Soil carbon is a useful surrogate for conservation planning in developing nations

Pablo L Peri,Brenton Ladd,Guillermo Martínez Pastur,Evert Thomas,Romina G Lasagno,Rachel Atkinson

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40741-0

Abstract

Defining the optimal placement of areas for biodiversity conservation in developing nations remains a significant challenge. Our best methods for spatially targeting potential locations for biodiversity conservation rely heavily on extensive georeferenced species observation data which is often incomplete or lacking in developing nations. One possible solution is the use of surrogates that enable site assessments of potential biodiversity values which use either indicator taxa or abiotic variables, or both. Among the plethora of abiotic variables, soil carbon has previously been identified as a potentially powerful predictor for threatened biodiversity, but this has not yet been confirmed with direct observational data. Here we assess the potential value of soil carbon for spatial prediction of threatened species using direct measurements as well as a wide range of GIS derived abiotic values as surrogates for threatened plant species in the PEBANPA network of permanent plots in Southern Patagonia. We find that soil carbon significantly improves the performance of a biodiversity surrogate elaborated using abiotic variables to predict the presence of threatened species. Soil carbon could thus help to prioritize sites in conservation planning. Further, the results suggest that soil carbon on its own can be a much better surrogate than other abiotic variables when prioritization of sites for conservation are calibrated on increasingly small sets of observation plots. We call for the inclusion of soil carbon data in the elaboration of surrogates used to optimize conservation investments in the developing world.

Highlights

While achieving conservation goals requires a landscape level approach, protected areas play an important role and an optimal protected area network should contain representative examples of the ecosystems and biodiversity present in a given region
species accumulation index (SAI) scores obtained showed that the inclusion of soil carbon significantly increased the efficiency of a surrogate based on abiotic variables to identify sites with the highest conservation priority (Fig. 4; red dots 7 ± 1% higher SAI scores than green dots)
We show for the first time that including soil carbon significantly improves the performance of a biodiversity surrogate to predict the presence of threatened vascular plant species in Patagonia, adding useful knowledge that will enable further development and refinement of biodiversity surrogates used in conservation planning[13]

Summary

Introduction

While achieving conservation goals requires a landscape level approach, protected areas play an important role and an optimal protected area network should contain representative examples of the ecosystems and biodiversity present in a given region. Examples include the concept of the biodiversity hotspots[4], ecoregions[5], important bird areas[6], the approach used by the alliance for zero extinction sites, as well as site selection based on level of threat (irreplaceability and vulnerability). We use observational data from the PEBANPA network of long term biodiversity plots in Southern Patagonia to assess the relationship between soil carbon and threatened plant species This in turn allows us to test the potential value of soil carbon as a variable that could be used to improve the efficacy of surrogates used for biodiversity conservation planning

Methods

Results

Conclusion