Actual Distribution Of Species Research Articles

Mapping Biodiversity Conservation Priorities for Protected Areas for Spatial Optimization: A Case Study in the Songnen Plain, China.

The decline in biodiversity poses a serious threat to natural ecosystems and has become one of the most pressing global environmental issues. Establishing conservation priorities for protected areas (PAs) is one of the most direct and effective biodiversity conservation measures. However, conservation gaps arise as a result of existing problems in spatial layout of PAs, including overlapping protection scopes, artificial fragmentation of natural ecological regions, as well as "over-protection" and "over-exploitation." To optimize the spatial layout of PAs and improve the efficiency of biodiversity conservation, we employed the Habitat Quality module of the Integrated Assessment of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model to assess the PAs in the Songnen Plain, China. The combined model (MaxEnt-InVEST) revealed that the conservation priorities for PAs in the Songnen Plain occupied a total area of 14,764.14 km2 (10.24% of the total area of the Songnen Plain). The conservation priorities outside PAs occupied a total area of 7858.45 km2 (5.45% of the total area of the Songnen Plain) and were primarily distributed in the northeastern, central, and southwestern regions of the Songnen Plain. This indicated that existing PAs did not offer adequate protection for local biodiversity. The consistency of our combined modeling framework was 72.11%, which enabled a more accurate assessment of biodiversity hotspots and respects the land uses of the Songnen Plain. In addition, the modeling framework successfully created maps of conservation gaps of biodiversity hotspots based on actual species distribution data and considers current land uses. Our study was aimed at optimizing the spatial conservation efficiency of the Songnen Plain by assessing the conservation gaps in the Songnen Plain. It could provide a reference for the future development of a PA system centering on national parks.

PEMODELAN DISTRIBUSI KUCING TANDANG (Prionailurus planiceps) DI KAWASAN RESTORASI EKOSISTEM RIAU DI SEMENANJUNG KAMPAR, RIAU

The flat-headed cat is categorized as a threatened species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As the beginning of a conservation strategy for species that are difficult to find in nature, knowing the actual distribution of species in the field is important. Maximum entropy (Maxent) has emerged as an accurate prediction method for species distribution. This study aimed to analyze the distribution of flat-headed cats and important variables affecting their distribution in the Riau Ecosystem Restoration (RER) area on the Kampar Peninsula, Riau. A total of 6 finding points and 17 environmental variables were used in the modeling of this study. The Area Under Curve (AUC) value of the flat-headed cats was 0.890, indicating that the model performance was categorized as satisfactory. High habitat suitability was predicted ≥ 19% or (24,736.83 ha) of the total area. Environmental variables that influenced their distribution were distance from trails, distance from canals, and distance from rivers. The high suitability of the flat-headed cats’ habitat in the PT GCN concession is potentially along the Sangar River. In the PT SMN concession in the central and northwestern parts of the concession. PT TBOT concession is in areas adjacent to the Turip and Serkap Rivers. Although not detected in previous surveys, PT GAN has the potential to detect the presence of flat-headed cats in the eastern part and adjacent to the Serkap River.

Late-Holocene stability and recent changes in small mammal communities in north-central Andean forests of Patagonia

