Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation

Plant conservation initiatives lag behind and receive considerably less funding than animal conservation projects. We explored a potential reason for this bias: a tendency among humans to neither notice nor value plants in the environment. Experimental research and surveys have demonstrated higher preference for, superior recall of, and better visual detection of animals compared with plants. This bias has been attributed to perceptual factors such as lack of motion by plants and the tendency of plants to visually blend together but also to cultural factors such as a greater focus on animals in formal biological education. In contrast, ethnographic research reveals that many social groups have strong bonds with plants, including nonhierarchical kinship relationships. We argue that plant blindness is common, but not inevitable. If immersed in a plant‐affiliated culture, the individual will experience language and practices that enhance capacity to detect, recall, and value plants, something less likely to occur in zoocentric societies. Therefore, conservation programs can contribute to reducing this bias. We considered strategies that might reduce this bias and encourage plant conservation behavior. Psychological research demonstrates that people are more likely to support conservation of species that have human‐like characteristics and that support for conservation can be increased by encouraging people to practice empathy and anthropomorphism of nonhuman species. We argue that support for plant conservation may be garnered through strategies that promote identification and empathy with plants.     

The data not collected on community forestry

Conservation and development practitioners increasingly promote community forestry as a way to conserve ecosystem services, consolidate resource rights, and reduce poverty. However, outcomes of community forestry have been mixed; many initiatives failed to achieve intended objectives. There is a rich literature on institutional arrangements of community forestry, but there has been little effort to examine the role of socioeconomic, market, and biophysical factors in shaping both land‐cover change dynamics and individual and collective livelihood outcomes. We systematically reviewed the peer‐reviewed literature on community forestry to examine and quantify existing knowledge gaps in the community‐forestry literature relative to these factors. In examining 697 cases of community forest management (CFM), extracted from 267 peer‐reviewed publications, we found 3 key trends that limit understanding of community forestry. First, we found substantial data gaps linking population dynamics, market forces, and biophysical characteristics to both environmental and livelihood outcomes. Second, most studies focused on environmental outcomes, and the majority of studies that assessed socioeconomic outcomes relied on qualitative data, making comparisons across cases difficult. Finally, there was a heavy bias toward studies on South Asian forests, indicating that the literature on community forestry may not be representative of decentralization policies and CFM globally.     

Implications of human value shift and persistence for biodiversity conservation

Large‐scale change in human values and associated behavior change is believed by some to be the ultimate solution to achieve global biodiversity conservation. Yet little is known about the dynamics of values. We contribute to this area of inquiry by examining the trajectory of values affecting views of wildlife in North America. Using data from a 19‐state study in the United States and global data from the Schwartz Value Survey, we explored questions of value persistence and change and the nature of attitudinal responses regarding wildlife conservation issues. We found support, based on subjects’ ancestry, for the supposition that domination is a prevalent American value orientation toward wildlife that has origins in European Judeo‐Christian traditions. Independent of that effect, we also found indications of change. Modernization is contributing to a shift from domination to mutualism value orientations, which is fostering attitudes less centered on human interests and seemingly more consistent with a biocentric philosophy. Our findings suggest that if value shift could be achieved in a purposeful way, then significant and widespread behavior change believed necessary for long‐term conservation success may indeed be possible. In particular, greater emphasis on mutualism values may help provide the context for more collaborative approaches to support future conservation efforts. However, given the societal forces at play, it is not at all clear that human‐engineered value shift is tenable. Instead of developing strategies aimed at altering values, it may be more productive to create strategies that recognize and work within the boundaries of existing values. Whereas values appear to be in a period of flux, it will be difficult to predict future trends without a better understanding of value formation and shift, particularly under conditions of rapid social‐ecological change.     

Female reproductive qualities affect male painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) reproductive success

Male reproductive success (RS) in polygamous species with minimal social systems is often determined by the number of mates. However, because male RS is translated through females, the number of offspring sired can also be influenced by female qualities. Empirically sufficient data to document how tradeoffs between mate number and quality influence male RS are seldom available for long-lived, iteroparous species. We combined long-term life history data (1983–2006) on the E. S. George Reserve (ESGR, MI, USA) with parentage data from 155 clutches of 59 female painted turtles (Chrysemys picta marginata) of varying reproductive frequencies (2003–2006) to determine the relative contribution of female numbers and qualities on male RS. One previously documented trait of female painted turtles that can have substantial influences on male RS is repeat paternity through the use of stored sperm to fertilize over 95 % of within-year clutches. In addition, our study found that second-clutch producing female painted turtles on the ESGR have higher among-year reproductive frequencies than do first-clutch only females. Multiple paternity was detected in 14.1 % of clutches (min-max?=?6.1–30.0 % annually), and the number of mates of both sexes was low annually (males 1.0; females 1.2) and over 4 years (males 1.1; females 1.7). Among successful males, RS varied substantially (1–32 offspring) and was strongly influenced by the combination of female reproductive frequency and repeat paternity (>38 % among years), but not mate number. Low mate number for both sexes was unexpected in a species without complex mating behaviors or parental care.     

