Is there an elephant in the room? A Response to Batavia et al

Non peer reviewe

Consequences Matter : Compassion in Conservation Means Caring for Individuals, Populations and Species

Funding This research received no external funding. Acknowledgments The manuscript benefitted from significant input from Dan Brockington, J.B. Callicott, Peter Coals, Tim Hodgetts, David Macdonald and Jeremy Wilson. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Methylome Analysis and Epigenetic Changes Associated with Menarcheal Age

CAD received funding from EU-Europe aid grant CRIS 2009/223–507.The EPIC cohort is supported by the Europe Against Cancer Program of the European Commission (SANCO). The individual centres also received funding from: Denmark (Danish Cancer Society); France (Ligue centre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Ge´ne´rale de l’Education Nationale, and Institut National de la Sante´ et de la Recherche Me´dicale (INSERM)); Greece (Hellenic Ministry of Health, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Hellenic Health Foundation); Germany (German Cancer Aid, German Cancer Research Center, and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant 01-EA-9401)); Italy (Italian Association for Research on Cancer and the National Research Council); The Netherlands (Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR), LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, and Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)); Spain (Health Research Fund (FIS) of the Spanish Ministry of Health (Exp 96/0032) and the participating regional governments and institutions); Sweden (Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Scientific Council, and Regional Government of Skane); and the United Kingdom (Cancer Research UK and Medical Research Council UK and Breast Cancer Campaign). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Hedgerow trees and extended-width field margins enhance macro-moth diversity: implications for management

Improving the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes is essential for reversing declines in farmland biodiversity. Crucial to achieving this is identifying management options that are practical and beneficial to biodiversity, and understanding the influence of the surrounding landscape. We used data on abundance and species richness of farmland macro-moths, many of which are declining, and trait-based analyses on their feeding guild, mobility and conservation status, to explore local- and landscape-scale effects of two farmland features (extended-width field margins and hedgerow trees) and surrounding farmland intensification. Macro-moths were light trapped at 48 fixed sites on 16 farms, over 4 years, within a 1200-km2 area of lowland UK farmland. Sites belonged to one of four experimental groups that differed in their combinations of hedgerow tree presence and field margin width. Hedgerow trees and extended-width field margins locally increased species richness, but not abundance, of macro-moths, irrespective of each other's presence. Overall, species richness and abundance were not affected by agricultural intensification, as measured by the amount of arable land in the surrounding landscape. Sedentary moths showed double the species richness, but were half as abundant as mobile moths. Both groups responded positively to extended-width margin and hedgerow tree presence. The effect of hedgerow trees was particularly strong for shrub- and/or tree-feeding species. Analyses based on the conservation status of moths demonstrated that agricultural intensification lowered the species richness of nationally severely declining UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species and the abundance of both nationally moderately declining and priority species. These effects were most pronounced at the 0·8-km radius scale. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that the presence of extended-width field margins and hedgerow trees, possibly promoted by agri-environment schemes targeting their implementation at relatively small spatial scales (0·8 km), may help mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on macro-moths. A wide range of other taxa feed on macro-moths and may therefore indirectly benefit from these features. Nevertheless, taxa differ widely in their mobility and measures mitigating biodiversity loss may need to be targeted at multiple spatial scales to maximize their effectiveness for multiple taxa

Some animals are more equal than others: wild animal welfare in the media

The media can reflect social opinion and influence debate and policy. Wild vertebrate welfare issues are regularly reported in the media, but there has been no study of the type and frequency of their coverage. We compiled a list of potential wild vertebrate welfare issues in the UK, recording how often each issue was mentioned in the media during 2014. Lethal wildlife management issues were most frequently reported, while issues that received little coverage included marine debris, commercial fishing and pollution. Overall, the media tended more frequently to report welfare issues that involved intent to harm an animal, were illegal or occurred in the terrestrial environment. Insofar as media reporting may lead to improvements in the welfare of wild animals, greater effort may be required to provoke media interest in welfare issues that do not involve intent to harm, are legal or occur in marine environment

Some animals are more equal than others: wild animal welfare in the media

The media can reflect social opinion and influence debate and policy. Wild vertebrate welfare issues are regularly reported in the media, but there has been no study of the type and frequency of their coverage. We compiled a list of potential wild vertebrate welfare issues in the UK, recording how often each issue was mentioned in the media during 2014. Lethal wildlife management issues were most frequently reported, while issues that received little coverage included marine debris, commercial fishing and pollution. Overall, the media tended more frequently to report welfare issues that involved intent to harm an animal, were illegal or occurred in the terrestrial environment. Insofar as media reporting may lead to improvements in the welfare of wild animals, greater effort may be required to provoke media interest in welfare issues that do not involve intent to harm, are legal or occur in marine environment

