their native distributions. The methodology enables a prioritization of species for immediate conservation action, and, when measured periodically, can quantify progress toward comprehensive conservation of these plants at global, regional, and national scales, including determining when that goal has been reached. Assessing almost 7000 taxa with the “Comprehensiveness of conservation of useful wild plants” indicator, we find that they are currently highly under-conserved, with less than three out of every 100 taxa assessed as sufficiently conserved or of low priority for further conservation action (overall global indicator = 2.78). Indicator results at the national and regional scales as well as by species use type varied, although virtually all countries, regions, and use categories were found to require further conservation action, particularly with regard to ex situ conservation. The results as well as input data and method code are available for indicator reporting and for conservation prioritization setting.
With c. 28,000 species, orchids are one of the largest families of flowering plants, and they are also one of the most threatened, in part due to their complex life history strategies. Threats ...include habitat destruction and climate change, but many orchids are also threatened by unsustainable (often illegal and/or undocumented) harvest for horticulture, food or medicine. The level of these threats now outstrips our abilities to combat them at a species-by-species basis for all species in such a large group as Orchidaceae; if we are to be successful in conserving orchids for the future, we will need to develop approaches that allow us to address the threats on a broader scale to complement focused approaches for the species that are identified as being at the highest risk.
During the last century, the progressive substitution of landraces with modern, high yielding varieties, led to a dramatic reduction of in situ conserved crop diversity in Europe. Nowadays there is ...limited and scattered information on where landraces are cultivated. To fill this gap and lay the groundwork for a regional landrace in situ conservation strategy, information on more than 19,335 geo-referenced landrace cultivation sites were collated from 14 European countries. According to collected data, landraces of 141 herbaceous and 48 tree species are cultivated across Europe: Italy (107 species), Greece (93), Portugal (45) and Spain (44) hold the highest numbers. Common bean, onion, tomato, potato and apple are the species of main interest in the covered countries. As from collected data, about 19.8% of landrace cultivation sites are in protected areas of the Natura 2000 network. We also got evidence that 16.7% and 19.3% of conservation varieties of agricultural species and vegetables are currently cultivated, respectively. Results of the GIS analysis allowed the identification of 1261 cells (25 km × 25 km) including all the cultivation sites, distributed across all European biogeographical regions. Data of this study constitute the largest ever produced database of in situ-maintained landraces and the first attempt to create an inventory for the entire Europe. The availability of such resource will serve for better planning of actions and development of policies to protect landraces and foster their use.
•19,335 geo-referenced landrace cultivation sites recorded in Europe.•189 crop species cultivated as landraces across 14 European countries.•19.8% of landrace cultivation sites in Natura 2000 protected areas•Landrace cultivation sites in all European biogeographical regions
Soils rich in expansive clays (i.e., smectite and montmorillonite, and, to a lesser extent, soft clays such as sepiolite and palygorskite) are found in a broad stretch running NNE-SSW from the east ...of Madrid to the Tagus River surrounds in the province of Toledo. These clays tend to give rise to a specific type of soil, known as "vertisols" or related argillic soils with vertic behaviour, varied chemical and sedimentological composition, and occasionally siliceous or dolomitic clasts. In these soils, where there is an absence of woody vegetation, the colonising nitrophilous vegetation becomes of particular interest through the usage and alteration of the land. These argillic soil plant communities are incredibly diversified, with flora suited to the unique hydrogeochemical conditions of these settings. The variety of these plant communities is determined by factors such as land use, lithology, terrain, and the level of humidity they can withstand. We identify the primary plant community on the Madrid-Toledo expansive clays in this paper, as well as provide a preliminary approach to the different varieties and transitions to other related plant communities. The main dynamic and catena links are established, and a floristically summarised table is provided, along with a descriptive examination of the community's behaviour and variability. Finally, its conservation status and the high degree of threat to which it is subjected are assessed.
