Conservation Hotspots Research Articles

Conservation planning on China's borders with Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.

Transboundary conservation is playing an increasingly important role in maintaining ecosystem integrity and halting biodiversity loss caused by anthropogenic activities. However, lack of information on species distributions in transboundary regions and understanding of the threats in these areas impairs conservation. We developed a spatial conservation plan for the transboundary areas between Yunnan province, southwestern China, and neighboring Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam in the Indo‐Burma biodiversity hotspot. To identify priority areas for conservation and restoration, we determined species distribution patterns and recent land‐use changes and examined the spatiotemporal dynamics of the connected natural forest, which supports most species. We assessed connectivity with equivalent connected area (ECA), which is the amount of reachable habitat for a species. An ECA incorporates the presence of habitat in a patch and the amount of habitat in other patches within dispersal distance. We analyzed 197,845 locality records from specimen collections and monographs for 21,004 plant and vertebrate species. The region of Yunnan immediately adjacent to the international borders had the highest species richness, with 61% of recorded species and 56% of threatened vertebrates, which suggests high conservation value. Satellite imagery showed the area of natural forest in the border zone declined by 5.2% (13,255 km2) from 1995 to 2018 and monoculture plantations increased 92.4%, shrubland 10.1%, and other cropland 6.2%. The resulting decline in connected natural forest reduced the amount of habitat, especially for forest specialists with limited dispersal abilities. The most severe decline in connectivity was along the Sino‐Vietnamese border. Many priority areas straddle international boundaries, indicating demand and potential for establishing transboundary protected areas. Our results illustrate the importance of bi‐ and multilateral cooperation to protect biodiversity in this region and provide guidance for future conservation planning and practice.

Tapirus bairdii-Associated Fecal Microbiome from a Critical Conservation Area: Calakmul, México.

Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii) is the largest native terrestrial mammal in the Neotropics, which is endangered primarily as a consequence of habitat loss and overhunting. Baird's tapir is predominantly nocturnal and exists at low densities which complicates field studies. Baird's tapir is a large-bodied herbivore that plays a key role in maintaining healthy tropical forests through seed dispersal in its feces. Studies of gut microbiome are essential and valuable to assess the health status of the host and the interaction with the environment. In this study, we collected fresh fecal samples of T. bairdii to analyze its gut microbiome during the rainy and dry seasons in the Calakmul region, which is a critical rainforest conservation area in Mexico. The results of a high-throughput 16S rDNA gene sequencing approach suggest that the fecal microbiome of Baird's tapir has no significant differences in composition among seasons. The most common phyla were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Kiritimatiellaeota, and Spirochaetes. This study suggests that the stability of the fecal microbiome is related to similar feeding strategies throughout the year, and emphasizes the value of tapir in seed dispersal (and associated microbes) to the well-conserved forests of the Greater Calakmul region as biodiversity hotspots for conservation.

Integrating habitat availability into restoration efforts for biodiversity conservation: Evaluating effectiveness and setting priorities

Numerous restoration programs have been launched worldwide in recent years, but the effectiveness of such programs for biodiversity conservation remains unclear. Additionally, priority areas of restoration need to be identified in a region where resources are limited. Habitat availability combines habitat amounts with interpatch connectivity, governing whether a landscape can shelter biological populations in the long term. Consequently, restoration efforts should focus on enhancing habitat availability to promote biological flows. In this study, we proposed a multi-scale approach to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration program and to set priority areas for forest restoration. The evaluations of effectiveness highlighted the contributions of forest cover change to habitat availability. The restoration priorities of landscapes were ranked by three indicators which are also tightly associated with habitat availability: relative urgency of intervention, efficiency of restoration, and connectivity importance for broader-scale biotic flows. We applied the approach in the Eastern Himalaya region of China, a global biodiversity conservation hotspot. Forest cover has been increasing by 3.4% in this region since 2000 due to the implementation of the Grain-for-Green Program, but not all the new forest areas were available as species habitat and/or stepping stones. By the method we developed, 14% of the areas are ranked as the high restoration priorities aiming to enhance available habitat for multiple species with different dispersal abilities. Our approach can significantly improve the outcome of a restoration program. It is flexible and can aid policy makers in optimizing restoration efforts given the biodiversity conservation goals and available resources.

