1. Freshwater ecosystems are amongst the most threatened and poorly protected globally. They continue to be degraded through habitat loss, pollution and invading species and conservation measures are urgently needed to halt declining trends in their biodiversity and integrity. 2. During the past decade a suite of decision support tools and computational approaches have been developed for effici...

The jaguar, Panthera onca, is a top predator with the extant population found within the Brazilian Caatinga biome now known to be on the brink of extinction. Designing new conservation units and potential corridors are therefore crucial for the long-term survival of the species within the Caatinga biome. Thus, our aims were: 1) to recognize suitable areas for jaguar occurrence, 2) to delineate ...

The African lion has declined to <35,000 individuals occupying 25% of its historic range. The situation is most critical for the geographically isolated populations in West Africa, where the species is considered regionally endangered. Elevating their conservation significance, recent molecular studies establish the genetic distinctiveness of West and Central African lions from other extant Afr...

Many phylogeographic studies have revealed strongly diverged lineages within species that are masked by a lack of congruent morphological differentiation. To assess the extent to which the genetic component of diversity affects conservation assessments, we compared spatial patterns of endemism and conservation value for 22 species of Californian amphibians and reptiles with the 75 phylogeograph...

In this paper we explore the role that biosystematists can play in conservation planning. Conservation planning concerns the location and design of reserves that both represent the biodiversity of a region and enable the persistence of that biodiversity by maintaining key ecological and evolutionary processes. For conservation planning to be effective, quantitative targets are needed for the sp...

Identification of units within species worthy of separate management consideration is an important area within conservation. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) surveys can potentially contribute to this by identifying phylogenetic and population structure below the species level. The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is broadly distributed throughout the Neotropics. Its numbers have been reduced se...

OBJECTIVE The limitation of alternative transfusion practices in infants increases the benefits of blood conservation. We analyzed the efficacy of a structured program to reduce transfusions and transfusion-associated complications in cardiac surgery PATIENTS AND METHODS: Our pediatric surgery database was reviewed retrospectively, comparing outcomes from two different time periods, after the i...

Anadromous Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is a species of major conservation and management concern in North America, where population abundance has been declining over the past 30 years. Effective conservation actions require the delineation of conservation units to appropriately reflect the spatial scale of intraspecific variation and local adaptation. Towards this goal, we used the most compr...