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Globalization has facilitated the emergence and spread of novel pathogens, representing a major conservation challenge. The amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, epitomizes this unprecedented threat, being responsible for declines and extinctions of amphibians worldwide. Chytridiomycosis has had both immediate catastrophic impacts during initial epidemics, as well as more variable, ongoing effects as the pathogen transitions to endemicity in its new distribution. Where B. dendrobatidis is now endemic, effective management actions are needed to prevent further extinctions of species. Yet, after nearly 20 years of research, management solutions remain rare or largely untested. Here, we highlight the potential for mitigation strategies focused on the environmental part of the host-pathogen-environment triangle to facilitate coexistence with the pathogen. We provide an extensive literature review to demonstrate that environmental conditions and demographic processes can strongly mediate the impact of B. dendrobatidis, and the capacity of amphibian populations to withstand disease-associated mortality. In particular, novel management approaches to achieve coexistence could focus on manipulating environmental conditions to decrease suitability for B. dendrobatidis and/or increase demographic resilience to disease-associated mortality. Such strategies include translocation to, or creation of, environmental refuges, and habitat manipulation to increase recruitment and offset elevated adult mortality. We argue that responding to chytridiomycosis requires a conceptual readjustment of our baselines to recognize that endemic B. dendrobatidis infection is the ‘new normal’ in surviving populations of many susceptible amphibian species. We conclude with recommendations for research and management actions that can help achieve coexistence of amphibian species susceptible to B. dendrobatidis.

‘Genetic resources’ is a key concept of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol (NP). However, the term was coined to describe value in biodiversity and create an incentive for its protection and is thus of practical relevance for biological conservation beyond the legal context. The scope of this concept is also of interest to researchers, who may be unsure for which types of analysis they are legally and ethically expected to enter access and benefit sharing (ABS) negotiations. This article presents a biologically informed analysis, which leads to an understanding of ‘genetic resources’ that considers various associations and implications of this notion, such as its relation to biodiversity and the role that intellectual property rights (IPR) play in the discourse. The aim is to provide a coherent, consistent and comprehensive understanding of the concept that can integrate and explain these aspects and consider both classical and novel ways of using genetic resources. Based on the biological function of genetic resources and an analysis of how they are currently used and valued, this article argues that genetic resources are a particular type of natural resource that is informational rather than tangible. This interpretation clearly identifies utilising digital genomic sequences as a form of using genetic resources. However, the article also discusses regulatory exceptions for certain utilisations of genetic resources and it mentions the possibility of treating digital sequences as such an exception.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is used to detect biodiversity by the capture, extraction, and identification of DNA shed to the environment. However, eDNA capture and extraction protocols vary widely across studies. This use of different protocols potentially biases detection results and could significantly hinder a reliable use of eDNA to detect biodiversity. We tested whether choice of eDNA capture and extraction protocols significantly influenced biodiversity detection in aquatic systems. We sampled lake and river water, captured and extracted eDNA using six combinations of different protocols with replication, and tested for the detection of four macroinvertebrate species. Additionally, using the same lake water technical replicates, we compared the effect of capture and extraction protocols on metabarcode detections of biodiversity using 16S for eubacteria and cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) for eukaryotes. Protocol combinations for capture and extraction of eDNA significantly influenced DNA yield and number of sequences obtained from next generation sequencing. We found significantly different detection rates of species ranging from zero percent to thirty-three percent. Differences in which protocol combinations produced the highest metabarcoded biodiversity were detected and demonstrate that different protocols are required for different biodiversity targets. Our results highlight that the choice of molecular protocols used for capture and extraction of eDNA from water can strongly affect biodiversity detection. Consideration of biases caused by choice of protocols should lead to a more consistent and reliable molecular workflow for repeatable and increased detection of biodiversity in aquatic communities.

An important goal of ecological compensation areas (ECAs) is to increase biodiversity in adjacent intensively managed farmland and the agricultural landscape at large. We tested whether this goal can be achieved in the case of the agri-environmental restoration scheme implemented for Swiss grassland using five large arthropod taxa (bees, true bugs, orthopterans, ground beetles and spiders) representing different ecological and functional groups. The species richness and abundance of all groups and species, respectively, was measured along 100 m transects from ECA-meadows into the adjacent intensively managed grassland at 24 sites. Species richness of all arthropod taxa except ground beetles, and the abundance of 63% of the 234 arthropod species sampled with at least five individuals were higher in ECA-meadows than in their surroundings, while the total abundance of spiders and ground beetles was higher in intensively managed meadows. The abundance of 8% of these species were only increased in the ECA-meadows themselves (“stenotopic” species) but 40% had increased abundance both in the ECA-meadows and the adjacent grassland, declining exponentially with increasing distance from ECA-meadows (“edge species”). The 90%-decay distances for these edge species differed among taxonomic groups (117 ± 18 m for true bugs, 137 ± 24 m for spiders, 152 ± 34 m for bees, 167 ± 5.7 m for orthopterans, 185 ± 34 m for ground beetles; mean ±1 standard error) and independent of taxonomic group were larger for large-sized or predacious species than for small-sized or phytophagous species. Because the average distance between neighbouring ECA-meadows in Swiss grassland is only 73 ± 4 m, the current agri-environment scheme very likely enhances arthropod diversity and possibly associated ecosystem services in the Swiss agricultural landscape at large.

