Biodiversity Priorities Research Articles

Colour-coded targets would help clarify biodiversity priorities

Colour-coded targets would help clarify biodiversity priorities

南西諸島生物多様性優先保全地域（BPA）におけるサンゴ礁浅海域での自然地理的ユニット（PGU)の応用

南西諸島生物多様性優先保全地域（BPA）におけるサンゴ礁浅海域での自然地理的ユニット（PGU)の応用

Integrating freshwater and terrestrial priorities in conservation planning

The integration of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity priorities in systematic conservation planning is a major challenge to conservation planners. Maintaining upstream–downstream connectivity and the influence of catchments on freshwater ecological integrity are some of the issues that make it difficult to reconcile terrestrial and freshwater conservation planning. As a result most conservation assessments are often biased towards terrestrial systems without adequate incorporation of freshwater biodiversity in determining priority areas for conservation. In this paper, we propose a protocol for integrating the assessment of freshwater and terrestrial priorities in conservation planning, based on a case study from Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. The approach involves the separate assessment of freshwater priority areas, and using the outcome to influence the selection of terrestrial priority areas. This allowed both freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity to be incorporated in conservation planning without compromising their unique requirements. To test the effectiveness of this approach, we assessed percentage overlap between freshwater and terrestrial priority areas, target achievement, and the area required to achieve targets. We then compared the outcome from the proposed approach with the separate assessments of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity priorities, and when both systems are given an equal weighting in a single assessment. The results showed that there was a noticeable improvement in the overlap of priority areas for freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity from 23% to 47%. Target achievement for freshwater biodiversity improved by 10% when terrestrial assessment was based on freshwater priority areas as opposed to terrestrial systems being assessed alone. There was negligible increase in area required, whether there was integration of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity or no integration. We conclude that the most efficient way to achieve integration in conservation planning is to preferentially select areas where freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity priorities overlap.

Spatial congruence between biodiversity and ecosystem services in South Africa

Ecosystems services sustain humans all over the world. The unsustainable use of ecosystem services around the world has led to widespread degradation which now threatens human health and livelihoods. Although the maintenance of ecosystem services is often used to justify biodiversity conservation actions, it is still unclear how ecosystem services relate to different aspects of biodiversity and to what extent the conservation of biodiversity will ensure the provision of services. The aim of this study was to find out whether biodiversity priorities, biomes, species richness and vegetation diversity hotspots co-occur in space with ecosystem services. The distribution of the ranges and hotspots of five ecosystem services (surface water supply, water flow regulation, carbon storage, soil accumulation, and soil retention) was assessed in South African biomes. Coincidence, overlap, and correlation analyses were used to assess spatial congruence between ecosystem services and species richness (plants and animals) and vegetation diversity hotspots. The grassland and savanna biomes contained significant amounts of all five ecosystem services. There was moderate overlap and a generally positive but low correlation between ecosystem services hotspots and species richness and vegetation diversity hotspots. Species richness was mostly higher in the hotspots of water flow regulation and soil accumulation than would be expected by chance. The water services showed varying levels of congruence with species richness hotspots and vegetation diversity hotspot. These results indicate that actions taken to conserve biodiversity in South Africa will also protect certain ecosystem services and ecosystem services can be used to strengthen biodiversity conservation in some instances.

Identifying priority sites for the conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity in a Mediterranean basin with a high degree of threatened endemics

The Guadiana River basin’s freshwater fish species richness, endemicity and threatened status (92% of native species are threatened) highlight the need for a large-scale study to identify priority areas for their conservation. One of the most common problems in conservation planning is the assessment of a site’s relative value for the conservation of regional biodiversity. Here we used a two-tiered approach, which integrates an assessment of biodiversity loss and the evaluation of conservation value through site-specific measures. These measures based on the reference condition approach introduce the ability to make objective comparisons throughout the Guadiana River basin, thus avoiding a priori target areas. We identified a set of biodiversity priority areas of special conservation significance—which contain rare taxa as well as intact fish communities—because of their outstanding contribution to the basin’s biodiversity. The inclusion of complete sub-basins in these priority areas might guarantee an optimal solution in terms of spatial aggregation and connectivity. However, the high spatial fragmentation to which the Guadiana River basin is submitted due to river regulation highlights the necessity of a systematic approach to evaluate the capability of the identified priority areas to maintain the Guadiana’s freshwater fish biodiversity.

