Conservation Conference Research Articles

A pilot program to expand career opportunities in conservation for students of color

AbstractThe Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program (SCLP) is a pilot initiative designed to expand career development opportunities to undergraduate students of color in their senior year who are interested in pursuing a career in conservation and/or employment with a land trust organization. Through SCLP, undergraduate seniors engage in career development activities and events, network with conservation practitioners, receive mentorship from a Conservationist of Color group member with similar career interests, attend the Land Trust Alliance Rally National Land Conservation Conference (LTA Rally Conference), and can qualify for a paid year‐long fellowship with a land trust. This study explores the evidence gathered during the program to determine if the SCLP achieved the initial desired outcomes. Two cohorts of scholars have participated in the pilot program activities and events. Both cohorts were asked to complete surveys before and immediately after attending the LTA Rally Conference as well as 6–9 months following the conference to share their experiences and perspectives about the program. The evidence strongly suggests that the SCLP pilot initiative is achieving the programmatic outcomes of expanding career development opportunities to students of color, increasing their interest in pursuing a career in conservation and/or working with a land trust organization.

Donor perspectives on strengthening capacity development for conservation

AbstractGlobal perspectives on the pathways for developing capacity for conservation remain limited. Hindering the robustness of solutions is a dearth of opportunities to foster discussion and dialogue among capacity development practitioners, academics, partners, beneficiaries and donors. Additionally, little is known about donor perspectives on capacity development, and about pathways to developing a more sustainable investment in capacity development for conservation. The 2019 Capacity Building for Conservation Conference in London, UK, provided a unique opportunity to convene more than 150 capacity development practitioners from the global conservation community. The Conference included structured opportunities to hear donor perspectives on strengthening capacity development. Session leaders took detailed notes to document donor perspectives and the discussions around them. A thematic analysis of this empirical evidence resulted in the identification of four key themes with corresponding recommendations, consisting of (1) collaborative design of capacity development initiatives, (2) monitoring and evaluation, (3) longer-term and flexible investments, and (4) building strong relationships between donors and grantees. Given the Convention on Biological Diversity is currently drafting the long-term strategic framework for capacity development post-2020, and global calls to protect significant portions of our land- and seascapes, our recommendations are timely and may inform a way forward.

Aluminum: History, Technology, and Conservation

The current volume brings together papers presented at the 2014 “Aluminum: History, Technology and Conservation” conference held at the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum; the conference was followed by a hands-on workshop held at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which utilized the museum’s collections to illustrate aluminum’s use, conservation challenges, and repair techniques as well as to introduce participants to analytical techniques such as X-ray fluorescence for the identification of aluminum alloys and finishes. The three day international conference and two-day workshop were co-hosted with the Smithsonian Institution, the Foundation for the American Institute for Conservation and the International Council of Museums Committee for Conservation Metals Working Group. An unprecedented group of speakers, organizers, and sponsors made possible the first ever conservation conference solely dedicated to aluminum. The conference featured presentations by twenty-seven speakers from Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America who explored various aspects of degradation phenomena and conservation strategies for aluminum objects, from sculpture to aircraft, from nineteenth-century jewelry to underwater archaeological objects. The proceedings are divided into eight categories and represent the various themed sessions: the history and manufacturing of aluminum, corrosion and deterioration, characterization and identification, conservation of archaeological objects, conservation and use in contemporary art, conservation of architectural elements, surface treatments and inhibition, and preventative conservation.

Genassemblage 2.0 software as a tool for maintaining genetic variation in human dependent fish populations

Genassemblage 2.0 software as a tool for maintaining genetic variation in human dependent fish populations

De novo transcriptome assembly, annotation and SNP discovery of the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus)

