Biological Inventories

We conducted an inventory of amphibians and reptiles in six U.S. national parks within the Chihuahuan Desert in 2003 and 2004. Using a combination of foot searches, road cruising, pitfall and turtle traps, and incidental observations, our field technicians and park staff documented 13,610 amphibians and reptiles within these parks. The most diverse park we surveyed was Big Bend National Park in Texas, where we documented 59 species. The least diverse park was White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, where we documented 28 species. Our inventory data can be used to monitor species composition, species richness, changes in species distribution, and changes in relative abundance of amphibians and reptiles within each park. We recommend that future monitoring programs focus primarily on changes in species distribution and relative abundance.

Background

The California Coastal Prairie has the highest biodiversity of North America's grasslands, but also has the highest percentage of urbanization.  The most urbanized part of the California Coastal Prairie is its southernmost area, in Los Angeles County.  This southernmost region, known as the Los Angeles Coastal Prairie, was historically dotted with vernal pools, and has a unique biodiverse composition.  More than 99.5% of its estimated original 95 km (23,475 acres), as well as almost all its vernal pool complexes, have been lost to urbanization.

The Madrona Marsh Preserve, in Torrance, California, safeguards approximately 18 hectares (44 acres) of Los Angeles Coastal Prairie and includes a complex of vernal pools.  Its aquatic biodiversity had been studied, predominantly to genus level, but its terrestrial macro-invertebrates were virtually unknown, aside from butterfly, dragonfly, and damselfly observations.

Results

In order to better understand the biodiversity at the Madrona Marsh Preserve, a minimally-invasive macro-invertebrate inventory was conducted. The results of this inventory, with 689 invertebrate organisms recorded, covering eight phyla, 13 classes, 39 orders, and 222 families, are presented in this document.

Resumen. Se presenta una lista de 124 especies de aves para la región de Campo Morado, Guerrero, México, con información sobre el estatus estacional, categoría de riesgo y endemismo. Se resaltan 15 registros sobresalientes, ya sea porque son nuevos para el estado, o porque amplían su distribución geográfi ca y/o modifi can su distribución estacional conocida. Además se discute la importancia de la localidad dentro de la cuenca del río Balsas.

Los famosos bosques de Iquitos, su fauna agotada por la caza, respiran un silencio perturbador. Pero al otro lado del Amazonas, a sólo 60 km de la ciudad, los bosques vibran con vida. Aquí, donde el Yavarí Mirín y otros seis ríos nacen en las colinas del Arco de Iquitos, jaguares, tapires y manadas de huanganas prosperan en un paraíso de un millón de hectáreas, donde la población humana es casi cero. En ningún lugar
del trópico existe un área natural tan grande e intacta tan cerca de un centro urbano.
La geografía explica esta incongruencia. El altoYavarí Mirín se encuentra a sólo 100 km de la ciudad de Iquitos en línea recta, pero para vender su cosecha en el mercado, un pescador tendría que recorrer más de 600 km de ríos, bordear las fronteras con Colombia y Brasil, y remar corriente arriba a través del río Amazonas.
Durante los sobrevuelos por encima del mosaico de bosques, vimos incontables bandadas de guacamayos. En tierra, los inventarios en el valle del Yavarí Mirín han documentado la existencia de poblaciones saludables de mamíferos que se encuentran amenazados a través de la Amazonía, incluyendo 13 especies de primates y las especies de caza que sustentan la población rural de Loreto. Para los organismos nunca antes estudiados en detalle en el valle del Yavarí—plantas, peces, anfibios y reptiles, aves y murciélagos—nuestro inventario ofreció un primer vistazo de la exuberancia natural a cuatro grados de la línea ecuatorial.
Un centro importante durante el auge del caucho, hoy la zona se encuentra prácticamente despoblada; el único testimonio de su historia siendo los árboles antiguos marcados por caucheros. Pero ahora que los bosques del Yavarí han recuperado su esplendor, el hombre ha vuelto a interesarse en ellos. Se contemplan concesiones forestales en el bajo Yavarí Mirín y el bajo Yavarí sigue atrayendo a inmigrantes.
Afortunadamente, existe una alternativa para asegurar la conservación
de los bosques de la zona. Si se lograra extender al valle del Yavarí Mirín el éxito de los pueblos ribereños que ya manejan la Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo— combinando el manejo local con la investigación para beneficiar las comunidades naturales y humanas—se protegería intacta un área de sumo valor no solo para Loreto, pero para el Perú y la Amazonía.

