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25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 how this approach could be used in the context of the Great Barrier Reef in the face of climate change and the associated possibility of growing threats to ecosystem health, services, and functioning. 2011-12-08 18:30 Reintroduction of an Endangered Hawaiian Forest Bird and Prospects for Its Recovery Banko, PC*, U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center; Farmer, C, American Bird Conservancy; Brinck, KW, Hawai‘i Cooperative Studies Unit, Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo; Leonard, DL, Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife; Stephens, RM, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; The palila (Loxioides bailleui) is a critically endangered Hawaiian forest bird species that has garnered widespread public attention through decades of landmark legal rulings and management controversy. Restricted now to 5% of its historical range, due mainly to habitat destruction by introduced ungulates, the population has declined 79% since 2003 as habitat conditions have deteriorated from drought and continued browsing. As part of the recovery process, palila were reintroduced to former range on the northern slope of Mauna Kea Volcano by translocating 188 wild birds from the western slope in six trials (1997-9, 2004-6) and releasing captivebred birds in four trials (Zoological Society of San Diego; 2003-5, 2009). At least 12% of translocated palila remained in the reintroduction area for a year, and 18 (10%) birds bred successfully, founding a colony with F1 and F2 generations. Breeding has occurred annually, but without adding supplemental birds and without management to improve carrying capacity, the colony declined to low numbers. Feral cat control is underway to reduce predation, and native vegetation is being restored in select areas with public participation and outreach. The combination of increased awareness, funding from national organizations, and local volunteer efforts may make the difference in achieving conservation goals that historically have been elusive - but, will they be in time to save the palila? 2011-12-07 14:00 Predicting Habitat Loss Driven Changes In Community Composition: From Simulated Matrices To Birds Of The Atlantic Forest Banks-Leite, C*, Imperial College London; Ewers, RM, Imperial College London; Metzger, JP, Universidade de Sao Paulo; Island biogeography created a simple and highly predictive tool widely used in conservation biology: the species-area relationship (SAR). Despite its advantages, the SAR predicts species richness only, which is a quite uninformative metric of communities, particularly in diverse biomes where habitat loss often leads to large changes to species composition as well as species loss. Predicting variation in community composition would be much more informative, so we attempted to generate SAR-based predictions of community change. We created 100-million species by sites matrices to represent possible communities structured by the species-area relationship, each matrix being built with one particular combination of z-values (magnitude of SAR) applied to landscapes and forest patches at different spatial scales, and composed with different proportions of specialist and generalist species. We used ordination to assess changes in community composition and compared these ordination scores to those obtained from 7000 birds from 140 species captured in 65 sites the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Results showed that the observed changes in bird community composition due to habitat loss in the Atlantic Forest can be predicted from the SAR, as long as species specialisation is incorporated. Our results also give evidence to corroborate the fragmentation-threshold hypothesis. 2011-12-08 18:30 Impact of disturbed areas in tadpoles of Bokermannohyla saxicola (Bokermann, 1964) from Minas Gerais, Brazil, through the index of fluctuating asymmetry. BAR, LFF*, PUC Minas; ETEROVICK, PC, PUC Minas; Amphibians declines are occurring worldwide, however in Latin America little is known about this. Predictive techniques, as monitoring the developmental instability (DI) can enable the detection of problems suffered by the population before it presents decline evidences, since individuals that suffer more stress may have higher levels of DI. This study intended to investigate the occurrence of fluctuant asymmetry (FA) significant variation among populations of Bokermannohyla saxicola (BOKERMANN, 1964) in areas with different levels of conservation and use of soil. Another purpose was to develop an important conservation tool, main for Brazilian species that we know little about history. Counts were made according to a protocol proposed by Alford et al. (1999), in the oral disk of 104 B.saxicola tadpoles of 10 places in Minas Gerais, Brazil. After this the asymmetry index was related with the level of the anthropic impact in all areas. Statistics analyses were made following Palmer & Strobeck (2003). After all analyses there was no significant correlation between anthropic use of soil and FA index existent. Tadpoles have a small life area in nature, so we must assess impacts in microhabitat level to get the real causes of asymmetry, evaluating pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen for example. In the case of this study B. saxicola cannot be used as an indicator of environmental quality, and genetics factors must be investigated to learn more of this asymmetry founded. 2011-12-07 14:30 Using knowledge networks to build conservation capacity: Population time series in protected areas. Barnes, MB*, The University of Queensland; Hockings, M, The University of Queensland; Protected areas are critical to global strategies to conserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems and represent a significant investment of conservation capital. Recent evidence suggests they may be underperforming in some cases. Literature highlights both successes and failures. Over the past decade we have made great advances in understanding issues of protected area management effectiveness. However, we still have surprisingly little data at a global level on long-term biodiversity conservation outcomes from protected areas. Over the last decade, sophisticated approaches have been developed to address this question at the habitat level, but very little work has been undertaken in assessing protected area outcomes at population and species levels. Working with the IUCN taskforce on Biodiversity and Protected Areas, we are seeking to address this deficit. We use population time series data to evaluate species conservation outcomes in protected areas and where possible relate outcomes to explanatory variables. We are compiling a large dataset including data from institutions and agencies such as: Parks Canada, QPWS, SANParks and the Living Planet Index, ensuring that we build on previous work to advance conservation understanding. Log-linear chain methods and generalised additive modeling is applied to calculate rates of inter-annual population change following methods developed by the LPI. By focusing on successful outcomes it is possible recommend policy and management adaptations likely to redress shortfalls in conservation outcomes. Outcomes of this study are likely to lead to more successful biodiversity conservation action in the immediate future. 2011-12-08 14:45 Integrating New Wildlife Disease Information into Conservation Management through Disease Risk Assessment. Barraclough, RK*, Massey University, Albany Campus; Recent research into wildlife disease has led to the discovery of new blood parasites within the endemic, native and introduced species of New Zealand. These include apicomplexan parasites (Plasmodium spp., Lankesterella spp.), Rickettsia-like organisms, and erythrocytic viruses, identified through microscopy and/or molecular sequencing. However each new discovery presents a new set of issues that need to be addressed by conservation managers and community groups undertaking species translocation. This is due to questions such as; 1. Whether to shift infected animals, or 2. Whether relocated animals will be vulnerable to disease at destination locations. Disease risk assessment is essential. However, this must often be conducted with incomplete knowledge of the geographical and host distribution of these blood parasites, or regarding the impact that they may have upon infected hosts in the wild. Furthermore, the difficulties implicit in field-based experimental investigation into disease impact and the time involved in the detection and identification of new parasites and pathogens mean that such information is slow to accumulate. This talk will illustrate the application of disease risk assessment and decision-making using these newly discovered avian, reptilian, and amphibian blood parasite examples. 2011-12-06 15:30 Subjective decisions and uncertainty in species distribution models Baumgartner, JB*, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne; Regan, TJ, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne; Wintle, BA, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne; Elith, J, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne; 10
25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 Species distribution models (SDMs) are commonly used for making predictions about the impacts of threatening processes, such as climate change, on species’ distributions. These models are typically correlative, identifying determinants of species occurrence by finding statistical associations between occurrence localities and environmental characteristics. However, although practical and widely adopted, this approach suffers from a range of uncertainties that emerge from subjective judgements made throughout the modelling process. Two key sources of subjective uncertainty lie in the choice of relevant environmental covariates, and in the treatment of habitat components critical to the species’ persistence (e.g. geological features). The present research investigates the consequences of these subjective decisions on the outcomes of species distribution modelling through a case study of an alpine specialist, the endangered Australian mountain pygmy-possum, Burramys parvus. The Maxent algorithm was used to develop a range of SDMs for this species, each of which incorporated a unique subset of ecologically-relevant environmental correlates for habitat suitability, as well as alternative methods for representing the influence of boulderfields on the suitability of habitat for pygmy-possums. This study highlights the uncertainties arising from subjective modelling choices when predicting the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. 2011-12-07 14:30 Cost-effective habitat management strategies for White-backed Woodpecker recovery in Sweden Baxter, PWJ*, The University of Queensland; Possingham, HP, The University of Queensland; Gren, I-M, Swedish Agricultural University; McCarthy, MA, The University of Melbourne; Mikusiński, G, Swedish Agricultural University; The White-backed Woodpecker (WBW; Dendrocopos leucotos) is widespread in Eurasia but critically endangered in Sweden, rapidly declining in numbers throughout the last century. The resultant concern has led to considerable planning and investment in its recovery. Managers involved in the WBW Action Plan have identified sites with the greatest potential for woodpecker habitat restoration. These include areas that are largely protected and already provide suitable habitat, and managed forests likely to provide such habitat in future. We modelled woodpecker-oriented management of these forest areas and the resultant WBW population, using an optimisation approach to identify cost-effective strategies that attain a sustainable WBW population by 2070. Sites selected by managers differ in their contribution to WBW habitat and recovery, however, and therefore different approaches to site identification and management can further reduce costs. Further analyses at coarser and finer spatial scales highlight the effect of spatial resolution on identifying efficient conservation strategies. 