114 Resumé The topic of my diploma thesis is "Legal regulation of Natura 2000 Network". Natura 2000 is a a network that seeks to preserve biodiversity within the territory of the EU. Natura 2000 was imposed by the article 3 of the Habitats Directive, which along with the Bird Directive are the most important legal acts aiming at biodiversity conservation in the European Union. The main purpose of this work is the legal analysis of the legal arangement of the Natura 2000 Network by taking the european context under consideration. First three chapters describes the concept of Natura 2000 Network and its history, including a short description of biodiversity protection within the internatinal law (relevant international agreements). The next chapter is focused on the European Union Law. Firstly, it describes the history of environmental policy within the european law and the institutions and funds connected to Natura 2000 Network. The law base of Nature 2000 network is formed by the European Directive 2009/147/EEC on the conservation of the wild birds (so called "Birds Directive") and the European Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of the natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (so called "Habitats Directive"). These directives enable designation of two types of protected areas - Special Protected...

An increasing concern for biodiversity loss transformed politics and society in Ecuador beginning in the late 1980s. Amidst a proliferation of expert work to gain new knowledge of what biodiversity existed where in order to curb species extinctions, both the state of biological science and the way that Ecuador was governed were remade. To examine the institution of biodiversity and its contemporary consequences in Ecuador, this dissertation draws on ethnography with and archival research on a community of botanists connected with Ecuador's National Herbarium. It begins by examining the specialized work that formed the foundation for NGO-led biodiversity conservation. It then looks at the rise of environmental impact assessment used to anticipate and mitigate the impacts of development projects. Finally, the dissertation examines the contemporary dilemmas of Ecuadorian field biologists in the context of the recent dismantling of much of this institutional infrastructure from the last 30 years. The dissertation's central argument is that biodiversity is an intrinsically modern (and relatively recent) relationship to biological resources, and that it comes with many of the dilemmas and problems that characterize modern institutions. Its emergence as a recognizable domain, either of expert management or more general social commitment, is inextricably bound up with the production of certain forms of specialized knowledge, and the use of that knowledge in authorizing certain kinds of institutional interventions. A mis-recognition of this aspect of biodiversity (for example, by conflating 'biodiversity' with 'biological things themselves') risks misunderstanding what kind of an object it is, to the detriment of anthropological critiques of environmental politics.

Biodiversity perceptions of conservation managers in the North West Parks and Tourism Board are "teased out" to find how they view biodiversity issues in general and also how they perceive the functioning of their organisation. This report is the discussion and interpretation of responses to the questionnaire by managers at different ranks of the organisational structure. The results intend to show areas where the organisation is seen to be doing well and where it seen to be lacking. The tables and the appendices are used to indicate trends if any between high level managers and lower level managers (which level tends to rate the organisation lower or higher most of the time). / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar ( Sustainable Ecological Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

This study investigated the effects of the Triffid weed Chromolaena odorata on small and large mammals in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. C. odorata is a widespread invasive alien plant that poses threat to the highly maintained natural vegetation in HiP and most other protected areas in KwaZulu-Natal. Following the opinion that the effects of invasive alien plants on all levels of biodiversity need to be recognised for their effective control, we compared small and large mammal species richness and diversity between areas with differing C. odorata invasion durations, areas with differing clearing times and an area with no history of invasion as a control area. Small mammal trapping was done using Sherman live traps and mark-recapture techniques. Track counts were used to estimate large mammal species abundance, richness and diversity. The control area had higher small mammal species richness and diversity than the invaded areas, which suggests that invaded areas were not suitable habitats for small mammals. It was also found that small and large mammal species richness and diversity decreased with the increase in invasion duration, which shows that the more time C. odorata is left to establish the more disturbance it causes to the habitat. We found the uninvaded treatment to have the highest diversity of large mammal species than all the invaded treatments, which suggests that large mammalian species show some degree of avoidance to the invaded areas. We also found that there were significant differences between the treatments with regard to large mammal species diversity indices. Some of the large mammalian species appeared to neither avoid nor prefer invaded areas. It is hypothesized that they use invaded areas to hide away from predators as most of them fall prey to many carnivores. Also, C. odorata invaded areas could provide suitable shelter from climatic extremes. The treatments cleared of C. odorata showed an increase in both small and large mammalian species richness and diversity, suggesting that clearing of this plant helps in rehabilitation of the ecosystem. However, large mammal species composition in the cleared treatments remained different to preinvasion state, which suggests that the habitat may remain changed for a long time after clearing. Managers of conservation areas should therefore prioritise alien plant removal in order to maintain healthy ecosystems. / Dissertation (MSc (Wildlife Management))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Animal and Wildlife Sciences / unrestricted

