Irregular Shelterwood Cuttings Promote Viability of European Yew Population Growing in a Managed Forest: A Case Study from the Starohorské Mountains, Slovakia

The conservation of large carnivores is a formidable challenge for biodiversity conservation. Using a data set on the past and current status of brown bears (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), gray wolves (Canis lupus), and wolverines (Gulo gulo) in European countries, we show that roughly one-third of mainland Europe hosts at least one large carnivore species, with stable or increasing abundance in most cases in 21st-century records. The reasons for this overall conservation success include protective legislation, supportive public opinion, and a variety of practices making coexistence between large carnivores and people possible. The European situation reveals that large carnivores and people can share the same landscape. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The past seven years have seen a revolution in understanding the causes of mast seeding In perennial plants. Before 1987, the two main theories were resource matching (i.e. plants vary their reproductive output to match variable resources) and predator satiation (i.e. losses to predators are reduced by varying the seed crop). Today, resource matching is restricted to a proximate role, and predator satiation is only one of many theories for the ultimate advantage of masting. Wind pollination, prediction of favourable years for seedling establishment, animal pollination, animal dispersal of fruits, high accessory costs of reproduction and large seed size have all been advanced as possible causes of masting. Of these, wind pollination, predator satiation and environmental prediction are important in a number of species, but the other theories have less support. In future, Important advances seem likely from quantifying synchrony within a population, and examining species with very constant reproduction between years. Copyright © 1994. Published by Elsevier Ltd.