The urban ecology of bats in Singapore: understanding the human-wildlife interface

Urbanisation is a transformative land use change that has drastic ecological consequences worldwide, including biodiversity loss. There is more at stake in the tropics because these regions are global centres of biodiversity, yet very few studies of tropical wildlife in urban areas exist. Based in the urban tropics of Singapore, this thesis intends to fill a knowledge gap using acoustic approaches to sample biodiversity. I used acoustic recorders to quantify the impacts of major roads, the habitat value of green roofs, and the effects of large-scale transboundary smoke-haze pollution on biodiversity in Singapore. For the first two studies, bats were used as a focal taxon because of their ubiquity in the urban environment and their recommended roles as suitable indicators of the effects of urbanisation. Prior to these studies, acoustic guidelines for bat sampling were written and compiled. The third study involved soundscape recordings from a monitoring project, which coincided with one of the worst smoke-haze pollution events in Southeast Asia. The studies revealed that: i) Lighting on major roads had a negative impact on bat activity in both forest and urban habitats, and may present a barrier for forest-dependent bats, while some species utilised areas near to roads to some degree; ii) Green roofs supported substantial bat activity, especially on those that were newer, low, had higher shrub cover, higher night time temperature and a medium pruning regime, at the expense of pesticide use, and iii) Levels of acoustic activity dropped drastically during the peak of the pollution event and there was only partial recovery to pre-haze levels after 16 weeks. The outcomes from these three studies were informative for the design of mitigation and enhancement measures to support urban biodiversity, to identify future research directions using more process and mechanistic approaches to study the urban environment, and to explore avenues to involve citizens in biodiversity monitoring

Urbanisation affects ecosystem functioning more than structure in tropical streams

Urbanisation poses a clear threat to tropical freshwater streams, yet fundamental knowledge gaps hinder our ability to effectively conserve stream biodiversity and preserve ecosystem functioning. Here, we studied the impact of urbanisation on structural and functional ecosystem responses in low-order streams in Singapore, a tropical city with a mosaic landscape of protected natural forests, managed buffer zones (between forest and open-country habitats), and built-up urban areas. We quantified an urbanisation gradient based on landscape, in-stream, and riparian conditions, and found an association between urbanisation and pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrates (e.g. freshwater snail and worm species) in litter bags. We also found greater macroinvertebrate abundance (mean individuals bag−1; forest: 30.3, buffer: 70.1, urban: 109.0) and richness (mean taxa bag−1; forest: 4.53, buffer: 4.75, urban: 7.50) in urban streams, but similar diversity across habitats. Higher levels of primary productivity (measured from algal accrual on ceramic tiles) and microbial decomposition (measured from litter-mass loss in mesh bags) at urban sites indicate rapid microbial activity at higher light, temperature, and nutrient levels. We found that urbanisation affected function 32% more than structure in the studied tropical streams, likely driven by greater algal growth in urban streams. These changes in ecological processes (i.e. ecosystem functioning) possibly lead to a loss of ecosystem services, which would negatively affect ecology, society, and economy. Our results point to possible management strategies (e.g. increasing vegetation density through buffer park creation) to reduce the impacts of urbanisation, restore vital ecosystem functions in tropical streams, and create habitat niches for native species

Proposed Agenda of National Parks Board of Trustees

Proposed Agenda of National Parks Board of TrusteesThis resource is held at the International Library of African Music. For further information contact [email protected]

Kakadu National Park management plan 2007–2014

Kakadu National Park is Aboriginal land, home to one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world. It is an internationally significant World Heritage Area, jointly managed with its Aboriginal traditional owners. Kakadu protects the entire catchment of a large tropical river, the South Alligator, with stunning wetlands, spectacular escarpment country and a remarkable array of plants and animals, especially birdlife.This new plan looks at how to conserve those natural and cultural values, whilst protecting the interests of the park\u27s traditional owners and providing for safe and enriching experiences for visitors. This plan focuses on developing partnerships between government, the private sector and traditional owners to provide new opportunities for visitors and new business opportunities for local Aboriginal people

A benchmarking method for visitor management by national park agencies

Performance evaluation has only recently entered the lexicon of national park visitor management, in response to accountability concerns, commercialization of services, and fiscal constraints. Benchmarking, as part of such evaluations, is widespread practice in the hospitality sector but has been slow making its way into park visitor management. As such, the aim of this article is to develop and apply benchmark importance-performance analysis (BIPA), as a refinement of importance-performance analysis, to a system of national parks. BIPA, as developed in this article, provides a methodology for the meaningful system-wide comparison of attributes, such as the provision of information and the quality and standard of specified facilities, and of relative park performance. The parks managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife in Western Australia and their visitors are used as a case study. The case study analysis shows that BIPA is a simple, accurate technique for benchmarking the performance of a suite of attributes across a park system and the relative performance of the parks themselves, thereby providing much-needed data for system-wide planning and management decisions