Track2KBA: An R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking data

Elizabeth J Pearmain,Martin Beal,Inês Catry,Virginia Morera‐Pujol,Maria P Dias,Ana P B Carneiro,Iain Staniland,Charlotte Boyd,Aldina M A Franco,Paulo Catry,Richard A Phillips,Steffen Oppel,Ana R Patrício,Philip R Taylor,Mark G R Miller,Aissa Regalla,Jonathan Handley,Tammy E Davies

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13713

Abstract

Abstract Identifying important sites for biodiversity is vital for conservation and management. However, there is a lack of accessible, easily applied tools that enable practitioners to delineate important sites for highly mobile species using established criteria. We introduce the R package ‘track2KBA’, a tool to identify important sites at the population level using tracking data from individual animals based on three key steps: (a) identifying individual core areas, (b) assessing population‐level representativeness of the sample and (c) quantifying spatial overlap among individuals and scaling up to the population. We describe package functionality and exemplify its application using tracking data from three taxa in contrasting environments: a seal, a marine turtle and a migratory land bird. This tool facilitates the delineation of sites of ecological relevance for diverse taxa and provides output useful for assessing their importance to a population or species, as in the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Standard. As such, ‘track2KBA’ can contribute directly to conservation planning at global and regional levels.

Highlights

Site-based conservation is a key strategy for protecting biodiversity worldwide (Watson et al, 2014)
We introduce the R package ‘track2KBA’, a tool to identify important sites at the population level using tracking data from individual animals based on three key steps: (a) identifying individual core areas, (b) assessing population-level representativeness of the sample and (c) quantifying spatial overlap among individuals and scaling up to the population
Ecological data are used to assess whether a site contributes significantly to the persistence of biodiversity, which is useful for conservation planning and the design and evaluation of protected areas networks (Boucher et al, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Site-based conservation is a key strategy for protecting biodiversity worldwide (Watson et al, 2014). Amid the rush to meet protected area coverage targets, there is a risk that governments protect spaces opportunistically where there are few competing interests, rather than where biodiversity is concentrated and at risk (Venter et al, 2018) Avoiding this scenario requires practical and accessible tools be made available to process ecological data for conservation planning. One method for assessing the importance of a site for biodiversity is to use systematic criteria, such as those of the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Standard (IUCN, 2016). Under such criteria, ecological data are used to assess whether a site contributes significantly to the persistence of biodiversity, which is useful for conservation planning and the design and evaluation of protected areas networks (Boucher et al, 2014). There are many tools available to analyze tracking data (Joo et al, 2019), bespoke tools that enable the use of tracking data to identify important sites for biodiversity are lacking

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Conclusion