Conservation Research Research Articles

Breeding fat-tailed dunnarts (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) in captivity: Revised practices to minimize stress whilst maintaining considerations of wild biology.

The fat-tailed dunnart is a small dasyurid marsupial which is emerging as a robust laboratory model for conservation, developmental, and reproductive biology research. While these marsupials present extremely valuable models, housing non-domesticated animals in captivity can present a wide range of potential stressors for the animals, which need to be managed to ensure colony health. Notably, dunnarts rely on scent marking for social communication, which is important to maintain to reduce stress in artificial environments. In this study, we examine captive management techniques and provide updated recommendations which consider both scientific and conservation outcomes. Through ongoing management, we observe that recapitulating aspects of a natural environment has a significant impact on stress reduction and improving the overall reproductive fitness of captive-bred colonies. Moreover, our study provides evidence for preferred cage base substrate types, and quantification of stress caused by the cadence of enclosure cleaning using fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels as an indicator of stress. The study underscores the significance of population management in captive breeding programs, advocating for maintaining genetic diversity and meticulous record-keeping. We have further refined best practice for managing captively bred dunnart colonies, outlining guidelines for enclosure requirements, handling, cleaning, feeding, and lighting during breeding. Overall, the research aims to improve the health and productivity of captive fat-tailed dunnarts, ensuring their continued contribution as a valuable laboratory-based marsupial model and aiding in the conservation of related endangered species, while meeting a balance between maintenance of strict hygiene and alignment with wild-life history.

Maerl Bed Conservation: Successes and Failures

ABSTRACTMost ecoregions lack data on maerl distribution and ecological status, so this needs fundamental research for conservation. Brittany, NW France, is an exception and has extensive research on maerl species, associated biodiversity, human‐induced impacts and protection efforts. Breton maerl habitats host exceptionally high species richness and functional diversity, surpassing all other coastal habitats in the region. The meiofauna and microflora of maerl beds and the role of these habitats as carbon stores remain poorly known. Bans on direct exploitation in Europe have led to environmental improvements, although maerl extraction has begun in other regions of the world. In Europe, serious maerl conservation problems persist, particularly due to scallop and clam dredging, eutrophication and mariculture impacts. Not enough has been done to curb these issues, which are proven to severely degrade maerl, its biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Conservation measures for maerl beds should be strengthened and codesigned with local stakeholders as these habitats take millennia to form and are inadequately protected by current strategies.

Reflections on a critically‐applied anthropology of conservation and tourism field school in Honduras’ Bay Islands

AbstractThis article examines the inception, goals, and impacts of an ethnographic field school in conservation, culture, and environmental change, established in collaboration with small conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Honduras’ Bay Islands. It traces the author's journey from decades of critical and activist ethnography on rhetorical erasure and territorial dispossession of African and Indigenous descendants by conservation and tourism development towards the surprising turn (to the author) to establish a study abroad program that combined conservation research tourism and ethnographic fieldwork. The article provides an overview of the central themes explored during the program: neocolonialism, racialized dispossession, and displacement‐in‐place in Caribbean tourism; neoliberal conservation and the transformation of landscapes through land privatization; and the impacts of climate change, ecological grief, and community resiliency in the face of environmental change. Student feedback, community benefits, and goals for the program's future are detailed.

An interdisciplinary approach to improving conservation outcomes for parasites.

Parasites represent a significant proportion of Earth's biodiversity and play important roles in the ecology and biology of ecosystems and hosts, making them an important target for conservation. Despite increasing calls to prioritize protection for parasites in the academic literature, they remain undervalued and underrepresented in global biodiversity conservation efforts, not least due to the perception that the interests of parasite and host conservation are opposing and the common misconception that parasites are a threat, rather than a benefit, to conservation. We considered whether taking an interdisciplinary approach to parasite conservation research will generate novel insights and solutions concerning why and how parasite conservation should be practiced for the benefit of parasites, their hosts, ecosystems, and people. We argue that 2 of the main barriers to more widespread parasite conservation are the knowledge gap concerning the role of sociocultural factors affecting the willingness to enact parasite conservation and the lack of a consistent and cohesive philosophical basis for parasite conservation. Possible sociocultural barriers to parasite conservation include misconceptions of the risks posed by parasites, taxonomic bias, differences in conservation values, economic constraints, and technical challenges. The use of social science can generate insights into levels of awareness and support for parasite conservation and improve understanding of how human values and attitudes mediate conservation practices concerning parasites. Such knowledge will have a critical role in addressing sociocultural barriers and improving support for parasite conservation. Issues with the current philosophical basis for parasite conservation include contradictory accounts of which parasites merit conservation, insufficient explanation of how different conservation values apply to parasite biodiversity, and the existence of a false antagonism between host and parasite conservation. Greater engagement with philosophical work on environmental ethics and biological unitization will strengthen existing arguments for parasite conservation and will support conservation decision-making processes.

