A vortex population viability analysis model for the Chacoan peccary (catagonus wagneri)

El quimilero o taguá (Catagonus wagneri) es una especie amenazada, endémica del Chaco Seco, para la cual disponemos de poca información. Para estimar cuantitativamente el riesgo de disminución y extinción de sus poblaciones silvestres generamos modelos de viabilidad poblacional. Con estos modelos matemáticos se pueden identificar factores naturales y antrópicos complejos que interactúan y que influyen en la persistencia y la salud de una población. Los modelos también se pueden utilizar para evaluar los efectos de diferentes estrategias de gestión, permitiendo identificar las acciones de conservación más efectivas para una población o especie. Además, estos modelos se pueden usar para identificar las necesidades de investigación debido a que ponen en evidencia los vacíos de información sobre la especie. Utilizando estos modelos, evaluamos la proyección poblacional en las condiciones actuales y en comparación con posibles variaciones existentes en el sistema. Para generar los parámetros ingresados en los modelos realizamos una reunión de especialistas y una revisión bibliográfica. Trabajó con valores de línea de base (base), mínimos (mín.) y máximos (máx.). Generamos diferentes modelos ante diferentes escenarios y testeamos la sensibilidad a la incertidumbre de cada modelo. Esto permitió establecer prioridades de investigación. Además, determinamos los tamaños mínimos de población viable considerando la incertidumbre y analizamos los posibles efectos de la caza en una población de esta especie.Fil: Leus, Kritin. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Species Survival Commission; DinamarcaFil: Altrichter, Mariana. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Species Survival Commission; Estados UnidosFil: Desbiez, Arnaud. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Species Survival Commission; BrasilFil: Camino, Micaela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Giordano, Anthony J.. S.P.E.C.I.E.S.; Estados UnidosFil: Campos Krauer, Juan Manuel. University of Florida. Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; Estados Unidos. Centro Chaqueño para la Conservación y la Investigación; ParaguayFil: Brooks, Daniel M.. Houston Museum Of Natural Science; Estados UnidosFil: Thompson, Jeffrey. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología; ParaguayFil: Núñez Regueiro, Mauricio Manuel. University of Florida. Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Action research and democracy

This contribution explores the relationship between research and learning democracy. Action research is seen as being compatible with the orientation of educational and social work research towards social justice and democracy. Nevertheless, the history of action research is characterized by a tension between democracy and social engineering. In the social-engineering approach, action research is conceptualized as a process of innovation aimed at a specific Bildungsideal. In a democratic approach action research is seen as research based on cooperation between research and practice. However, the notion of democratic action research as opposed to social engineering action research needs to be theorized. So called democratic action research involving the implementation by the researcher of democracy as a model and as a preset goal, reduces cooperation and participation into instruments to reach this goal, and becomes a type of social engineering in itself. We argue that the relationship between action research and democracy is in the acknowledgment of the political dimension of participation: ‘a democratic relationship in which both sides exercise power and shared control over decision-making as well as interpretation’. This implies an open research design and methodology able to understand democracy as a learning process and an ongoing experiment

Civic crowdfunding research: challenges, opportunities, and future agenda

Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding through which citizens, in collaboration with government, fund projects providing a community service. Although in the early stages of development, civic crowdfunding is a promising area for both research and application due to its potential impact on citizen engagement, as well as its influence on the success of a wide range of civic projects ranging from physical structures to amenities and local services. However, the field remains under-addressed in academic research and underdeveloped in terms of the number of civic projects posted to crowdfunding platforms. Acknowledging these issues, we outline the history of civic crowdfunding and describe the current landscape, focusing on online crowdfunding platforms established specifically for the funding of civic projects (Citizinvestor, ioby, Neighbor.ly, Spacehive). The challenges and the opportunities of civic crowdfunding are examined, and its distinguishing characteristics are outlined, including a consideration of the impact of social media and platform features. We then propose a research agenda to help shape the future of this emergent field

Review of Large Carnivore Conservation: Integrating Science and Policy in the North American West

