Assessing the Threatened Status of Bumble Bee Species (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Hungary,Central Europe

Decline in the populations of bumble bees and other pollinators stress the need for more knowledge about their conservation status. Only one of the 25 bumble bee species present in Hungary is included in the Hungarian Red List. We estimated the endangerment of the Hungarian bumble bee (Bombus Latr.) species using the available occurrence data from the last 50 years of the 20th century. Four of the 25 species were data deficient or extinct from Hungary. About 60% of species were considered rare or moderately rare. Changes in distribution and occurrence frequency indicated that 10 of the 21 native species showed a declining trend, while only three species increased in frequency of occurrence. According to the IUCN Red List categories, seven species (33% of the native fauna) should be labelled as critically endangered (CR) and 3 (14%) as endangered (EN). Our results stress an urgent need of protection plans for bumble bees in Hungary, and further underlines the validity of concern over bumble bees all over Europe.     

Are current protections of land snails in Hungary relevant to conservation?

Legal instruments for species conservation have been criticised because they take a long time to draw up and implement and because invertebrates are highly underrepresented. For these reasons legal documents need regular re-evaluation as more data and effective methods are available. The effectiveness of the Hungarian legislative texts was assessed by the congruence between protection status and conservation priority of the species. Species were prioritised according to the conservation priority index (CPI = MRI × PBR), which included mollusca rarity index (MRI) and protection-by-reserves score (PBR). Mollusca rarity index was an additive scoring method including global range size, local frequency, and a correction factor due to the biased frequency estimate or special importance of some species. PBR scores expressed the lack of congruence between distribution of reserves and distribution of species. I used the distribution data of 121 Hungarian land snail species based on 10 × 10 km resolution grid system. Current protection status of the species was associated with rarity, whereas the congruence between species occurrences and the location of existing reserves has been overlooked. Based on the 25% of the species with highest CPI scores, the species Helicigona planospira was highly recommended and 9 other species was recommended for protection. Two thirds of the occurrences of the strictly protected and endemic species Hygromia kovacsi and more than 25% of the occurrences of 10 protected species were located outside of current reserves. Local populations of these species need monitoring in order to detect changes in the area of occupancy.     

黄河流域濒危物种保护热点区与保护空缺识别

黄河流域具有重要的生物多样性保护意义,通过研究珍稀濒危物种分布热点区可为生物多样性保护提供依据。选取70种濒危维管植物和陆生脊椎动物,综合多来源的分布数据,运用物种分布模型Maxent模拟物种分布区,结合自然地理区划,计算保护价值,进行热点区分析,并结合国家级自然保护区和国家公园体制试点区的分布情况进行空缺分析。研究结果显示,黄河流域濒危物种分布主要呈现出南高北低、集中于山地的特征,热点区包括秦岭区域、太行山区域、子午岭-六盘山区域、陇中高原至松潘高原、祁连山、贺兰山和沿黄湿地等。在区分自然地理区后,现有的国家级自然保护区和国家公园体制试点区覆盖了热点区面积的13.89%,保护空缺主要出现于子午岭南部、六盘山南部、松潘高原南部和拉脊山等。建议在推进黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展中将濒危物种热点区考虑在内,对黄河流域自然保护地体系进行优化,并针对黄河流域的三个自然地理分区提出了相应的保护建议。此外,研究发现,在进行热点区分析时,考虑自然地理区域划分,并综合多类群叠加和单一生物类群的分析结果进行统筹考虑,可能会更好满足生物多样性就地保护需求。     