Corona Virus Pandemic: Implication on Biodiversity Conservation

Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic affected the environment, placing a strain on the economy and all parts of human society. The effects of Covid-19 are inevitable, as there is a reduction in human pressures on the natural ecosystem because of the lockdown of social and economic activities. Ecosystem integrity (in terms of species diversity, endemism, and threats) in African countries with global hotspots for biodiversity conservation threatened. This paper provides a snapshot of the quickly growing situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and predicts events during normality. At present, essential conservation work (protected area/national park staff still patrol and guard vulnerable species and landscapes) is still ongoing across the globe with the accruing positive effects of the pandemic—reduced air/water pollution, short-term disruption in wildlife trafficking and ecosystem restoration. Despite this, prevailing problems such as indiscriminate exploitation of wildlife resources, tourism revenue loss, staff absenteeism/poor performance, increased human dependence on natural resources, disruptions of field/research work, and species monitoring would persist. The Covid-19 pandemic will affect conservation program funding in most African countries. Our world is changing, and the conservation community must be ready to respond appropriately.

Tourism development discourse dynamics in a context of conflicts between mining and nature conservation in the Brazilian Cerrado Hotspot

The Cerrado is a world hotspot for nature conservation and an important tourist destination in Brazil. This region has been subjected to intensive land conversion for the production of commodities, which has led to the eruption of socio-environmental conflicts between tourism and extractive industries. In this article, we explore the dynamics of tourism development discourses that underpin the conflicts generated by mining projects in the town of Cavalcante and seek to inform on more adequate policymaking and promote human development. We employed multi-methods data collection techniques and a discourse analysis approach to assess the tourism development discourses that compete in local policy arenas and reflect upon policy outcomes that result from this process. We develop a three-stage chronology to show the dynamics of tourism discourses and reveal that sustainable tourism discourse served to generate a neoliberal modernization discourse. However, growing dissatisfaction with both tourism modernization and mining has generated resistance against mining among the affected communities. We conclude that leisure tourism and tourism modernization should be separated in public planning processes in contexts where socio-environmental conflicts are present, and that governmental and institutional mediation require a certain level of trust to ensure more balanced human development in such situations.

Identifying high-density areas of oysters using species distribution modeling: Lessons for conservation of the native Ostrea edulis and management of the invasive Magallana (Crassostrea) gigas in Sweden.

AimUnderstanding spatial patterns of the distribution of adult native oyster, Ostrea edulis, and the invasive Magallana (Crassostrea) gigas is important for management of these populations. The aim of this study was to use ensemble SDM’s to (a) identify and predict conservation hotspots, (b) assess the current level of protection for O. edulis, and (c) quantify the amount of overlap between the two species where interactions with M. gigas are most likely.LocationSkagerrak, Sweden.MethodsWe used data collected by video at depths from 0.5 to 10 m in 436 sites. Models of occurrence and densities >1 m−2 were fitted and assessed using ensemble methods (“biomod2” package). Models of high‐density hotspots were used to predict, map, and quantify areal extent of the species in order to assess the degree of overlap with protected areas and the potential for interactions between the two species.ResultsBoth species were widely distributed in the region. Observations of high‐density habitats, mainly occurring at depths of ≈3 and 0.5 m for O. edulis and M. gigas, respectively, were found in 4% and 2% of the sites. Models provided useful predictions for both species (AUC = 0.85–0.99; sensitivity = 0.74–1.0; specificity = 0.72–0.97). High‐density areas occupy roughly 15 km2 each with substantial overlap between species. 50% of these are protected only by fisheries regulations, 44% are found in Natura 2000 reserves and 6% of the predicted O. edulis enjoys protection in a national park.Main conclusionsData collection by video in combination with SDM’s provides a realistic approach for large‐scale quantification of spatial patterns of marine population and habitats. O. edulis and M. gigas are common in the area, but a large proportion of the most valuable O. edulis habitats are not found in protected areas. The overlap between species suggests that efforts to manage the invasive M. gigas need to be integrated with management actions to conserve the native O. edulis.

