[{"id":232,"title":"A case for habitat-centric conservation strategy instead of flagship-species approach","sha":"0dbc3ce40ac708aecc6bcd8ab41ef049","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Massive conservation projects have relied around single flagship species and the surrounding ecological niche that supports it. Conservation of giant panda, tiger, and bald eagle are examples of such a species-centric or flagship-species strategy for conservation. While such flagship-species approaches have helped conserve other species that are part of the ecological niche, this strategy fails to address holistic problems of habitat conservation across the globe. In habitats with discontinuity of conserved areas or patchiness of species distribution in a contiguous habitat, focus on a single flagship species would end up being detrimental for the conservation of biodiversity. Flagship-species approach can be a sink for expenditure, where more land could be kept aside for conservation, if we were not focussed on a flagship-species. We are proposing a new approach for conservation based on preservation of large contiguous habitats. Our proposal does not preclude monitoring endangered species but we expect the list to be dynamically updated and not focussed on few relatable species that are “cute” by human standards.  This would allow conservation efforts to bear fruits for unnoticed but ecologically more significant microorganisms, flora and non-vertebrate animals, along with vertebrates that are usually the focus of current approaches. \r\n","created_at":"2015-09-17T07:17:08.247Z","updated_at":"2015-09-18T06:00:54.825Z","zenodo_id":61428,"doi":"http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.31118","subject":null,"tags":["conservation ecology","microbial ecology","conservation","conservation biology","project tiger","flagship-species","habitat-centric approach"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":false,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":181,"title":"Source populations in the context of dispersal modelling","sha":"057e2bde32ed3e9116524c340bcc0eb2","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"In conservation ecology, missing source populations are often considered the main bottleneck for the successful (re-)colonisation of (restored) habitats ([e.g. Kail et al. 2015](http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0130228)). In theoretical ecology and population biology, sources as opposed to sinks are defined as good quality habitats with a positive net difference between immigrating and emigrating individuals (demographic surplus, [Dias 1996] (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0169-5347(96)10037-9)). This definition differs from source populations used for dispersal modelling ([e.g. Radinger et al. 2014](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2013.06.002)) that typically builds on initial starting (source) populations for e.g. diffusion processes. Here, each site with at least one specimen present that might possibly emigrate can be considered as a potential source population. The presence of species and, hence, the location of initial starting (source) populations for dispersal and (re-)colonization can be either based on (i) sampling data or on (ii) species distribution models (empirical models of species presence based on explanatory environmental variables) ([Kail et al. 2015]( http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0130228)). However, while the first probably underestimates the number of sources since only a limited number of sites is typically sampled, the latter is probably overestimating the number of sources as suitable habitat might not be directly translated into species presence. Hence, future research should focus on appropriate methods to identify / locate source populations that can be used in dispersal modelling.","created_at":"2015-06-26T22:42:15.983Z","updated_at":"2015-06-29T06:00:46.707Z","zenodo_id":33699,"doi":"http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19097","subject":null,"tags":["habitat","dispersal","conservation ecology","population biology","distribution modelling","field sampling","recolonisation"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null}]