Mary E. Blair

Ecological divergence and speciation between lemur (Eulemur) sister species in Madagascar.

Understanding ecological niche evolution over evolutionary timescales is crucial to elucidating the biogeographic history of organisms. Here, we used, for the first time, climate‐based ecological niche models (ENMs) to test hypotheses about ecological divergence and speciation processes between sister species pairs of lemurs (genus Eulemur) in Madagascar. We produced ENMs for eight species, all of which had significant validation support. Among the four sister species pairs, we found nonequivalent niches between sisters, varying degrees of niche overlap in ecological and geographic space, and support for multiple divergence processes. Specifically, three sister‐pair comparisons supported the null model that niches are no more divergent than the available background region. These findings are consistent with an allopatric speciation model, and for two sister pairs (E. collaris–E. cinereiceps and E. rufus–E. rufifrons), a riverine barrier has been previously proposed for driving allopatric speciation. However, for the fourth sister pair E. flavifrons–E. macaco, we found support for significant niche divergence, and consistent with their parapatric distribution on an ecotone and the lack of obvious geographic barriers, these findings most strongly support a parapatric model of speciation. These analyses thus suggest that various speciation processes have led to diversification among closely related Eulemur species.

Taxonomy and conservation of Vietnam's primates: a review.

Vietnam has the highest number of primate taxa overall (24–27) and the highest number of globally threatened primate taxa (minimum 20) in Mainland Southeast Asia. Conservation management of these species depends in part on resolving taxonomic uncertainties, which remain numerous among the Asian primates. Recent research on genetic, morphological, and acoustic diversity in Vietnams primates has clarified some of these uncertainties, although a number of significant classification issues still remain. Herein, we summarize and compare the major current taxonomic classifications of Vietnams primates, discuss recent advances in the context of these taxonomies, and suggest key areas for additional research to best inform conservation efforts in a region crucial to global primate diversity. Among the most important next steps for the conservation of Vietnams primates is a new consensus list of Asian primates that resolves current differences between major taxonomies, incorporates recent research advances, and recognizes units of diversity at scales below the species‐level, whether termed populations, morphs, or subspecies. Priority should be placed on recognizing distinct populations, regardless of the species concept in use, in order to foster the evolutionary processes necessary for primate populations to cope with inevitable environmental changes. The long‐term conservation of Vietnams primates depends not only on an accepted and accurate taxonomy but also on funding for on‐the‐ground conservation activities, including training, and the continued dedication and leadership of Vietnamese researchers and managers. Am. J. Primatol. 73:1093–1106, 2011.

Biocultural approaches to well-being and sustainability indicators across scales

Monitoring and evaluation are central to ensuring that innovative, multi-scale, and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability are effective. The development of relevant indicators for local sustainable management outcomes, and the ability to link these to broader national and international policy targets, are key challenges for resource managers, policymakers, and scientists. Sets of indicators that capture both ecological and social-cultural factors, and the feedbacks between them, can underpin cross-scale linkages that help bridge local and global scale initiatives to increase resilience of both humans and ecosystems. Here we argue that biocultural approaches, in combination with methods for synthesizing across evidence from multiple sources, are critical to developing metrics that facilitate linkages across scales and dimensions. Biocultural approaches explicitly start with and build on local cultural perspectives — encompassing values, knowledges, and needs — and recognize feedbacks between ecosystems and human well-being. Adoption of these approaches can encourage exchange between local and global actors, and facilitate identification of crucial problems and solutions that are missing from many regional and international framings of sustainability. Resource managers, scientists, and policymakers need to be thoughtful about not only what kinds of indicators are measured, but also how indicators are designed, implemented, measured, and ultimately combined to evaluate resource use and well-being. We conclude by providing suggestions for translating between local and global indicator efforts.Biocultural approaches combining local values, knowledge, and needs with global ecological factors provide a fruitful indicator framework for assessing local and global well-being and sustainability, and help bridge the divide between them.

