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Abstract
Genetic diversity is needed for species’ adaptation to changing selective pressures and is particularly important in regions with rapid environmental change such as the Baltic Sea. Conservation measures should consider maintaining large gene pools to maximize species’ adaptive potential for long-term survival. In this study, we explored concerns regarding genetic variation in international and national policies that governs biodiversity and evaluated if and how such policy is put into practice in management plans governing Baltic Sea Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Germany. We performed qualitative and quantitative textual analysis of 240 documents and found that agreed international and national policies on genetic biodiversity are not reflected in management plans for Baltic Sea MPAs. Management plans in all countries are largely void of goals and strategies for genetic biodiversity, which can partly be explained by a general lack of conservation genetics in policies directed toward aquatic environments.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0776-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Genetic diversity is the foundation for all biological diversity; the persistence and evolutionary potential of species rely on it for adaptation to natural and human-induced selective pressures (Allendorf et al 2012)
(CBD), we find our search words 26 times, while they occur three times in the European Union (EU) Habitats Directive, once in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and no times at all in the EU Water Framework Directive, the Helsinki Convention, and the EU Birds Directive (Table 1)
When grouping and comparing follow-up documents to agreements that focus on the aquatic environment (i.e., Helsinki Convention, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and Water Framework Directive) versus those with a broader focus (CBD, Habitats Directive, and including the Birds Directive in this second group), we found a strongly significant statistically lower frequency of genetic search words in the group of aquatic documents for both types of measurements (F1,47 = 11.56, P = 0.001, and F1,47 = 24.83, P ( 0.001, for per mille hits per words and hits per page, respectively)
Summary
Genetic diversity is the foundation for all biological diversity; the persistence and evolutionary potential of species rely on it for adaptation to natural and human-induced selective pressures (Allendorf et al 2012). Indicates links between variation at the DNA level (genetic variation) of species and biological productivity and diversity (Reusch et al 2005), resilience to environmental stressors (Frankham 2005; Hellmair and Kinziger 2014), and adaptation to changing environmental features including climate change (McGinnity et al 2009; Barshis et al 2013). Intraspecific variation (i.e., genetic variation within and between populations of a species) provides similar biological function as species diversity (Cook-Patton et al 2011). This knowledge is of key importance for sustainable management and is recognized in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD; www.cbd.int). Adaptive management is a guiding principle in contemporary environmental policy and resource management, implying a close link between science, policy, and management; the management consciously learns and adapts to new knowledge to reduce uncertainty and attain more robust decision-making processes (Holling 1978; Folke et al 2002)
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