4^th International Conference on Biodiversity June 15-17, 2015 Las Vegas, USA

Eviatar Nevo, Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel

How does ecological divergence affect biodiversity origination and diversification? Sharply divergent microsites provide excellent models to explore these problems. At the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel, during the last 25 years, we have been conducting a long-term project at amicroscale model, which we have designated as the \"Evolution Canyon\" (EC) model, exploring biodiversity evolution, adaptation, and speciation across life (Fig. 1; 1-19). Starting in 1990 at EC I in Lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, we extended the model to include four \"Evolution Canyons\" (ECs), EC I-IV, in the mountains of Carmel, Galilee, Negev, and Golan. The model consists of canyons with closely abutting slopes (separated by 100 meters at bottom and 400 meters at top in ECI), sharply divergent ecologically(2). Notably, the geology, macro-climate, and soils of the abutting slopes are similar, though the slope dip may differ. The major cause for the sharp ecological divergence is the interslopemicro-climatic divergence (5). The sun shines from the south; hence, the south-facing slope (SFS) is subject to higher solar radiation, 200-800% more than the shady north-facing slope. The outcome is that the SFS is a hot and dry African savannoid biome, dubbed the \"African\" slope (AS), and the NFS is a forested biome referred to as the \"European\" slope (ES) (Fig 1). Despite their short distance, the opposite slopes largely represent the biodiversity of two continents, Africa and Europe. Todate, we identified 2500 species at EC I, from bacteria to mammals, in a small area of 7000 m2 (100 species of bacteria, 500 species of soil fungi, 350 species of flowering plants, 1500 species of insects, and 50 vertebrate species (12)). Of great importance, besides slope-specific adaptive complexes,interslope divergence leads to incipient sympatric ecological speciation across life. African colonizers settle first on AS, then migrate to the ES, originating new ecological species. European colonizers settle first on the ES, and then migrate to the AS generatingnew ecological species. In both cases, the new species originate sympatrically and adaptively across life with ongoing geneflow, i.e., within free interbreeding populations, as was exemplified at EC I by five model organisms (19). A soil bacterium, Bacillus simplex, a flowering plant, wild barley, Hordeumspontaneum, the progenitor of all world barleys, the tiny beetle Oryzaephilussurinamensis, the cosmopolitan fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, and African-originated spiny mice, Acomyscahirinus. All of thesespeciate within interbreeding free populations with ongoing interslope geneflow(6, 10, 13, 18), demonstrating that the Darwinian model of sympatric speciation is frequent if local niches diverge sharply and stressfully ecologically (geologically, edaphically, climatically, or biotically). Incipient sympatric ecological speciation across life can be studied on the opposite slopes in viruses, bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, flowering plants, invertebrates, and terrestrial vertebrates (2,6-9,18,19).The \"Evolution Canyons\" model in Israel, common but little studied worldwide, are dubbed the \"Israeli Galapagos\" since they are cradles of species origination across life. Species richness is higher on the tropical, ecologically more diversified AS than on the more unified temperate ES (2, 11). Major adaptive complexes on the AS are against slope-specific stresses of high solar radiation, heat, and drought whereas those on the ES relate to light deprivation stress, photosynthesis, and cool-humid microclimate (4,7,12,14,16,17, 18). The EC microclimatic model is optimal in tracking global warming at a microscale across life (14). \r\n\r\nEC is an ideal microsite model to study biodiversity evolution, adaptation and speciation, both phenotypically and genotypically, at the genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics levels, across life (1-19 with whole genome sequencing and repeatome in ref. 16 and 17).\r\n

Sang il Ahn has completed his B.S. degree in Biomedical Laboratory Science from Soonchunhyang university in 2011. He has received Talent Award of Korea in 2009 and published several papers in reputed journals. He is currently completing his last semester of Master’s degree at Soonchunhyang university

