Designing Climate-Smart Conservation: Guidance and Case Studies

Abstract:  To be successful, conservation practitioners and resource managers must fully integrate the effects of climate change into all planning projects. Some conservation practitioners are beginning to develop, test, and implement new approaches that are designed to deal with climate change. We devised four basic tenets that are essential in climate-change adaptation for conservation: protect adequate and appropriate space, reduce nonclimate stresses, use adaptive management to implement and test climate-change adaptation strategies, and work to reduce the rate and extent of climate change to reduce overall risk. To illustrate how this approach applies in the real world, we explored case studies of coral reefs in the Florida Keys; mangrove forests in Fiji, Tanzania, and Cameroon; sea-level rise and sea turtles in the Caribbean; tigers in the Sundarbans of India; and national planning in Madagascar. Through implementation of these tenets conservation efforts in each of these regions can be made more robust in the face of climate change. Although these approaches require reconsidering some traditional approaches to conservation, this new paradigm is technologically, economically, and intellectually feasible.     

Effects of ultraviolet radiation on skin structure and ultrastructure in Caspian Sea Salmon,Salmo trutta caspius,during alevin stage

Ozone reduction enhances the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the aquatic ecosystems, which can induce adverse effects on fish. In order to study the UV radiation effects on skin structure and ultrastructure, the alevins of Salmo trutta caspius were exposed to two different doses of UV radiation (low doses of: 60 µW cm^?2 UVC; 100 µW cm^?2 UVB; and 40 µW cm^?2 UVA and high doses of: 90 µW cm^?2 UVC; 130 µW cm^?2 UVB; and 50 µW cm^?2 UVA) for 15 min once a day in dark condition. Alevins with no exposure to either solar light or UV exposure served as the control group. No mortality was observed in the control group, whereas all of the alevins died in the 9th day in both UV exposure groups. Light microscopic and scanning electron microscopic studies showed significant reduction in the epidermis thickness, number of skin mucous cells, and percentage of mucus secreting cells in both UV exposure groups. Sunburn cells, lifting epidermis from basal membrane, and disappearance of pavement cell microridges were also observed. Our results showed that UV radiation caused intensive skin cell lesions in the Caspian salmon alevins. Since the skin cells of trout alevins possesses essential roles in respiration, osmoregulation, excretion and defense, the observed damages to the skin could be attributed to their sudden mortality in the UV exposure.     

Organochlorine residues in the avifauna of Tamil Nadu (Southeast coast of India)

Pollution due to persistent pesticides is not a regional but a global problem. Organochlorine pesticides are persistent chemicals, stored and accumulated in the tissues of a wide variety of invertebrates and vertebrates including marine species. In the present study the organochlorine residues HCHs, DDTs and PCBs were measured in different trophic groups of birds (scavengers, inland piscivores, coastal piscivores, insectivores, granivores and omnivores) collected from Tamil Nadu Coast, India. The residue accumulation as a function of sex did not depict distinct variation. However, females had lower residue levels than males in terms of their mean weight and feeding habits. A continuous monitoring programme is recommended to establish the studied organisms as indicator species.     

Effects of daily nickel intake on the bio-accumulation,body weight and length in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Nickel pollution is a serious environmental problem, and its effects may provoke alterations in the ecosystem and in organism of animals and humans. Dermatitis, eczema, and asthma are some illnesses caused by Ni²⁺ poisoning. In this work, fish fed either Ni²⁺-enriched pellets or commercial pellets were studied. The amount of Ni²⁺ in fish were measurements by adsorptive stripping voltammetry (AdSV) with dimethylglyoxime as a complexing agent. The analysis of Ni²⁺ in fish by AdSV established that its accumulation occurs principally in viscera (670.86 ± 5.82 µg g^?1), in the head (697.12 ± 2.77 µg g^?1) and in the muscle (405.82 ± 3.26 µg g^?1), both after 12 months of experiments. Ni²⁺ adsorbs preferentially in organs such as the stomach, the intestine, and the kidneys and acts in the central nervous system as well. Tilapia growth and mass were significantly affected by Ni²⁺ poisoning. From statistical analysis, observed that the results for lengths, weights and metal concentration were different for each sampling at significance level of p < 0.05. The Ni²⁺ concentration in tilapia was enough to cause the death of tilapias; however, it did not occur because the presence of Zn²⁺ might act as protective agent of heavy metals.     

Possible Effects of Acidic Deposition on a Rocky Mountain Population of the Tiger Salamander Ambystoma tigrtinum

Para investigar los posibles efectos biológicos de lluvia ácaida en el oeste de los Estados Unidos, se llevaron a cabo censos poblacionales de salamandras y experimentos deevaluación de respuesta a varias dosijicaciones en una cuenca subalpina en las Montañas Rocosas del Estado de Colorado. Una población adulta de salamundras tigre (Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum) tuvo un descenso de 65% ensiete años, mientras el reclutamiento de larvas disminuyó en general salvo en el ultimo año de este perí'odo. Huatos de A. tigrinum tuvieron un pH de 5.6(LD-50), valor que se encuentra en el rango usual para este luagar medido durante el período de desahielo. Aunque el descenso de A. tigrinurn en esta cuenca puede deberse a una fluctuación natural la evidencia disponible es consistente con la hipótesis de que su causa se debe a las deposiciones por lluvia ácida Por. lo tanto, el descenso de A. tigrinurn en la cuenca puede ser la primera indicación de daño biológico de los llivia acida en el oeste de los Estados Unidos.     

The Complex Links between Governance and Biodiversity

Abstract:  We argue that two problems weaken the claims of those who link corruption and the exploitation of natural resources. The first is conceptual and the second is methodological. Studies that use national-level indicators of corruption fail to note that corruption comes in many forms, at multiple levels, that may affect resource use quite differently: negatively, positively, or not at all. Without a clear causal model of the mechanism by which corruption affects resources, one should treat with caution any estimated relationship between corruption and the state of natural resources. Simple, atheoretical models linking corruption measures and natural resource use typically do not account for other important control variables pivotal to the relationship between humans and natural resources. By way of illustration of these two general concerns, we used statistical methods to demonstrate that the findings of a recent, well-known study that posits a link between corruption and decreases in forests and elephants are not robust to simple conceptual and methodological refinements. In particular, once we controlled for a few plausible anthropogenic and biophysical conditioning factors, estimated the effects in changes rather than levels so as not to confound cross-sectional and longitudinal variation, and incorporated additional observations from the same data sources, corruption levels no longer had any explanatory power.     

Adsorption of methylene blue from aqueous solution by chemically treated water hyacinth

Water hyacinth (WH), an aquatic plant macrophyte, was investigated for its ability to perform as a suitable adsorbent for methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The non-living biomass of WH was subjected to several chemical treatments, namely, washing with hot water, washing with hot dilute HCl, soaking in NaOH, soaking in HNO₃, and sulfonation. The system variables studied also include pH and MB concentration. The Langmuir isotherm was found to represent the measured adsorption data well except for WH soaked in NaOH, which was found to be better represented by the Freundlich isotherm. Values of the dimensionless separation factor, K _R, indicated that the adsorption systems in this study are all favorable. Values of the first layer of adsorption were calculated by the non-linear multilayer adsorption model, and the specific surface area values were found to be high and comparable to commercially activated carbons.