2011-12-06 12:15 Mechanisms of Accelerated Human Population Growth at Protected Area Edges Bean, WT, University of California, Berkeley; Burton, AC, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute; Brashares, JS*, University of California, Berkeley; Wittemyer, G, Colorado State University; For more than a century, protected areas (PAs) have served as the default mechanism for conservation. However, commentators have long argued that the costs of PA creation are borne disproportionately by disenfranchised local communities. Recent work has suggested that, despite potential costs of living on the edge of PAs, rural human population growth in Africa and Latin America has occurred disproportionately along the edges of PAs. Mechanisms for this growth have been disputed. In this talk, we present a broad approach for identifying potential mechanisms for accelerated human population growth at PA edges before and after PA establishment. We found that a majority of PAs in Africa and Latin America experienced higher human population growth along their edges after establishment, while less than 15% of PAs analyzed appeared to repulse human populations. As many as 1/3 of PAs appear to have undergone accelerated population growth due to an expanding rural frontier rather than PA establishment. Our results suggest that PAs in Africa and Latin America are attracting humans to their edges. The causes and consequences of such a result must be determined at a more local scale and through case studies. To that end, we also present a list of the 201 PAs analyzed and the mechanisms associated with their growth. 2011-12-08 15:30 Connectivity in coral reef conservation planning: Dealing with future challenges Beger, M*, The University of Queensland; In this talk I discuss approaches and benefits to incorporate connections into systematic conservation planning. Connectivity between land and seascapes, as well as dispersal connectivity in the sea are a frontier in conservation science and practice. Technical challenges with obtaining meaningful data and utilizing them in transparent systematic approaches have largely prevented the consideration of connectivity in conservation decision processes. I highlight these challenges, and provide solutions to some, based on case studies that include: (1) using thermal stress and freshwater inundation risk to prioritise Great Barrier Reefs (GBR) for conservation, (2) planning marine reserve networks with asymmetric connectivity on the GBR, and (3) planning with multi-species connectivity in the Coral Triangle. With these examples, I present a framework of incorporating the spatial, temporal and species-specific variability of connectivity that is underpinned by the newly developed capability of the decision support system MARXAN to incorporate connectivity. 2011-12-06 10:30 Mini-keynote: The science behind large landscape connectivity initiatives Beier, Paul*, Northern Arizona University; Connectivity analyses – including least-cost modeling, circuit theory, graph-theory, & individual-based movement models – depend crucially on estimates of the “resistance” of land covers, topographic features, and human-created landscape features. In this symposium, Spear explains how resistance quantifies relationships between landscape features and gene flow. Resistance values are usually based on expert opinion or inferred from habitat use. Empirical procedures provide better estimates, especially if based on patterns of genetic relatedness. Three speakers (Cushman, Wang, & Graves) describe alternative ways to identify the set of resistance values most consistent with observed genetic patterns. In each case, empirical resistance estimates differed from subjective assignments in a way that led to different strategies for species and landscapes of conservation concern. The last 2 speakers explore different aspects of resistance. Because climate change may render species-conservation plans moot, Beier advocates planning for connectivity of land facets (coarse-filter units representing unique combinations of soil & topography) and describes how to estimate resistance for these units. McKelvey describes how to use resistance estimates to characterize connectivity across an entire landscape, independent of putative starting points. Implementing these approaches to support conservation on 4 continents is explored in tomorrow’s continuation of this symposium as SY18. 2011-12-08 15:00 A Century of Trophic Change: Retrospective Analysis of Fishing and Oceanographic Variability on Seabird Diets Beissinger, S.R.*, U.C. Berkeley; Becker, B.H., Point Reyes National Seashore; Moody, A., U.C. Berkeley; Semmens, B., Northwest Fisheries Lab, NOAA; Ward, E., Northwest Fisheries Lab, NOAA; de Valpine, P., U.C. Berkeley; Overfishing has changed marine community structure, species dominance and ecosystem characteristics. Subsequently, trophic interactions observed today might be artifacts of recent structural changes to marine communities. However, the relative impacts of overfishing are often difficult to distinguish from natural variability in fish stocks due in part to fluctuations in ocean climate that affects community composition. We investigate how the trophic level of five marine avian predators (Cassin’s Auklet, Common Murre, Marbled Murrelet, Pelagic Cormorant and Tufted Puffin), which differ in contemporary food habits (from planktivorous to piscivorous to omnivorous), has varied over the past century in the California Current by reconstructing their diets from changes in their stable isotopic signatures, and whether diet variation can be attributed to the overfishing of prey or cyclic changes in ocean temperature. Trophic-level declines (i.e., δ15 N) occurred in all 5 seabirds examined. No diets exhibited an increase in trophic level. The magnitude of decline ranged from 0.43 o/oo to 2.10 o/oo, representing a decline of 1/7 to 2/3rds of a marine trophic level (3.1 o/oo). Declines differed by season and no species declined in both seasons. Linear declines were most common, making identification of the onset of decline unclear. Both bottom-up effects of changing ocean climate (regional and local) and top-down effects of fish hauls were related to trophic variation. 11
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Index Benini, Rubens 42 Beniston, M
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Index DeWan, Amielle 14 Dianne Brun
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Index Hilborn, Ray 27 Hill, CM 176
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Index Loutit, R. 116 Louwe Kooijman
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Index Ottewell, K 81 Overton, J 61,
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Index Sequeira, Ana 151 Serebryakov
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Index Winandy, L 181 Winner, J. 112
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