Small Natural Areas Research Articles

Combining environmental niche models, multi-grain analyses, and species traits identifies pervasive effects of land use on butterfly biodiversity across Italy.

Understanding how species respond to human activities is paramount to ecology and conservation science, one outstanding question being how large-scale patterns in land use affect biodiversity. To facilitate answering this question, we propose a novel analytical framework that combines environmental niche models, multi-grain analyses, and species traits. We illustrate the framework capitalizing on the most extensive dataset compiled to date for the butterflies of Italy (106,514 observations for 288 species), assessing how agriculture and urbanization have affected biodiversity of these taxa from landscape to regional scales (3-48 km grains) across the country while accounting for its steep climatic gradients. Multiple lines of evidence suggest pervasive and scale-dependent effects of land use on butterflies in Italy. While land use explained patterns in species richness primarily at grains ≤12 km, idiosyncratic responses in species highlighted "winners" and "losers" across human-dominated regions. Detrimental effects of agriculture and urbanization emerged from landscape (3-km grain) to regional (48-km grain) scales, disproportionally affecting small butterflies and butterflies with a short flight curve. Human activities have therefore reorganized the biogeography of Italian butterflies, filtering out species with poor dispersal capacity and narrow niche breadth not only from local assemblages, but also from regional species pools. These results suggest that global conservation efforts neglecting large-scale patterns in land use risk falling short of their goals, even for taxa typically assumed to persist in small natural areas (e.g., invertebrates). Our study also confirms that consideration of spatial scales will be crucial to implementing effective conservation actions in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In this context, applications of the proposed analytical framework have broad potential to identify which mechanisms underlie biodiversity change at different spatial scales.

Natural Vegetation Edges Promote Bat Activity in Macadamia Orchards in Northeastern South Africa

Agricultural intensification can result in extremely fragmented landscapes with typically only small natural areas remaining. The South African macadamia industry is expanding dramatically, with over 5000 ha planted per year. Remaining natural vegetation around macadamia orchards will be key to retain important ecosystem services such as biological pest control of insects provided by, amongst others, insectivorous bats. We evaluated how the activity of bat species on macadamia farms within different land-use mosaics is related to general insect abundance and what role the phenological stages of macadamias play. Recordings of bat echolocation and insect light trap collections were conducted (July 2019 – March 2020) at different edges of land-use types on two macadamia farms in Hazyview, South Africa. Results showed that edge type significantly influenced bat activity and insect abundance with natural vegetation edges recording the highest bat activity (n = 3153) and insect abundance (n = 16 524). River edges (bat n = 1635, insect n = 11 284) presented lower activity and abundance than natural edges but still double that of road edges (bat n = 695, insect n = 3743). Bat activity was also higher during developing-nut and mature phenology stages when pest insects peak. Bats from all foraging guilds were recorded during the study, which points towards a more intact bat assemblage within the study area compared to other macadamia areas in South Africa. Our study highlights the importance of retaining natural vegetation within an agricultural land-use mosaic to maintain biological pest control.

Effects of landscape complexity on crop productivity: An assessment from space

Agricultural producers have many incentives to clear small natural areas from their fields, as this can expand their cultivated land base. However, natural areas can play a role in delivering ecosystem services that improve crop productivity (e.g., by providing habitat for beneficial arthropods, that deliver pollination or pest control). We assessed the impact of landscape complexity on adjacent canola (Brassica napus) yield at both the field- and subfield-level using remotely sensed products. Fields with higher landscape complexity generally had higher mean yields. However, fields surrounded mostly by either crop or non-crop covers had lower yields, possibly due to a lack of ecosystem services or a strong yield-reducing edge effect. At the subfield-level, we found evidence of a boost in yield between 30 and 100 m from the field edge towards its center, as well as a potential yield-stabilizing effect at the same range.

Regulations applicable to ecotourism in an emerging destination: the case of Sabana Occidente Cundinamarca geographical region

A review of current regulations of ecotourism is done, finding that ecotourism legislation in Colombia is included in tourism legislation and national environmental legislation. Normative context of ecotourism applicable in Sabana Occidente Province of Cundinamarca is identified. Sabana Occidente has small natural areas of high ecotourism potential that require protection and development. Ecotourism activities, subject to regulations established for ecological tourism, are conditioned by the current status of natural areas and local tourism development plans.

