Philip Riordan

Agri-environment schemes are the main policy instruments for reversing declines in farmland biodiversity, but there is scope for improvement. Within an intensive agricultural landscape, a mark-release-recapture experiment was used to investigate the relative effects on the number of adults of 23 moth species of two landscape features (wide field margins and hedgerow trees) that may feature within agri-environment schemes. Species

General agri-environment schemes (AES) have been shown to benefit widespread species, but there is little information on the extent to which rare, more localised, species may also benefit. We tested whether AES options aimed at increasing general biodiversity also benefit a highly endangered moth, Polia bombycina, without species-specific tailoring. We assessed effects on its abundance of two AES options, wide field margins and hedgerow trees, using light traps at the landscape-scale and for mark-release-recapture at the farm-scale. We hypothesized that abundance would be highest at wide field margins and at hedgerow trees, and that if hedgerow trees conferred a positive effect, individuals would be more likely to follow hedgerows than crossing exposed fields while on the move. The results showed that significantly more individuals were captured at sites with a hedgerow tree. Numbers were also higher at wide margins, but this was not statistically significant, and no individuals were caught at field centres. Our study suggests that general options within appropriately designed and implemented AES aimed at increasing overall biodiversity in intensive agricultural landscapes have the potential to not only benefit common, widespread habitat generalists, but some rare and more endangered species as well. P. bombycina serves as an example of how general AES options, existing and novel ones alike, might cater for the needs of rare and localised species. As the precise ecological requirements of most invertebrate species remain unknown, we urge scientists and governments to address the challenge to research and design truly general AES, which options should be able to deliver not only for widespread species but also for the less-widespread counterpart of farmland biodiversity.

How best to manage forest patches, mitigate the consequences of forest fragmentation, and enable landscape permeability are key questions facing conservation scientists and managers. Many temperate forests have become increasingly fragmented, resulting in reduced interior forest habitat, increased edge habitats, and reduced connectivity. Using a citizen science landscape-scale mark-release-recapture study on 87 macro-moth species we investigated how both life-history traits and landscape characteristics predicted macro-moth responses to forest fragmentation. Wingspan, wing shape, adult feeding and larval feeding guild predicted macro-moth mobility, although the predictive power of wingspan and wing shape depended on forest affinity. Solitary trees and small fragments functioned as 'stepping stones', especially when their landscape connectivity was increased, by being positioned within hedgerows or within a favourable matrix. Mobile forest specialists were most affected by forest fragmentation: despite their high intrinsic dispersal capability, these species were confined mostly to the largest of the forest patches due to their strong affinity for the forest habitat, and were also heavily dependent on forest connectivity in order to cross the agricultural matrix. Forest fragments need to be larger than five hectares and to have interior forest more than 100 m from the edge in order to sustain populations of forest specialists. Our study provides new insights into the movement patterns of a functionally important insect group, with implications for the landscape-scale management of forest patches within agricultural landscapes.

Agricultural intensification has contributed to severe declines in odonate (dragonfly and damselfly)
populations. Odonates require healthy waterbodies for their larval stages and resource-rich terrestrial
landscapes as adults. As such, farmland management at both local and larger landscape scales may be
needed to reverse population declines.
We sampled odonate adults and exuviae from lowland farmland ponds in England, to investigate
relationships between odonate species richness and surrounding land-use. The more mobile dragonflies
(Anisoptera) were influenced most strongly by landscape variables at the largest scale (i.e. 1600 m
radius), while less mobile damselflies (Zygoptera) were affected by variables at more local scales (i.e.
100/400 m radii). A greater number of landscape variables affected exuvial species richness compared
to adult species richness. Exuvial species richness was higher when 2 m wide cross-compliance buffer
strips around ponds were present. However, no ponds in the study had buffer strips that were established
through England’s basic agri-environment scheme (Entry Level Scheme: ELS) agreements, and
we observed a negative relationship between ELS area and exuvial species richness. Exuvial species
richness increased with the amount of water, but not the number of ponds, in the landscape surrounding
a focal pond. The observed odonate responses to local and surrounding land-use lend support to
the development of agri-environment scheme policies that encourage landscape-scale, as well as local,
scheme implementation and management. We predict that both landscape-scale and quality-targeted
management of farmland ponds would benefit odonates, irrespective of mobility level and life-stage.

1. Agricultural intensification has contributed to severe declines in odonate (dragonfly and damselfly) populations. The objective of our study is to benefit current measures for the conservation of odonates by establishing the conditions favourable to Odonata and focusing on ponds within agricultural land.

2. Our landscape-scale study used exuvial counts and habitat measurements from 29 ponds across a catchment in England, over 3 years, to determine key factors affecting odonate abundance and species richness.

3. Ponds dominated by floating and submerged vegetation were the most transparent, supported the highest abundance and species richness of exuviae, and were always fully or partially surrounded by buffer strips. Ponds lacking vegetation were turbid, yielding no exuviae even if they were buffered. English agri-environment schemes (AES) currently support pond and buffer strip creation and management.

4. Abundance of exuviae was higher in recently created ponds compared to older ponds, whereas ponds that had dried out the previous summer had fewer exuviae.

5. Species richness of exuviae decreased with increasing distance to the nearest viable pond, falling by more than 40% for distances over 100 m.

6. We conclude that odonate conservation would be more effective if AES would consider the spatial scale at which ponds are created and the location, type, and quality of ponds targeted for buffer strips.

