Conservation Questions Research Articles

Genetic Tagging in the Anthropocene: Scaling Ecology from Alleles to Ecosystems

This work reviews, and applies, genetic tags for understanding the most pressing questions in conservation and ecology. Genetic tagging is used to identify and track individual animals using their unique DNA signature, which can be gathered noninvasively. Ecologists are facing growing pressure to quantify the size, distribution, and trajectory of wild populations in a cost-effective and socially acceptable manner. Genetic tagging is ideally suited to meet this demand. We provide example analyses using a genetic tagging dataset of grizzly bears. The genetic tagging toolbox is a powerful and overlooked ensemble that ecologists and conservation biologists can leverage to generate evidence and meet the challenges of the Anthropocene. These photographs illustrate the article “Genetic tagging in the Anthropocene: scaling ecology from alleles to ecosystems” by Clayton T. Lamb, Adam T. Ford, Michael F. Proctor, J. Andrew Royle, Garth Mowat, and Stan Boutin published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1876

The Efficiency of Planting Stock of Some Tree-Shrubs in Armenia in Open-Air Hydroponics Conditions

The question of nature conservation became one of the most important in the world. It especially concerns to the countries with dry climate, such as Armenia, where auto recovery possibility of forests is excessively low. Gradual disappearance of forests, green areas is due to human non-competent acting, climate change, which aggravates present ecological crisis. One of the important steps for solution of this problem is the recovery of forests, green areas that requires the existence of huge amount of saplings. The use of open-air hydroponics is one of the best versions to receive healthy, qualify saplings. We studied and developed open-air hydroponic methods and biotechnologies of cultivation of 25 species of tree-shrubs important for the landscaping and forest recovery. There was studied the influence of nutrition solution offered by Davtyan G.S. and used in our Institute many years and its modified variants with the changes of main nutrients elements ratio on the biometric parameters of plants. Received results showed that saplings grown in open-air hydroponics conditions have strong root system, provide high rooting, which is very important in the recovery of forests, green areas, especially today’s ecological critical conditions of forest zones.

Unlocking the potential of ancient fish DNA in the genomic era.

Fish are the most diverse group of vertebrates, fulfil important ecological functions and are of significant economic interest for aquaculture and wild fisheries. Advances in DNA extraction methods, sequencing technologies and bioinformatic applications have advanced genomic research for nonmodel organisms, allowing the field of fish ancient DNA (aDNA) to move into the genomics era. This move is enabling researchers to investigate a multitude of new questions in evolutionary ecology that could not, until now, be addressed. In many cases, these new fields of research have relevance to evolutionary applications, such as the sustainable management of fisheries resources and the conservation of aquatic animals. Here, we focus on the application of fish aDNA to (a) highlight new research questions, (b) outline methodological advances and current challenges, (c) discuss how our understanding of fish ecology and evolution can benefit from aDNA applications and (d) provide a future perspective on how the field will help answer key questions in conservation and management. We conclude that the power of fish aDNA will be unlocked through the application of continually improving genomic resources and methods to well‐chosen taxonomic groups represented by well‐dated archaeological samples that can provide temporally and/or spatially extensive data sets.