The management and conservation of large carnivores is of worldwide concern and is as much about human values, interactions, and governance as carnivore biology. Susan Clark and Murray Rutherford continue their work on coexisting with large carnivores ( Clark et al. 2005 ) with a new edited volume Large Carnivore Conservation: Integrating Science and Policy in the North American West . Large Carnivore Conservation that expands on the same themes as their previous work with case studies from Arizona to the Yukon. While focusing on the North American West, Clark and Rutherford hope to provide a holistic approach to carnivore management in general

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

Background Indigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented. Methods Extensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data. Results Results show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production–even abandonment–was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as ‘food plants’ in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity. Conclusions Ngäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization

Partitioning the effects of habitat loss hunting and climate change on the endangered Chacoan peccary

Aim: Land-use change and overexploitation are major threats to biodiversity, and cli mate change will exert additional pressure in the 21st century. Although there are strong interactions between these threats, our understanding of the synergistic and compensatory effects on threatened species' range geography remains limited. Our aim was to disentangle the impact of habitat loss, hunting and climate change on spe cies, using the example of the endangered Chacoan peccary (Catagonus wagneri). Location: Gran Chaco ecoregion in South America. Methods: Using a large occurrence database, we integrated a time-calibrated species distribution model with a hunting pressure model to reconstruct changes in the distri bution of suitable peccary habitat between 1985 and 2015. We then used partitioning analysis to attribute the relative contribution of habitat change to land-use conver sion, climate change and varying hunting pressure. Results: Our results reveal widespread habitat deterioration, with only 11% of the habitat found in 2015 considered suitable and safe. Hunting pressure was the strong est single threat, yet most habitat deterioration (58%) was due to the combined, rather than individual, effects of the three drivers we assessed. Climate change would have led to a compensatory effect, increasing suitable habitat area, yet this effect was ne gated by the strongly negative and interacting threats of land-use change and hunting. Main Conclusions: Our study reveals the central role of overexploitation, which is often neglected in biogeographic assessments, and suggests that addressing overex ploitation has huge potential for increasing species' adaptive capacity in the face of climate and land-use change. More generally, we highlight the importance of jointly assessing extinction drivers to understand how species might fare in the 21st century. Here, we provide a simple and transferable framework to determine the separate and joint effects of three main drivers of biodiversity loss.Fil: Torres, Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal ; Argentina.Fil: Kuemmerle, Tobias. Humboldt-University Berlin. Integrative Research Institute for Transformations in Human Environment Systems. Geography Department; AlemaniaFil: Baumann, Matthias. Humboldt-University. Geography Department; Alemania.Fil: Romero Muñoz, Alfredo. Humboldt University. Geography Departament; Alemania. University of British Columbia. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES); Canada. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department Computational Landscape Ecology; Alemania. Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys). Integrative Research Institute; AlemaniaFil: Altrichter, Mariana. IUCN SSC Peccary Specialist Group; Suiza. Prescott College. Environmental Studies; Estados UnidosFil: Boaglio, Gabriel Ivan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Cabral, Hugo. Universidade Estadual Paulista. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal; Brasil. Instituto de Investigación Biológica del Paraguay; ParaguayFil: Camino, Micaela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Ecología del Litoral. Laboratorio de Biología de la Conservación; ArgentinaFil: Campos Kraver, Juan M. University of Florida. College of Veterinary Medicine & Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Giordano, Anthony. Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study (S.P.E.C.I.E.S); Estados Unidos. University of Los Angeles. Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Center for Tropical Research; Estados UnidosFil: Cartes, José L. Guyra Paraguay, Parque del Río; ParaguayFil: Cuéllar, Rosa L. Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano; BoliviaFil: Decarre, Julieta. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; ArgentinaFil: Gallegos, Marcelo. Provincia de Salta. Secretaría de Ambiente; ArgentinaFil: Lizárraga, Leónidas. Administración De Parques Nacionales. Dirección Regional Noroeste. Salta; Argentina.Fil: Maffei, Leonardo. Biósfera Consultores Ambientales, Lima, Perú.Fil: Neris, Nora N. Secretaria del Ambiente; ParaguayFil: Quiroga, Verónica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Inst. de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA – CONICET), Centro de Zoología Aplicada; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Saldivar, Silvia. ITAIPU Binacional. Dirección de Coordinación. División de Áreas Protegidas; ParaguayFil: Tamburini, Daniela Maria. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Ecología y Recursos Naturales Renovables; Argentin

