Improving insect conservation management through insect monitoring and stakeholder involvement

In recent years, the decline of insect biodiversity and the imminent loss of provided ecosystem functions and services has received public attention and raised the demand for political action. The complex, multi-causal contributors to insect decline require a broad interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach that addresses ecological and social aspects to find sustainable solutions. The project Diversity of Insects in Nature protected Areas (DINA) assesses insect communities in 21 nature reserves in Germany, and considers interactions with plant diversity, pesticide exposure, spatial and climatic factors. The nature reserves border on agricultural land, to investigate impacts on insect diversity. Part of the project is to obtain scientific data from Malaise traps and their surroundings, while another part involves relevant stakeholders to identify opportunities and obstacles to insect diversity conservation. Our results indicate a positive association between insect richness and biomass. Insect richness was negatively related to the number of stationary pesticides (soil and vegetation), pesticides measured in ethanol, the amount of area in agricultural production, and precipitation. Our qualitative survey along with stakeholder interviews show that there is general support for insect conservation, while at the same time the stakeholders expressed the need for more information and data on insect biodiversity, as well as flexible policy options. We conclude that conservation management for insects in protected areas should consider a wider landscape. Local targets of conservation management will have to integrate different stakeholder perspectives. Scientifically informed stakeholder dialogues can mediate conflicts of interests, knowledge, and values to develop mutual conservation scenarios

Emerging technologies revolutionise insect ecology and monitoring

Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, but their small size and high diversity have always made them challenging to study. Recent technologi- cal advances have the potential to revolutionise insect ecology and monitoring. We describe the state of the art of four technologies (computer vision, acoustic monitoring, radar, and molecular methods), and assess their advantages, current limitations, and future potential. We discuss how these technologies can adhere to modern standards of data curation and transparency, their implications for citizen science, and their potential for integration among different monitoring programmes and technologies. We argue that they provide unprecedented possibilities for insect ecology and monitoring, but it will be important to foster international standards via collaborationpublishedVersio

Determinanten der räumlichen Populationsstruktur des kleinsten bekannten Primaten, <i>Microcebus berthae</i>, in dessen globalem Verbreitungsgebiet Menabe Central, West-Madagaskar

Diese Studie befasst sich mit der Populationsökologie des kleinsten bekannten Primaten, dem charismatischen Mme. Berthe s Mausmaki (Microcebus berthae) in Menabe Central, dem globalen Verbreitungsgebiet der Art im Westen Madagaskars. Der ökologische Spezialist koexistiert regional mit einem weitverbreiteten Generalisten und überlegenen Konkurrenten, dem Grauen Mausmaki (Microcebus murinus). Aufgrund starker Überlappung in Ernährung und Habitatansprüchen kann die Koexistenz der beiden Schwesterarten nicht allein durch ökologische Differenzierung erklärt werden. Die beiden Mausmakis koexistieren mit weiteren Vertretern der Familie Cheirogaleidae (Cheirogaleus medius, Mirza coquereli und Phaner pallescens). In meiner Arbeit habe ich die ökologische Struktur in dieser Gemeinschaft nahverwandter Arten untersucht, um Determinanten der Populationsstruktur zu identifizieren und den Schutzstatus von M. berthae zu überprüfen. Abundanz und räumliche Verteilung der Cheirogaleiden wurden mittels Distance Sampling und Fangaktionen entlang von Transekten erhoben und auf verschiedenen Maßstäben analysiert. Die globale Population von M. berthae war weitgehend auf unberührtes Habitat beschränkt und empfindlich für anthropogene Störungen. In einem regionalen Maßstab waren die Microcebus Populationen interspezifisch negativ assoziiert und es wurde eine räumliche Aufteilung entlang von Störungsgradienten in der Trockenzeit dokumentiert. Die Koexistenz der beiden Mausmakiarten wurde in intaktem Habitat durch weitere Cheirogaleiden stabilisiert. Auf der Populationsebene war Intraguild Prädator M. coquereli negativ mit M. murinus assoziiert, hingegen positiv mit M. berthae. Die interspezifische Verteilung der Arten vor dem Hintergrund räumlicher und zeitlicher Heterogenität bestätigte den stabilisierenden Einfluß von M. coquereli auf die Koexistenz der Mausmakis. In lokaler Koexistenz fanden sich keine eindeutigen Anzeichen für Konkurrenzausschluß zwischen den Microcebus Arten. Mirza und Cheirogaleus scheinen die lokale Verteilung von Grauen Mausmakis zu unterschiedlichen Jahreszeiten komplementär zu regulieren. Negative Assoziationen von M. coquereli und M. murinus Individuen wurden nur in der Trockenzeit dokumentiert, dagegen waren M. coquereli und M. berthae Individuen immer unabhängig verteilt. In der Regenzeit wurden C. medius Individuen durch den unterlegenen Konkurrenten M. murinus vermieden, während M. berthae und C. medius Individuen räumlich positiv assoziiert waren. Diese Verteilungsmuster lassen auf einen Spatial Storage Effect schließen, der durch koexistierende Arten vermittelt wird und die Koexistenz von Microcebus spec. stabilisiert. Mirza und Cheirogaleus schaffen in intaktem Habitat Refugien für M. berthae, in welchen die Konkurrenz mit dem Grauen Mausmaki reduziert ist. Im Gegenzug bieten anthropogen beeinträchtigte Umgebungen dem Generalisten M. murinus exklusive Ressourcen und Zuflucht vor Intraguild Prädation. Der Fortbestand von Mme. Berthe s Mausmaki hängt somit nicht nur vom Erhalt bestehender Waldflächen in Menabe Central ab, sondern maßgeblich von der Qualität des Habitats. Eine Veränderung interspezifischer Interaktionsmechanismen oder lokale Verluste einer der stabilisierenden Schlüsselarten, können rasch zum Aussterben des weltweit kleinsten Primaten führen

