What Do Ecological Paradigms Offer to Conservation?

International Journal of Ecology

Volume 2010, Article ID 250754, 9 pages

doi:10.1155/2010/250754

Here is a good paper worth perusing. I found it very interesting. I am giving below the abstract as it is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License

Ecological theory provides applications to biodiversity management—but often falls short of expectations. One possibility is that heuristic theories of a young science are too immature. Logistic growth predicts a carrying capacity, but fisheries managed with theLotka-Volterra paradigm continue to collapse. A second issue is that general predictions may not be useful. The theory of islandbiogeography predicts species richness but does not predict community composition. A third possibility is that the theory itself may not have much to do with nature, or that empirical parameterization is too difficult to know. The metapopulation paradigmis relevant to conservation, but metapopulations might not be common in nature. For instance, empirical parameterization within the metapopulation paradigm is usually infeasible. A challenge is to determine why ecology fails to match needs of managers sometimes but helps at other. Managers may expect too much of paradigmatic blueprints, while ecologists believe them too much. Those who implement biodiversity conservation plans need simple, pragmatic guidelines based on science. Is this possible? What is possible? An eclectic review of theory and practice demonstrate the power and weaknesses of the ideas that guide conservation and attempt to identify reasons for prevailing disappointment.

Copyright © 2010 S. B. Ale and H. F. Howe.

SomB. Ale1, 2 and Henry F. Howe1, 3

1Department of Biological Sciences (m/c 066), University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA

2Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, 200 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Avenue,

St. Paul, Minnesota, MN 55108, USA

3Department of Zoology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA

Factors influencing densities of striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena) in arid regions of India

I read an excellent paper by PRIYA SINGH, ARJUN M. GOPALASWAMY, and K. ULLAS KARANTH titled  " Factors influencing densities of striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena) in arid regions of India", published in the Journal of Mammalogy.

The paper drives home the point that striped hyenas, despite the ability to adapt to human-modified landscapes, require natural habitats free of anthropogenic disturbances to serve as refugia for source populations. The authors advocate creation of more protected refugia for hyenas across arid regions if India. One finding of interest is that this large carnivore appears to survive at high densities even in human-dominated landscapes. The authors contend that persistence of hyenas in this arid region appears to be a function of availability of disturbance-free denning refugia in hilly terrain and abundant availability of livestock carcasses. 

Journal of Mammalogy, 91(5):1152–1159, 2010

Soundscape Management Plan in Wildlife Reserves

Couple of month’s back I had posted an item titled Symphony and cacophony of sound and their role in wildlife management. This post highlighted the importance of managing the soundscape in wildlife reserves. I was delighted to hear from my friend Janine that this is actually being done by a Park in US
Zion National Park has a well planned Soundscape Management Plan which is purported to be the first of its kind in a major national park.  Monitoring stations record the sound in the park which is mapped. All possible efforts are made to reduce human induced noises in the park
Human induced sounds affect wildlife. A change of only three decibels can have a deleterious effect on whether predators can detect prey. Wildlife biologists say masking has serious repercussions. Masking is the inability to hear important environmental cues and animal signals due to extraneous noise.
Highrage Tidings exhort parks in India to follow the example set by Zion National Park. Many of our parks have an excess of human induced cacophony. In many parks we have been pushing ecotourism unmindful of long term effects of our inroads in to the pristine habitat of the denizens of the wild. The symphony of natural sounds in our wildlife reserves is an important natural resource that is very critical to the ecological communities.

Another Wildlife week and the Angst of a Retired Wildlifer

Here comes another wildlife week. High flown pronouncements from politicians and top brasses of the forest department are round the corner. We have been hearing these pronouncements that sound hollow for the past many years. All that is said and promised are forgotten with nauseating regularity after the wildlife week.

The bedrock of conservation is committed front line staff led by able and dedicated officers. This has always been a neglected area is spite of repeated calls from men who know the heartthrob of conservation.  The reserves are more often than not either understaffed or staffed by under trained men past their prime. Most often these men have no particular interest in wildlife and are there just because they have been posted there. Men with genuine love for wildlife are the crying need of the hour.

