DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.60.158981

Authors: Ivo Kadlec, Adam Uličný, Petr Keil, Florencia Grattarola

Abstract: Conservation biology depends on an assessment of threats to species. This has been done at the global scale through the IUCN Red List and also locally and regionally, for example, through country-specific regional Red Lists. The latter quantify the level of threat to a species in a region, irrespective of its global status (e.g. a species can be non-threatened globally, but threatened or extirpated in a specific region). There are efforts to collate these regional Red Lists (e.g. the NRL database hosted by ZSL in collaboration with the IUCN National Red List Working Group), but these have gaps and are in the process of re-development with increased input from country focal points. Here, we announce a renewal of the effort to collate regional Red Lists. To create it, we searched and compiled sources containing species threat assessments all over the world. As a result, we found 2,090 sources in 219 countries, covering 483 broad taxonomic groups. In this paper, we provide the compiled metadata, enriched with geographical and taxonomic information and details about the source’s title, URL, file format, language and publication date. This is step one in our effort, in which we ultimately plan to digitise all the compiled sources and provide them openly. By announcing this effort here, we aim to actively seek to expand the metadata database and to collate the respective data. Please refer to the section “How to engage?” if you are interested in collaborating with us.

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DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.34.30923

Authors: Maurizio Ribera d’Alcalà

Abstract: Comparisons between terrestrial and marine ecosystems are generally not in the main stream of scientific literature even though Webb (2012) listed several points for which the transfer of knowledge and concepts related to one or to the other system would benefit our understanding of both. Even sharing this view, the leading hypothesis behind this contribution is that the pelagic system, where the dominant biotic component by number and biomass is microscopic, has specific features which strongly differentiate it from the above-the-surface terrestrial systems. Due to this, climate change, i.e. changes in temperature, precipitation and most importantly in the dynamics of the two fluid media, atmosphere and ocean, act with different mechanisms which prevents proceeding with analogies in many cases. In addition, the non-linearity of most of the processes and responses to perturbations requires, in order to obtain reliable forecasts or hindcasts, a detailed analysis of the path followed by the system which is normally overlooked in the step-change simulations or projections.

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DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.34.35517

Authors: Maria Grazia Mazzocchi, Lucilla Capotondi, Michele Freppaz, Antonella Lugliè, Alessandro Campanaro

Abstract: The present Special Issue entitled “Italian Long-Term Ecological Research for understanding ecosystem diversity and functioning. Case studies from aquatic, terrestrial and transitional domains” is the first published collection of studies performed at LTER-Italy sites which address the diversity and dynamics of ecosystems in different domains in responses to natural and anthropogenic forcing.

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DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.34.29841

Authors: Marina Monti-Birkenmeier, Tommaso Diociaiuti, Serena Fonda Umani

Abstract: Abundance and composition of the planktonic tintinnid ciliates were studied in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea, NE Mediterranean Sea) from July 1998 to July 2016. Tintinnids were collected biweekly-monthly from the LTER station C1 (200 m offshore, 17.5 m depth) at four depths (surface, 5 m, 10 m and 15 m). The maximum tintinnid abundance reached 4476 ind. L-1 at surface in February 2016. The tintinnid community comprised a maximum of 35 species and was dominated by the genera Stenosemella, Tintinnopsis, Codonellopsis, Salpingella and Eutintinnus. The most abundant species were Stenosemella nivalis, Tintinnopsis nana, Codonellopsis schabi, Salpingella rotundata and Eutintinnus apertus. We found a species-specific correlation with the abiotic factors considered, i.e., temperature and salinity. Temperature was positively correlated with S. rotundata and E. apertus and negatively with S. nivalis. Salinity was negatively correlated with the majority of the detected species. Agglutinated species presented winter maxima while hyaline species showed higher abundance in summer-autumn. Some key species were present over the whole period studied. Significant differences within the water column were not seen in the species composition, but were seen in the relative abundances of the same species at different depths. Stenosemella nivalis, S. ventricosa and Tintinnopsis beroidea can be considered as keystone species in the area and their possible loss can be seen as a signal of changes in the structure of the entire planktonic system.

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