西藏米林县珍稀濒危药用植物优先保护评价

通过设置样方和路线踏查,对米林县的野生药用植物资源进行调查,并利用多个指标定量计算各濒危植物的优先保护值,确定其珍稀濒危物种优先保护序列,对珍稀濒危药用植物的种类、药效和入药部位多样性进行了分析。结果表明:米林县共有药用保护植物37科72属97种,分别占药用植物总科数、总属数、总种数的48.05%、32.00%、30.70%。其中,被子植物有35科69属95种,裸子植物有2科2属2种。97种珍稀濒危药用植物中,处于Ⅰ级保护的药用植物有9科11属11种,处于Ⅱ级保护的药用植物有18科25属27种,处于Ⅲ级保护的药用植物有28科46属59种。从珍稀濒危药用植物的药效来看,清热功效和补虚功效的药用植物较多,分别有32种和20种,各占濒危药用植物总种数的32.99%、20.62%;从药用部位统计,根与根茎类和全草类的药用植物分别有34种和26种,占珍稀濒危药用植物总数比例较大,分别为35.05%、26.80%。该区评估的优先保护等级和濒危等级与保护植物名录有一定差异,桃儿七在本区的保护等级由Ⅲ级升为Ⅰ级,另外有7种植物的濒危程度在本区加强。基于调查和研究结果分析了米林县珍稀濒危药用植物的致濒原因,并就此提出了一些具体的保护建议和措施。     

江西九岭山脉种子植物区系研究

九岭山脉植物区系发生历史悠久,对研究我国早期种子植物演化、动植物迁徙、物种分布格局均具有重要作用。为探讨九岭山脉种子植物区系成因和濒危保护植物的保护利用,该文通过野外调查、标本采集和鉴定,结合经典植物地理学方法,对该山脉种子植物区系进行了研究。结果表明:(1)九岭山脉共有野生种子植物211科956属2928种,占江西种子植物1064属4028种的比例分别为89.8%和72.69%。(2)该植物区系的热带成分科占该地区种子植物总科数(不含世界分布科)的81.35%,但缺乏典型热带成分科,区系中的热带性属和温带性属数量接近,显示该植物区系由热带性质向温带性质过渡,这与九岭山脉地处重要的气候和生态交错地带有一定关联。(3)该地区共分布中国特有植物6科33属41种,特有属主要为古特有属,体现了该植物区系起源的古老性,推断该山脉在第四纪冰期环境较为稳定,为众多植物提供了“避难所”。(4)该地区的种子植物中有30科63属109种为国家重点保护植物,其中,国家I级保护植物15种,极危植物3种、濒危植物11种、易危植物20种。该山脉中的九岭山、官山和大围山已有相应的自然保护区发挥生态保护作用,而其余的山地则未建立有效保护,应对相关濒危植物所在区域加以监管,可采取就地保护或迁地保护等措施,建立相关的种质资源库,确保濒危保护植物的可持续利用。     

Tourism and the Conservation of Critically Endangered Frogs

Protected areas are critical for the conservation of many threatened species. Despite this, many protected areas are acutely underfunded, which reduces their effectiveness significantly. Tourism is one mechanism to promote and fund conservation in protected areas, but there are few studies analyzing its tangible conservation outcomes for threatened species. This study uses the 415 IUCN critically endangered frog species to evaluate the contribution of protected area tourism revenue to conservation. Contributions were calculated for each species as the proportion of geographic range inside protected areas multiplied by the proportion of protected area revenues derived from tourism. Geographic ranges were determined from IUCN Extent of Occurrence maps. Almost 60% (239) of critically endangered frog species occur in protected areas. Higher proportions of total range are protected in Nearctic, Australasian and Afrotopical regions. Tourism contributions to protected area budgets ranged from 5–100%. These financial contributions are highest for developing countries in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan and Neotropical regions. Data for both geographic range and budget are available for 201 critically endangered frog species with proportional contributions from tourism to species protection ranging from 0.8–99%. Tourism''s financial contributions to critically endangered frog species protection are highest in the Afrotropical region. This study uses a coarse measure but at the global scale it demonstrates that tourism has significant potential to contribute to global frog conservation efforts.     

The seashore sedges of the Russian Kola Peninsula: How many species?

