Conserving socio-ecological landscapes: An analysis of traditional and responsive management practices for floodplain meadows in England

Contemporary practice in the conservation of socio-ecological landscapes draws on both a model of responsive management, and also on ideas about historic management. This study considered what evidence might exist for the exercise of these approaches to management in the conservation of floodplain meadows in England, in order to inform understanding and knowledge of conservation management and assessment practice. Evidence for a model of responsive management was limited, with managing stakeholders often alternating between this model and an alternative approach, called here the ‘traditional management approach’, based on ideas, narratives and prescriptions of long-established land management practices. Limited monitoring and assessment appeared to undermine the former model, whilst uncertainty over past long-standing management practices undermined the latter. As a result of the relative power of conservation actors over farmers delivering site management, and their framings of meadows as ‘natural’ spaces, management tended to oscillate between aspects of these two approaches in a sometimes inconsistent manner. Conservation managers should consider the past motivating drivers and management practices that created the landscapes they wish to conserve, and bear in mind that these are necessarily implicated in aspects of the contemporary landscape value that they wish to maintain. They should ensure that assessment activity captures a broad range of indicators of site value and condition, not only biological composition, and also record data on site management operations in order to ensure management effectiveness

Damage and recovery of four Philippine corals from short-term sediment burial

Recovery of corals after full burial with littoral sediment (16% silt, 46% fine sand and 38% coarse sand, 28% CaC03) was monitored in 2 field experiments at the reefs off Lucero, Bolinao (Pangasinan, NW Philippines), from April to May 1996. In the first experiment at 2 m depth, Porites was buried for 0, 6, 20 and 68 h; a second experiment was done at 5 m depth and 4 common taxa (Porites, Galaxea, Heliopora and Acropora) were buried for 20 h. At 2 m depth, Porites was not affected by 6 h burial compared to the controls that were not buried. Increasing burial time had increasingly more serious effects. Burial for 20 h resulted in increased discoloration of the coral tissue. After 68 h of burial, up to 90% of the tissue bleached in the first days. About 50% of this tissue disappeared subsequently and bare coral skeleton became exposed or were covered with algae. After a few weeks, however, recovery took place: the bare areas were recolonized from surrounding surviving tissue or from highly retracted polyps in the affected area. In the corals that had been buried for 20 h no more significant differences from the controls were observed after 3 wk. For those that were buried for 68 h, this was the case after 4 wk. At 5 m depth, all Acropora died after the 20 h burial treatment, but the other taxa recovered In a comparable way to the Porites in the first experiment at 2 m depth. It is concluded that complete burial will cause considerable whole-colony mortality in at least Acropora, and thus may result in a permanent loss of coral taxa from reefs that are subject to such intense sedimentation events. Less sensitive taxa incur substantial damage but significant recovery was observed after a month

Effectiveness of community and volunteer based coral reef monitoring in Cambodia

1.Globally, coral reef monitoring programmes conducted by volunteer-based organizsations or local communities have the potential to collect large quantities of marine data at low cost. However, many scientists remain sceptical about the ability of these programmes to detect changes in marine systems when compared with professional techniques. 2.A limited number of studies have assessed the efficacy and validity of volunteer-based monitoring, and even fewer have assessed community-based methods. 3.This study in Cambodia investigated the ability of surveyors of different levels of experience to conduct underwater surveys using a simple coral reef methodology in Cambodia. Surveyors were assigned to four experience categories and conducted a series of six 20 x 5 m belt transects using five benthic indicator species. 4.Results indicate decreased variation in marine community assessments with increasing experience, indicating that experience, rather than cultural background, influences survey ability. This suggests that locally based programmes can fill gaps in knowledge with suitable on-going training and assessment