matesoft: a program for deducing parental genotypes and estimating mating system statistics in haplodiploid species

With the advent of sophisticated genetic markers, studies on mating systems and reproductive apportionment have become increasingly feasible. In particular, paternity analyses in haplodiploid species have gained in power as hemizygous paternal genotypes allow maternal and paternal genotypes to be directly inferred from offspring genotypes. The computer program matesoft offers both newly developed algorithms for inferring maternal and paternal genotypes, and integrated estimation and correction procedures for calculating mating frequency statistics. Standard data are offspring genotypes of male‐haplodiploid organisms, including social Hymenoptera.     

Optimizing resiliency of reserve networks to climate change: multispecies conservation planning in the Pacific Northwest,USA

The effectiveness of a system of reserves may be compromised under climate change as species' habitat shifts to nonreserved areas, a problem that may be compounded when well‐studied vertebrate species are used as conservation umbrellas for other taxa. The Northwest Forest Plan was among the first efforts to integrate conservation of wide‐ranging focal species and localized endemics into regional conservation planning. We evaluated how effectively the plan's focal species, the Northern Spotted Owl, acts as an umbrella for localized species under current and projected future climates and how the regional system of reserves can be made more resilient to climate change. We used the program maxent to develop distribution models integrating climate data with vegetation variables for the owl and 130 localized species. We used the program zonation to identify a system of areas that efficiently captures habitat for both the owl and localized species and prioritizes refugial areas of climatic and topographic heterogeneity where current and future habitat for dispersal‐limited species is in proximity. We projected future species' distributions based on an ensemble of contrasting climate models, and incorporating uncertainty between alternate climate projections into the prioritization process. Reserve solutions based on the owl overlap areas of high localized‐species richness but poorly capture core areas of localized species' distribution. Congruence between priority areas across taxa increases when refugial areas are prioritized. Although core‐area selection strategies can potentially increase the conservation value and resilience of regional reserve systems, they accentuate contrasts in priority areas between species and over time and should be combined with a broadened taxonomic scope and increased attention to potential effects of climate change. Our results suggest that systems of fixed reserves designed for resilience can increase the likelihood of retaining the biological diversity of forest ecosystems under climate change.     

A method for spatial freshwater conservation prioritization

1. Freshwater ecosystems are amongst the most threatened and poorly protected globally. They continue to be degraded through habitat loss, pollution and invading species and conservation measures are urgently needed to halt declining trends in their biodiversity and integrity.
2. During the past decade a suite of decision support tools and computational approaches have been developed for efficient and targeted conservation action in terrestrial or marine ecosystems. These methods may be poorly suited for planning in freshwater systems because connectivity in terrestrial and marine systems is typically modelled in a way unsuitable for rivers, where connectivity has a strong directional component.
3. We modify the conservation prioritization method and software, zonation , to account for connectivity in a manner better suited to freshwater ecosystems. Prioritization was performed using subcatchment/catchment-based planning units and connectivity was modified to have directional upstream and downstream components consistent with the ecology of our target species.
4. We demonstrate this modified method for rivers and streams in the southern North Island of New Zealand. Data included predicted occupancy from boosted regression tree models of species distributions for 18 fish species. The study area covered 2.1 million hectares and included 394 first- to fourth order catchment or subcatchment planning units.
5. Realistic modelling of connectivity had a major influence on the areas proposed for conservation. If connectivity was ignored, recommended conservation areas were very fragmented. By contrast, when connectivity was modelled, high priority conservation targets consisted of entire river basins or headwater subcatchments.
6. The proposed method serves as a starting point for the implementation of reserve selection methods in river ecosystems.