19 research outputs found
Biogeographical patterns in the British and Irish flora
The hectad (10 × 10 km square) distributions of the 1405 native British and Irish vascular plants were classified by the SPHERIKM cluster analysis program into 20 clusters, each of which is characterised by the key species used to initiate the cluster. The clusters reflect the influence of climate, altitude, geology and habitat on distribution patterns at this scale. Clusters with restricted distributions have high concentrations of threatened species, particularly the Medicago sativa cluster, centred on Breckland (55% of the species are threatened in Britain, although only 29% are regarded as priorities for conservation), and the Carex atrata cluster of montane species (45% threatened, and 49% conservation priority species). Some clusters are composed predominantly of species with similar European distributions whereas others are much more phytogeographically heterogeneous. A comparison with a similar analysis of the distribution of British and Irish mosses and liverworts reveals many similarities, especially between the vascular plants and the mosses, although there are many more common vascular plants than bryophytes and many more coastal species
Growth performance of an inland population of Plantago maritima in response to nitrogen and salinity
Characterization of antibiosis and antixenosis to the whitefly silverleaf Bemisia tabaci B biotype (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in several squash varieties
Combining Biodiversity Resurveys across Regions to Advance Global Change Research
More and more ecologists have started to resurvey communities sampled in earlier decades to determine long-term shifts in community composition and infer the likely drivers of the ecological changes observed. However, to assess the relative importance of, and interactions among, multiple drivers joint analyses of resurvey data from many regions spanning large environmental gradients are needed. In this paper we illustrate how combining resurvey data from multiple regions can increase the likelihood of driver-orthogonality within the design and show that repeatedly surveying across multiple regions provides higher representativeness and comprehensiveness, allowing us to answer more completely a broader range of questions. We provide general guidelines to aid implementation of multi-region resurvey databases. In so doing, we aim to encourage resurvey database development across other community types and biomes to advance global environmental change research.status: publishe
Combining biodiversity resurveys across regions to advance global change research
More and more ecologists have started to resurvey communities sampled in earlier decades to determine long-term shifts in community composition and infer the likely drivers of the ecological changes observed. However, to assess the relative importance of, and interactions among, multiple drivers joint analyses of resurvey data from many regions spanning large environmental gradients are needed. In this paper we illustrate how combining resurvey data from multiple regions can increase the likelihood of driver-orthogonality within the design and show that repeatedly surveying across multiple regions provides higher representativeness and comprehensiveness, allowing us to answer more completely a broader range of questions. We provide general guidelines to aid implementation of multi-region resurvey databases. In so doing, we aim to encourage resurvey database development across other community types and biomes to advance global environmental change research
Combining biodiversity resurveys across regions to advance global change research
More and more ecologists have started to resurvey communities sampled in earlier decades to determine long-term shifts in community composition and infer the likely drivers of the ecological changes observed. However, to assess the relative importance of, and interactions among, multiple drivers joint analyses of resurvey data from many regions spanning large environmental gradients are needed. In this paper we illustrate how combining resurvey data from multiple regions can increase the likelihood of driver-orthogonality within the design and show that repeatedly surveying across multiple regions provides higher representativeness and comprehensiveness, allowing us to answer more completely a broader range of questions. We provide general guidelines to aid implementation of multi-region resurvey databases. In so doing, we aim to encourage resurvey database development across other community types and biomes to advance global environmental change research
New approaches for establishing conservation priorities for socio-economically important plant species
ACESSO via B-on: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9871-4The establishment of priorities among species is a crucial step in any conservation
strategy since financial resources are generally limited. Traditionally, priorities for
conservation of plant species have been focused on endemicity, rarity and particularly on
their threatened status. Crop wild relatives (CWR) and wild harvested plants (WHP) are
important elements of biodiversity with actual or potential socio-economic value. In this
study, eight prioritisation criteria were used along with different prioritisation systems and
applied to the Portuguese CWR and WHP. The top 50 species obtained by each of these
methods were identified. The final top CWR were those that occurred as a priority in most
methods. Twenty CWR were identified as the highest priorities for conservation in Portugal
and they include wild relatives of the crop genera Allium, Daucus, Dianthus, Epilobium,
Festuca, Herniaria, Narcissus, Quercus, Plantago, Trifolium, and Vicia. Eighteen
WHP were recognised as priorities for conservation and include several Narcissus and
Thymus species, among others. The advantages, limitations and level of subjectivity of
each of the methods used in this exercise are discussed