Antonio Belda

A free and open source programming library for landscape metrics calculations

Landscape metrics are used in a wide range of environmental studies such as land use change and land degradation studies, soil erosion and run-off predictions, management of hunting communities, and strategic planning for environmental management, to name just a few. Due to their utility for a variety of applications, there are many indices and software packages that have been designed to provide calculations and analysis of landscape structure patterns in categorical maps. With the purpose of making a comparison between the most used tools (Fragstats, V-Late, PA4...), this paper examines their advantages and disadvantages in order to create a list of common features that need to be incorporated into this type of software. An Application Programming Interface (API) is produced without limitations on data input, that is capable of calculating vector or raster metrics and is extensible. This API should make it possible not only to build third party applications easily, but also make it possible to add new metrics and research into new paradigms related to traditional landscape metrics. Land-metrics DIY (Do It Yourself) is the library presented in this paper. It can calculate almost 40 landscape metrics from geometry provided by an ESRI Shapefile.

Plants Used to Capture and Sustain Wild Finches (Fringillidae) in Southeast Spain1

The ethnobotanical knowledge of plants used in the capture, feeding, breeding, and healing of songbirds in Iberia has a pedigree stretching back many centuries. Introduced during the Roman era, the earliest historical references to these activities appear in the 14th-century manuscript Tacuinum-Sanitatis (Verona, 14th century) and the 16th-century tome Le livre de chasse du Roy Modus (National Library of Brussels). The cultural importance attributed to the capture and breeding of songbirds is suggested by the nickname given to the patron saint of the city of Segovia, San Frutos (642–715 C.E.)—“El Pajarero” (The Bird Breeder). His feast day is celebrated on October 25, and it is customary for people living in the Segovian province to hunt for birds on this day, in memory of the saint. An early detailed description is provided by Juan Bautista Xamarro in his 1604 book Knowledge of the Ten Small Cage Birds, His Singing, Illness, Healing and Breeding. In addition, the work of several 17th-century European painters portray songbirds in captivity, such as Still Life of Game by Jan Fyt (1649), Goldfinch, the painting of a decoy goldfinch by Carel Fabritius (a pupil of Rembrandt), and an elaborate and ornate picture on a tablet of what appears to be a decoy goldfinch, created by the Flemish painter Abraham Mignon. In addition, in 1775 the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, by order of the Marquis of Leganes, portrayed a goldfinch in a traditional Spanish cage in one of his famous hunting scenes (Museo del Prado in Madrid). Today, the capture of wild birds with a traditional hinged network assembly is widespread in the province of Alicante and elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula. Game nets are constructed of cotton, hemp, or nylon and have a manual activation system. Once a bird enters the net, a rope is pulled to enclose the bird (Fig. 1). The knowledge of how to fashion these networks, employed since the Middle Ages to capture species of Fringillidae for pets, is well known among the inhabitants of this region (Boza 2004). These birds are relatively easy to maintain and rear in captivity, and they are readily trained to participate in singing competitions. At present, the capture of five species of birds is authorized and regulated under law: “verdecillo” (Serinus serinus L.), “jilguero” (Carduelis carduelis L.), “verderón” (Carduelis chloris L.), “pardillo” (Carduelis cannabina L.), and “pinzón” (Fringilla coelebs L.) (Council Directive 79/409/EEC and National Laws 4/1989, 62/2006, and 13/2004). Hunters must purchase a license from the authorNotes on Economic Plants

Ictiofauna y pesca tradicional asociada a los canales de riego en el Bajo Vinalopó: integración del conocimiento local y académico para la comprensión de los ecosistemas mediterráneos

El desarrollo de este estudio ha sido realizado gracias a la financiacion por parte del proyecto de investigacion WADI (INCO2003-MPC2-015226) de la Comision Europea.

Advances in camera trap data management tools: Towards collaborative development and integration with GIS

This project has been carried out thanks to the UNCROACH project (CGL-2011-30581-CC02-01) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; and has been partially funded by the public call for research projects of the Conselleria of Education (T6217-2010); and the Institute of Culture Juan Gil-Albert-Alicante.

Use of GIS to predict potential distribution areas for wild boar (Sus scrofa Linnaeus 1758) in Mediterranean regions (SE Spain)

Abstract The wild boar is the target species selected for developing a GIS model of potential habitat for big game species, mainly using many GIS layers and kilometric abundance indices (KAI). We identify and weight environmental factors that determine the suitability for wild boar populations in a Mediterranean region, highly influenced by urban and agro-forestry activities. Marina Baja region (Spain) is selected to make a regional analysis. In the GIS modelling process, a suitability value is assigned to each pixel, which represents the habitat preference of the species. In the potential habitat model some variables were considered, the most important being land use. Voronoi polygons are generated by calculating the centroid of census transects located with GPS. These polygons are combined with the ‘suitability’ layer to obtain potentiality values, involving the displacement of the wild boar impedances within each Voronoi polygon. Finally, it performs the cartographic generalization process to obtain the resulting potential areas. We have obtained six potential areas that represent 39% of the region and they are best for the species. Natural vegetation is the most important landcover type in these areas. The cost-distance model is an efficient tool that gives good results in line with existing knowledge of species distribution. The model is constructed in order to explain, understand and predict the relations of analysed species using a determinate number of environmental variables. Thus, the use of GIS has allowed the information coming from different sources to be integrated in a simple way, allowing wild boar observations (KAI) to be combined with the cost-distance analysis result.

