Three previously unreported species of tropical land snails were found in the greenhouses of the Gothenburg (Göteborg) Botanical Garden and the Public Science Center Universeum in Gothenburg. For cf. (Schmacker & Boettger, 1891) and () this is the first observed occurrence in a European greenhouse, while () was first reported very recently in the Vienna Botanical garden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and educational innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all stages of their careers, they can provide a place-based window to focus on integration of science and discovery, as well as a locus for community engagement. At the same time, like a synthesis radio telescope, when joined together through emerging digital resources, the global community of museums (the 'Global Museum') is more than the sum of its parts, allowing insights and answers to diverse biological, environmental, and societal questions at the global scale, across eons of time, and spanning vast diversity across the Tree of Life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of climate change on oligotrophic rivers and their communities are almost unknown, albeit these ecosystems are the primary habitat of the critically endangered freshwater pearl mussel and its host fishes, salmonids. The distribution and abundance of pearl mussels have drastically decreased throughout Europe over the last century, particularly within the southern part of the range, but causes of this wide-scale extinction process are unclear. Here we estimate the effects of climate change on pearl mussels based on historical and recent samples from 50 rivers and 6 countries across Europe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFreshwater mussels of the Order Unionida provide important ecosystem functions and services, yet many of their populations are in decline. We comprehensively review the status of the 16 currently recognized species in Europe, collating for the first time their life-history traits, distribution, conservation status, habitat preferences, and main threats in order to suggest future management actions. In northern, central, and eastern Europe, a relatively homogeneous species composition is found in most basins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSecondary succession is changing the character of many temperate forests and often leads to closed-canopy stands. In such forests set aside for conservation, habitat management alternatives need to be tested experimentally, but this is rarely done. The Swedish Oak Project compares two often debated alternatives: minimal intervention and non-traditional active management (conservation thinning) on plots of each type replicated at 25 sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated the relationship between flowering peaks of the mountain birch, Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii, and population levels of the autumnal moth Epirrita autumnata in Ammarnäs, Swedish Lapland, during 1968-2000, and in Budal, Central Norway, during 1972-2000. There was a significant correlation between the two moth series, both of which showed three well-defined population cycles during the study period.
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