last news from scales-project.net http://www.scales-project.net Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:47:58 +0200 WebDesign LTD. FeedCreator http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=25 23 June 2010

Eurosite, Scottish Natural Heritage, in collaboration with the Countryside Council for Wales and Natural England, cordially invite to the 2010 Eurosite Annual Conference. In this year of international biodiversity, Eurosite is focusing on the practical challenges of site management within an increasingly dynamic and changing environment. We will be asking delegates to discuss key questions including what management actions are considered appropriate for climate change and how these should be implemented to improve the resilience of biodiversity across four habitat types in particular – Upland, Forest, Freshwater and Marine & Coastal. Also, at national and European policy level, the relationship between sites and their surrounding areas is already signalled to become a ‘hot topic’: this has major implications for site managers, especially having to achieve more with less as the economic crisis is likely to continue to hit operating budgets for years ahead. Such issues have business critical and practical operational consequences for site management organisations and staff as they consider how best to plan ahead, utilise available resources and implement ‘on the ground’ action to achieve maximum gains for nature. The need for innovative, effective and responsive approaches is greater than ever. The theme of the Conference provides rich grounds for discussion, to exchange views, share ideas and gain insights with colleagues from around Europe. Emphasising the value of learning ‘in the field...]]> Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=24 16 June 2010

Mazaris, A.D., Kallimanis, A.S., Tzanopoulos, J. Sgardelis, S.P., Pantis, J.D. 2010. Can we predict the number of plant species from the richness of a few common genera, families or orders? – Journal of Applied Ecology, 47: 662-670. Halting biodiversity loss, a major environmental challenge, relies on the understanding of species richness patterns. The assessment of species richness is often hampered by limited taxonomic knowledge and the general dearth of trained systematists. Research has shown that the number of species in a community can be predicted by the number of higher order taxonomic units present. The number of common species in a region is a good predictor of total richness and it is tested whether this predictability translates to using higher taxa. The data from 240 sites from the Natura 2000 network of protected areas in Greece, including 5148 plant species and subspecies, which are grouped in 1113 genera 174 families and 56 orders, is used. The study revealed that there is no need to know all higher order taxa present in a region, in order to predict species richness. The analysis demonstrates that species richness can be predicted from the number of common or more speciose genera, families and orders present. These predictions hold without complete sampling of these higher taxa. The implication is that only limited systematic knowledge resources and effort in order to predict species richness are needed. Assuming these findings hold in other taxonomic groups and in other region...]]> Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=23 11 June 2010

On Friday, June 11th 2010, after long negotiations over the functions of an Intergovernemntal Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), its guiding principles and the next steps, delegates at the Busan conference held in the Republic of Korea adopted the Busan Outcome document which sets the path for establishing an IPBES. Chair Chan-woo, in his closing remarks, emphasized the historic nature of this moment for Busan, Republic of Korea and the International Year of Biodiversity. For further information please visit: http://www.iisd.ca/ymb/biodiv/ipbes3 ]]> Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=22 29 May 2010

PENSOFT is pleased to announce that the Atlas of Biodiversity Risk, a major multidisciplinary and multinational project, was published on 22nd of May 2010. This is one of the outputs of the European project ALARM (performed by 68 partner organisations from 35 countries), with contributions from 366 authors from more than 180 institutions in 43 countries. The book is first of its kind and summarizes in a comprehensive, easy-to-read and richly illustrated form the major threats to biodiversity at a global scale. The global climate and land use changes, environmental pollution, loss of pollinators and biological invasions are among the major risks for biodiversity identified by this comprehensive study. The impacts and consequences of biodiversity loss are analyzed with an emphasis on the socio-economic drivers and their effect on society. Three scenarios of potential future are the baseline for predicting impacts and explore options for mitigating adverse effects at several spatio-temporal scales. The Atlas is divided into chapters which mostly deal with particular pressures. It furthermore is based on case studies from different countries which are completed by introductory and concluding texts for each chapter. The Atlas targets a wide audience. Scientists will find summaries of useful contemporary methods, approaches and case studies, lecturers and teachers will discover examples to illustrate the main challenges of our century in terms of global environmental changes. Conservationists and po...]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=18 27 May 2010