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize microbial molecules that are widely presented by pathogens and initiate innate immune system. TLR signaling is divided into two different signaling pathways, the myeloid differential factor 88 (MyD88)- and Toll-interleukin-1 receptor domain-containing adapter inducing interferon- (TRIF)-dependent pathways. Eupatorium makinoi, a plant species in Asteraceae, is used for medicinal purposes in China, Korea, and Japan. We investigated the effect of an ethanol extract of E. makinoi (EEM) on TLRs signaling pathways. EEM suppresses NF-B activation and iNOS and COX-2 expression induced by TLR2 or TLR4 agonists. Also, EEM suppresses the activation of IRF3 induced by TLR3 or TLR4 agonists. All results indicate that EEM suppresses MyD88- and TRIF-dependent signaling pathways of TLRs and the expression of target genes derived from the activation of TLRs. This work was carried out with the support of “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project Title: A study on anti-allergic mechanism of Aster yomena by clinical research, Project No: PJ0108262015)” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.\r\nBiography\r\nSang

Sadegh PARTANI, finished his M.Sc. from university of Tarbiat Modares in Civil-Environmental Engineering. He is PhD candidate of water-environmental engineering at university of Tehran. Already his PhD dissertation is done and he is on the verge of final defense. He is research associate at Modares Environmental Research Center of Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran (MERC) for more than 5 years and working on water and environmental national projects of Iran. He was research associate at Coastal studies Institute of Louisiana State University (CSI-LSU) of USA and was working on water quality management in coastal zone.

Marine vegetation and coastlines ecosystems especially coastal flora in tropical and sub-tropical zones are very important habitats which play a substantial role in ecotone areas. Mangroves as one endangered and protected intertidal flora species are investigated in this research. This research is based on the natural physical model that carried out in the coastline in pneumatophores zone. Since mangroves areas in tropical and subtropical zones are subjected to oil pollution potentially, the protection of them and coastal habitats management is necessary seriously. This research conducts the natural physical models and filed studies on oil spill pollution in coastal habitats to estimating the oil content amount which may adsorb during the first hours of oil slick contact. The results lead coastline management authorities to predict the oil pollution level due to an oil spill disaster and prepare for environmental disaster management. \r\nThe field studies carried out on natural Avicenna marina’s pneumatophores habitats treating by weathered crude oil in north coastline of Persian Gulf in the Nayband National Park. The field study area is located in vicinity of Persian Gulf Oil and Gas Operation Industries (Pars Special Economic Energy Zone-PSEEZ) which including the important flora species and subjected to oil and gas industries’ pollution potentials. Results released the estimation equation and relationship for oil content pollution trapped in the pneumatophores area according to effective parameters and alometeric characteristics and pneumatophores’ density. The distribution of pneumatophores also is considered for more clarification of different coastal zones. Mentioned equation is function of flora volume by tidal sea level fluctuation as height and mean diameter and density. Some other parameters of disaster condition such as sunlight, concentration, contact time and tidal situation and climate condition are involved to estimate the massive percent of oil content in short period time.\r\n

Albert Damptey-Boakye is a Master student at University of Bergen, Norway. He holds Bachelor in Science in Fisheries Biology and Oceanography from University of Ghana. He is currently writing his thesis on “Fisheries acoustics with particular emphasis on using acoustics as a tool in marine ecosystem management”.

Fish aggregating devices (FADs) are widely used by purse seiners in the Tropical Tuna fisheries to help in fishing operations often with buoys containing simple echo sounders attached for geolocation and information on species presence and estimate. Many species of fish including juvenile tuna often associate with theses FADS. There are global decline in Tuna catch largely owing tothe mortality of juvenile tuna often caught as by-catch. Therefore a quick and direct method of identifying species and estimate size present under the FADs through target strength measurement is needed to mitigate and reduce morality of non-target species and juvenile tuna species. Target strength is a function of the acoustic reflectivity of the species. Swim bladder accounts for over 90% of the target strength of the fish. There are three principal species of tropical tuna; skipjack, Yellow fin and Big eye tuna. The skipjack tuna has no swim bladder. This study sought to improve on the remote acoustic information from the buoys using target strength to distinguish between sizes and species by comparing split beam and single beam echo sounder data. Acoustic data were collected using the SIMRAD ES10 single beam echo sounder at 200 KHz (single beam) and SIMRAD EK 60 split beam echo sounder. The data analyses were carried out using Craig and Forbes algorithm and a series of algorithm in R statistical software for identifying and estimating target strength from single fish echoes.