Past and current climatic and environmental changes have contributed to configure actual species distributions and abundances. Knowing their evolution over time allows discrimination between natural and anthropogenic causes in current composition of faunal communities. We evaluate the changes in small mammal assemblages from the north-central Patagonian Andean forests since the Late-Holocene to recent times and their relationship with the environmental modifications driven by human activities. A bone sequence from Población Anticura archaeological site (lower Manso river valley, Río Negro province, Argentina) was studied, which encompasses a time span from the early Late-Holocene (3350 ± 100–2270 ±80 years BP) to final Late-Holocene (1420 ± 70–530 ±50 years BP) and Historical times (480 ± 70–280 ±40 years BP). The species composition indicates that forest environment established in the area from at least the Late-Holocene (dominance of Loxodontomys micropus, with subordinate frequencies of Abrothrix olivacea, A. hirta, Geoxus valdivianus, Irenomys tarsalis, and Paynomys macronyx), with patches of (or near to) open environments (presence of Reithrodon auritus and cavids). It is remarkable the presence of cavids, which increased their abundance in the sequence towards Historical times but disappeared nowadays. The low frequencies (<10%) of the rodent Oligoryzomys longicaudatus along the entire sequence is also relevant, since this rodent is the reservoir of the Andes strain of the Hantavirus (ANDV), which causes pulmonary syndrome. This mouse dominates the small mammal assemblages from forests and ecotonal shrublands of northwestern Patagonia (abundances exceed 50% in owl pellets recently collected from the study area). Current configuration of forest and ecotonal assemblages, particularly the high abundance of O. longicaudatus, should be mainly linked to anthropogenic causes, including the introduction of cattle, land clearing, and the advance of introduced plant species such as the sweet briar ( Rosa eglanteria). Particularly, this exotic shrub offers shelter and additional food for O. longicaudatus, turning their shrublands into spaces of high epidemiological risk.

Effects of Environmental Factors on the Distribution and Diversity of Aquatic Oligochaetes

The aim of our study was to detect the actual distribution of oligochaete species and to identify their ecological differentiation with respect to environmental factors: altitude, temperature, oxygen concentration, conductivity, total organic carbon, and waterbody type. Although widespread, differentiation of oligochaete communities in four waterbody types and altitudinal groups can be observed through alpha and beta diversity. Their differences were analyzed using MANOVA, while the ecological preferences of species were presented with logistic Gaussian regression analyses. The highest number of the species of Oligochaeta was recorded in oligochaete communities in medium and large rivers. Total beta diversity decreased with the decreasing of waterbody size, the increasing of size of the substrate particles, river flow velocity, as well as altitude. Communities from small mountain rivers and streams and large and medium rivers with coarser substrate differed from other oligochaete communities. When coarser substrate was prevalent in smaller and medium rivers, a domination of a certain family was observed: Lumbriculidae (>800 m a.s.l.), Propappidae and Enchytraeidae (500–800 m), and Naididae (<500 m a.s.l.). Common species of Oligochaeta, with significantly overlapping ranges in running waters in Serbia, still show a clear grouping with respect to preference for certain types of waterbodies.

Global patterns of the species richness and distribution of eriophyoid mites: a response to Li et al. 2023

AbstractAimThe global distribution and diversity of mites, including the species rich and highly host plant‐specific eriophyoid mites, are important questions in biogeography and biodiversity conservation. Here we critique the paper of Li et al. (2023) titled ‘Global patterns and drivers of herbivorous eriophyoid mite species diversity’.LocationGlobalTaxonEriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea)MethodsWe assert that the data set utilized (less than 4,500 eriophyoid species) consisted of only the described extant species, not all extant species. We then provide evidence that the utilised data set represents only a small proportion of the likely global total of eriophyoid species and therefore provides a far from complete representation of their global distribution.ResultsMost collections of extant eriophyoid mites have been conducted in temperate regions where most taxonomic specialists have been active, and not in the largely unstudied tropical regions which contain a very substantial majority of all plant diversity. Most undescribed eriophyoid diversity is therefore highly likely to be found in the tropics. This suggests that the global modelling analyses of Li et al. (2023) were very likely applied to a highly inaccurate data set.Main ConclusionsThe actual global distribution and total number of eriophyoid mite species can only be more reliably estimated by systematic taxonomic studies that cover the entire global distribution of plant diversity, which implies a strong focus on the tropical regions.

