Abstract: A simple methodology was applied with the purpose of understanding the effects of anthropogenic disturbances in the biodiversity of landscape patches, namely by using Soil Surface Dwelling Arthropods as relevant indicators in changing scenarios. The goal of the present paper is to apply and extend the above academic concepts to landscape management, and to demonstrate the potential of a Stochastic Dynamic Methodology in implementing the respective actions. Since many of the ecosystem phenomenological aspects are the result of whole-system properties, the main purpose of the Stochastic Dynamic Methodology is to promote a mechanistic understanding of the holistic ecological processes, based on statistical parameter estimation methods. In this perspective, the proposed protocol is compatible with most activities undertaken by conventional ecological science, i.e., pattern seeking, the ability to explain past and present states, and the ability to predict future states. Additionally, in contexts relating to landscape management, the results of the Stochastic Dynamic Methodology applied to monitoring and restoration activities are intuitive and can be easily communicated to non-experts (ranging from students to resource users and senior policy makers).

Keywords: Soil Surface Dwelling Arthropods; Stochastic Dynamic Methodology; Biodiversity Indicators; Landscape patches; Landscape management

Abstract: The Massaciuccoli Lake, a 700 ha shallow lake, located in the Migliarino San Rossore Massaciuccoli Natural Park, along the Tuscan coast (Italy), has undergone a dramatic reduction of the macroalgal and submerged macrophytic communities over the last fifty years. This reduction was both in terms of the number of species and abundance, leading in recent years to a turbid water-phytoplankton dominated state and to the disappearance of submerged macrophytes. The aim of this study was to investigate, in aquaria experiments, the minimum threshold of light, necessary for the survival of a macrophyte, Myriophyllum verticillatum L., caused by sediment resuspension. Subsequently enclosure experiments were carried out with biomanipulation techniques (such as the removal of the fish community, the inoculation of zooplankton, Daphnia magna Strauss and forced reintroduction of the macrophyte) in enclosures. The results showed that, currently, the PAR intensity at the bottom of the lake is not sufficient to allow spontaneous recovery of the submerged vegetation. The positive effect of biomanipulation, due to fish removing plankton and phytoplankton-grazing, may lead to a significant clarification of the water column in the treated enclosures, allowing radication and growth of submerged vegetation. Nevertheless, an effective recovery of Massaciuccoli Lake is not likely to be achieved until an integrated approach (ranging from the reduction of the pollutant sources to partial dredging of the sediment, because of the high nutrient levels), is performed.

Keywords: restoration, shallow lakes, aquatic macrophytes, biomanipulation, enclosures

Abstract: Despite the increase in phytoplankton population in the Caspian Sea, there is few detail study regarding bloom of some species in the recent years. Previous studies have announced the bloom-forming Cyanophyta Nodularia spumigena Mertens to the Caspian Sea. In this study, we attempt to understand the bloom events that are involved Nodularia spumigena population and environmental parameters in the Iranian coastal water in 2009. The preliminary results suggested that Nodularia spumigena observed in the Caspian Sea in some seasons at different depths but bloom formation starting from middle of summer and reach a maximum in the early of autumn at the surface. Result of this study also showed that phytoplankton assemblage comprised of 46 species after bloom. Bacillariophyta had the highest number of species (17) follow by Pyrrophyta (14), Cyanophyta and Chlorophyta (6) and Euglenophyta (3). But, phytoplankton species of bloom sample is classified in three groups: Cyanophyta, Pyrrophyta and Bacillariophyta which Cyanophyta dominated over the other groups of algae and formed more than 98% and 96% of phytoplankton abundance and biomass, respectively. As of now, the pattern of dominant and frequent species in the Caspian Sea indicated that the health of the water body and aquatic organisms are at risk.

Keywords: Phytoplankton, Cyanophyta, bloom, Caspian Sea, Iran

Abstract: Despite the fact that several experiments have been conducted to explore the biodiversityproductivity relationship in synthesized and natural plant communities, the results obtained were contradictory and no clear consensus has been reached. Recent experiments that surveyed mature natural plant communities have investigated this relationship across environmental gradients, where biotic and/or abiotic factors are correlated with the observed diversity and productivity levels. We studied the effect of plant diversity on ecosystem productivity in agriculturally managed (managed at a low intensity with moderate level of disturbance) and natural (no history of management) grasslands at a within-site scale in order to minimize the confounding effect of environmental factors. We tested the effects of two diversity measures (species richness and species evenness) on productivity within- and across-sites scale. Our results indicated that this relationship was different between the natural and the managed grasslands and varied according to the diversity measure. Species richness only poorly explained the variation in productivity for the managed grasslands, while the variations in system productivity were better explained by species evenness. Interestingly, our results from the natural low productive, species poor grassland are in agreement with the results obtained from the recent experiments that artificially manipulated diversity levels and found an asymptotic increase in productivity along with increasing species richness. Our results provide additional evidence of the complex behavior that measures of species diversity that combine several aspects of diversity such as species evenness, species identity as well as the interactions among the species may be better determinants of the response of the ecosystem to biodiversity.

Keywords: biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, evenness, dry acidic grasslands, managed grasslands, species richness

Abstract: Over the last 50 years increasing fragmentation of habitats has occurred due to road building. Fragmenting a large population into smaller ones can have a negative effect on population demography. In England much small mammal habitat occurs in suburban and rural areas where the majority of roads are either single track or two lanes, and traffic density is light. This study investigated the effect of minor roads on the movements of two small mammals, the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) and bank vole (Myodes glareolus). Capture-Mark-Recapture was used to study movements beside and across rural roads of two different widths. The results suggest that even small roads less than 6metres wide, with relatively little traffic, do act as partial barriers for these small mammals, reducing their movement between habitats on either side of the road. It is evident that island populations are being created as a result of road construction, even access roads within nature reserves.

Keywords: habitat fragmentation, barrier, wood mouse, bank vole, animal movements

Abstract: Oribatid mites are one of the most abundant groups of the ground-dwelling mesofauna. They can be found in almost every terrestrial habitat all over the world and they are characterized by great species richness and great number of individuals. In spite of that not enough is known about their behaviour on community level and their spatial and temporal pattern in different habitats of the world. In our present study the seasonal behaviour of oribatid mite communities was analysed in three types of microhabitats in a temperate deciduous forest: in leaf litter, soil and moss. Samples were collected at a given site in a year and a half and the oribatid mite communities living there were studied on genus level along with the changes of meteorological factors characteristic of the area. The results show that corresponding to similar previous researches, the communities in our study do not have a seasonally changing, returning pattern either. Based on this, we can conclude that climatic differences and differences in other seasonally changing factors between the seasons do not have a significant role in the annual change of communities. Besides that we discovered that the communities of the three microhabitats are not completely the same. It is the oribatid mite community of the moss which differs mostly from communities in the leaf litter and in the soil. Our study calls attention among others to the fact that compositional changes of the oribatid mite communities living all over the world and their causes are unclear to date.

Keywords: oribatid mites, communities, microhabitats, seasonality, temperate deciduous forest