-The ideas examined and the results presented in the last unfinished manuscript of Friedrich Ruttner have been further developed. Within the 6 populations of the Near East distinguishable by morphometry, the bees of Massandaran in Iran occupy an important position due to their large size. Even sea-level bees exceed the size of the bees of the elevated region of Central Iran, which seems to contradict Bergmanns' s rule. An extended study had revealed that this population, clearly belonging to the subspecies Apis mellifera meda, shows a very distinct size increase from the Caspian Sea to the northern slope of the Elbrus Mountains, rising to 2 200 m in elevation. A similar but less pronounced ecocline with a marked increase in size can be found reaching up from the Mediterranean coast to the elevated Central Iranian region. The general pattern within A. m. meda in the region along 36°N latitude thus generally confirms Bergmann's rule, thus providing a fine example of an ecoclinal structure. However, size differences between the extremes, i.e., the Mediterranean and the coast of the Caspian Sea remain marked, which indicates an additional genetic component linked to a different history of the populations. This might prove to be an interesting aspect, as the area covered by A. meda is suspected to have played a major role in the evolution of A. mellifera.
Apis mellifera meda / morphometry / ecoclineApidologie 31 (2000) 157-165 157
BioREGIO Carpathians is a transnational cooperation project, co-financed under the second call of the EU South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme, priority area "Protection and Improvement of the Environment". BioREGIO Carpathians run for three years (2011)(2012)(2013) and is a flagship project for the Carpathian Convention (article four dealing with landscape and biological diversity), its Biodiversity Protocol and the Biodiversity Working Group. The project is built on the conservation, restoration and valorisation of the Carpathians ecological continuum to enable large herbivores and carnivores to live in coexistence with modern society. The Carpathian countries are expecting a massive pressure to modernize and extend their road infrastructures. If not considering the requirements of ecological network, this run-to-development will enhance landscape fragmentation, limit dispersal and genetic exchange of wildlife species. BioREGIO applied a multi-disciplinary approach (physical, legal and socioeconomic) in order to identify the most influencing barriers regarding connectivity throughout the Carpathians. Using two ArcGIS 10.0 tools in a three-step approach and a series of site visits, the continuity and connectivity analysis identified not only physical barriers but also legal aspects and socio-economic behaviour that are influencing ecological connectivity and playing a major role to conserve wildlife population. The investigation on the ground together with local experts and stakeholders enabled the adaptation of the GIS results and the development of feasible solutions to overcome the detected barriers with recommended priorities for implementing appropriate measurements to maintain connectivity and to sustain large carnivores, herbivores and biodiversity in the Carpathians.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation
A peer-reviewed open-access journalFilippo Favilli et al. / Nature Conservation 11: 95-111 (2015) 96
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.