The Value of Using Feasibility Models in Systematic Conservation Planning to Predict Landholder Management Uptake

Understanding the social dimensions of conservation opportunity is crucial for conservation planning in multiple‐use landscapes. However, factors that influence the feasibility of implementing conservation actions, such as the history of landscape management, and landholders’ willingness to engage are often difficult or time consuming to quantify and rarely incorporated into planning. We examined how conservation agencies could reduce costs of acquiring such data by developing predictive models of management feasibility parameterized with social and biophysical factors likely to influence landholders’ decisions to engage in management. To test the utility of our best‐supported model, we developed 4 alternative investment scenarios based on different input data for conservation planning: social data only; biological data only; potential conservation opportunity derived from modeled feasibility that incurs no social data collection costs; and existing conservation opportunity derived from feasibility data that incurred collection costs. Using spatially explicit information on biodiversity values, feasibility, and management costs, we prioritized locations in southwest Australia to control an invasive predator that is detrimental to both agriculture and natural ecosystems: the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). When social data collection costs were moderate to high, the most cost‐effective investment scenario resulted from a predictive model of feasibility. Combining empirical feasibility data with biological data was more cost‐effective for prioritizing management when social data collection costs were low (<4% of the total budget). Calls for more data to inform conservation planning should take into account the costs and benefits of collecting and using social data to ensure that limited funding for conservation is spent in the most cost‐efficient and effective manner.     

Urinary stones as a novel matrix for human biomonitoring of toxic and essential elements

Monitoring of body burden of toxic elements is usually based on analysis of concentration of particular elements in blood, urine and/or hair. Analysis of these matrices, however, predominantly reflects short- or medium-term exposure to trace elements or pollutants. In this work, urinary stones were investigated as a matrix for monitoring long-term exposure to toxic and essential elements. A total of 431 samples of urinary calculi were subjected to mineralogical and elemental analysis by infrared spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The effect of mineralogical composition of the stones and other parameters such as sex, age and geographical location on contents of trace and minor elements is presented. Our results demonstrate the applicability of such approach and confirm that the analysis of urinary calculi can be helpful in providing complementary information on human exposure to trace metals and their excretion. Analysis of whewellite stones (calcium oxalate monohydrate) with content of phosphorus <0.6 % has been proved to be a promising tool for biomonitoring of trace and minor elements.

     

The value of Seasonal Correction Factors in assessing the health risk from domestic radon: a case study in Northamptonshire, UK

Following an intensive survey of domestic radon levels in the United Kingdom (UK), the former National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), now the Radiation Protection Division of the Health Protection Agency (HPA-RPD), established a measurement protocol and promulgated Seasonal Correction Factors applicable to the country as a whole. Radon levels in the domestic built environment are assumed to vary systematically and repeatably during the year, being generally higher in winter. The Seasonal Correction Factors therefore comprise a series of numerical multipliers, which convert a 1-month or 3-month radon concentration measurement, commencing in any month of the year, to an effective annual mean radon concentration. In a recent project undertaken to assess the utility of short-term exposures in quantifying domestic radon levels, a comparative assessment of a number of integrating detector types was undertaken, with radon levels in 34 houses on common geology monitored over a 12-month period using dose-integrating track-etch detectors exposed in pairs (one upstairs, one downstairs) at 1-month and 3-month resolution. Seasonal variability of radon concentrations departed significantly from that expected on the basis of the HPA-RPD Seasonal Correction Factor set, with year-end discontinuities at both 1-month and 3-month measurement resolutions. Following this study, monitoring with electrets was continued in four properties, with weekly radon concentration data now available for a total duration in excess of three and a half years. Analysis of this data has permitted the derivation of reliable local Seasonal Correction Factors. Overall, these are significantly lower than those recommended by HPA-RPD, but are comparable with other results from the UK and from abroad, particularly those that recognise geological diversity and are consequently prepared on a regional rather than a national basis. This finding calls into question the validity of using nationally aggregated Seasonal Correction Factors, especially for shorter exposures, and the universal applicability of these corrections is discussed in detail.