The relationship between plants used to sustain finches (Fringillidae) and uses for human medicine in southeast Spain

We analyzed plants that are traditionally used by wild bird hunters and breeders to capture and promote captive breeding of Fringillidae (finches or songbirds) in the province of Alicante, Spain. The majority of plants used in songbird breeding have medicinal properties in traditional human medicine (48 different uses); thus, another main goal was to show their relationships with human medical uses. We compiled a list of 97 plant species from 31 botanical families that are used to attract finches and identified 11 different use categories for these plants in finch keeping. The most common uses were for trapping birds and as a source of food for birds in captivity. Cannabis sativa has the greatest cultural importance index (CI = 1.158), and Phalaris canariensis (annual canary grass or alpist) was the most common species used to attract Fringillidae and was used by all informants (n = 158). Most of the 97 species are wild plants and mainly belong to the families Compositae, Gramineae, Cruciferae, and Rosaceae and also have medicinal properties for humans. In the study area, the intensification of agriculture and abandonment of traditional management practices have caused the population of many songbirds to decline, as well as the loss of popular ethnographic knowledge.

Abundancia y distribución de especies depredadoras sometidas a control en gestión cinegética: estudio de caso representativo de la urraca (Pica pica) en la comarca de la Marina Baja

El trabajo realizado ha sido financiado en parte por el proyecto de investigacion CGL2004-00202 del Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia.

Seguimiento de la liebre ibérica (Lepus granatensis ROSENHAUER, 1856) en la Sierra de Mariola (Alicante-Valencia)

Este proyecto ha sido financiado en parte por la convocatoria publica de proyectos de investigacion para grupos pre-competitivos de la Conselleria de Educacion y por las ayudas para la investigacion del Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert.

Main ecological gradients and landscape matrix affect wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mammalia: Leporidae) abundance in a coastal region (South-East Spain)

Abstract Landscape analysis with transects, in the Marina Baja area (province of Alicante, Spain), has contributed to establish the influence of different landscape matrices and some environmental gradients on wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mammalia: Leporidae) abundance (kilometric abundance index, KAI). Transects (n = 396) were developed to estimate the abundance of this species in the study area from 2006 to 2008. Our analysis shows that rabbits have preferences for a specific land use matrix (irrigated: = 3.47 ± 1.14 rabbits/km). They prefer the coastal area ( = 3.82 ± 1.71 rabbits/km), which coincides with thermo-Mediterranean (a bioclimatic belt with a tempered winter and a hot and dry summer with high human density), as opposed to areas in the interior (continental climate with lower human occupation). Their preference for the southern area of the region was also noted ( = 8.22 ± 3.90 rabbits/km), which coincides with the upper semi-arid area, as opposed to the northern and intermediate areas (the north of the region coinciding with the upper dry and the intermediate area with the lower dry). On the other hand, we found that the number of rabbits increased during the 3-year study period, with the highest abundance ( = 2.71 ± 1.30 rabbits/km) in May. Thus, this study will enable more precise knowledge of the ecological factors (habitat variables) that intervene in the distribution of wild rabbit populations in a poorly studied area.

Ethnobotanic importance of plants used in pigeon-breeding in Eastern Spain

BackgroundThe importance that birds of the Columbidae family have had throughout history is visible on the Mediterranean coast. Pigeon fancying is the art of breeding and training carrier pigeons and currently, several breeds exist. The sport of racing pigeons consists in covering a distance at maximum possible speed. However, pigeon breeding has another modality called “sport pigeon”, where several males follow a female. This study focusses on ethnobotanical knowledge of native and exotic plant species that are used for diet, breeding, stimulation, healing illnesses and staining the plumage of pigeons bred in captivity.MethodsUsing semi-structured interviews, we gathered information about the different plant species traditionally used for pigeon-breeding in the region of Valencia. Background material on remedies for bird illnesses was gathered from folk botanical references, local books and journals.The plant species were collected in the study area, then identified in the laboratory using dichotomous keys and vouchered in the ABH (Herbarium of Alicante University). We used Excel ® 2003 to perform a simple statistical analysis of the data collected.ResultsWe collected 56 species of plants (and one variety) that included 29 botanical families. The total number of species was made up of 35 cultivated and 21 wild plants. The most common were Gramineae (14 species), Leguminosae (6 species), and Compositae (4 species).ConclusionsPigeon breeding is an immensely popular activity in Eastern Spain, and ethnobiological knowledge about breeding pigeons and caring for them is considerable. The names and traditional uses of plants depend on their geographical location, vernacular names serve as an intangible heritage. Feeding, environmental features, and genetic makeup of individuals are relevant aspects in the maintenance of avian health.