The effects of soil compaction and fertility on a threatened endemic palm species in a global conservation hotspot

Butia eriospatha (Mart. ex Drude) Becc. is a subtropical endemic palm tree that occurs in the Southern Brazilian Highlands. A vast area of its natural habitat has been lost by land-use changes, placing the species at high risk of extinction. Here, we investigated how environmental variables impact the structure of B. eriospatha populations. We randomly allocated 14,100 × 100 m plots, where all palms had the diameter at breast height (dbh) and the total height (th) measured. In the same plots, we collected data on edaphic, topographic, and land-use variables. The data were analysed by frequency histograms, factor analysis of mixed data, and regression trees. B. eriospatha’s size class frequencies tended towards a normal distribution, with few small individuals. We found that plots with flatter terrain had more compacted soils. The structure and biometrics traits of B. eriospatha’s populations were affected by the interaction between soil compaction and fertility. We conclude that sites with lower fertility and more compacted soils showed populations with lower abundance and basal area, and smaller individuals. Sustainable practices of soil management are required to prevent the species from becoming locally extinct.

Effects of native forest and human-modified land covers on the accumulation of toxic metals and metalloids in the tropical bee Tetragonisca angustula

The intensive shift on land cover by anthropogenic activities have led to changes in natural habitats and environmental contamination, which can ultimately impact and threat biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as pollination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of native forest and human-modified land covers on the concentrations of chemical elements accumulated in the neotropical pollinator bee T. angustula. Eight landscapes, within an Ecological Corridor in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, with gradients of forest cover, spatial heterogeneity and varying land covers were used as sampling unities. Bees collected in traps or through actives searches had the concentration of 21 chemical elements determined by ICP-MS. Results show a beneficial effect of forested areas on the concentrations of some well-known toxic elements accumulated in bees, such as Hg, Cd, and Cr. Multivariate Redundancy Analysis (RDA) suggests road as the most important driver for the levels of Cr, Hg, Sb, Al, U, As, Pb and Pt and bare soil, pasture and urban areas as the landscape covers responsible for the concentrations of Zn, Cd, Mn, Mg, Ba and Sr in bees. The results reinforce the potential use of T. angustula bees as bioindicators of environmental quality and also show that these organisms are being directly affected by human land use, offering potential risks for the Neotropical ecosystem. Our study sheds light on how land covers (native forest and human-modified) can influence the levels of contaminants in insects within human-dominated landscapes. The generation of predictions of the levels of toxic metals and metalloids based on land use can both contribute to friendly farming planning as well as to support public policy development on the surrounding of protected areas and biodiversity conservation hotspots.

Conservation hotspots for fish habitats: A case study from English and Welsh waters

Competition for maritime space generates conflict between human activities and ecosystem conservation; Marine (Spatial) Plans provide conflict resolutions and clarify trade-offs. Spatial plans require appropriate scales, reliable maps of sites important to marine organisms. We present maps of hotspots of Essential Fish Habitats (EFH) at a high spatial resolution for English and Welsh waters. These outputs can be integrated into an improved spatial plan for these waters. We modelled the potential distribution for different life stages of commercially and ecologically important species, as a high-resolution indicator of the distribution of essential fish habitats. Model outputs were combined with observed, low-resolution fish distributions to derive ‘hotspot’ spawning and nursery areas. The Celtic Sea and coastal areas of the North Sea are highlighted as important spawning and nursery grounds. High pressure from human activities is expected to impact EFHs in the English Channel and the central-east Celtic Sea. Our approach maintains the high resolution of the model-derived maps while filling in information gaps. As fish share essential habitat preferences, protected hotspot areas are expected to sustain a multitude of species. Overlaying human activities, such as fishing, on the hotspot maps allows managers to identify areas of conservation interest and apply appropriate measures. The method is directly applicable to other areas and can be extended to use multiple sources of data for model development.

