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25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 for program formats and content. Lessons learned from this study offer guidance for conservation organizations wanting to expand the reach and effectiveness of their educational efforts to reconnect people with the natural environment and garner broad-based support for conservation initiatives in the future. 2011-12-07 17:00 Urbanisation and its effects on the distribution and activity of insectivorous bats and their insect prey in Sydney, Australia Threlfall, C*, Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Penman, T , Forest Science Centre, Industry and Investment NSW, Beecroft, NSW, Australia; Law, B, Forest Science Centre, Industry and Investment NSW, Beecroft, NSW, Australia; Banks, P, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Urbanisation has an uneven impact on wildlife but the mechanisms that determine winners and losers in the modified environment are poorly known. We investigated three hypothesised mechanisms influencing spatial patterns of insectivorous bats in Sydney, Australia; landscape heterogeneity (diversity of land uses), productivity (as indexed by landscape geology and insect biomass) and trait diversity. Bat species richness and activity (bat passes/night) were collected using ultrasonic bat detectors at 29 randomly selected landscapes (urban; suburban; and vegetated, each 25 km2) across 113 sites comprising various land uses and productivities. We found greater bat activity and more species of bat in suburban landscapes on fertile geologies. Productivity and urbanisation interacted with species traits to structure the bat community; open-adapted bats were associated with areas of greater urbanisation, while clutter-adapted bats were associated with greater amounts of bushland. The prey base of bats (nocturnal insect biomass) was also greater within fertile suburban landscapes in both natural and human modified areas. Our data demonstrates processes determining spatial patterns of urban microbats and highlight areas for conservation action. Our results suggest that landscape structure coupled with human activities can favour certain species traits, and may shift trophic relationships in cities as they alter the bottom of the food web in ways that impact upon higher trophic levels. 2011-12-08 18:30 How group size and roost switching behaviour of insectivorous bats influences predation risk in urban environments Threlfall, C*, Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Law, B, Forest Science Centre, Industry and Investment, Beecroft, NSW 2119, Australia ; Banks, P, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia ; Roosting is a risky activity, creating focal points of activity and producing olfactory cues that are attractive to predators. For urban wildlife, these predation risks may be heightened due to high abundance of “urban predators” such as rats and cats that use bushland remnants for hunting. We investigated patterns of predator visitation to artificial microbat roosts in Sydney, Australia, experimentally manipulating roosting odour cues to compare the efficacy of two key strategies that bats use to reduce predation risk; roost switching and changing group size. Artificial roosts were baited with 0.1 g or 1 g of faeces collected from local bat species to simulate solitary and group roosts. The odour cue was either replenished every day or applied only once to emulate bats re-using a roost, or switching roosts daily. Nightly predator visitation was monitored with infrared video cameras. We report on predator identity and rate of visitation to roost sites. We found a variety of potential predators visiting the artificial roosts, where both solitary and group roosts were visited, with re-used solitary roosts and those only used once being visited more often than group roosts. Roost predation is likely to be a more important aspect driving roost selection by bats than previously thought and may be important in various systems (e.g. islands) where some bats have suffered severe declines. Our results demonstrate that knowledge of such interactions is vital to conservation managers. 2011-12-08 18:30 Identification of suitable areas for a Brazilian Atlantic Forest endemic bat the may help to finally establish its conservation status Tiago Souto Martins Teixeira, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); Mariana M. Vale*, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Lonchophylla bokermanni is a nectar bat endemic to southeastern Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. In Brazil it is considered “Vulnerable” due to its small and isolated populations, small distribution range, and extremely fast habitat loss. We know very little about the species, however, and consequently it is considered “Data Deficient” by the IUCN. This is an undesirable situation for an endemic, locally rare species that is facing massive habitat loss. Here we generated a potential distribution model for L. bokermanni using the jackknife method for modeling rare species within the MaxEnt modeling package. We used 20 occurrence records and 9 bioclimatic variables. The resulting distribution model was refined by extracting all areas that have already been deforested. Finally, a map of caves occurrence probability was combined to the final distribution model, to identify areas with high probability of species occurrence. We were able to identify 8 such areas outside its currently known distribution range, mostly southern to its distribution. They should be prioritized for the search of new populations of L. bokermanni, so that the species’ “Extent of Occurrence” can be determined and its conservation status under IUCN finally assigned. 