244 Results Found

Identification and mapping of various habitats with sufficient spatial details are essential to support environmental planning and management. Considering the complexity of diverse habitat types in a heterogeneous landscape, a context-dependent mappi...

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires from member states to monitor hydromorphological features of rivers in order to assess their ecological quality. Thus, numerous hydromorphological assessment methods have been developed with most of them f...

Understanding the effects of human modification on ecosystem services is critical for effectively managing multiple services and achieving long-term sustainability. The historical dynamics of ecosystem services are important for detecting the impacts...

Burrowing mammals function as ecosystem engineers by creating spatial heterogeneity in the soil structure and vegetation composition, thereby providing microhabitats for a wide range of organisms. These keystone species play a crucial role in maintai...

To date, direct interactions between pests and natural enemies are often considered in biocontrol programs. Recently there has been an increase of evidence for the importance of third-party mediated indirect interactions in determining the population...

Conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) and habitat filtering are critical to seedling survival. However, the relative importance of the two processes in affecting survival of seedlings with different types of mycorrhizae remains unclear. In t...

During the 1980s–1990s, 4600 hectares of the seagrass Zostera marina were permanently lost from Lake Grevelingen (the Netherlands), and restoration is planned. In 1971, the lake was fully marine (salinity 30), and seagrass covered 1300 hectares...

Fragmentation is one of the major threats to biodiversity. In a fragmented landscape, forest specialists are losing suitable forest habitats with specific site and microclimate conditions, which results in their local extinction. Conversely, the inva...

Accelerating climate change is expected to cause range shifts of numerous taxa worldwide. While climatic projections and predicted consequences typically focus on the future (2050 or later), a measurable change in climatic conditions has occurred ove...

The white encrusting zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum is known to form large colonies, which serve as aggregators of marine fauna. In Porto Belo, south Brazil (27.158° S, 48.553° W), the fish community was more abundant over P. caribaeorum groun...

Wheat is one of the major crops throughout the Balkan peninsula of Europe. Specific harvest and binning dates can vary depending on the specific geographic region. Grain aeration, wherein ambient air is used at low-volume airflow rates to cool a grai...

Urbanization causes significant environmental and structural changes in habitats, one of them being increased fragmentation. Traits associated with increased locomotory capacity may be advantageous in such situations, as individuals with those traits...

Global declines in wild and managed bee populations represent a major concern for the agricultural industry. Such declines result, in part, from the loss of natural and semi-natural habitats in and around agricultural ecosystems. However, remaining f...

Forestry management can shape the structure of habitat types and have important biological consequences on the composition of biodiversity. This study focused on Momotus lessonii and Eumomota superciliosa, two potential bioindicators of local and wid...

Habitat loss is a serious issue threatening biodiversity across the planet, including coastal habitats that support important fish populations. Many coastal areas have been extensively modified by the construction of infrastructure such as ports, sea...

Recreational diving depends on healthy marine ecosystems, yet it can harm biodiversity through species displacement and habitat damage. Bombinhas, a biodiverse diving hotspot in southern Brazil, faces growing threats from human activity and climate c...

Habitat modification is a major factor in the decline of reptile populations. The degree of the decline has been shown to be directly related to the intensity of habitat modification. Farming practices and urbanization are just two of the factors inv...

In the European Union, assessments of the quality of the aquatic environment based on aquatic invertebrates are mandatory. Biological methods are supplemented with hydromorphological assessments of watercourses. There are many studies analysing the r...

A description of hydromorphological pressures is required by the Water Framework Directive, however, there is not a commonly accepted assessment method. This study aims to explore a description tool application, not used before in Greece, for the qua...

Understanding habitat and spatial overlap in sympatric species of urban areas would aid in predicting species and community modifications in response to global change. Habitat overlap has been widely investigated for specialist species but neglected...

Human modification and habitat fragmentation have a substantial influence on large carnivores, which need extensive, contiguous habitats to survive in a landscape. The establishment of protected areas is an effective way to offer protection for carni...

Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are urban-adapted, generalist mesocarnivores widely distributed throughout North America. Although striped skunks have been studied extensively at small scales, knowledge of habitat influences on striped skunks at l...

Urbanization and anthropic influences can drastically modify a natural habitat and transform it into an easily recognizable “urban habitat”. Human activities can also induce less severe modifications of what apparently might still look li...

The objectives of our study were to analyse the degree of human pressure within the lowland river catchment in relation to the mollusc communities and to assess the usefulness of the River Habitat Survey as a field method in determining the human pre...

Frugivorous primates have developed several strategies to deal with wild fruit scarcity, such as modifying their activity budget or enlarging their diet. Agricultural expansion threatens primate habitats and populations (e.g., disease transmission, a...