A necessary basis for environmental protection is thorough knowledge of the biodiversity to be protected. Setting conservation priorities in taxonomically complex groups is an especially difficult task. The seashore sedges of the Carex salina group (Cyperaceae) of the Russian White and Barents Seas form important parts of the coastal ecosystems and include species listed as rare and endangered. However, their taxonomy is poorly understood and supposed to be blurred by hybridization, also including the closely related C. aquatilis and possibly other species of sect. Phacocystis (C. bigelowii, C. nigra s. lat.). We address the taxonomic situation in the C. salina group in the Kola Peninsula with emphasis on taxa of supposed hybrid origin (C. salina and C. recta coll.). We analyzed 92 plants from 28 sites for 101 amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) and 10 morphological characters. The plants referred to three supposedly “pure” species (C. aquatilis, C. paleacea and C. subspathacea) formed different extreme parts of the morphological and molecular variation. These species could be discriminated by a combination of morphological characters. The two taxa of proposed hybrid origin had extremely variable morphology and could not be clearly distinguished from each other or from the supposedly “pure” species. Our results demonstrate extensive gene flow between all taxa, suggesting that the entire C. salina group including C. aquatilis acts as a single large biological species.     

中国苦苣苔科植物濒危现状与多样性保护(附表)

截至2021年12月31日，中国已知苦苣苔科植物共有805种(含种下等级，下同),隶属于45个属，主要分布在我国西南至华南地区，其中特有种和狭域种十分丰富。由于苦苣苔科大部分种类仅适应于某些特化的微生境，因此极易因自身原因和外界因素的干扰而致危。为更好地了解中国苦苣苔科已知物种的濒危风险，该研究在查阅相关文献且结合最近发表的新分类群中关于濒危等级评估的相关内容，辅以近年来实地调查掌握的第一手资料，对中国苦苣苔科已知物种的濒危等级进行了统计分析和重新评估。同时，依托中国野生植物保护协会苦苣苔专业委员会、广西植物研究所国家苦苣苔科种质资源库和中国苦苣苔科植物保育中心平台，首次创新了从新种发现和发表到濒危状况评估、即时启动保育和园艺新品种培育同步进行的物种保护新模式。分析结果表明，有必要提高政府相关部门对苦苣苔科植物多样性保护的重视程度。因此，建议：(1)进一步加强对中国苦苣苔科植物种质资源保护紧迫性的认识；(2)针对濒危的尤其是被评估为极危(CR)和濒危(EN)的类群开展“抢救性”保护、迁地与就地保护和野外回归；(3)积极开展新品种培育等方面的研究。以上结果和建议是将来苦苣苔科植物多样性保...     

A fine-scale gap analysis of the existing protected area system in Hong Kong, China

As well as being one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, Hong Kong also has the highest percentage of protected areas (38% of the 1098 km² land area) of any administrative region in the Asia Pacific. Overlay of field records from a biodiversity survey of eight taxa (amphibians, reptiles, mammals, breeding birds, ants, butterflies, dragonflies and rare vascular plants) in 1 km grid squares with protected areas indicated that over half of the 623 species of conservation concern (globally, regionally, or locally restricted species) were under-represented. Ants, butterflies and reptiles were most poorly represented. The hotspots of different taxa also received differing levels of protection. Hong Kong's protected areas are biased towards high-altitude habitats, so the under-represented species are mostly associated with the lowland habitats (freshwater wetlands, abandoned agriculture and feng shui woods). Since the restricted species are scattered and the hotspots of different taxa do not overlap, a large protected area network will be required to represent all species. This indicates the challenge that will be encountered in the conservation of many other parts of Asia that support burgeoning human populations, and where landscapes are increasingly human-dominated.     

Recovered after an extreme bottleneck and saved by ex situ management: Lessons from the Alagoas curassow (Pauxi mitu [Linnaeus, 1766]; Aves,Galliformes, Cracidae)

A pivotal debate on biodiversity conservation is whether the scarce budgets must be invested in critically endangered taxa or in those with higher chances to survive due to larger population sizes. Addressing the fate of extremely bottlenecked taxa is an ideal way to test this idea, but empirical cases are surprisingly limited. The reintroduction of the extinct‐in‐the‐wild Alagoas curassow (Pauxi mitu) by Brazilian scientists in September 2019 added to the two other known cases of survival to bottlenecks of only two or three individuals. We exploit the reasons why this species has survived, and we report how investments to rescue the Alagoas curassow resulted in the protection of many other taxa, suggesting that in the face of the dramatic number of extinctions expected for the Anthropocene, integration must prevail over a choice.