Extinction Risk Assessment of the Greek Endemic Flora.

Simple SummaryThis study assesses for the first time all the vascular endemic plant taxa of Greece, according to their decline and rarity. Phylogenetic analysis and its spatial overview highlight areas for conservation prioritization. Several of the Greek endemics are threatened with extinction and fourteen of them need to be prioritized, due to their evolutionary distinctiveness. This assessment could act as the baseline and supporting tool for conservation actions, decision- and policy-making for biodiversity, while highlighting the need for a new Red Data Book for the Greek flora.Human-induced biodiversity decline has been on the rise for the past 250 years, due to various causes. What is equally troubling, is that we are unaware which plants are threatened and where they occur. Thus, we are far from reaching Aichi Biodiversity Target 2, i.e., assessing the extinction risk of most species. To that end, based on an extensive occurrence dataset, we performed an extinction risk assessment according to the IUCN Criteria A and B for all the endemic plant taxa occurring in Greece, one of the most biodiverse countries in Europe, in a phylogenetically-informed framework and identified the areas needing conservation prioritization. Several of the Greek endemics are threatened with extinction and fourteen endemics need to be prioritized, as they are evolutionary distinct and globally endangered. Mt. Gramos is identified as the most important conservation hotspot in Greece. However, a significant portion of the identified conservation hotspots is not included in any designated Greek protected area, meaning that the Greek protected areas network might need to be at least partially redesigned. In the Anthropocene era, where climate and land-use change are projected to alter biodiversity patterns and may force many species to extinction, our assessment provides the baseline for future conservation research, ecosystem services maintenance, and might prove crucial for the timely, systematic and effective aversion of plant extinctions in Greece.

Spatial phylogenetics of the native woody plant species in Hainan, China.

To better identify biodiversity hotspots for conservation on Hainan Island, a tropical island in southern China, we assessed spatial variation in phylogenetic diversity and species richness using 18,976 georeferenced specimen records and a newly reconstructed molecular phylogeny of 957 native woody plants. Within this framework, we delineated bioregions based on vegetation composition and mapped areas of neoendemism and paleoendemism to identify areas of priority for conservation. Our results reveal that the southwest of Hainan is the most important hot spot for endemism and plant diversity followed by the southeast area. The distribution of endemic species showed a scattered, rather than clustered, pattern on the island. Based on phylogenetic range‐weighted turnover metrics, we delineated three major vegetational zones in Hainan. These largely correspond to natural secondary growth and managed forests (e.g., rubber and timber forests) in central Hainan, old‐growth forests and natural secondary growth forest at the margins of Hainan, and nature reserves on the island (e.g., Jianfeng and Diaoluo National Nature Reserves). Our study helps to elucidate potential botanical conservation priorities for Hainan within an evolutionary, phylogenetic framework.

Residency and habitat use patterns by sympatric stingrays at a remote atoll in the Western Indian Ocean

