Anthropogenic Infrastructure Research Articles

Causes and Effects of Sand and Dust Storms: What Has Past Research Taught Us? A Survey

Barren ground and sites with low coverage by vegetation (e.g., dunes, soil surfaces, dry lakes, and riverbeds) are the main source areas of sand and dust storms (SDS). The understanding of causes, processes (abrasion, deflation, transport, deposition), and influencing factors of sandy and dusty particles moving by wind both in the boundary layer and in the atmosphere are basic prerequisites to distinguish between SDS. Dust transport in the atmosphere modulates radiation, ocean surface temperature, climate, as well as snow and ice cover. The effects of airborne particles on land are varied and can cause advantages and disadvantages, both in source areas and in sink or deposition areas, with disturbances of natural environments and anthropogenic infrastructure. Particulate matter in general and SDS specifically can cause severe health problems in human respiratory and other organs, especially in children. Economic impacts can be equally devastating, but the costs related to SDS are not thoroughly studied. The available data show huge economic damages caused by SDS and by the mitigation of their effects. Management of SDS-related hazards utilizes remote sensing techniques, on-site observations, and protective measures. Integrated strategies are necessary during both the planning and monitoring of these measures. Such integrated strategies can be successful when they are developed and implemented in close cooperation with the local and regional population and stakeholders.

Lesser Prairie‐Chicken Survival in Varying Densities of Energy Development

ABSTRACTAnthropogenic features increasingly affect ecological processes with increasing human demand for natural resources. Such effects also have the potential to vary depending on the sex and age of an individual because of inherent behavioral and life experience differences. For the lesser prairie‐chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), studies on male survival are limited because most previous research has been focused on females. To better understand patterns of lesser prairie‐chicken survival in habitat with varying levels of anthropogenic infrastructure associated with oil and natural gas development, we monitored survival of 178 radio‐tagged male and female lesser prairie‐chickens in eastern New Mexico, USA, from 2013 to 2015. We examined the relationships of shrub cover, proximity to and density of anthropogenic features (i.e., utility poles), displacement of natural vegetation by anthropogenic features (i.e., area of roads and well pads), and individual demographics (i.e., sex, age) with lesser prairie‐chicken survival. Furthermore, we categorized the probable cause of mortality and examined its relationship with oil and gas development intensity (indexed by utility pole density) within 1,425 m of an individual's mortality site or final observed location. We predicted that survival would be lower for individuals exposed to greater levels of anthropogenic features, and that males and subadults would be more negatively affected than females and adults because of increased exposure to predators during the lekking season and naiveté. Relationships between survival and utility pole density, sex, and age were supported in our top‐ranked models, whereas models including other anthropogenic and natural features (i.e., roads, well pads, shrub cover) received little support. We predicted a substantial decrease in adult and subadult male survival with increasing densities of utility poles. The relationship between survival and utility pole density for females was weaker and not as clearly supported as for males. We did not find a detectable difference in utility pole counts among probable mortality causes. Our findings highlight the importance of including male lesser prairie‐chickens in research and conservation planning, and the negative effect that high densities of anthropogenic features can have on lesser prairie‐chicken survival. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.

Understanding fish-hydrodynamic interactions within Cylindrical Bristle Cluster arrays to improve passage over sloped weirs

Anthropogenic infrastructure in rivers (e.g. culverts, dams and weirs) can block the movements of fish and negatively impact their communities. Recent research has shown that fish passage at such barriers can be improved through the use of cylindrical bristle cluster (CBC) arrays. The relationship between the hydrodynamic environment created by different CBC array geometries and passage efficiency, the number of fish that passed as a percentage of those that attempted to do so, and swimming behaviour of a native wide spread European cyprinid species, the roach (Rutilus rutilus), was investigated. Passage efficiency was a function of cluster diameter and spacing; efficiency was highest (>80%) when the ratio of lateral cluster spacing (centre to centre) (Sc ) to diameter was less than 5. Fish exhibited a range of swimming behaviours while manoeuvring through the CBC array to ascend the weir, the most common of which was zigzagging between two lines of clusters. Additionally, fish utilised lower velocity areas when swimming through a CBC array, often combining different swimming behaviours to successfully navigate at burst speeds. Fish passage efficiency can be improved by increasing the size of the wake behind clusters and the overall hydraulic resistance created within the array while ensuring sufficient space is available for fish to manoeuvre.

