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706 results for “protected area”
Data from: Extending full protection inside existing marine protected areas or reducing fishing effort outside can reconcile conservation and fisheries goals
<p>1. Most fish stocks worldwide are fished at maximum sustainable yield (MSY) or overfished, as many fisheries management strategies have failed to achieve sustainable fishing. Identifying effective fisheries management strategies has now become urgent.</p> <p>2. Here, we developed a spatially-explicit metapopulation model accounting for population connectivity in the north-western Mediterranean Sea, and parameterized it for three ecologically and economically important coastal fish species: the white seabream <i>Diplodus sargus</i>, the two-banded seabream <i>Diplodus vulgaris</i> and the dusky grouper <i>Epinephelus marginatus</i>.</p> <p>3. We used the model to assess how stock biomass and catches respond to changes in fishing mortality rate (<i>F</i>) and in the size of fully protected areas within the existing system of multiple-use marine protected areas (MPAs). For each species, we estimated MSY and the corresponding values of stock biomass (<i>B</i><sub>MSY</sub>) and fishing mortality rate (<i>F</i><sub>MSY</sub>), providing crucial reference points for the assessment of fisheries management.</p> <p>4. <i>D. sargus</i> is currently in low overfishing, while <i>D. vulgaris</i> and <i>E. marginatus</i> are in high overfishing. Stock recovery to <i>B</i><sub>MSY</sub> for the last two species requires a reduction of current <i>F</i> around 50%. This would guarantee an increase in both stock biomass (around 50 and 75% for <i>D. vulgaris</i> and <i>E. marginatus</i>, respectively) and catch (around 15 and 30%) after a transient time of ~15–30 years. Alternatively, doubling the size of fully protected areas over fishable areas within the existing network of MPAs would lead to positive conservation effects for all three species without substantially affecting the overall productivity of the fishery and the total economic value of the catch.</p> <p>5. <i>Synthesis and applications.</i> We provide the first assessment of stock status for three coastal species in the north-western Mediterranean and evaluate the ecological and fisheries outcomes of different management strategies. Extending full protection inside existing multiple-use marine protected areas or reducing fishing effort outside can deliver both conservation and fisheries benefits.</p>
Effects of protected areas on welfare of local households: the case of Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya
<ol> <li>Protected areas are vital for biodiversity conservation although some have been criticized for not providing adequate socio-economic benefits to local people. However, empirical studies on socio-economic impacts of protected areas that control for confounding factors are rare.</li> <li>Here, we assessed the potential impacts of Maasai Mara National Reserve in South-Western Kenya on welfare (indicated by levels of income, consumption, and assets) of, and poverty incidence among 423 randomly selected local households. We used descriptive statistics to summarize demographic and socio-economic statuses of the households. Then, we estimated effects of the protected area on welfare of the households using ordinary least - squares regression model and entropy balancing.</li> <li>The protected area did not have any significant effect on welfare of, and poverty levels among the households. Households that lived within a 5 km radius of the protected area boundary incurred significantly higher crop destruction and livestock depredation losses than households that lived 5 - 25 km from the boundary. Nevertheless, majority of the households held positive views about the protected area due to direct and indirect benefits that they had already gained or expected to gain from it in the future.</li> <li>These results suggest that interventions are needed to reduce losses caused by wildlife in the protected area and improve its social and economic benefits to the local households.</li> </ol>
Data from: An approach to incorporating inferred connectivity of adult movement into marine protected area design with limited data
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are important conservation tools that can support the resilience of marine ecosystems. Many countries, including Canada, have committed to protecting at least 10% of their marine areas under the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 11, which includes connectivity as a key aspect. Connectivity, the movement of individuals among habitats, can enhance population stability and resilience within and among MPAs. However, little is known about regional spatial patterns of marine ecological connectivity, particularly adult movement. We developed a method to assess and design MPA networks that maximize inferred connectivity within habitat types for adult movement when ecological data are limited. We used the Northern Shelf Bioregion in British Columbia, Canada, to explore two different approaches: 1) evaluating sites important for inferred regional connectivity (termed hotspots); and 2) assessing MPA network configurations based on their overlap with connectivity hotspots and interconnectedness between MPAs. To assess inferred connectivity via adult movement, we used two different threshold distances (15 km and 50 km) to capture moderate home ranges, which are most appropriate to consider in MPA design. We applied graph theory to assess inferred connectivity within sixteen habitat and depth categories (proxies for distinct ecological communities), and used novel multiplex network methodologies to perform an aggregated assessment of inferred connectivity. We evaluated inferred regional connectivity hotspots based on betweenness and eigenvector centrality metrics, finding that the existing MPA network overlapped a moderate proportion of these regional hotspots, and identified key areas to be considered as candidate MPAs. Network density among existing MPAs was low within the individual habitat networks, as well as the multiplex. This work informs an ongoing MPA planning process, and approaches for incorporating connectivity into MPA design when data are limited, with lessons for other contexts.
