Dataset Information

Changes in Alpine Butterfly Communities during the Last 40 Years.

ABSTRACT: Our work aims to assess how butterfly communities in the Italian Maritime Alps changed over the past 40 years, in parallel with altitudinal shifts occurring in plant communities. In 2019, we sampled butterflies at 7 grassland sites, between 1300-1900 m, previously investigated in 2009 and 1978, by semi-quantitative linear transects. Fine-scale temperature and precipitation data elaborated by optimal interpolation techniques were used to quantify climate changes. The changes in the vegetation cover and main habitat alterations were assessed by inspection of aerial photographs (1978-2018/1978-2006-2015). The vegetation structure showed a marked decrease of grassland habitats and an increase of woods (1978-2009). Plant physiognomy has remained stable in recent years (2009-2019) with some local exceptions due to geomorphic disturbance. We observed butterfly 'species substitution' indicating a general loss in the more specialised and a general gain in more tolerant elements. We did not observe any decrease in species richness, but rather a change in guild compositions, with (i) an overall increased abundance in some widespread and common lowland species and (ii) the disappearance (or strong decrease) of some alpine (high elevation) species, so that 'resilience' could be just delusive. Changes in butterfly community composition were consistent with predicted impacts of local warming.

SUBMITTER: Bonelli S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8778691 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Changes in Alpine Butterfly Communities during the Last 40 Years.

Bonelli Simona S Cerrato Cristiana C Barbero Francesca F Boiani Maria Virginia MV Buffa Giorgio G Casacci Luca Pietro LP Fracastoro Lorenzo L Provenzale Antonello A Rivella Enrico E Zaccagno Michele M Balletto Emilio E

Insects 20211230 1

Our work aims to assess how butterfly communities in the Italian Maritime Alps changed over the past 40 years, in parallel with altitudinal shifts occurring in plant communities. In 2019, we sampled butterflies at 7 grassland sites, between 1300-1900 m, previously investigated in 2009 and 1978, by semi-quantitative linear transects. Fine-scale temperature and precipitation data elaborated by optimal interpolation techniques were used to quantify climate changes. The changes in the vegetation cov ...[more]

PMID: 35055886

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Project description:Background Mountain environments are fragile socio-ecological systems and the conservation of their biological and cultural diversities— seen as co-evolving, strongly intertwined entities—represents a crucial issue for fostering their sustainability. Very few ethnobiological studies have assessed in the mountainous regions of Europe how local botanical knowledge, which represents a vital portion of the local environmental knowledge (LEK), changes over time, although this may be quintessential for a better understanding of the factors influencing how knowledge and practices are shaped, eroded, or even re-created. Methods In the current study, we compared the gathering and use of local medicinal plants in the Upper Sangone Valley, Western Italian Alps, Piedmont (NW Italy) as described in a field study conducted in the mid-seventies and published in 1977 and those arising from field research that we conducted in the spring of 2015 and 2018, during which time ethnobotanical and ethnomycological information concerning both folk medicinal and wild food uses was obtained via 47 in-depth open and semi-structured interviews with community members. Results In total, one hundred thirty folk taxa represent the past and present medicinal and wild food plant/mushroom heritage of the Sangone Valley: 26 herbal taxa were recorded 40 years ago only; 68 herbal and wild food taxa have been recorded in the current study only; and 36 herbal taxa have been continuously used during the last 40 years. There were no remarkable quantitative differences between the two diachronic medico-ethnobotanical datasets, but the qualitative differences were substantial. The gathering and use of some medicinal plants growing in meadows, forests and higher mountain environments (i.e. Arctostaphylos, Filipendula, Hepatica, Larix, Laserptium, Picea, Polygonatum, Primula, Tussilago and Veronica spp.) disappeared, whereas the collection of plant genera growing in more anthropogenic environments or possibly promoted via popular books and media has been newly introduced (i.e. Aloysia, Apium, Brassica, Crataegus, Epilobium, Fumaria, Geranium, Juniperus, Melissa, Rubus, Rumex, Sedum, Silybum, Taraxacum and Vaccinium spp.). Conclusion The findings show a renegotiation of the situativity that for centuries forged the embeddedness of local communities in their natural environments, probably heavily informed in the past by prevalent pastoralist and forest-centred activities and thus by a deeper knowledge of higher mountain and forest environments. The re-arrangement of a more domestic and more “globalized” herbal knowledge system was possibly inspired by new urban residents, who started to populate the valley at the end of the Seventies, when the original inhabitants abandoned their homes for the urban centres of the Piedmontese plain. The current study suggests that future directions of ethnobiological research should more carefully look at the adaptive capacity of LEK systems.