Event Abstract Back to Event De novo transcriptome assembly, annotation and SNP discovery of the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) Rodrigo R. Domingues1, 2*, Vito Antônio Mastrochirico-Filho3, Natalia J. Mendes3, Diogo Hashimoto3, Rui Coelho4, Vanessa P. Cruz5, Agostinho Antunes6, 7, Fausto Foresti5 and Fernando F. Mendonca2 1 Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil 2 Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil 3 Centro de Aquicultura, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil 4 Portuguese Institute of Ocean and Atmosphere (IPMA), Portugal 5 Laboratório de Biologia e Genética de Peixes, Instituto de Biociências de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Brazil 6 Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research, Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal 7 Departament of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal The shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus is an oceanic pelagic shark species found worldwide in tropical and subtropical waters. It is one of the most frequently shark caught by pelagic longline fisheries, and despite its commercial importance and ecological significance, the understanding of its biology at molecular level is still incipient. Therefore, we used a deep RNA sequencing analysis of the eye and liver tissue from four shortfin mako individuals to characterize the genes of both organs. A total of 89,95 Gb raw reads were obtained by Illumina paired-end sequencing technology (Hiseq 4000). De novo transcriptome from eye and liver yielded a total of 506,686,525 reads and 336,210 contigs. A total of 274,218 and 310, 628 contigs were mapped for eye and liver, respectively, and 37,227 (11.04%) sequences were successfully annotated based on sequence similarities against the Uni-Prot, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and the NCBI non-redundat (NR) protein database. Of these, 31,479 (84.55%) sequences exhibited gene ontology term, which 86.068 (47.8%) were associated with biological process, 55,194 (30.6%) with molecular function, and 39,175 (21.6%) with cellular component. The most frequent terms were: cellular process, single-organism process, and metabolic process for biological process, binding, catalytic activity, and transporter activity for molecular function, and cell, organelle, and membrane for cellular component. In addition, 1,801 genes were found associated to the imune system, 1,090 to growth, 520 to behaviour, and 344 to reproduction. A total of 129,663 putative single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) were found in shortfin mako shark. Among them, 78, 598 were putative annotated SNPs, with 14,842 (19%) in coding regions and 63,756 (81%) in non-coding regions. After filtering procedure 1,166 SNPs were selected. Our results provide valuable sequence resources for future functional and populational studies of the globally vulnerable shortfin mako shark. Figure 1 Acknowledgements Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - FAPESP (14/19740-7, 2018/21319-9, 2017/02420-8) Keywords: shark, RNAseq, gene annotation, snps, conservation Conference: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Sep - 6 Sep, 2019. Presentation Type: Oral Topic: GENETICS, GENOMICS AND PHYSIOLOGY Citation: Domingues RR, Mastrochirico-Filho V, Mendes NJ, Hashimoto D, Coelho R, Cruz VP, Antunes A, Foresti F and Mendonca FF (2019). De novo transcriptome assembly, annotation and SNP discovery of the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus). Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.07.00050 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 24 May 2019; Published Online: 14 Aug 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Rodrigo R Domingues, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, domingues.pesca@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Rodrigo R Domingues Vito Antônio Mastrochirico-Filho Natalia J Mendes Diogo Hashimoto Rui Coelho Vanessa P Cruz Agostinho Antunes Fausto Foresti Fernando F Mendonca Google Rodrigo R Domingues Vito Antônio Mastrochirico-Filho Natalia J Mendes Diogo Hashimoto Rui Coelho Vanessa P Cruz Agostinho Antunes Fausto Foresti Fernando F Mendonca Google Scholar Rodrigo R Domingues Vito Antônio Mastrochirico-Filho Natalia J Mendes Diogo Hashimoto Rui Coelho Vanessa P Cruz Agostinho Antunes Fausto Foresti Fernando F Mendonca PubMed Rodrigo R Domingues Vito Antônio Mastrochirico-Filho Natalia J Mendes Diogo Hashimoto Rui Coelho Vanessa P Cruz Agostinho Antunes Fausto Foresti Fernando F Mendonca Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Characterisation of the lonely Zostera marina meadows in North Africa and a deep one of the Mediterranean (south to the strait of Gibraltar, Morocco)

