Description: This article discusses changing lenses to assess biodiversity. Abstract: Taxonomic groups and ecoregions shape the "lenses" through which biodiversity is assessed and conserved. A historical bias toward vertebrates and vascular plants in the northern hemisphere underpins how global patterns of biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems are perceived. Here, the authors focus on the hitherto overlooked non-vascular flora (liverworts and mosses) in the remote sub-Antarctic Magellanic ecoregion of southwestern South America. The authors report that: (1) this ecoregion hosts outstanding non-vascular floristic richness, with > 5% of the world's bryophytes on < 0.01% of the Earth's land surface; (2) species richness patterns for vascular and non-vascular plants are inverted across 25 degrees of latitude in Chile; and (3) while vascular plants are 20 times more abundant than non-vascular plants globally and in tropical South America, non-vascular plants are dominant in the sub-Antarctic Magellanic ecoregion and Antarctic Peninsula. These findings have been translated into policy and conservation decisions, including the creation of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve in 2005 and the introduction there of "tourism with a hand lens" in the diverse "miniature forests" of bryophytes, lichens, and invertebrates. The authors argue for consideration of ecoregional- or biome -specific indicator groups, rather than ...

Description: This article discusses biodiversity conservation and implementation of sustainable development in southernmost South America and the new biosphere reserve in Cape Horn, located in Antarctica Chilena Province.

Description: This article discusses field environmental philosophy and biocultural conservation. Abstract: Habitats (where we live), habits (how we live), and inhabitants (who we are) constitute an ecosystem unit. The biosphere is composed of a reticulate mosaic of these habitat-habit-inhabitant units, where humans (with their indigenous languages, ecological knowledge, and practices) have coevolved. Today, these diverse ecosystem units are being violently destroyed by the imposition of a single global colonial cultural model. In Cape Horn at the southern end of the Americas, educators, authorities, and decision makers do not know about the native habitats, language, and flora, and do not distinguish between Cape Horn's flora and the flora that grows in other parts of the country or the world. In contrast, indigenous people and old residents have a detailed knowledge, but they do not participate in education, and decision making. It is not Homo Sapiens in general, but bioculturally biased educators, authorities, and decision makers who need to be transformed into (educated and responsible) members and citizen of biocultural communities. The Omora Ethnobotanical Park educational program was launched to contribute to a biocultural citizenship involving three critical steps: (1) the disclosing of biocultural diversity with a "fine filter" approach that permits understanding ...

Description: This article discusses Cape Horn, a National park free from alien species in southernmost South America. The Cape Horn Archipelago, tam- also called Wollaston archipelago, retains its pristine condition, almost completely free of exotic plant species.

Description: This article discusses the diet of the American mink Mustela vison. Abstract: Invasive exotic species of mammalian predators represent a major cause of vertebrate animal extinctions on islands, particularly those that lack native mammalian carnivores. In 2001, the American mink (Mustela vison) was recorded for the first time on Navarino Island, in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (55° S) in Chile, representing the southernmost population of mink worldwide. In order to assess its potential impact on native fauna, the authors studied its diet on Navarino Island, as part of an integrative management program on invasive species. Over a three-year period (2005-2007) the authors collected 512 scats in semi-aquatic habitats: marine coasts, riparian and lake shores. Overall, the main prey was mammals (37% biomass), and birds (36%), followed by fish (24%). Over the spring and summer, mink consumed significantly more birds, whereas mammals constituted the main prey over the autumn and winter when migratory birds had left the area. Among birds, the mink preyed mainly on adult Passeriformes, followed by Anseriformes and Pelecaniformes, caught as chicks. Among mammals, the exotic muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) was the most important prey, and together with the native rodent Abrothrix xanthorhinus it accounted for 78% of ...