Fish communities associated with coral reefs worldwide are threatened by overexploitation and other human impacts such as bleaching events that cause habitat degradation. We assessed the fish community on coral reefs on the Caribbean coast of Panama, as well as those associated with mangrove and seagrass habitats, to explore the influences of habitat cover, connectivity and environmental charac...

I review the current status of Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos) in India based on a questionnaire, interviews, and a literature survey. The Himalayan region and the hills of northeastern India probably support one of the largest populations of Asiatic black bear in Asia. Asiatic black bears live in forested mountain habitats (1,200-3,300 m) in the st...

Human actions have led to loss and degradation of wetlands, impairing their suitability as habitat especially for waterbirds. Such negative effects may be mitigated through habitat management. To date scientific evidence regarding the impacts of these actions remains scarce. We studied guild specific abundances of breeding and staging birds in response to habitat management on 15 Finnish wetlan...

Land use changes by human activities have been the main causes of habitats and wildlife population degradation. In the Tehuantepec Isthmus in Oaxaca, the tropical habitat of the porcupine Sphiggurus mexicanus has been subject to vegetation and land use changes, causing its reduction and fragmentation. In this study, we estimated vegetation cover and land use (δn) change rates and assessed habit...

In Utah, greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sagegrouse) range has been reduced to 50% of what is considered historical availability due to habitat degradation and loss. In an effort to improve sage-grouse habitat in southern Utah, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a tree-removal treatment in 2005. We conducted a study to determine if (a) the tree-removal...

Garry oak (Quercus garryana) was once a dominant habitat type on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia but urbanization has severely fragmented and reduced its occurrence. This study tests whether bird abundance in remnant patches of Garry oak and adjacent Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is related to Garry oak volume, patch size or urbanization. Breeding bird populations were sur...

Habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss have taxed early-successional species including the Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and numerous grassland obligate birds. Translocation is often applied to counteract the consequences of habitat fragmentation through the creation, reestablishment, or augmentation of wild populations for the purposes of conservation, biodiversity maintenance....

– Recent population declines have prompted the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to list Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea: Parulidae) as a Vulnerable species. It is believed that this decline may be related to habitat loss through its entire range, mainly due to deforestation and degradation of its habitats. In response, members of El Grupo Cerúleo, a subcommittee of the Cer...

Understanding recruitment and identifying factors critical to that process are imperative if adult spiny lobster Panulirus argus stocks are to be conserved and properly managed. The goal of our research has been to obtain ecological infonnation linking inshore postlarval spiny lobster recruiunent to later life stages, lhereby providing the basic framework for assessing and predicting adult stoc...

Stephen L. Peterson* Ecological succession and climate change are pushing tundra as well as Arctic and subarctic Robert F. Rockwell† lowland plant communities toward increased woody vegetation cover. However, areas Christopher R. Witte† and along the Hudson Bay Lowlands that are over-grazed by hyper-abundant lesser snow geese David N. Koons‡ are experiencing drastic losses of grass, sedge, and ...