Fatemeh Bakhtiari have a joint Ph.D. degree in Environmental economics from University of Copenhagen and University of Bangor (UK) which focused on ecosystem service valuation and General public’s environmental Behavior toward biodiversity conservation to generate a better and more comprehensive information base for policy formulation and decision making procedures. For the last 3 years, she has been a part of the basic Danish research center “Centre for Macroecology, evolution and climate change” (CMEC). Since 2015 she is working as a researcher at Technical University of Denmark which has collaboration with UNEP. Her recent focus is quantification and valuation of sustainable development co-benefits of mitigation actions.

Embedding and scope effects play a crucial role in the validity of stated preference outcomes, often arising from imprecise presentations of environmental goods such as biodiversity. Qualitative evidence shows that people tend to think of biodiversity in terms of its role in the ecosystem function such as stability and resilience, yet many studies focus solely on quantitative measures of biodiversity such as the number of species. This may induce a contextual embedding bias that is valuation measures that capture less of the good in question than intended. We report a split sample choice experiment (CE) study in which willingness to pay (WTP) for biodiversity was evaluated in two different embedding contexts: one version where biodiversity was presented as the number of species and one where we also included an attribute, fully correlated with the biodiversity attribute describing the role of biodiversity in ecosystems. By comparing WTP across splits and subgroups constructed based on follow-up questions, we were able to distinguish embedding from information effects and investigate scope sensitivity of respondents in each split as well. We found WTP for biodiversity to differ significantly between different splits and groups. We conclude that using a measure such as the number of species may under estimate people’s valuation of biodiversity as it does not capture the public perception of biodiversity function. Furthermore, we found that adding a description of the role of biodiversity in ecosystem explicitly in the choice set improved sensitivity to scope.

Yong-Bin Eom has completed hisDoctor at the age of 32 years from Yonsei University. Reschr.Asan Inst. Life Scis., 1997-98;Forensic DNA analyst Nat. Forensic Svc., 1998-2009.Prof. Korea Nazarene University, 2009-13.He is the director of Dept. of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Soonchunhyang University. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an ISO/TC212 bd. mem.Korean Agy.Tech. and Stds. and editorial board member of Biomed.Sci. Lett.and Korean J. Clin. Lab. Sci.

Human identification has played an important role in forensic science for the past two decades and it will continue to do so. DNA profilingmethodof human identification is the use ofmolecular genetic methods to determine the exact genotype of a DNA sample to distinguish one human being from another. The present study sought to develop an introductory triplex PCR system and to increase the awareness of the education of forensic science. \r\nThe kit contains the 3 STR loci HumAmel for a sex determining, HumvWA and HumFGA of CODIS STR loci for human identity testing. STR loci were selected effectively to improve the power of discrimination of the testing. This study was validated by a series of tests including optimized multiplex PCR conditions, precision and accuracy. This kit allows starting police officer and students who interesting in forensic science to conduct state-of-the-art DNA profiling techniques and to develop an understanding of how these techniques are performed in real-world forensic science labs.\r\n

Yong-Bin Eom＊ has completed hisDoctor at the age of 32 years from Yonsei University. Reschr.Asan Inst. Life Scis., 1997-98;Forensic DNA analyst Nat. Forensic Svc., 1998-2009.Prof. Korea Nazarene University, 2009-13.He is the director of Dept. of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Soonchunhyang University. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an ISO/TC212 bd. mem. Korean Agy.Tech. and Stds. and editorial board member of Biomed. Sci. Lett. and Korean J. Clin. Lab. Sci.

