Marine, Freshwater, and Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation

Marine, coastal and wetland habitats are threatened, not only through exploitation, but also by the prospect of climate change - as ocean currents change course, sea levels rise, and rainfall patterns change. Even the once-common cod is now under threat from the combined effects of over-fishing and a dramatic change-induced decrease in the plankton that cod larvae feed on. Meanwhile, coral reefs remain especially vulnerable to rapid sea-level changes exacerbated by the effects of tourism and disease.

This book gathers together a wide range of papers reporting on key research into the biodiversity conservation of these critical and increasingly threatened habitats. Collectively these papers provide a snap-shot of the types of problems they are experiencing, and offer a wealth of topical examples which render this volume especially valuable to teachers of courses in marine, freshwater and wetlands ecology, biological conservation and ecological restoration.

Reprinted from Biodiversity and Conservation 15:11 (2006).

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Extinction of fen and bog plants and their habitats in Croatia.- Floristic and ecological diversity of Ranunculus aquatic habitats in the sub-Atlantic range: implications for conservation.- Testing the higher-taxon approach: a case study of aquatic marcophytes in China's northwest arid zone and its implications for conservation.- Aquatic plants diversity in arid zones of Northwest China: patterns, threats and conservation.- Red Data List of Charophytes in the Balkans.- Seasonal changes in bird species diversity at the interface between forest and reed-bed.- Plant-water regime management in a wetland: consequences for a floating vegetation-nesting bird, whiskered tern Chlidonias hybridus.- Population trends and calling phenology of anuran populations surveyed in Ontario estimated using acoustic surveys.- Diversity of anurans across agricultural ponds in Argentina.- Species turnover: the case of stream amphibians of rainforests in the Western Ghats, southern India.- Small-scale biogeographical patterns in some groundwater Crustacea, the syncarid, Parabathynellidae..- Freshwater finfish biodiversity and conservation: an asian perspective.- The upper reached ichthyofauna of the Tietê River, São Paulo, Brazil: aspects of their diversity and conservation.- Captive breeding of endangered fish Chitala chitala (Hamilton-Buchanan) for species conservation and sustainable utilization.- Distinctive invertebrate assemblages in rockface seepages enhance lotic biodiversity in northern New Zealand.- Rare, threatened and alien species in the gastropod communities in the clay pit ponds in relation to the environmental factors (The Ciechanowska Upland, Central Poland).- Littoral mollusc communities and water quality in southern Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.- Coral diversity acrossa disturbance gradient in the Pulau Seribu reef complex off Jakarta, Indonesia.- Biological characterisation of a subtidal tunnel in São Miguel island (Azores).- Faunal change and bathymetric diversity gradient in deep-sea prosobranchs from Northeastern Atlantic.- Distribution and abundance of marine turtles in the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.- Invertebrate infestation on eggs and hatchlings of the loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, in Dalaman, Turkey.- Marine sponges of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia: patterns of species distributions, abundance and diversity.- Effects of habitat alteration caused by petrochemical activities and oil spills on the habitat use and interspecific relationships among four species of Afrotropical freshwater turtles.