Multi-taxa spatial conservation planning reveals similar priorities between taxa and improved protected area representation with climate change

Rob Critchlow,Michael D Morecroft,Nicholas A Macgregor,Tom H Oliver,James W Pearce-Higgins,Colin M Beale,Charles A Cunningham,Matthew J Carroll,Humphrey Q P Crick

doi:10.1007/s10531-022-02357-1

Abstract

Protected area (PA) networks have in the past been constructed to include all major habitats, but have often been developed through consideration of only a few indicator taxa or across restricted areas, and rarely account for global climate change. Systematic conservation planning (SCP) aims to improve the efficiency of biodiversity conservation, particularly when addressing internationally agreed protection targets. We apply SCP in Great Britain (GB) using the widest taxonomic coverage to date (4,447 species), compare spatial prioritisation results across 18 taxa and use projected future (2080) distributions to assess the potential impact of climate change on PA network effectiveness. Priority conservation areas were similar among multiple taxa, despite considerable differences in spatial species richness patterns; thus systematic prioritisations based on indicator taxa for which data are widely available are still useful for conservation planning. We found that increasing the number of protected hectads by 2% (to reach the 2020 17% Aichi target) could have a disproportionate positive effect on species protected, with an increase of up to 17% for some taxa. The PA network in GB currently under-represents priority species but, if the potential future distributions under climate change are realised, the proportion of species distributions protected by the current PA network may increase, because many PAs are in northern and higher altitude areas. Optimal locations for new PAs are particularly concentrated in southern and upland areas of GB. This application of SCP shows how a small addition to an existing PA network could have disproportionate benefits for species conservation.

Highlights

Protected areas are an important tool to mitigate against increasing and unprecedented threats to biodiversity in both terrestrial and marine environments
Despite differences between species richness patterns of some taxonomic groups, such as bryophytes, birds and odonata (Fig. 1), priority areas for conservation identified by Zonation tended to coincide across taxa (Fig. S4, Fig. 1), even for bryophytes where richness patterns were negatively correlated with all other taxa (Fig. S5)
Using the widest taxonomic coverage in Great Britain (GB) to date to inform systematic spatial conservation planning (4447 species across 18 taxa), we identified a suite of priority areas for focusing habitat protection or restoration, based upon their climatic suitability

Summary

Introduction

Protected areas are an important tool to mitigate against increasing and unprecedented threats to biodiversity in both terrestrial and marine environments. Despite the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi target to increase land protection to 17% by 2020 having been missed, the extent of protected areas continues to increase and more ambitious coverage targets are likely to be set in 2022 (CBD 2011; Stokstad 2020). Meeting these targets by increasing the area protected would not by itself guarantee benefits to biodiversity; reflecting this, Aichi target 11 noted the need for “ecologically representative and well connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures”. Potential shifts in species ranges, resulting from climate change, present an additional challenge to implementing a comprehensive network of protected areas that will benefit biodiversity into the future (Groves et al 2012; Thomas and Gillingham 2015; Hannah 2010)

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Conclusion