Remote Sensing for Biodiversity

Remote sensing (RS)—taking images or other measurements of Earth from above—provides a unique perspective on what is happening on the Earth and thus plays a special role in biodiversity and conservation applications. The periodic repeat coverage of satellite-based RS is particularly useful for monitoring change and so is essential for understanding trends, and also provides key input into assessments, international agreements, and conservation management. Historically, RS data have often been expensive and hard to use, but changes over the last decade have resulted in massive amounts of global data being available at no cost, as well as significant (if not yet complete) simplification of access and use. This chapter provides a baseline set of information about using RS for conservation applications in three realms: terrestrial, marine, and freshwater. After a brief overview of the mechanics of RS and how it can be applied, terrestrial systems are discussed, focusing first on ecosystems and then moving on to species and genes. Marine systems are discussed next in the context of habitat extent and condition and including key marine-specific challenges. This is followed by discussion of the special considerations of freshwater habitats such as rivers, focusing on freshwater ecosystems, species, and ecosystem services.

Increasing the diversity of U.S. conservation science professionals via the Society for Conservation Biology.

MICHAEL J. FOSTER,∗ § MARY E. BLAIR,∗ †† CHANDA BENNETT,∗† NORA BYNUM,∗‡ AND ELEANOR J. STERLING∗ ∗Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, U.S.A. †New York Aquarium, 602 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11224, U.S.A. ‡Office of Global Strategy and Programs, Duke University, Box 90036, 101 Allen Bldg, Durham, NC 27708, U.S.A.

Applying systems thinking to inform studies of wildlife trade in primates

Wildlife trade presents a major threat to primate populations, which are in demand from local to international scales for a variety of uses from food and traditional medicine to the exotic pet trade. We argue that an interdisciplinary framework to facilitate integration of socioeconomic, anthropological, and biological data across multiple spatial and temporal scales is essential to guide the study of wildlife trade dynamics and its impacts on primate populations. Here, we present a new way to design research on wildlife trade in primates using a systems thinking framework. We discuss how we constructed our framework, which follows a social‐ecological system framework, to design an ongoing study of local, regional, and international slow loris (Nycticebus spp.) trade in Vietnam. We outline the process of iterative variable exploration and selection via this framework to inform study design. Our framework, guided by systems thinking, enables recognition of complexity in study design, from which the results can inform more holistic, site‐appropriate, and effective trade management practices. We place our framework in the context of other approaches to studying wildlife trade and discuss options to address foreseeable challenges to implementing this new framework.

Multidisciplinary studies of wildlife trade in primates: Challenges and priorities

Wildlife trade is increasingly recognized as an unsustainable threat to primate populations and informing its management is a growing focus and application of primatological research. However, management policies based on ecological research alone cannot address complex socioeconomic or cultural contexts as drivers of wildlife trade. Multidisciplinary research is required to understand trade complexity and identify sustainable management strategies. Here, we define multidisciplinary research as research that combines more than one academic discipline, and highlight how the articles in this issue combine methods and approaches to fill key gaps and offer a more comprehensive understanding of underlying drivers of wildlife trade including consumer demand, enforcement patterns, source population status, and accessibility of targeted species. These articles also focus on how these drivers interact at different scales, how trade patterns relate to ethics, and the potential effectiveness of different policy interventions in reducing wildlife trade. We propose priorities for future research on primate trade including expanding from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary research questions and approaches co‐created by research teams that integrate across different disciplines such as cultural anthropology, ecology, economics, and public policy. We also discuss challenges that limit the integration of information across disciplines to meet these priorities.

Slow Loris Trade in Vietnam: Exploring Diverse Knowledge and Values

Wildlife trade can present a major threat to primate populations. In Vietnam, slow lorises (genus Nycticebus) are subject to local, regional and international demand for diverse uses including as medicine, as meat and for pets. Ethnographic approaches explore the nuances of human-primate interactions in complex sociocultural contexts. We combined ethnographic interviews of key informants with information from questionnaires, focus groups and a movie broadcast on Vietnamese television to explore diverse knowledge and values related to slow lorises and their use in trade in Vietnam. We infer prices, uses and networks for expanding targeted regional and international markets as compared to the opportunistic local one. We highlight key findings related to gendered knowledge about slow lorises and more-than-human ontologies of slow lorises as active participants in human-slow loris interactions. We suggest that conservation efforts should pay attention to the clarification of vernacular names, and use names that highlight ecological or behavioural qualities of slow lorises, rather than other names that could be confused with medicinal remedies. Our results confirm the dynamic complexity of trade in Vietnam, highlighting the importance of ethnographic methods to explore diverse knowledge and values for place-based or site-appropriate conservation management of primates and other highly traded taxa.

The Importance of an Interdisciplinary Research Approach to Inform Wildlife Trade Management in Southeast Asia

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience November 2017 / Vol. 67 No. 11 • BioScience 995 BioScience 67: 995–1003.