South African raptors in urban landscapes: a review

Globally, but especially in Africa, increasing human populations and anthropogenic land-use change are generally affecting diversity negatively. Urban environments in southern Africa typically comprise a mosaic landscape of anthropogenic infrastructure with some green spaces. These urban cities have a range of fauna that have persisted or increased in population density compared with areas that are more natural. We analysed the occurrence of diurnal and nocturnal raptors using South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) data and reviewed literature. We found 66 raptor species occurred in South African cities. Thirty species had reporting frequencies greater than 10% in at least one of the 11 cities assessed, revealing impressive diversity of the raptor clade in South African cities. Five species were both abundant and widespread, occurring >10% in five or more cities each, of which three belong to the scavenger guild: Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus, African Fish Eagle Haliaeetus vocifer, Common Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus, Yellow-billed Kite Milvus aegyptius and Black Sparrowhawk Accipiter melanoleucus. However, only a few of these 66 raptors had been extensively studied in urban areas: the Black Sparrowhawk, African Crowned Eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus, Lanner Falcon Falco biarmicus and Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus. This lack of research is specifically severe, given that Africa is hosting a unique and diverse range of raptor species and that numbers and diversity of raptors have declined dramatically over the past decades across the continent. In fact, these four extensively studied species occurred in higher densities in urban areas than rural areas, which indicates that urban areas might create valuable opportunities for urban conservation, not least through public engagement.

Cats, cars, and crossings: The consequences of road networks for the conservation of an endangered felid

Encroaching urban development is a leading cause of habitat loss, replacing natural areas with anthropogenic infrastructure and road networks. Roadways can influence the spatial ecology and survival of mammalian carnivores, particularly felids, thereby threatening long-term persistence and conservation of sensitive populations. Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) are a federally endangered felid in the United States with breeding populations restricted to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, an area of extensive anthropogenic expansion. We evaluated the influence of road networks on ocelot survival using a long-term telemetry dataset (1982–2001, n = 59) and draw comparisons with a spatially referenced historical dataset of ocelot-vehicle collisions in the same area (1982–2020, n = 54). Vehicle collisions accounted for 40% of radio-collared ocelot fatalities. Annual survival rates were 0.90 (95% CI = 0.84–0.95) for resident ocelots and 0.66 (95% CI = 0.45–0.97) for transient ocelots. We evaluated biological and road-related factors that may influence ocelot survival using Cox proportional hazards regression. The top model included density of unpaved, low-volume, and high-volume roads within home ranges and resident-transient status. Mortality risk increased 16% with every 0.07 km/km2 increase of high-volume roads within annual home range, decreased 45% with every 1.12 km/km2 increase of unpaved roads, and decreased 276% for residents compared to transients. Further, probability of mortality specifically from vehicle collision increased with greater density of low-volume roads within ocelot home ranges. Within the historical dataset of ocelot-vehicle collisions, 46% occurred on low-volume roads while 39% occurred on high-volume roads. Our results highlight the necessity for mitigation strategies on low-volume roads which cause the most ocelot-vehicle collisions. In addition, continued attention towards high-volume roads is necessary to ocelot conservation. Understanding how road attributes affect the survival of species sensitive to urbanization and habitat fragmentation can aid in their conservation.

Aspects of the ecology and behaviour of a potential urban exploiter, the southern tree agama, Acanthocercus atricollis

Urbanisation has caused significant alterations to ecosystems, generally resulting in decreased biodiversity. However, certain animal species persist and thrive in urban environments by making use of available opportunities, anthropogenic resources, infrastructure and increased ambient and surface temperatures. These species are known as urban exploiters. We investigated the southern tree agama, Acanthocercus atricollis population trends, habitat use and basking and shading behaviour in a high-density urban human-populated housing metropolitan area in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We marked individual southern tree agamas to determine habitat use and territories (n = 37). The southern tree agama population density was high, and they had established set territories here. We conducted monthly observations (February 2017–July 2017 and March 2018–February 2019) to determine the degree of basking and shading behaviour with season and time of day and location. Southern tree agamas invested more than half of their time (57%) in basking behaviour during the overall observational study period. Basking and shading patterns changed with season and time of day. The number of basking southern tree agamas decreased during winter and basking commenced later. We found that increased anthropogenic infrastructure and supplementary food availability, decreased predators, and basking opportunities could have had an influence on their population increase and that the southern tree agama is a potential urban exploiter.