Opportunities and challenges in achieving co-management in marine protected areas in East Africa: a comparative case study
<p>As marine ecosystems decline globally, scientists recommend increasing the coverage of marine protected areas (MPAs), but many are not effectively managed to deliver benefits. Community integration into MPA decision-making can increase management effectiveness by supporting behaviour change, but this poses implementation challenges. We examine differences in adaptive capacity, community engagement, and perceived MPA benefits using interviews and focal group meetings with two fishing communities from MPAs with different management strategies and geographic settings: a centrally managed MPA in Kenya and a co-managed MPA in Tanzania. We hypothesized that perceptions of MPA benefits and MPA support would be higher among fishers and fish vendors in the more collaboratively designed system in Tanzania, and supported by greater adaptive capacity. Indeed, far fewer Kenyan participants (37%) felt they benefited from the MPA compared to Tanzanian participants (95%). However, agency and trust were largely similar and challenges existed in both systems that reduced collaborative action including low interaction/communication between staff and community, internal leadership challenges, and social conflict. We identified pathways towards improved co-management that transcend systems: institutional prioritization of community integration, investment in community leadership, mapping social networks during MPA establishment, and adequate staffing and operational budgets.</p>
The phantom chorus: birdsong boosts human well-being in protected areas
<p>Spending time in nature is known to benefit human health and well-being, but evidence is mixed as to whether biodiversity or perceptions of biodiversity contribute to these benefits. Perhaps more importantly, little is known about the sensory modalities by which humans perceive biodiversity and obtain benefits from their interactions with nature. Here, we used a "phantom bird song chorus" consisting of hidden speakers to experimentally increase audible birdsong biodiversity during "on" and "off" (i.e., ambient conditions) blocks on two trails to study the role of audition in biodiversity perception and self-reported well-being among hikers. Hikers exposed to the phantom chorus reported higher levels of restorative effects compared to those that experienced ambient conditions on both trails; however, increased restorative effects were directly linked to the phantom chorus on one trail and indirectly linked to the phantom chorus on the other trail through perceptions of avian biodiversity. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence linking mental health to nature experiences and suggest that audition is an important modality by which natural environments confer restorative effects. Finally, our results suggest that maintaining or improving natural soundscapes within protected areas may be an important component to maximizing human experiences.</p>
Data from: Marine protected areas rescue a sexually selected trait in European lobster
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly implemented worldwide to maintain and restore depleted populations. However, despite our knowledge on the myriad of positive responses to protection, there are few empirical studies on the ability to conserve species' mating patterns and secondary sexual traits. In male European lobsters (Homarus gammarus), the size of claws relative to body size correlates positively with male mating success and is presumably under sexual selection. At the same time, an intensive trap fishery exerts selection against large claws in males. MPAs could therefore be expected to resolve these conflicting selective pressures and preserve males with large claws. We explored this hypothesis by contrasting claw size of males and females in three pairs of MPAs and nearby fished areas in Southern Norway. By finding that male lobsters have up to 8 % larger claws inside MPAs compared to similarly sized males in fished areas, our study provides evidence that MPAs rescue a secondary sexual trait. Recovery from harvest selection acting on claws is the most likely explanation, however, the higher abundance of lobster inside MPAs does not rule out a plastic response on claw size due to increased competition. Regardless of the underlying cause, our study demonstrates (1) the value of protected areas as a management tool for mitigating fishery-induced evolution, and (2) that MPAs help maintaining the scope for sexual selection in populations with vulnerable life-histories and complex mating system.
Figure 4 in Effectiveness of protected areas for jaguars: the case of the Taiamã Ecological Station in Brazil
Figure 4. Grouped home ranges of resident jaguars (A) and all animals (B) during the high water-season (July to December – wet) and low-water season (January to June – dry) at the Taiamã Ecological Station and surroundings, Cáceres, Mato Grosso, Brazil, monitored by GPS collar from October 2013 to April 2016.
Figure 3 in Effectiveness of protected areas for jaguars: the case of the Taiamã Ecological Station in Brazil
Figure 3. Grouped home ranges of the jaguars at the Taiamã Ecological Station, Cáceres, Mato Grosso, Brazil, monitored by GPS collar from October 2013 to April 2016.
Figure 1 in Effectiveness of protected areas for jaguars: the case of the Taiamã Ecological Station in Brazil
Figure 1. Pantanal Biome and the location in the flooded region of the Taiamã Ecological Station, Cáceres, Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Figure 2 in Effectiveness of protected areas for jaguars: the case of the Taiamã Ecological Station in Brazil
Figure 2. Variogram of the resident (A) and non-residents jaguars (B) at the Taiamã Ecological Station, Cáceres, Mato Grosso, Brazil, monitored by GPS collar from October 2013 to April 2016. The red line represents the fitted model, and the red shading represents the 95% CI. (B) The non-resident jaguar M1. Note the lack of a clear asymptote despite the fact that the animal was monitored for a long period (591 days). This lack of asymptote indicates that this animal is not a range resident. For both A and B, the fraction of the variogram displayed is 65% of the duration of each dataset.
Data from: Planning for climate change through additions to a national protected area network: implications for cost and configuration
<p>Expanding the network of protected areas is a core strategy for conserving biodiversity in the face of climate change. Here we explore the impacts on reserve network cost and configuration associated with planning for climate change in the United States using networks that prioritize areas projected to be climatically suitable for 1,460 species both today and into the future, climatic refugia, and areas likely to facilitate climate-driven species movements. For 14% of the species, networks of sites selected solely to protect areas currently climatically suitable failed to provide climatically suitable habitat in the future. Protecting sites climatically suitable for species today and in the future significantly changed the distribution of priority sites across the U.S.—increasing relative protection in the northeast, northwest, and central U.S. Protecting areas projected to retain their climatic suitability for species cost 59% more than solely protecting currently suitable areas. Including all climatic refugia and 20% of areas that facilitate climate-driven movements increased the cost by another 18%. Our results indicate that protecting some types of climatic refugia may be a relatively inexpensive adaptation strategy. Moreover, although addressing climate change in conservation plans will have significant implications for the configuration of networks, the increased cost of doing so may be relatively modest.</p> <p> </p>
Data for: Body mass mediates spatio-temporal responses of mammals to human frequentation across Italian protected areas
<p>Protected areas (PAs) networks are a pivotal tool to fight biodiversity loss, yet they often need to balance the mission of nature conservation with the socio-economic need of giving opportunity for outdoor recreation. Recreation in natural areas is important for human health in an urbanised society, but can prompt behavioural modifications in wild animals. Rarely, however, have these responses being studied across multiple PAs and using standardized methods. We deployed a systematic camera trapping protocol at over 200 sites to sample medium and large mammals in four PAs within the European Natura 2000 network to assess their spatio-temporal responses to human frequentation, proximity to towns, amount of open habitat, and topographical variables. By applying multi-species and single-species models on the number of diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal detections, and a multi-species model on nocturnality index, we estimated both species-specific and meta-community level effects, finding that increased nocturnality appeared the main strategy that the mammal meta-community used to cope with human disturbance. However, responses in the diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal site use were mediated by species' body mass, with larger species exhibiting avoidance of humans and smaller species more opportunistic behaviours. Our results show the effectiveness of standardised sampling and provide insights for planning the expansion of PA networks as foreseen by the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity agreement.</p>
Using dung densities to assess the ecological effectiveness of a protected area network
<p>Given recent global endeavors to increase protected area coverage, it is crucial to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy of various area-based conservation strategies in effectively reducing biodiversity loss. Here, we investigated responses of wildlife populations to different protection levels and environmental variables at the landscape scale in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem, western Tanzania. To this end, we conducted line distance sampling surveys and counted dung of six target mammal species (elephant, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, topi, hartebeest) along foot transects within areas differing in protection levels (from strict to less-strictly protected: national park, game reserve, forest reserve, game-controlled area, and unprotected areas). Based on these dung counts, we modelled the spatial distribution of these six mammal species using a species-specific density surface modelling framework. We, found consistent effects of protection level and land-use variables on the spatial distribution of the target mammal species: dung densities were highest in the national park and game reserves, intermediate in less-strictly protected areas and lowest in un-protected areas. Beyond species-specific environmental predictors for dung densities, our results highlight consistent negative associations between dung densities of the target species and distance to cropland and avoidance of areas in proximity to houses. Our findings underpin differences in ecological effectiveness of protected areas within one ecosystem. Protection level and land use play crucial roles in moderating the spatial distribution of all considered mammal species. Our findings suggest that a landscape approach needs to guide effective conservation across the entire protection gradient of the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem.</p>
Conservation opportunities through improved management of recently established protected areas in Southeast Asia
<p> </p> <ul> <li>The 'Table_PA_info' contains information on all 80 Protected Areas analyzed in this study.</li> <li>The 'Synth_plots' includes synthetic control model fits for all 80 Protected Areas analyzed in this study. The number displayed on the top-left of each plot corresponds to the WDPA-ID of the respective protected area. For further details on each protected area, please refer to the 'Table_PA_info' document.</li> <li>The 'placebos' document consists of placebo test plots. The number on the top-left of each plot indicates the WDPA-ID of the protected area. Refer to the 'Table_PA_info' document for more information on each protected area.</li> </ul>
Figure 22 in Fauna of the Neuropterida (Raphidioptera, Neuroptera) of the Protected Area Jasen, Macedonia: a summer flash
Figure 22. Libelloides macaronius: a female with milk-white wings; between Kula and Nova Breznica.