Cost-effective priorities for global mammal conservation

Global biodiversity priority setting underpins the strategic allocation of conservation funds. In identifying the first comprehensive set of global priority areas for mammals, Ceballos et al. [Ceballos G, Ehrlich PR, Soberón J, Salazar I, Fay JP (2005) Science 309:603-607] found much potential for conflict between conservation and agricultural human activity. This is not surprising because, like other global priority-setting approaches, they set priorities without socioeconomic objectives. Here we present a priority-setting framework that seeks to minimize the conflicts and opportunity costs of meeting conservation goals. We use it to derive a new set of priority areas for investment in mammal conservation based on (i) agricultural opportunity cost and biodiversity importance, (ii) current levels of international funding, and (iii) degree of threat. Our approach achieves the same biodiversity outcomes as Ceballos et al.'s while reducing the opportunity costs and conflicts with agricultural human activity by up to 50%. We uncover shortfalls in the allocation of conservation funds in many threatened priority areas, highlighting a global conservation challenge.

The influence of habitat and landscape on small mammals in Estonian coastal wetlands

We investigated the influence of habitat type and landscape composition on small mammal relative abundance and diversity in coastal wetlands in western Estonia. Seventy live-trap lines in eight representative habitats, across six wetlands revealed seven species. The most diverse habitats were reed bed and scrub woodland, whereas tall grasslands had the highest biomass. Short grass was low in species richness and relative abundance. Small mammal relative abundance, richness, and biomass were positively correlated with tall grass and mosaic habitats and negatively correlated with lower shore habitats and bare ground. Our study indicates potential nature conservation conflicts between small mammals and other biodiversity priorities in wetlands.

Global Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Habitat destruction has driven much of the current biodiversity extinction crisis, and it compromises the essential benefits, or ecosystem services, that humans derive from functioning ecosystems. Securing both species and ecosystem services might be accomplished with common solutions. Yet it is unknown whether these two major conservation objectives coincide broadly enough worldwide to enable global strategies for both goals to gain synergy. In this article, we assess the concordance between these two objectives, explore how the concordance varies across different regions, and examine the global potential for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services simultaneously. We find that published global priority maps for biodiversity conservation harbor a disproportionate share of estimated terrestrial ecosystem service value (ESV). Overlap of biodiversity priorities and ESV varies among regions, and in areas that have high biodiversity priority but low ESV, specialized conservation approaches are necessary. Overall, however, our findings suggest opportunities for safeguarding both biodiversity and ecosystem services. Sensitivity analyses indicate that results are robust to known limitations of available ESV data. Capitalizing on these opportunities will require the identification of synergies at fine scales, and the development of economic and policy tools to exploit them.

Gap analysis in protected area system in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India: Implications for conservation planning

The study highlights the gaps in biodiversity representation in a Protected Area (PA) system and its implications for conservation planning in a globally acknowledged biodiversity hotspot – the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. We carried out a gap analysis using data on vegetation types/land use, sea turtle nesting sites and spatial outputs from two biodiversity priority setting methodologies, viz. the Biodiversity Characterization at Landscape Level (BCLL) and the Important Bird Areas (IBAs). The analysis indicates that, out of 17 natural vegetation categories, four do not meet the widely accepted criteria of 10% representation of each type within a PA. Three unique vegetation formations in Nicobar, viz. the syzigium swamps, hilltop grasslands and moist deciduous are not covered under the PA system. Within PAs in Andaman, evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests are represented less compared to their availability. In Nicobar, evergreen forest within PAs has a reasonably high percentage of areas of high biological richness, while all other vegetation types are less protected. Eight out of 19 IBAs are not protected under the PA system. Habitats of four globally threatened, restricted range bird species also do not occur in the PA system. Green Sea and Hawksbill turtle are reasonably well protected. However, Leather Sea and Olive Ridley turtles are poorly protected, particularly in Nicobar. Based on gap analysis, the study puts forward suggestions to make the PA system more representative from a biodiversity conservation standpoint.

