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25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 constrained to maintain human fitness; iii) a “human phenotype centered scenario” where biodiversity is selected to provide short term benefits to all phenotypic functions that humans use beyond and sometimes against their own fitness; iv) a “sustainable development scenario” combining scenarios ii) and iii); v) an “ecocentric scenario” placing scenario iv) in a larger vision of biodiversity intrinsic values. It might then be possible to put human intrinsic value on individual phenotypes, and biodiversity intrinsic value on fitness processes and thus evolutionary trajectories. This last scenario is not only ethically but evolutionary challenging since this major transition would make homo sapiens the very first species accepting to “laisser faire” evolution beyond its own interests and despite its ability to control biodiversity’s evolutionary trajectories. 2011-12-08 14:00 Island restoration in the 21st century: building a future based on the past Saunders, AJ*, Landcare Research; Towns, D, NZ Department of Conservation; Jones, HP, University of California, Santa Cruz; A biological extinction crisis on islands has resulted largely from the effects of invasive species. Progress in eradicating such species has led to conservation outcomes and created restoration opportunities few could have dreamed of just a few decades ago. As a result institutional, political and financial support is growing for national and regional island restoration programmes. The biggest challenges now are on large inhabited islands that have multiple invasive species. Integrated multi-disciplinary approaches to ecological, social and economic problems will be required, including mechanisms to ensure stakeholder and community perspectives are appropriately reflected in restoration objectives. These are new dimensions for many conservation managers. Greater effort will also be required to understand ecological interactions and to predict the consequences of management interventions. If we are able to achieve restoration outcomes that meet the social and economic needs of island residents, we will be in a much stronger position to more effectively conserve biodiversity on very large islands and on continents. We present some case studies to illustrate the importance of integrating ecological, social and economic objectives, the need for cooperation at local, national and international levels, and the use of science-based approaches to generate further support, improve the efficiency, and increase the pace of global restoration activities. 2011-12-08 18:30 Cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic influences on crop genetics: tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) landrace diversity in Yunnan, China Saunders,Mary*, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Posner, Josh, University of Wisconsin-Madison; The global loss of crop genetic diversity threatens the future adaptability of agricultural systems. Traditional farming communities are crucial reservoirs of crop genetic material and practical farmer knowledge. Our research examines in-situ genetic diversity and conservation of traditional tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) landraces on farms in the crop center of origin: Yunnan Province, China. Yunnan features a highly heterogeneous landscape, home to a myriad of ecosystems and 25 officially recognized ethnic groups. Tartary buckwheat farming in Yunnan is often associated with the Yi ethnic group. Our research compares Yi and non-Yi communities in an attempt to clarify the relationship between cultural and agricultural diversity. The study combines household surveys, spatial environmental data, and molecular genetics in a landscape genetics framework to investigate multiple factors affecting farmers’ planting decisions and crop genetic diversity. Preliminary results indicate complex relationships between crop diversity and cultural, environmental, and economic factors, as well as substantial variation across Yi communities. Our study suggests a combination of features associated with high tartary buckwheat diversity, which may be useful in identifying priority areas for in-situ conservation. 2011-12-09 14:30 New Insights into the Feeding Ecology and Home Range Patterns of the Critically Endangered Cross River Gorilla Sawyer, Sarah*, University of California, Berkeley; The Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli; hereafter: CRG), found only in Cameroon and Nigeria, is one of Africa’s least studied, most threatened primates. Less than 300 individuals remain today in this hotspot of biodiversity, distributed in 11 separated subpopulations. A lack of understanding of the relationship between CRG ecology and available habitat plagues conservation decision-making, and assessment of CRG habitat use and requirements is desperately needed (Berg et al in press). This study characterizes both home range and feeding ecology of a CRG population to better understand the species’ current patchy distribution, and to inform conservation actions. Results indicate that Local Convex Hull home range models may be the most useful to elucidate limiting factors influencing a species distribution and that CRG avoid human-impacted areas within subpopulation home ranges. Ultimately, however, model choice will depend on conservation goals, and the promotion of large areas for conservation may be best supported by Kernel Density home range methods. Results also indicate that CRG select their home range for high availability of preferred foods and show feeding and ranging ecology similar to distantly related mid-elevation gorilla populations rather than their Western Lowland gorilla neighbors. Both anthropogenic impacts and resource availability seem to limit this critically endangered species and should therefore be used to inform effective conservation decisions. 