Information on the spatial ecology of batoids is lacking despite the need for this information for effective management and conservation of this vulnerable faunal group. We used acoustic telemetry to monitor the presence of dasyatids (Pastinachus ater, Urogymnus granulatus, and U. asperrimus) from March 2014 to November 2017 within and around the isolated St. Joseph Atoll, Seychelles. Results highlighted residency (median residency index = 0.75 and 0.57 for P. ater and U. granulatus) over periods of months to years for both juveniles and adults. Individuals displayed highly restricted movements; most detections occurred within 1 km of tagging locations, and movement networks were small and fragmented. However, juveniles increased their range of movements with size before dispersing to various locations on the Amirantes Bank. Within the atoll, resident adults and juveniles segregated ontogenetically by habitat; adults were more reliant on the deeper lagoon, while juveniles were largely restricted to the shallow sand flats, likely in an effort to avoid predators. Conversely, no inter-specific space partitioning was identified. This study provides preliminary evidence that this atoll is a dasyatid nursery; however, comparative research at other atolls is required to understand the role that atolls may play as batoid nurseries. This study was performed in the South West Indian Ocean, an understudied fisheries conservation hotspot where biodiversity is high but management effectiveness is low. The identification of a dasyatid refuge in this region highlights that the current marine protected area designation will likely provide conservation benefits for the dasyatid populations across the entire Amirantes Bank.

Assessing a novel modelling approach with high resolution UAV imagery for monitoring health status in priority riparian forests

BackgroundBlack alder (Alnus glutinosa) forests are in severe decline across their area of distribution due to a disease caused by the soil-borne pathogenic Phytophthora alni species complex (class Oomycetes), “alder Phytopththora”. Mapping of the different types of damages caused by the disease is challenging in high density ecosystems in which spectral variability is high due to canopy heterogeneity. Data obtained by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may be particularly useful for such tasks due to the high resolution, flexibility of acquisition and cost efficiency of this type of data. In this study, A. glutinosa decline was assessed by considering four categories of tree health status in the field: asymptomatic, dead and defoliation above and below a 50% threshold. A combination of multispectral Parrot Sequoia and UAV unmanned aerial vehicles -red green blue (RGB) data were analysed using classical random forest (RF) and a simple and robust three-step logistic modelling approaches to identify the most important forest health indicators while adhering to the principle of parsimony. A total of 34 remote sensing variables were considered, including a set of vegetation indices, texture features from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and a digital surface model (DSM), topographic and digital aerial photogrammetry-derived structural data from the DSM at crown level.ResultsThe four categories identified by the RF yielded an overall accuracy of 67%, while aggregation of the legend to three classes (asymptomatic, defoliated, dead) and to two classes (alive, dead) improved the overall accuracy to 72% and 91% respectively. On the other hand, the confusion matrix, computed from the three logistic models by using the leave-out cross-validation method yielded overall accuracies of 75%, 80% and 94% for four-, three- and two-level classifications, respectively.DiscussionThe study findings provide forest managers with an alternative robust classification method for the rapid, effective assessment of areas affected and non-affected by the disease, thus enabling them to identify hotspots for conservation and plan control and restoration measures aimed at preserving black alder forests.

CLIMATIC NICHE DETERMINES THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF MYRTACEAE SPECIES IN BRAZILIAN SUBTROPICAL ATLANTIC FOREST

ABSTRACT The understanding of factors determining species geographic distribution is a fundamental aim of ecology. We investigated the environmental niche for three Myrtaceae species in the Brazilian Subtropical Atlantic Forest (BSAF), part of a global conservation hotspot. Based on a literature review, we selected one representative Myrtaceae species in three important forest types in this region: Evergreen Rain Forest (coastal plains and associated mountains ranges); Araucaria Forest, and Seasonal Deciduous Forest (continental upland areas). Geographical coordinates of their distribution were obtained from the BIEN database. As explanatory variables, we considered altitude, climate, cloud cover, and soil classes. We summarized the environmental space occupied by each pair of species using Principal Components Analysis, determined niche overlaps, and applied statistical tests to verify niche equivalences and similarities. The selected species in Evergreen Rain Forest, Araucaria Forest, and Seasonal Deciduous Forest were Myrcia splendens (Sw.) DC., Myrcia guianensis (Aubl.) DC., and Campomanesia xanthocarpa O.Berg., respectively. C. xanthocarpa showed a more restricted geographic distribution than the two Myrcia species that occur from central America to southern Brazil. Species’ geographic distribution were fundamentally determined by temperature and rainfall regimes. Only C. xanthocarpa and M. guianensis, from uplands forest formations, showed environmental niche equivalence. In conclusion, we found that both species of Myrcia showed high climatic niche amplitudes occurring throughout the climatic gradient, while C. xanthocarpa was more subtropical, distributed mostly in the south and southeast of Brazil.