Gypsum Physical Soil Crusts and the Existence of Gypsophytes in Semi-arid Central Spain

Probably gypsophytes are the most interesting set of edaphic specialists of arid and semiarid climates. Despite they conform a global biodiversity priority, there are almost no information about those adaptive traits that confer such a specialised behaviour. Our broad hypothesis is that gypsophytes are “refuge-endemics” that are able to grow on gypsum soils due to their ability to surpass extremely hard gypsum soil physical crust during emergence. With this in mind we have conducted an experimental approach combining field and greenhouse assays. Seeds from two gypsophytes, genuine and widely distributed in the Iberian Peninsula gypsophytes (Helianthemum squamatum and Lepidium subulatum) and one gypsovag (Teucrium capitatum), a generalist plant that can also grow on gypsum soils were used in our experiments. Two complementary experimental approaches were conducted. The first involved a field experiment in which the presence or absence of the physical crust together with the sowing date were manipulated and a greenhouse experiment in which the irrigation amount and the types of soil were controlled. Variables of interest were the percentage of germination, growth and survival. In the field experiment we found a significant decrease in the final germination of the gypsovag in the plots with intact crusts. On the other hand, H. squamatum is able to grow in the three tested soils, despite higher survival and growth on genuine gypsum soils. Our results confirm the hypothesis that gypsum edaphic specialists base their behaviour to a great extent on the ability to surpass extremely hard gypsum surface crusts, although this seems a marginal adaptive trait as shown by the capability to grow on a complete array of soils and the negative effect of the crust along the earlier development life stages of gypsophytes. Furthermore, a gypsovag such as Teucrium capitatum presents extreme difficulties to emerge on non-disturbed gypsum physical crusts but once surpassed its growth and survival is not limited.

Revised Agri-environment Policy Objectives: Implications for Scheme Design

The new objectives for agri-environment policy recommended by the Policy Commission for the Future of Food and Farming are reviewed and proposals to achieve them are assessed. The Commission proposes a unified scheme, with a 'broad and shallow' tier that would incorporate a whole-farm environmental plan and audit. Participation at this level would be a prerequisite for entry into higher tiers focused on securing regional and national ecological, landscape and bio-diversity priorities. However, the Commission recognizes that further resource protection measures need to be developed to substantiate its design, particularly to enable the delivery of 'wider bio-diversity and landscape benefits'. Innovations in addition to those recommended by the Policy Commission are advocated here. These include adding Cultural options and a two-option Enhanced Level tier. The specifications of the first Enhanced Level option would be based on each farm's Sustainability Index Score. The second option would overcome the 'economics of configuration' problem by encouraging farmers to co-operate to deliver environmental outputs as members of 'environmental clubs'. The possibility of using web-based technology to increase the transparency of agri-environmental payments is also discussed. The design proposed here streamlines, simplifies and increases the efficiency of the existing agri-environment schemes.

Action for biodiversity priority species in Scotland

Summary Back from the Brink is Plantlife's practical conservation response to the current crisis of species loss and decline in Britain, targeting the wild plants and habitats that are seriously threatened in Scotland. It currently includes 59 species of vascular and lower plants in Scotland, most of which are also biodiversity priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The programme combines laboratory and field research with hands-on management to achieve effective action for rare and threatened plants. Examples of action for three priority species are given: Linnaea borealis L., Pilularia globulifera L. and a group of stipitate hydnoid fungi. A major distribution study has been undertaken of Pilularia globulifera and positive conservation management has been undertaken at several sites. Work on the genetics of Linnaea borealis has given insights into its conservation management, and recent felling of timber in one plantation has provided a significant opportunity to learn more about the ec...

