Rodent outbreaks affect many farmland areas worldwide and the negative environmental impacts of control campaigns cause intense social tensions. In such conservation conflicts, understanding stakeholders’ viewpoints is critical to promote ecologically sustainable management. We used Q-methodology, a framework standing between qualitative and quantitative social research, to investigate human subjectivity and understand conflicts caused by rodent outbreaks in Spain. We interviewed farmers, conservationists, hunters, and governmental agencies, and identified five main discourses about the origins and consequences of the conflictive situation. Finding sustainable management is impaired by opposing views about causes and consequences of vole outbreaks and their management, which are at the root of the conflict. Social tensions will likely remain until the underlying conflicts between people holding different views are also managed. Decision-making should therefore focus on mitigating underlying conflicts. Using trained independent mediators would help the effective resolution of conservation conflicts caused by rodent outbreaks and their management.
A key measure of humanity's global impact is by how much it has increased species extinction rates. Familiar statements are that these are 100–1000 times pre‐human or background extinction levels. Estimating recent rates is straightforward, but establishing a background rate for comparison is not. Previous researchers chose an approximate benchmark of 1 extinction per million species per year (E/MSY). We explored disparate lines of evidence that suggest a substantially lower estimate. Fossil data yield direct estimates of extinction rates, but they are temporally coarse, mostly limited to marine hard‐bodied taxa, and generally involve genera not species. Based on these data, typical background loss is 0.01 genera per million genera per year. Molecular phylogenies are available for more taxa and ecosystems, but it is debated whether they can be used to estimate separately speciation and extinction rates. We selected data to address known concerns and used them to determine median extinction estimates from statistical distributions of probable values for terrestrial plants and animals. We then created simulations to explore effects of violating model assumptions. Finally, we compiled estimates of diversification—the difference between speciation and extinction rates for different taxa. Median estimates of extinction rates ranged from 0.023 to 0.135 E/MSY. Simulation results suggested over‐ and under‐estimation of extinction from individual phylogenies partially canceled each other out when large sets of phylogenies were analyzed. There was no evidence for recent and widespread pre‐human overall declines in diversity. This implies that average extinction rates are less than average diversification rates. Median diversification rates were 0.05–0.2 new species per million species per year. On the basis of these results, we concluded that typical rates of background extinction may be closer to 0.1 E/MSY. Thus, current extinction rates are 1,000 times higher than natural background rates of extinction and future rates are likely to be 10,000 times higher. Estimación de la Tasa Normal de Extinción de Especies 相似文献
Ovigerous females of the subtidal xanthid crab Neopanope sayi (Smith) and the high intertidal grapsid crab Sesarma cinereum (Bosc) were collected during the summers of 1986 and 1987 in the Beaufort, North Carolina (USA), area and brought into the laboratory, where rhythms in larval release were monitored. When crabs with late-stage embryos were put under a 14 h light:10 h dark cycle in an otherwise constant-environment room, an apparent tidal rhythm in release of larvae was observed for both species, with N. sayi releasing near the time of day and night high tides, and S. cinereum releasing around the time of night high tides. The time of sunset relative to high tide was a complicating factor, since larval release for both species was often concentrated around sunset when evening high tides fell several hours before sunset. When a group of N. sayi and S. cinereum were brought into the laboratory and placed under constant lowlevel light for 5 d, the release rhythm of the population persisted, thus implying that the rhythm is endogenous. Larval release near the time of high tide and often at night is common among brachyurans living in tidal areas, regardless of specific adult habitat, suggesting a common functional advantage. Possibilities include transport of larvae from areas where predation and the likelihood of stranding and exposure to low-salinity waters are high, as well as a reduced probability of predation on adult females. Results of the present study suggest that the importance of release after darkness may increase with increasing tidal height of the adult. 相似文献
Egg data from ichthyoplankton monitoring sites in the western English Channel (1988–2003) and northern Spain (1990–2000) and
macroscopic maturity data from biological samples of purse seine landings in western and southern Iberia (1980–2004) are used
to describe the spawning seasonality of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in European waters of the northeast Atlantic using generalised additive models. The fitted models reveal a double peak in
spawning activity during early summer and autumn in the western Channel, a wider spring peak off northern Spain and a broad
winter season in the western and southern Iberian Peninsula. At all sites, a high probability of spawning activity was observed
over at least 3 months of the year, with the duration of the season increasing with both decreasing latitude and increasing
fish size. Off western and southern Iberia there are indications that the spawning season has been of longer duration in recent
years for all size classes (reaching in some cases 8 months of the year for large fish). These patterns are in general agreement
with existing literature and theoretical expectations of sardine spawning being driven locally by the seasonal cycle of water
temperature, assuming preferences for spawning at 14 –15°C and avoidance for temperatures below 12°C and above 16°C. Regional
quotient plots indicated that spawning tolerance to higher temperatures increases progressively with decreasing latitude.
Despite the weak evidence for geographical differences in temperature tolerance that may have some genetic origin, the degree
of spatio-temporal overlap in sardine-spawning activity within Atlantic European waters is unlikely to promote any reproductive
isolation in that area. 相似文献
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) banding patterns were compared between samples of the netted dogwhelk Nassarius reticulatus from 11 locations along the NW Iberian Peninsula coast. To detect if rias (estuaries formed by drowned river valleys) might
promote genetic differentiation, five sampling sites were located within a ria (ria of Muros) and the remaining six were scattered
along open-coast areas at increasing distances from the ria mouth. Population differentiation statistics (Φ-values) were estimated
using a hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) with samples sorted into two groups: open-coast and ria populations.
Despite a high potential to disperse, AMOVA demonstrated a modest, statistically significant genetic heterogeneity among N. reticulatus populations. Most of the genetic structure resided in differences among open-coast populations; ria populations were genetically
homogeneous. No obvious geographical pattern was detected for the pairwise genetic distances (non-metric multidimensional
scaling; UPGMA tree; Mantel test). Unlike previous studies with other species at a variety of estuarine systems other than
rias, there was no evidence that the ria of Muros may enhance the genetic divergence of N. reticulatus populations. This discrepancy is discussed in relation to the biological features of the species (high dispersal potential
and a preference for mid-low estuarine habitat) and the strong hydrographic connectivity between ria and neighbouring off-shore
waters. 相似文献