Project description:Abundance-occupancy (A-O) relationships are widely documented for many organismal groups and regions, and have been used to gain an understanding of regional population and community trends. Monitoring changes in abundance and occupancy over time may be what is required to document changes in conservation status and needs for some species, communities, or areas.We hypothesize that if there is a higher proportion of declining species in one group of species compared with another (e.g., migratory species vs. permanent residents), then a consequence of that difference will be vastly different abundance-occupancy relationships. If this difference persists through time, then the resulting A-O relationships between the groups will continue to diverge.For neotropical migrants, short-distance migrants, and permanent resident birds of North America, we assess the numbers of declining species over 1969-2009. We further test for differences in the A-O relationship across these three groups, and in rates of change in abundance and occupancy separately.We find significant differences in numbers of declining species across the migratory groups, a significant decline in the A-O relationship for permanent residents, a significant increase for Neotropical migrants, and a nonsignificant decline for short-distance migrants over the 40 years. Further, abundances are not changing at different rates but occupancies are consistently greater over time for neotropical migrants versus permanent residents, likely driving the changes in A-O relationships observed.In these analyses, we documented changing A-O trends for different groups of species, over a relatively long time period for ecological studies, one of only a few studies to examine A-O relationships over time. Further, we have shown that a temporally unvarying abundance-occupancy relationship is not universal, and we posit that variability in A-O relationships is due to human impacts on habitats, coupled with variation in species' abilities to respond to human impacts.

Project description:Gastric cancer (GC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in China. It is well known that Cixian in Hebei Province is one of the highest risk areas of GC in China and worldwide. This study aims to accurate assessment of GC burden and trend in high-risk area (Hebei Province) from 1973 to 2013. The authors analyzed GC data from 21 population-based cancer registries which represented 15.25% of the entire population of Hebei Province. The collected data were stratified by 5-year age groups, gender, and area. Mortality of GC was extracted from national death surveys from 1973 to 1975, 1990 to 1992, 2004 to 2005, and 2011 to 2013. Trend analysis (1988-2013) in a high-risk area (Cixian) used the Joinpoint Model. The age-period-cohort model was used to estimate the effects of age, period, and birth cohort in GC incidence in Cixian from 1988 to 2013. The crude incidence of GC in 2011 to 2013 was 40.37/100,000 (57.53/100,000 in males and 22.55/100,000 in females). The corresponding age-standardized rate by world age-standard population was 32.18/100,000 (48.87/100,000 in males and 17.53/100,000 in females), which was 2.66-fold (2.81-fold in male and 2.34-fold in female) higher than that in the world (12.1/100,000, 17.4/100,000 in males and 7.5/100,000 in females). Males in rural areas had the highest incidence, with an age-standardized rate of 70.51/100,000. Gastric cardia cancer was primary anatomical subsite which accounting for 59.59% in GC, followed by gastric corpus (13.92%), gastric antrum (11.43%), gastric fundus (4.99%), and overlapping lesion of gastric (4.17%). The age-standardized rate of mortality from GC displayed a significant downward trend (P = 0.019) in Hebei Province from the 1990s (31.44/100,000) to the 2010s (24.63/100,000). In Cixian, the incidence of GC rose from 1988 (38.25/100,000) to 2009 (65.11/100,000). Cixian, where population-based screening of upper gastrointestinal cancer was performed, experienced the increasing rate of GC from 2000 (37.59/100,000) to 2009 (65.11/100,000) and then had a sharp decrease from 2009 to 2013 (55.30/100,000), with annual percentage change of -6.69%. Gastric cardia cancer had an increasing trend from 1988 (6.88/100,000) to 2013 (26.56/100,000). Both age and birth cohort effects played important roles in these changes. In conclusion, males in rural areas had the highest risk of GC. GC mortality rate decreased from the 1990s in Hebei Province. Endoscopic screening project for GC is an effective method of controlling the disease.

Dataset Information

Changes in Alpine Butterfly Communities during the Last 40 Years.

Publications

Changes in Alpine Butterfly Communities during the Last 40 Years.

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