In recognition of the importance of informing Europeans on the importance of biodiversity conservation, a German-led Capital of Biodiversity LIFE project is organising a series of awards to encourage local authorities in five countries - Germany, Spain, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland - to introduce measures for the protection of nature and biodiversity in urban areas. Systems to monitor biodiversity projects at a local level will be developed in these countries. The hope is that the idea for the 'European Capital of Nature and Biodiversity' awards will be transferable to other EU Member States. ]]> Thu, 27 May 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=19 27 May 2010

Researchers have developed a new model to estimate the impact of harvesting wild species and land use change on biodiversity. Unlike previous models, it considers the indirect effect of harvesting or pest control on landscape structure through reducing the variety of species. The major drivers of biodiversity loss are the harvest of wild species and the conversion of habitat for productive purposes. Harvesting affects biodiversity by extracting desirable species and species considered to be pests. Land conversion can either reduce the number of habitats or niches, as in the case of a monoculture when only one species exists, or it can create more habitats, as in the case of the naturalisation of urban or peri-urban environments. Environmental 'heterogeneity', or variation of habitat, within a landscape means one or few species are not able to dominate and therefore it tends to encourage biodiversity. By its very nature, harvesting affects habitat heterogeneity by taking away certain species. This produces an indirect impact on biodiversity, additional to the direct impact of the removal of species. The research developed a model of the relationship between species richness, harvest and landscape heterogeneity to predict both positive and negative effects on the growth potential of each species. It considered the removal of species and the addition of species, both deliberately through harvesting and imported seeds or animals, and accidentally through invasive species. It also considered the inc...]]> Thu, 27 May 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=20 27 May 2010

New research indicates that successful integration of conservation into local land-use planning needs a combination of regulatory measures and community values. This could be encouraged by better education on conservation, and greater collaboration between neighbouring geographical areas. Habitat loss due to urbanisation poses a large threat to biodiversity. As such, local land-use planning has a potentially important, but largely unrealised, role in biodiversity conservation. The research interviewed 17 directors of municipal planning departments in greater Seattle, USA to identify the factors that help and impede integration of conservation into local planning. The departments were categorised into high and low performers based on a previous survey of their use of planning-related activities that favoured biodiversity, such as protecting open space, maintaining habitat connectivity and controlling non-native species. The results indicated that the degree of integration of biodiversity conservation and local land-use planning was limited. Even planners from high-performing departments reported, on average, using less than half of the full range of conservation measures. The clearest message from the data was the influence of local community values in incorporating conservation into planning. These values are positive attitudes held by the local population about biodiversity conservation. Planners from high-performing departments tended to cite community values as the most important driver of biod...]]> Thu, 27 May 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=21 27 May 2010

A report commissioned by the French Government has calculated reference values for French ecosystems. These range from ˆ600 per hectare/per year for pastureland to ˆ2000 per hectare/per year for some types of forest. The methods used to calculate these values were carefully analysed. Like many other countries, France has a clear commitment to account for biodiversity in public decision making, which means that the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services needs to be estimated in a clear and comprehensive way. Based on an analysis of existing literature, the report calculated minimum estimates of the value of biodiversity, based on ecosystem services it provides to society. Reference values calculated by the study include those for temperate forestry (valued at a mean of ˆ950 per hectare/per year) and pasture land (minimum valuation of ˆ600 per hectare/per year). Forest valuations ranged from ˆ500-2000 per hectare/per year; values varied primarily depending on whether the forest attracted tourism or used for recreation and on the forest management applied. These reference values can be integrated into decision making processes, for example, into socio-economic impact assessments made prior to all large public infrastructure projects. Values quoted are the 'absolute minimum' values and can be used instead of 'zero' in public accounting of biodiversity. With further research, these values could significantly increase if more services were taken into account. The report explains how it reached...]]> Thu, 27 May 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=17 27 April 2010

3rd Newsletter of the ECONNECT project is available online at www.econnectproject.eu]]> Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=16 25 March 2010

The European Ecological Federation http://www.europeanecology.org invite you to attend the 12th EEF Congress, that will take place in Ávila, Spain, from 25 till 28 September in 2011. It is hosted and organized by the Spanish Terrestrial Ecology Society (AEET, www.aeet.org ) in collaboration with the Portuguese Ecological Society (SPECO, http://speco.fc.ul.pt). More information about the Congress will soon be available at the website http://www.eefcongress2011.eu For further information please write to info@aeet.org ]]> Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=15 24 March 2010

