Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

Feral pigeons are descendants of wild rock pigeons that have adapted to the urban habitat. They have partially conserved the foraging behaviour of their wild ancestors (flights to agricultural areas) but have also developed new habits. Previous studies on the foraging strategies of feral pigeons have given various results, e.g. maximum distances reached by the pigeons (measured in a straight line from the resting places) differed between 0.3–0.5 km and 18–25 km. This study focuses on the spatio-temporal activity of feral pigeons in the urban habitat. We equipped 80 free-living feral pigeons from Basel, Switzerland with GPS receivers. We found three different foraging strategies for pigeons in Basel: (1) in the streets, squares and parks near the home loft, (2) in agricultural areas surrounding the city, (3) on docks and railway lines in harbours. The maximum distance reached by a pigeon was 5.29 km. More than 32% of the pigeons remained within 0.3 km of the home lofts and only 7.5% flew distances of more than 2 km. Females covered significantly longer distances than males, preferring to fly to more abundant and predictable food sources. Temporal activity patterns showed to be influenced by sex, breeding state and season. In contrast to wild rock pigeons and to feral pigeons in other cities, pigeons in Basel showed a clear bimodal activity pattern for breeding birds only. The differences between our results and those of other studies seem to be partly method-dependent, as the GPS-technique allows to record the pigeons’ localisations continuously in contrast to other methods. Other differences might be due to different kinds of food supply in the various cities. Our study shows that feral pigeons have individual foraging strategies and are flexible enough to adapt to different urban environments.Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

现代测绘技术在解决矿区资源与环境问题中的应用探讨

以“３Ｓ”技术及其集成为代表的现代测绘技术在解决我国矿区存在的资源浪费及环境污染问题中具有重要的应用,本文对此进行了探讨。     

Assessing climate change and health vulnerability at the local level: Travis County,Texas

We created a measure to help comprehend population vulnerability to potential flooding and excessive heat events using health, built environment and social factors. Through principal component analysis (PCA), we created non‐weighted sum index scores of literature‐reviewed social and built environment characteristics. We created baseline poor health measures using 1999–2005 age‐adjusted cardiovascular and combined diabetes and hypertension mortality rates to correspond with social–built environment indices. We mapped US Census block groups by linked age‐adjusted mortality and a PCA‐created social–built environment index. The goal was to measure flooding and excessive heat event vulnerability as proxies for population vulnerability to climate change for Travis County, Texas. This assessment identified communities where baseline poor health, social marginalisation and built environmental impediments intersected. Such assessments may assist targeted interventions and improve emergency preparedness in identified vulnerable communities, while fostering resilience through the focus of climate change adaptation policies at the local level.     

Multi-stage sampling for large scale natural resources surveys: a case study of rice and waterfowl

Large-scale sample surveys to estimate abundance and distribution of organisms and their habitats are increasingly important in ecological studies. Multi-stage sampling (MSS) is especially suited to large-scale surveys because of the natural clustering of resources. To illustrate an application, we: (1) designed a stratified MSS to estimate late autumn abundance (kg/ha) of rice seeds in harvested fields as food for waterfowl wintering in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV); (2) investigated options for improving the MSS design; and (3) compared statistical and cost efficiency of MSS to simulated simple random sampling (SRS). During 2000-2002, we sampled 25-35 landowners per year, 1 or 2 fields per landowner per year, and measured seed mass in 10 soil cores collected within each field. Analysis of variance components and costs for each stage of the survey design indicated that collecting 10 soil cores per field was near the optimum of 11-15, whereas sampling >1 field per landowner provided few benefits because data from fields within landowners were highly correlated. Coefficients of variation (CV) of annual estimates of rice abundance ranged from 0.23 to 0.31 and were limited by variation among landowners and the number of landowners sampled. Design effects representing the statistical efficiency of MSS relative to SRS ranged from 3.2 to 9.0, and simulations indicated SRS would cost, on average, 1.4 times more than MSS because clustering of sample units in MSS decreased travel costs. We recommend MSS as a potential sampling strategy for large-scale natural resource surveys and specifically for future surveys of the availability of rice as food for waterfowl in the MAV and similar areas.     

Conservation Value of Remnant Riparian Forest Corridors of Varying Quality for Amazonian Birds and Mammals

Abstract:  Forest corridors are often considered the main instrument with which to offset the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. Brazilian forestry legislation requires that all riparian zones on private landholdings be maintained as permanent reserves and sets fixed minimum widths of riparian forest buffers to be retained alongside rivers and perennial streams. We investigated the effects of corridor width and degradation status of 37 riparian forest sites (including 24 corridors connected to large source-forest patches, 8 unconnected forest corridors, and 5 control riparian zones embedded within continuous forest patches) on bird and mammal species richness in a hyper-fragmented forest landscape surrounding Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil. We used point-count and track-sampling methodology, coupled with an intensive forest-quality assessment that combined satellite imagery and ground truthed data. Vertebrate use of corridors was highly species-specific, but broad trends emerged depending on species life histories and their sensitivity to disturbance. Narrow and/or highly disturbed riparian corridors retained only a depauperate vertebrate assemblage that was typical of deforested habitats, whereas wide, well-preserved corridors retained a nearly complete species assemblage. Restriction of livestock movement along riparian buffers and their exclusion from key areas alongside deforested streams would permit corridor regeneration and facilitate restoration of connectivity .     