Can Aquaculture Ponds Be Managed as Foraging Habitats for Overwintering Water Birds? An Experimental Approach

Coastal wetlands have been gradually developed by aquaculture and other anthropogenic infrastructure, reducing the habitat for water birds. The traditional operation of shallow-pond milkfish (Chanos chanos) aquaculture in Taiwan may provide a model for aquaculture production that operates in harmony with overwintering water birds. The goal of this study was to test whether experimental water drawdown of aquaculture ponds, following the seasonal, traditional milkfish aquaculture, can create resource pulses that attract water birds in Tainan City in southern Taiwan. This experiment tested four types of aquaculture with potential for application: wild fish, no-feed tilapia, milkfish, and tilapia with feed. Ponds were surveyed every other day for water depth and water birds at least 37 times in four winters after water drawdown. In general, drawdown ponds created resource pulses that attracted higher feeding bird densities and numbers of species than control ponds in all aquaculture types. Milkfish ponds often had higher water birds in each year. Deep waders were sometimes the most abundant guild in the control, whereas shorebirds, shallow and deep waders were often higher in the drawdown treatment. Bird densities and numbers of species were correlated with water level, benthic biomass and water Chl a, but not with tilapia biomass. Species, such as Black-faced Spoonbills (Platalea minor), responded to water levels with the exception of Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta). The operation of seasonal, traditional shallow-pond milkfish aquaculture is suitable for foraging of water birds during the winter migratory bird season.

Consequences of barriers and changing seasonality on population dynamics and harvest of migratory ungulates

Many animal populations providing ecosystem services, including harvest, live in seasonal environments and migrate between seasonally distinct ranges. Unfortunately, two major sources of human-induced global change threaten these populations: climate change and anthropogenic barriers. Anthropogenic infrastructure developments present a global threat to animal migrations through increased migration mortality or behavioral avoidance. Climate change alters the seasonal and spatial dynamics of resources and therefore the effects of migration on population performance. We formulated a population model with ideal-free migration to investigate changes in population size and harvest yield due to barriers and seasonal dynamics. The model predicted an increasing proportion of migrants when the difference between areas in seasonality or carrying capacity increased. Both migration cost and behavioral avoidance of barriers substantially reduced population size and harvest yields. Not surprisingly, the negative effects of barriers were largest when the population benefited most from migration. Despite the overall decline in harvest yield from a migratory population due to barriers, barriers could result in locally increased yield from the resident population following reduced competition from migrants. Our approach and results enhance the understanding of how global warming and infrastructure development worldwide may change population dynamics and harvest offtake affecting livelihoods and rural economies.

Underwater Visual Records of Marine Megafauna Around Offshore Anthropogenic Structures

In oceans and seas worldwide, an increasing number of end-of-life anthropogenic offshore structures (e.g. platforms, pipelines, manifolds, windfarms, etc.) are facing full or partial removal. As part of the decommissioning process, studies on potential importance of subsea infrastructure to marine megafauna (defined as: cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, large fish – such as sharks, rays, billfishes, and tuna, as well as marine reptiles, and seabirds) are lacking. Dedicated scientific Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) surveys around offshore installations are rare, but there is a wealth of archived industrial data and noteworthy species sightings posted publicly on various social media platforms. This study used routine, incidentally-collected ROV (n = 73) and commercial diver (n = 9) video recordings spanning 1998–2019 globally. Data were gathered directly from industrial partners (n = 36) and the public domain (YouTube; n = 46) to provide an account of marine megafauna presence and potential feeding behaviour in the near visible vicinity of subsea anthropogenic structures. A total of 79 video clips and 3 still images of marine megafauna near offshore structures were examined, resulting in 67 individual sightings and 16 sub-sightings (in which an individual was recorded within the same day). At least 178 individuals were identified to a minimum of 17 species of marine megafauna, amounting to a total (combined) sighting duration of 01:09:35 (hh:mm:ss). Results demonstrated proximate presence of marine megafauna (many of which are threatened species) to anthropogenic structures, with most animals displaying foraging or interaction behaviours with the structures. Observations included the deepest (2,779 m) confirmed record of a sleeper shark (Somniosus spp.) and the first confirmed visual evidence of seals following pipelines. These ROV observations demonstrate a latent source of easily-accessible information that can expand understanding of marine megafauna interactions with offshore anthropogenic infrastructure. Consequently, other workers in this field should be encouraged to re-analyse archived datasets, commence further collaborative research projects with industrial partners, and/or expand Internet search terms to additional species assemblages, in a bid to quantitatively elucidate relationships between offshore infrastructure and marine species.