OregonScape

OREGONSCAPE IN MAY 1955, Stanley Earl, Portland city commissioner, and Leo Faust, president of the Portland Rose Society, planted a rose bush in Mill Ends Park to promote an upcoming festival. Inaugurated in its current form in 1907, the Portland Rose Festival takes place each June in Portland, Oregon. The festival’s traditional parades, rides, and firework displays in and around the city have been modified in 2020 and 2021 to slow the spread of COVID-19. The 1955 Rose Festival was notable because former president Harry Truman and his wife, Bess, took part in the Grand Floral Parade while riding in a convertible along the parade route with then Portland Mayor Fred. L. Peterson. Mill Ends Park was conveniently located in front of what was then the Oregon Journal Building, near Southwest Front Avenue, now Naito Parkway. The park was originally conceived by Dick Fagan, a columnist at the paper, whose office window overlooked the small natural area. According to Fagan, he wished for a park he could call his own after catching a leprechaun . For better or worse, the leprechaun granted his wish by declaring the 452-squareinch parcel of soil a park. While always known for its small size, it was not until 1971 that the Guinness Book of World Records officially declared it the smallest park in the world. Over the years, the Mill Ends Park has been a place for promoting and LEO FAUST (LEFT) AND STANLEY EARL (RIGHT) plant a rose bush in Mill Ends park on May 8, 1955. celebrating various Portland events — notably the Portland Rose Festival. You can read more about the Rose Festival and Mill Ends Park on The Oregon Encyclopedia. — Matthew Cowan, OHS Moving Images and Photography Archivist OHS Research Library, photo file no. 1890, photographer Al Monner ...

OregonScape

OREGONSCAPE IN MAY 1955, Stanley Earl, Portland city commissioner, and Leo Faust, president of the Portland Rose Society, planted a rose bush in Mill Ends Park to promote an upcoming festival. Inaugurated in its current form in 1907, the Portland Rose Festival takes place each June in Portland, Oregon. The festival’s traditional parades, rides, and firework displays in and around the city have been modified in 2020 and 2021 to slow the spread of COVID-19. The 1955 Rose Festival was notable because former president Harry Truman and his wife, Bess, took part in the Grand Floral Parade while riding in a convertible along the parade route with then Portland Mayor Fred. L. Peterson. Mill Ends Park was conveniently located in front of what was then the Oregon Journal Building, near Southwest Front Avenue, now Naito Parkway. The park was originally conceived by Dick Fagan, a columnist at the paper, whose office window overlooked the small natural area. According to Fagan, he wished for a park he could call his own after catching a leprechaun . For better or worse, the leprechaun granted his wish by declaring the 452-squareinch parcel of soil a park. While always known for its small size, it was not until 1971 that the Guinness Book of World Records officially declared it the smallest park in the world. Over the years, the Mill Ends Park has been a place for promoting and LEO FAUST (LEFT) AND STANLEY EARL (RIGHT) plant a rose bush in Mill Ends park on May 8, 1955. celebrating various Portland events — notably the Portland Rose Festival. You can read more about the Rose Festival and Mill Ends Park on The Oregon Encyclopedia. — Matthew Cowan, OHS Moving Images and Photography Archivist OHS Research Library, photo file no. 1890, photographer Al Monner ...

Tree Composition Mapping and Environmental Role of Small Natural Areas in Dense Urban Setting: Case Study of Jadavpur University Campus in India

Tree Composition Mapping and Environmental Role of Small Natural Areas in Dense Urban Setting: Case Study of Jadavpur University Campus in India

Improving Service Quality With the Fuzzy TOPSIS Method: A Case Study of the Beijing Rail Transit System

Rail transit (RT) has been favored by passengers because it effectively alleviates the problems of dense population, housing shortages, small natural areas, and serious air pollution in urban centers. In this paper, we propose a framework that combines statistical analysis, fuzzy theory, and the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) to evaluate the service quality of RT. First, the passenger perception of service quality is modeled as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers from the fuzzy theory, which solves the uncertainty problem of passenger perception that how factors affect service quality. Next, a case study that evaluates the service quality of the Beijing metro system is proposed using the fuzzy TOPSIS method. During the evaluation process, 8011 surveys are collected from 16 metro lines operated by Beijing Metro Operating Company Ltd. The evaluation results show that transfers, in-vehicle experience, and ticket purchases or recharges are the three factors that passengers find most unsatisfactory about metro travel and that need to be greatly improved in the future construction and management of metros. Furthermore, we analyze the stableness of the fuzzy TOPSIS method by the ranking change of service quality for a line from different comparison sets of metro lines. Finally, we provide suggestions and guidance for the optimization of RT infrastructure and investment.

