Mapping the risk of wolf attacks on livestock in central Italy

The Apennine's areas in the Umbria region of central Italy, in particular Gubbio and Norcia, are at the greatest risk of wolf attacks on livestock farms, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth.

An increasing wolf population has caused worries and protests from local communities, alarmed at possible predation against domestic livestock and the economic impact on their livelihoods.

Using a new risk classification method, the study highlights that a high number of municipalities are at risk. Understanding the risk of wolf attacks on livestock will allow authorities and landowners to properly manage and prevent any potential human-wolf conflict and provide adequate damages for lost livestock.

Lead author of the study, Professor Alessio Ishizaka from the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Operational Research and Logistics (CORL), said: "The design of effective conservation and management plans needs to be informed by an effective decision support system. Our study shows the hotspots that are at risk, which can help the local government in planning conflict mitigation strategies. The local government should focus their efforts and resources on these hotspots when implementing methods to control the wolf."

The study used AHPSort II, a new multi-criteria sorting method for organising and analysing complex decisions, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This method structures a decision into a hierarchy of criteria and alternatives that are evaluated and then converted into a numerical value for each decision outcome, which allows a straightforward comparison of the various courses of action.

Five criteria were selected – Number of predated animals; Presence of wolves; Number of live animals (domestic livestock); Protected areas; and Population density – and were evaluated across 92 municipalities. The results were sorted into four classes, 'low risk', 'medium-low risk', 'medium-high risk, and 'high risk with respect to the risk that wolves will attack livestock farms.

Only two municipalities − Bastia Umbra and Terni − were classified as low risk, mainly because they are high-density housing municipalities, with lower predation events and a low presence of wolves. The medium-low risk class includes the highest number of municipalities, which are generally hilly and low land. The predation events and the reported presence of wolves are generally quite low and the absence of protected areas also lowering the risk.

The municipalities showing high and medium-high risk already have a high incidence of predated sheep and goats and also a high reported presence of wolves. In the case of these municipalities, the presence of protected areas or their proximity to such areas, create 'shelter zones' for wolves. These municipalities are situated in the mountainous areas of the region, where the availability of wild game is high and the population density is low.

Due to the large number of municipalities that were classified, the study required the development of the new sorting technique AHPSort II. Professor Ishizaka said: "This new sorting method is based on AHP and therefore retains its advantages, while removing the problem of the high number of comparisons. Our case study would have required 37.674 pairwise comparisons using the AHP method, whereas using AHPSort it requires 2.511 comparisons and AHPSort II only 515.

"It is worth noting that the developed method is sufficiently generic to be used in other regions and also in any application area to support decision-making. Due to the increase in big data sets, it is believed that its usage will increase rapidly."

Comments

Reproduction of Deuteromycetes

F ungi that reproduce asexually (anamorphic fungi ) are either yeasts or Deu-teromycetes. The term "yeast" is descriptive and stands for any fungus that reproduces by budding. Deuteromycetes (Fungi imperfecti, colloquially: molds) is an artificial as-semblage of fungi that reproduce asexually by conidia (conidiospores), either as the only form for propagation (imperfect fungi) or additionally (anamorph) to a sexual reproduction (teleomorph). When both the anamorph and the teleo-morph are known, the fungus is called a holomorph (the whole fungus). The teleomorph may have one (mono-anamorphic) or many (pleo-anamorphic) asexual stages. In other words: Deuteromycetes are the conidia-producing forms of a fungus and may or may not be associated with a teleomorph. Many Deuteromycetes are supposed to have a teleomorph in the Ascomycetes, but they may also have basidiomycetous affinity. Also in the wood-inhabiting Deuteromycetes, the teleomorph often is of ascomycetous a

What shapes the peer review landscape in ecology?

It was great to be discussing the future of peer review with researchers at the recent peer review panel discussion organised by the British Ecological Society (BES) at their annual conference in Liverpool last week. Jane Hill (Professor of Ecology at the University of York and Chair of BES Publications Committee) chaired the debate, and we heard from Allen Moore (Editor-in-Chief, Ecology and Evolution), Patricia Morse (Managing Editor, American Naturalist ), Nate Sanders (Senior Editor, Journal of Animal Ecology ), Andy Robertson (Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Society Services, Wiley) and me. We started with a discussion of ways in which the publishing process could be opened up, with Allen advocating open science principles and pre-registration of research. Nate also shared his experience in the value of “opening up” research online to get people talking and to generate new ideas. Andy Robertson suggested that partnering with services such as Overlea

Islands

H ow often have you seen those wonderful advertisements inviting you to have a holiday on a tropical island ( Fig. )What is it about islands, whether in the tropics or polar regions, that suggests romance, excitement and adventure? Is it because of a sense of escape from the pressures and stress of a bustling way of life, or the opportunity to savour sun-soaked beaches, or the adventure of rocky unexplored shores, or perhaps the chance of seeing unique island wildlife? It is for all these reasons that there is a growing tourist industry for many islands around the world. The wildlife of islands, especially oceanic islands , has long been of special significance in biology , ecology , conservation and biogeography. Studies of island species have also been of historical significance for evolutionary biology. Many of the world's islands have high levels of endemic flora and fauna; that is, taxa found only on a particular island and no other place. Island biota has o

