Tag: habitat
Estimates of the willingness to pay for locally grown tree fruits in Cusco, Peru
Urbanization, changes in the retail sector and economic growth in developing countries may offer new opportunities to build connections between urban consumers and nearby farmers. The design of strategies to build such connections will require deeper insights into the food preferences of urban consumers. This paper presents a choice experiment of the preference of locally grown apples, avocados and pears vis-à-vis nonlocal equivalents with 300 consumers in a traditional market in Cusco, Peru. Willingness-to-pay estimates are derived from a multinomal logit analysis. We found that consumers who are younger and more educated and those with young children tend to be willing to pay more for locally produced apples, avocados and pears. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the research for advancing efforts to localize food systems in developing countries and opportunities for future research.
Trends, drivers of change and possible solutions to address deforestation and loss of forest habitat in the Kenya-Somalia cross-border area
This report first presents historic vegetation maps that localize the lowland tropical rainforests and the drylands forests that are the habitats of the biodiversity of the East African Coastal Forest Biodiversity Hotspot. Next, using information from Global Forest Watch (GFW), this study reports significant deforestation in the lowland tropical rainforests in southern and central Lamu County and adjacent Tana River County.
Effects of human-livestock-wildlife interactions on habitat in an Eastern Kenya rangeland
Human-livestock-wildlife interactions have increased in Kenyan rangelands in recent years, but few attempts have been made to evaluate their impact on the rangeland habitat. This study identified drivers of increased human-livestock-wildlife interactions in the Meru Conservation Area between 1980 and 2000 and their effects on the vegetation community structure. The drivers were habitat fragmentation, decline in pastoral grazing range, loss of wildlife dispersal areas and increase in livestock population density. Agricultural encroachment increased by over 76% in the western zone adjoining Nyambene ranges and the southern Tharaka area, substantially reducing the pastoral grazing range and wildlife dispersal areas. Livestock population increased by 41%, subjecting areas left for pastoral grazing in the northern dispersal area to prolonged heavy grazing that gave woody plant species a competitive edge over herbaceous life-forms. Consequently, open wooded grassland, which was the dominant vegetation community in 1980, decreased by c. 40% as bushland vegetation increased by 42%. A substantial proportion of agro pastoralists were encountered around Kinna and Rapsu, areas that were predominantly occupied by pastoralists three decades ago, indicating a possible shift in land use in order to spread risks associated with habitat alterations.
Two species of clitopilus (entolomataceae, agaricales) from Northern Thailand
As part of our efforts to study the saprobic mushrooms in Asia, we made three collections of Clitopilus in northern Thailand. Two of the three collections were identified, based on morphological and molecular analyses, as Clitopilus chalybescens described from Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. The third collection is a new species, Clitopilus doimaesalongensis, which we introduce in this paper. The new species C. doimaesalongensis and C. chalybescens are documented with line drawings, photographs and description and compared with similar taxa and molecular data is provided for C. chalybescens for the first time. © 2017, Chiang Mai University. All rights reserved.
Same but Different: Intersexual and Age-Related Habitat Use of the Threatened West African Trionyx triunguis Clade—A Four-Country Comparative Study
Biological communities are structured by a variety of biotic and abiotic relationships, whose understanding forms the basis for effective conservation. Among the myriad factors influencing community dynamics, resource partitioning stands out, potentially enriching ecosystem complexity but also carrying risks for conservation if disregarded. In this study, we investigated intersexual and ontogenetic niche differences among populations of the West African softshell turtle Trionyx triunguis in Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. We observed that these distinct populations exhibited similar habitat preferences, favouring large rivers with abundant riverbank and aquatic vegetation, and muddy substrates. Disparities in habitat preferences were evident among populations and across various life stages, indicating the adaptability of the species. We found that the species was active throughout the year, but most of our sightings and captures occurred during the wet season. In light of the species’ vulnerability to overhunting, our research findings provide important data on the ecology of this species that can assist in its effective conservation across all life stages.