Implementation of Access and Benefit Sharing in The Bahamas: A Precautionary Tale

Biodiversity is incredibly important for the myriad ecosystem services it provides, especially for coastal nations such as The Bahamas. However, the newly implemented access and benefit sharing (ABS) regime is undermining scientific research, which is essential to effectively manage and conserve the country’s biodiversity. Key challenges include a poorly drafted legislation with punitive damages (financial and criminal), an overly bureaucratic and dysfunctional permitting process, and cost-prohibitive registration fees that are unsustainable for most researchers and organizations. As a result, the newly implemented ABS regime is driving the demise of academic and conservation research needed to protect the country’s biodiversity, diverting funding away from The Bahamas, jeopardizing relationships with the international scientific community, reducing its capacity to advance science innovation, and impeding much needed experiential learning opportunities for Bahamian students and professionals. A critical solution under the current permitting regime is the need to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial research in the regulatory framework and provide separate accommodations for the same. Furthermore, countries that consider establishing national ABS frameworks are advised to thoroughly engage with all relevant stakeholders through a transparent and consultative process during ABS design and implementation. This will help to ensure that the resulting legislation and policies do not unnecessarily obstruct the research needed for biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.

Elephant Sound Classification Using Deep Learning Optimization.

Elephant sound identification is crucial in wildlife conservation and ecological research. The identification of elephant vocalizations provides insights into the behavior, social dynamics, and emotional expressions, leading to elephant conservation. This study addresses elephant sound classification utilizing raw audio processing. Our focus lies on exploring lightweight models suitable for deployment on resource-costrained edge devices, including MobileNet, YAMNET, and RawNet, alongside introducing a novel model termed ElephantCallerNet. Notably, our investigation reveals that the proposed ElephantCallerNet achieves an impressive accuracy of 89% in classifying raw audio directly without converting it to spectrograms. Leveraging Bayesian optimization techniques, we fine-tuned crucial parameters such as learning rate, dropout, and kernel size, thereby enhancing the model's performance. Moreover, we scrutinized the efficacy of spectrogram-based training, a prevalent approach in animal sound classification. Through comparative analysis, the raw audio processing outperforms spectrogram-based methods. In contrast to other models in the literature that primarily focus on a single caller type or binary classification that identifies whether a sound is an elephant voice or not, our solution is designed to classify three distinct caller-types namely roar, rumble, and trumpet.

Revealing the Complexity of Host-Parasite Relationships Between Syringophilid Mites and Sunbirds in Their Global Range.

This article emphasises the importance of parasitological research in understanding ecological dynamics and biodiversity conservation through a global analysis of quill mites (Syringophilidae) parasitising Sunbirds (Nectariniidae). Data from 764 Sunbird individuals across seventy-six species revealed twelve quill mite species, including three newly described species: Aulonastus aethopygus Sikora and Unsoeld sp. n., Syringophiloidus haeckeli Sikora and Unsoeld sp. n., and Aulonastus arachnotherus Sikora and Unsoeld sp. n. A bipartite network analysis indicated a low connectance of 0.10, suggesting that only 10% of potential bird-parasite connections are realised. This high specialisation is further supported by an H2' index of 0.94 and a C score of 0.83, indicating low co-occurrence among mite species. The temperature of nestedness at 13.49 suggests a well-organised network structure. Additionally, normalised specialisation (d') ranged from 0.60 to 1, reflecting unique host-parasite interactions. High modularity (likelihood = 0.80) with nine modules was identified, with hosts ranging from one to seven. The study concludes by discussing the host-parasite dynamics and their ecological implications within this system.

Direct Measurement of the Mutation Rate and Its Evolutionary Consequences in a Critically Endangered Mollusk.