The latest-Permian mass extinction was the greatest biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic. The extinction decimated both marine and terrestrial communities, and changed the evolutionary trajectory of multicellular life on the planet. The unique nature of the extinction’s aftermath has prompted attention from paleontologists seeking to understand the timing and pattern of the Triassic recovery. With this dissertation I have sought to shed additional light on the terrestrial side of the extinction by examining different patterns by which its survivors responded to the extinction. Temnospondyl amphibians were one of the few tetrapod clades that were able to take advantage of the extinction to expand their diversity. In Chapter 1 I examine the relationship between taxonomic and ecological diversity of temnospondyls across the Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Ecomorphological diversity, as implied by differences in cranial shape, was incorporated into the study by the use of a landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis. Both taxonomic diversity and cranial disparity were low during the Permian and increased across the Permian-Triassic boundary. Taxonomic diversity was stable through the Triassic, but disparity showed subsequent increases during the Olenekian and Anisian. Temnospondyls were restricted in size immediately following the extinction, but size range fully rebounded by the Olenekian. Tests of phylogenetic signal demonstrate that cranial shape was heavily influenced by phylogenetic relatedness, and the observed increases in disparity may be partly the result of decreases in the net relatedness of coeval Karoo stereospondylomorph temnospondyls in younger faunas. The increase in community-level taxonomic diversity for temnospondyls in the Karoo following the latest-Permian mass extinction was likely facilitated by an influx of distantly related and ecologically distinct species from other parts of Pangea. In Chapter 2, I discuss the merits of different potential methods for quantifying rates of dispersal within clades. I then apply some of these methods to two very different scenarios, first the dispersal of crocodylians across oceanic barriers during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic, and second the dispersal of different groups of tetrapods across Pangea during the Permo-Triassic interval. For crocodylians, because they were dispersing across substantial geographic obstacles, I opted for a direct measurement approach utilizing the optimization of discrete dispersals onto phylogenies. I examined the history of crocodylian biogeography using both parsimony and maximum likelihood on three distinct topologies with several different methods for estimating branch lengths. Across all analyses, members of the clade Alligatoroidea consistently dispersed across oceanic barriers less frequently than did non-alligatoroids. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the greater degree of salt tolerance observed in extant crocodyloids and gavialoids played a role in shaping crocodylian biogeography. The phylogenetic and temporal distribution of high dispersal rates points to an acquisition of greater salt tolerance early in the history of Crocodyloidea and Gavialoidea, potentially near the base of Longirostres if the combined evidence topology is correct. Patterns observed for changes in dispersal rate within individual clades can be largely attributed to changes in global climate and continental configuration over their history. The greater geographic ambiguity represented by the Permo-Triassic continental configuration makes a direct measurement approach inappropriate. For this study I instead opted for a proxy measurement approach, using the phylogenetic clustering of taxa within a community, measured using the Net Relatedness Index. I examined temporal changes in the phylogenetic clustering of five major tetrapod clades that span the Permian-Triassic boundary (Stereospondylomorpha, Parareptilia, Neodiapsida, Anomodontia, and Eutheriodontia) in order to examine patterns of extinction and origination through time, as well as rates of geographic dispersal. Some clades (Stereospondylomorpha, Parareptilia, and Neodiapsida) show evidence of phylogenetically selective extinction across the boundary, but this is not a universal pattern. Only one clade, Stereospondylomorpha, shows an unambiguous increase in dispersal rate following the mass extinction event. Other clades either show no change in dispersal rate, or have results that are mixed, depending on the parameters used in the analysis. These results show that stereospondylomorph temnospondyls were dispersing between geographical regions at increased rates during the Early Triassic, and this may explain much of their apparent increase in diversity following the latest-Permian mass extinction. In Chapter 3, I perform a comparison between the timing of the Triassic recovery with that following the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction. Three terrestrial fossil-bearing successions were examined, the Lower Triassic Beaufort Group in South Africa and Cis-Ural succession in Russia, and the Paleocene faunas of the American northern Great Plains. A comparison of generic diversity of tetrapods through time for the post-extinction intervals reveals a temporal disparity between the length of terrestrial recovery after the latest-Permian and K-Pg extinctions. Both Permo-Triassic successions show a period of low taxonomic richness (4-5Myr) after the extinction event, followed by an eventual rise in richness. The North American K-Pg succession shows a different pattern, with an immediate rise in richness culminating in a plateau shortly after the extinction (1-3 Myr). This disparity in recovery times may result from prolonged deleterious environmental conditions following the P-Tr events, although several important differences exist between these sequential fossil assemblages that may be affecting the apparent speed of recovery.

