BIODIVERSITY LOSS IN A CHANGING PLANET Edited by Oscar Grillo and Gianfranco Venora Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet Edited by Oscar Grillo and Gianfranco Venora Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. 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Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published November, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet, Edited by Oscar Grillo and Gianfranco Venora p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-707-9 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Chapter 1 Climate Change: Wildfire Impact 3 Mirza Dautbasic, Genci Hoxhaj, Florin Ioras, Ioan Vasile Abrudan and Jega Ratnasingam Chapter 2 Assessing Loss of Biodiversity in Europe Through Remote Sensing: The Necessity of New Methodologies 19 Susana Martinez Sanchez, Pablo Ramil Rego, Boris Hinojo Sanchez and Emilio Chuvieco Salinero Chapter 3 Biodiversity Stability of Shallow Marine Benthos in Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada Through Climate Regimes, Overfishing and Ocean Acidification 49 Jeffrey B. Marliave, Charles J. Gibbs, Donna M. Gibbs, Andrew O. Lamb and Skip J.F. Young Chapter 4 Coral Reef Biodiversity in the Face of Climatic Changes 75 Stéphane La Barre Chapter 5 Biogeography of Platberg, Eastern Free State, South Africa: Links with Afromontane Regions and South African Biomes 113 Robert F. Brand, L.R. Brown and P.J. du Preez Chapter 6 Biodiversity Loss in Freshwater Mussels: Importance, Threats, and Solutions 137 Trey Nobles and Yixin Zhang Chapter 7 Effects of Climate Change in Amphibians and Reptiles 163 Saúl López-Alcaide and Rodrigo Macip-Ríos Chapter 8 Identification and Analysis of Burned Areas in Ecological Stations of Brazilian Cerrado 185 Claudionor Ribeiro da Silva, Rejane Tavares Botrel, Jeová Carreiro Martins and Jailson Silva Machado VI Contents Chapter 9 Provision of Natural Habitat for Biodiversity: Quantifying Recent Trends in New Zealand 201 Anne-Gaelle E. Ausseil, John R. Dymond and Emily S. Weeks Chapter 10 Limited Bio-Diversity and Other Defects of the Immune System in the Inhabitants of the Islands of St Kilda, Scotland 221 Peter Stride Chapter 11 Native Tree Species Regeneration and Diversity in the Mountain Cloud Forests of East Africa 241 Loice M.A. Omoro and Olavi Luukkanen Chapter 12 Destruction of the Forest Habitat in the Tatra National Park, Slovakia 257 Monika Kopecka Chapter 13 Modern Methods of Estimating Biodiversity from Presence-Absence Surveys 277 Robert M. Dorazio, Nicholas J. Gotelli and Aaron M. Ellison Chapter 14 Isolation and Identification of Indigenous Microorganisms of Cocoa Farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Assessment of Their Antagonistic Effects Vis-À-Vis Phytophthora palmivora, the Causal Agent of the Black Pod Disease 303 Joseph Mpika, Ismaël B. Kebe and François K. N’Guessan Preface The deep biophysical alterations that are currently happening on our planet, are the natural consequence to the climate changes which the biosphere is subjected to. The loss of biodiversity is one of the macroscopic effects of this modification. Although this certainly isn't the first time the Earth undergoes such evolutions, mankind today should have the opportunity to make this change little less critical, considering, above all, that probably one of the most important causes of the actual loss of biodiversity is closely related to human development. Every ecosystem is a complex organization of carefully mixed life forms, a dynamic and particularly sensible system. Consequently, their progressive decline may accelerate climate change and vice versa, influencing flora and fauna composition and distribution, resulting in the loss of biodiversity. Mainly focused on climate change effects, this book includes very interesting case studies about biodiversity evaluations and provisions in several different ecosystems, such as tropical forests and coral reefs, analysing the current life condition of many life forms, from shellfish to reptiles and amphibians, and covering diverse biogeographic zones, from Europe to Oceania, Africa to Asia, as well as from Pacific Ocean to Indian Ocean. Oscar Grillo Stazione Sperimentale di Granicoltura per la Sicilia, Caltagirone Biodiversity Conservation Centre, University of Cagliari Italy Gianfranco Venora Stazione Sperimentale di Granicoltura per la Sicilia, Caltagirone, Italy [...]