Long-term changes of macrophytobenthos of «Sudzhuk Lagoon» Natural Monument (Black Sea)

The Sudzhuk Lagoon, including Sudzhuk Spit and the adjacent territory, is a unique natural complex of the northeastern part of the Black Sea, that has been studied throughout the last century. In accordance with the environmental importance of lagoon ecosystems, the «Sudzhuk Lagoon» Natural Monument of regional significance was created in 1983, which was included within the network of Protected Areas of the Krasnodarsky Krai. The goal of the present research was to characterise the long-term changes in lagoon's bottom vegetation from 1921 to 2015, and to reveal the features of species composition and the communities changes. During the investigation period, the number of macrophyte species increased from 16 to 27. Five new species typical for eutrophic water have been found, and more than ten species disappeared. Despite the Sudzhuk Lagoon being included within the protected areas, almost a complete disappearance of the Lamprothamnium papulosum + Chara vulgaris community and a dominance of the Ruppia cirrhosa – Lophosiphonia obscura – Cladophora albida community have been observed. By 2015, the biomass of the opportunistic green alga Ulva intestinalis near the channel, which connect the lagoon with the sea, increased by an order of magnitude compared to 1985. At the present time, intensive transformation has occurred in communities of aquatic vegetation, and the dominance of Phragmites australis and Stuckenia pectinata were found. Almost all research areas of the Sudzhuk Lagoon were in a poor ecological status according to the Ecological Index (EI), except for a few locations in the central and southeastern parts with a moderate ecological status. The lack of a management plan to protect the Sudzhuk Lagoon and intensification of unregulated recreation, along with other natural and anthropogenic factors, can lead to the loss of this unique natural complex. Effective measures aiming at preserving the ecosystem of the Sudzhuk Lagoon with its biological and landscape diversity were proposed

BioTIME:a database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene

Abstract Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community‐led open‐source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene. Main types of variables included: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record. Spatial location and grain: BioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km² (158 cm²) to 100 km² (1,000,000,000,000 cm²). Time period and grain: BioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year. Major taxa and level of measurement: BioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates. Software format: .csv and .SQL

Are rare species useful species? Obstacles to the conservation of tree diversity in the dry forest zone agro-ecosystems of Mesoamerica

Aim To test the potential to conserve rare dry forest tree and shrub species circa situm.Location Oaxaca, Mexico and Southern Honduras.Methods Local uses (timber, posts and firewood) of species were determined principally through semistructured interviews with 20 rural householders in each of four communities in Honduras and four in Oaxaca. Tree and shrub diversity inventories were carried out in a total of 227 forest patches and parcels of farmland in those eight communities. Species’ conservation priorities were determined using the star system of Hawthorne (1996) and IUCN listings.Results Despite a large number of useful species, remarkably few were also conservation priorities. Useful species were found to be substitutable as is illustrated by Bombacopsis quinata, Cordia alliodora, Guaiacum sanctum and G. coulteri.Conclusions In these areas, circa situm conservation is inhibited by the lack of species that are both rare and useful. Usefulness must be interpreted as a function of substitutability. Natural regeneration provides an abundance of diversity, farmers are unlikely to invest in the management of a species when suitable substitutes are freely available. The key to conserving rare species may be in maintaining or enhancing the value of the landscape elements in which they are found

Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness