The waterbirds of Pulau Rambut, Java

Pu1au Rambut, in the Seribu Archipelago, Jakarta Bay (5° 38'S, 106° 42'E)is a small (25 ha) forested coral atoll which has been a nature reserve since 1937. Its present status is a strict Nature Reserve (Cagar A1am), and it has been identified as one of the most Important waterbird breeding sites of Java (Silvius et a1. 1987). About half the Island's vegetation is tidal mangrove, dominated by Rizophora spp., but the southern part of the Island 1s covered with dryland forest with a tree canopy reaching 20 m. The south and south of the island is bordered by a narrow strip of dry beach forest dominated by Casuarina equisetifolia. A comprehensive description of the vegetation is provided by Kartawinata & Waluyo (1977: see also Figure 1).The authors, with Pandu Hartoyo from the Indonesian Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHPA) visited P. Rambut between11 and 14 January 1987. During this period rough estimates were made of the numbers of waterbirds present on the island, with a brief assessment of the threats to the nesting waterbird colony. This paper is a summary of our findings and a review of literature on the waterbirds of P. Rambut

Census of roosting Indian house crows <i>Corvus splendens</i> on Mombasa island

The Indian House Crow (Corvus splendens) is an Asiatic bird species, that was introduced to the coast of East Africa in the 1890s (Lewis & Pomeroy, 1989) . From Zanzibar, where colonial authorities introduced the species to act as an urban scavenger, the species has spread into coastal areas of Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. After being recorded for the first time in Kenya in 1947 in Mombasa, this omnivorous scavenger is now very common in and around Mombasa city and island, and has spread along the north and south coast, and also expanded its distribution inland, largely following the main Mombasa-Nairobi road and rail links (Lewis & Pomeroy, 1989). Perhaps the best example that demonstrates the remarkable adaptive behaviour of this bird species to human environments, is that of the preferred use by the crows of metallic wire for nest building, instead of plant twigs and branches, as reported from large cities in India (Altevogt & Davis, 1979). In and around Mombasa, the breeding season is well defined, from September to January, with a marked peak in October (Brown & Britton, 1980). The success of the Indian House Crow is considered to be the cause of the decline of some other bird species in the coastal area around Mombasa, such as Pied Crow (Corvus albus), Speckled Mousebird (Colius striatus), Mornincr Thrush (Cichladusa arauata) and Golden PalmWeaver (Ploceus bojeri) (Lewis and Pomeroy, 1993). The species is also causing harassment to people at some of the hotels along the Kenyan coast, and reportedly may cause economy losses by inflicting damage to crops and poultry (Yousuf, 1982; Dhindsa et al., 1991). In addition, the species has been reported to be a possible carrier and transmitter of diseases such as cholera and dysenteria (Munguti, 1984; » Anonymous, 1995). In and around Mombasa, this crow has become a pest species, and attempts for its eradication and/or control l have been on-going since 1984. Control efforts have focused on the use of traps, poisoned bait, shooting of adult birds and destroying of nests, eggs and chicks. The problems caused by the crows at the coast have even lead to the formation of a House Crow Control Committee to coordinate the control and eradication programme. It is virtually impossible to monitor the success of control or eradication programmes without any basic data on the distribution and numbers of the crows. At present, no reliable data are available on the number of crows around Mombasa. As recommended in the minutes of the last House Crow Control Committee meeting, there is need for more research into the Indian House Crow. The aims of the present study were: (1) to count the total number of crows that roost on Mombasa island; (3) to assess which areas these crows mainly come from; (3) to study the group size and behavior at their arrival

A comparison of threats, vulnerabilities and management approaches in global seagrass bioregions

Global seagrass habitats are threatened by multiple anthropogenic factors. Effective management of seagrasses requires information on the relative impacts of threats; however, this information is rarely available. Our goal was to use the knowledge of experts to assess the relative impacts of anthropogenic activities in six global seagrass bioregions. The activities that threaten seagrasses were identified at an international seagrass workshop and followed with a web-based survey to collect seagrass vulnerability information. There was a global consensus that urban/industrial runoff, urban/port infrastructure development, agricultural runoff and dredging had the greatest impact on seagrasses, though the order of relative impacts varied by bioregion. These activities are largely terrestrially based, highlighting the need for marine planning initiatives to be co-ordinated with adjacent watershed planning. Sea level rise and increases in the severity of cyclones were ranked highest relative to other climate change related activities, but overall the five climate change activities were ranked low and experts were uncertain of their effects on seagrasses. The experts' preferred mechanism of delivering management outcomes were processes such as policy development, planning and consultation rather than prescriptive management tools. Our approach to collecting expert opinion provides the required data to prioritize seagrass management actions at bioregional scales

