Campus Calendar Improvement - link to departmental calendars

Include Residence Hall Schedule in the Academic Calendar. This will assist with planning and scheduling of events/activities

Brazilian Network on Global Climate Change Research (Rede CLIMA):: structure, scientific advances and future prospects

In order to create the necessary scientific knowledge for Brazil to understand and deal with thecauses and consequences of climate change, the federal government created, in 2007, the BrazilianNetwork on Global Climate Change Research (Rede CLIMA). Rede CLIMA needs to discuss issues,pose questions, develop methodologies and technological products, find answers, and suggestsolutions that are relevant to society. In its first phase, it focused mainly on providing infrastructureand consolidating the sub-networks. Several scientific advances were also achieved, a selectionof which are presented in sections focusing on climate modelling, agriculture, energy and water,human development and mobility, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and human health. Now,in its second phase, the objective is to straighten collaboration between sub-networks by meansof interdisciplinary projects. It is argued that in order to succeed the Network needs to fosterresearch whose merit is measured not exclusively by academic production.A fim de criar o conhecimento científico necessário para o Brasil entender e lidar com as causas e consequências das mudanças climáticas, o governo federal criou, em 2007, a Rede Brasileira de Pesquisa em Mudanças Climáticas Globais (Rede CLIMA). A Rede CLIMA precisa discutir questões, fazer perguntas, desenvolver metodologias e produtos tecnológicos, encontrar respostas e sugerir soluções que sejam relevantes para a sociedade. Em sua primeira fase, a Rede concentrou-se em fornecer infraestrutura e consolidar suas sub-redes. Houve também vários avanços científicos, alguns dos quais são apresentados em seções focadas em modelagem climática, agricultura, energia e água, desenvolvimento e mobilidade humana, biodiversidade e serviços dos ecossistemas, e saúde humana. Agora, em sua segunda fase, o objetivo é estabelecer colaborações entre sub-redes por meio de projetos interdisciplinares. Argumenta-se que, para que tenha sucesso, a Rede precisa fomentar pesquisas de longo-prazo cujo mérito não seja medido apenas pela produção acadêmica

Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis: inferring animal resource needs from home-range and mapping data

An animal’s home-range can be expected to encompass the resources it requires for surviving or reproducing. Thus, animals inhabiting a heterogeneous landscape, where resource patches vary in size, shape and distribution, will naturally have home-ranges of varied sizes, so that each home-range encompasses a minimum required amount of a resource. Home-range size can be estimated from telemetry data, and often key resources, or proxies for them such as the areas of important habitat types, can be mapped. We propose a new method, Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis (RADA), which uses a sample of tracked animals and a categorical map to i) infer in which map categories important resources are accessible, ii) within which home range cores they are found, and iii) estimate the mean minimum areas of these map categories required for such resource provision. We provide three examples of applying RADA to datasets of radio-tracked animals from southern England: 15 red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris, 17 gray squirrels S. carolinensis and 114 common buzzards Buteo buteo. The analyses showed that each red squirrel required a mean (95% CL) of 0.48 ha (0.24–-0.97) of pine wood within the outermost home-range, each gray squirrel needed 0.34 ha (0.11–1.12) ha of mature deciduous woodland and 0.035–0.046 ha of wheat, also within the outermost home-range, while each buzzard required 0.54 ha (0.35–0.82) of rough ground close to the home-range center and 14 ha (11–17) of meadow within an intermediate core, with 52% of them also relying on 0.41 ha (0.29–0.59) of suburban land near the home-range center. RADA thus provides a useful tool to infer key animal resource requirements during studies of animal movement and habitat use

The song of the Brazilian population of Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae, in the year 2000: individual song variations and possible implications

The song of the Brazilian population of the Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae was studied in its breeding and calving ground, the Abrolhos Bank, Bahia, Brazil, from July to November 2000. Aural and spectral analyses of digital recordings were completed for approximately 20 song cycles, totaling 5 hours of song from 10 different recording events. We identified 24 note types, organized in five themes. All songs presented the same themes and the order in which they were sung did not vary. We registered the appearance of a note type and the disappearance of a phrase ending, which indicate that the song changed as the season progressed. Moreover, we detected individual variation in the way singers performed certain complex note types. As songs are transmitted culturally, it is likely that singers have different abilities to compose and/or learn new notes. If, as it has been previously suggested, 'new' songs are preferred to 'old' ones, these more able singers will be sending out information about their learning abilities that could be used by other whales to decide whether or not to interact with them

