Conservation and trade of the endangered Hypancistrus zebra (Siluriformes, Loricariidae), one of the most trafficked Brazilian fish

Abstract Hypancistrus zebra, also known as the zebra pleco, is a small sucker-mouth catfish endemic to the Xingu River in Brazil where its survival in the wild is threatened by habitat modification and overfishing for the ornamental fish industry. It is a highly sought-after freshwater ornamental species and one of the most commonly trafficked from Brazil. To date, little is known about its global legal and illicit supply chains within the ornamental fish trade. Through a mixed methods approach (i.e., online survey, key informant interviews and web scraping), we examined the trade and trafficking of this species as well as the awareness of the international aquarist community and local and international stakeholders regarding its conservation. We also establish the historical timeline of zebra pleco keeping and breeding in captivity and assess whether commercial captive breeding can play an important role in the conservation of this species. The retail price of the zebra pleco increased worldwide after an export ban in 2004 but have since decreased to an average of $US 155 (+/-$US 23 based on geographical location) per fish. Fishermen have been consistently paid relatively little ($US 7–60) for each specimen compared to the average wholesale price of$US 100 (+/- $US 94 over time). We conservatively estimate ~100,000 specimens are trafficked out of Brazil annually, of which half or more die in transport, and only a small fraction is seized by law enforcement in Brazil or internationally. The fishes are primarily smuggled from Brazil to Peru and Colombia and then exported internationally with the majority sent to China. The majority of aquarists surveyed (representing 35 countries) were aware the zebra pleco is both endangered and highly endemic. There was less awareness that buying wild caught specimens shipped from Peru, Colombia or elsewhere implies supporting wildlife trafficking. Nevertheless, nearly three quarters of respondents preferred aquarium bred specimens, if available. The zebra pleco is being bred in captivity in high numbers in several countries, yet in Brazil it remains illegal to keep in private aquaria or to commercially breed them. Given the large success of hobby and commercial breeders around the world, H. zebra is well suited for indoor breeding facilities. We argue that implementing regulated local breeding facilities in Brazil to increase the already large numbers reproduced in captivity worldwide, could decrease the demand for trafficked specimens, one of the primary factors threatening its survival. Given its iconic status among freshwater fishes it should be recognized as a flagship species of the Xingu River's conservation

Tree aboveground biomass and species richness of the mature tropical forests of Darien, Panama, and their role in global climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation

AbstractThe remote forests of the Darien region in eastern Panama are among the last remnants of relatively undisturbed forest habitat in the Central American isthmus. Despite decades of efforts by the government, nongovernmental organizations, and civil society, including Indigenous peoples, to protect the region's natural heritage, it remains under significant threat due to widespread illegal logging. Now, the Panamanian government is considering the mechanism, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), as another option to limit forest loss. Central to the proper functioning of REDD+ is the need to reduce uncertainties in estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB). These estimates are used to establish realistic reference levels against which additional contributions to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the loss and degradation of forests can be financially compensated. Also, highly desirable to REDD+ is the achievement of biodiversity cobenefits. REDD+ investments will likely be directed primarily to areas where the potential to simultaneously mitigate climate change and conserve biodiversity is highest. Here, we present the results of a field‐based forest carbon inventorying method tested in Darien's mature forests with the participation of Embera and Wounaan Indigenous peoples. We also explore whether variations in field‐based estimates of AGB across mature forests, in both undisturbed and disturbed areas, are detectable through free and readily‐available remote sensing data sources. Furthermore, we examine and compare AGB and tree species richness in Darien with other well‐studied forest sites across the tropics. Our findings reveal that Darien's forests play a crucial role globally and regionally in storing carbon and housing biodiversity, and support the imperative need to protect these forests in a culturally appropriate manner with the region's Indigenous peoples

Assessing the impact of illumination on UAV pushbroom hyperspectral imagery collected under various cloud cover conditions

The recent development of small form-factor (<6 kg), full range (400–2500 nm) pushbroom hyperspectral imaging systems (HSI) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) poses a new range of opportunities for passive remote sensing applications. The flexible deployment of these UAV-HSI systems have the potential to expand the data acquisition window to acceptable (though non-ideal) atmospheric conditions. This is an important consideration for time-sensitive applications (e.g. phenology) in areas with persistent cloud cover. Since the majority of UAV studies have focused on applications with ideal illumination conditions (e.g. minimal or non-cloud cover), little is known to what extent UAV-HSI data are affected by changes in illumination conditions due to variable cloud cover. In this study, we acquired UAV pushbroom HSI (400–2500 nm) over three consecutive days with various illumination conditions (i.e. cloud cover), which were complemented with downwelling irradiance data to characterize illumination conditions and in-situ and laboratory reference panel measurements across a range of reflectivity (i.e. 2%, 10%, 18% and 50%) used to evaluate reflectance products. Using these data we address four fundamental aspects for UAV-HSI acquired under various conditions ranging from high (624.6 ± 16.63 W·m2) to low (2.5 ± 0.9 W·m2) direct irradiance: atmospheric compensation, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), spectral vegetation indices and endmembers extraction. For instance, two atmospheric compensation methods were applied, a radiative transfer model suitable for high direct irradiance, and an Empirical Line Model (ELM) for diffuse irradiance conditions. SNR results for two distinctive vegetation classes (i.e. tree canopy vs herbaceous vegetation) reveal wavelength dependent attenuation by cloud cover, with higher SNR under high direct irradiance for canopy vegetation. Spectral vegetation index (SVIs) results revealed high variability and index dependent effects. For example, NDVI had significant differences (p < 0.05) across illumination conditions, while NDWI appeared insensitive at the canopy level. Finally, often neglected diffuse illumination conditions may be beneficial for revealing spectral features in vegetation that are obscured by the predominantly non-Lambertian reflectance encountered under high direct illumination. To our knowledge, our study is the first to use a full range pushbroom UAV sensor (400–2500 nm) for assessing illumination effects on the aforementioned variables. Our findings pave the way for understanding the advantages and limitations of ultra-high spatial resolution full range high fidelity UAV-HSI for ecological and other applications

