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Article
The importance of heterozygosity in a frog’s life
High genetic variability may increase metabolic efficiency and thus allows responding to environmental challenges as limits to adaptation are approached. Therefore, it has been suggested that high genetic vari...
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Article
Cultivation of genetically modified organisms: resource needs for monitoring adverse effects on biodiversity
Genetically modified organisms (GMO) in non-European countries are introduced into the agro-environment on large scale with little knowledge of adverse effects on biodiversity. In the European Union (EU) possi...
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Article
Determination of conservation priorities in regions with multiple political jurisdictions
Red lists serve as the most prominent tool for priority setting in applied conservation, even though they were not originally designed for this task. Hence, threat status does not always reflect actual conserv...
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Article
European species and habitat monitoring: where are we now?
Biodiversity now is considered a highly valuable material, providing manifold services of high importance for the well-being of humankind. However, biodiversity globally is rapidly diminishing and, despite eff...
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Article
Determination of national conservation responsibilities for species conservation in regions with multiple political jurisdictions
The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) commits its signatories to the identification and monitoring of biodiversity. The European Union has implemented this commitment into its legislation. Despite the legal req...
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Article
Integrating ongoing biodiversity monitoring: potential benefits and methods
Halting the loss of biodiversity comes along with the need to quantify biodiversity composition and dynamics at large spatial and temporal scales. Highly standardized, international monitoring networks would b...
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Chapter
Masked Damage: Mutational Load in Hemiclonal Water Frogs
Hemiclonal hybrids of Western Palearctic water frogs of the Rana esculenta complex transmit only one parental genome to their offspring without recombination (hybridogenesis). Such genomes are thus prone to accum...
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Article
Polymorphic microsatellites identified by cross-species amplifications in the European Coot Fulica atra
We tested the cross-amplification of 26 microsatellites developed for passerines and an additional three developed for Gallinula species in eight European Coots from two populations. Sixteen microsatellite marker...
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Article
Biodiversity monitoring: some proposals to adequately study species’ responses to climate change
Climate change affects all levels of biology and is a major threat for biodiversity. Hence, it is fundamental to run biodiversity monitoring programs to understand the effects of climate change on the biota an...
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Article
Multiple signals in the palmate newt: ornaments help when courting
There is increasing evidence that female mate choice is often based on the assessment of multiple male traits, involving both morphology and behavior. We investigated female mate choice for multiple male trait...
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Article
Open AccessWidespread presence of the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in wild amphibian communities in Madagascar
Amphibian chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has been a significant driver of amphibian declines. While globally widespread, Bd had not yet ...
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Article
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): progress and next steps
Biodiversity and the services ecosystems provide have built the foundation of human civilization and provide for the welfare of people. With the increase of the human population it has become clearer than ever...
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Article
The global amphibian trade flows through Europe: the need for enforcing and improving legislation
The global amphibian trade is suspected to have brought several species to the brink of extinction, and has led to the spread of amphibian pathogens. Moreover, international trade is not regulated for ~98 % of...
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Chapter
Case Studies of Capacity Building for Biodiversity Monitoring
Monitoring the status and trends of species is critical to their conservation and management. However, the current state of biodiversity monitoring is insufficient to detect such for most species and habitats,...
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Article
Open AccessSetting temporal baselines for biodiversity: the limits of available monitoring data for capturing the full impact of anthropogenic pressures
Temporal baselines are needed for biodiversity, in order for the change in biodiversity to be measured over time, the targets for biodiversity conservation to be defined and conservation progress to be evaluat...
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Article
Positive sentiment and knowledge increase tolerance towards conservation actions
People generally possess certain basic ideas and values towards biodiversity, influencing their personal evaluation of a conservation situation or action and their attitude towards nature and its conservation....
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Article
Open AccessErratum: Setting temporal baselines for biodiversity: the limits of available monitoring data for capturing the full impact of anthropogenic pressures
Scientific Reports 7: Article number: 41591; published online: 30 January 2017; updated: 02 May 2017 In this Article, Figure 4 is a duplication of Figure 5. The correct Figure 4 appears below as Figure 1. The ...
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Article
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): getting involved
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) held its 5th plenary session in Bonn during March 2017. After last year’s pollinator assessment, the biodiversity a...
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Article
An operational definition of essential biodiversity variables
The concept of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) was proposed in 2013 to improve harmonization of biodiversity data into meaningful metrics. EBVs were conceived as a small set of variables which collecti...
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Article
Building capacity in biodiversity monitoring at the global scale
Human-driven global change is causing ongoing declines in biodiversity worldwide. In order to address these declines, decision-makers need accurate assessments of the status of and pressures on biodiversity. H...
