Methods of increasing the number, diversity and evenness of plant species establishing in species-rich meadows created or enhanced with green hay from a semi-natural source meadow were studied. Three experiments were conducted on grasslands in Birmingham and Herefordshire: (i) Comparisons of species and community transfer resulting from green hay being strewn in consecutive years onto a glyphosated receiver meadow. (ii) The effect on species-richness of introducing green hay into a species-rich created meadow. (iii) The effect of different levels of disturbance in combination with grazing on the introduction of species into an existing created species-rich meadow. Strewing hay twice resulted in vegetation containing more species and species with higher frequencies compared with haying once. Hay strewing increased the number of species in an existing species-rich sward and also increased the frequency and abundance of existing species. Source species frequency, flowering/seed set date and established life strategy had an important influence on species transfer. In general, species that did not transfer were those found at low frequencies in MG5 Cynosurus cristatus – Centaurea nigra community meadows and with stress-tolerance as part of their life strategy. There was a statistically significant three-way interaction between haying, grazing and disturbance. As several terrestrial orchid species are associated with this habitat type, techniques and media for axenic seed germination and propagation of a selected local MG5 meadow orchid species (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) were assessed. Comparisons were made of two media types in combination with mycorrhizae and a source of complex carbohydrates. Of these, oats medium with fungi produced significantly higher germination rates than other tested media. Oats medium also proved the most suitable medium for protocorms when replated, producing the greatest increase in protocorm length compared with Western medium after 15 weeks of growth.

In the last two decades it has been seen a large increase in blood stream infections by Candida spp. The candidemias are associated with high morbidity and mortality, as well as the increase in hospital costs. The phenomenon of resistance highlights the importance of performing tests for susceptibility to antifungal agents. Such tests are improving constantly in an attempt to standardize their interpretations. This study evaluated the susceptibility of Candida spp. isolated from candidemias during a period of 15 years divided into three periods of five years in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, interpreting minimum inhibitory concentrations according to the proposal of the CLSI and the new breakpoints recently proposed by Pfaller et al. Among the 525 isolates during the three periods, C. parapsilosis was the predominant species (49.14%), followed by C. albicans (34.47%), C. tropicalis (8.19%), C. glabrata (3.61%), C. lusitaniae (1.90%), C. guilliermondii (1.71%) and C.krusei (0.95%). During the study period and considering the two criteria, 136 non-susceptible isolates were found. According to CLSI, we identified 40 (7.61%) non-susceptible isolates, from wich 19 (3.61%) were resistant. According to Pfaller et al., 96 (18.28%) isolates presented themselves as nonsusceptible, being 11 (2.09%) resistant. All isolates were susceptible to amphotericin B and 3 presented themselves dose-dependent or intermediate suscpetible to flucytosine and caspofungin. Resistance was detected only among the azole antifungals: itraconazole (2.09%), fluconazole (1.14%) and voriconazole (0.38%). The isolation of species resistant to the antifungal agents used was not a prominent feature in this study. Detecting a higher number of non-susceptible species highlighted the relevance of evaluating of susceptibility tests by new breakpoints in order to find a more efficient therapy. / Nas últimas duas décadas observou-se um grande aumento nas infecções de corrente sanguínea por Candida spp. As candidemias estão associadas a altas taxas de morbidade e mortalidade, bem como ao incremento nos custos hospitalares. O fenômeno da resistência evidencia a importância da realização de testes de suscetibilidade aos agentes antifúngicos. Tais testes estão aprimorando-se constantemente na tentativa de uniformizar suas respectivas interpretações. O presente estudo avaliou a suscetibilidade de Candida spp. isoladas de candidemias por um período de 15 anos divididos em três períodos de cinco anos, em Santa Maria, RS, Brasil, interpretando as concentrações inibitórias mínimas de acordo com a proposta do CLSI e os novos breakpoints recentemente propostos por Pfaller et al. Entre os 525 isolados nos três períodos avaliados, C. parapsilosis foi a espécie predominante (49,14%), seguida por C. albicans (34,47%), C. tropicalis (8,19%), C. glabrata (3,61%), C. lusitaniae (1,90%), C. guilliermondii (1,71%), e C. krusei (0,95%). Durante o período estudado e considerando-se os dois critérios, foram detectados 136 isolados não sensíveis. Segundo o CLSI, foram identificados 40 (7,61%) isolados não sensíveis, sendo 19 (3,61%) resistentes. De acordo com Pfaller et al., 96 (18,28%) isolados apresentaram-se como não sensíveis, sendo 11 (2,09%) resistentes. Todos os isolados foram sensíveis a anfotericina B e 5 e 3 isolados apresentaram-se intermediários a flucitosina e caspofungina, respectivamente. Resistência foi detectada somente entre os antifúngicos azólicos: itraconazol (2,09%), fluconazol (1,14%), e voriconazol (0,38%). O isolamento de espécies resistentes aos agentes antifúngicos utilizados não foi uma característica marcante no presente estudo. Este estudo permitiu uma melhor visão da epidemiologia local. A detecção de um maior número de espécies não sensíveis ressaltou a relevância da avaliação dos testes suscetibilidade através dos novos breakpoints a fim de ser direcionada a uma terapia mais eficiente.