The distribution and abundance of cave-dwelling bats were investigated in the Thrace region of northwest Turkey. Data werecollected in two periods, January–March and April–May 2001, from 32 underground sites, 25 of which had not been surveyedpreviously. Approximately 76,000 bats representing 13 species were recorded. The most abundant species were Miniopterusschreibersii, Rhinolophus euryale, Myotis myotis/blythii, Myotis capaccinii, and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. The roosts were eval-uated for their conservation importance. The most important sites in Turkish Thrace are Dupnisa and Koyunbaba. The DupnisaCave serves as a hibernaculum to approximately 28,000 bats representing five species. The Koyunbaba Cave is a nursery roost toapproximately 23,000 bats of six species. Presently, none of the caves in the region has adequate protection and some bat popu-lations are under serious threat. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Chiroptera; Dupnisa; Koyunbaba; Roosts 1. IntroductionThere is a growing agreement that more effort isneeded to ensure the survival of representative wildlifepopulations throughout the Europe, and success orfailure will depend on our basic knowledge of thesepopulations. The nocturnal nature and mobility of batsmean that they are relatively little studied and ourknowledge of them lags behind that of more conspicu-ous mammals. In particular, little is known about cave-dwelling bats in the extensive limestone area in theThrace region of Turkey. Although a few of these caveshave been studied there has been no systematic census ofthe bat populations (Benda and Horacek, 1998). Theonly census of cave-dwelling bats was conducted in1999–2000 and covered eight underground sites inEastern Thrace, providing records for 17,000 bats rep-resenting eight species (Furman and Ozg€ €ul, 2002).This study is a western extension of the 1999–2000census, providing data from 32 caves, and evaluating therelative importance of the roosting sites. As there areefforts to turn Thrace into a popular recreational region,some caves have become or may soon become touristdestinations. Our data on bat species abundance willprovide a baseline to help to protect and conserve themost important underground sites.2. MethodsThe research was conducted in Thrace region,northwestern Turkey, within the limestone belt liningthe Black Sea coast (Fig. 1). The study area, approxi-mately 280 km long and 40 km wide, extends betweenthe Turkish-Bulgarian border and the C atalca Penin-sula. In the east, the region forms a wide plateau, whichbecomes mountainous towards the northwest. The av-erage altitude of the eastern plateau is approximately300 m and that of the mountainous region ranges from700 to 800 m.

Rana latastei, the Italian Agile Frog, is found over a restricted range in Central Europe, with populations in Switzerland (Tessin) occurring at the very margin of the species distribution. We used microsatellite DNA polymorphisms to study the genetic diversity of Swiss populations of Rana latastei and compared them with several Italian populations located in the central and western parts of the species’ range. On average, Swiss populations showed a much lower level of within-population genetic diversity relative to their Italian counterparts. Existing Swiss conservation efforts do not include genetic considerations and our results show that any attempt to increase genetic diversity within Switzerland would require a collaborative effort with Italian wildlife agencies.

Maintenance of viable populations requires detailed knowledge of a species' area demands and of the mechanisms influencing them. From 1992 to 1996, I examined, in northern Switzerland, the relations between habitat factors and home range size of 33 radio-tracked middle spotted woodpeckers ( Dendrocopos medius ), an endangered species confined to mature oak forests. Stepwise backward multiple regression revealed that home range size decreased from winter to late spring; furthermore, range size was inversely correlated to the densities of large oaks (⩾36 cm dbh) and of potential cavity trees. Neither intra- nor interspecific competition seemed to influence home range size. Jackknife and cross-validation procedures indicated good predictive capability of the habitat model. Therefore, both the availability of large oaks, being related to potential food abundance, and of potential cavity trees, being related to reproduction, appear to be used as proximate cues to determine home range size. Management decisions concerning the endangered middle spotted woodpecker have focused on the conservation and promotion of large oaks; in the future they should consider the supply of trees suited for cavity excavation as well.