Amphibian populations around the world have been declining rapidly over the past two decades, particularly in upland regions of the neotropics, where a fungal pathogen that causes chytridiomycosis has decimated many regions. Despite increasing concern over these and other dramatic losses of biodiversity, little information is available on the overall ecological effects of amphibian declines. As part of the Tropical Amphibian Declines in Streams (TADS) project, I quantified major energy fluxes, secondary production, and macroinvertebrate community structure for two consecutive years in four stream reaches in the Panamanian uplands, two with healthy amphibian populations and two that had experienced amphibian declines in 1996-1997. Despite relatively high year-round inputs of allochthonous organic materials, storage of detritus in the stream channels was low compared to streams in temperate regions. Organic matter inputs and standing stocks were similar between pre- and post-decline streams, and did not differ appreciably with season. Seston export was a major energetic flux in these systems, and differences in the nutritional quality (C:N) of seston in pre- and post-decline streams suggested that the loss of tadpoles may decrease the quality of materials exported from these headwaters. At coarse scales (e.g., total abundance) macroinvertebrate assemblages were similar between pre- and post-decline sites, but there were noticeable differences in production and functional and taxonomic structure. Pre-decline reaches had higher shredder production and post-decline streams had higher scraper production. In addition, taxonomic differences between pre- and post-decline streams were also evident, with a shift from dominance of smaller scraper taxa in pre-decline sites (i.e. Psephenus) to larger-bodied scrapers such as Petrophila in post-decline reaches. Filterer production was dominated by hydropsychid caddisflies in pre-decline reaches, whereas black flies dominated filterer production in post-decline reaches. Overall, detritus and detritivores dominated energy flow in all study reaches. However, scrapers were well represented in these systems and appeared to be food-limited, particularly in pre-decline reaches where grazing tadpoles were still abundant. During the second year of my study, predicted amphibian declines began at the pre-decline site. The loss of amphibians through this year resulted in subtle shifts in macroinvertebrate functional and taxonomic structure, which correlated with changes in available food resources. Some grazing mayflies responded positively to declining tadpole populations and subsequent increased periphyton resources, suggesting a potential for some degree of functional redundancy in these systems. However, other grazers, such as the water penny beetle Psephenus, showed no response during the period of study. My results indicate that responses of remaining consumers to tadpole declines in streams may not be evident at some coarse scales (e.g., total abundance, biomass). However, differences in secondary production at the community and the functional level, along with assemblage structure changes were evident, with some individual taxa responding relatively quickly. Long-term studies in these same stream reaches will further illuminate the ultimate ecological consequences of these dramatic and sudden losses of consumer diversity.

Orientador: Ricardo Jannini Sawaya / Banca: Marcio Roberto Costa Martins / Banca: Laura Rodrigues Vieira de Alencar / Banca: Fernando Rodrigues da Silva / Banca: Cristiano de Campos Nogueira / Resumo: A Mata Atlântica da América do sul é um mosaico de diferentes fitofisionomias, relacionadas a pressões seletivas correspondentes a fatores ecológicos e evolutivos distintos, os quais regulam a distribuição da biodiversidade entre os habitats. Exploramos, neste trabalho, como a diversidade de serpentes é distribuída ao longo do gradiente latitudinal da Mata Atlântica. Primeiro analisamos a associação entre a riqueza em espécies e a diversidade filogenética de serpentes com tempo para especiação e extensão geográfica ao longo do gradiente latitudinal. Nós também exploramos as amplitudes de nicho climático destas serpentes. E, finalmente, decompusemos a composição filogenética de ilhas costeiras do sudeste da Mata Atlântica no intuito de entender como área e distância com o continente poderia afetar diferentes componentes da diversidade de serpentes. Encontramos que área é o principal fator relacionado com riqueza em espécies, independentemente do tempo para especiação. Observamos a maior riqueza em espécies em linhagens mais recentes nas zonas serranas do sudeste. Amplitudes de nicho climático, associadas à precipitação, mostraram conservação filogenética, afetando a distribuição dos clados mais recentes. Em nosso exemplo de ilhas, mostramos que distintos fatores ecológicos podem afetar riqueza em espécies e diversidade filogenética diferentemente. Desta maneira, fatores idiossincráticos poderiam gerar diferentes respostas em diferentes linhagens ao longo do gradiente... / Abstract: The Atlantic Forest of South America is a mosaic of different vegetation physiognomies corresponding to distinct evolutionary and ecological factors that drive biodiversity distribution. One of these factors is climatic variation. We explored herein how snake diversity, (measured as species richness and phylogenetic diversity) is distributed along the Atlantic Forest latitudinal gradient, taking area and time-for-speciation into account. We first analyzed the association of species richness and phylogenetic diversity with time-forspeciation and geographical extent along the latitudinal gradient. We also explored climatic niche breadths. And finally, we decomposed the phylogenetic composition across coastal islands in southeastern Atlantic Forest, to understand how island area and distance from the mainland drive different components of snake diversity. We found that area is a major driver of species richness, regardless of time-for-speciation. We observed higher species richness of more recent lineages in southeastern mountain ranges. Climatic niche breadths associated to precipitation showed phylogenetic conservatism, affecting the distribution of more recent clades. In our island case study, we show that distinct ecological factors can drive species richness and phylogenetic diversity differently. In this way, idiosyncratic factors generate different responses in different lineages across environmental gradients. We hope to shed some light on ecological and historical ... / Doutor