abstract: Megafauna species worldwide have undergone dramatic declines since the end of the Pleistocene, twelve thousand years ago. In response, there have been numerous calls to increase conservation attention to these ecologically important species. However, introduced megafauna continue to be treated as pests. This thesis evaluates the extent of this conservation paradox in relation to changing megafauna diversity from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene and finds that introductions have provided refuge for a substantial number threatened and endangered megafaunal species and has restored generic diversity levels per continent to levels closer to the Pleistocene than the Holocene. Furthermore, this thesis describes a previously unstudied behavior of wild burros (Equus asinus), an introduced megafauna whose pre-domestic ancestors are Critically Endangered. Wild burros dig wells to access groundwater and in doing so substantially increase water availability on several scales, create sites that are visited by numerous species and are comparable to natural water sources in terms of species richness, and provide germination nurseries for important riparian pioneer plant species. My results suggest that relaxing concepts of nativity in an age of extinction will provide new understandings of ecological function and can help focus attention on broader conservation goals. / Dissertation/Thesis / Appendix C / Appendix F / Masters Thesis Biology 2017

Orientador: Rodrigo Egydio Barreto / Resumo: Processos ecológicos como competição e predação tem o potencial de regular populações, influenciando no funcionamento do ecossistema por intermédio da partição de recursos e perda de espécies. A adição de espécies exóticas em teias tróficas podem alterar esses processos ecológicos e provocar efeitos em cascata. Em um estudo pioneiro, avaliamos por uma perspectiva multidisciplinar, os impactos da introdução de uma espécie de siri asiática na costa oeste do Atlântico. Para isso, aspectos populacionais, ecológicos, fisiológicos e comportamentais foram avaliados em ambiente natural e através de experimentação em laboratório. Nossos resultados revelaram que a espécie de siri invasora Charybdis hellerii está estabelecida na litoral do estado de São Paulo, é um competidor vigoroso, disputando recursos com seis espécies de decápodes nativos, e um predador eficiente, de hábito onívoro, que pode elevar a pressão predatória sobre quatro grupos de presas, três consideradas ‘engenheiros do ecossistema’. As análises comportamental e fisiológica revelaram ainda que a espécie invasora e a nativa Cronius ruber são mais ativas, realizam mais interações comportamentais intra e interespecífica, tendem a dominar a região do entremarés inferior em costões rochosos e que ambas disputam diretamente as mesmas tocas e os mesmos alimentos quando estão no mesmo ambiente. Dessa forma, o aumento populacional da espécie invasora pode elevar a pressão competitiva sobre C. ruber, aumentando também a chance d... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Ecological processes, such as predation and competition, have the potential to regulate populations, influencing the functioning of the ecosystem through resources partition and loss of species. The addition of alien species into food webs may change these ecological processes and cause cascading effects. In a pioneering study, the impact of the introduction of a species of Asian crab on the Atlantic west coast was evaluated by a multidisciplinary perspective. For this, population, ecological, physiological, and behavioral aspects were evaluated in natural environment and in laboratory experimentation. The results revealed that the species of invasive crab Charybdis hellerii is established on the coast of São Paulo State. This species is a vigorous competitor, competing for resources with six decapod native species, and an efficient predator with omnivorous habit, which can raise the predatory pressure on four prey groups, three of them considered 'ecosystem engineers'. Behavioral and physiological analysis also showed that invasive species and native Cronius ruber are more active, performing more intra and interspecific behavioral interactions. These species tend to dominate the region of the lower intertidal on rocky shores and both compete directly for the same burrow and food when they are in the same environment. Thus, the population growth of invasive species may increase the competitive pressure on C. ruber, also increasing the risk of competitive exclusion. If this ex... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

