Ten unanswered questions in multimodal communication

The study of multimodal communication has become an active and vibrant field. This special issue of Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology brings together new developments in this rapidly expanding area. In this final contribution to the special issue, I look to the future and discuss ten questions in need of further work, touching on issues ranging from theoretical modeling and the evolution of behavior to molecular mechanisms and the development of behavior. In particular, I emphasize that the use of multimodal communication allows animals to switch between sensory channels when one channel becomes too noisy, and suggest that a better understanding of this process may help us both to understand the evolution of multisensory signaling and to predict the success of species facing environmental changes that affect signaling channels, such as urbanization and climate change. An expanded section is included on the effects of climate change on animal communication across sensory channels, urging researchers to pursue this topic due to the rapidity with which the environment is currently transforming.     

China as a new shaper of international development: the environmental implications

The emergence of China as a global player challenges the pre-existing dominance of the OECD countries and will continue to be a crucial force for global change in coming decades. The implications of China’s rise will be most significant for low- and middle-income countries, but the outcomes will also affect China’s relations with traditional donors and the understanding of the process of development. While these issues are increasingly explored at the political and economic level, very little analysis is available for the environmental impacts that China has on low- and middle-income countries. It is well understood that China plays a major role in relation to climate change, energy use and natural resource use at the global level; however, the perspective of China’s environmental impacts on low- and middle-income countries is underexplored. This Special Issue, therefore, elaborates the rise of China from the environmental perspective and assesses the impacts of China’s rise on low- and middle-income countries for international research, policy and practice in the field of environment and development. The findings draw on insights relevant for energy, water, forestry and land issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America.     

Energy justice and ethical consumption: comparison,synthesis and lesson drawing

This paper takes a first step in comparing and synthesising the emerging concept of energy justice with extant ethical consumption literatures as two complementary theoretical approaches to ethics and consumption. To date, theories of ethical consumption and energy justice remain somewhat disconnected, so while they have some areas of potential comparability, these have not yet been fleshed out or developed. To address this lacuna, this paper explores areas where research into ethical consumption might be useful for furthering concepts of energy justice. More specifically the discussion draws on the philosophical foundations, the relationship between consumption and development, and the role of transparency and visibility in reconnecting consumption and production practices as the main areas of overlap in these literatures. The conclusion points to some lessons for emerging energy justice literatures that can be drawn from this task of comparison and synthesis.     

Detection and Classification of Motor Vehicle Noise in a Forested Landscape

Noise emanating from human activity has become a common addition to natural soundscapes and has the potential to harm wildlife and erode human enjoyment of nature. In particular, motor vehicles traveling along roads and trails produce high levels of both chronic and intermittent noise, eliciting varied responses from a wide range of animal species. Anthropogenic noise is especially conspicuous in natural areas where ambient background sound levels are low. In this article, we present an acoustic method to detect and analyze motor vehicle noise. Our approach uses inexpensive consumer products to record sound, sound analysis software to automatically detect sound events within continuous recordings and measure their acoustic properties, and statistical classification methods to categorize sound events. We describe an application of this approach to detect motor vehicle noise on paved, gravel, and natural-surface roads, and off-road vehicle trails in 36 sites distributed throughout a national forest in the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA. These low-cost, unobtrusive methods can be used by scientists and managers to detect anthropogenic noise events for many potential applications, including ecological research, transportation and recreation planning, and natural resource management.     

Why keep lions instead of livestock? Assessing wildlife tourism‐based payment for ecosystem services involving herders in the Maasai Mara,Kenya

This paper examines the effects of wildlife tourism‐based payments for ecosystem services (PES) on poverty, wealth inequality and the livelihoods of herders in the Maasai Mara Ecosystem in south‐western Kenya. It uses the case of Olare Orok Conservancy PES programme in which pastoral landowners have agreed to voluntary resettlement and exclusion of livestock grazing from their sub‐divided lands. These lands are set aside for wildlife tourism, in return for direct monetary payments by a coalition of five commercial tourism operators. Results show that, on the positive side, PES is the most equitable income source that promotes income diversification and buffers households from the livestock income declines during periods of severe drought, such as in 2008‐2009. Without accounting for the opportunity costs, the magnitude of the PES cash transfer to households is, on average, sufficient to close the poverty gap. The co‐benefits of PES implementation include the creation of employment opportunities in the conservancy and provision of social services. There is however a need to mitigate the negative effects of PES, including the widening inequality in income between PES and non‐PES households and the leakages resulting from the displacement of settlements and livestock to currently un‐subdivided pastoral commons.     

Identifying future research directions for biodiversity,ecosystem services and sustainability: perspectives from early-career researchers

We aimed to identify priority research questions in the field of biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability (BESS), based on a workshop held during the NRG BESS Conference for Early Career Researchers on BESS, and to compare these to existing horizon scanning exercises. This work highlights the need for improved data availability through collaboration and knowledge exchange, which, in turn, can support the integrated valuation and sustainable management of ecosystems in response to global change. In addition, clear connectivity among different research themes in this field further emphasizes the need to consider a wider range of topics simultaneously to ensure the sustainable management of ecosystems for human wellbeing. In contrast to other horizon scanning exercises, our focus was more interdisciplinary and more concerned with the limits of sustainability and dynamic relationships between social and ecological systems. The identified questions could provide a framework for researchers, policy makers, funding agencies and the private sector to advance knowledge in biodiversity and ES research and to develop and implement policies to enable sustainable future development.     

The trail pheromone of the ant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Crematogaster castanea</Emphasis>

Summary. The major component of the trail pheromone of the myrmicine ant Crematogaster castanea has been identified as (R)-2-dodecanol from the tibial glands of the hind legs. The substance gave activity comparable to the contents of 8 tibial glands at a concentration of 1 pg per 32 cm trail.     

Temporal mangrove dynamics in relation to coastal development in Pacific Panama

This study assessed the changes in extent of fringing mangrove located in Punta Mala Bay, Panama in relation to coastal development over a period of two decades. Punta Mala Bay was chosen for this study, due to its social importance and its biological significance, as it is one of the few mangrove areas left around Panama City. Fieldwork confirmed the importance of Laguncularia racemosa in the bay, which formed nearly monospecific stands with a large number of seedlings indicating that the forest was rejuvenating. The mangrove was mapped from 1980 to 2002 using digitised aerial photographs and a GIS was used to determine the location and rates of mangrove growth and loss before and after the construction of a road and water treatment works in 1998. The land use maps were produced with an overall accuracy of 83.8%. The user's accuracy of the maps for L. racemosa dominated stands was 89.7%, although the producer's accuracy was lower due to the omission of seedlings on intertidal areas. It was found that the mangrove was spatially dynamic and had grown substantially in the bay at a rate ranging from 6 to 215% per year until the construction commenced. Between 1997 and 2002 there were 100% loss of mangrove in some areas due to the coastal development. The resilience of the dominant species L. racemosa at this locality was shown by the continued growth of two mangrove zones during the construction period 1997-2002, with one zone increasing in area by 61%. The pioneering ability of L. racemosa after disturbance was demonstrated by the development of two new mangrove zones of 498 and 1254 m2 on bare intertidal areas after construction finished. Future mapping and fieldwork could provide information on the development of mangrove communities and their response to reoccurring human impacts.