Forest in Mozambique: Actual Distribution of Tree Species and Potential Threats

In recent decades, there has been a perception that the Mozambican forests have been threatened with massive exploitation for commercialization, deforesting vast areas, leading to desertification and contributing to the extinction of some forest species. The present research summarizes the official information obtained by monitoring the country’s natural resources over time and identifying the major types of existing forests in Mozambique. The main objective is to elucidate on the current state of Mozambican forests, analyze change and trends, and characterize the actual distribution of forest species in Mozambique to verify the sustainability of forest resources and their composition. It is a case study of the qualitative descriptive type, with data obtained through a bibliographic research method focusing on scientific articles on the type of forest species existing in Africa and Mozambique and data from official sources of the forests. Various types of forests were identified, such as mopane, mercrusse, semi-deciduous, miombo, and semi-evergreen, including the gallery forest. Forest species with particular relevance were highlighted, such as Afzelia quanzensis, Swartzia madagascariensis, Pterocarpaus angolensis, Combretum imberbe, and Millettia stuhalmannii. Major threats to these natural resources were identified and reported, including anthropogenic activity associated with traditional practices of illegal logging or due to the valuation of other goods of primary necessity, lack of protection and conservation measures, and impacts resulting from climate change. The Munza district is presented as a case study, carrying out a characterization of the forest in this district and identifying the main threats in the study area from 2015 to 2020.

Predicting present spatial distribution and habitat preferences of commercial fishes using a maximum entropy approach.

The knowledge of the geographical distribution and habitat preferences of marine species is the key to protecting marine ecosystems. Modeling the distribution of marine species through environmental variables is an essential step to understanding and reducing climate change effects on marine biodiversity and related human populations. In this study, the present distributions of commercial fishes including Acanthopagrus latus, Planiliza klunzingeri, and Pomadasys kaakan were modeled using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modeling technique and a set of 22 environmental variables. In total, 1531 geographical records belonging to three species were extracted from online databases Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS, 829 records, 54%), Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, 17 records, 1%), and literature (685 records, 45%) during September to December 2022. The findings showed the values of area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) above 0.99 for all species indicating the high performance of this technique to reflect the actual distribution of species. Environmental factors such as depth (19.68%), sea surface temperature (SST) (19.40%), and wave height (20.71%) were the strongest environmental predictors determining the present distribution and habitat preferences of the three commercial fish species. The Persian Gulf, Iranian coasts of the Sea of Oman, North Arabian Sea, North-East areas of the Indian Ocean, and North coasts of Australia are among the areas with ideal environmental conditions for the species. For all species, the percentage of habitats with high suitability (13.35%) was higher compared to habitats with low suitability (6.56%). However, a high percentage of species occurrence habitats had unsuitable conditions (68.58%) showing the vulnerability of these commercial fishes. Significant management strategies are needed to protect preferred habitats to minimize the effect of fishery and climate change on the population stocks of these commercial fishes.

Legionella anisa or Legionella bozemanii? Traditional and molecular techniques as support in the environmental surveillance of a hospital water network

Understanding the actual distribution of different Legionella species in water networks would help prevent outbreaks. Culture investigations followed by serological agglutination tests, with poly/monovalent antisera, still represent the gold standard for isolation and identification of Legionella strains. However, also MALDI-TOF and mip-gene sequencing are currently used. This study was conducted to genetically correlate strains of Legionella non pneumophila (L-np) isolated during environmental surveillance comparing different molecular techniques. Overall, 346 water samples were collected from the water system of four pavilions located in a hospital of the Apulia Region of Italy. Strains isolated from the samples were then identified by serological tests, MALDI-TOF, and mip-gene sequencing. Overall, 24.9% of water samples were positive for Legionella, among which the majority were Legionella pneumophila (Lpn) 1 (52.3%), followed by Lpn2-15 (20.9%), L-np (17.4%), Lpn1 + Lpn2-15 (7.1%), and L-np + Lpn1 (2.3%). Initially, L-np strains were identified as L. bozemanii by monovalent antiserum, while MALDI-TOF and mip-gene sequencing assigned them to L. anisa. More cold water than hot water samples were contaminated by L. anisa (p < 0.001). PFGE, RAPD, Rep-PCR, and SAU-PCR were performed to correlate L. anisa strains. Eleven out of 14 strains identified in all four pavilions showed 100% of similarity upon PFGE analysis. RAPD, Rep-PCR, and SAU-PCR showed greater discriminative power than PFGE.