Event Abstract Back to Event Characterisation of the lonely Zostera marina meadows in North Africa and a deep one of the Mediterranean (south to the strait of Gibraltar, Morocco) Loubna Boutahar1*, Free Espinosa Torre2, Yassine R. Sghaier3, Atef Ouerghi3, Mohamed MAANAN4, Jonathan Richir5, Sylvie Gobert5, Gilles Lepoint5 and Hocein Bazairi1 1 Mohammed V University, Morocco 2 University of Seville, Spain 3 Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA), Tunisia 4 Université de Nantes, France 5 University of Liège, Belgium Zostera marina ecosystems are key components of the marine environment. The dramatic widespread loss of this vascular plant has been well documented and may be due to natural processes and/or anthropogenic disturbances and stress. The only Z. marina meadows which still exist in the Moroccan coast are those of Oued El Marsa and Belyounech bays in the site of ‘Jbel Moussa’ (southern the Strait of Gibraltar). The present study aimed to provide baseline quantitative data on these two deep eelgrass meadows of the Mediterranean (lower limit at -17 m in depth). The Belyounech meadow has a wide continuous distribution whereas that of Oued El Marsa is very fragmented. Shoot density and aboveground biomass were consequently higher in Belyounech bay. Seagrass cover (%) showed significant differences only between the border and the central parts while it remained comparable between both sites. The percentage cover of Caulerpa cylindracea algae was higher throughout the margins parts and especially in Ouad El Marsa bay where the meadow is fragmented. Roots serve as the main bioaccumulator organ of 28 chemical elements with low transition to rhizomes and leaves. %C and %N were both higher in leaves comparing to belowground parts. The results obtained were compared to other regions in the Mediterranean to assess the quality and the health of the deep eelgrass meadows of Jbel Moussa. Keywords: Zostera marina,, Moroccan Mediterranean coast, seagrass characterisation, bioaccumulation, elementary content, conservation Conference: XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) , Braga, Portugal, 9 Sep - 12 Sep, 2019. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Ecology, Biodiversity and Vulnerable Ecosystems Citation: Boutahar L, Espinosa Torre F, Sghaier YR, Ouerghi A, MAANAN M, Richir J, Gobert S, Lepoint G and Bazairi H (2019). Characterisation of the lonely Zostera marina meadows in North Africa and a deep one of the Mediterranean (south to the strait of Gibraltar, Morocco). Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) . doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.08.00089 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 14 Sep 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019. * Correspondence: PhD. Loubna Boutahar, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco, boutaharloubna@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Loubna Boutahar Free Espinosa Torre Yassine R Sghaier Atef Ouerghi Mohamed MAANAN Jonathan Richir Sylvie Gobert Gilles Lepoint Hocein Bazairi Google Loubna Boutahar Free Espinosa Torre Yassine R Sghaier Atef Ouerghi Mohamed MAANAN Jonathan Richir Sylvie Gobert Gilles Lepoint Hocein Bazairi Google Scholar Loubna Boutahar Free Espinosa Torre Yassine R Sghaier Atef Ouerghi Mohamed MAANAN Jonathan Richir Sylvie Gobert Gilles Lepoint Hocein Bazairi PubMed Loubna Boutahar Free Espinosa Torre Yassine R Sghaier Atef Ouerghi Mohamed MAANAN Jonathan Richir Sylvie Gobert Gilles Lepoint Hocein Bazairi Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Reflections on the psychological basis for suboptimal environmental practices in conservation

Jonathan Ashley-Smith's ‘Let's be Honest’ presentation and paper from the 1994 International Institute for Conservation (IIC) conference on preventive conservation is the starting point for this article which considers the evolution of environmental standards to ask whether it is technological or psychological factors that have initiated their greatest change. It examines the implications of categorising types of damage for decision-making and asks whether understanding damage as a process rather than an outcome contributes to a cautionary approach to environmental standards in conservation. The article considers the possible psychological justifications used by those advocating standards for collections and asks whether these may lead to behaviour which is ineffective or ethically compromised. Challenging questions are then asked of the profession about what it cannot do, does not understand, and where it fails. The article concludes that although conservation has made progress in understanding materials and their properties to inform the implementation of environmental standards, it has made significantly less progress in understanding how and why decision-makers introduce and apply standards.

Stock discrimination of chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in the NE Atlantic inferred from body morphometrics

