Changes in interacting species with disturbance

Human-influenced changes in the diversity and abundance of native wildlife in a southern boreal forest area, which became a national park in 1975, are used to develop working hypotheses for predicting and subsequently measuring the effects of disturbance or restoration programs on groups of interacting species. Changes from presettlement conditions began with early 1900 hunting, which eliminated woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and elk (Cervus elaphus), and reduced moose (Alces alces) to the low numbers which still persist. Increases in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), as these other cervid species became less abundant or absent, provided enough alternative food to sustain the system's carnivores until plant succession on previously burned or logged areas also caused deer to decline. With increased competition for reduced food, carnivore species also became less abundant or absent and overexploited some prey populations. The abilities of interacting species to maintain dynamically stable populations or persist varied with their different capacities to compensate for increased exploitation or competition. These relationships suggested a possible solution to the problem of predicting the stability of populations in disturbed systems. For the 1976–1985 period, a hypothesis that the increased protection of wildlife from exploitation in a national park would restore a more diverse, abundant, and productive fauna had to be rejected.     

How the loss of forest fauna undermines the achievement of the SDGs

The human-driven loss of biodiversity has numerous ecological, social, and economic impacts at the local and global levels, threatening important ecological functions and jeopardizing human well-being. In this perspective, we present an overview of how tropical defaunation—defined as the disappearance of fauna as a result of anthropogenic drivers such as hunting and habitat alteration in tropical forest ecosystems—is interlinked with four selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We discuss tropical defaunation related to nutrition and zero hunger (SDG 2), good health and well-being (SDG 3), climate action (SDG 13), and life on land (SDG 15). We propose a range of options on how to study defaunation in future research and how to address the ongoing tropical defaunation crisis, including but not limited to recent insights from policy, conservation management, and development practice.     

Assessment of mammal reproduction for hunting sustainability through community‐based sampling of species in the wild

Wildlife subsistence hunting is a major source of protein for tropical rural populations and a prominent conservation issue. The intrinsic rate of natural increase. (r_max) of populations is a key reproductive parameter in the most used assessments of hunting sustainability. However, researchers face severe difficulties in obtaining reproductive data in the wild, so these assessments often rely on classic reproductive rates calculated mostly from studies of captive animals conducted 30 years ago. The result is a flaw in almost 50% of studies, which hampers management decision making. We conducted a 15‐year study in the Amazon in which we used reproductive data from the genitalia of 950 hunted female mammals. Genitalia were collected by local hunters. We examined tissue from these samples to estimate birthrates for wild populations of the 10 most hunted mammals. We compared our estimates with classic measures and considered the utility of the use of r_max in sustainability assessments. For woolly monkey (Lagothrix poeppigii) and tapir (Tapirus terrestris), wild birthrates were similar to those from captive populations, whereas birthrates for other ungulates and lowland‐paca (Cuniculus paca) were significantly lower than previous estimates. Conversely, for capuchin monkeys (Sapajus macrocephalus), agoutis (Dasyprocta sp.), and coatis (Nasua nasua), our calculated reproductive rates greatly exceeded often‐used values. Researchers could keep applying classic measures compatible with our estimates, but for other species previous estimates of r_max may not be appropriate. We suggest that data from local studies be used to set hunting quotas. Our maximum rates of population growth in the wild correlated with body weight, which suggests that our method is consistent and reliable. Integration of this method into community‐based wildlife management and the training of local hunters to record pregnancies in hunted animals could efficiently generate useful information of life histories of wild species and thus improve management of natural resources.     

热振森林大型土壤动物群落特征及其影响因素

为了解西藏拉萨市林周县热振国家森林公园不同海拔大型土壤动物群落的空间分布特征及其与环境因子的关系,于2021年7月(夏季)根据其地理特征设置了三个不同海拔共9个样地.采用手捡法对大型土壤动物进行收集,并将其保存在75%酒精的收集管中,同时测定相应的环境因子.共捕获大型土壤动物1427个,经形态学鉴定隶属于2门5纲15目21科,其中优势类群为姬马陆科(Julidae)和蚁科(Formicidae),占总捕获量的66.0%.常见类群共10类,占总捕获量的31.3%;稀有类群占总捕获量的2.7%.热振国家森林公园大型土壤动物的类群、Shannon多样性指数、均匀度指数和优势度指数在三个不同海拔之间无显著性差异(P>0.05).大型土壤动物群落Jaccard相似性系数位于0.15~0.77.Pearson相关性结果显示,大型土壤动物个体数与海拔呈极显著负相关(P<0.01),与土壤温度和pH呈显著正相关(P<0.05);冗余分析显示,排序轴1和轴2共同解释了的类群组成变化的55.0%,全磷(TP)和有效磷(AP)为显著性解释变量,对大型土壤动物群落的解释率分别为29.6%和18.5%,是影响大型土壤动物群落的主要环境因子.     