Modelling mangrove propagule dispersal: sensitivity analysis and implications for shrimp farm rehabilitation

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedHexennial International Conference ‘Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management – MMM3’, 2-6 juillet, Galle, Sri Lank

Conceptual hydrodynamic-thermal mapping modelling for coral reefs at south Singapore sea

YesCoral reefs are important ecosystems that not only provide shelter and breeding ground for many marine species, but can also control of carbon dioxide level in ocean and act as coastal protection mechanism. Reduction of coral reefs at Singapore coastal waters (SCW) region remains as an important study to identify the environmental impact from its busy industrial activities especially at the surrounding of Jurong Island in the south. This kind of study at SCW was often being related to issues such as turbidity, sedimentation, pollutant transport (from industry activities) effects in literatures, but seldom investigated from the thermal change aspect. In this paper, a computational model was constructed using the Delft3D hydrodynamic module to produce wave simulations on sea regions surrounding Singapore Island. The complicated semi-diurnal and diurnal tidal wave events experienced by SCW were simulated for 2 weeks duration and compared to the Admiralty measured data. To simulate the thermal mapping at the south Singapore coastal waters (SSCW) region, we first adapted a conversion of industrial to thermal discharge; then from the discharge affected area a thermal map was further computed to compare with the measured coral map. The outcomes show that the proposed novel thermal modelling approach has quite precisely simulated the coral map at SSCW, with the condition that the near-field thermal sources are considered (with the coverage area in the limit of 20 km × 20 km).The author also acknowledges the support of Nazarbayev University’s (Kazakhstan) research seed grant no. KF-12/6 for purchasing and providing the Delft3D software used in this study (which the author is the principal investigator of the grant

Light is more important than nutrient ratios of fertilization for cymodocea nodosa seedling development

Restoration of seagrass beds through seedlings is an alternative to the transplantation of adult plants that reduces the impact over donor areas and increases the genetic variability of restored meadows. To improve the use of Cymodocea nodosa seedlings, obtained from seeds germinated in vitro, in restoration programs, we investigated the ammonium and phosphate uptake rates of seedlings, and the synergistic effects of light levels (20 and 200 mu mol quanta m(-2) s(-1)) and different nitrogen to phosphorus molar ratios (40 mu M N:10 mu M P, 25 mu M N:25 mu M P, and 10 mu N:40 mu M P) on the photosynthetic activity and growth of seedlings. The nutrient content of seedlings was also compared to the seed nutrient reserves to assess the relative importance of external nutrient uptake for seedling development. Eighty two percent of the seeds germinated after 48 days at a mean rate of 1.5 seeds per day. All seedlings under all treatments survived and grew during the 4 weeks of the experiment. Seedlings of C. nodosa acquired ammonium and phosphate from the incubation media while still attached to the seed, at rates of about twice of adult plants. The relevance of external nutrient uptake was further highlighted by the observation that seedlings' tissues were richer in nitrogen and phosphorus than non-germinated seeds. The uptake of ammonium followed saturation kinetics with a half saturation constant of 32 mu M whereas the uptake of phosphate increased linearly with nutrient concentration within the range tested (5 - 100 mu M). Light was more important than the nutrient ratio of fertilization for the successful development of the young seedlings. The seedlings' photosynthetic and growth rates were about 20% higher in the high light treatment, whereas different nitrogen to phosphorus ratios did not significantly affect growth. The photosynthetic responses of the seedlings to changes in the light level and their capacity to use external nutrient sources showed that seedlings of C. nodosa have the ability to rapidly acclimate to the surrounding light and nutrient environment while still attached to the seeds. C. nodosa seedlings experiencing fertilization under low light levels showed slightly enhanced growth if nourished with a balanced formulation, whereas a slight increase in growth was also observed with unbalanced formulations under a higher light level. Our results highlight the importance of high light availability at the seedling restoration sites.Department of the Environment, Heritage and Climate Change of Gibraltar; FCT, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [SFRH/BPD/91629/2012]; FCT [UID/Multi/04326/2013