Event Abstract Back to Event Stock discrimination of chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in the NE Atlantic inferred from body morphometrics Alessandra Muniz1, 2, Ana Moura1, 3, Raül Triay-Portella4, Cláudia Moreira1, Paulo T. Santos2 and Alberto T. Correia1, 5* 1 Centro Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa Marine e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Portugal 2 Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Portugal 3 Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade do Algarve, Portugal 4 Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain 5 Fernando Pessoa University, Portugal The Chub mackerel, Scomber colias, is one of the main pelagic fisheries resources in the Northeast Atlantic. Commercial landings of chub mackerel have increased significantly in the Iberian Peninsula, namely in Portugal, during the last years. However the information regarding the population structure of this species, at present, is still limited. Morphometrics are phenotypic characteristics that describe fish body shape, being result of the interaction between environment and genetics. Regional morphometric data variation is useful to discriminate fish stock structure of various exploited marine species, and can provide additional knowledge to a better management and conservation of fisheries. This hereby study analysed juveniles (20 to 25 cm) caught in Azores, Canaries, Madeira and Portugal mainland (Portimão, Sesimbra and Matosinhos) by the artisanal fleets in early 2018. Several anatomic landmarks were defined along the body contour (e.g. fin insertion points) of the individuals using digital photos. Data were analyzed using standard statistics. The purpose of this work was to assess the use of body morphometrics as an alternative tool to obtain new information about the stock structure of S. colias in the NE Atlantic. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035 (MARINFO) and the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/ 04423/2013 through national funds provided by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020. The first and second authors have a grant from FCT (MARINFO /BI-LIC/2017-050 and MARINFO/BI-LIC/2017-020, respectively). Keywords: Pelagic fishes, Atlantic Ocean, Body Shape, Stock structure, Fisheries Management an Conservation Conference: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018, Peniche, Portugal, 5 Jul - 6 Jul, 2018. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Fisheries and Management Citation: Muniz A, Moura A, Triay-Portella R, Moreira C, Santos PT and Correia AT (2019). Stock discrimination of chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in the NE Atlantic inferred from body morphometrics. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2018.06.00004 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 06 May 2018; Published Online: 07 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Prof. Alberto T Correia, Centro Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa Marine e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Matosinhos, Portugal, atcorreia.ciimar@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Alessandra Muniz Ana Moura Raül Triay-Portella Cláudia Moreira Paulo T Santos Alberto T Correia Google Alessandra Muniz Ana Moura Raül Triay-Portella Cláudia Moreira Paulo T Santos Alberto T Correia Google Scholar Alessandra Muniz Ana Moura Raül Triay-Portella Cláudia Moreira Paulo T Santos Alberto T Correia PubMed Alessandra Muniz Ana Moura Raül Triay-Portella Cláudia Moreira Paulo T Santos Alberto T Correia Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Friends of the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens grant recipient report 2016 - attending the 11th Australasian plant conservation conference (APCC11)

Friends of the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens grant recipient report 2016 - attending the 11th Australasian plant conservation conference (APCC11)

Towards a functional characterization of rocky reefs marine habitats

Event Abstract Back to Event Towards a functional characterization of rocky reefs marine habitats María Rodríguez González1*, Natalí D. Lazzari1, Laura Palacín Fernández1, Jose A. Sanabria1 and Mikel A. Becerro1 1 Spanish Scientific Research Council, Natural Products and Agrobiology Institute CSIC, Spain Habitat heterogeneity is a major component of biodiversity as it determines species distribution and abundance. Habitat loss, with its associated loss of species, food resources, and ecosystem functioning, is identified as one of the major threats to marine biodiversity. Traditionally, the analysis of taxonomic diversity dominates community level approaches. But species losses or additions can generate major or minor impacts in multiple ecosystem processes depending on their functional traits. Recently, there are an increasing number of researches that approach ecosystem dynamics based on species functional traits. Yet, we still have no description of habitats based on their functional characteristics. Here, we carried out a functional level characterization of the different habitats present on Spanish littoral reefs. We have used underwater visual census that follow the Reef Life Survey methodology to quantify fish, invertebrate, and sessile communities in more than 250 locations scattered over the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. We have quantified the sessile community with over 5.000 photoquadrats distributed along five marine ecoregions: Alboran Sea, Macaronesian, Saharan upwelling, South European Atlantic Shelf and Western Mediterranean. We have described 16 functional traits, including algae, sessile animals, and substrate types. These traits have allowed us to determine 13 functional marine habitats differentially distributed over the coast of Portugal, Spain, and associated archipelagos. The largest functional habitat covers 18% of the rocky reefs and it is dominated by corticated macrophytes (28%), filamentous algae (20%), and bare rock (18%) functional groups. Functional habitats dominated by leathery functional group and filamentous functional group account of 2% and 3% of rocky reefs and are not represented in marine protected areas. Our results suggest that Spain and Portugal have a large number of functional habitats heterogeneously distributed in their coastal waters. Because each habitat is restricted to a specific range in the functional space, effective conservation of each habitat is mandatory to maximize the functional diversity of rocky reefs. Our characterization of functional habitats is a first approach to increase our understanding of the functional diversity of marine benthic communities, which can lead to more effective conservation actions. Keywords: Marine habitat, functional groups, Rocky reef, Biodiversity, conservation Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: 1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS Citation: Rodríguez González M, Lazzari ND, Palacín Fernández L, Sanabria JA and Becerro MA (2016). Towards a functional characterization of rocky reefs marine habitats. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00068 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 18 May 2016; Published Online: 02 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Miss. María Rodríguez González, Spanish Scientific Research Council, Natural Products and Agrobiology Institute CSIC, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 38206, Spain, maria.rguez92@hotmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers María Rodríguez González Natalí D Lazzari Laura Palacín Fernández Jose A Sanabria Mikel A Becerro Google María Rodríguez González Natalí D Lazzari Laura Palacín Fernández Jose A Sanabria Mikel A Becerro Google Scholar María Rodríguez González Natalí D Lazzari Laura Palacín Fernández Jose A Sanabria Mikel A Becerro PubMed María Rodríguez González Natalí D Lazzari Laura Palacín Fernández Jose A Sanabria Mikel A Becerro Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Addressing bumblebee faunistic and ecology using Citizen Science – reviewing a two years’ experience