Why is it that we cannot build committed team of officers and men in wildlife reserves? What we have right now are couple of officers and men, with genuine love for wildlife, here and there. The stumbling block is sheer lack of political will. Extraneous considerations injected by local politicos’ makes conservation a mockery. Take the example of much touted eco-development programme of Periyar. The whole project is on the verge of collapse because of rampant political interference. 

If conservation is to be a success there has to a consensus that politicians will keep their hands off, from day to day affairs of the park. Central Government and other funding agencies should stick to and insist on this. They should also insist on posting of dedicated officers with adequate and appropriate training.

Real Number of Flowering Plant Species of the World Pegged Closer to 400,000

Now that is a surprise. More than 600,000 plant species have been deleted by the by scientists, from the dictionary of life, after a comprehensive assessment. There was obviously duplication. The study team was led by UK and US scientists. Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, is a key partner.

The duplication had resulted in a list of more than 1 million flowering plant species. Scientists have been naming new plant species without realizing that many were in fact the same.

The scientist put under the scan existing plant lists and worked out an "accepted" name for each species. So far the researchers have found 301,000 accepted species, 480,000 alternative names, and have 240,000 left to assess. In some cases, plants thought to be the same have been assessed to be different species using DNA techniques.

The project has taken nearly three years and the official results will be announced later this year.

Getting to Know About the Extinction Threshold of Animal Populations

Getting an idea about the extinction threshold of endangered animals is very important for the wildlife manager. It is not an easy task. A new study by Dr John Drake, an ecologist at the University of Georgia, Athens, and Dr Blaine Griffen of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, provides a statistical alarm beeper for the manager.

The major causes of animal extinctions today are habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, poaching and pollution. But to say when an endangered population will become so endangered that it is doomed to extinction if nothing is done to help is an almost an impossible task.

The results of the new study are based on a simple laboratory experiment, but if the technique works in the wild, it could help wildlife managers know when they need to put in that extra effort.

Theoretical biologists have surmised that the tipping point toward extinction would be preceded by a phase of critical slowing down. This means that a population takes longer and longer to bounce back from small declines.

In the experiment the scientists set up 60 small tanks and put populations of water fleas (Daphnia magna) in each. After letting the Daphnia get settled for several months, Dr Griffen mimicked environmental degradation in half the tanks by gradually cutting back the blue-green algae he fed them. These nutrition deprived populations began to slowly shrink. After about 270 days, they passed a tipping point and died out within a year. The other 30 populations, which received a stable food supply, fluctuated in size but persisted.

Dr Drake then analyzed the trends in population size. Four statistical measures of abundance showed signs of critical slowing down in the degraded environments but not in the healthy ones. The slowing down lasted as long as eight generations before the populations crossed the tipping point to extinction.

The study has exciting prospects for the wildlife manager. Come on guys ,pay more attention to your environment and fine tune your filed observations.

The study by Dr Drake and Dr Griffen appear in the latest issue of Nature.

Athirapally – Stop this Bitching Please

The plethora of arguments for and against the proposed Athirapally hydro-electric project in Kerala has started leaving a bad taste in the mouth. Some of the comments from both the sides have acquired the dimensions of mudslinging.

Let me make it absolutely clear that I am not a protagonist of any dam. I would be the happiest man if even a tiny patch of forest is left undisturbed in its pristine form.

My query to the opponents of dam is what are their contributions for giving suggestions for alternatives?  Shouting for and against the dam is something that any Tom Dick and Harry can do. Let us not run away from the fact that we need electricity. Let us be pragmatic. Thermal power plants in thickly populated Kerala are fraught with lot of imponderable outcomes. Wind and tide energy are yet to make an impact. I know of couple of guys who shout against dams, but cannot live without fan and air-conditioning. Charity should begin at home. Why not fight for a thermal or other option for Kerala outside the state and ensure that it comes to us at a rate that is equivalent to the hydroelectric power that would have been generated in Athirappally? This might sound simplistic but I am sure that if the environmentalists fight for it, it will surely see the daylight. The entire nation stands to benefit if our forest are saved from the predators that comes in the garb of protagonists of “development”. So there is no harm in demanding our pound of flesh.

Stop the bitching and get down to business please. Mr Balan is only doing his job as electricity minister. If he was in the opposition may be he too would have opposed the project. Leave behind the bickering and let us work for the holistic development of the state.