Human skin microbiome based on the 16S rRNA encoding gene can revealbacterial species diversity between individuals. A bacterial fingerprint obtained from surfaces including computer keyboards can be trace forensic evidence. \r\nNext generation sequencing was used to analyzethe bacterial community on objects and fingertips to match the object to the individual. Higher similarity of bacterial community between public computer keyboards and laboratory member’s fingertipswere evident than between other locations including doorknobs. The findings could aid forensic identification. The 16S rRNA gene sequence was submitted to EMBL SRA with accession number PRJEB8760.\r\n

Mukeshpokhrel have been working journalism field since 12 years. Currently he isinvolved in print and electronic both of them. He is writing thesis forthe Master\'s degree. The problem of cultural seen inwetland conservation: Study of Gadahawa wetland, on topic. Hehas passed Bachelor degree from Tirbhuwan University, Kathmandu in 2007. Hehasaffiliatedwith NGO Nepal environment journalist Association. Hehas been working biodiversity in filed through journalism and this NGO. Our program focus is community level. Recently he has beenresearching about Biodiversity conservation in community level.He has achieved some prize to contribute in Biodiversity and environment sector.

Gaindahawa wetland, which is located at the Bishnupura village development committee ward number -3, in Rupandehi district, is the largest wetland of the district. The lake area extended about 65 hectors is 15 KM north from the birth place of Lord Gautam Buddha, Lumbini and at the distance of 30 KM from the city Butwal. Local dwellers know the Gaindahawa wetland as Gaindahawa lake. This lake is very significant for irrigation and bio-diversity. According to the District Agriculture Office Rupandehi this lake provides irrigation facilities for about 5 hectors land of the Bishnupura VDC. Reptiles, birds, amphibians, mammals etc. are dependent in this lake. For examples; wild swans, out of 20 species of fishes now 5, three species of turtles, water snakes etc. are found in this area. There are Crane/saras and seven species of endangered vultures in this place. Endangered Gobre, dagger, golden vulture, Royalvulture, Brown mountain vulture like various vultures are found in Gaindahawa wetland area.

Ranjan has completed her B.Sc. degree in Bio Medical Sciences from University of Delhi, India, in 2012 and at the age of 23 years she did her M.Sc. in Natural Resource Management from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (India), in 2014. Her basic interest is in, Wildlife conservation and Geospatial Information Technology

Nature supports a great variety of ecosystems with very diverse flora and fauna. Since the turn of this century people have speeded up the species extinction process by polluting the environment, destroying habitats including plant and animal species. Hence, Wildlife is at the brink of destruction. Elephant is the largest living land mammal found in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The influence elephants have over much plant and animal species means they are often referred to as keystone species that are vital to the long-term survival of the ecosystems in which they live. Nowadays it has threat for survival due to anthropogenic reasons and the destruction of natural habitats. In the present study, evaluation of elephants habitat in Palamau Tiger Reserve is carried out using remote sensing, ground and other ancillary sources and is integrated using GIS using Weighted Overlay model. Different thematic maps viz., land use/cover, railway buffer, drainage buffer, fire buffer and multiple ring buffers of roads have been prepared to support the objective of the study. The weighted overlay analysis model is used for identifying different potential areas of habitat for this threatened species. The most suitable area for Elephants within the Tiger Reserve is found about 70.43% of the total area which could be due to is probably due to dense forest, least disturbance from people away from road and railway line, presence of bamboo trees. Other reasons of elephant’s occurrence in this region may be due to the presence of food and water body and being least prone to poachers. The moderate and least suitable areas come about 22.25% and 4.85% respectively. Identification of habitat potential areas for Elephants species could be considered as one of the most important steps towards the conservation and geospatial technology could be utilized for any similar species for this purpose which is under threat.