During the Late Quaternary, abrupt climate and cultural changes took place and made alternations to the past landscape. Climatic phenomena such as expand of ice masses,sea level rise, high and low temperatures, migration of humans, decline and increase of forest areas and more changes were the reason of changing the biodiversity of species and the formation of the land. Here cartographic maps with the use of GIS will be presented from reconstructions of the environment during the Late Quaternary, which then will be interpreted from coleopteran fossils for the whole of Europe. Furthermore, living and extinct species will be compared, in which the focus of the extinction will be in the British Isles. Each period will show a different abundance of species, the regional disappearance of the species will be depicted by the abrupt changes in the landscape during the past. Anthropogenic and natural factors will be discussed and be compared with the habitats of the species.

abstract: Since its inception in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been met with both praise and criticism. More than 40 years later, the Act is still polarizing, with proponents applauding its power to protect species and critics arguing against its perceived ineffectiveness and potential mismanagement. Recovery plans, which were required by the 1988 amendments to the Act, play an important role in organizing efforts to protect and recover species under the Act. In 1999, in an effort to evaluate the process, the Society for Conservation Biology commissioned an independent review of endangered species recovery planning. From these findings, the SCB made key recommendations for how management agencies could improve the recovery planning process, after which the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service redrafted their recovery planning guidelines. One important recommendation called for recovery plans to make threats a primary focus, including organizing and prioritizing recovery tasks for threat abatement. Here, I seek to determine the extent to which SCB recommendations were incorporated into these new guidelines, and if, in turn, the recommendations regarding threats manifested in recovery plans written under the new guidelines. I found that the guidelines successfully incorporated most SCB recommendations, except those that addressed monitoring. As a result, recent recovery plans have improved in their treatment of threats, but still fail to adequately incorporate threat monitoring. This failure suggests that developing clear guidelines for monitoring should be an important priority in future ESA recovery planning. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Biology 2014

A bacia do rio Piracicaba tem recebido atenção especial das autoridades municipais, pois possui grandes problemas de aproveitamento de seus recursos hídricos. A bacia do rio Corumbataí, um dos principais afluentes da margem direita do rio Piracicaba, é regionalmente importante, não só porque ainda possui águas de boa qualidade, mas também por apresentar elementos raros na paisagem do interior do estado. Esta tese teve o objetivo de caracterizar as assembléias de peixes na bacia do rio Corumbataí e fornecer ferramentas para avaliação de seu status ambiental. Foram escolhidos 4 rios principais com 3 pontos de coleta em cada um. Foram realizadas coletas no período de março a junho e setembro a dezembro de 2001, totalizando 24 coletas. Os dados bióticos foram avaliados através de medidas de diversidade. Para testar a hipótese de variação espaço-temporal da assembléia de peixes foi aplicado o modelo linear ANCOVA onde a variável resposta foi a riqueza de espécies; o fator foi ordem do rio; sendo utilizadas 2 covariáveis ambientais: temperatura e número de indivíduos, revelando uma variação espaço-temporal e padrões reconhecidos no meio acadêmico: relação espécie-área e conceito de rio contínuo. Técnicas multivariadas foram aplicadas para determinar a correlação entre a riqueza e a paisagem no entorno do ponto de coleta, revelando que existem mais espécies em locais com maior cobertura vegetal e mata ciliar preservada. Algumas espécies de peixes se mostraram bons indicadores ambientais: Hypostomus strigaticeps, Hoplosternum littorale e Salminus hilarii; por outro lado o Astyanax altiparanae não se mostrou um bom indicador / The Piracicaba river basin has received special attention from local authorities because it has presented a lot of problems about the misutilization of its hydric resources. The Corumbataí river basin, one of the major streams of the right side of the Piracicaba river, is regionally important, not only because it still has good water quality but also because it has unique elements inside the landscape of São Paulo state. This thesis aims to characterize the fish assemblage of the Corumbataí river basin and provide tools to assess the present environmental status of the basin. It has been chosen 4 major streams with 3 unit samples in each one of the streams. The samples were carried out from March to June and from September to December in the year of 2001, making up a total of 24 samples. The biotic data were assessed using diversity measurement. An ANCOVA was used to test the hypothesis of time-space variation of the fish assemblage, where the dependent variable was the species richness; the factor was the stream order and 2 environmental co-variates were used: temperature and number of individuals, thus revealing both time-space variation and some patterns which are recognized academically: species-area relationship and river continuum concept (RCC). Multivariate techniques were used to determine the correlation between richness and the landscape characteristics in the sampling unit, revealing that there is a greater number of species along the sites with a larger riparian zone. Some fish species have showed to be a good indicator: Hypostomus strigaticeps, Hoplosternum littorale and Salminus hilarii; on the other hand Astyanax altiparanae has not showed to be a good indicator species