Factors Controlling Soil Microbial Biomass and Bacterial Diversity and Community Composition in a Cold Desert Ecosystem: Role of Geographic Scale

Understanding controls over the distribution of soil bacteria is a fundamental Understanding controls over the distribution of soil bacteria is a fundamental step toward describing soil ecosystems, understanding their functional capabilities, and predicting their responses to environmental change. This study investigated the controls on the biomass, species richness, and community structure and composition of soil bacterial communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, at local and regional scales. The goals of the study were to describe the relationships between abiotic characteristics and soil bacteria in this unique, microbially dominated environment, and to test the scale dependence of these relationships in a low complexity ecosystem. Samples were collected from dry mineral soils associated with snow patches, which are a significant source of water in this desert environment, at six sites located in the major basins of the Taylor and Wright Valleys. Samples were analyzed for a suite of characteristics including soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic matter, major nutrients and ions, microbial biomass, 16 S rRNA gene richness, and bacterial community structure and composition. Snow patches created local biogeochemical gradients while inter-basin comparisons encompassed landscape scale gradients enabling comparisons of microbial controls at two distinct spatial scales. At the organic carbon rich, mesic, low elevation sites Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria were prevalent, while Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were dominant at the high elevation, low moisture and biomass sites. Microbial parameters were significantly related with soil water content and edaphic characteristics including soil pH, organic matter, and sulfate. However, the magnitude and even the direction of these relationships varied across basins and the application of mixed effects models revealed evidence of significant contextual effects at local and regional scales. The results highlight the importance of the geographic scale of sampling when determining the controls on soil microbial community characteristics. toward describing soil ecosystems, understanding their functional capabilities, and predicting their responses to environmental change. This study investigated the controls on the biomass, species richness, and community structure and composition of soil bacterial communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, at local and regional scales. The goals of the study were to describe the relationships between abiotic characteristics and soil bacteria in this unique, microbially dominated environment, and to test the scale dependence of these relationships in a low complexity ecosystem. Samples were collected from dry mineral soils associated with snow patches, which are a significant source of water in this desert environment, at six sites located in the major basins of the Taylor and Wright Valleys. Samples were analyzed for a suite of characteristics including soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic matter, major nutrients and ions, microbial biomass, 16 S rRNA gene richness, and bacterial community structure and composition. Snow patches created local biogeochemical gradients while inter-basin comparisons encompassed landscape scale gradients enabling comparisons of microbial controls at two distinct spatial scales. At the organic carbon rich, mesic, low elevation sites Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria were prevalent, while Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were dominant at the high elevation, low moisture and biomass sites. Microbial parameters were significantly related with soil water content and edaphic characteristics including soil pH, organic matter, and sulfate. However, the magnitude and even the direction of these relationships varied across basins and the application of mixed effects models revealed evidence of significant contextual effects at local and regional scales. The results highlight the importance of the geographic scale of sampling when determining the controls on soil microbial community characteristics

Omalizumab efficacy in cases of chronic spontaneous urticaria is not explained by the inhibition of sera activity in effector cells

Omalizumab (OmAb) is a humanized anti-IgE antibody approved for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). OmAb's mechanism of action is known to include actions on free IgE and on pre-bound IgE. However, OmAb is equally and rapidly effective against autoimmune and non-autoimmune urticaria where IgE involvement is not clear, suggesting the involvement of additional mechanisms of action. In this study, we sought to investigate the ability of OmAb to inhibit mast cell and basophil degranulation induced by sera from CSU patients. For this purpose, we performed a comparison between the in vitro incubation of sera from CSU patients treated with OmAb and the in vivo administration of OmAb in a clinical trial. We found that OmAb added in vitro to sera from CSU patients did not modify the ability of the sera to induce cell degranulation. Similarly, the sera from patients treated with OmAb in the context of the clinical trial who had a good clinical outcome maintained the capacity to activate mast cells and basophils. Thus, we conclude that the beneficial activity of OmAb does not correlate with the ability of patient sera to induce cell degranulation