Endangered Wildlife Conservation Enhances Regional Economic Development: A Case Study of Tibetan Macaque (<i>Macaca thibetana</i>) and Fuxi Village in Mount Huangshan, China

The economic development of key biodiversity conservation areas and their conservation measures are underpinned by a mutually complementary and synergistic development model. Regional economic development depends on conservation awareness in biodiversity conservation areas. Moreover, the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation can be indicated by endangered wildlife conservation. This study investigated the current conservation of Huangshan Tibetan macaque (Macaca thibetana)—an endemic endangered species in the Mount Huangshan Scenic Area located in a biodiversity conservation hotspot in China, the conservation awareness of residents and visitors, and changes in local economic income through field survey. It provides inspiration and a characteristic demonstration to build a synergistic model of endangered wildlife conservation, biodiversity maintenance, and sustainable regional economic development.

Distributions of threatened skates and commercial fisheries inform conservation hotspots

Bycatch in commercial fisheries is a pressing conservation concern and has spurred global interest in adopting ecosystem-based management practices. To address such concerns, a thorough understanding of spatiotemporal relationships among bycatch species, their environment and fisheries is required. Here we used a generalized linear mixed model framework incorporating spatiotemporal random effects to model abundance patterns for 3 skate species caught as bycatch in commercial fisheries (thorny skate Amblyraja radiata, winter skate Leucoraja ocellata and smooth skate Malacoraja senta), as well as 10 target species on the Scotian Shelf, NW Atlantic. Spatiotemporal estimates of relative abundance for at-risk skates within the years 2005-2015 were modelled from research trawl survey data and overlaid with those for target species to identify hotspots of bycatch risk. In addition, abundance estimates for at-risk skates within the years 1975-1985, a period of higher stock abundance, were used to identify areas of previously important habitat. Historically, skate species densely occupied areas near Sable Island and Banquereau Banks, Georges Bank and the Bay of Fundy. Bycatch hotspots between at-risk skates and commercial targets were identified in regions across the Scotian Shelf. These hotspots were independently validated by predicting species presence from at-sea observer data that monitor skate bycatch directly. We discuss spatial relationships between target and bycatch species, highlighting limitations of at-sea observer programmes that this method helps to address. This framework can be applied more broadly to inform ecosystem management and priority areas for conservation or fisheries regulation.

DEFORESTATION POLYGON ASSESSMENT TOOL: PROVIDING COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ON DEFORESTATION IN THE BRAZILIAN CERRADO BIOME

Abstract. Considered a conservation hotspot of the world biodiversity and a key region for the agriculture production in Brazil, the Cerrado biome has only 7.5% of its native vegetation as fully protected areas. Given this, in 2016 the Brazilian government started an official project to monitoring deforestation in the biome, through the so-called PRODES-Cerrado, responsible for mapping deforested areas from 2000 on, and DETER-Cerrado, responsible to generate deforestation alerts. Seeking to contribute with both context information and confidence levels for the polygons produced by these two monitoring systems, we developed the Deforestation Polygon Assessment Tool. This web-based platform process and presents several analysis for PRODES-Cerrado and DETER-Cerrado polygons using automatic assessments (e.g. BFastMonitor and Weights of Evidence), field validation and spatial analysis with key datasets (e.g. National Land Registry, Land-Use and Land-Cover maps). The platform implements an interactive map which allows a fast and comprehensive visualization of different layers, as well as a Deforestation Report at the polygon level, which gathers all the information about each polygon, providing greater reliability and understanding of the deforestation dynamics in the Cerrado. Future improvements in the platform will consider additional, spatial relations in order to assist government agencies to either prevent or reduce deforestation occurrences in each municipality in the Cerrado biome.