Distribution Modeling ofAsclepiasspp. Predicts Potential Conservation Benefits of Marginal Ecosystems as Nature Reserves in Northwest Ohio

Due to grassland and prairie conversion for agriculture, milkweed species (Asclepias spp.) are now confined to small natural areas, agricultural fields, and marginal ecosystems (e.g., ditches and field margins). Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) rely exclusively on milkweed and are in decline in part due to declining milkweed populations. We conducted a species distribution modeling exercise using MaxEnt to model milkweed species and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) presence in natural areas and ditches throughout northwest Ohio in order to identify which local or regional landscape attributes most strongly influence milkweed presence. We found that while natural areas and ditches have similar presence probability ranges (milkweed: natural areas 3–98% and ditches 1–98%; common milkweed: natural areas and ditches 0–98%), natural areas have a higher average probability of presence than ditches (milkweed: natural areas = 30 ± 26% and ditches = 7 ± 7%; common milkweed: natural areas = 22 ± 26% and ditches = 5 ± 6%). However, due to the large area covered by ditches and field margins in our study system, ditches and field margins with a probability of milkweed occurrence greater than the average probability of occurrence in natural areas encompass a larger total area than natural areas. We also observed that the presence of milkweed is positively correlated with the presence of shrub and C4 grasses. We conclude that marginal ecosystems in ditches and field margins are an important component of regional milkweed and, thusly, monarch conservation by providing potential habitat across a diffuse network.

The Megachurch in the Landscape: Adapting to Changing Sale and Managing Integrated Green Space in Texas and Oklahoma, USA

Christian megachurches in Texas and Oklahoma, of 4000 weekly attendance or greater, vary in green space design from impenetrable to highly accessible, and from predominantly mowed lawn to sophisticated plans incorporating a variety of outdoor recreational and ritual spaces. The most complex layouts include sites for baptism and prayer, as well as small natural areas. Conscious expression of practical theology or Christian symbolism in the green space is correlated to higher landscape connectivity and diversity. The recent appearance of large church campuses, exceeding 50 ha, has resulted in sporadic innovation, while for many large congregations green space remains an underutilized resource. Five theological questions for religious campus planners include how does green space: 1) express God's beauty; 2) honor providential environmental services; 3) teach about the relationship between God, humanity, and the environment; 4) provide connections among God, nature, the congregation and the neighbors; and 5) provide for the needs of others?

Flore menacée de l’île de Mayotte : importance patrimoniale et enjeux de conservation

Threatened flora of Mayotte : heritage value and challenges for conservation. — This paper deals with the natural history and the flora of Mayotte by presenting some of its characteristics and providing an assessment of its conservation status. Mayotte is a French islands group belonging to the Comoros archipelago (Indian Ocean), located between Madagascar and East Africa. Its geological history, its geographical position and multiple human influences have shaped some remarkable landscapes composed by unique ecosystems and habitats, with an extraordinary biodiversity for a small territory. Since the first inhabitants, via the colonial centuries to the contemporary era, natural vegetation is restricted to the bare minimum but nevertheless it houses most of the plant biodiversity in Mayotte. As sanctuaries these small natural areas are unfortunately still poorly known and highly threatened. The flora of Mayotte was not well studied in the past because the naturalists’ attention was probably drawn by Madagascar. Most of the discoveries were made during the two main periods of investigation that took place during the second half of the nineteenth century and the late twentieth to date. The vascular flora of Mayotte is composed by 681 species that have been recently evaluated by using the categories and criteria of the IUCN Red List. To illustrate the need and urgency to ensure the conservation of this unique heritage, a “Top fourteen” of the critically endangered species is proposed and suggestions for conservation measures are discussed.

Using Small Populations of Wolves for Ecosystem Restoration and Stewardship

The absence of top-level predators in many natural areas in North America has resulted in overabundant ungulate populations, cascading negative impacts on plant communities, and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Meanwhile, distinct population segments of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) have been removed from the list of endangered and threatened species, implying an end to wolf recovery and reintroductions. We propose another paradigm for wolf conservation, one that emphasizes ecosystem recovery instead of wolf recovery. Improvements in technology, an enhanced understanding of the ecological role of wolves, lessons from other countries, and changing public attitudes provide a new context and opportunity for wolf conservation and ecosystem restoration. Under this new paradigm, small populations of wolves, even single packs, could be restored to relatively small natural areas for purposes of ecosystem restoration and stewardship. We acknowledge the complications and challenges involved in such a...

Degradation of an arid coastal landscape in relation to land use changes in Southern Tenerife (Canary Islands)

The results of the first study of land use changes between 1964 and 1992 in Southern Tenerife (Canary Islands) are presented and discussed in relation to the general socio-economic processes and the current nature conservation policy. The analysis of five main land use types with a geographic information system (GIS) revealed that the arid coastal landscape has been dramatically transformed during the past decades due to the increase of mass tourism and the intensification of agriculture, resulting in a large-scale destruction of the coastal scrub, the natural, endemic-rich vegetation. Between 1964 and 1992, the area occupied by irrigated crops increased strongly due to the transition from tomato to banana production. During the same period of time, the amount of abandoned farmland as well as the area used for housing and infrastructure increased markedly, the latter by more than 20 times. In nature reserves, most of the natural vegetation has survived but only in a degraded state, mainly due to recreation activities and illegal waste dumping. In unprotected areas, by contrast, 60% of the natural vegetation was lost between 1964 and 1992, and 86% of the native vegatation of recent lava flows. The results show that the current practice of protecting comparatively small natural areas is not sufficient to stop the massive destruction of natural vegetation. Surprisingly and disturbingly, there is evidence, that a substantial part (40%) of these losses could easily have been avoided by better environmental planning.

