BiodiversityPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2021.2006082
P. Yeo
{"title":"Can we allow Planta non-grata to become Planta conviva? A reconciliation ecology approach to invasive species","authors":"P. Yeo","doi":"10.1080/14888386.2021.2006082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2021.2006082","url":null,"abstract":"As with everything, the plant realm is in a perpetual state of becoming. This is true across scales (species, ecosystems, etc.). This is, of course, evolution, the cosmos at work and play, no matter the specific driver. Anthropogenic effects or not, living systems are being continuously changed by their environment, and vice versa. So-called ‘invasive’ expressions are inherent – we might even say vital – to these processes. However, in recent decades especially, elements of human society have taken issue with ‘invasive’ species, notably those of the exotic kind (though natives can also be held to account); indeed, they have joined the growing list of subjects for our wars on . . . fill in the blank. The field of invasion biology has grown into a significant global enterprise on the premise that ‘invasive’ species create ecological, social and economic damage, whilst the International Union for Conservation of Nature rates them as one of the main threats to local biodiversity. I once believed this largely well-intentioned narrative without question. A clue to what has shifted for me lies in the fact that habitat degradation typically lies ahead of ‘invasives’ in the threat rankings, human disturbances being the primary cause of ‘invasive’ behaviour. As I elaborate, I will focus on plants as they are my passion, though I also sense differences between plants and animals in this regard. I now see that this othering of certain ‘bad’ plants has mirrored longstanding attitudes in other arenas, whether at the societal level or that of the human body. We are habituated to competitively identifying boundaries, and, often, enemies (as explained by countercultural intellectual Charles Eisenstein, e.g. in his Cobb Peace Lecture, 2019). A moment’s reflection on the interchangeable language used – weed, thug, alien, immigrant – reveals this. We currently live in a time of heightened polarization replete with vegetal varieties of fake news. What interests me most about this situation is that, just as there is a palpable shift in wider society to compassionately address division, there are growing calls to view ‘invasive’ plants and their effects in a different light. Numerous books and articles, though not always having the same starting point, are, nevertheless, approaching a more nuanced – dare I say it, empathic – understanding of such plants, life forms that might otherwise be known as pioneers, specialists or ecosystem regenerators. Biologist Ken Thompson’s Where Do Camels Belong? (2014) was, for me, an early caster of doubt. The book highlights, for instance, the conflicted nature of research in this field, as illustrated by the notorious Himalayan balsam, which despite its reputation has been shown by some studies to have neutral or even positive effects. As researcher Eric Toensmeier has pointed out, citing the work of biologist Mark Davis and ecologist Richard Hobbs, ‘science seems to be heading, albeit slowly, in the direction of appreciation of “inva","PeriodicalId":39411,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity","volume":"22 1","pages":"143 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45006756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodiversityPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2021.2003721
S. Kumari, J. P. Mehta, S. Shafi, P. Dhiman, R. Krishan
{"title":"Diversity and indigenous uses of medicinal plants in the Buakhal area of the Garhwal Himalayan range, India","authors":"S. Kumari, J. P. Mehta, S. Shafi, P. Dhiman, R. Krishan","doi":"10.1080/14888386.2021.2003721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2021.2003721","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Indian Himalayan belt is renowned for its diverse topographic and climatic conditions, acts as home to many rare, endemic, and endangered ethnomedicinal plants. The present study aimed to document the medicinal plants and their indigenous uses in the Buakhal area of Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand, India) through personal interactions with local villagers. This study resulted in the documentation of 100 plant species of medicinal importance belonging to 87 genera and 45 families. Among these, seven species were trees, 17 shrubs, 71 herbs, and five climbers. Using the whole plant body (30% spp.) for the herbal preparations in the studied area, followed by the use of the leaves (28% spp.) and roots (21% spp.). Among the recorded plant species, Begonia picta, Berberis aristata, Bergenia ciliata, Centella asiatica, Dicliptera bupleuroides, and Malaxis acuminata were the medicinal plant species frequently extracted (from wild) by the villagers. The local floral diversity is used to treat gastrointestinal disorders, skin diseases, respiratory disorders, liver disorders, etc. However, important traditional knowledge and cultural practices are decreasing in the younger generation across the ethnic groups of the country due to modernization. The traditional knowledge and wisdom must be maintained and passed on to future generations.","PeriodicalId":39411,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity","volume":"22 1","pages":"131 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42836198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodiversityPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2021.2008270