The rate at which mutations arise is a fundamental parameter of biology. Despite progress in measuring germline mutation rates across diverse taxa, such estimates are missing for much of Earth's biodiversity. Here, we present the first estimate of a germline mutation rate from the phylum Mollusca. We sequenced three pedigreed families of the white abalone Haliotis sorenseni, a long-lived, large-bodied, and critically endangered mollusk, and estimated a de novo mutation rate of 8.60 × 10-9 single nucleotide mutations per site per generation. This mutation rate is similar to rates measured in vertebrates with comparable generation times and longevity to abalone, and higher than mutation rates measured in faster-reproducing invertebrates. The spectrum of de novo mutations is also similar to that seen in vertebrate species, although an excess of rare C > A polymorphisms in wild individuals suggests that a modifier allele or environmental exposure may have once increased C > A mutation rates. We use our rate to infer baseline effective population sizes (Ne) across multiple Pacific abalone and find that abalone persisted over most of their evolutionary history as large and stable populations, in contrast to extreme fluctuations over recent history and small census sizes in the present day. We then use our mutation rate to infer the timing and pattern of evolution of the abalone genus Haliotis, which was previously unknown due to few fossil calibrations. Our findings are an important step toward understanding mutation rate evolution and they establish a key parameter for conservation and evolutionary genomics research in mollusks.

Energy conservation research trajectories: A systematic analysis of methods, technologies, and knowledge gaps

Energy conservation research trajectories: A systematic analysis of methods, technologies, and knowledge gaps

Functional traits and adaptation of lake microbiomes on the Tibetan Plateau

BackgroundTibetan Plateau is credited as the “Third Pole” after the Arctic and the Antarctic, and lakes there represent a pristine habitat ideal for studying microbial processes under climate change.ResultsHere, we collected 169 samples from 54 lakes including those from the central Tibetan region that was underrepresented previously, grouped them to freshwater, brackish, and saline lakes, and generated a genome atlas of the Tibetan Plateau Lake Microbiome. This genomic atlas comprises 8271 metagenome-assembled genomes featured by having significant phylogenetic and functional novelty. The microbiomes of freshwater lakes are enriched with genes involved in recalcitrant carbon degradation, carbon fixation, and energy transformation, whereas those of saline lakes possess more genes that encode osmolyte transport and synthesis and enable anaerobic metabolism. These distinct metabolic features match well with the geochemical properties including dissolved organic carbon, dissolved oxygen, and salinity that distinguish between these lakes. Population genomic analysis suggests that microbial populations in saline lakes are under stronger functional constraints than those in freshwater lakes. Although microbiomes in the Tibet lakes, particularly the saline lakes, may be subject to changing selective regimes due to ongoing warming, they may also benefit from the drainage reorganization and metapopulation reconnection.ConclusionsAltogether, the Tibetan Plateau Lake Microbiome atlas serves as a valuable microbial genetic resource for biodiversity conservation and climate research.9n3SXpnTm6EbgSwcGAa_6cVideo

Perspectives on Technological, Ethical, and Media Communication Dimensions in Conservation Research Projects Applying ART to Critically Endangered Wildlife Species

Perspectives on Technological, Ethical, and Media Communication Dimensions in Conservation Research Projects Applying ART to Critically Endangered Wildlife Species

The shifting philosophy behind the protected area concept and its applicability in the South African context

The necessity of increasing biodiversity conservation efforts has been highlighted by planetary boundary research. Through review and critical thinking, this paper aims to highlight inadequacies within historic and current environmental ideologies, many of which continue to entrench flawed conservation trajectories. The first part of this paper reviews the context in which the term conservation has been viewed within society, particularly between 1950 and the present day, revealing an early preservationist purpose that was embedded within a larger context of environmental plunder. It examines differing social, scientific and economic dimensions as well as certain approaches to environmental awareness within that period, particularly as it applies to the historic and emerging value of protected areas. It does this through the lenses of divergent thinking, including sequential iterations of colonialism, neoliberalism, “new conservation”, convivial conservation and ecocentrism. By juxtaposing the gradual increase in environmental awareness with socio-political and economic milestones within the last 70 years, it illustrates why firstly, truly reformist thinking has not gained traction and secondly, why exploitative and inherently unsustainable forms of environmentalism have endured within policy. By illuminating these factors, the duplicity of certain conservation trajectories is exposed. Contrastingly, some unlikely alliances between previously antagonistic socio-environmental ideologies are introduced. The second part of the paper deals with how emerging environmental principles are being applied (or not) within South Africa’s proud conservation history. It asserts that the post-Apartheid transformation within the environmental sector was incomplete, resulting in the retention of both social and environmental exploitation within policy. With the perpetuation of inadequate measures to stem global (and local) biodiversity loss, despite its now obvious need, the paper concludes with a set of actionable recommendations that have general application to conservation policy makers, researchers and practitioners including those within the South African context. The urgency of addressing the transgressed biodiversity planetary boundary, amidst inertia preventing rectification, provides the motivation underpinning this paper.