Addressing bumblebee faunistic and ecology using Citizen Science – reviewing a two years’ experience

Virtual Issue in Australian Journal of Botany: rare and threatened plant conversation and recovery

Virtual Issues consist of previously published papers that are repackaged into an online themed collection. With appropriate marketing, and making them free for a limited time, these issues are a powerful tool that allow all readers to rediscover and access content already published. Release of this Virtual Issue of Australian Journal of Botany was timed to coincide with the 11th Australasian Plant Conservation Conference (APCC11), held on 14–18 November at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. For more information, please visit: http://www.publish.csiro.au/bt/content/VirtualIssues.

Digital conservation: an introduction.

We thank all participants of the Digital Conservation Conference (May 2014, Aberdeen, UK) for laying the foundations of this Special Issue, Annie Robinson and Gina Maffey for their crucial input into the conference, all authors for contributing their work to the issue, and Bo Soderstrom, Ambio’s Editor-in-Chief, for the large amount of skill, energy and time invested. All papers have been rigorously peer-reviewed. We are very grateful to the 36 referees listed below: Steve Albon, the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, UK; Arjun Amar, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Karen Anderson, University of Exeter, UK; Debora Arlt, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden; Bob Askins, Connecticut College, New London, USA; Tom August, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK; Iain Bainbridge, Scottish Natural Heritage, Edinburgh, UK; Elizabeth Boakes, University College London, UK; Bram Buscher, University of Wageningen, the Netherlands; Guillaume Chapron, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Riddarhyttan, Sweden; Heather Doran, University of Aberdeen, UK; Rosaleen Duffy, University of London, UK; Gorry Fairhurst, University of Aberdeen, UK; Ioan Fazey, University of Dundee, UK; Rachel Finn, Trilateral Research and Consulting, London, UK; John Fryxell, University of Guelph, Canada; John Hallam, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; Sandra Hamel, University of Tromso, Norway; Maarten Jacobs, University of Wageningen, the Netherlands; Lucas Joppa, Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA; Steve Kelling, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA; Kerry Kilshaw, University of Oxford, UK; Christiane Lellig, Stratageme, Agentur fur Social Change, Aldershot, UK; Nick Littlewood, the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, UK; Gina Maffey, University of Aberdeen, UK; Mariella Marzano, Forest Research, Roslin, UK; Fran Michelmoore Root, Northern Rangelands Trust, Isiolo, Kenya; Steve Redpath, University of Aberdeen, UK; Mark Reed, Birmingham City University, UK; Chris Sandbrook, UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK; Lisa Sargood, Digital Strategy & Innovation, Bristol, UK; Bill Sutherland, University of Cambridge, UK; Chris Thaxter, British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, UK; Jean-Pierre Tremblay, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada; Audrey Verma, University of Aberdeen, UK; Jerry Wilson, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Edinburgh, UK.