Increased efficiency in the use of agricultural farmland is resulting in homogenisation of butterfly communities and a lower number of butterfly species. As cultivated areas grow in size, important butterfly habitats, such as field margins, meadows and open forest boundaries, are correspondingly contracting. Particularly sensitive to this change are species such as the purple-edged copper and the small heath butterfly, which are considerably specialized in terms of their habitat requirements and have low mobility. An extensive research project conducted by the Finnish Environment Institute and the University of Helsinki studied day-active butterfly species in 134 agricultural areas in Finland. The results of this project were published in the March issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology. ‘The results of the research show that the diversity of butterfly species dwindled in direct proportion to the extent of land area cultivated. This reduction in species diversity accelerated whenever cultivated land coverage exceeded 60% of the total landscape area', states Senior Researcher Mikko Kuussaari. Simple measures to protect butterflies The homogenisation of butterfly communities has increased significantly in the intensively cultivated areas of Southwestern Finland and the Uusimaa region, for example. Species which exhibit high sensitivity in terms of their habitat, and the related low mobility, are particularly vulnerable to such change. ‘Greater efficiency in land utilisation not only...]]> Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=14 15 March 2010

ALTER-Net Summer School 2010 "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" 5-14 September 2010, Peyresq, France, now open for applications! The summer school will be held at Peyresq, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France and is organized by the ALTER-Net Summer School Secretariat at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany. Conveners: Allan Watt, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK Wolfgang Cramer, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany Uta Fritsch, EURAC research, Bolzano, Italy Sabine Lütkemeier, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany Set-up of the Summer School: ALTER-Net will organize its fifth summer school from 5 to 14 September 2010 in Peyresq, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France. The topic this year is "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services". The school is a unique opportunity to explore this important issue with 32 like-minded post-graduate students and young scientists mostly from Europe. About 20 speakers will give presentations on this subject in the morning and late afternoon. In the afternoon working groups will apply what they have learned in their case studies study with different themes. The Summer School Objectives: The ALTER-Net Summer School will contribute to durable integration and spread of excellence within and beyond the network, with a view to promote interdisciplinary approaches. The 2010 Summer School will focus on: * Biodiversity and ecosystems in Europe; * Ecosystem processes, function, servic...]]> Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=13 08 March 2010

GIS-based public Natura 2000 Viewer that gives easy access to Natura 2000 information in the EU and has published the respective Natura 2000 database, makes Natura 2000 data for the first time available to the general public at the EU-level. Both are now online and available through the EEA website at the following addresses: Natura 2000 viewer: http://natura2000.eea.europa.eu/ Natura 2000 database: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/natura-2000/ Both can also be also accessed through DG Environment's Nature& Biodiversity website: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/access_data/index_en.htm ]]> Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=5 23 July 2009

The Article 17 Habitats Directive reports and data are now available on the ETC/BD homepage: http://biodiversity.eionet.europa.eu/article17]]> Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0200 http://www.scales-project.net/news.php?n=1 23 June 2009

This is the 1st Announcement of the 18th International Conference of the European Bird Census Council (EBCC), entitled* "Bird Numbers 2010: Monitoring, indicators and targets*". The conference will take place in* Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, on 22nd - 26th March 2010,* and is being organised by SEO, the BirdLife International Partner Spain, and the EBCC. http://www.ebcc.info/index.php?ID=370 http://www.seo.org/ebcc2010/frmHome.html http://www.seo.org/ebcc2010/frmAnnouncementFirst.html We very much hope you might be interested in coming along and please feel free to pass this announcement on to others. The EBCC is an association of expert ornithologists co-operating to improve bird monitoring and thus inform and improve the management and conservation of birds in Europe: *http://www.ebcc.info/* The Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) is an EBCC/BirdLife International initiative to deliver policy-relevant biodiversity indicators in Europe: *http://www.ebcc.info/pecbm.html* The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. Nature is amazing - help us keep it that way. Click here to join today *www.rspb.org.uk/join* The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no. SC037654
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