Monitoring Animal Populations and Their Habitats

Monitoring Animal Populations and Their Habitats PDF

Author: Brenda McComb

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2010-03-11

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1420070584

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In the face of so many unprecedented changes in our environment, the pressure is on scientists to lead the way toward a more sustainable future. Written by a team of ecologists, Monitoring Animal Populations and Their Habitats: A Practitioner’s Guide provides a framework that natural resource managers and researchers can use to design monitoring programs that will benefit future generations by distilling the information needed to make informed decisions. In addition, this text is valuable for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses that are focused on monitoring animal populations. With the aid of more than 90 illustrations and a four-page color insert, this book offers practical guidance for the entire monitoring process, from incorporating stakeholder input and data collection, to data management, analysis, and reporting. It establishes the basis for why, what, how, where, and when monitoring should be conducted; describes how to analyze and interpret the data; explains how to budget for monitoring efforts; and discusses how to assemble reports of use in decision-making. The book takes a multi-scaled and multi-taxa approach, focusing on monitoring vertebrate populations and upland habitats, but the recommendations and suggestions presented are applicable to a variety of monitoring programs. Lastly, the book explores the future of monitoring techniques, enabling researchers to better plan for the future of wildlife populations and their habitats. Monitoring Animal Populations and Their Habitats: A Practitioner’s Guide furthers the goal of achieving a world in which biodiversity is allowed to evolve and flourish in the face of such uncertainties as climate change, invasive species proliferation, land use expansion, and population growth.

Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities PDF

Author: Sarah Legge

Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING

Published: 2018-01-20

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1486307736

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Monitoring is integral to all aspects of policy and management for threatened biodiversity. It is fundamental to assessing the conservation status and trends of listed species and ecological communities. Monitoring data can be used to diagnose the causes of decline, to measure management effectiveness and to report on investment. It is also a valuable public engagement tool. Yet in Australia, monitoring threatened biodiversity is not always optimally managed. Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities aims to improve the standard of monitoring for Australia's threatened biodiversity. It gathers insights from some of the most experienced managers and scientists involved with monitoring programs for threatened species and ecological communities in Australia, and evaluates current monitoring programs, establishing a baseline against which the quality of future monitoring activity can be managed. Case studies provide examples of practical pathways to improve the quality of biodiversity monitoring, and guidelines to improve future programs are proposed. This book will benefit scientists, conservation managers, policy makers and those with an interest in threatened species monitoring and management.

Wetland Use by Waterbirds that Winter in Coastal Texas

Wetland Use by Waterbirds that Winter in Coastal Texas PDF

Author: James Thomas Anderson

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

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"Wetland use and selection by species of waterbirds (shorebirds, wading birds, gulls, terns, grebes, cormorants, and pelicans) between the Rio Grande and Galveston Bay in coastal Texas were studied during September and November of 1991-92 and during January and March of 1992-93. Based on a stratified (by dominant land use) random sample of 64.75-ha plots, 88 species of waterbirds using wetlands were observed. Ranks of density and proportion of feeding bird indicated that cormorants and pelicans preferred wetlands with less than 30% vegetation. Gulls, terns, and skimmers preferred certain types of estuarine and lacustrine wetlands with less than 30% vegetation, especially estuarine subtidal rock bottom rubble types. Grebes and rails selectively used palustrine aquatic-bed rooted vascular and unconsolidated bottom mud wetland types. Herons, egrets, and bitterns preferred certain types of lacustrine and estuarine wetlands. Shorebirds used estuarine intertidal wetlands. Waterbird management should focus on 26 of the 82 wetland types that we prioritized in the coastal plains of Texas. Management should focus on protecting, enhancing, or restoring complexes of various wetland types, especially estuarine aquatic-bed and intertidal unconsolidated substrate types"--Page 1

Coral Reefs in the Anthropocene

Coral Reefs in the Anthropocene PDF

Author: Charles Birkeland

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-11-03

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 9401772495

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This volume investigates the effects of human activities on coral reefs, which provide important life-supporting systems to surrounding natural and human communities. It examines the self-reinforcing ecological, economic and technological mechanisms that degrade coral reef ecosystems around the world. Topics include reefs and limestones in Earth history; the interactions between corals and their symbiotic algae; diseases of coral reef organisms; the complex triangle between reef fishes, seaweeds and corals; coral disturbance and recovery in a changing world. In addition, the authors take key recent advances in DNA studies into account which provides new insights into the population biology, patterns of species distributions, recent evolution and vulnerabilities to environmental stresses. These DNA analyses also provide new understandings of the limitations of coral responses and scales of management necessary to sustain coral reefs in their present states. Coral reefs have been essential sources of food, income and resources to humans for millennia. This book details the delicate balance that exists within these ecosystems at all scales, from geologic time to cellular interactions and explores how recent global and local changes influence this relationship. It will serve as an indispensable resource for all those interested in learning how human activities have affected this vital ecosystem around the world.

Wild Carnivores of New Mexico

Wild Carnivores of New Mexico PDF

Author: Jean-Luc E. Cartron

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Published: 2024-02-15

Total Pages: 1145

ISBN-13: 0826351530

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In this first-ever landmark study of New Mexico's wild carnivores, Jean-Luc E. Cartron and Jennifer K. Frey have assembled a team of leading southwestern biologists to explore the animals and the major issues that shape their continued presence in the state and region. The book includes discussions on habitat, evolving or altered ecosystems, and new discoveries about animal behavior and range, and it also provides details on the distribution, habitat associations, life history, population status, management, and conservation needs of individual carnivore species in New Mexico. Like Cartron's award-winning Raptors of New Mexico, Wild Carnivores of New Mexico shares the same emphasis on scientific rigor and thoroughness, high readability, and visual appeal. Each chapter is illustrated with numerous color photographs to help readers visualize unique morphological or life-history traits, habitat, research techniques, and management and conservation issues.

Conservation and Sustainable Use

Conservation and Sustainable Use PDF

Author: E. J. Milner-Gulland

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2007-11-15

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0191523909

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The relentless exploitation and unsustainable use of wildlife, whether for food, medicine or other uses, is a key concern for conservationists worldwide. Indeed, wildlife conservation and sustainable use have recently become centrepieces in conservation and development research. Assessment, interpretation and ultimate action in a scientific study of exploited species must consider numerous factors: from the biology, habitat requirements and population dynamics of the species in question to the relationships that people have with their environment and the species within it. Any long-term management plan must ensure that people and wildlife can coexist - otherwise it is doomed to failure. Conservation and Sustainable Use provides a practical and integrated approach to carrying out research on the conservation of exploited species. It is relevant to both tropical and temperate biomes and is applicable to all exploited species, including mammals, fish and plants. It describes both the practical (field) and theoretical (modelling) techniques for obtaining and interpreting information, integrating biological, social, economic and institutional analyses. It also demonstrates how to translate information into effective action through appropriate interventions, from legislation to changing people's attitudes. This is the first time that all these issues have been covered together in a single, practically-orientated volume. This book will be essential reading for graduate level students and researchers in conservation biology, human ecology, sociology and resource economics. It will also provide an important reference for anyone who is interested in carrying out a scientifically-based conservation programme for an exploited species, including field biologists, wildlife managers and practitioners in the fields of conservation and international development.