Perception, Attitude, and Practice about Environment Conservation through Plastic Waste Management among Students in Ghazi University D.G. Khan

The global issue of plastic pollution necessitated a comprehensive understanding of individual attitudes and behaviors toward plastic recycling and environmental conservation. Improper disposal of plastic waste significantly contributed to environmental pollution, as plastics took hundreds of years to decompose and some contained harmful chemicals that could leach into the environment, posing potential risks to human health. Proper management of plastic waste was essential to reduce exposure to these harmful substances and enhance public health and well-being. The present study, titled "Perception, Attitude, and Practice of Environment Conservation through Plastic Waste Management among Students in Dera Ghazi Khan," aimed to explore the intricate interplay between human behaviors and environmental sustainability. Specifically, it sought to: 1) explore the perception of students toward environmental conservation; 2) study the knowledge and attitudes among students regarding plastic waste management; 3) examine how students practiced plastic waste management; and 4) provide recommendations for proper plastic waste management and environmental conservation. A structured questionnaire was developed and targeted a sample size of 300 students from various departments of Ghazi University. In the first stage, 10 different departments were randomly selected from Ghazi University. In the second stage, 30 students were chosen from each department using a convenient sampling technique. The study found that 55.7% of students strongly agreed that they supported businesses using plastic alternatives, and 44% strongly agreed that investing in advanced recycling systems is crucial for reducing plastic pollution. Awareness about plastic pollution was shown to significantly impact environmental conservation attitudes, with 37% strongly agreeing that it fosters a culture of responsibility. Additionally, 35.3% of respondents strongly supported providing incentives to reduce plastic use. Data analysis using SPSS revealed significant associations between attitudes toward reusable items and effective plastic waste management. Findings indicated that students who strongly agreed that increasing the use of reusable items can aid environmental conservation also believed that recycling plastic waste effectively reduces pollution. These findings provide valuable insights for future research and policy formulation in environmental conservation and plastic waste management.

Emotional Responses of Conservation Researchers to Climate Change and Its Influencing Factors

Emotional Responses of Conservation Researchers to Climate Change and Its Influencing Factors

Whombat: An open‐source audio annotation tool for machine learning assisted bioacoustics

Abstract Automated analysis of bioacoustic recordings using machine learning (ML) methods has the potential to greatly scale biodiversity monitoring efforts. The use of ML for high‐stakes applications, such as conservation and scientific research, demands a data‐centric approach with a focus on selecting and utilizing carefully annotated and curated evaluation and training data that are relevant and representative. Creating annotated bioacoustic datasets presents a number of challenges, such as managing large collections of recordings with associated metadata, developing flexible annotation tools that can accommodate the diverse range of vocalization profiles of different organisms and addressing the scarcity of expert annotators. We present Whombat, a user‐friendly, browser‐based interface for managing audio recordings and annotation projects, with several visualization, exploration and annotation tools. It enables users to quickly annotate, review, and share annotations, as well as visualize and evaluate a set of machine learning predictions on a dataset. The tool facilitates an iterative workflow where user annotations and machine learning predictions feedback to enhance model performance and annotation quality. We demonstrate the flexibility of Whombat by showcasing two distinct use cases: (1) a project aimed at enhancing automated UK bat call identification at the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT), and (2) a collaborative effort among the USDA Forest Service and Oregon State University researchers exploring bioacoustic applications and extending automated avian classification models in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Whombat is a flexible tool that can effectively address the challenges of annotation for bioacoustic research. It can be used for individual and collaborative work, hosted on a shared server or accessed remotely, or run on a personal computer without the need for coding skills. The code is open‐source, and we provide a user guide.

A DNA barcode reference of Asian ferns with expert-identified voucher specimens and DNA samples

Ferns belong to species-rich group of land plants, encompassing more than 11,000 extant species, and are crucial for reflecting terrestrial ecosystem changes. However, our understanding of their biodiversity hotspots, particularly in Southeast Asia, remains limited due to scarce genetic data. Despite harboring around one-third of the world’s fern species, less than 6% of Southeast Asian ferns have been DNA-sequenced. In this study, we addressed this gap by sequencing 1,496 voucher-referenced and expert-identified fern samples from (sub)tropical Asia, spanning Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, to retrieve their rbcL and trnL-F sequences. This DNA barcode collection of Asian ferns encompasses 956 species across 152 genera and 34 families, filling major gaps in fern biodiversity understanding and advancing research in systematics, phylogenetics, ecology and conservation. This dataset significantly expands the Fern Tree of Life to over 6,000 species, serving as a pivotal and global reference for worldwide barcoding identification of ferns.