Habitat suitability of five commonly planted non-native trees in Chile: Implications for an invasion process

Non-native tree (NNT) species have been deliberately introduced into new areas. Historically, NNTs were not considered as invasive species, given the benefits they provide, but that has changed during the last decades. The use of non-native trees, whichever purpose they have, should be assessed according to the location and susceptibility of the area to invasion. Forestry trees, such as Pinus and Eucalyptus have been introduced worldwide, being the most planted taxa. Here, we present a complete assessment of the actual invasive stage and potential distribution of most relevant non-native tree species established in the south-Central region of Chile (Pinus radiata, Eucalyptus globulus, Eucalyptus nitens, Pinus contorta and Pseudotsuga menziesii) based on its presences and absences, their global and regional niches, Species Distribution Models (SDM), climatic and anthropogenic variables. None of the studied species maintain the environmental space of their native range. Some of them (P. radiata, E. globulus and E. nitens) have been established under new environmental conditions, thus expanding their niches. Others, such as P. contorta and P. menziesii present a high proportion of stable populations, but there is an even higher proportion of area available for their expansion. Beyond their actual status, all e studied species are capable of expanding their populations into new areas of the studied region. Conservation efforts must be efficiently planned, to reduce these species impacts wherever necessary, but also to avoid their further dispersal into new non-invaded areas.

How far will they go? Considerations on the potential expansion of the Ring-necked Parakeet (&lt;em&gt;Psittacula krameri&lt;/em&gt;) and Monk Parakeet (&lt;em&gt;Myiopsitta monachus&lt;/em&gt;) in Veneto region (Italy) with MaxEnt distribution models

Predictive models of species distribution, including several parakeets, may be very useful for understanding the actual and potential distribution of alien species. The Ring-necked Parakeet and the Monk Parakeet are two alien species found in the Veneto region (north-east Italy) that are well-suited for conducting potential distribution studies to identify suitable areas of occurrence. In this paper, I use the MAXENT algorithm to predict the potential distribution maps of these species in the Veneto region, which finds the probability distribution of maximum entropy that is constrained by the ecological parameters considered. The authors of the Veneto photo-sound atlas kindly provided presence data for the two species. The potential distribution models for the two parakeets performed very well overall (AUC = 0.966 for Ring-necked Parakeet and AUC = 0.987 for Monk Parakeet) and indicated that high suitability areas correspond primarily to areas near known occurrences of the species. Overall, the study found that the presence of the species in provinces other than those with large populations is highly unlikely. The distribution maps produced can aid in the selection of monitoring areas for these two alien species’ populations and potential expansion.

Ecological niche differentiation in the Anatolian rock lizards (Genus: Anatololacerta) (Reptilia: Lacertidae) of the Anatolian Peninsula and Aegean Islands

The genus Anatololacerta is distributed in the eastern Mediterranean region including Asia Minor and some east Aegean islands. Recent phylogenetic studies suggested that this genus displayed cryptic diversity and was divided into five species: A. anatolica, A. pelasgiana, A. ibrahimi, A. finikensis and A. danfordi. The ecological niche differentiations of these species have not been studied so far. Our aims for this study were to predict the potential suitable habitats for the species nested in genus Anatololacerta, and to examine the niche overlaps and differentiations via identity and background tests. The occurrence data were obtained from literature and our own field surveys. Occurrence records were rarefied and assessed in a 30 arc-second resolution layer, compatible with several bioclimatic and topographic variables. Species distribution analyses were performed using maximum entropy approach and pairwise niche comparisons were evaluated by identity and background tests. Our results demonstrated that the species delimitation among this genus was not only affected by geographic isolation but also that precipitation and temperature influenced the habitat suitability for these species. Predicted suitability usually well matched the actual species distributions. Moreover, the niche overlap (identity test) analyses verified that allopatric Anatololacerta species show clear ecological differentiations. However, a niche overlap between parapatric species A. pelasgiana and A. finikensis, was confirmed by identity and background tests. It has been suggested that these parapatric species could be more affected by microclimatological parameters than the others. The results of our study are in agreement with the latest phylogenetic study within this genus.