This diplmoma thesis aims to answer three different questions. First aim of this thesis was to analyze measures of alfa and gama diversity based on Hill numbers and find out, if these measures fullfill the weak principle of taxonomic invariance. In other words, my aim was to proove, independetly of used order of diversity, alfa and gama diversity will be always lower for higher taxonomic groups (eg. genus), than for lower taxonoic groups (eg. species). For this purpose, I used direct mathematical proof, and I showed, that equations for alfa and gama diversity are both taxonomic invariant. Moreover, I analyzed one specific measure of beta diversity as well. I showed, that beta diversity of order zero may increase or decrease in taxonomic switch. Second aim of this thesis was to examine influence of abundances on visualising of preferences of species for different enviromental factors. For thi purpose I desinged new methodology based on well-known RANK plots. This methodology should filter the influence of irregular data collectioning. In other words, this methodology should consider the case, that values of enviromental factors in data are not uniform, which may result into apparent preferences of species. Moreover, this methodology is desinged to take into considerations abundances of species as...

1 Legal Regulation of the Wild Fauna Abstract The aim of this thesis was to map and explain the differences between extensive terminology and legislation in terms of developmentin the past and present. Attentionwas also focused on a historical excursion to the protection of animals in the Czech lands and its development to the present. More specifically, I focused on the category of birds, fish and mammals. Legal regulation of the wild faunadoes not only encompass legislative definitions, historical aspects, but is also an integral part of biodiversity, which is closely linked to this topic . As the environment does not end beyond the borders of our country, this issue must also be given due attention at international level in the light of the effective international conventions. In the first chapter, I consider the inconsistency of terminology in sections of the legal order and categorizing the understandingof the terms (fauna, animal,game) and clarity for its addressees. This means, from an animal perspective, public and private law.. In the second chapter, I focused on the protection of animals in terms of history and legal documents. Already in early historyof the humanrace, man began to affect his surroundings, whether it was huntingor gathering. Over time, with a growinghuman population,he began to...

The purpose of this dissertation is to make sense of two sets of reactions. On the one hand, Americans can barely lift a finger to help threatened and endangered species while on the other, they routinely come to the aid of human victims of disaster. I argue that in contrast to cases of human tragedy, for the biodiversity crisis conservationists are faced not only with the familiar yet arduous task of motivating the American public to care for living other-than-humans, but they are also saddled with having to overcome the motivation problem of future ethics. The motivation problem consists in eliminating or bridging a motivational gap that lies between knowledge of the effects of our actions on future generations and action taken based upon such knowledge. The gap exists because motives that typically move people to action are either ineffective or unavailable. What is more, the gap influences not only our ability to care for future humans, but it affects our ability to care for future other-than-humans as well. Biodiversity loss is in fact a subset of the problem of future generations, an identification hitherto little appreciated. I argue that conservationists can overcome the motivational gap not by appealing directly to the value of species or biodiversity, both of which are temporally distant, abstract and general moral patients, but indirectly, by focusing on the concrete and particular lives of extant and near future moral patients. By applying techniques that have been developed to overcome the motivation problem as it pertains to distant future human generations, conservationists have additional resources to draw upon in their efforts to motivate American citizens to preserve biodiversity. This dissertation’s contribution to the fields of environmental philosophy and conservation biology is both theoretical and practical. It is theoretically significant to elucidate the nature of moral failure for biodiversity conservation. In terms of broader impacts, identifying the basis of moral failure for biodiversity conservation allows me to assess educational campaigns and environmental policy, and to suggest solutions for bridging the motivational gap.