Risk of wind-driven resuspension and transport of contaminated sediments in a narrow marine channel confluencing a wide lagoon

This work concerns the wind-driven resuspension in a narrow marine channel and the risk of transport of contaminated bottom sediments in a wide brackish lagoon in the context of a planned anthropogenic infrastructure (with forced convection, by pumping sea water). It is based on the modelling and 3D numerical simulation of salinity, current distributions and bottom shear stress (BSS). The goal is to demonstrate that, even for narrow channels of a few tens of meter of width, a wind of 10–20 m/s is sufficient to create intensive currents, to resuspend muddy bottom sediments and transport polluted sediments downstream. Several model scenarios are considered for such wind speeds in two dominant and opposite wind directions, for a channel whose bottom sediments are mainly constituted of fine particles, typically 85% of mud and 15% of fine sand. It is known that finer sediments usually play an important role to transport contaminants (due to larger surface area of smaller particles). Our main results concern the bottom shear stress along such a long and narrow channel; namely the Rove channel which confluences the Etang de Berre lagoon, and for which a project of forced current circulation is planned by pumping sea water. Our numerical results show that the mobility threshold can be easily overpassed for the muddy sediments in the Rove channel. For a bottom roughness of 5 μm (coarse silt) and a wind speed of 20 m/s, BSS can reach 0.18 N/m2 for the N-NW wind in the median part of the channel, and even 0.21 N/m2 in one enlargement for the S-SE wind, while BSScr is about 0.1 N/m2. We conclude that these local winds can permit floc erosion and even surface erosion of fine sediments in the Rove channel.Concerning the resuspension of muddy sediments, our results are consistent with the experimental study presented by Carlin et al. (2016) for a windy shallow lagoon. They are also consistent with the conclusion of Mengual et al. (2017), from erodimetry experiment for estuarine sediments, that the sediment behaves like a pure mud if the percentage of the mud fraction is more than 70%, and that the critical BSS for mobility of such bed sediments is of the order of 0.1 N/m2. Such a lower critical BSS when the mixture is muddier is opposite to trends most often published.

Суспільно-географічний підхід до оцінки атрактивності туристичного потенціалу Карпатського регіону

Tourism is one of the most important sectors of the Ukrainian economy. Analysis of the tourism potential of the country and its individual regions, in particular its attractiveness – the ability to attract potential tourists, is necessary for the effective functioning of the tourism sector. The purpose of the article is to justify the socio-geographical approach to assessing the tourist potential’s attractiveness of the region and analyse the conditions and factors for such estimation in the objective (quantitative) and subjective (qualitative) dimensions on the basis of factor criteria and performance indicators. The tourist potential’s attractiveness of the region is the degree of attractiveness of the natural, ethnocultural, socio-historical and other tourist resources of the region, its socio-economic and transport infrastructure, reception places and attendants. The tourist potential’s attractiveness of the Carpathian region is ensured by its diversity of relief forms, the picturesque of landscapes, the presence of unique wild nature areas, a significant amount of rivers, the purity of natural waters, a lot of forests, and the richness of flora and fauna. The wealth of anthropogenic tourism resources of the Carpathian region leads to a high attraction of the social segment of the tourist potential of the Carpathian region. All regional centres, a lot of small towns and villages, which have survived, the samples of Old Ukrainian church wooden architecture, castles, religious buildings, defensive structures, old residential and economic buildings of the region have a high attraction. The attractiveness is also ensured by the presence of numerous parks, cafes, restaurants, theatres, museums, cultural and lifestyle habits of local residents, including Hutsuls and Boyks. Along with this, a combination of natural and social tourism resources created in the Carpathian region favourable conditions for the development of all kinds of ethnic and event tourism, rural green tourism. Based on the analysis of approaches to the component of the tourism potential’s assessment and attractiveness, own socio-geographical approach to the construction of a system for assessing the tourist potential’s attractiveness of the region has been formed. These include natural tourist resources, tourist resources of anthropogenic origin, tourist infrastructure, marketing and pricing policies, labour resources, provision of catering facilities, sports and entertainment facilities, the level of transport infrastructure’s development, tourist safety, environmental quality, finance, investment in tourism sphere, general image of the region, economic attractiveness, management, state support and political stability, information. The peculiarity of the proposed approach is to assess the conditions and factors of the tourism potential of the region in an objective and subjective way. Each of these characteristics is described by relevant factor criteria and may be defined by specific quantitative and / or qualitative indicators. With the help of the constructed indicators’ system of tourism potential attraction estimation, we are able to quantitatively and qualitatively estimate the level of tourism industry development in the Ukrainian regions; to highlight the causal relationships in determining the level of tourist potential’s attractiveness; to identify the factors that influence the development of tourism activity, in that destabilizing; to carry out monitoring of tourism activity in the region with the possibility of predicting changes in tourist activity taking on its basis optimal managerial decisions at the state and regional levels. Key words: tourist potential, tourist potential’s attractiveness, Carpathian region, natural and anthropogenic tourist resources.