Ecology, Ecosystem & Conservation Biology

Ecology is the study of the interaction between organisms and their environment. To fulfill the food requirements of increasing population, human activities are affecting the ecosystem. It has never been extra important to comprehend what regulates the dispersal and richness of species, how they intract with each other and their environment, and how biodiversity rejoins to threats by change in climate, invasive species, over-exploitation and destruction of habitat. Issues arising due to climate change, understanding the ecosystem, and the measures required to sustain Earth's life-support systems has become progressively important. In this evolutionary process, human activities have played a prominent role, and those who study vegetation cannot afford to neglect this aspect. Conversion of natural habitats into industrial and agricultural landscapes, and finally into tainted land, is the major influence of humans on the natural environment, posing a great threat to biodiversity. Restoration of ecosystem is an emerging discipline which provides a more suite of tools for the recovery of degraded lands. Restoration of ecology offers a crucial accompaniment to nature reserves as a way for the preservation of biodiversity. An unified understanding of human population growth and changes in agricultural practices with natural recovery processes and restoration ecology offers hope for the future of the environment. Even though ecologists have documented the role of history and historical legacy concept in determining present-day ecological systems, few international conservation assessments consider time scales more than 50 years. Conservation biology is prearranged management of natural resources and natural balance retention, diversity and evolutionary processes in the environment. Conservation strategies in a rapidly changing world need to consider the dynamic biological processes of species and their interactions with their environment: it is here that insights from long-term ecology can guide conservation. Palaeoecological techniques like macrofossils, pollen analysis and sediment chemistry in long-term ecology uses to resolve critical questions to resolve long-term ecological changes and the processes behind such changes. Palaeoecological record uses that preserved in lake and bog sediments as a long-term ecological laboratory. The record delivers exclusive information about ecological impact of environmental change on population, organisms, communities, landscapes and ecosystems over time scales from 50 to 12000 years. New developments mean that palaeoecological studies have high taxonomic precision, fine temporal resolution (typically of ~5 years, and sometimes 1 or 2 years), appropriate numerical methods of analysis, and can benefit from synergies of multi-proxy studies. Palaeoecological studies can help to answer questions such as ¬ In the change of ecosystem what are the major drivers at different time scales? ¬ In a specific ecosystem how much natural variability is there? ¬ How have landscapes changed over time? ¬ What is the native status of particular species? ¬ Which ecological processes are important for maintaining target ecosystems? ¬ How do human activities affect the resilience of ecosystems to climate change? ¬ What time-lags can be expected between climate change and ecosystem response? ¬ How will climate change affect the distribution and impacts of climate-dependent disturbance regimes such as fire? Within the application of long-term ecological data to conservation and management there are many controversies, challenges, and compromises. Recently, a study has emphasized a serious question in practical conservation: Do we know what we want to conserve and how to conserve it? Two opposite ideas are preservation of cultural landscapes and creation of partially 'wild' areas with re-wilding. Long-term ecology has much to pay to conservation as the complexity of processes and patterns in the past, when prudently decrypted, can help to make new ideas about management in the future. Biodiversity loss is a local phenomenon and an in-depth understanding of individual locations is needed to devise solutions. This special issue provides focused study on ecological forecasting and customized decision support tools for a variety of topics. In this Special issue, researchers spatially explicit modeling approaches to address complex interactions, and relationships to solve the following issues: Wildfire, Climate Change Impacts, Species Population Modeling, Wildlife Connectivity, Green Energy Development and Environmental Risk Avoidance conservation problems.

Too much of a good thing? Finding the most informative genetic data set to answer conservation questions.

Molecular markers are a useful tool allowing conservation and population managers to shed light on genetic processes affecting threatened populations. However, as technological advancements in molecular techniques continue to evolve, conservationists are frequently faced with new genetic markers, each with nuanced variation in their characteristics as well as advantages and disadvantages for informing various questions. We used a well-studied population of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) from Maria Island, Tasmania, to illustrate the issues associated with combining multiple genetic data sets and to help answer a question posed by many population managers: which data set will provide the most precise and accurate estimates of the population processes we are trying to measure? We analysed individual heterozygosity (as internal relatedness, IR) of 96 individuals, calculated using four genetic marker types (putatively neutral microsatellites, major histocompatibility complex-linked microsatellites, reduced representation sequencing, and candidate region resequencing). We found no correlation in IR values across marker types, suggesting that various genetic markers reflect different aspects of genomic diversity. In addition, some marker types were more informative than others for conservation decision-making. Reduced representation sequencing provided the highest precision (lowest error) for estimating population-level genetic diversity, and most closely reflected genome-wide heterozygosity both theoretically and empirically. Within the conservation context, our results highlight important considerations when choosing a molecular technique for wildlife genetics.

Modelling the spatial dynamics of Maui dolphins using individual-based models

The current anthropogenic impacts on nature necessitate more research for nature conservation and restoration purposes. To answer ecological and conservation questions concerning endangered species, individual-based modelling is an obvious choice. Individual-based models can provide reliable results that may be used to predict the effects of different future conservation strategies, once calibrated correctly. Here, we calibrate an individual-based model of Maui dolphin movement, which generates Maui dolphin probability distribution maps. We used sighting data for calibration of the chosen parameter combinations; for each simulation run, collected simulated data was compared to the empirical survey data, resulting in cost (Badness-of-Fit) estimates. Using costs of four different aspects of dolphin behaviour, we estimated the most likely parameter combinations. With optimized parameter values, Maui dolphin probability distribution maps were created, resulting in distributions that fall well outside of the current protection zones where either gillnets or trawling or both are prohibited. With these results, protected areas can be properly adjusted to the estimated distribution of this critically endangered species and so aid in their conservation.