Members of our “Implementing Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring” project (called CWM) were requested to discuss biodiversity within the St. Clair-Detroit River System for State Of The Strait 2015, based on our 5 year (2011-2015) Great-Lakes wide study of the coastal marsh biota. Our sampling included plants, fish, birds, amphibians, invertebrates, as well as water quality. Sampling was conducted for CWM using a random sampling protocol to select sites and sampling plots, which provided a thorough biological overview of current conditions based on over 1000 coastal marshes. However, because the CWM inventory does not provide a long-term perspective of the changing ecological conditions and overall biotic diversity of coastal wetlands, we decided to include in this State of the Strait presentation a discussion of earlier biological inventories of the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers as well.

The Algodón and Mutún rivers are tributaries of the Putumayo River that drain megadiverse forests in the northernmost Peruvian Amazon. During the rapid inventory, the biological team studied 3 remote sites in these watersheds, while the social team visited 4 of the 13 indigenous communities along the Putumayo that have used these forests for centuries. Although 40% of the study area is currently designated for potential timber production, these forests remain roadless, largely free of human impacts, and in excellent condition. The forests, peatlands, lakes, and rivers in our study area form a natural corridor of ~415,000 ha that is bordered by three existing protected areas and actively used and protected by neighboring indigenous communities. The Medio Putumayo-Algodón region contains nearly half a million hectares of well-preserved forests, wetlands and aquatic environments in one of the most biodiverse areas of Loreto Region. Located in a global epicenter of amphibian, mammal, bi...

The spectacular terrain of the northern Cordillera Azul mountain range—
2.5 million hectares between the Huallaga and Ucayali rivers in central
Peru—is the last large, intact expanse of lower-montane forest remaining
in Peru. The rugged Cordillera is an isolated outlier east of the main range of the Andes. Hills and lowlands of the Río Huallaga valley surround the Cordillera to the west, while extensive lowlands of the Río Ucayali unfold to the east. The promise of high richness and uniqueness of species in the Cordillera, combined with the vastness and intact nature of the region, led to the inclusion of the northern Cordillera Azul within the 38 areas of priority for conservation in Peru (Rodríguez 1996, Red Ambiental Peruana 1999).
At present, virtually no one lives within the northern Cordillera. The eastern face of the Cordillera is a sheer rock wall, with adjacent hills that
are largely intact and show only a light human “footprint” in narrow strips
along the rivers draining into the lowlands. To the west, the coca fields of
the Huallaga valley approach but do not penetrate the Cordillera; these
fields are now being abandoned and are reverting to forest. To the north,
colonists push into valleys of small tributaries of the Río Huallaga, but
only up to the edge of the Cordillera.
Change, however, approaches swiftly. The most immediate threat
comes from a large expanse of logging concessions (984,000 hectares)
adjacent to the eastern edge of the Cordillera. New roads, built to extract
timber from these concessions, will attract human colonization that
leads to damage far beyond the direct impact of selective logging, unless comprehensive measures for conservation are in place.
To ensure effective protection of the extraordinary biological richness
of the Cordillera, the Red Ambiental Peruana—a Peruvian coalition from
the private sector—in coordination with the Peruvian authorities responsible for the transfer of lands to private concessions, recommended in 1999 the establishment of a new National Park within the northern Cordillera Azul.
The goal of the current rapid biological inventory was to obtain the biological information needed to empower and sustain these regional conservation efforts, and to do so quickly, before habitat fragmentation and degradation forever transform the landscape.