Challenges and Advances in the Taxonomy of Deep-Sea Peracarida: From Traditional to Modern Methods

As one of the oldest branches of biology, taxonomy deals with the identification, classification and naming of living organisms, using a variety of tools to explore traits at the morphological and molecular level. In the deep sea, particular challenges are posed to the taxonomic differentiation of species. Relatively limited sampling effort coupled with apparent high diversity, compared to many other marine environments, means that many species sampled are undescribed, and few specimens are available for each putative species. The resulting scarce knowledge of intraspecific variation makes it difficult to recognize species boundaries and thus to assess the actual diversity and distribution of species. In this review article, we highlight some of these challenges in deep-sea taxonomy using the example of peracarid crustaceans. Specifically, we offer a detailed overview of traditional as well as modern methods that are used in the taxonomic analysis of deep-sea Peracarida. Furthermore, methods are presented that have not yet been used in peracarid taxonomy, but have potential for the analysis of internal and external structures in the future. The focus of this compilation is on morphological methods for the identification, delimitation and description of species, with references to molecular analysis included where relevant, as these methods are an indispensable part of an integrative taxonomic approach. The taxonomic impediment, i.e. the shortage of taxonomists in view of a high undescribed biodiversity, is discussed in the context of the existing large taxonomic knowledge gaps in connection with the increasing threat to deep-sea ecosystems. Whilst peracarid crustaceans are used here as an exemplary taxon, the methodology described has broad relevance to many other deep-sea taxa, and thus will support broader research into deep-sea biodiversity and ecology more widely.

Design-based mapping of plant species presence, association, and richness by nearest-neighbour interpolation

The difference between potential and actual distribution of species is emphasized, pointing out the ecological importance of providing maps that depict the actual species presence on the study region. Owing to the impossibility of performing complete surveys over large areas, the presence/absence of species at a pre-fixed spatial grain is estimated for any location of the study region from the presences/absences recorded within plots centred at sample locations and having the same grain. Estimation is performed in a design-based framework by means of the well-known nearest-neighbour interpolator. Association and richness maps are obtained as product and sum of the presence maps of single species. The design-based asymptotic unbiasedness and consistency of these maps are theoretically proven and pseudo-population bootstrap estimators of their precision are proposed and discussed. Coverage of presence, association maps and related overlapping indexes are estimated, as usual, by counting the sample locations within the study region. A simulation study is performed on a real community of 302 tree species settled in a 50-ha rectangle in the lowland tropical moist forest of Barro Colorado Island (BCI), central Panama, to check the finite-sample performance of the proposal. A case study for estimating the presence map and the association of holly oak and white violet in the Montagnola Senese (Central Italy) is reported. Technical details are contained in the appendices.

Mapping actual distribution of invasive species siam weed and its abundance across biogeographical zones in Benin (West Africa)

Background Invasive weeds pose a serious threat to agricultural systems worldwide and the management of such species requires information on their distribution. Objective This research work aimed at assessing the evolution in the distribution of Siaw weed across biogeographical zones in Benin as first step toward the development of management policy and to give insight into the threat it poses to agriculture and biodiversity. Methods Field and roadside surveys were carried out to record the presence of the species. [...]