Integrating biodiversity priorities with conflicting socio-economic values in the Guinean–Congolian forest region

Identifying important areas for conserving biodiversity has attracted much discussion, but relatively few studies have dealt with conflicting socio-economic interests in a manner that is fully accountable. For the Guinean–Congolian forest region, we applied quantitative methods to select a network of coarse-scale areas sufficient to represent all forest mammal and bird species at least once. In a separate exercise, we prioritised 50% of the region to represent the same species as many times as possible. In both cases, we sought to minimise potential conflicts between conservation and other socio-economic imperatives by considering benefit-to-cost ratios. We found that by choosing areas to reduce conflicts, we were able to increase markedly the proportion of selected areas with low or medium conflict and decrease the proportion with high conflict. Nonetheless, we cannot expect that conservation goals will always be met unless some of these conflicts are faced and resolved. By working together with specialists from both the biological and socio-economic fields, we show that easily implemented quantitative tools could be useful for supporting the process of finding important areas for biodiversity conservation, while avoiding much of the conflict with other interests.

The principle of complementarity in the design of reserve networks to conserve biodiversity: a preliminary history.

Explicit, quantitative procedures for identifying biodiversity priority areas are replacing the often ad hoc procedures used in the past to design networks of reserves to conserve biodiversity. This change facilitates more informed choices by policy makers, and thereby makes possible greater satisfaction of conservation goals with increased efficiency. A key feature of these procedures is the use of the principle of complementarity, which ensures that areas chosen for inclusion in a reserve network complement those already selected. This paper sketches the historical development of the principle of complementarity and its applications in practical policy decisions. In the first section a brief account is given of the circumstances out of which concerns for more explicit systematic methods for the assessment of the conservation value of different areas arose. The second section details the emergence of the principle of complementarity in four independent contexts. The third section consists of case studies of the use of the principle of complementarity to make practical policy decisions in Australasia, Africa, and America. In the last section, an assessment is made of the extent to which the principle of complementarity transformed the practice of conservation biology by introducing new standards of rigor and explicitness.

Representing biodiversity: data and procedures for identifying priority areas for conservation.

Biodiversity priority areas together should represent the biodiversity of the region they are situated in. To achieve this, biodiversity has to be measured, biodiversity goals have to be set and methods for implementing those goals have to be applied. Each of these steps is discussed. Because it is impossible to measure all of biodiversity, biodiversity surrogates have to be used. Examples are taxa sub-sets, species assemblages and environmental domains. Each of these has different strengths and weaknesses, which are described and evaluated. In real-world priority setting, some combination of these is usually employed. While a desirable goal might be to sample all of biodiversity from genotypes to ecosystems, an achievable goal is to represent, at some agreed level, each of the biodiversity features chosen as surrogates. Explicit systematic procedures for implementing such a goal are described. These procedures use complementarity, a measure of the contribution each area in a region makes to the conservation goal, to estimate irreplaceability and flexibility, measures of the extent to which areas can be substituted for one another in order to take competing land uses into account. Persistence and vulnerability, which also play an important role in the priority setting process, are discussed briefly.

Data requirements and data sources for biodiversity priority area selection.

The data needed to prioritize areas for biodiversity protection are records of biodiversity features - species, species assemblages, environmental classes - for each candidate area. Prioritizing areas means comparing candidate areas, so the data used to make such comparisons should be comparable in quality and quantity. Potential sources of suitable data include museums, herbariums and natural resource management agencies. Issues of data precision, accuracy and sampling bias in data sets from such sources are discussed and methods for treating data to minimize bias are reviewed.

