Knowledge Of Ecological Processes Research Articles

Cats, canines, and coexistence: dietary differentiation between the sympatric Snow Leopard and Grey Wolf in the western landscape of Nepal Himalaya

Understanding the dietary habits of sympatric apex carnivores advances our knowledge of ecological processes and aids their conservation. We compared the diets of the sympatric Snow Leopard Panthera uncia and Grey Wolf Canis lupus using standard micro-histological analyses of scats collected from the western complex of Nepal Himalaya. Our study revealed one of the highest recorded contributions of livestock to the diet of top predators (55% for Grey Wolf and 39% for Snow Leopard) and high dietary overlap (0.82) indicating potential exploitative or interference competition. Their diet composition, however, varied significantly based on their consumption of wild and domestic prey. Limitation in data precludes predicting direction and outcome of inter-specific interactions between these predators. Our findings suggest a high rate of negative interaction with humans in the region and plausibly retaliatory killings of these imperilled predators. To ensure the sustained survival of these two apex carnivores, conservation measures should enhance populations of their wild prey species while reducing livestock losses of the local community through preventive and mitigative interventions.

Beta diversity and knowledge gaps of Colombia’s dry forests: implications for their conservation

On a continental scale, Neotropical dry forests exhibit high plant beta diversity, forming twelve unique floristic provinces. Conserving this diversity requires plans to protect areas in each province, based on an understanding of their particular ecological conditions. In Colombia dry forest occurs in seven regions. We explored some challenges for conserving beta diversity at the country scale by downscaling the analysis and framing it in the context of the general knowledge status of the country’s dry forests, and particularly of seed dispersal. Our literature review revealed 178 studies, with an increase in publication rate in recent years. The Cauca Valley and the Caribbean region had the most publications. More than half of studies were species inventories of plants, birds, and bats, whereas only ten studies dealt with plant-animal interactions and five with secondary succession. Analyses on plants, birds, and bats revealed high levels of dissimilarity among regions. One-half of plant species in Colombia´s dry forests are dispersed by birds and mammals. Large-sized frugivorous birds and mammals are absent from remaining forest patches, which may negatively affect patterns of seed dispersal and secondary succession. Understanding the ecological and biogeographic factors at several scales, supported by local knowledge of the ecological processes that contribute to forest integrity, is key for the conservation of the unique and distinctive species composition of regional assemblages. A coordinated research effort that integrates knowledge of ecological processes at local to national scales is a priority.

Participatory Research for Scientific, Educational, and Community Benefits: A Case Study from Brooklyn Community Gardens

Supporting community food production is a key strategy for all the community-based partners in Food Dignity, a community-university research partnership dedicated to supporting and learning from food justice organizations. Participatory action research (PAR) may develop knowledge and skills for sustainable agriculture, thus building gardeners’ capacities to refine, implement, and share locally appropriate, sustainable food production practices. However, little research has explored the possibilities and challenges of PAR with urban gardeners. In the context of Food Dignity, I examine those possibilities in a case study of a PAR project on cover crops with gar­deners in Brooklyn, New York, USA. I address two questions: (1) How can PAR be designed in an urban community gardening context to achieve positive outcomes for science, education, and communities? and (2) What are the challenges, and how might facilitators address them? Several practices contributed to positive outcomes in our project. First, engaging gardeners in cover crop monitoring strengthened their knowledge of ecological processes (e.g., nitrogen fixation) and adaptive management skills (e.g., systematic observation). Second, facilitating oppor­tunities for participants to share their knowledge (e.g., field days) supported leadership development. Third, sustained, in-person support enabled gar­deners to implement cover cropping practices with benefits for crop production and environmental quality. Key challenges included addressing community-defined priorities within the constraints of a dissertation project and providing sufficient one-on-one research and education support with limited funding for community-based partners. Despite its challenges, PAR in urban gardening contexts may develop knowledge and skills that support improved stewardship practices and com­munity capacities. Implications for inspiring and sustaining more community-university research partnerships include strengthening institutional support for PAR at colleges and universities, funding community researcher/educator positions, and providing professional development for community and academic PAR partners.

Principles for Ecologically Based Invasive Plant Management

AbstractLand managers have long identified a critical need for a practical and effective framework for designing restoration strategies, especially where invasive plants dominate. A holistic, ecologically based, invasive plant management (EBIPM) framework that integrates ecosystem health assessment, knowledge of ecological processes, and adaptive management into a successional management model has recently been proposed. However, well-defined principles that link ecological processes that need to be repaired to tools and strategies available to managers have been slow to emerge, thus greatly limiting the ability of managers to easily apply EBIPM across a range of restoration scenarios. The broad objective of this article is to synthesize current knowledge of the mechanisms and processes that drive plant community succession into ecological principles for EBIPM. Using the core concepts of successional management that identify site availability, species availability, and species performance as three general drivers of plant community change, we detail key principles that link management tools used in EBIPM to the ecological processes predicted to influence the three general causes of succession. Although we acknowledge that identification of principles in ecology has greatly lagged behind other fields and recognize that identification of ecological principles and the conditions in which they hold are still being developed, we demonstrate how current knowledge and future advances can be used to structure a holistic EBIPM framework that can be applied across a range of restoration scenarios.

Diet composition of the invasive red-whiskered bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus in Mauritius

Disruption of ecosystems is one of the biggest threats posed by invasive species (Mack et al. 2000). Thus, one of the most important challenges is to understand the impact of exotic species on native species and habitats (e.g. Jones 2008). The probability that entire ‘invasive communities’ will develop increases as more species establish in new areas (Bourgeois et al. 2005). For example, introduced species may act in concert, facilitating one another's invasion, and increasing the likelihood of successful establishment, spread and impact. Simberloff & Von Holle (1999) introduced the term ‘invasional meltdown’ for this process, which has received widespread attention since (e.g. O'Dowd 2003, Richardson et al. 2000, Simberloff 2006). Positive interactions among introduced species are relatively common, but few have been studied in detail (Traveset & Richardson 2006). Examples include introduced insects and birds that pollinate and disperse exotic plants, thereby facilitating the spread of these species into non-invaded habitats (Goulson 2003, Mandon-Dalger et al. 2004, Simberloff & Von Holle 1999). From a more general ecological perspective, the study of interactions involving introduced and invasive species can contribute to our knowledge of ecological processes – for example, community assembly and indirect interactions.

Archaeology, land use, pollen and restoration in the Yazoo Basin (Mississippi, USA)

Increasingly, modern ecologists are realizing that the history of ecological systems is crucially important for understanding the landscape and that human land use has a great impact on the trajectory of ecosystems. The Yazoo Basin of Mississippi (USA) is one area in which palaeoecological and archaeological research has been done, but at a time when interpretations of the results relied on paradigms that gave credence only to climate change as a causal factor in explaining vegetation histories of plant communities. This paper uses knowledge of ecological processes and patterns of plant colonization and succession to make testable expectations for vegetation composition and change related to human action. An existing pollen record from the area is then examined in light of these expectations and reveals evidence that humans were an integral part of the ecosystem in this area, influencing the trajectory of vegetation history over thousands of years.

Grassland degradation and livestock rearing in Lesotho

This study is written in the context of marked intervention by external agencies, during the last 20 years. This has taken place within the broad concept of ‘sustainable development’, with the stated desire to ‘develop’ Lesotho's livestock economy, and to conserve the country's grasslands. The paper emphasises the need for social scientific analyses to engage with concepts of the natural sciences which underwrite ‘development’ and ‘conservation ‘ projects, if knowledge of ecological processes is to be improved.