Fungi comprise approximately 20% of all eukaryotic species and are connected to virtually all life forms on Earth. Yet, their diversity remains contentious, their distribution elusive, and their ...conservation neglected. We aim to flip this situation by synthesizing current knowledge. We present a revised estimate of 2-3 million fungal species with a "best estimate" at 2.5 million. To name the unknown >90% of these by the end of this century, we propose recognition of species known only from DNA data and call for large-scale sampling campaigns. We present an updated global map of fungal richness, highlighting tropical and temperate ecoregions of high diversity. We call for further Red List assessments and enhanced management guidelines to aid fungal conservation. Given that fungi play an inseparable role in our lives and in all ecosystems, and considering the fascinating questions remaining to be answered, we argue that fungi constitute the next frontier of biodiversity research.
BACKGROUND: Conservation through reserves alone is now considered unlikely to achieve protection of plant species necessary to mitigate direct losses of habitat and the pervasive impact of global ...climate change. Assisted translocation/migration represent new challenges in the face of climate change; species, particularly orchids, will need artificial assistance to migrate from hostile environments, across ecological barriers (alienated lands such as farmlands and built infrastructure) to new climatically buffered sites. The technology and science to underpin assisted migration concepts are in their infancy for plants in general, and orchids, with their high degree of rarity, represent a particularly challenging group for which these principles need to be developed. It is likely that orchids, more than any other plant family, will be in the front-line of species to suffer large-scale extinction events as a result of climate change. SCOPE: The South West Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR) is the only global biodiversity hotspot in Australia and represents an ideal test-bed for development of orchid conservation principles. Orchids comprise 6 % of all threatened vascular plants in the SWAFR, with 76 out of the 407 species known for the region having a high level of conservation risk. The situation in the SWAFR is a portent of the global crisis in terrestrial orchid conservation, and it is a region where innovative conservation solutions will be required if the impending wave of extinction is to be averted. Major threatening processes are varied, and include land clearance, salinity, burning, weed encroachment, disease and pests. This is compounded by highly specialized pollinators (locally endemic native invertebrates) and, in the most threatened groups such as hammer orchids (Drakaea) and spider orchids (Caladenia), high levels of mycorrhizal specialization. Management and development of effective conservation strategies for SWAFR orchids require a wide range of integrated scientific approaches to mitigate impacts that directly influence ecological traits critical for survival. CONCLUSIONS: In response to threats to orchid species, integrated conservation approaches have been adopted (including ex situ and translocation principles) in the SWAFR with the result that a significant, multidisciplinary approach is under development to facilitate conservation of some of the most threatened taxa and build expertise to carry out assisted migration to new sites. Here the past two decades of orchid conservation research in the SWAFR and the role of research-based approaches for managing effective orchid conservation in a global biodiversity hotspot are reviewed.
•Aquatic animals' distribution changes with seasonal hydrological fluctuations.•Fixed small-scale protected areas cannot effectively protect target species.•Flexible protection strategies to cope ...with insufficient coverage of key habitats•Maintaining habitats connectivity to restore the affected natural movement rhythm
Identifying seasonal high-use habitats and migration corridors is the basis for migratory species conservation. Previous studies have focused on Marine Protected Areas, while freshwater ecosystems, often accompanied by severe hydrological fluctuations, suggest new perspectives for flexible management. Poyang Lake is an essential habitat for the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis, YFP), supporting almost half of their natural population. However, studies on the movement patterns and habitat preferences of YFPs still lack there, preventing potential protected areas’ effectiveness. In this study, we conducted 10 surveys for the YFP population in the main body and tributaries of Poyang Lake from October 2018 to August 2020. We used habitat modeling to analyze their seasonal habitat use and the environmental predictors. YFPs showed a seasonal movement pattern consistent with water level fluctuations. They entered the tributaries from the main lake body in low and medium water levels and returned to the main lake during high water level periods. The water depth was the most important environmental variable in each hydrological season that affects YFPs’ habitat selection. The suitable water depth was about 4-8 m during the low water level, 6-12 m during the medium water level, and 7-20 m during the high water level. YFPs’ 50% core habitats distribution showed noticeable seasonal changes. The proportion of their suitable habitats in the whole lake was relatively low, which was highest during high water level (16.89%), and the weakest during low water level (12.11%). Considering the seasonal movements of the YFPs in the lake, we recommend flexible management measures for their core habitats to alleviate human interference and restore their movement rhythm between the river and the lake, which shed light on protected area management for aquatic animals in such seasonal fluctuating habitats.
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