The Rooseveltian Moment

On February 18, 1909, just weeks before he left office, President Theodore Roosevelt hosted the North American Conservation Conference. In addition to fostering cooperation with Canada and Mexico on a range of resource issues, Roosevelt hoped the gathering would provide a springboard for a subsequent World Congress at The Hague, which would place the conservation discussion on the global stage. Despite support from dozens of nations, The Hague gathering never occurred, due largely to the dawdling of William Howard Taft. Yet Roosevelt’s vision for a World Congress underscores the link between conservationism and the quest for global power that many scholars of the Progressive Era have missed. We suffer from no shortage of books on Teddy Roosevelt and his times. It is a mark of the interest that this first “modern” president still generates that scholars and journalists continue to churn out new volumes year after year. It is also an indication of Roosevelt’s complexity that groups as different as the American Legion and the Sierra Club can look to him for inspiration. Although most observers have depicted these two aspects of his presidency—aggressive foreign policy and domestic conservation—as separate, even irreconcilable, components of his legacy, Ian Tyrrell disagrees. In his ambitious and sweeping Crisis of the Wasteful Nation, Tyrrell makes a powerful case that Roosevelt’s conservationism had global origins and implications. “Because American leaders swam in the same intellectual sea,” Tyrrell asserts, “conservation became inseparable from geopolitical competition in an imperial world” (p. 15).

Opening address to the 10th Australasian Plant Conservation conference 2014

Opening address to the 10th Australasian Plant Conservation conference 2014

Coastal rocky reef fishes of Santa Catarina's northern islands, Brazil

Coastal rocky reef fishes of Santa Catarina's northern islands, Brazil

Occurrence and distribution of exotic fishes in the river Tiber basin (Umbria-Italy) with special reference to new species recently introduced.

Occurrence and distribution of exotic fishes in the river Tiber basin (Umbria-Italy) with special reference to new species recently introduced.

Report of the 10th Australasian Plant Conservation Conference 2014 (APCC10) Hobart, Tasmania, 11th—14th November. (Presented by the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) and the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens (RTBG)

Report of the 10th Australasian Plant Conservation Conference 2014 (<scp>APCC</scp>10) Hobart, Tasmania, 11th—14th November. (Presented by the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (<scp>ANPC</scp>) and the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens (<scp>RTBG</scp>)

Trends in conservation research and management in Hawai‘i over the past 20 years.

Hawaiʻi, an archipelago of the most isolated inhabited islands on the planet, faces unique and extreme challenges to its biodiversity. We examined how the conservation community has responded to these challenges and how the responses have changed over time, using twenty years of abstracts from the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference, a yearly gathering of the majority of scientists, managers and the public in Hawaiʻi. Of the 2145 abstracts considered, 60% percent reported research results; 40.0% reported information on conservation and resource management programmes and institutions (i.e., non-research abstracts). Initially, applied research abstracts predominated, but in recent years the number of basic research abstracts has become similar. Across taxonomic groups, terrestrial plants, mammals and birds were the dominant research subjects, fish, algae and fungi were noticeably less studied relative to their diversity in Hawaiʻi. Bird and fish species studied were mostly native; research on most other taxa was evenly divided between native and non-native species. Topics have oscillated in frequency over the years, but there have been no dramatic trends, with the exception of climate change and Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK). Although there is an increasing trend in LEK and cross-disciplinary studies, the number of related abstracts have remained uncommon through the period, accounting for less than 5.0% of total research abstracts analyzed. Our results offer an oportunity for the conservation community to take a closer look at reported effort to better address key conservation questions for Hawaiʻi.

Worldviews on Fire

A ddressing participants at an Alliance of Religions and Conservation conference in Nairobi during the fall of 2012, Mr. Mounkaila Goumandakoye, the African Regional Director of the United Nations’ Environment Programme’s Office for Africa, acknowledged that the commitment of faith groups to heal the earth is one of the “driving forces for positive change as humanity is grappling with challenges of colossal consequences.” Mr. Goumandakoye is not the first global leader to place hope in faith groups. Ban Ki Moon, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, made a similar plea before the Copenhagen climate summit of 2009, noting that religious groups “can have the largest, widest and deepest reach” on the summit’s impact. Faith-based environmentalists indeed can be a powerful force for environmental leadership. But what are the driving forces that spark their own commitments and actions? Why do some commit their hearts and energies to the earth, while others remain unconcerned, or devote their time to more traditional religious causes? Understanding the beliefs and motivations of faith-based environmentalists is critical to leverage this important global movement. As Jeffrey Sachs, economist, United Nations advisor, and author of The End of Poverty, acknowledged, “scientific, engineering, and organizational solutions are not enough. Societies must be motivated and empowered to adopt the needed changes.” Religious energy supplies some of those motivations. Those motivations deserve more detailed explanations.