Predicting the potential geographical distribution of Osyris quadripartita Decn. (Santalaceae) in Ethiopia under climate change scenarios
Climate change is a key factor that affects the geographical distribution of species globally. As a result, species are forced to change their suitable habitats. Understanding how climate change impacts species distribution is crucial to conserving species. This study aims to project the current and future potential distribution of Osyris quadripartita Decn under a climate change scenario in Ethiopia. O. quadripartita is an evergreen, dioecious and highly branched shrub or small tree with economic, ecological and cultural importance. The plant is indigenous to Ethiopia, and also widespread throughout Africa and southern Asia to China. Twenty-two environmental variables were used as predictor variables. Seventy spatially rarefied occurrence points were used as occurrence data. Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 (intermediate) and RCP 8.5 (maximum greenhouse gas emission scenarios) for the years 2050 and 2070 were used to predict future habitat suitability. Twelve bioclimatic variables and one topographic layer were selected and used in this study after a correlation analysis. Variables relating to precipitation (Bio17, Bio16, Bio19 and Bio14) and temperature (Bio6 and Bio1) were more important in predicting the distribution of O. quadripartita. The result revealed that the suitable habitats for the distribution of species decreased from the current 14.4% (16,363,005 hectares) to 11.9% (13,437,831 ha) and 11% (12,565,372 ha) under RCP 8.5 for the years 2050 and 2070, respectively, which depicts the shrinkage of suitable areas as a result of climate change. Therefore, it needs timely intervention by responsible bodies and stakeholders to conserve plant species in the changing climate.
Habitat use and spatial niche overlap of sympatric savannah tortoises at multiple spatial scales in South Sudan
Tortoise ecology is poorly studied in East Africa. Here, using two terrestrial Testudinidae (Stigmochelys pardalis and Kinixys belliana) as study models, we (i) present basic demographic characteristics (sex-ratio, and density), (ii) describe correlates of their presence at two spatial scales (micro-habitat and macro-habitat), (iii) evaluate the effects of rainfall on their seasonal activity patterns, and (iv) analyze abundance patterns in relation to macro- and micro-habitat characteristics. We also describe an experiment, using tortoise shells, that can allow to control, and eventually correct, the reliability of observed data by taking into account the detectability of the study species in the wild. On the basis of a suite of statistical analysis and GIS-based elaborations, we confirmed, and further uncovered, the remarkable ecological differences existing between S. pardalis and K. belliana. The habitat use was different interspecifically, with K. belliana being much more linked to dense vegetation spots, often nearby waterbodies, whereas S. pardalis being an habitat generalist, at both micro- and macrohabitat scale. Nonetheless, juveniles of both species were observed in areas with significantly higher % soil covered by vegetation taller than 200 cm than adults of both sexes. This different habitat selection is hypothesized to be due to antipredatory reasons. Overall, our data suggests that interspecific competition should be minimal between these species.
Predicting the structure of turtle assemblages along a megatransect in West Africa
Understanding large- and small-scale patterns and the determinants of species richness is central for the study of evolutionary mechanisms. The extent to which species richness in local communities is related to larger-scale processes is a pre-eminent topic in ecological and evolutionary research. To investigate how local and regional species richness are related, we sampled freshwater turtle assemblages in seven localities to represent the variation in ecological conditions along a 90 km south–north megatransect in Benin, West Africa. In each locality, all turtles captured were identified and measured, and the microhabitat in which individual turtles were observed was classified. Based on these data, we used community diversity metrics to compare turtle assemblages. Spatial autocorrelation did not affect our data. For all localities pooled, two species (Pelusios castaneus and Pelomedusa olivacea) were the most common and one species (Trionyx triunguis) was the rarest. Analyses of the commonest and more numerous species showed that the abundance of Pelusios castaneus declined with an increase in latitude and longitude, but the opposite was true for Pelomedusa olivacea. We showed that various characteristics of the microhabitat were significantly correlated with the abundance of the two common species. We found significant but variable south–north gradients in microhabitat use for different turtle species. Our results highlight the importance of studying interactions between local environments, the ecological requirements of each species and their synecological relationships.