Top 100 research questions for biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia

Southeast (SE) Asia holds high regional biodiversity and endemism levels but is also one of the world's most threatened regions. Local, regional and global threats could have severe consequences for the future survival of many species and the provision of ecosystem services.In the face of myriad pressing environmental problems, we carried out a research prioritisation exercise involving 64 experts whose research relates to conservation biology and sustainability in SE Asia. Experts proposed the most pressing research questions which, if answered, would advance the goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in SE Asia. We received a total of 333 questions through three rounds of elicitation, ranked them (by votes) following a workshop and grouped them into themes.The top 100 questions depict SE Asia as a region where strong pressures on biodiversity interact in complex and poorly understood ways. They point to a lack of information about multiple facets of the environment, while exposing the many threats to biodiversity and human wellbeing. The themes that emerged indicate the need to evaluate specific drivers of biodiversity loss (wildlife harvesting, agricultural expansion, climate change, infrastructure development, pollution) and even to identify which species and habitats are most at risk. They also suggest the need to study the effectiveness of practice-based solutions (protected areas, ecological restoration), the human dimension (social interventions, organisational systems and processes and, the impacts of biodiversity loss and conservation interventions on people). Finally, they highlight gaps in fundamental knowledge of ecosystem function. These 100 questions should help prioritise and coordinate research, conservation, education and outreach activities and the distribution of scarce conservation resources in SE Asia.

MobiSeq: De novo SNP discovery in model and non-model species through sequencing the flanking region of transposable elements.

In recent years, the availability of reduced representation library (RRL) methods has catalysed an expansion of genome-scale studies to characterize both model and non-model organisms. Most of these methods rely on the use of restriction enzymes to obtain DNA sequences at a genome-wide level. These approaches have been widely used to sequence thousands of markers across individuals for many organisms at a reasonable cost, revolutionizing the field of population genomics. However, there are still some limitations associated with these methods, in particular the high molecular weight DNA required as starting material, the reduced number of common loci among investigated samples, and the short length of the sequenced site-associated DNA. Here, we present MobiSeq, a RRL protocol exploiting simple laboratory techniques, that generates genomic data based on PCR targeted enrichment of transposable elements and the sequencing of the associated flanking region. We validate its performance across 103 DNA extracts derived from three mammalian species: grey wolf (Canis lupus), red deer complex (Cervus sp.) and brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). MobiSeq enables the sequencing of hundreds of thousands loci across the genome and performs SNP discovery with relatively low rates of clonality. Given the ease and flexibility of MobiSeq protocol, the method has the potential to be implemented for marker discovery and population genomics across a wide range of organisms-enabling the exploration of diverse evolutionary and conservation questions.

Applications of Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology

Applications of Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology

Best practice guidelines for cetacean tagging

Animal-borne electronic instruments (tags) are valuable tools for collecting information on cetacean physiology, behaviour and ecology, and forenhancing conservation and management policies for cetacean populations. Tags allow researchers to track the movement patterns, habitat use andother aspects of the behaviour of animals that are otherwise difficult to observe. They can even be used to monitor the physiology of a taggedanimal within its changing environment. Such tags are ideal for identifying and predicting responses to anthropogenic threats, thus facilitating thedevelopment of robust mitigation measures. With the increasing need for data best provided by tagging and the increasing availability of tags, suchresearch is becoming more common. Tagging can, however, pose risks to the health and welfare of cetaceans and to personnel involved in taggingoperations. Here we provide ‘best practice’ recommendations for cetacean tag design, deployment and follow-up assessment of tagged individuals,compiled by biologists and veterinarians with significant experience in cetacean tagging. This paper is intended to serve as a resource to assist tagusers, veterinarians, ethics committees and regulatory agency staff in the implementation of high standards of practice, and to promote the trainingof specialists in this area. Standardised terminology for describing tag design and illustrations of tag types and attachment sites are provided, alongwith protocols for tag testing and deployment (both remote and through capture-release), including training of operators. The recommendationsemphasise the importance of ensuring that tagging is ethically and scientifically justified for a particular project and that tagging only be used toaddress bona fide research or conservation questions that are best addressed with tagging, as supported by an exploration of alternative methods.Recommendations are provided for minimising effects on individual animals (e.g. through careful selection of the individual, tag design and implantsterilisation) and for improving knowledge of tagging effects on cetaceans through increased post-tagging monitoring.

Use of hidden Markov capture-recapture models to estimate abundance in the presence of uncertainty: Application to the estimation of prevalence of hybrids in animal populations.