Distribution and Abundance of the World's Smallest Primate, Microcebus berthae, in Central Western Madagascar

The distribution of most recently discovered or described lemur species remains poorly known, but many appear to have small geographical ranges, making them vulnerable to extinction. Research can contribute to future conservation actions on behalf of these species by providing accurate information on local distribution and abundance. The distribution of the world’s smallest primate, the endangered Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae), is limited to the Menabe Central region of western Madagascar. This species was discovered in the 1990s, but many fundamental aspects of its ecology remain unknown. The aims of our study were therefore to determine the actual distribution of Microcebus berthae across the forests of this region, to estimate population density, and to examine the species’ response to anthropogenic activities. We established 35 1-km line transects across Menabe Central, on which we surveyed mouse lemurs by distance sampling and live trapping. Microcebus berthae does not occur in all remaining forests of this small region and its population density is highly heterogeneous, both across its geographic range and locally. Within its area of occupancy, the population of Microcebus berthae not only was distributed according to spatial heterogeneities of the habitat, but also responded to anthropogenic disturbances and varied seasonally. Our results indicate that Microcebus berthae is susceptible to habitat degradation and avoids human environments spatially. As none of the forest remnants in which the species still occurs were officially protected until recently, immediate conservation actions should focus on effectively protecting Kirindy and Ambadira forests

Agent-mediated spatial storage effect in heterogeneous habitat stabilizes competitive mouse lemur coexistence in Menabe Central, Western Madagascar

BACKGROUND: Spatio-temporal distribution patterns of species in response to natural and anthropogenic drivers provide insight into the ecological processes that determine community composition. We investigated determinants of ecological structure in a species assemblage of 4 closely related primate species of the family Cheirogaleidae (Microcebus berthae, Microcebus murinus, Cheirogaleus medius, Mirza coquereli) in western Madagascar by extensive line transect surveys across spatial and temporal heterogeneities with the specific goal of elucidating the mechanisms stabilizing competitive coexistence of the two mouse lemur species (Microcebus spp.). RESULTS: Interspecific competition between the mouse lemurs was indicated by negative spatial associations in degraded habitat and by habitat partitioning along anthropogenic disturbance gradients during dry seasons with resource scarcity. In non-degraded habitat, intraguild predator M. coquereli, but not C. medius, was negatively associated with M. murinus on the population level, whereas its regional distribution overlapped spatially with that of M. berthae. The species’ interspecific distribution pattern across spatial and temporal heterogeneities corresponded to predictions for agent-mediated coexistence and thus confirmed M. coquereli’s stabilizing impact on the coexistence of mouse lemurs. CONCLUSIONS: Interspecific interactions contribute to ecological structure in this cheirogaleid assemblage and determinants vary across spatio-temporal heterogeneities. Coexistence of Microcebus spp. is stabilized by an agent-mediated spatial storage effect: M. coquereli creates refuges from competition for M. berthae in intact habitat, whereas anthropogenic environments provide M. murinus with an escape from resource competition and intraguild predation. Species persistence in the assemblage therefore depends on the conservation of habitat content and context that stabilizing mechanisms rely on. Our large-scale population level approach did not allow for considering all potential functional and stochastic drivers of ecological structure, a key limitation that accounts for the large proportion of unexplained variance in our models