... Climate Change: Wildfire Impact Mirza Dautbasic1, Genci Hoxhaj2, Florin Ioras3, Ioan Vasile Abrudan4 and Jega Ratnasingam5 2Ministry 1Sarajevo University of Environment, Forest and Water Administration 3Buckinghamshire New University 4Transilvania University 5Putra University 1Bosnia Herzegovina 2Albania 3United Kingdom 4Romania 5Malaysia 1 Introduction The European forests harbour biological wealth... considerations on how species native to the region will have to adapt 2 Climate change A changing climate will interact with other drivers in pertaining ways and generate feedback cycles with significant consequences The effects of habitat fragmentation on native species may be dependent on intra- and inter-annual variation in rainfall (Morrison, 2000); so changes in rainfall and development patterns may... al 1999, 2000; Donnegan 2001) Moisture availability is determined by both precipitation and temperature Warmer temperatures can reduce moisture availability via an increased potential for evapo-transpiration (evaporation from soils and surface water, and from vegetation), a reduced snowpack, and an earlier snowmelt Snowpack at high altitude is an important mean of making water available as runoff in. .. European land and sea area, i.e the European mainland as far east as the Ural Mountains, including offshore islands (Cyprus; Iceland but not Greenland), and the archipelagos of the European Union Member States (Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores), Anatolian Turkey and the Caucasus (Davies et al 2004) It represents a common classification scheme for the whole of European Union, as it is compatible... decreasing importance of fine fuel availability—and an increasing importance of fuel flammability— as limiting factors for wildfire as moisture availability increases on average 2.1.2 Forest wildfire and the timing of spring There has been a remarkable increase in the incidence of large forest wildfire in some of the countries in the South East Europe since the early 1980s (Table 2) Understanding the factors... were launched Medium spatial resolution images from sensors on satellites make especially available information related to biophysical factors In this sense, Landsat TM and ETM+ sensors are widely used in ecological investigations and applications because they have several advantages)(Cohen and Goward 2004): 30m of spatial resolution that facilitates characterization of land cover and land cover change;... 102 Macedonia 0 0 25 Moldova 0 0 0 Romania 0 0 6 Slovakia 13 1 3 Slovenia 0 0 13 12 17 2 Hungary Italy Yugoslavia Table 1 Number of forest fire that affected an area over 400ha in South East Europe between 1970-2000 Note: 0 means no reported data 6 Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet In the South, the frequency of large wildfires peaks in Italy and Greece, in the East in Bulgaria and Croatia often... issues are if we are able to identify proper and accurately habitats from remote sensing at landscape level: the mapping and monitoring of 22 Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet the territory in terms of its habitats We have to say not yet, at least not only with remote sensing technologies and with an adequate budget and an optimal time We also need ancillary information, ecological expert knowledge,... experienced in Europe, since the establishment of an industrial civilization, currently sustaining a population that has increased approximately 270% since 1850 Changes in wildfire regimes driven by climate change are likely to impact ecosystem services that European citizens rely on, including carbon sequestration; water quality and quantity; air quality; wildlife habitat; and recreational facilities In addition... in particular appears to undergo a shift near 15°C during of 2007 (Figure 4 and 5) Year 2007 was used as reference year due to the significant increase of wildfire (Figure 6) and also this year was known to have had a heat wave Temperatures taken separately above and below that threshold are not significantly correlated with expenditures, but the mean and variance of expenditures increase dramatically . expenditure appear to increase with spring and summer average temperature in a highly non-linear fashion. In the case of Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina and Romania (Hoxhaj, 2005; Alexandru et al, 2007;. on intra- and inter-annual variation in rainfall (Morrison, 2000); so changes in rainfall and development patterns may deepen impacts. Increasing fires, in combination with increasing nitrogen. BIODIVERSITY LOSS IN A CHANGING PLANET Edited by Oscar Grillo and Gianfranco Venora Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet Edited by Oscar Grillo and Gianfranco