Estimating the relative abundance (prevalence) of different population segments is a key step in addressing fundamental research questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation. The raw percentage of individuals in the sample (naive prevalence) is generally used for this purpose, but it is likely to be subject to two main sources of bias. First, the detectability of individuals is ignored; second, classification errors may occur due to some inherent limits of the diagnostic methods. We developed a hidden Markov (also known as multievent) capture–recapture model to estimate prevalence in free‐ranging populations accounting for imperfect detectability and uncertainty in individual's classification. We carried out a simulation study to compare naive and model‐based estimates of prevalence and assess the performance of our model under different sampling scenarios. We then illustrate our method with a real‐world case study of estimating the prevalence of wolf (Canis lupus) and dog (Canis lupus familiaris) hybrids in a wolf population in northern Italy. We showed that the prevalence of hybrids could be estimated while accounting for both detectability and classification uncertainty. Model‐based prevalence consistently had better performance than naive prevalence in the presence of differential detectability and assignment probability and was unbiased for sampling scenarios with high detectability. We also showed that ignoring detectability and uncertainty in the wolf case study would lead to underestimating the prevalence of hybrids. Our results underline the importance of a model‐based approach to obtain unbiased estimates of prevalence of different population segments. Our model can be adapted to any taxa, and it can be used to estimate absolute abundance and prevalence in a variety of cases involving imperfect detection and uncertainty in classification of individuals (e.g., sex ratio, proportion of breeders, and prevalence of infected individuals).

Environment: From a Humanities Perspective: Introductory Thoughts

In the last decades, there has begun a close and productive dialogue between humanities studies and environment and disaster studies. This has arisen from the general understanding in academic and policy-making circles that the problem of environment crisis or of climate change cannot be meaningfully engaged with through the lens of one single discipline or for that matter through scientific studies alone. Environment is constituted of material and non-material interactions between the humans and the non-humans. It is a very broad and complex domain, and a study addressed towards sustainable living and caring for the environment will need to take into account factors responsible for the current global environmental crisis and the way human communities and non-human living beings in a local set up have responded to environmentally directed but (majorly) human-oriented policies and values. As development ideology continues to remain the cornerstone for ‘progress’, questions of sustainability and conservation have become vital to national, state, and non-state thinktanks.

Invertebrate herbivores: Overlooked allies in the recovery of degraded coral reefs?

A key question for coral reef conservation is whether reefs dominated by macroalgae can recover. Since the near-disappearance of the herbivorous urchin Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean, a prevalent management paradigm has focused on protecting herbivorous fishes to trigger shifts back to a coral-rich state. However, in the absence of D. antillarum, the contribution of other large macroinvertebrates to herbivory intensity has been largely overlooked. We used day and night field surveys and behavioural observations at 16 degraded reef patches in the Bahamas to measure the abundance of large herbivorous macroinvertebrates and their consumption of fleshy macroalgae. Tripneustes sea urchins and Maguimithrax crabs were the main herbivorous macroinvertebrates on our sites and were active mainly at night, with 97% of urchins and 45% of crabs observed consuming fleshy macroalgae. By comparison, < 5% of herbivorous fishes observed ate macroalgae. In the laboratory, Tripneustes sea urchins and Maguimithrax crabs readily consumed macroalgae (at rates of 0.19 g h−1 and 0.38 g h−1, respectively), but their low abundance on patch reefs (4 crabs and 2.3 urchins per reef, on average) translated into low overall rates of macroalgal removal. Perhaps for this reason, there was no relationship between the density of these large macroinvertebrates or their grazing rate and macroalgal cover on patch reefs. Nevertheless, we calculated that macroalgal consumption by Maguimithrax crabs alone could exceed macroalgae production with a doubling of their current low abundance; a 2.6-fold increase in Tripneustes urchin abundance would achieve the same result. Our results suggest that large herbivorous macroinvertebrates, some of which are currently the target of artisanal fishing in many Caribbean countries, could contribute greatly to the recovery of coral reefs with established macroalgal communities, at least in patch reef habitats.

Reference Genomes from Distantly Related Species Can Be Used for Discovery of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms to Inform Conservation Management.