Figure 20 in Fauna of the Neuropterida (Raphidioptera, Neuroptera) of the Protected Area Jasen, Macedonia: a summer flash
Figure 20. Nemoptera sinuata: a male, Matka, Manastir Sv. Andreja, length of forewings 30 mm.
Data from: Cascading effects of a disease outbreak in a remote protected area
<p>Disease outbreaks induced by humans increasingly threaten wildlife communities worldwide. Like predators, pathogens can be key top-down forces in ecosystems, initiating trophic cascades that may alter food webs. An outbreak of mange in a remote Andean protected area caused a dramatic population decline in a mammalian herbivore (the vicuña), creating conditions to test the cascading effects of disease on the ecological community. By comparing a suite of ecological measurements to pre-disease baseline records, we demonstrate that mange restructured tightly-linked trophic interactions previously driven by a mammalian predator (the puma). Following the mange outbreak, scavenger (Andean condor) occurrence in the ecosystem declined sharply and plant biomass and cover increased dramatically in predation refuges where herbivory was historically concentrated. The evidence shows that a disease-induced trophic cascade, mediated by vicuña density, could supplant the predator-induced trophic cascade, mediated by vicuña behavior, thereby transforming the Andean ecosystem. </p>
Open habitats in a tropical biodiversity hotspot support pollinator diversity in both protected and unprotected areas
<p class="MsoNormal">Protected areas (PAs) are vital in the global effort to preserve biodiversity, particularly for disturbance-intolerant pollinator species in the tropics. As there is little information on the potential of PAs for pollinator conservation in sensitive tropical ecosystems, we assessed here insect pollinator diversity in protected vs. unprotected areas in two vegetation zones in Nigeria, within the West African Guinea Biodiversity Hotspot. We selected two land-use types based on predominant canopy cover type (open and tree-shaded habitats) and these were sampled in both protected and unprotected areas of tropical rain forest and savanna vegetation zones. Pollinator composition varied significantly between protected vs. unprotected areas in each vegetation zone, signifying both areas support unique assemblages of insect pollinators. However, pollinator diversity varied according to land-use type (open vs. shaded habitats) rather than protected area per se, such that pollinators were more abundant and species-rich in open habitat than shaded habitat. These findings emphasize that beyond the protection of ecosystems, fine scale habitat management promoting the availability of adequate floral resources in natural areas is critical for ensuring conservation of these pollinators in tropical ecosystems. </p>
Survey data Agro-ecological farming in Protected Areas
<p>“Produce better, eat well" is the subtitle of the Good Food Strategy of the Brussels-Capital Region. Can (sub)urban protected areas simultaneously contribute to this challenge and support biodiversity? In order to find inspiring cases, we launched an online survey in English, French and Dutch and spread it through networks on agro-ecological farming and nature conservation. We identified 76 Western-European cases of agro-ecological farming in protected areas. This database includes all of these cases. The survey was followed by in-depth interviews and the findings were summarized in this report.</p>
Figure 5 in Breeding biology review of White-backed Stilt Himantopus melanurus in Brazil and a case study in the largest restinga protected area (Aves, Charadriiformes, Recurvirostridae)
Figure 5. Footprints records of possible predators and cattle trampling near nests of White-backed Stilt Himantopus melanurus in Restinga de Jurubatiba National Park. (A) Footprints of domestic dogs and trampling of cattle in the Visgueiro lagoon (2018). (B) crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) footprints, and (C) crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) footprints in adjacent area (2020). Photos: Lucas R.M. Porto.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.