Mapping Species Composition of Forests and Tree Plantations in Northeastern Costa Rica with an Integration of Hyperspectral and Multitemporal Landsat Imagery

An efficient means to map tree plantations is needed to detect tropical land use change and evaluate reforestation projects. To analyze recent tree plantation expansion in northeastern Costa Rica, we examined the potential of combining moderate-resolution hyperspectral imagery (2005 HyMap mosaic) with multitemporal, multispectral data (Landsat) to accurately classify (1) general forest types and (2) tree plantations by species composition. Following a linear discriminant analysis to reduce data dimensionality, we compared four Random Forest classification models: hyperspectral data (HD) alone; HD plus interannual spectral metrics; HD plus a multitemporal forest regrowth classification; and all three models combined. The fourth, combined model achieved overall accuracy of 88.5%. Adding multitemporal data significantly improved classification accuracy (p less than 0.0001) of all forest types, although the effect on tree plantation accuracy was modest. The hyperspectral data alone classified six species of tree plantations with 75% to 93% producer's accuracy; adding multitemporal spectral data increased accuracy only for two species with dense canopies. Non-native tree species had higher classification accuracy overall and made up the majority of tree plantations in this landscape. Our results indicate that combining occasionally acquired hyperspectral data with widely available multitemporal satellite imagery enhances mapping and monitoring of reforestation in tropical landscapes

Phenospectral similarity as an index of ecological integrity

In collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Taskforce on Biodiversity and Protected Areas, countries worldwide are working to develop a new systematic approach to inform the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) initiative. The goal is to map KBAs from the national to global scales with a baseline international standard in support of biodiversity conservation efforts. According to the IUCN standard, one of the five criteria used to identify potential KBAs, is the Ecological Integrity (EI) of the ecosystem. Sites identified with respect to EI must have an intact ecological community and be characterized by minimal anthropogenic disturbance. In this study, a new EI metric, phenospectral similarity (PSpecM), has been developed and implemented in Google Earth Engine to identify potential forest stands of high EI from a large set of candidate stands. The implementation of PSpecM requires a network of known reference sites of high EI and target ecological units of the same land cover type for comparison to help identify potential sites of high EI. Here, we tested PSpecM on a ∼12,000 km2 study area in the Laurentian region, Quebec, Canada, using Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope (Dove) satellite imagery. Considering the phenological effect on reflectance, we found a 2,700 km2 spatial extent, equivalent to approximately 22% of the study area, commonly delineated as potential areas of high EI by both PlanetScope (Dove) and Sentinel-2. Without consideration of phenology, the total area delineated as potential areas of high EI increased to 5,505 km2, equivalent to around 45% of the study area. Our results show that PSpecM can be computed for rapid assessments of forest stands to identify potential areas of high EI on a large geographic scale and serve as an additional conservation tool that can be applied to the ongoing global and national identification of KBAs

Toward integrated historical climate research: the example of Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth

Climate change has become a key environmental narrative of the 21st century. However, emphasis on the science of climate change has overshadowed studies focusing on human interpretations of climate history, of adaptation and resilience, and of explorations of the institutions and cultural coping strategies that may have helped people adapt to climate changes in the past. Moreover, although the idea of climate change has been subject to considerable scrutiny by the physical sciences, recent climate scholarship has highlighted the need for a re examination of the cultural and spatial dimensions of climate, with contributions from the humanities and social sciences. Establishing a multidisciplinary dialogue and approach to climate research past, present, and future has arguably never been more important. This article outlines developments in historical climatology research and considers examples of integrated multidisciplinary approaches to climate, climatic variability, and climate change research, conducted across the physical sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts. We highlight the international Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative as one example of such an integrated approach. Initially, ACRE began as a response from climate science to the needs of the agricultural sector in Queensland, Australia for a longer, more spatially, and temporally-complete database of the weather. ACRE has now evolved to embrace an international group of researchers working together across disciplines to integrate their efforts into a four-dimensional (4D) dynamical global historical climate-quality reanalysis (reconstruction). WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:164–174. doi:10.1002/wcc.37

Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species

Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. If confirmed, these results would increase the number of threatened plant species on Earth by 22%. We show that the trends observed in Amazonia apply to trees throughout the tropics, and we predict thatmost of the world’s >40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as globally threatened. A gap analysis suggests that existing Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories will protect viable populations of most threatened species if these areas suffer no further degradation, highlighting the key roles that protected areas, indigenous peoples, and improved governance can play in preventing large-scale extinctions in the tropics in this century

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types