Floristics, performance and prognosis of historical trees in the urban forest of Guangzhou City (China)

Outstanding historical trees embedded in cities constitute pertinent environmental assets, yet they are widely threatened in third-world cities. Inadequate understanding of this valuable natural-cum-cultural heritage hinders proper conservation. A case study of Guangzhou in south China evaluated floristic composition, age profile and biomass structure of historical trees, assessed their performance in major habitats (institutional, park and roadside), and established a prognosis for future growth and management. The 348 historical trees examined belonged to only 25 species, vis-à -vis 254 trees in the entire urban forest, dominated by five species and native members. Roadside had more trees, followed by institutional and park, with merely the most common four species shared by all habitats. The limited commonality reflected tree-performance differentiation by habitats exerting selection pressure on species. The institutional growth-regime was more conducive to nurturing high-caliber specimens, whereas park is less capable. Individual species achievement by habitats, derived from tree-count ranking and relative-abundance indices, could inform species choice and tree conservation. Few trees exceeded 300 years of age in the millennium-old city, echoing a history of intense tree—city conflicts. Potential life-span, trunk and crown diameters indicated ample opportunities for further expansion of biomass and landscape impacts, which would be straitjacketed by the tightening urban fabric.     

Spatiotemporal dynamics of forest-tundra communities in the polar urals

The spatiotemporal dynamics of forest-tundra communities in the 20th century have been studied in the timberline ecotone of the Polar Urals. Maps reflecting the distribution of different types of forest-tundra communities have been made, and data on the morphological and age structure of tree stands have been obtained for three time sections (the mid-1910s, 1960s, and 2000s). They show that open and closed forests have markedly expanded due to natural afforestation of the tundra and increase in the density and productivity of existing forest stands. The unidirectional pattern of plant community transition (from the tundra to closed forests) and meteorological data provide evidence that this transition has been conditioned by climate warming and increasing humidity recorded during the past 90 years.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 83–90.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Shiyatov, Terentev, Fomin.     

Statistical inference on patch-specific survival and movement rates from marked animals

Empirical estimates of patch-specific survival and movement rates are needed to parametrize spatially explicit population models, and for inference on the effects of habitat quality and fragmentation on populations. Data from radio-marked animals, in which both the fates and habitat locations of animals are known over time, can be used in conjunction with continuous-time proportional hazards models to obtain inferences on survival rates. Discrete-time conditional logistic models may provide inference on both survival and movement rates. We use Monte Carlo simulation to investigate accuracy of estimates of survival from both approaches, and movement rates from conditional logistic regression, for two habitats. Bias was low (relative bias < 0.04) and interval coverage accurate (close to the nominal 0.95) for estimates of habitat effect on survival based on proportional hazards. Bias was high ( relative bias 0.60) and interval coverage poor ( = 0.26 vs. nominal 0.95) for estimates of habitat effect based on conditional logistic regression; bias was especially influenced by heterogeneity in survival and the shape of the hazard function, whereas both bias and coverage were affected by ‘memory’ effects in movement patterns. Bias estimates of movement rate was low ( relative bias < 0.05), but interval coverage was poor ( = 0.48–0.80), possibly as a result of poor performance of a Taylor series estimate of variance. An example is provided from a radio-telemetry study of 47 wintering American woodcock (Scolopax minor), illustrating practical difficulties in field studies to parametrize these models. We also discuss extensions of continuous-time models to explicitly include a movement process, and further examine tradeoffs between continuous and discrete models.     

东洞庭湖保护区1989～1998年水禽栖息地动态研究

栖息地的改变是全球生物多样性存在的最大威胁。利用卫星遥感技术和地理信息系统的空间分析功能,从景观尺度上研究了东洞庭湖自然保护区1989～1998年越冬水禽栖息地的动态变化特征,结果表明:1989～1998年水体、泥滩地、草滩地和水田等水禽适宜栖息地的面积在减小,破碎化程度有所增加,而芦苇滩地、旱地、林地、建成区这几类水禽分布较少栖息地类型的面积和破碎化程度的变化正好相反;近10年来水禽栖息地的变化比较明显,其中草滩地演变为芦苇滩地及水田改为旱作农田的变化最为突出,变化的面积分别占整个保护区面积的10.66%和6.13%。这些变化趋势意味着研究区近10年来水禽的适宜栖息地在退化。针对变化的原因,论文还对该区域生物多样性的保护与栖息地管理提出了可行的建议。     

乌梁素海湿地鸟类栖息地生态服务功能评估探讨

本文通过收集近30年鸟类种类及种群数据变化的资料,分析乌粱素海不同鸟类栖息环境的栖息地服务功能,从而评估鸟梁素海湿地鸟类栖息地的综合生态服务功能。评估结果表明：乌梁素海湿地鸟类栖息地综合生态服务功能为不好。