Quantifying habitat loss and modification from recent expansion of energy infrastructure in an isolated, peripheral greater sage-grouse population

New technologies and increasing energy demand have contributed to rapid expansion of unconventional oil and gas development in the U.S. in the past two decades. Quantifying the effects of energy infrastructure on land cover and wildlife habitat is essential for informing land-use policy, developing wildlife conservation strategies, and projecting impacts of future development. The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; GrSG) is a species of concern in sagebrush ecosystems of the western U.S. and Canada and the focus of widespread conservation and management efforts. Increasing energy development within GrSG range has prompted the need to quantify and predict impacts of energy infrastructure on their habitat and populations. We mapped the annual distribution, surface type, and activity level of energy and non-energy infrastructure in the Parachute-Piceance-Roan (PPR), a small, peripheral greater sage-grouse population in Colorado with expanding oil and gas development, from 2005 to 2015. During that time, the footprint of energy infrastructure more than doubled to 3,275 ha (+108.6%), including 195 new well pads, 930 ha of new pipelines, and 230 km of new roads. In contrast, non-energy infrastructure decreased to 532 ha (−8.3%). The majority of energy infrastructure present each year (77–84%) was supporting infrastructure (i.e. facilities, roads, pipelines) rather than well pads, with an average of 2.24 ± 0.52 SE ha of supporting infrastructure per ha of well pad. Pipelines comprised 74–80% of reclaimed surface and roads comprised 54–69% of disturbed surface across years. By 2015, anthropogenic infrastructure covered 2.70% of occupied range and 2.93% of GrSG habitat, and energy infrastructure covered 2.50% and 10.79% of two priority habitat management area zones in the PPR. Three land cover classes most affected by energy infrastructure were also those strongly selected by GrSG. Topographic constraints appear to concentrate energy infrastructure in areas with gentler topography that also have the highest GrSG use. Together, these patterns suggest that future energy development will cause substantial additional loss and modification of GrSG habitat in the PPR. Our findings are valuable for assessing surface disturbance caps for land-use management and projections of energy infrastructure effects on wildlife habitat in this and other expanding oil and gas fields.

Effects of roads on giant panda distribution: a mountain range scale evaluation

Few studies have focused on the mountain ranges scale effects of roads on wildlife. This lack of data could lead to an underestimation of the negative impact of roads on animal populations. We analyzed a dataset that included 74.4% of the giant panda population and covered 78.7% of the global giant panda habitat to estimate road-effect zones for major roads, and to investigate how these major roads influenced the distribution of giant pandas on a mountain range spatial scale. We found that the density of giant panda signs was significantly decreased by proximity to major roads. The effect zone reached 5,000 m from national roads and 1,500 m from provincial roads. Structural equation model analysis revealed that the strongest negative impact of major roads on giant pandas was via the reduction of nearby forest cover. The results should provide a better understanding of the impact of anthropogenic infrastructure and regional economic development on wildlife, thus providing a basis for conservation policy decisions. We suggest that the environmental impact assessment of proposed roadways or further researches on road ecological effects should expand to a larger scale and consider the possible habitat degradation caused by road access.