2011-12-07 16:30 How powerful are underwater visual census methods for detecting long-term trends in temperate reef fish abundances? Timothy Jones*, Victoria University of Wellington; Robert J Davidson, Davidson Environmental ltd; Jonathan P A Gardner, Victoria University of Wellington; James J Bell, Victoria University of Wellington; The need to monitor population trends in marine reserves, particularly for commercially important fish species, is widely recognised. Underwater visual census (UVC) methodologies are used extensively to achieve this goal, but little research has assessed their effectiveness. The lack of information about the power of these methods may lead to erroneous conclusions about the status of fish populations, which could be costly from a conservation perspective. We applied a novel Monte-Carlo simulation approach to assess the statistical power for detecting long-term trends in abundance using fish counts obtained by UVC, based on data collected from three marine reserves in New Zealand. Applying this method to a range of fish species, we found that current monitoring has predominantly low power to detect biologically significant trends, with the average power to detect a trend corresponding to a doubling or halving of abundance over ten years being just 35% (alpha=0.1). However, this outcome is species specific and depends on the magnitude of interannual variability and initial population abundance. Alternative monitoring designs were investigated, and we found that increasing the number of sites increased statistical power more than increasing the number of transects per site. This is the first rigorous power analysis of long-term datasets obtained using UVC methods and highlights the potential of this methodology to maximize the effectiveness of monitoring programmes. 2011-12-07 12:00 Disease Management: Treating causes not symptoms TOMPKINS, DANIEL*, Landcare Research; Many of the characteristics of endangered and threatened species and their habitats (such as small population size, inbreeding, habitat fragmentation and degradation) make them vulnerable to disease impacts that healthy populations living in healthy habitats would be resilient to. Hence, to solve disease threats in a long-term sustainable fashion you need to treat the causes and not the symptoms. For example, in species with low genetic diversity making them vulnerable to disease, expending resources to treat specific diseases in the wild may be wasted effort since you are not addressing the cause of the issue. A paradigm shift from current wildlife disease management practises, where the traditional approach of diagnosing and treating specific illnesses still generally prevails, is thus needed if longer term goals of securing and restoring native species are to be achieved. Here I argue that conservation managers need to be able to (1) rebuild and maintain native species and habitat resilience to disease impacts, (2) where resilience in the wild can be restored in the short-term, mitigate disease impacts to prevent further loss, and (3) where resilience in the wild cannot be restored in the short-term, secure healthy captive populations for potential future reintroductions. I 168
25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011 finish by highlighting current barriers to such management, and suggest how they may be overcome. 2011-12-07 13:00 Defining boundaries for ecosystem-based management: A multispecies case study of marine connectivity across the Hawaiian Archipelago Toonen, RJ*, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology; Bird, CE, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology; Selkoe, KA, Natl Center for Ecological Analyses & Syntheses; Andrews, KR, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology; Eble, JA, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology; Gaither, MA, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology; Skillings, DJ, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology; Bowen, BW, Hawaii Insititute of Marine Biology Determining the geographic scale at which to apply ecosystem-based management (EBM) has proven to be an obstacle for many marine conservation programs. Generalizations based on geographic proximity, taxonomy or life history characteristics provide little predictive power in determining overall patterns of connectivity, and therefore offer little in terms of delineating boundaries for marine spatial management areas. Here, we provide a case study of over 50 taxonomically and ecologically diverse species (including reef fishes, marine mammals, gastropods, echinoderms, cnidarians, crustaceans and a shark) that reveal five concordant barriers to dispersal within the Hawaiian Archipelago which are not detected in any of the single-species exemplar studies. We discuss various approaches to combining multispecies population genetic data and contend that this multispecies approach to determine concordant patterns of connectivity is an objective and logical way in which to define the minimum number of management units. Using this approach, we show that EBM in the Hawaiian Archipelago requires at least six spatially managed regions that do not correspond to current oceanographic models of larval dispersal. 2011-12-08 15:15 How communities of people view island restoration Towns, D.R.*, Department of Conservation; Boudjelas, S., Pacific Invasives Initiative; Nagle, W., Pacific Invasives Initiative; Island restoration will often not be possible without participation by local communities. We review the forms of community involvement in seabird island restoration for 25 projects in 8 countries. The projects involved the eradication of predators; were in remote locations; included some habitats sensitive to high levels of public traffic; required considerable technical and institutional support; and, in developing nations, were all initiated by outside NGOs. Overall, projects included those led by agencies with minimal citizen participation beyond public outreach (public engagement), others with devolution of responsibility to local communities (stakeholder participation), and some initiated by citizens themselves (stakeholder instigation). We use case studies from the Pacific islands and New Zealand to illustrate how communities can become involved in island restoration. However, we found that even the most highly motivated and well resourced groups must confront issues with capacity, continuity of funding and enthusiasm, and long (decadal) timeframes. We conclude that most projects with high community involvement are in their infancy, the long term issues these projects face are poorly understood, and there is often little dedicated capacity within government agencies or outside funders to provide long term support. 