Developing a novel bioacoustic monitoring for Garden Dormice using passive sound recorders and machine learning

One of the challenges of small mammal conservation is to be able to find the target species in the field. This is especially true for small nocturnal hibernators like dormice. Passive bioacoustic monitoring, as a non-invasive method, can be a useful tool to more efficiently find vocalizing animals in the field. However, bioacoustic methods produce a large amount of data, of which the manual analysis is highly time consuming. Therefore, there is need for an automatized process for identifying animal vocalization in acoustic data. Two types of recorders, audiomoths and BAR-LT recorders, were installed at a total of 10 locations of known Garden Dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) activity in Germany and were left recording in the field from June to September, producing a total of 3.54 TB of data. Based on our own and volunteers’ observations, Garden Dormouse vocalizations were manually identified in a subset of the sound files produced. These vocalizations, as well as ambient sound samples, were labelled and extracted to train a TensorFlow model, which was then tested on new subsets of the complete dataset. Comparing sound quality and acquisition costs of the two recorder types shows the potential for large-scale monitoring applications using the less expensive and open source audiomoth. Next steps include a time analysis of Garden Dormouse calls to find out when they are vocally more active during the study period. Such knowledge can help narrow the temporal scale of future bioacoustic studies on this species

Pooling size sorted Malaise trap fractions to maximize taxon recovery with metabarcoding

Background Small and rare specimens can remain undetected when metabarcoding is applied on bulk samples with a high specimen size heterogeneity. This is especially critical for Malaise trap samples, where most of the biodiversity is contributed by small taxa with low biomass. The separation of samples in different size fractions for downstream analysis is one possibility to increase detection of small and rare taxa. However, experiments systematically testing different size sorting approaches and subsequent proportional pooling of fractions are lacking, but would provide important information for the optimization of metabarcoding protocols. We set out to find a size sorting strategy for Malaise trap samples that maximizes taxonomic recovery but remains scalable and time efficient. Methods Three Malaise trap samples were sorted into four size classes using dry sieving. Each fraction was homogenized and lysed. The corresponding lysates were pooled to simulate unsorted samples. Pooling was additionally conducted in equal proportions and in four different proportions enriching the small size fraction of samples. DNA from the individual size classes as well as the pooled fractions was extracted and metabarcoded using the FwhF2 and Fol-degen-rev primer set. Additionally, alternative wet sieving strategies were explored. Results The small size fractions harboured the highest diversity and were best represented when pooling in favour of small specimens. Metabarcoding of unsorted samples decreases taxon recovery compared to size sorted samples. A size separation into only two fractions (below 4 mm and above) can double taxon recovery compared to not size sorting. However, increasing the sequencing depth 3- to 4-fold can also increase taxon recovery to levels comparable with size sorting, but remains biased towards biomass rich taxa in the sample. Conclusion We demonstrate that size fractionation of Malaise trap bulk samples can increase taxon recovery. While results show distinct patterns, the lack of statistical support due to the limited number of samples processed is a limitation. Due to increased speed and lower risk of cross-contamination as well as specimen damage we recommend wet sieving and proportional pooling of the lysates in favour of the small size fraction (80–90% volume). However, for large-scale projects with time constraints, increasing sequencing depth is an alternative solution

Grünbuch Citizen Science Strategie 2020 für Deutschland

Das vorliegende Grünbuch für eine Citizen Science Strategie 2020 stellt die Ziele, Potenziale und Herausforderungen von Citizen Science in Deutschland dar und zeigt Handlungsoptionen für die Entwicklung einer nationalen Strategie zur Einbindung von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in die Wissenschaft auf. Dabei wird der Fokus auf drei Handlungsfelder gelegt: Die Stärkung etablierter Strukturen, die Neuschaffung von Rahmenbedingungen und die weitere Integration von Cititzen Science in bestehende Konzepte durch verschiedene Maßnahmen. Außerdem werden im Grünbuch vor allem auch die Ziele und Möglichkeiten ebenso wie eine Vision für die Rolle von Citizen Science im Jahr 2020, unter anderem in Form von zehn Leitbildern, definiert. Im Vordergrund stehen auch hier die breite Etablierung, Anerkennung und Einbeziehung von Citizen Science in gesellschaftsrelevante Kontexte