Red Streaking

Red Streaking Red-streaking discoloration (known as "Rotstreifigkeit" in Germany) is one of the most common and important damage in seasoning logs and sawn lumber, occurring only in conifers (spruce, pine, fir) and recognized as a distinct con-dition in continental Europe. The stripe-shaped to spotted yellow to reddish-brown discoloration extends in logs from both their bark-covered faces and from their cut ends (Butin 1995; Baum and Bariska 2002) . Stems that are not debarked show a rather flat discoloration and debarked stems exhibit a streakier staining (v. Pechmann et al. 1967). Causal agents are several white-rot Basidiomycetes, in spruce particularly Stereum sanguinolentum (Kleist and Seehann 1997) and Amylostereum areola-turn. In south Germany, Amylostereum chailettii is common (Zycha and Knopf 1963; v. Pechmann et al. 1967). In pine, red streaking is mainly due to Trichap-turn abietinum (Butin 1995). According to Kreisel (1961), S. sanguinolentum and T

Ecosia ; Ecology Search

https://www.ecosia.org/ How it works You search the web with Ecosia. Ads Search ads generate income for Ecosia. Ecosia uses this income to plant trees. httpecologicaljournal.blogspot.com Ecosia about video

Bioenergetics

T housands of chemical reactions occur throughout the body during each minute of the day. Collec-tively, these reactions are called metabolism. Metab-olism includes chemical pathways that result in the synthesis of molecules (anabolic reactions) as well as the breakdown of molecules (catabolic reactions). Since energy is required by all cells, it is not sur-prising that cells possess chemical pathways that are capable of converting foodstuffs (i.e., fats, proteins, carbohydrates) into a biologically usable form of energy . This metabolic process is termed bioenergetics. In order for you to run, jump, or swim, skeletal muscle cells must be able to continuously extract energy from food nutrients. In fact, the inability to transform energy contained in foodstuffs into usable biological energy would limit performance in endurance activities. The explanation for this is simple. To continue to contract, muscle cells must have a continuous source of energy. When energy is not rea

White Rot

W hite-rot research has been reviewed by Ericksson et al. (1990) and Mess-ner et al. (2003). White rot means the degradation of cellulose, hemicellu-loses, and lignin usually by Basidiomycetes and rarely by Ascomycetes, e.g., Kretzschmaria deusta and Xylaria hypoxylon. White rot has been classified by macroscopic characteristics into white-pocket, white-mottled, and white-stringy, the different types being affected by the fungal species, wood species, and ecological conditions. From microscopic and ultrastructural investiga-tions, two main types of white rot have been distinguished (Liese 1970). In the simultaneous white rot ("corrosion rot"), carbohydrates and lignin are almost uniformly degraded at the same time and at a similar rate during all decay stages. Typical fungi with simultaneous white rot are Fomes fomentar-ws, Phellinus igniarius, Phellinus robustus, and Trametes versicolor in standing trees and stored hardwoods (Blanchette 1984a). Wood decay

Soft Rot

The term " soft rot " was originally used by Findlay and Savory (1954) to describe a specific type of wood decay caused by Ascomycetes and Deuteromycetes which typically produce chains of cavities within the S2 layer of soft- and hardwoods in terrestrial and aquatic environments (Liese 1955), for example when the wood-fill in cooling towers became destroyed despite water saturation, and when poles broke, although they were protected against Basidiomvcetes. About 300 species (Seehann et al. 1975) to some 1,600 examples of ascomvcete and deuteromvcete fungi (Eaton and Hale 1993) cause soft rot, e.g., Chaeromium globosurn (Takahashi 1978), Hurnicola spp., Lecythophora hoffrnannii, Monodictys putredinis, Paecilornyces spp., and Thielavia terrestris. Soft-rot fungi differ from brown-rot and white-rot Basidiomycetes by grow-ing mainly inside the woody cell wall trate, starting from the tracheidal lumina., by means of thin perforation hyphae of less than 0.5 pm thickne

Antagonists, Synergists, and Succession

Interactions (reciprocal effects) between wood fungi have been early investi-gated e.g., by Oppermann (1951) and Leslie et al. (1976), and were described in detail by Rayner and Boddy (1988). Antagonism (competitive reciprocal effect), the mutual inhibition and in a broader sense the inhibition of one organism by others, is based on the pro-duction of toxic metabolites, on mycoparasitism, and on nutrient competition. Antagonisms are investigated as alternative to the chemical protection against tree fungi ("biological forest protection") and against fungi on wood in service ("biological wood protection") (Walchli 1982; Bruce 1992; Holdenrieder and Greig 1998; Phillips-Laing et al. 2003). As early as 1934, Weindling showed the inhibiting effect of Trichoderma species on several fungi. Bjerkandera adusta and Ganoderma species were antagonistic against the causing agent of Plane canker stain disease (Grosclaude et al. 1990). Also, v. Aufseg (197

Growth and Spreading

Vegetative Growth Simplistically, wood fungi live through two functionally different phases: the vegetative stage for mycelial spread and the reproductive stage for the elab-oration of spore-producing structures. Rayner et al. (1985) extended the development of a fungus in arrival, establishment, exploitation, and exit. The vegetative, asexual stage consists in wood fungi of vegetative hyphae with some specialized forms. The reproductive stage can both occur asexually or sexually (Schwantes 1996). Functional specialization of the mycelium occurs during the vegetative stage: germination, infection, spread, and survival. These functions are correlated with different "fungal organs". Spores (conidia, chlamydospores, also the sex-ually derived asco- and basidiospores) germinate under suitable conditions (moisture, temperature). The young germ hypha first shows some nuclei be-fore the young mycelium grows with septation in the monokaryotic condi( ion. N1ycelial growth takes

Ecological world

Search This Blog