A Bird Survey of Gunung Lumut Protection Forest, East Kalimantan and a Recommendation for its Designation as an Important Bird Area - Part 1

We report on a bird survey in and near Gunung Lumut Protection Forest in East Kalimantan, and evaluate our results against the BirdLife International criteria for recognition as an Important Bird Area. Five globally threatened species (Storm 's Stork Ciconia stormi, Bomean Peacock-pheasant Polyplectron schleiermacheri, Large Green Pigeon Treron capellei, Short-toed Coucal Centropus rectunguis and Blue-headed Pitta Pitta baudii) were encountered, as well as 91 species endemic to the Sundaic Lowland Forest biome, and up to 1% of the biogeographic population of the congregatory Storm's Stork. Based on these observations, we recommend Gunung Lumut Protection Forest to be included in Birdlife International 's Important Bird Area network

Developing Web-based Search Portals on Birds for Different Target Groups

This paper presents the experiences and interim results from the ongoing iterative development and testing of four distinctive search portals on birds. The search portals are developed within the EU STERNA project and address different target user groups. Based upon specific use case scenarios the search portals are tested and validated in four specific phases, applying three different testing methods: WAMMI online evaluation, focus group evaluation and task-based usability tests. The paper introduces the four search portals, depicts the testing methodology and presents the first results from the ongoing user validation process

Are Small GTPases Signal Hubs in Sugar-Mediated Induction of Fructan Biosynthesis?

External sugar initiates biosynthesis of the reserve carbohydrate fructan, but the molecular processes mediating this response remain obscure. Previously it was shown that a phosphatase and a general kinase inhibitor hamper fructan accumulation. We use various phosphorylation inhibitors both in barley and in Arabidopsis and show that the expression of fructan biosynthetic genes is dependent on PP2A and different kinases such as Tyr-kinases and PI3-kinases. To further characterize the phosphorylation events involved, comprehensive analysis of kinase activities in the cell was performed using a PepChip, an array of >1000 kinase consensus substrate peptide substrates spotted on a chip. Comparison of kinase activities in sugar-stimulated and mock(sorbitol)-treated Arabidopsis demonstrates the altered phosphorylation of many consensus substrates and documents the differences in plant kinase activity upon sucrose feeding. The different phosphorylation profiles obtained are consistent with sugar-mediated alterations in Tyr phosphorylation, cell cycling, and phosphoinositide signaling, and indicate cytoskeletal rearrangements. The results lead us to infer a central role for small GTPases in sugar signaling

Rose-ringed Parakeet 3

AnimaliaCraniataAvesPsittaciformesPsittacidaePsittaculaSound file provided in .mp3 delivery formatAudio tracks of animal sound

Checklist Dutch Species Register - Nederlands Soortenregister

The Dutch Species Register provides a current and comprehensive overview of Dutch biodiversity. It is based on numerous published papers, reports, books and checklists provided by experts, covering all aspects of the Dutch flora and fauna. The Dutch Species Register combines this information into an authoritative and frequently updated national checklist. All multicellular animals, plants and fungi are included in the checklist, with the exception of species under direct supervision of humans (e.g. pets) and species not recorded since 1758 (i.e. subfossil and fossil species). The checklist includes available synonyms and preferred Dutch name and higher classification, including associated source and expert. Furthermore, all species and lower taxa are assigned a standardized code for their occurrence status within the Netherlands. The Dutch Species Register is coordinated and hosted by Naturalis Biodiversity Center in close collaboration with European Invertebrate Survey (EIS) - the Netherlands. A large number of scientific institutions, individual experts and organizations of volunteer recorders contribute to the Dutch Species Register. The project is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and NLBIF.</p

An update on the avifauna of Gunung Lumut Protection Forest (East Kalimantan) and reflections on the potential conservation value of hutan adat

We present results of a second survey of the hutan adat (forest traditionally exploited on a small scale by local people) situated in the Gunung Lumut Protection Forest, East Kalimantan, conducted in 2007 and closely following the first survey in 2005 (Wielstra &amp; Pieterse 2009. Kukila 14: 1-15). An additional 29 species were observed. These comprise two globally threatened (Vulnerable) species, 16 &ldquo;Sundaic Lowland Forest&rdquo; biome-restricted species, one &ldquo;Sundaic montane forest&rdquo; biome-restricted species and a congregatory waterbird species of which 1% of its biogeographic population is present. The findings substantiate our previous suggestion to recognize Gunung Lumut Protection Forest as an Important Bird Area. We also provide some remarks on the potential conservation value of hutan adat and raise issues to be addressed in further studies

Checklist Dutch Caribbean Species Register

The Dutch Caribbean Species Register provides a current and comprehensive overview of Dutch biodiversity. It is based on numerous published papers, reports, books and checklists provided by experts, covering all aspects of the flora and fauna of the Dutch Caribbean (the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten). The Dutch Caribbean Species Register combines this information into an authoritative and frequently updated national checklist. All multicellular animals, plants and fungi are included in the checklist, with the exception of species under direct supervision of humans (e.g. pets) and species not recorded since 1758 (i.e. subfossil and fossil species). The checklist includes available synonyms and Dutch, English and Papiamento names and higher classification, including associated source and expert. The Dutch Caribbean Species Register is coordinated and hosted by Naturalis Biodiversity Center. A number of scientific institutions, individual experts and organizations of volunteer recorders have contributed to the Dutch Caribbean Species Register.</p

Machine Learning Model for Identifying Dutch/Belgian Biodiversity

The potential of citizen scientists to contribute to information about occurrences of species and other biodiversity questions is large because of the ubiquitous presence of organisms and friendly nature of the subject. Online platforms that collect observations of species from the public have existed for several years now. They have seen a rapid growth recently, partly due to the widespread availability of mobile phones. These online platforms, and many scientific studies as well, suffer from a taxonomic bias: the effect that certain species groups are overrepresented in the data (Troudet et al. 2017). One of the reasons for this bias is that the accurate identification of species, by non-experts and experts, has been limited by the large number of species that exist. Even in the geographically limited area of the Netherlands and Belgium, the number of species that are regularly observed are in the thousands. This makes the ability to identify all those species difficult or impossible for an individual. Recent advances in species identification powered by deep learning, based on images (Norouzzadeh et al. 2018), suggest a large potential for a new set of digital tools that can help the public (and experts) to identify species automatically. The online observation platform Observation.org has collected over 93 million occurrences in the Netherlands and Belgium in the last 15 years. About 20% of these occurrences are supported by photographs, giving a rich database of 17 million photographs covering all major species groups (e.g., birds, mammals, plants, insects, fungi). Most of the observations with photos were validated by human experts at Observation.org, creating a unique database suitable for machine learning. We have developed a deep learning-based species identification model using this database containing 13,767 species, 1,530 species-groups, 734 subspecies and 117 hybrids. The model is made available to the public through a web service (https://identify.biodiversityanalysis.nl) and through a set of mobile apps (ObsIdentify). In this talk we will discuss our technical approach for dealing with the large number of species in a deep learning model. We will evaluate the results in terms of performance for different species groups and what this could mean to address part of the taxonomic bias. We will also consider limitations of (image-based) automated species identification and determine venues to further improve identification. We will illustrate how the web service and mobile apps are applied to support citizen scientists and the observation validation workflows at Observation.org. Finally, we will examine the potential of these methods to provide large scale automated analysis of biodiversity data

A Linnaeus NGTM interactive key to the Lithocolletinae of North-West Europe aimed at accelerating the accumulation of reliable biodiversity data (Lepidoptera,\ua0Gracillariidae)

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