Odonate populations and species numbers are declining globally. Successful conservation requires sound assessments of both odonate distributions and habitat requirements. Odonates have aquatic (larval) and terrestrial (adult) stages, but most surveys that are used to inform conservation managers are undertaken of the adult stage. This study investigates whether this bias towards adult records in odonate recording is misinterpreting the environmental quality of sites. The habitat focus is farmland ponds, a key feature of agricultural landscapes. We tested whether or not, adult, larval and exuvial surveys lead to similar conclusions on species richness and hence on pond quality. Results showed that pond surveys based upon larvae and exuviae are equally suitable for the reliable assessment of presence/absence of odonates, but that adult surveys are not interchangeable with surveys of larvae/exuviae. Larvae were also found at ponds with no emerging individuals due to changes in habitat quality, therefore presence of exuviae remains the only proof of life-cycle completion at a site. Ovipositing females were recorded at all ponds where exuviae were totally absent hence adult surveys over-estimate pond quality and low-quality ponds are functioning as ecological traps. Highly mobile and generalist species were recorded at more locations than other species. Adult surveys also bias recording towards genera, species and populations with non-territorial mate-location strategies. Odonate biodiversity monitoring would benefit from applying the best survey method (exuviae) to avoid wasting valuable financial resources while providing unbiased data, necessary to achieve conservation objectives.

When the attitudes of local people towards wildlife and conservation are not aligned with those of other stakeholders, significant conflicts can result, potentially undermining conservation efforts. We collected attitudinal data from 171 local people and 59 governmental staff from a Nature Reserve in southwestern China. These attitudinal questions covered key topics of ecosystem services, protected areas and human-wildlife coexistence. Statistically significant (p<0.05) similarities of responses between local people and staff were identified and the nature of any disparity was investigated. The majority of attitudes relating to protected areas (60%) and coexistence (100%) were statistically similar between the two groups, unlike 25% of responses relating to ecosystem services. Few characteristics of staff were statistically associated with their attitudes, whereas responses from local people were frequently associated with sub-village. Such attitudinal studies inform recommendations that consider the potential for future conflicts that might persist following attitudinal disparity between two key stakeholders.

When densities of large carnivores fall below certain thresholds, dramatic ecological effects
can follow, leading to oversimplified ecosystems. Understanding the population status of
such species remains a major challenge as they occur in low densities and their ranges are
wide. This paper describes the use of non-invasive data collection techniques combined
with recent spatial capture-recapture methods to estimate the density of snow leopards
Panthera uncia. It also investigates the influence of environmental and human activity indicators
on their spatial distribution. A total of 60 camera traps were systematically set up during
a three-month period over a 480 km2 study area in Qilianshan National Nature Reserve,
Gansu Province, China. We recorded 76 separate snow leopard captures over 2,906 trapdays,
representing an average capture success of 2.62 captures/100 trap-days. We identified
a total number of 20 unique individuals from photographs and estimated snow leopard
density at 3.31 (SE = 1.01) individuals per 100 km2. Results of our simulation exercise indicate
that our estimates from the Spatial Capture Recapture models were not optimal to
respect to bias and precision (RMSEs for density parameters less or equal to 0.87). Our
results underline the critical challenge in achieving sufficient sample sizes of snow leopard
captures and recaptures. Possible performance improvements are discussed, principally by
optimising effective camera capture and photographic data quality.

Movements of individuals within and among populations help to maintain genetic variability and population viability.
Th erefore, understanding landscape connectivity is vital for eff ective species conservation. Th e snow leopard is endemic to
mountainous areas of central Asia and occurs within 12 countries. We assess potential connectivity across the species ’ range
to highlight corridors for dispersal and genetic fl ow between populations, prioritizing research and conservation action for
this wide-ranging, endangered top-predator.
We used resistant kernel modeling to assess snow leopard population connectivity across its global range. We developed
an expert-based resistance surface that predicted cost of movement as functions of topographical complexity and land cover.
Th e distribution of individuals was simulated as a uniform density of points throughout the currently accepted global range.
We modeled population connectivity from these source points across the resistance surface using three diff erent dispersal
scenarios that likely bracket the lifetime movements of individual snow leopard: 100 km, 500 km and 1000 km.
Th e resistant kernel models produced predictive surfaces of dispersal frequency across the snow leopard range for each
distance scenario. We evaluated the pattern of connectivity in each of these scenarios and identifi ed potentially important
movement corridors and areas where connectivity might be impeded. Th e models predicted two regional populations, in
the north and south of the species range respectively, and revealed a number of potentially important connecting areas.
Discrepancies between model outputs and observations highlight unsurveyed areas of connected habitat that urgently
require surveying to improve understanding of the global distribution and ecology of snow leopard, and target land management
actions to prevent population isolation. Th e connectivity maps provide a strong basis for directed research and
conservation action, and usefully direct the attention of policy makers.

Accurate and spatially-appropriate ecosystem service valuations are vital for decision-makers and land managers. Many approaches for estimating ecosystem service value (ESV) exist, but their appropriateness under specific conditions or logistical limitations is not uniform. The most accurate techniques are therefore not always adopted. Six different assessment approaches were used to estimate ESV for a National Nature Reserve in southwest China, across different management zones. These approaches incorporated two different land-use land cover (LULC) maps and development of three economic valuation techniques, using globally or locally-derived data. The differences in ESV across management zones for the six approaches were largely influenced by the classifications of forest and farmland and how they corresponded with valuation coefficients. With realistic limits on access to time, data, skills and resources, and using acquired estimates from globally-relevant sources, the Buffer zone was estimated as the most valuable (2.494 million ± 1.371 million CNY yr-1 km-2) and the Non-protected zone as the least valuable (770,000 ± 4,600 CNY yr-1 km-2). However, for both LULC maps, when using the locally-based and more time and skill-intensive valuation approaches, this pattern was generally reversed. This paper provides a detailed practical example of how ESV can differ widely depending on the availability and appropriateness of LULC maps and valuation approaches used, highlighting pitfalls for the managers of protected areas.