Threatened species recovery programmes benefit from incorporating genomic data into conservation management strategies to enhance species recovery. However, a lack of readily available genomic resources, including conspecific reference genomes, often limits the inclusion of genomic data. Here, we investigate the utility of closely related high-quality reference genomes for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovery using the critically endangered kakī/black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae) and four Charadriiform reference genomes as proof of concept. We compare diversity estimates (i.e., nucleotide diversity, individual heterozygosity, and relatedness) based on kakī SNPs discovered from genotyping-by-sequencing and whole genome resequencing reads mapped to conordinal (killdeer, Charadrius vociferus), confamilial (pied avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta), congeneric (pied stilt, Himantopus himantopus) and conspecific reference genomes. Results indicate that diversity estimates calculated from SNPs discovered using closely related reference genomes correlate significantly with estimates calculated from SNPs discovered using a conspecific genome. Congeneric and confamilial references provide higher correlations and more similar measures of nucleotide diversity, individual heterozygosity, and relatedness. While conspecific genomes may be necessary to address other questions in conservation, SNP discovery using high-quality reference genomes of closely related species is a cost-effective approach for estimating diversity measures in threatened species.

Decline in coral cover and flattening of the reefs around Mauritius (1998-2010).

Coral reefs are degrading through the impacts of multiple anthropogenic stressors. How are coral reef communities going to change and how to protect them for future generations are important conservation questions. Using coral reef data from Mauritius, we examined changes in cover in 23 benthic groups for a 13-yr period and at 15 sites. Moreover, we determined which land-based stressor out of four (human population, agriculture, tourism, rainfall) correlated the most with the observed changes in coral reef cover. Among the stony corals, Acropora corals appeared to be the most impacted, decreasing in cover at many sites. However, the non-Acropora encrusting group increased in cover at several sites. The increase in abundance of dead corals and rubble at some sites also supported the observations of stony coral decline during the study period. Additionally, the decline in stony corals appeared to be more pronounced in second half of the study period for all sites suggesting that a global factor rather than a local factor was responsible for this decline. There was little change in cover for the other benthic groups, some of which were quite rare. Human population was significantly correlated with changes in coral reef cover for 11 sites, followed by tourism and agriculture. Rainfall, a proxy for runoff, did not appear to affect coral reef cover. Overall, our results showed that there has been a decline of stony coral cover especially the ones with complex morphologies, which in turn suggest that coral reefs around Mauritius have experienced a decline in habitat complexity during the study period. Our study also suggests that humans are an important factor contributing to the demise of coral reefs around the island.

Life inside a gall: diversity, phenology and structure of Portuguese gall communities, their hosts, parasitoids and inquilines

Plant galls sustain diverse and complex communities of gallers, parasitoids and inquilines that provide exceptional systems to explore evolutionary, ecological and conservation questions. However, the structure and phenology of such communities are still largely unknown. In order to fill these gaps, we sampled plant galls along the Portuguese coast aiming to (1) characterize the diversity of gall-associated communities (plants, gallers, their parasitoids, and inquilines); (2) evaluate how richness and abundance of gallers are shaped by plant life-form; and (3) explore the phenology (i.e. emergence time) of the different guilds. For 1 year, we collected 31,737 galls from 33 plant species, revealing remarkably diverse communities centred on 49 gallers, 65 parasitoids and 88 inquiline species. The plant families with more galls were Fabaceae, Fagaceae and Cistaceae, while most gallers were Cynipidae and Cecidomyiidae. Regarding parasitoids, Torymidae and Eulophidae were the richest families, and most inquilines belonged to the families Cecidomyiidae, Thripidae, Aphidiidae and Psocoptera. Shrubs hosted a significantly greater abundance and richness of gallers. Overall community composition was highly variable in time, frequently with turnover rates greater than 50% between consecutive months. An asynchrony between life cycles of each guild could be explained by the sequential availability of resources for gallers and parasitoids and by the relaxed physiological constraints between galls and inquilines. This baseline information is vital for revealing a hidden component of biodiversity and shedding light on its community structure and resilience.

Habitat segregation between brown bears and gray wolves in a human-dominated landscape.

Identifying how sympatric species belonging to the same guild coexist is a major question of community ecology and conservation. Habitat segregation between two species might help reduce the effects of interspecific competition and apex predators are of special interest in this context, because their interactions can have consequences for lower trophic levels. However, habitat segregation between sympatric large carnivores has seldom been studied. Based on monitoring of 53 brown bears (Ursus arctos) and seven sympatric adult gray wolves (Canis lupus) equipped with GPS collars in Sweden, we analyzed the degree of interspecific segregation in habitat selection within their home ranges in both late winter and spring, when their diets overlap the most. We used the K‐select method, a multivariate approach that relies on the concept of ecological niche, and randomization methods to quantify habitat segregation between bears and wolves. Habitat segregation between bears and wolves was greater than expected by chance. Wolves tended to select for moose occurrence, young forests, and rugged terrain more than bears, which likely reflects the different requirements of an omnivore (bear) and an obligate carnivore (wolf). However, both species generally avoided human‐related habitats during daytime. Disentangling the mechanisms that can drive interspecific interactions at different spatial scales is essential for understanding how sympatric large carnivores occur and coexist in human‐dominated landscapes, and how coexistence may affect lower trophic levels. The individual variation in habitat selection detected in our study may be a relevant mechanism to overcome intraguild competition and facilitate coexistence.