2011-12-08 18:30 Modeling dispersion dynamics effects on spatial patterns of Melocactus conoideus Buin. & Bred. (Cactaceae) Sá-Neto, RJ, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB), Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Estrada do Bem Querer, Km 04, CEP 45083-900, Vitória da Conquista - BA; Corrêa, MM*, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB), Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Estrada do Bem Querer, Km 04, CEP 45083- 900, Vitória da Conquista - BA; Brito-Kateivas, KS, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB), Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Estrada do Bem Querer, Km 04, CEP 45083-900, Vitória da Conquista - BA; Cruz, LC, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Instituto Multidisciplinar de Saúde, Av. Olivia Flores, 3000, CEP 45055-090, Vitória da Conquista - BA, Brazil; Freitas, LM, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Instituto Multidisciplinar de Saúde, Av. Olivia Flores, 3000, CEP 45055-090, Vitória da Conquista - BA, Brazil; Castro, LM, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB), Departamento de Ciências Exatas, Estrada do Bem Querer, Km 04, CEP 45083-900, Vitória da Conquista - BA; Miranda, JGV, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de Física, Departamento de Geofísica Nuclear, Campus de Ondina, Pituba, CEP 40210-340, Salvador - BA, Brazil ; Melocactus conoideus is a critically endangered endemic cactus species, restricted to a habitat strip of 10km2 in the southwest region of Bahia state, Brazil. This species is facing intense habitat destruction due to extraction of its substrate compound by quartzite gravel for use in civil construction. M. conoideus is a long lived species with very low rates of germination and growth, which difficult the monitoring of the population dynamics of this species. Modeling in conservation biology is useful to predict dynamics of threatened populations under several scenarios, a difficult task in empirical studies. Thus, modeling of population dynamics of threatened species could increase the chances of the conservation of the species. This study aims to answer if one single short dispersion event could explain the multi-scale spatial pattern of natural metapopulation of M. conoideus. The multiscale spatial structure of the metapopulation was determined using Ripley’s K function and compared with agent model built in NetLogo 4.1, both simulation using field and literature data of dispersion process of the species at short distances. At all replicates produced in model, the spatial pattern showed stronger clumped distribution relative to empirical data, but similar shapes. This suggests that a dispersion system at short distances cannot explain by itself the spatial pattern observed in the population, an important result to the advance in the conservations programs of M. conoideus. 2011-12-08 15:15 Conservation genetics of the Asiatic half ass (Equus hemionus): accessing genetic diversity and geographic structure in the Northern Chinese population Sónia Rosenbom*, CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources - Campus Agrário de Vairão, R. Padre Armando Quintas 7, Vairão, Portugal; Vânia Costa, CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources - Campus Agrário de Vairão, R. Padre Armando Quintas 7, Vairão, Portugal; Shanyuan Chen, CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources - Campus 148
25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 Agrário de Vairão, R. Padre Armando Quintas 7, Vairão, Portugal; Ablimit Abdukadir, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China; Albano Beja-Pereira, CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources - Campus Agrário de Vairão, R. Padre Armando Quintas 7, Vairão, Portugal; In historic times the Asiatic Wild Ass had a wide distribution, ranging from Mongolia in to Syria and northern Arabic Peninsula and as far south as Pakistan and northwestern India. Approximately 12,000 years ago, during a mass extinction, equids, as well as many large-bodied mammals, vanished from numerous biogeographic regions. Concerning the Asiatic half asses, their number has continued to decrease over the last centuries, mainly due to Human-mediated actions that lead to habitat loss and fragmentation. Currently, the most abundant subpopulation of this species is circumscribed to the southern part of Mongolia and adjacent northern China. We have collected faecal samples from two populations (n=66) in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, less than 200 km from the Mongolian border. In order to access genetic diversity levels and the existence of geographic structure in these populations, we used a panel of 10 polymorphic microsatellite markers and a 400 bp fragment of the mtDNA. Results showed a high level of overall microsatellite diversity (He=0.724; MNA=8), which is slightly lower than previously reported values for Mongolian wild ass populations in the Gobi region. Ongoing sampling across the border in Mongolia will allow us to compare diversity levels across populations from a wide distribution range, as well as detect the existence of gene flow between populations, calculate the effective population size and infer past demographic events such as bottlenecks. 2011-12-07 17:00 Power poles and tall trees adjacent to sunflower fields increase pest damage caused by the invasive Rose-ringed Parakeet in Israel Schäckermann, Jessica*, Leuphana University Lüneburg; Klein, Alexandra-Maria, Leuphana University Lüneburg; Mandelik, Yael, Hebrew Universtiy of Jerusalem; The Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, an invasive cavity-nesting bird species, harms native bird populations by using their nesting places and reduces their breeding success in many regions throughout the globe. The Rose-ringed Parakeet is also known to be a pest to various agricultural systems such as sunflowers, pomegranate, pecan nuts and maize. In Israel, the Parakeets visit sunflower fields in big flocks and destroy large parts of the harvest. Some sunflower farmers report massive damage while others do not. We hypothesize that the availability of birds-standing-points (SP) such as electric poles and lines, fences and trees adjacent to sunflower fields increases the damage caused by the Parakeet. We compared the damage at sunflower plants closest to SPs with sunflower plants more distanced to SPs across 20 fields. Bird SP within a range of 50m in the surrounding landscape of the sunflower fields increased the damage to harvest by an average of 16 % with a maximal damage of up to 57 %. If the next SP was further than 50m we found on average less than 0,3 % damage. To reduce pest damage caused by birds, farmers should avoid growing crops attractive for the Parakeet closer than 50m to the next SP. By spreading this information across farmers, pest damage, as well as habitats for Parakeets can be reduced with the long-term conservation goal to control the populations of this invasive bird species. 