Overview of the III International Conference on Environmental Technologies and Engineering for Sustainable Development –ETESD-III 2024

Abstract This overview presents the key themes and outcomes of the III International Conference “ETESD - 2024,” held in Tashkent from October 17 to 19, 2024. It details the participants and proceedings, highlighting significant trends in environmental protection, biodiversity preservation, and the innovative technologies applied in agriculture. The conference addressed urgent challenges related to preventing environmental damage and discussed future prospects for advanced technologies in food production, soil protection, tillage, water conservation, and environmental research. Additionally, the event fostered dialogue on the integration of earth space systems into these critical areas, aiming to promote sustainable practices and collaborative solutions for pressing environmental issues. List of Programme Committee and Organizing Committee are available in this Pdf.

Improving human well-being through community-led coastal restoration

Coastal and marine conservation efforts are largely motivated by the ecological benefits of healthy habitats and their ecosystem services. Ecosystem restoration is a human endeavour, yet there is a paucity of research on the well-being benefits that people derive from participating in conservation. Focusing on the coastal communities of southern Australia, we explore the emotional, psychological, and social well-being benefits of participating in coastal conservation activities, and how these interact with ecological grief and anxiety. We surveyed individuals that regularly volunteer in coastal conservation, individuals who regularly use the coastal environment for leisure (recreational fishers), and those that do neither (control group). Our results suggest that engaging in marine conservation or recreational fishing improves social and psychological well-being. Volunteers also self-report better emotional well-being, while fishers do not. Although levels of ecological grief and anxiety were consistent across groups, our findings indicate that volunteering in coastal conservation may remedy the negative impacts on well-being from high levels of ecological anxiety and grief. We show that well-being benefits derived from volunteering are distinct from other nature-based recreational activities. These results illustrate that, for coastal societies, participating in community-led restoration projects provides human well-being benefits that are unique from other coastal activities, yet are seldom documented by conservation research. Recognising the social value of conservation activities is integral to effectively estimating the socio-ecological benefits of ecosystem restoration.

Curating protected area-level species lists in an era of diverse and dynamic data sources

Dynamic yet accurate species lists for protected areas are essential for conservation and biodiversity research. Even when such lists exist, changing taxonomy, ongoing species migrations and invasions, and new discoveries of historically overlooked species mean static lists can become rapidly outdated. Biodiversity databases such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist, offer rapidly accessible, georeferenced data, but their accuracy is rarely tested. Here we compare species lists generated for two of the world's oldest, more famous protected areas – Yosemite National Park in California, United States and Royal National Park in New South Wales, Australia – using both automated data extraction techniques and extensive manual curation steps. We show that automated list creation without manual curation offers inflated measures of species diversity. Lists generated from herbarium vouchers required more curation than lists generated from iNaturalist, with both incorrect coordinates attached to vouchers and long-outdated names inflating voucher-based species lists. In comparison, iNaturalist data had relatively few errors, in part due to continual curation by a large community, including many botanical experts, and the frequent and automatic implementation of taxonomic updates. As such, iNaturalist will become an increasingly accurate supplementary source for automated biodiversity lists over time, but currently offers poor coverage of graminoid species and introduced species relative to showier, native taxa, and relies on continued expert contributions to identifications. At this point, researchers must manually curate lists extracted from herbarium vouchers or static park lists, and integrate these data with records from iNaturalist, to produce the most robust and taxonomically up-to-date species lists for protected areas.

SPECIES OF THE ARTEMISIA GENUS IN THE HERBARIUM OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN “D. BRANDZA”, UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST

This study presents an assessment of the Artemisia collection at the BUC Herbarium of the University of Bucharest, which holds 324 specimens spanning 19 taxa collected over more than a century. The aim was to document and organize the collection, ensuring accurate taxonomic identification, correcting nomenclatural inconsistencies, and creating a digital database for improved accessibility. This work draws on the contributions of numerous historic collectors, enriching the collection's significance as a botanical and ecological resource. Through continued curation and digitization, the BUC Herbarium contributes essential data for taxonomic, ecological, and conservation research.