Molecular data attest to the occurrence of autochthonous Daphnia pulex (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) populations in Sicily, Italy

Biological invasions are known to be among the most important threats to the long-term conservation of native biota, and their effects might be even more difficult to contrast when they are cryptic, i.e., when the non-native invaders cannot be easily recognised based on morphology, and can thus be confused with native taxa. Such cryptic invasions are known to widely occur in the cladoceran genus Daphnia O.F. Müller, 1785, so that the actual distribution and status of most species and lineages need to be checked with a genetic approach. In the frame of this work, we investigated if the Sicilian populations of D. (Daphnia) pulex Leydig, 1860 belonged to the allochthonous North American lineage, which is known to occur in several regions of the Palearctic and Afrotropical biogeographical regions, or rather to the autochthonous European lineage of the species. The molecular results obtained, based on a fragment of the mitochondrial gene encoding for NADH subunit dehydrogenase 5 (ND5), allowed us to rule out the allochthonous status of the species, confirming the presence of autochthonous relictual lineages of D. pulex in Sicily. The native status of these populations is in agreement with their local distribution, limited to natural and poorly-impacted water bodies mostly located in wooded areas at medium and high altitudes. The current local distribution of D. pulex in Sicily is possibly linked to the end of the last glacial maximum and the onset of warmer climatic conditions in the early Holocene, which led the species to take refuge in colder microthermal refugia located at high altitudes, determining their current relictual distribution.

Remote sensing variables improve species distribution models for alpine plant species

Species distribution models (SDMs) are cost-effective, transparent and flexible planning tools to support various areas in nature conservation. Variables taken from remote sensing (RS) are broadly applicable to biodiversity studies. In our study, we combined RS-variables (normalized differenced vegetation index and land surface temperatures), with topographic and geological variables to produce detailed SDMs in the context of a seed collection campaign of the Alpine Seed Conservation and Research Project. To identify effective predictor variable combinations we compiled three different variable sets and compared the predictive model performance.The full model, that combines all types of variables, slightly outperforms (average values for TSS: 0.91, AUC: 0.98, Kappa: 0.7) models that use topo-climatic variables (average values for TSS: 0.91, AUC: 0.98, Kappa: 0.68) or NDVI (average values for TSS: 0.85, AUC: 0.96, Kappa: 0.54) alone. We also produced ensemble models that performed slightly better compared to the different model algorithms used in our approach. We identified the temperature of the coldest month, mean NDVI and bedrock as important variables that determine the distribution of alpine plant species.Our full models show high accordance with actual species distribution ranges and are highly relevant for efforts to identify special areas for either in-situ or ex-situ conservation.

Systematics and biogeography of the Boana albopunctata species group (Anura, Hylidae), with the description of two new species from Amazonia

The outstanding species richness of Amazonia has fascinated biologists for centuries. However, the records of actual numbers and distribution of species forming its ecosystems are so incomplete that the understanding of the historical causes and regional determinants of this diversity remain speculative. Anuran clades have repeatedly been documented to harbour many unnamed species in this region, notably the Boana albopunctata species group. Considering the documented distribution and the ecology of the species of that group, we hypothesized that it diversified via successive trans-riverine dispersals during the late Miocene and Pliocene, after the formation of the modern Amazon watershed. To test this hypothesis, we gathered an extensive dataset of 16S rDNA sequences sampled throughout Amazonia and a mitogenomic dataset representative of the diversity of the clade to (1) re-evaluate species boundaries and distributions, and (2) infer the spatio-temporal history of diversification within Amazonia. We delimited 14 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) in an Amazonian clade, i.e., 75% higher than currently recognized (14 OTUs for eight described species). Combining molecular data with morphological and acoustic data, two new species, Boana courtoisae sp. nov. from the eastern Guiana Shield and Boana eucharis sp. nov. from Southern Amazonia, are described herein. These species belong to a clade that diversified throughout Amazonia during the last 10 Ma, thus more recently than co-distributed small terrestrial anurans but concomitantly with other more vagile vertebrates. Our time-scaled phylogeny and biogeographic analyses suggest an initial east-west divergence and confirm reciprocal trans-riverine dispersals during the last 5 Ma. The geomorphological evolution of the region and species-specific dispersal ability largely explain these distinct spatio-temporal patterns across anurans. http://www.zoobank.org/zoobank.org:act:4F8ACA9F-F6F1-4605-BD6C-6D4650AACCBE http://www.zoobank.org/zoobank.org:act:51CC7B40-2D6B-4A9E-AF50-AB34D4CE1042

Land snail biogeography and endemism in south-eastern Africa: Implications for the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot.