Anticipation of common buzzard population patterns in the changing UK landscape

Harmonious coexistence between humans, other animals and ecosystem services they support is a complex issue, typically impacted by landscape change, which affects animal distribution and abundance. In the last 30 years, afforestation on grasslands across Great Britain has been increasing, motivated by socio-economic reasons and climate change mitigation. Beyond expected benefits, an obvious question is what are the consequences for wider biodiversity of this scale of landscape change. Here, we explore the impact of such change on the expanding population of common buzzards Buteo buteo, a raptor with a history of human-induced setbacks. Using Resource-Area-Dependence Analysis (RADA), with which we estimated individuals' resource needs using 10-day radio-tracking sessions and the 1990s Land Cover Map of GB, and agent-based modelling, we predict that buzzards in our study area in lowland UK had fully recovered (to 2.2 ind km−2) by 1995. We also anticipate that the conversion of 30%, 60% and 90% of economically viable meadow into woodland would reduce buzzard abundance nonlinearly by 15%, 38% and 74%, respectively. The same approach used here could allow for cost-effective anticipation of other animals' population patterns in changing landscapes, thus helping to harmonize economy, landscape change and biodiversity

Island biogeography : patterns of marine shallow-water organisms in the Atlantic Ocean

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand whether the large-scale biogeographical patterns of the species-area, species-island age and species-isolation relationships associated with marine shallow-water groups in the Atlantic Ocean vary among marine taxa and differ from the biogeographical patterns observed in terrestrial habitats. Location: Atlantic Ocean. Methods: Reef fish, gastropod and seaweed species richness as well as reef fish endemic species data were obtained for 11 Atlantic oceanic islands. Using a multimodel inference approach based on linear and nonlinear regressions, we tested hypotheses regarding the variation in species richness and endemism as a function of island area, age and isolation. Best models were selected using ratios between Akaike weights corrected for small sample size (AICc). Results were compared between the three shallow-water species groups and contrasted against previous studies of marine and terrestrial systems. Results: Island area was the best single predictor of gastropod and seaweed richness, although it was not an improvement compared to the null model for reef fish. Island age explained richness in all taxa and was the best single predictor of reef fish richness. Isolation was a good predictor of seaweed richness but not of fish and gastropod richness, possibly because of their overall higher dispersal capacity. Reef fish endemism was influenced solely by island isolation. Main conclusions: This work reveals large-scale island biogeographical patterns for marine shallow-water organisms in the Atlantic Ocean. Our results suggest that reduced gene flow is a potentially important mechanism for the maintenance of reef fish endemism in oceanic islands. The role of island age regarding the species richness of all taxa emphasizes the importance of habitat history for the geographical distribution of marine shallow-water biodiversity. Finally, we show that some island biogeographical patterns differ not only between marine and terrestrial ecosystems but also, importantly, within marine shallow-water environments, where the biogeographical patterns are highly taxon-dependent.12 page(s

Island biogeography: patterns of marine shallow‐water organisms in the Atlantic Ocean

The aim of this study was to understand whether the large‐scale biogeographical patterns of the species–area, species–island age and species–isolation relationships associated with marine shallow‐water groups in the Atlantic Ocean vary among marine taxa and differ from the biogeographical patterns observed in terrestrial habitats. Location Atlantic Ocean. Methods Reef fish, gastropod and seaweed species richness as well as reef fish endemic species data were obtained for 11 Atlantic oceanic islands. Using a multimodel inference approach based on linear and nonlinear regressions, we tested hypotheses regarding the variation in species richness and endemism as a function of island area, age and isolation. Best models were selected using ratios between Akaike weights corrected for small sample size (AICc). Results were compared between the three shallow‐water species groups and contrasted against previous studies of marine and terrestrial systems. Results Island area was the best single predictor of gastropod and seaweed richness, although it was not an improvement compared to the null model for reef fish. Island age explained richness in all taxa and was the best single predictor of reef fish richness. Isolation was a good predictor of seaweed richness but not of fish and gastropod richness, possibly because of their overall higher dispersal capacity. Reef fish endemism was influenced solely by island isolation. Main conclusions This work reveals large‐scale island biogeographical patterns for marine shallow‐water organisms in the Atlantic Ocean. Our results suggest that reduced gene flow is a potentially important mechanism for the maintenance of reef fish endemism in oceanic islands. The role of island age regarding the species richness of all taxa emphasizes the importance of habitat history for the geographical distribution of marine shallow‐water biodiversity. Finally, we show that some island biogeographical patterns differ not only between marine and terrestrial ecosystems but also, importantly, within marine shallow‐water environments, where the biogeographical patterns are highly taxon‐dependent421018711882CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP# 563276/2010-0; # 485727/2011-0Sem informaçãoSem informaçã