Dynamics and Structural Changes of the Fluke Fauna in Fish of the Volga Delta Caused by the Rise of Water Level in the Caspian Sea

Changes in the Caspian Sea level and anthropogenic influences on biocenoses of the Volga Delta periodically result in the changes of dominant species among animal helminths. An abrupt rise of the sea level since the mid-1970s caused structural rearrangements in the fluke fauna of fish in the 1990s: the species whose development is connected with mollusks of the rheophilic complex became dominant.     

稀土元素对梅园主要土壤动物群落结构组成的影响

为阐明不同稀土处理对梅园土壤动物群落组成的影响,采用手拣法、干漏斗法和湿漏斗法对梅园各稀土处理区土壤动物群落组成进行系统调查,共得土壤动物标本8076个,隶属于4门15纲31目.其中昆虫纲物种最为丰富,有12目,占全部种群数的58.41%;;鞘翅目、膜翅目、蜱螨目、双翅目和弹尾纲等5种优势类群占土壤动物个体总数的81.44%.5种稀土处理区中,杂食性土壤动物功能团所占的比例均高于植食性功能团所占的比例,且杂食性土壤动物所占的比例依次为对照区(CK)(La处理区(下同)(Ce区(Pr区(Nd区(Sm区.不同浓度稀土处理区中土壤动物类群和个体数量均随着稀土浓度增加而减少,杂食性功能团所占的比例也高于植食性功能团所占的比例,且杂食性功能团所占的比例依次为对照区(CK)(25区(mg·kg-1处理区,下同)(50区(100区(500区(1000区(2000区(3000区.以Pr处理后的土壤动物物种数多,个体数量大,优势集中性指数高,优势物种优势性极明显,其它4种稀土在类群数、个体数、优势集中性指数和优势类群优势性和Pr规律基本相同,依次为Nd、Sm、Ce和La,但均比CK小.因此,5种稀土及其不同浓度处理区土壤动物群...     

Understanding why consumers in China switch between wild,farmed, and synthetic bear bile products

An important rationale for legally farmed and synthetic wildlife products is that they reduce illegal, wild-sourced trade by supplying markets with sustainable alternatives. For this to work, more established illegal-product consumers must switch to legal alternatives than new legal-product consumers switch to illegal wild products. Despite the widespread debate on the magnitude and direction of switching, studies among actual consumers are lacking. We used an anonymous online survey of 1421 traditional Chinese medicine consumers in China to investigate switching among legal farmed, synthetic, and illegal wild bear bile. We examined the past consumption behavior, applied a discrete choice experiment framed within worsening hypothetical disease scenarios, and used latent class models to investigate groups with shared preferences. Bear bile consumers (86% respondents) were wealthier, more likely to have family who consumed bile, and less knowledgeable about bile treatments than nonconsumers. Consumer preferences were heterogenous, but most consumer preferences switched between bile types as disease worsened. We identified five distinct latent classes within our sample: law-abiding consumers (34% respondents), who prefer legal products and were unlikely to switch; two all-natural consumer groups (53%), who dislike synthetics but may switch between farmed and wild; and two nonconsumer groups (12%), who prefer not to buy bile. People with past experience of bile consumption had different preferences than those without. Willingness to switch to wild products was related to believing they were legal, although the likelihood of switching was mediated by preferences for cheaper products sold in legal, familiar places. We found that consumers of wild bile may switch to legal alternatives, given the availability of a range of products, whereas legal-product consumers may switch to illegal products if the barriers to doing so are small. Understanding preferences that promote or impede switching should be a key consideration when attempting to predict consumer behavior in complex wildlife markets.     