Using museum specimens to estimate broad-scale species richness: Exploring the performance of individual-based and spatially explicit rarefaction.

Estimates of spatial patterns of broad-scale species richness are central to major questions in ecology, evolution and conservation. Yet, they are scarce due to incomplete information on species distributions. Often the only germane data derives from museum specimens collected during non-standardized sampling. Rarefaction, a promising approach to estimate broad-scale richness with these data, estimates the expected number of species represented in subsets of n specimens drawn from N specimens collected in a sampling unit. One version of rarefaction, known as individual-based rarefaction, assumes that the N specimens collected in a sampling unit constitute a random sample of individuals in that sampling unit. Another version, known as spatially explicit rarefaction, assumes that the N specimens collected in a sampling unit are spatially aggregated. We examined the working hypothesis that, when applied to museum specimen data, spatially explicit rarefaction is less biased than individual-based rarefaction because it reduces overestimation due to spatially aggregated sampling. We derived five predictions from this working hypothesis and tested them using computer simulation experiments based on a database of 129,782 plant specimens from Nicaragua, and sampling units of 5 x 5, 50 x 50, and 100 x 100 km. One experiment was a negative control, whereby we simulated collection of randomly chosen individuals from each sampling unit. In contrast, three other experiments included spatially aggregated sampling. In all experiments we applied individual-based and spatially explicit rarefaction to estimate richness, with n = 200 and n = 500 specimens. As expected, the experiment designed as a negative control did not support the working hypothesis. The other three experiments supported the working hypothesis in analyses of larger sampling units, but not in 5 x 5 km sampling units. The predictions we derived from the working hypothesis can be used to assess which rarefaction version is best in particular systems.

OpenNahele: the open Hawaiian forest plot database.

BackgroundThis data paper provides a description of OpenNahele, the open Hawaiian forest plot database. OpenNahele includes 530 forest plots across the Hawaiian archipelago containing 43,590 individuals of 185 native and alien tree, shrub and tree fern species across six islands. We include estimates of maximum plant size (D950.1 and Dmax3) for 58 woody plant species, a key functional trait associated with dispersal distance and competition for light. OpenNahele can serve as a platform to test key ecological, evolutionary and conservation questions in a hotspot archipelago.New informationOpenNahele is the first database that compiles data from a large number of forest plots across the Hawaiian archipelago to allow broad and high resolution studies of biodiversity patterns.Keywords: Hawaii, forests, islands, biodiversity, community ecology, evolutionary ecology

Raman and time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry investigation answers specific conservation questions on Bosch painting Saint Wilgefortis Triptych

AbstractRaman spectroscopy and time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF‐SIMS) were used to answer conservation questions left open after the preliminary analysis performed by the restoration team on the Bosch painting Saint Wilgefortis Triptych, within the project “Bosch in Venice.” In this work, we present the results obtained by combining these two techniques on five cross sections, concerning a detailed study of pigments and bindings degradation processes, the identification of organic components (binders/lakes), and the characterization of restoration products. Raman measurements show the presence of degradation products, such as calomel on the red pigment cinnabar, calcium‐oxalate, in particular weddellite, localized in a not original external layer, and finally lead soaps in several layers of the investigated samples. Although the detection of lead soaps suggests the use of oils as binders, Raman spectroscopy has given no conclusive information about such binders, neither on the possible presence of red lakes, suggested by independent UV observations. Complementary ToF‐SIMS investigations have instead revealed the presence of lead palmitate and stearate in the painting layers along with miristic, palmitic, oleic, and stearic acids, thus confirming the use of an oil medium, likely linseed oil. Additionally, ToF‐SIMS shows the presence of polydimethylsiloxane, likely from a previous restoration treatment in the 1990s, in the external layer of the investigated cross sections. Due to experimental difficulties during the analysis of the red lake, we can only hypothesize the presence of alizarin.