2011-12-06 15:00 The Wildlife Picture Index: Monitoring Biodiversity in Mongolia Townsend, SE*, ZSL/Wildlife Ecology & Consulting; Galtbalt, B, Steppe Forward Program/ZSL; Myagmar, M, Steppe Forward Program/ZSL; Baillie, JEM, Zoological Society of London; The Wildlife Picture Index is a composite biodiversity indicator based on the geometric mean of relative occupancy estimates derived from camera trap sampling at the landscape level, which targets medium to large sized terrestrial vertebrates in forested and grassland ecosystems. Using the WPI at an unprecedented level of effort, we are assessing how well Protected Areas are functioning to conserve wildlife (biodiversity) in Mongolia. Mongolia supports a rich ungulate and carnivore fauna, has low human population density, and has established protected areas, presenting ideal conditions to test this new conservation tool for assessing trends in biodiversity. Our three year project resulted in over 3,000 trap nights in one ecoregion in 2009, over 16,000 in three ecoregions in 2010, and an equal level of effort planned for the 2011 summer season. Thus far, we have documented occupancy for heretofore undetected species and increased levels of human disturbance in the most protected areas that correlated with decreased occupancy for certain rare species. We will present the WPI for each study site comparing between management areas and over time. We will show how this approach has proven to be cost effective and easily implemented in assessing biodiversity and the status of individual species. 2011-12-08 15:30 Inbreeding depression, multilocus heterozygosity and fitness in a small, inbred population of South Island robins Townsend, Sheena M*, University of Otago, Zoology Department; Jamieson, Ian G, Unversity of Otago, Zoology Department; It is widely accepted that inbreeding depression poses a potential threat to the persistence of small or isolated populations. While molecular estimates of inbreeding may be made using genetic markers such as microsatellites, the interpretation of resulting Heterozygosity Fitness Correlations (HFCs) with respect to inbreeding depression is not always straightforward. In this study, we consider the cost of inbreeding in a small, isolated population of South Island robins (Petroica australis) on Stewart Island, New Zealand. This population has been closely monitored since its initial translocation to Ulva Island in 2000. Our study design represents a rare opportunity to examine HFCs within sibling pairs across the range of known inbreeding levels in a pedigreed island population. We examine the relationship between multilocus heterozygosity at microsatellite loci and fitness within sibling pairs that are subject to similar conditions during nestling and fledgling periods and have similar levels of genome-wide heterozygosity. Despite the variation in inbreeding levels present in the pedigree, we do not find evidence to support local-effects that have been reported elsewhere. These findings further support the current emphasis that HFCs should be interpreted with caution especially within conservation scenarios and where detailed data on inbreeding are unavailable. 2011-12-08 14:24 Top predator decline, mesopredator release and disease transmission: The case of the Tasmanian devil, feral cat and toxoplasmosis Tracey Hollings*, University of Tasmania; Menna Jones, University of Tasmania; Nick Mooney, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment; Hamish McCallum, Griffith University; Tasmanian devil populations are being devastated by devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), a consistently fatal transmissible cancer. Where the disease has been present for a decade or more, population declines of up to 94% have occurred. Evidence is emerging of feral cat increases in many areas of Tasmania, which may be a consequence of declining devil densities. Feral cats are of immense concern within the Australian environment, not only with the risk they pose to native wildlife through predation, but also as they are the only known definitive host of the coccidian parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Australia’s native wildlife has not evolved in the presence of cats or their parasites We are assessing whether native species are at increased risk of contracting toxoplasmosis in areas where populations of feral cats have increased following devil decline. We tested native species for toxoplasmosis antibodies in areas of varying cat densities. The highest toxoplasmosis seroprevalence in pademelons occurred in areas where cat density was the highest, being almost 5 times higher than in regions with the lowest cat densities. The highest prevalence was observed in eastern quolls which reached 59% in high cat density areas. Mesopredator release of cats may be a significant issue for conservation of native species, not only from increased predation pressure but through transmission of toxoplasmosis whose population level impacts on native wildlife are currently unknown. 2011-12-09 12:00 Fire-sensitive vegetation and fire feedbacks in an Australian savanna Trauernicht, Clay*, University of Tasmania; Murphy, Brett P., University of Tasmania; Portner, Talia E., University of Tasmania; Bowman, David M.J.S., University of Tasmani; Alternative stable state theory suggests fire feedbacks by trees contribute to the co-occurrence of distinct biomes with contrasting fire regimes. No research has tested whether a similar interaction affects burning heterogeneity and compositional complexity within fire-prone savannas. 169
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Page 169: 25th International Congress for Con
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
Page 201 and 202: Index Winandy, L 181 Winner, J. 112
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