Large carnivore hunting and the social license to hunt

The social license to operate framework considers how society grants or withholds informal permission for resource extractors to exploit publicly owned resources. We developed a modified model, which we refer to as the social license to hunt (SLH). In it we similarly consider hunters as operators, given that wildlife are legally considered public resources in North America and Europe. We applied the SLH model to examine the controversial hunting of large carnivores, which are frequently killed for trophies. Killing for trophies is widespread, but undertaken by a minority of hunters, and can pose threats to the SLH for trophy-seeking carnivore hunters and potentially beyond. Societal opposition to large carnivore hunting relates not only to conservation concerns but also to misalignment between killing for trophies and dominant public values and attitudes concerning the treatment of animals. We summarized cases related to the killing of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), wolves (Canis lupus), and other large carnivores in Canada, the United States, and Europe to illustrate how opposition to large carnivore hunting, now expressed primarily on social media, can exert rapid and significant pressure on policy makers and politicians. Evidence of the potential for transformative change to wildlife management and conservation includes proposed and realized changes to legislation, business practice, and wildlife policy, including the banning of some large carnivore hunts. Given that policy is ultimately shaped by societal values and attitudes, research gaps include developing increased insight into public support of various hunting policies beyond that derived from monitoring of social media and public polling. Informed by increased evidence, the SLH model can provide a conceptual foundation for predicting the likelihood of transient versus enduring changes to wildlife conservation policy and practice for a wide variety of taxa and contexts.     

Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling

Mass media worldwide has contributed to increasing awareness of the illegal wildlife trade and its significant impact on wildlife conservation. We used mass media coverage as a proxy for macro-level public opinion to analyze the media framing of elephant ivory in 6394 Chinese newspaper articles published from 2000 to 2021 and thus determine the effects of wildlife policies on public opinion. We focused on 2 events: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) approval of China as a trading partner in the purchase and import of ivory stockpiles from Africa in July 2008 and the Chinese government's announcement of a domestic ivory ban in December 2016. Using latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling, we identified 8 topics about elephant ivory and grouped them into 3 frames: ivory arts and culture, ivory crimes, and elephant conservation. Over the last 2 decades, topics related to ivory crimes remained the most prevalent in news articles. Topics about ivory arts and culture showed a significant shift in media salience before and after the 2 events (from 0.44 to 0.19 and from 0.08 to 0.15, respectively, p < 0.05), whereas the other 2 frames did not change significantly. Contrary to popular belief, our results indicated that Chinese macro-level public opinion on ivory had become more negative following the CITES approval of ivory importation and less negative after the ivory ban announcement, at least for certain periods. The relationship between mass media, public opinion, and wildlife trade policies is complex and requires further examination of the sociopolitical dynamics that influence media narratives. Our results showed the value of topic modeling in monitoring and assessing media representations of wildlife issues in the era of big data. Conservationists should remain vigilant of mass media coverage and collaborate with media practitioners to produce comprehensive narratives on wildlife issues if resources permit.     

Mapping legal authority for terrestrial conservation corridors along streams

Wildlife corridors aim to promote species’ persistence by connecting habitat patches across fragmented landscapes. Their implementation is limited by patterns of land ownership and complicated by differences in the jurisdictional and regulatory authorities under which lands are managed. Terrestrial corridor conservation requires coordination across jurisdictions and sectors subject to site-specific overlapping sources of legal authority. Mapping spatial patterns of legal authority concurrent with habitat condition can illustrate opportunities to build or leverage capacity for connectivity conservation. Streamside areas provide pragmatic opportunities to leverage existing policy mechanisms for riverine and terrestrial habitat connectivity across boundaries. Conservation planners and practitioners can make use of these opportunities by harmonizing actions for multiple conservation outcomes. We formulated an integrative, data-driven method for mapping multiple sources of legal authority weighted by capacity for coordinating terrestrial habitat conservation along streams. We generated a map of capacity to coordinate streamside corridor protections across a wildlife habitat gap to demonstrate this approach. We combined values representing coordination capacity and naturalness to generate an integrated legal-ecological resistance map for connectivity modeling. We then computed least-cost corridors across the integrated map, masking the terrestrial landscape to focus on streamside areas. Streamside least-cost corridors in the integrated, local-scale model diverged (∼25 km) from national-scale least-cost corridors based on naturalness. Spatial categories comparing legal- and naturalness-based resistance values by stream reach highlighted potential locations for building or leveraging existing capacity through spatial coordination of policy mechanisms or restoration actions. Agencies or nongovernmental organizations intending to restore or maintain habitat connectivity across fragmented landscapes can use this approach to inform spatial prioritization and build coordination capacity. Article impact statement: Combined mapping of legal authority and habitat condition reveals capacity to coordinate actions along streams for clean water and wildlife.