E. Small
{"title":"In defense of the world’s most reviled vertebrate animals: part 2: mammals (bats, hyenas, mice, rats, and skunks)","authors":"E. Small","doi":"10.1080/14888386.2021.2008270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2021.2008270","url":null,"abstract":"It appears that just as we humans express both our love for, and hatred against, certain groups within our species, our closest animal relatives, the mammals, also receive very selective admiration and detestation. Mammals such as those included in the ‘charismatic megafauna’ (big and attractive as shown in Figure 1) and the cute & cuddly species (Figure 2) make ideal aids for enlisting conservation support. In parallel, as noted in this paper, certain species of mammals are passionately hated and are often the subjects of extermination campaigns. These hated species are major concerns, and their intrusions into the artificial habitats of people provoke negative sentiments against the world of wildlife from which they originate. We humans wage war against our enemies and our impulse is to remove the objectionable species not just from our urbanized world, but everywhere. However, the most offensive nuisance mammals are superlative competitors and survivors and attempts to eliminate them require such extensive measures that, inevitably, many other species are endangered. What is needed is to find ways of living with these pests that minimize their harmful effects and a key first step is to learn to understand and respect their needs. Towards this goal, this review presents both the negative and positive aspects of our most detested mammalian pests emphasizing that, on balance, their benefits to humans exceeds their harm. Small (2019) explored how the most reviled species of invertebrate animals significantly but irrationally prejudice the public against wildlife and mitigate efforts to rehabilitate and conserve biodiversity. Part 1 of this paper (Small 2020) similarly carried out the same exercise for the most reviled species of ‘lower vertebrates’ (fish, frogs & toads, snakes, and birds). This follow-up review conducts a similar analysis of the most reviled mammals, which we humans arrogantly consider to be the ‘highest’ group of animals because we are the predominant member. Burgin et al. (2018) list 6400 species of living mammals which represent less than 10% of recognized vertebrate species and less than 0.5% of all animal species. Nevertheless, mammals overwhelmingly dominate conservation initiatives. By a considerable margin, the public supports conservation and rehabilitation of certain ‘charismatic’ mammals much more than any other species (Table 1). As with the previous examination of non-mammal vertebrates (Small 2019), the goal is to generate understanding of the economic values and useful roles of the world’s most disliked mammals in order to minimize the disrespect for biodiversity that they generate. The most despised mammals include bats, hyenas, mice, rats, and skunks (Figure 3). Notably, most of these disreputable mammals are no larger than a housecat whereas the most respected mammals are usually huge. Size is one of the characteristics that strongly determines whether a species is liked or disliked by humans (Small 2011, 2012) a","PeriodicalId":39411,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity","volume":"22 1","pages":"194 - 244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48501021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodiversityPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2021.2004226
C. Battisti
{"title":"Not only jackals in the cities and dolphins in the harbours: less optimism and more systems thinking is needed to understand the long-term effects of the COVID-19 lockdown","authors":"C. Battisti","doi":"10.1080/14888386.2021.2004226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2021.2004226","url":null,"abstract":"Recent evidence has shown how the global ‘Anthropause’, i.e. ‘The Great Pause’ (sensu Rutz et al. 2020) following the lockdown adopted by many countries to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) pandemic, has led to an immediate reduction in people mobility and, consequently, to a significant reduction in pollution due to motor-vehicle traffic (Connerton et al. 2020; Le Quéré et al. 2020; Loh et al. 2021). It has been suggested that this phenomenon could induce positive cascade effects on species, communities, ecosystems and processes (Bar 2021; Bera et al. 2021; Mandal 2020; Manenti et al. 2020). After the lockdown, an environmental-based optimism characterized the information on mass media with news stories about dolphins swimming in harbours (Trieste, Italy) and about jackals (Tel Aviv, Israel), pumas (Santiago, Chile), deer (Nara, Japan) and monkeys (New Delhi) observed in the cities (e.g. Mohite and Sarode 2020; Rutz et al. 2020; Silva-Rodríguez et al. 2021) – indeed, social media abounds with posts sharing occurrences of wild animals in urbanized areas (e.g. https://www.countryliving.com/uk/news/g32066174/ animals-deserted-towns-cities-lockdown/). This linear cause–effect relationship (i.e. lockdown = less mobility = less impact on ecosystems) was widely communicated by mass and social media to the general public, who perceived a simple and intuitive message: ‘Thanks to “Great Pause”, Nature recovers’ (Franza 2018; ‘Nurture to Nature via COVID’: Paital 2020). Certainly, one of the immediate effects of the long lockdowns and the consequent stalling of national economies is the reduction in resource consumption and human-induced impacts on