The effects of electric power lines on the breeding ecology of greater sage-grouse.

Anthropogenic infrastructure can negatively affect wildlife through direct mortality and/or displacement behaviors. Some tetranoids (grouse spp.) species are particularly vulnerable to tall anthropogenic structures because they evolved in ecosystems void of vertical structures. In western North America, electric power transmission and distribution lines (power lines) occur in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) landscapes within the range of the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended using buffer zones near leks to mitigate the potential impacts of power lines on sage-grouse. However, recommended buffer distances are inconsistent across state and federal agencies because data are lacking. To address this, we evaluated the effects of power lines on sage-grouse breeding ecology within Utah, portions of southeastern Idaho, and southwestern Wyoming from 1998–2013. Overall, power lines negatively affected lek trends up to a distance of 2.7 and 2.8 km, respectively. Power lines died not affect lek persistence. Female sage-grouse avoided transmission lines during the nesting and brooding seasons at distances up to 1.1 and 0.8 km, respectively. Nest and brood success were negatively affected by transmission lines up to distances of 2.6 and 1.1 km, respectively. Distribution lines did not appear to affect sage-grouse habitat selection or reproductive fitness. Our analyses demonstrated the value of sagebrush cover in mitigating potential power line impacts. Managers can minimize the effects of new transmission power lines by placing them in existing anthropogenic corridors and/or incorporating buffers at least 2.8 km from active leks. Given the uncertainty we observed in our analyses regarding sage-grouse response to distribution lines coupled with their role in providing electric power service directly to individual consumers, we recommend that buffers for these power lines be considered on a case-by-case basis. Micrositing to avoid important habitats and habitat reclamation may reduce the potential impacts of new power line construction.

Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) nesting close to energy infrastructure alarm call at a lower frequency

ABSTRACTMany birds rely on alarm calls during nest defence to communicate about risk, but anthropogenic disturbance, including noisy industrial infrastructure, has the potential to disrupt alarm communication. Birds may overcome these effects by altering the structure of vocalizations to improve signal transmission. While previous work has demonstrated that birds can alter the structure of songs in the presence of noise, few have considered effects of noise-producing infrastructure on alarm call structure. Here, we tested whether Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) altered the structure of alarm calls in the presence of natural gas compressor stations or grid-powered or generator-powered screw pump oil wells, and in relation to overall ambient noise levels. Savannah sparrows called at a lower peak frequency and first quartile frequency close to gas compressor stations, but call structure did not differ with proximity to either type of oil well, or in response to ambient noise levels, suggesting that factors beyond noise amplitude, such as the physical footprint of the infrastructure, affected call structure close to compressor stations. Our results demonstrate that even unlearned, structurally simple avian vocalizations can vary in structure, and that the impacts of anthropogenic infrastructure on acoustic communication may be driven by factors beyond just noise.

Coastal Management Using UAS and High-Resolution Satellite Images for Touristic Areas

Coastline change and human activities in shoreline zones are two factors indicating the vulnerability and the quality of a coastal environment. In this article, coastline evolution and spatiotemporal differences on coastal touristic infrastructure are presented as two case studies. Both case studies have increasing interest among scientists monitoring sensitive coastal areas, and for stakeholders evolved in the tourist industry. The study is twofold: monitors the shoreline evolution and examines how the shoreline behavior affects the seasonal anthropogenic touristic infrastructure. Shoreline detection methodology integrates unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or high-resolution satellite images for data acquisition, and geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) for the shoreline recognition and the infrastructure change detection. The methodology used produced robust results in the aspect of mapping and detecting coastline changes, coastal erosion and the human pressure due to specific activities.

Future response of global coastal wetlands to sea-level rise.

