Spatial pattern of tree diversity and evenness across forest types in Majella National Park,Italy

Background:Estimation of tree diversity at broader scale is important for conservation planning.Tree diversity should be measured and understood in terms of diversity and evenness,two integral components to describe the structure of a biological community.Variation of the tree diversity and evenness with elevation,topographic relief,aspect,terrain shape,slope,soil nutrient,solar radiation etc.are well documented.Methods:Present study explores the variation of tree diversity(measured as Shannon diversity and evenness indices)of Majella National Park,Italy with five available forest types namely evergreen oak woods,deciduous oak woods,black/aleppo pine stands,hop-hornbeam forest and beech forest,using satellite,environmental and field data.Results:Hop-hornbeam forest was found to be most diverse and even while evergreen Oak woods was the lowest diverse and even.Diversity and evenness of forest types were concurrent to each other i.e.forest type which was more diverse was also more even.As a broad pattern,majority portion of the study area belonged to medium diversity and high evenness class.Conclusions:Satel ite images and other GIS data proved useful tools in monitoring variation of tree diversity and evenness across various forest types.Present study findings may have implications in prioritizing conservation zones of high tree diversity at Majel a.

Macroinvertebrates as Bio Indicators of Water Quality in Pinyinyi River, Arusha Tanzania

Rivers are important for aquatic biodiversity. Anthropogenic activities degrade rivers and decrease their capacity to offer ecosystem services. This study used macroinvertebrates to assess the impact of anthropogenic activities on the Pinyinyi River during dry and wet season. Abundance of macroinvertebrates, average score per taxon and Shannon Weiner Species Diversity Index were used to state the ecological status of Pinyinyi River. Because the abundance of macroinvertebrates can be affected by change in water quality, some of the physicochemical parameters were also measured. A macroinvertebrates hand net is used to collect the macroinvertebrates per sampling point. DO, temperature, pH, turbidity and TDS were measured in-situ using HI-9829 Multiparameter and BOD was measured in the laboratory using Oxydirect levibond method. A total of 164 macroinvertebrates were collected and identified from Pinyinyi River during dry and wet season. They belong to 13 families. The most abundant taxa were mosquito larva, Diptera (41.07%) and aquatic caterpillar, Lepidoptera (23.21%) during dry season representing about 64.28% of the total macroinvertebrates whereas the least abundant taxa were pouch snail (16.07%) and dragonflies, Odonata (19.64%) during dry season representing about 35.72% of the total macroinvertebrates. The most abundant taxa collected during wet season were aquatic earthworm, haplotaxida (19.44%), midges, Diptera (17.59%), black flies, Diptera (15.74%) and creeping water bugs, hemiptera (12.96%) whereas the least abundant were pigmy back swimmers, hemiptera (2.78%), snail (3.7%), predacious dividing beetle (4.63%) and coleopteran (4.63%). Average Score per taxon of Pinyinyi River during dry season was 5.25 and 3.6 during wet season. The Shannon Weiner Species Diversity Index was 1.318 during dry season and 2.138 during wet season. Based on the score, Pinyinyi River is moderately polluted during dry season and seriously polluted during wet season. Based on index, Pinyinyi River has low diversity of macroinvertebrates during dry season and highly in diversity of macroinvertebrates during wet season. Moreover, it was found that, agricultural activities, livestock keeping, bathing and washing alter physicochemical parameters of Pinyinyi River and hence change the abundance of macroinvertebrates as well as the quality of water. The study, therefore, recommends that the source of pollutants should be controlled and the river regularly monitored by the relevant authorities.

Hydrological alteration and biodiversity change along the river network caused by anthropogenic activities and climate variability

Background:Population growth and intensified human activities in conjunction with climate variability continue to affect the hydrologic cycle,aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna.In this regard,understanding interactions among ecosystem functions,impacts of anthropogenic interventions and those of climate variability is vital for projecting future ecosystem responses to human activities and climate forcing.The objectives of this study are to determine the ecological flow state via eco-flow index based on discharge hydrograph,to model the ecological diversity through the Shannon diversity index,and to assess the degree of hydrologic alteration using indicators of hydrologic alteration and range of variability approach in six hydrometric stations along the Zayandeh-Rud River in central Iran.The river drains into Gavkhuni Marsh.Also,the streamflow-induced potential changes for Capoeta damascina(a cyprinid fish species of the genus Capoeta),Petroleuciscus esfahani(a small cyprinid fish)and Aphanius isfahanensis(a Cyprinodontid fish)are evaluated.The outcome is expected to assist managers with understanding the effects of anthropogenic activities and climate variability on Gavkhuni aquatic ecosystems so that management options that enhance species resilience and adaptability are outlined.Results:Human activities,a primary factor influencing the natural flow regime,caused a significant increase in the minimum flow,July to March streamflow,low pulse number,and the number of reversals in most studied stations.On the contrary,some other hydrologic indices declined in value.Reservoir impoundment,the most prominent factor among human interventions,resulted in an overall alteration degree of 74.8%in streamflow.Climate variability impacted the natural flow regime in the range of low degree hydrologic alteration(27.3%).In addition,the biodiversity of the study basin,as modeled by the Shannon diversity index,had strong relevance to the annual eco-surplus and was more sensitive to summer floods and autumn hydrological droughts than other factors.Conclusions:This study corroborates the effectiveness of scenario-based hydrological modeling framework in evaluating the impacts of climate variability and human activities imposed on natural flow metrics.Additionally,the recently introduced eco-flow metrics based on discharge hydrographs and the Shannon diversity index based on indicators of hydrological alteration may be adopted in basins lacking ecological data.These two indices can effectively identify the most prominent factors in hydrological alteration and biodiversity change through a river network and may provide scientific decision-making support for water resource management in the study area.