ecosystems. However, the super-complexity of socio-ecological systems, as adaptive systems characterized by high uncertainty and low predictability (Maldonado et al. 2020), could start counterintuitive and non-linear medium-/longterm processes, able to generate ‘surprises’ and ‘Black Swans’ (i.e. rare and unexpected events with dramatic consequences; McDaniel, Jordan, and Fleeman 2003; Anderson et al. 2017; Platje, Harvey, and RaymanBacchus 2020; Figure 1). Just a few examples: (i) when tourist traffic to a seabird colony of common murres (Uria aalge) closed down following the COVID-19 lockdown, it led to an unexpected increase in a top predator, white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla), resulting in the worst breeding season for this rare bird of conservation concern (Hentati-Sundber et al. 2021); (ii) in India, some rivers have benefited from reduced pollution but, unexpectedly, food-insecure peoples have turned to iconic endangered fish for food, bringing about the paradox that cleaner rivers increase the extinction risk to threatened species (Pinder et al. 2020) – and so on (see examples in Cooke et al. 2021a). With this in mind, perhaps a brainstorming exercise should be proposed among ecologists and conservation managers to examine this first, explorative 10-point list. First: in the face of a ","PeriodicalId":39411,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity","volume":"22 1","pages":"146 - 150"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47532944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodiversityPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2021.2003722
Oumnya Cheriti, Hadjer Belhiouani, Mohamed El-Hadef-El-Okki, E. Neubert, L. Sahli
{"title":"Inventory of land snails from the Kebir Rhumel basin, northeast of Algeria","authors":"Oumnya Cheriti, Hadjer Belhiouani, Mohamed El-Hadef-El-Okki, E. Neubert, L. Sahli","doi":"10.1080/14888386.2021.2003722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2021.2003722","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study constitutes a first attempt at a qualitative and quantitative inventory of land snails from the Kebir-Rhumel basin, in the northeast of Algeria. Sampling was carried out by hand from February to March in 2018 and 2019. Live snails and shells were collected from 30 stations along wadi banks. Identification followed the most recent specialized taxonomic literature and revisions. A total of 6531 specimens were collected, representing 25 species: Tudorella sulcata (Draparnaud, 1805), Rumina decollata (Linnaeus, 1758), Rumina saharica (Pallary, 1901), Ferussacia carnea (Risso, 1826), Ferussacia folliculum (Schröter, 1784), Mauronapaeus terverii (Dupotet in E. A. Forbes, 1838), Mastus pupa (Linnaeus, 1758), Cantareus cf. koraegaelius (Bourguignat in Locard, 1882), Cornu aspersum (O. F. Müller, 1774), Cornu sp., Eobania constantina (E. Forbes, 1838), Eobania vermiculata (O. F. Müller, 1774), Helix melanostoma (Draparnaud, 1801), Massylaea massylaea (Morelet, 1851), Cernuella cf. virgata (da Costa, 1778), Cochlicella acuta (O. F. Müller, 1774), Cochlicella barbara (Linnaeus, 1758), Trochoidea pyramidata (Draparnaud, 1805), Xerosecta cespitum (Draparnaud, 1801), Xerosecta sp., Ganula flava (Terver, 1839), Sphincterochila candidissima (Draparnaud, 1801), Sphincterochila otthiana (E. Forbes, 1838), Sphincterochila sp. and Caracollina lenticula (Michaud, 1831). Typical specimens are illustrated and described with a detailed report of their distribution along the basin’s wadis.","PeriodicalId":39411,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity","volume":"22 1","pages":"110 - 130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59925750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BiodiversityPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2021.1978108
E. Small
{"title":"In defence of the world’s most reviled vertebrate animals: part 1: ‘lower’ species (sharks, snakes, vultures, frogs & toads)","authors":"E. Small","doi":"10.1080/14888386.2021.1978108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2021.1978108","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Biodiversity is vital to the welfare and survival of humans, but public support for conservation of most animal species is appallingly limited. Vertebrates make up less than 5% of the world’s documented animal species, but are viewed far more sympathetically than invertebrates. This is because humans are empathetic with the appearance and behaviour of many of them, particularly the charismatic superstars like pandas and tigers that currently are the mainstays of biodiversity fundraising. Conversely, just as such attractive icons are effective ambassadors of biodiversity conservation, so certain detested and sometimes dangerous vertebrate pests have greatly compromised the public image of biodiversity. Some of these species, admittedly, are responsible for significant damage to health and economic welfare. Nevertheless, this paper shows that all play important ecological roles, they have compensating economic values, their harm has often been exaggerated, and their very negative public images are undeserved. This first installment deals with the most reviled ‘lower’ vertebrate species: sharks (representing fish); frogs and toads (representing amphibians); snakes (representing reptiles); and vultures (representing birds). The next contribution will deal with mammals.","PeriodicalId":39411,"journal":{"name":"Biodiversity","volume":"22 1","pages":"159 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44861124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}