Biodiversity Is Our Life

Marton-Lefèvre, Julia

doi:10.1126/science.1188424

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Future research on the complex interactions of habitat fragmentation, loss of floral and nesting resources, disease, and climate is needed to identify the major factors that lead to decline in bumble bee biodiversity. In accordance with the goals of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to reduce the rate of species loss by 2010 (37), such efforts to elucidate the causes and ecological impacts of bumble bee decline, in coordination with informed conservation strategies, will go a long way to mitigating further losses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees

Cameron

Lozier

Strange

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

1,387

1,252

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Bumble bees (Bombus) are vitally important pollinators of wild plants and agricultural crops worldwide. Fragmentary observations, however, have suggested population declines in several North American species. Despite rising concern over these observations in the United States, highlighted in a recent National Academy of Sciences report, a national assessment of the geographic scope and possible causal factors of bumble bee decline is lacking. Here, we report results of a 3-y interdisciplinary study of changing distributions, population genetic structure, and levels of pathogen infection in bumble bee populations across the United States. We compare current and historical distributions of eight species, compiling a database of >73,000 museum records for comparison with data from intensive nationwide surveys of >16,000 specimens. We show that the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23-87%, some within the last 20 y. We also show that declining populations have significantly higher infection levels of the microsporidian pathogen Nosema bombi and lower genetic diversity compared with co-occurring populations of the stable (nondeclining) species. Higher pathogen prevalence and reduced genetic diversity are, thus, realistic predictors of these alarming patterns of decline in North America, although cause and effect remain uncertain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees

Cameron

Lozier

Strange

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

1,387

1,252

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“…The conservation of threatened species is a crucial challenge in the current context of biodiversity loss, and there are social and international objectives for halting this loss (Butchart et al, 2010;Marton-Lefe`vre, 2010). However, it is increasingly recognized that the creation of protected areas alone is not always sufficient for the preservation of biodiversity.…”

Section: Reconciling Conservation Of Endangered Species With Economicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling the conservation of endangered species with economically important anthropogenic activities: interactions between cork exploitation and the cinereous vulture in Spain

Margalida¹,

Moreno-Opo²,

Arroyo

et al. 2010

Animal Conservation

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Limitation of disturbing activities around the breeding areas of protected species is not always possible, if these activities are economically important and have, in addition, positive effects on protecting the habitats of those protected species. Searching for optimal solutions making commercial exploitation of natural resources compatible with biodiversity conservation is thus of concern to managers and policy makers. This is the case of the cinereous vulture Aegypius monachus, breeding primarily in cork-oak woodland, and cork exploitation, a traditional socio-economic activity carried out in several Mediterranean countries, and critical for the maintenance of this important habitat. We studied the effects of this anthropogenic activity on the behaviour and breeding success of breeding cinereous vultures in Spain. For the adults, the probability of nest abandonment was dependent on the distance of workers from the nest and the level of noise; activities within 500 m from the nest were likely to cause abandonment of the nest by adults, if the level of noise was intermediate or loud. Neither the size of the working group nor the use of machines per se, had any effect on the probability of nest abandonment. Pairs in an area of the colony exposed to intrusive anthropogenic activity had 20% lower breeding success than those in the same colony that were not exposed to these disturbances. If the application of buffer zones of 500 m is not possible (as is likely given the economic losses involved), several alternatives are recommended based on our results to minimize the impact of these activities, in particular to diminish the noise level of cork extraction activities. Observational studies like this help understanding the magnitude of the problem and finding alternative solutions for harmonizing conservation and economic development.

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“…It is therefore important not to miss any potential chance for animal conservation, including both in-situ and ex-situ conservational efforts. The world's zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens, and gene banks provide insurance for species and genetic diversity [4]. According to the ISIS (International Species Information System) online database, more than 7 million individual animals are kept in 872 zoos and aquariums (as recorded by the date of 12 th January 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mammalian Collection on Noah's Ark: The Effects of Beauty, Brain and Body Size

Frynta

Šimková²,

Lišková³

et al. 2013

PLoS ONE

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The importance of today's zoological gardens as the so-called “Noah's Ark” grows as the natural habitat of many species quickly diminishes. Their potential to shelter a large amount of individuals from many species gives us the opportunity to reintroduce a species that disappeared in nature. However, the selection of animals to be kept in zoos worldwide is highly selective and depends on human decisions driven by both ecological criteria such as population size or vulnerability and audience-driven criteria such as aesthetic preferences. Thus we focused our study on the most commonly kept and bred animal class, the mammals, and we asked which factors affect various aspects of the mammalian collection of zoos. We analyzed the presence/absence, population size, and frequency per species of each of the 123 mammalian families kept in the worldwide zoo collection. Our aim was to explain these data using the human-perceived attractiveness of mammalian families, their body weight, relative brain size and species richness of the family. In agreement with various previous studies, we found that the body size and the attractiveness of mammals significantly affect all studied components of the mammalian collection of zoos. There is a higher probability of the large and attractive families to be kept. Once kept, these animals are presented in larger numbers in more zoos. On the contrary, the relative mean brain size only affects the primary selection whether to keep the family or not. It does not affect the zoo population size or the number of zoos that keep the family.

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Biodiversity Is Our Life

Cited by 14 publications

References 1 publication

Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees

Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees

Reconciling the conservation of endangered species with economically important anthropogenic activities: interactions between cork exploitation and the cinereous vulture in Spain

Mammalian Collection on Noah's Ark: The Effects of Beauty, Brain and Body Size

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