Anthropogenic disturbance of natural environments has negative impacts on biodiversity. Amphibians are especially sensitive to deforestation, and there is a high rate of this phenomenon in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We studied the effects...

Introducing the European beaver to the catchment area, which adjusts the habitat to its own needs (by building dams), may have a positive impact on the ecology, geology, and hydromorphology of rivers and intensify the water self-purification process....

Soft water lakes, or so-called lobelia lakes, which are inhabited by a specific vegetation composed of isoetids, have been subjected to intense research aimed at evaluating their condition and conservation status for many years in Poland. At the time...

Natura 2000 is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world, which has been established to preserve rare habitats and threatened species at the European Community level. Generally, tools for habitat quality assessment are based on...

The river habitat survey (RHS) system is a method used to assess the physical features and quality of rivers, which was developed to assist in the conservation and recovery of riverside habitats. The RHS takes into account the need to characterize ar...

In order to improve the performance of optimization, we apply a hybridization of adaptive biogeography-based optimization (BBO) algorithm and differential evolution (DE) to multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs). A model of multi-objective evol...

The responses of benthic fauna to channel modifications of mountain rivers by low-head barriers are poorly understood. The study aimed (1) to estimate the impact of two different low-head barrier types: concrete sills and block ramps, on Oligochaeta...

Many countries have classification standards for their environmental resources including criteria for classifying coastal and marine ecosystems. Until 2012, the United States just had a nationwide protocol for classifying terrestrial and aquatic habi...

Intermittent rivers, common in dry parts of the world, such as the Mediterranean region, are hydrologically harsh habitats characterized by periodical flow cessation. Ephemeroptera are aquatic insects common in both lotic and lentic waterbodies, wher...

New Caledonia is one of the major biodiversity hotspots. The flea beetle genus Arsipoda (Coleoptera Chrysomelidae) is present with 21 species, all endemic. We investigated, using GIS analyses and ecological niche models, the habitat preferences of th...

Freshwater systems are among the most threatened habitats in the world and the biodiversity inhabiting them is disappearing quickly. The Hawaiian Archipelago has a small but highly endemic and threatened group of freshwater snails, with eight species...

Anthropogenic activities put biodiversity under pressure, adversely affecting the forest ecosystem and wildlife habitats. Habitat disturbance and modification are among the main threats to animal populations in tropical forests. In the Democratic Rep...

Knowledge of the habitat characteristics of endangered species is an important basis for in situ conservation, release-site selection, and habitat modification. Although the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is one of the world’s most endan...

Coastal embayments provide vital benefits to both nature and humans alike in the form of ecosystem services, access to waterways, and general aesthetic appeal. These coastal interfaces are therefore often subject to human development and modification...

Multiple catchment controls contribute to the geomorphic functioning of river systems at the reach-level, yet only a limited number are usually considered by river scientists and managers. This study uses multiple morphometric, geological, climatic a...

Habitat alteration is one of the major drivers of species loss. Springs may be among the least affected aquatic habitats and are considered to be refugial habitats. Diatom assemblages were sampled from 74 Swiss springs comprising seven spring types o...

The expansion of human activities can degrade natural habitats, thereby increasing threats to wildlife conservation. The wild populations of many species have declined due to the modification of natural habitats by humans. The Arabian wolf (Canis lup...

Silver birch trees (Betula pendula Roth) are a pioneering species in post-industrial habitats, and have been associated with an expansive breeding strategy and low habitat requirements. We conducted ecophysiological and dendroclimatological studies t...

Despite that hydromorphological restoration projects have been implemented since the 1940s, the key to improve the effectiveness of future restoration measures remains a challenge. This is in part related to the lack of adequate aims and objectives t...

China’s East Asia monsoon zone is undergoing rapid land-use conversion and urbanization. Safeguarding remaining biodiversity requires reducing, mitigating, and/or eliminating the negative impacts of human-induced landscape modification. In this...

Habitat disturbance driven by human activities poses a major threat to biodiversity and can disrupt ecological interactions. Butterfly–plant mutualisms represent an ideal model system to study such anthropogenic impacts, as butterflies exhibit...

Rodents are important reservoirs of numerous viruses, some of which have significant impacts on public health. Ecosystem disturbances and decreased host species richness have been associated with the emergence of zoonotic diseases. In this study, we...

Cyprinid fish play a major role in riverine ecosystems because of their high abundance, variety of life-history patterns, and habitat requirements. The nase (Chondrostoma nasus) is an algivorous, rheophilic, lithophilic, and oxyphilic species and is...

The Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, is one of the world’s oldest vertebrate lineages, with a slow life-history and threatened status, requiring immediate conservation efforts. The main threats to lungfish populations are degradation...

Zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums embrace animal welfare as a foundational principle of habitat design. Modern habitats are designed to provide animals with choices and agency over their environment, and to encour...