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The Cape Floristic Region, situated at the southern tip of Africa, is one of the world’s most botanically diverse regions. The biodiversity of this region faces various types of threats, which can be divided into three main categories, namely increasing urbanisation, agriculture expansion, and the spread of invasive alien vegetation. It has been shown that botanically diverse areas are more prone to invasion by invasive alien plant (IAP) species. The Hawequa conservation area, in the south-western Cape, is particularly botanically diverse, such that it is very prone to aggressive invasion by IAP species. Therefore, conservation management of the Hawequa conservation area urgently need to map, prioritise and clear IAP species. Due to the topographical complexity of this mountainous area, it is not possible to map the distribution of IAP species throughout the protected area by conventional field methods. Remote sensing may be able to provide a suitable alternative for mapping. The aim of this research was to assess various image classification methods,using two types of high-resolution imagery (colour aerial photography and WorldView-2 satellite imagery), in order to map the distribution of IAP species, including small stands and individuals. Specifically, the study will focus on mapping Pinus and Acacia spp. in a study site of approximately 9 225ha in the Hawequa conservation rea. Supervised classification was performed using two different protocols, namely per-pixel and per-field. For the per-pixel classification Iterative Self-Organising Data Analyses Technique (ISODATA) was used, a method supported by ERDAS Imagine. The per-field (object-based) classification was done using fractal net evolution approach (FNEA), a method supported by eCognition. The per-pixel classification mapped the extent of Pinus and Acacia spp. in the study area as 1 205.8 ha (13%) and 80.1 ha (0.9%) respectively, and the perfield classification as 1 120.9 ha (12.1%) and 96.8 ha (1.1%) respectively. Accuracy assessments performed on the resulting thematic maps generated from these two classification methods had a kappa coefficient of 0.700 for the per-pixel classification and 0.408 for the per-field classification. Even though the overall extent of IAP species for each of these methods is similar, the reliability of the actual thematic maps is vastly different. These findings suggest that mapping IAP species (especially Pinus spp.) stands and individuals in highly diverse natural veld, the traditional per-pixel classification still proves to be the best method when using high-resolution images. In the case of Acacia spp., which often occurs along rivers, it is more difficult to distinguish them from the natural riverine vegetation. Using WorldView-2 satellite images for large areas can be very expensive (approximately R120 per km2 in 2011), but in comparison with the cost of mapping and the subsequent clearing, especially in inaccessible areas, it might be a worthwhile investment. Alternative image sources such as the high resolution digital colour infrared aerial photography must be considered as a good source for mapping IAP species in high altitude areas.

Precise descriptions and comprehensive taxonomies of species and their ecology are essential in monitoring changes in marine biodiversity at multiple spatial scales. A currently undescribed species of commensal amphipod in the genus Leucothoe is reported from New Zealand, collected from the endemic tunicate Cnemidocarpa bicornuta. This species differs from others in the genus in having a one-articulate first maxilla palp and an apically produced tuberculate lobe on the inner margin of the outer plate of the maxilliped. Previous taxonomic surveys in New Zealand waters did not document this species, indicating that it may be a recent arrival. This research highlights the importance of biodiversity monitoring and taxonomic surveys to record occurrences of undescribed or recently-arrived taxa.

TITLE: Highschool students practical knowledge of nature subjects AUTHOR: Bc. Kamila Štěpánka Moravcová DEPARTMENT: Biology and Environmental Studies Department SUPERVISOR: PhDr. Petr Novotný, Ph.D. Abstract This text is aiming to species identification. Main target is how good or bad are students of secondary education (junior high school) in species identification. Theoretical part: Definition of basic terminilogy and detailed research and comparison (outcomes and methodics) of previous testings and questionaires of pre-school childern, primary, secondary and college students. Practical part: 1) Pre-research: Making lists of species, which would be used to test students. These lists were based on what contained students notes and what contained biology education itself. 2) Research: I was testing students and I compared outcomes with previous testings. Result is, that species identification is part of biology education, which still needs developing, because students aren't good at all in species identification. Key words: species knowledge, species identification, product of nature