Wildland Recreation Disturbance: Broad‐Scale Spatial Analysis and Management

Wildland recreation that does not involve animal harvests (non‐consumptive recreation) often influences various components of natural systems, including soils, water, air, soundscapes, vegetation, and wildlife. The effects of non‐consumptive recreation on wildlife have typically been assessed at spatial scales that are not only much smaller than the overall distributions of this disturbance but also much smaller than the areas that species use during a season or year. This disparity in scales has prevented effective assessment and management of broad‐scale recreation disturbance for many species, especially wildlife. We applied three software systems (ArcGIS, FRAGSTATS, and Conefor) to demonstrate how metrics commonly measured by landscape ecologists can be used to quantify broad‐scale patterns of non‐consumptive recreation. Analysts can employ such metrics to develop predictive models of how recreation disturbance – by itself and in additive or interactive combinations with other landscape characteristics – may affect wildlife responses across large areas. In turn, these models can inform decision making in broad‐scale recreation management

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Wetland features and landscape context predict the risk of wetland habitat loss

Wetlands generally provide significant ecosystem services and function as important harbors of biodiversity. To ensure that these habitats are conserved, an efficient means of identifying wetlands at risk of conversion is needed, especially in the southern United States where the rate of wetland loss has been highest in recent decades. We used multivariate adaptive regression splines to develop a model to predict the risk of wetland habitat loss as a function of wetland features and landscape context. Fates of wetland habitats from 1992 to 1997 were obtained from the National Resources Inventory for the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Region, and land-cover data were obtained from the National Land Cover Data. We randomly selected 70% of our 40 617 observations to build the model (n = 28 432), and randomly divided the remaining 30% of the data into five Test data sets (n = 2437 each). The wetland and landscape variables that were important in the model, and their relative contributions to the model’s predictive ability (100 = largest, 0 =-smallest), were land-cover/ land-use of the surrounding landscape (100.0), size and proximity of development patches within 570 m (39.5), land ownership (39.1), road density within 570 m (37.5), percent woody and herbaceous wetland cover within 570 m (27.8), size and proximity of development patches within 5130 m (25.7), percent grasslands/herbaceous plants and pasture/hay cover within 5130 m (21.7), wetland type (21.2), and percent woody and herbaceous wetland cover within 1710 m (16.6). For the five Test data sets, Kappa statistics (0.40, 0.50, 0.52, 0.55, 0.56; P \u3c 0.0001), area-under-the-receiver-operating-curve (AUC) statistics (0.78, 0.82, 0.83, 0.83, 0.84; P \u3c 0.0001), and percent correct prediction of wetland habitat loss (69.1, 80.4, 81.7, 82.3, 83.1) indicated the model generally had substantial predictive ability across the South. Policy analysts and land-use planners can use the model and associated maps to prioritize at-risk wetlands for protection, evaluate wetland habitat connectivity, predict future conversion of wetland habitat based on projected land-use trends, and assess the effectiveness of wetland conservation programs

Applying landscape ecology in biological conservation /

Includes bibliographical references

Refining the Use of Point Counts for Winter Studies of Individual Species

Volume: 105Start Page: 612End Page: 62

Within-scale and cross-scale interaction effects of temperature and human socioeconomic conditions on avian abundance

The interactive effects of climate and human socioeconomic factors on biodiversity in the Anthropocene may be studied most effectively from a social-ecological perspective. Climate can affect avian abundance, and socioeconomics may affect the human propensity to contribute to conservation. Yet, little is known about how these two factors interact to affect species. We assessed the relative influence of within-scale (landscape) and cross-scale (region-landscape) interaction effects of breeding-season temperature and four socioeconomic variables (percent female, percent college educated, median age, and median income) on the relative abundance of eight forest bird species in the Eastern Temperate Forest Ecoregion of North America. We used negative binomial regression to model relative abundance over three years. Akaike's Information Criterion for small sample sizes (AICc) was used to rank a set of nine a priori models for each combination of species and socioeconomic variable. Of the 32 best-supported models, seven included informative within-scale interactions and three additional models included informative cross-scale interactions, indicating that the relationships between species' relative abundance and socioeconomic variables varied for different levels of temperature. Our results suggest that interactions were generally less influential than were climate, socioeconomic, and habitat variables. Distinct responses to interactions were not evident between habitat groups or between wintering groups. Interactions between human socioeconomic variables and breeding-season temperature at different spatial scales can affect forest bird abundance in species-specific ways. Ignoring the effects of interactions on broad-scale patterns of avian abundance may result in misleading interpretations about additive effects and, consequently, ineffective use of limited conservation resources

Plant-Species Richness In Corridor Intersections: Is Intersection Shape Influential?

Corridor intersections constitute nodes that can be more mesic than the intersecting corridors themselves. Such microclimatic conditions may lead to an "intersection effect," in which plant richness is higher in the intersection than in the corridors.We hypothesized that an additional factor contributing to intersection effects is the movement of plants along corridors into intersections by way of bird- and mammal-dispersed seeds. If this hypothesis is correct, one would expect intersection-shape effects, defined herein as differences in inter- section richness associated with the number of possible avenues for plant influx into the intersection. Specifi- cally, richness in intersections should be lowest for L-shape intersections (two avenues), higher for T-shape intersections (three avenues), and highest for X-shape intersections (four avenues). We used data from fencerow networks to test this hypothesis about corridor intersections. During October 1992and March 1993, we determined woody- and herbaceous-plant richness for 25 intersections and their associated in central Texas, USA. We compared two measures of intersection richness among the three intersection shapes: richness of plants dispersed primarily by birds and mammals (vertebrate-dispersedplant richness), and rich- ness of plants dispersed primarily by wind, ants or other means (non-vertebratedispersed plant richness). Ver- tebrate-dispersed plant richness differed significantly among intersection shapes, but no differences in non- vertebrate dispersed plant richness were evident, which is what one would expect if the number of avenues for vertebrate vectors into an intersection was an important factor influencing intersection richness. The intersec- tion-shape effects we found were not attributable to ..

TREES USED SIMULTANEOUSLY AND SEQUENTIALLY BY BREEDING CAVITY-NESTING BIRDS

Volume: 46Start Page: 358End Page: 36

Avian Responses to Observer Clothing Color: Caveats from Winter Point Counts

Volume: 105Start Page: 628End Page: 63