The response of coastal wetlands to sea-level rise during the twenty-first century remains uncertain. Global-scale projections suggest that between 20 and 90 per cent (for low and high sea-level rise scenarios, respectively) of the present-day coastal wetland area will be lost, which will in turn result in the loss of biodiversity and highly valued ecosystem services1-3. These projections do not necessarily take into account all essential geomorphological4-7 and socio-economic system feedbacks8. Here we present an integrated global modelling approach that considers both the ability of coastal wetlands to build up vertically by sediment accretion, and the accommodation space, namely, the vertical and lateral space available for fine sediments to accumulate and be colonized by wetland vegetation. We use this approach to assess global-scale changes in coastal wetland area in response to global sea-level rise and anthropogenic coastal occupation during the twenty-first century. On the basis of our simulations, we find that, globally, rather than losses, wetland gains of up to 60 per cent of the current area are possible, if more than 37 per cent (our upper estimate for current accommodation space) of coastal wetlands have sufficient accommodation space, and sediment supply remains at present levels. In contrast to previous studies1-3, we project that until 2100, the loss of global coastal wetland area will range between 0 and 30 per cent, assuming no further accommodation space in addition to current levels. Our simulations suggest that the resilience of global wetlands is primarily driven by the availability of accommodation space, which is strongly influenced by the building of anthropogenic infrastructure in the coastal zone and such infrastructure is expected to change over the twenty-first century. Rather than being an inevitable consequence of global sea-level rise, our findings indicate that large-scale loss of coastal wetlands might be avoidable, if sufficient additional accommodation space can be created through careful nature-based adaptation solutions to coastal management.

Landscape‐scale habitat assessment for an imperiled avian species

AbstractA comprehensive understanding of wildlife habitat suitability requires landscape‐scale assessments that provide the framework for subsequent integration with local‐scale relationships. To elucidate the functional role of habitat characteristics at large scales it is necessary to understand how abundance is related to important landscape characteristics. We estimated male greater sage‐grouse Centrocercus urophasianus abundance on leks relative to sagebrush availability, landscape connectivity and anthropogenic infrastructure densities within landscapes surrounding leks from 2006 to 2013 using binomial N‐mixture models. We focused on Wyoming, as the state will play a critical role in the long‐term persistence of greater sage‐grouse due to its relatively robust populations, widespread sagebrush habitats and innovative, large‐scale conservation approaches. Landscapes associated with higher abundance of males on leks were characterized as highly connected, sagebrush‐dominated areas with limited energy development. These modeled relationships were used to evaluate spatial and temporal changes in the landscape‐scale integrity of areas supporting the majority of the greater sage‐grouse populations in Wyoming (i.e. core areas). By assessing relative changes in abundance over time, our models indicated that most of the habitat within core areas (86%) exhibited landscape conditions conducive to supporting medium or large greater sage‐grouse populations that were stable or increasing through time. Larger populations were associated with larger, more centrally located core areas. Conversely, core areas supporting relatively small or declining populations were located along range margins in the eastern portion of the state. The landscape‐scale habitat relationships we developed can be used in combination with local‐scale assessments to generate a more complete picture of greater sage‐grouse habitat suitability.

Практики освоения пространства эвенками Восточной Сибири: прагматическое использование антропогенного ландшафта и инфраструктуры

Практики освоения пространства эвенками Восточной Сибири: прагматическое использование антропогенного ландшафта и инфраструктуры

Evaluating efficacy of fence markers in reducing greater sage-grouse collisions with fencing

Anthropogenic infrastructure routinely interferes with wildlife movement, habitat use, and survival. Grouse in the family Phasianidae may be particularly susceptible to collisions with fences due to their morphology and life history. Because many Phasianid species are of conservation concern, managers often deploy markers on fences to reduce collision-associated mortality. However, scarce information on the effectiveness of different marker styles or the effects of local and landscape features on collision risk exists. Our objectives were to (1) determine the effectiveness of different marker styles in reducing collisions, (2) estimate the effects of local and landscape features on collision risk, and (3) evaluate an existing greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) collision risk model. We conducted greater sage-grouse collision surveys within Sublette County, Wyoming, USA in March and April of 2014 and 2015. Data were analyzed in a multi-scale occupancy model accounting for incomplete detection of collisions. We found substantial evidence for the ability of all markers to reduce collisions (~57% reduction), with little difference between the tested marker types. We found strong evidence for lower collision probabilities at fences with wood posts and on fences farther from leks. Our results also indicated a negative relationship between collision probabilities and the difference between fence and vegetation heights. We observed little evidence for differences in collision risk between areas defined as “high” or “moderate” risk in a pre-existing collision risk map. We recommend integrating fence marking into conservation practices requiring fencing, and prioritizing fence marking near leks in areas with greater fence exposure.