Conservation Value of Mount Rushmore National Memorial's Forest

Abstract Justifying the maintenance of small natural areas requires understanding their contribution to the conservation of specific natural resources. Mount Rushmore National Memorial (MORU) is a small portion of the Black Hills of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Because it has been protected from logging since the late 1930s, it may serve as an important part of the Black Hills forest as a whole. To understand this role, we investigated the extent and degree of logging activities in the memorial and compared the current structure of the MORU forest to that in the rest of the Black Hills today and before Euro-American settlement. Our results suggest that approximately 29% of the park has had no tree harvesting activity, 18% of the park has had only selective cutting of trees, and 66% (344 ha) of the park's area is covered by old-growth forest. Based on current estimates of similar forest in the remainder of the Black Hills, the forest at MORU constitutes the second-largest area of old-growth po...

Evaluation of functional diversity of soil microbial communities - a case study

In our case study, we measured the functional diversity of the microbial communities of twelve soils from the small natural area to assess if this assay is suitable for routine monitoring of soil biological quality. We found the BIOLOG assay meets especially practical benefits in routine monitoring of soils being simple and quick assay. However, we confirmed the ambiguity about the most appropriate analysis of the BIOLOG multivariate data and about the best parameter, which can be derived from the assay. The different analyses of the data were examined and various parameters derived from the BIOLOG assay were comparatively used to contribute to the discussion of how the data should be evaluated. We showed that not-normalized raw absorbances or trapezoid areas should be used for calculation of diversity index if the inoculum was standardized. There was no single answer to what parameter provided more correct results in the multivariate statistical analysis. Evaluating at least one not-normalized (e.g. trapezoid area) and one normalized parameter (e.g. absorbances read in fixed AWCD) was strongly suggested keeping in mind that they reveal different information.

Development and application of an ecosystem management approach for protected natural areas

Preservation of small natural areas is not in itself a sufficient measure to maintain the integrity of the ecosystems for which they were initially set aside. Intense pressure from recreational use is just one of the many human-caused stresses that may degrade natural areas. Therefore, land-use planning and management from an ecological perspective is necessary to assess, ensure, and in some cases increase, the ecological integrity of protected natural areas. An ecosystem management approach for small protected natural areas with high recreational use is presented, based on three interrelated components: an ecological evaluation procedure of ecosystems, the implementation of management interventions on ecosystems, and the development of a monitoring scheme of ecosystem components. The ecological evaluation procedure combines two concepts: the biotic value of vegetation and wildlife and the abiotic fragility of the soils. This combined evaluation process results in the creation of a sensitivity map that can be used as a management tool for planners and managers. Management interventions, the second component of the management approach, are derived from concepts of ecological succession. Intentional human interventions are used to maintain the ecological integrity of ecosystems or in some cases to restore degraded sites. For the third component, only the basic principles of the monitoring program will be discussed. A pilot project in one of the Montreal urban community protected areas is presented to illustrate aspects of the proposed ecosystem management approach.

Homicide in South Carolina: A Regional Study

areas, and production areas are all to be mapped and so intensive is the survey that no variations of more than ten acres can escape record. While primarily an economic survey for land utilization the analysis and interpretation by natural areas will have wide bearing on the human ecology of the state. The survey of Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, soon to be published, will show the suitability of a small natural area, homogenous in its physical and ethnic features, to interpretation as a cultural unit. The Department of Commerce has divided the United States in nine commercial regions for the purpose of study and in i9Z7 published its first survey, that of the Southeast. F. Stuart Chapin outlined before the American Sociological Society at its I9Z7 meeting plans of the University of Minnesota for a regional survey of the spring wheat belt which is to extend over two decades. The Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina seeks to give to all its southern, studies a definite regional slant based on background studies of rural areas. The Social Science Research Council has indorsed regional research as one of the major methods of promotion for the development of methods, personnel, new agencies of research, the securing of financial resources, the discovery of new research projects and the collection of storehouses of regional information. One of the purposes of the Council is to bring together for conference regional groups to consider the problems of their areas. Two such areas have been designated; the Pacific Coast, composed of a small number of units, and the South, consisting of a large number of units. With co6perative effort between the students of physical backgrounds and the students of culture the new direction given research may in time be expected to produce results equal to the best work of the French School. 42 Harold Titus, Michigan Takes Stock, The New Republic, August 28, I929, pp. 39-4I.