2011-12-08 15:15 Assessing cumulative effects: It is important to include many taxa. Schieck, Jim*, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute; Huggard, Dave, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute; Boutin, Stan, University of Alberta; There is a great deal of literature exploring how to choose species and species groups as ecological indicators. Focusing on a few highly responsive indicators is advocated to both reduce costs and to facilitate targeted research. However, it is poorly understood whether using a few indicators will effectively track cumulative ecological changes in a region. During the past 15 years government, industry, and academia in Alberta, Canada have implemented a program to monitor biota, habitats, landscapes and human disturbance using a grid of 1656 sites spaced throughout the province. Ecological intactness is determined for each species (0=degraded, 100=intact) by comparing the species observed abundance to the abundance expected if no human development had been present. Since the intactness scale is consistent among species, information can be integrated to determine a single measure across species. In the boreal forest, a region with little cumulative human development, mammals, birds, vascular plants, and mites all had high intactness. In the prairies, a region with high cumulative human development, intactness of vascular plants closely reflected the degree of human disturbance whereas intactness for mammals, birds and mites did not respond as greatly. In prairie wetlands, intactness of vascular plants did not track disturbance. Given the variation in results among taxa and among regions, the cumulative effects of human disturbance are not well monitored by focusing on a few taxa. 2011-12-06 16:30 Impacts of the expansion of sugarcane on freshwater communities in biodiversity hotspots Schiesari, L*, University of Sao Paulo; The prospect of a global adoption of biofuels is driving a continuous expansion of agroindustrial production worldwide, particularly in megadiverse tropical countries where suitable agricultural land is comparatively abundant. Using algae, anuran larvae, and their predators as the study system, I tested the hypothesis that the expansion of sugarcane in a cerrado/semi-deciduous seasonal Atlantic Forest landscape in Brazil is associated with significant changes in freshwater community composition, diversity and structure, and that part of these changes are consistent with agrochemical contamination. There was a strong signal of land use on freshwater communities. Overall, there was an impoverishment of amphibian and predator faunas as one moved from forests to pastures to plantations. Certain species, however, were more frequent, more abundant and presented higher biomass in plantations than in any other land use form. Of the 62 active ingredients of pesticides registered for use in sugarcane in Brazil, at least 8 were employed at the study site. Residue analysis indicated some pesticide and metal contamination in field-caught animals, and we witnessed tadpole dieoffs in ponds adjacent to plantations. We are now conducting experiments testing the direct and indirect effects of contaminants and other stressors in freshwater communities to test the mechanisms mediating species loss and replacement across gradients of environmental degradation in agroindustrial landscapes. 2011-12-09 11:22 Long-term Planning for Marine Sustainability in Southwest Haiti Schill, Steven*, The Nature Conserancy; Zenny, Nathalie, The Nature Conservancy; Dominguez, Elianny, The Nature Conservancy; Kleiberg, Marianne , The Nature Conservancy; The coastal islands and associated shallow marine zone surrounding île la Vache in southwest Haiti harbor some of the most intact reefs and marine resources in Haiti. These resources are highly threatened from overfishing and growing tourism and in urgent need of management via a multi-objective framework that will enable long-term sustainability. In support of the UNEP-led Cote Sud Initiative, a team from The Nature Conservancy gathered baseline information on coastal habitats and fisheries using satellite mapping techniques and fisher surveys. Results were reviewed and verified through a community-led process, providing the basis for developing a long-term plan that responds to the pressures and impacts on the integrity of coastal and marine ecosystems. This effort is part of a larger twenty-year multi-thematic program designed to address the underlying drivers of poverty and environmental degradation, while maintaining national ownership, private sector engagement and building the institutional capacity of the government and local partners. Ultimately, the hope is to strengthen the resilience of coastal communities and protect biodiversity, while effectively managing fisheries, tourism and recreational activities for the long term. 2011-12-08 18:30 Dispersal and translocation of the endangered Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard (Tiliqua adelaidensis) Schofield, JA*, Flinders University of South Australia; Ebrahimi, M, Flinders University of South Australia; Gardner, MG, Flinders University of South Australia; Bull, CM, Flinders University of South Australia; One conservation tool for endangered species, translocation, has had limited success, because translocated individuals tend to move away from 149
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Page 189 and 190: Index Benini, Rubens 42 Beniston, M
Page 191 and 192: Index DeWan, Amielle 14 Dianne Brun
Page 193 and 194: Index Hilborn, Ray 27 Hill, CM 176
Page 195 and 196: Index Loutit, R. 116 Louwe Kooijman
Page 197 and 198: Index Ottewell, K 81 Overton, J 61,
Page 199 and 200: Index Sequeira, Ana 151 Serebryakov
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Index Winandy, L 181 Winner, J. 112
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