Three decades of land-use and land-cover change in mountain regions of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Mountain regions are key hotspots for biodiversity conservation and for provisioning ecosystem services. Containing fragile ecosystems and home to millions of inhabitants, mountains are also places of great value for tourism, cultural practices and endemic species. In this paper, we developed the first multitemporal land-use and land-cover assessment of mountain regions within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (BAF), the most endangered Brazilian tropical biome. The study used spatial thematic mapping for 1985, 2001, and 2018 to understand changes in landscape composition, patterns of change in patch metrics of natural vegetation cover, and correlations between human population and natural vegetation. Change detection techniques, landscape metrics and statistical tests (e.g., Kruskal-Wallis) were applied. We found that landscape composition did not change at significant levels over the 34 years (1985–2018), but that intense exchange between natural vegetation and agriculture creates a shifting mosaic steady-state. Additionally, natural vegetation loss was 13-fold lower within mountains than in other areas of the BAF biome, which indicates lower human-induced change in mountain regions. Urban and rural population (number of inhabitants) showed positive correlation with natural vegetation at municipality level indicating higher presence of population in municipalities with large extents of natural vegetation. Analysis demonstrated that the study region was under lower population pressure and urban growth compared to other areas and had kept large extents of natural vegetation within large patches, different to what is observed at biome level. However, telecoupling processes may result in indirect land changes in mountain regions of the BAF biome. Our results indicate that mountains play a key role in conserving the remnants of the BAF.

Divergent trends of large carnivore populations within the Bénoué Complex, North Cameroon, shown by long-term fine-scale monitoring

Large carnivore populations have suffered declines worldwide. For the African continent, these have been particularly strong in West and Central Africa. The Benoue Complex in North Cameroon, located in Central Africa, is a key landscape for their conservation. We determined spatiotemporal trends in lion (Panthera leo), leopard (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) abundance, using repeated spoor counts on transects from 2007 to 2015. Results of the temporal analysis indicate that lion and spotted hyaena abundance reduced over time across the complex, whereas leopards only declined in the last 2 years and primarily in the Faro Block. From the spatial analysis, it became clear spoor abundances differ between areas within the Benoue Complex and between management types: Spoor densities were especially higher in Bouba Ndjida National Park and the hunting zones around Faro. This effect is most probably related to a more effective management strategy in these areas. Our fine-scale long-term monitoring technique provides a low-cost, easy to implement, multi-scale and effective tool for the identification of both regional and range-wide carnivore conservation hotspots.

Predicting potential mangrove distributions at the global northern distribution margin using an ecological niche model: Determining conservation and reforestation involvement

Mangroves play an important role in maintaining coastal wetland ecosystem functions, but they are highly threatened by anthropogenic activities. Predicting the potential distributions of mangroves is vital for policy makers and stakeholders to enforce conservation and reforestation measures. China is at the global northern margin of mangrove distribution. In this study, we used the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to predict potentially suitable habitats for mangroves based on current data of mangrove distributions in mainland China. For modeling, we grouped the native and exotic mangrove species in China into five groups and used 30 bioclimate, topographic, substrate, and sea surface temperature variables to predict mangrove distributions. The results show that bioclimate and sea surface temperature are both important factors that determine mangrove distribution. The largest suitable area modeled for mangrove species in the coastal zone was 2705 km2. About 14.8% of the predicted suitable habitat for the five mangrove groups is under protection in mangrove nature reserves. Along China’s coastline, 15 sites were identified as hotspots for mangrove conservation and reforestation. By comparing these results with current conservation efforts, we identified that protection priority should be given to the Beilun River Estuary to Fangcheng Harbor coastal zone in Guangxi Province, the east coast of the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province, and the Meizhou Bay to Xinghua Bay area in Fujian Province. In addition, suitable species selection should also be considered to achieve successful mangrove reforestation.