Biodiversité

Au sommaire notamment :

.A bird in the hand: Global-scale morphological trait datasets open new frontiers of ecology, evolution and ecosystem science. Joseph A. Tobias

Assessing the pathways by which alien species are introduced is essential if we are to identify potential risks and evaluate management decisions. Intentional introductions are responsible for the introductions of millions of animals throughout Latin America. We explore: (1) the relative role of several intentional introduction pathways (hunting, feeding, fur, biological control, the pet trade and others) in the general context of introductions of alien species; (2) the relative importance of the intentional pathways across the different taxa; (3) similar patterns as regards the composition of alien species across countries, (4) the underlying factors that drive the richness of alien species in Latin America, and (5) the potential impacts of alien species on the region. According to our results, 69 species of mammals and 62 species of birds were introduced into Latin America by means of intentional pathways...

Area of Habitat (AOH) is “the habitat available to a species, that is, habitat within its range”. It complements a geographic range map for a species by showing potential occupancy and reducing commission errors. AOH maps are produced by subtracting areas considered unsuitable for the species from their range map, using information on each species’ associations with habitat and elevation.

Recent declines of many European bird species have been linked with various environmental changes, especially land-use change and climate change. Since the intensity of these environmental changes varies among different countries, we can expect geographic variation in bird population trends. Here, we compared the population trends of bird species among neighbouring countries within central Europe (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland) between 1990 and 2016 and examined trait-associations with population trends at both national and international scales. We found that Denmark had the highest proportion of declining species while Switzerland had the lowest.

Sur SIG 2018, rencontre avec l'un des grands témoins de la conférence francophone Esri : Allain Bougrain Dubourg. Il évoque son intérêt pour la géographie et la carte, l'utilisation d'outils plus modernes pour aider à protéger les animaux. Il confie aussi son désarroi face à un monde qui commence à prendre conscience des enjeux climatiques, mais ignore toujours ceux liés à la biodiversité et notamment du déclin animal.