Identifing priority ecoregions for rodent conservation at the genus level

AbstractRodents account for 40 per cent of living mammal species. Nevertheless, despite an increased interest in biodiversity conservation and their high species richness, Rodentia are often neglected by conservationists. We attempt for the first time a world-wide evaluation of rodent conservation priorities at the genus level. Given the low popularity of the order, we considered it desirable to discuss identified priorities within the framework of established biodiversity priority areas of the world. Two families and 62 genera are recognized as threatened. Our analyses highlight the Philippines, New Guinea, Sulawesi, the Caribbean, China temperate forests and the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil as the most important (for their high number of genera) ‘threat-spots’ for rodent conservation. A few regions, mainly drylands, are singled out as important areas for rodent conservation but are not generally recognized in global biodiversity assessments. These are the remaining forests of Togo, extreme ‘western Sahel’, the Turanian and Mongolian-Manchurian steppes and the desert of the Horn of Africa. Resources for conservation must be allocated first to recognized threat spots and to those restricted-range genera which may depend on species-specific strategies for their survival.

Identifing priority ecoregions for rodent conservation at the genus level

Rodents account for 40 per cent of living mammal species. Nevertheless, despite an increased interest in biodiversity conservation and their high species richness, Rodentia are often neglected by conservationists. We attempt for the first time a world-wide evaluation of rodent conservation priorities at the genus level. Given the low popularity of the order, we considered it desirable to discuss identified priorities within the framework of established biodiversity priority areas of the world. Two families and 62 genera are recognized as threatened. Our analyses highlight the Philippines, New Guinea, Sulawesi, the Caribbean, China temperate forests and the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil as the most important (for their high number of genera) ‘threat-spots’ for rodent conservation. A few regions, mainly drylands, are singled out as important areas for rodent conservation but are not generally recognized in global biodiversity assessments. These are the remaining forests of Togo, extreme ‘western Sahel’, the Turanian and Mongolian-Manchurian steppes and the desert of the Horn of Africa. Resources for conservation must be allocated first to recognized threat spots and to those restricted-range genera which may depend on species-specific strategies for their survival.

Indicators of Biodiversity for Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management

Abstract: The conservation of biological diversity has become one of the important goals of managing forests in an ecologically sustainable way. Ecologists and forest resource managers need measures to judge the success or failure of management regimes designed to sustain biological diversity. The relationships between potential indicator species and total biodiversity are not well established. Carefully designed studies are required to test relationships between the presence and abundance of potential indicator species and other taxa and the maintenance of critical ecosystem processes in forests. Other indicators of biological diversity in forests, in addition or as alternatives to indicator species, include what we call structure‐based indicators. These are stand‐level and landscape‐level (spatial) features of forests such as stand structural complexity and plant species composition, connectivity, and heterogeneity. Although the adoption of practices to sustain (or recreate) key characteristics of forest ecosystems appear intuitively sensible and broadly consistent with current knowledge, information is lacking to determine whether such stand‐ and landscape‐level features of forests will serve as successful indices of (and help conserve) biodiversity. Given our limited knowledge of both indicator species and structure‐based indicators, we advocate the following four approaches to enhance biodiversity conservation in forests: (1) establish biodiversity priority areas (e.g., reserves) managed primarily for the conservation of biological diversity; (2) within production forests, apply structure‐based indicators including structural complexity, connectivity, and heterogeneity; (3) using multiple conservation strategies at multiple spatial scales, spread out risk in wood production forests; and (4) adopt an adaptive management approach to test the validity of structure‐based indices of biological diversity by treating management practices as experiments. These approaches would aim to provide new knowledge to managers and improve the effectiveness of current management strategies.

Ten principles of biodiversity for Canadian agriculture

Readers wishing to learn more about these principles should refer to the article from which they are drawn: Small, Ernest. 1997. Biodiversity priorities from the perspective of Canadian agriculture: Ten commandments. Canadian Field-Naturalist 111(3): 487–505. Biodiversity thanks the author and editor for permission to reprint this material.