Short-term successional change does not predict long-term conservation value of managed arable field margins

Field margins have been widely advocated as a means of integrating agronomic and biodiversity objectives and are included in agri-environment schemes across Europe. However, information on the long-term development of field margin plant communities remains limited. We describe a long-term experiment on the effects of field margin management on biodiversity and weed species. Swards were established by natural regeneration or sowing a grass and wildflower seed mixture, and treatments manipulated the frequency and timing of mowing, application of herbicide and leaving of hay. Vegetation was monitored to evaluate the extent to which early conclusions remained valid after 13 years. Although early successional trends suggested that naturally regenerated swards would rapidly become dominated by pernicious perennial weeds, and that sown swards would exclude such species, neither was true in the longer term. Sown swards were eventually invaded by unsown perennials, but they remained distinct from naturally regenerated swards. Plant species richness declined throughout the experiment. Annuals were lost most rapidly from sown swards but, under natural regeneration, loss could be modified by mowing. Perennial species initially increased during natural regeneration before stabilising. In sown swards they declined under all treatments. Species richness in naturally regenerating swards was promoted initially by mowing twice annually. After 13 years, timing and frequency of mowing had no significant effect on species richness although it still influenced sward composition. Leaving cut hay lying produced species-poor swards. We conclude that the choice of establishment and management methods for arable field margins significantly affects the long-term conservation value of the swards

Multi-scale effects of farmland management on dragonfly and damselfly assemblages of farmland ponds

Agricultural intensification has contributed to severe declines in odonate (dragonfly and damselfly) populations. Odonates require healthy waterbodies for their larval stages and resource-rich terrestrial landscapes as adults. As such, farmland management at both local and larger landscape scales may be needed to reverse population declines. We sampled odonate adults and exuviae from lowland farmland ponds in England, to investigate relationships between odonate species richness and surrounding land-use. The more mobile dragonflies (Anisoptera) were influenced most strongly by landscape variables at the largest scale (i.e. 1600 m radius), while less mobile damselflies (Zygoptera) were affected by variables at more local scales (i.e. 100/400 m radii). A greater number of landscape variables affected exuvial species richness compared to adult species richness. Exuvial species richness was higher when 2 m wide cross-compliance buffer strips around ponds were present. However, no ponds in the study had buffer strips that were established through England's basic agri-environment scheme (Entry Level Scheme: ELS) agreements, and we observed a negative relationship between ELS area and exuvial species richness. Exuvial species richness increased with the amount of water, but not the number of ponds, in the landscape surrounding a focal pond. The observed odonate responses to local and surrounding land-use lend support to the development of agri-environment scheme policies that encourage landscape-scale, as well as local, scheme implementation and management. We predict that both landscape-scale and quality-targeted management of farmland ponds would benefit odonates, irrespective of mobility level and life-stage

Identifying high-quality pond habitats for Odonata in lowland England: implications for agri-environment schemes

1. Agricultural intensification has contributed to severe declines in odonate (dragonfly and damselfly) populations. The objective of our study is to benefit current measures for the conservation of odonates by establishing the conditions favourable to Odonata and focusing on ponds within agricultural land. 2. Our landscape-scale study used exuvial counts and habitat measurements from 29 ponds across a catchment in England, over 3 years, to determine key factors affecting odonate abundance and species richness. 3. Ponds dominated by floating and submerged vegetation were the most transparent, supported the highest abundance and species richness of exuviae, and were always fully or partially surrounded by buffer strips. Ponds lacking vegetation were turbid, yielding no exuviae even if they were buffered. English agri-environment schemes (AES) currently support pond and buffer strip creation and management. 4. Abundance of exuviae was higher in recently created ponds compared to older ponds, whereas ponds that had dried out the previous summer had fewer exuviae. 5. Species richness of exuviae decreased with increasing distance to the nearest viable pond, falling by more than 40% for distances over 100 m. 6. We conclude that odonate conservation would be more effective if AES would consider the spatial scale at which ponds are created and the location, type, and quality of ponds targeted for buffer strips