The conservation of Himalayan forests is big concern in view of global agenda. Many studies in this endeavor reported that the rate of forests degradation is posing a severe threat to the landscape and existing biodiversity in the Himalayas.
1. The restoration of native, forested riparian habitats is a widely accepted method for improving degraded streams. Little is known, however, about how the width, extent and continuity of forested vegetation along stream networks affect stream ecosystems. 2. To increase the likelihood of achieving restoration goals, restoration practitioners require quantitative tools to guide the development of restoration strategies in different catchment settings.
Project in collaboration with the Benguela Environment Fisheries Interaction & Training Programme (BENEFIT) for the Benguela current Large MArine Ecosystem (BCLME) Programme.
We explored the relative contributions of climatic and land-cover factors in explaining the distribution patterns of butterflies in a boreal region. Finland, northern Europe. Data from a national butterfly atlas survey carried out during 1991-2003, with a 10-km grain grid system, were used in these analyses. We used generalized additive models (GAM) and hierarchical partitioning (HP) to explore the main environmental correlates (climate and land-cover) of the realized niches of 98 butterfly species.
Since China's economic reform in the late 1970s, Shanghai, the country's largest and most modern city, has experienced rapid expansion and urbanization. Here, we explore its landâuse and landâcover changes, focusing on the impacts of the urbanization process on air and water quality, local climate, and biodiversity. Over the past 30 years, Shanghai's urban area and green land (eg urban parks, street trees, lawns) have increased dramatically, at the expense of cropland.
Questions: What is the variability of succession over a large geographical area? What is the relative importance of (1) local site factors and (2) landscape factors in determining spontaneous vegetation succession? Location: Various regions of the Czech Republic, Central Europe. The regions represent two categories characterized by agrarian lowlands, with a relatively warm and dry climate, and predominant woodland uplands with a relatively cold and wet climate. Methods: Gravel‐sand pits ranged in age from 1–75 years since abandonment.
Temporal and spatial distribution of egg-laying by Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) was investigated in suburban neighborhoods in Raleigh, NC, by using oviposition traps (ovitraps) at fixed sampling stations during the 2002 and 2003 mosquito seasons. Variations in the phenology of oviposition between the two mosquito seasons resulted from differences in the patterns and amounts of rainfall early in the season. Aerial images of each study neighborhood were digitized, and the proportions of specific types of land cover within buffer zones encompassing ovitraps were estimated.
We examined the influence of riparian vegetation on macroinvertebrate community structure in streams of the Upper Thames River watershed in southwestern Ontario. Thirty-three μ-basins (129–1458 ha) were used to identify land cover variables that influenced stream macroinvertebrates. Micro-basins represented the entire drainage area of study streams and were similar in stream order (first, second) and land cover (agricultural or forest; no urban). We described the structure and composition of riparian vegetation and benthic macroinvertebrate communities at the outflow reach.
Boulengerula uluguruensis is a terrestrial caeciliid caecilian described from the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. We investigated the relative abundance of B. uluguruensis in agricultural and forested habitats at the beginning of the rainy season. This caecilian was found over a wide altitudinal range (450–1175 m a.s.l.), and in many land cover types (including natural forest, plantation forest and small scale agriculture), and different soil textures (including very compact soil). Based on quantitative and semi‐quantitative surveys, B.
Pooled water beetle species lists from 1826 British national grid 10-km squares were analysed using multivariate ordination and classification methods. The relationships of pool groups to the climate, altitude and land cover variables were assessed using constrained and partial ordinations. Ordination of the species pool data indicated a major trend between squares in the north-west of Scotland and those in southern England, illustrating differences in acid and basic water standing water. Secondary variation was from acid standing water to fast-flowing streams and rivers.
Bird census data from the reed archipelago (109 islands) of Lake Velence, Hungary, were used to assess the relative importance of habitat scale variables (island area and shape, reed stand density and reed height) and landscape scale variables (distance to the nearest reed island and nearest large reed island, percentage of reed-, water- and land-cover around the islands). Habitat and landscape scale variables played a similar general role in explaining the presence of the eight observed reedbed passerines.