Invertebrates in general have long been underrepresented in studies on biodiversity, biogeography and conservation. Boundaries of biodiversity hotspots are often delimited intuitively based on floristic endemism and have seldom been empirically tested using actual species distributions, and especially invertebrates. Here we analyse the zoogeography of terrestrial malacofauna from south-eastern Africa (SEA), proposing the first mollusc-based numerical regionalisation for the area. We also discuss patterns and centres of land snail endemism, thence assessing the importance and the delimitation of the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (MPA) biodiversity hotspot for their conservation. An incidence matrix compiled for relatively well-collected lineages of land snails and slugs (73 taxa in twelve genera) in 40 a priori operational geographic units was subjected to (a) phenetic agglomerative hierarchical clustering using unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA), (b) parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) and biotic element analysis (BEA). Fulfilling the primary objective of our study, the UPGMA dendrogram provided a hierarchical regionalisation and identified five centres of molluscan endemism for SEA, while the PAE confirmed six areas of endemism, also supported by the BEA. The regionalisation recovers a zoogeographic province similar to the MPA hotspot, but with a conspicuous westward extension into Knysna (towards the Cape). The MPA province, centres and areas of endemism, biotic elements as well as the spatial patterns of species richness and endemism, support the MPA hotspot, but suggest further extensions resulting in a greater MPA region of land snail endemism (also with a northward extension into sky islands—Soutpansberg and Wolkberg), similar to that noted for vertebrates. The greater MPA region provides a more robustly defined region of conservation concern, with centres of endemism serving as local conservation priorities.

EVALUATION OF TREE SPECIES CLASSIFICATION METHODS USING MULTI-TEMPORAL SATELLITE IMAGES

Abstract. Tree species classification is an important step towards forest monitoring and biodiversity conservation. This research study evaluates several multispectral image classification techniques for tree species over Ahwa village in Dang district, South Gujarat, India. Multispectral images consisting of 4 bands-R, G, B and NIR collected over 4 months was used. Object-based segmentation using mean shift, cluster-based using K-Means and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and pixel-based methods have been analyzed. Additionally, a new method of classification has been described using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm. It outperformed supervised classification techniques with accuracy over 95%. The GMM+DTW model accurately reflected the actual species distribution found in the ground truth.

Climate Change and Alpine Screes: No Future for Glacial Relict Papaver occidentale (Papaveraceae) in Western Prealps

Glacial relicts, especially those with very narrow habitat requirements, are particularly affected by global warming. We considered Papaver occidentale, a glacial relict endemic to the Western Prealps, belonging to the alpine poppy complex (P. alpinum aggr.), as a model taxon to study the actual status and potential future distribution of species restricted to particular microrefugia. For this study, all known localities were visited, each population was georeferenced and the number of individuals was estimated. Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) was used to evaluate the present and future potential distribution range and habitat suitability, taking into account the specificity of its habitat (calcareous screes). According to our study, there are globally 19 natural populations of P. occidentale, and a total of about 30,000 individuals. The taxon is a highly specialized alpine plant growing in the majority of natural sites between 1900 and 2100 m a.s.l. on north-facing screes. Predictions for the end of the 21st century indicate that a suitable area will significantly decrease (0–30% remaining). Under the most severe climatic scenarios (RCP 8.5), the species risks complete extinction. The long-term in situ conservation of P. occidentale, and all other taxa of the P. alpinum complex, is unlikely to be achieved without slowing global climate change. More generally, our fine-scale study shows that local environmental buffering of large-scale climate change in high-mountain flora may be very limited in specialised taxa of patchy environments such as screes.