Measures Of Biodiversity Research Articles

A phylogenetic perspective on biodiversity patterns of Afrotropical freshwater crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda, Potamonautidae)

Abstract Evolutionary‐based measures of biodiversity play an increasingly important role in theoretical conservation biology, complementing more traditional methods such as patterns of species richness and endemicity. To date, very few studies have used evolutionary data to assess patterns of biodiversity in the Afrotropical region, particularly for freshwater invertebrate taxa. In the present study, the monophyletic Afrotropical freshwater crab family Potamonautidae was used to investigate how phylogenetic data can be combined with other metrics to help develop conservation plans for regional and species‐based conservation efforts. The Afrotropical freshwater crabs make an exceptional group to demonstrate the utility of a phylogeny‐based approach to conservation, as there have recently been a number of phylogenetic studies on this family, the IUCN Red List conservation status is available for almost every species, and accurate distributional range data are available for all species. The conservation priority of this fauna is assessed in relation to the Afrotropical freshwater ecoregions using three traditional measures of biodiversity and two phylogenetic diversity metrics. The results of Evolutionarily Distinct Globally Endangered and Heightened Evolutionary Distinctiveness and Globally Endangered analyses identify both the freshwater crab species and the areas of high conservation priority in the Afrotropical region.

A Grinnellian Niche Perspective on Species-Area Relationships.

In this work, Grinnellian niche theory (a body of theory about geographic distributions of species in terms of noninteracting niche variables) is used to demonstrate that species-area relationships emerge with both size of environmental space and size of geographic area. As environmental space increases, more species' fundamental niches are included, thus increasing the number of species capable of living in the corresponding region. This idea is made operational by proposing a size measure for multidimensional environmental space and approximating fundamental niches with minimum volume ellipsoids. This framework allows estimating a presence-absence matrix based on the distribution of fundamental niches in environmental space, from which many biodiversity measures can be calculated, such as beta diversity. I establish that Whittaker's equation for beta diversity is equivalent to MacArthur's formula relating species numbers and niche breadth; this latter equation provides a mechanism for the species-niche space relationship. I illustrate the theoretical results via exploration of niches of the terrestrial mammals of North America (north of Panama). Each world region has a unique structure of its environmental space, and the position of fundamental niches in niche space is different for different clades; therefore, species-area relationships depend on the clades involved and the region of focus, mostly as a function of MacArthur's niche beta diversity. Analyzing species-area relationships from the perspective of niche position in environmental space is novel, shifting emphasis from demographic processes to historical, geographic, and climatic factors; moreover, the Grinnellian approach is based on available data and is computationally feasible.

Morphological diversity of Odonata larvae (Insecta) and abiotic variables in oil palm plantation areas in the Eastern Amazon

Our aim was to investigate whether there is a relationship between abiotic factors and the morphological diversity (MD) of Odonata larvae by building an ecomorphological index in oil palm plantation areas with riparian vegetation in the Eastern Amazon. We hypothesised that the MD of Odonata larvae might be affected by oil palm plantation since changes in the landscape might cause the loss of microhabitats that are essential for the larval life cycle. A total of 950 Odonata larvae were collected in 11 streams located in a continuous forest area (inside the legal reserve) and 18 streams located in oil palm streams surrounded by riparian vegetation. There was a significant difference in the MD of the larvae between the oil palm and forest areas. When we compared the results obtained using traditional measures of biodiversity (estimated species richness) with those obtained using the measure of MD, MD was more efficient. The RLQ tests showed a significant relationship between genus abundance and environmental variables, and between genera and morphological traits. We believe that the suppression or change in riparian vegetation might increase the sediment load input and decrease the amount of plant substrate available in the system, leading to the simplification of morphological traits. Therefore, such traits might be used as indicators of environmental impact.

Thirty-six years of legal and illegal wildlife trade entering the USA

AbstractThe USA is the largest consumer of legally, internationally-traded wildlife. A proportion of this trade consists of species listed in the Appendices of CITES, and recorded in the CITES Trade Database. Using this resource, we quantified wildlife entering the USA for 82 of the most frequently recorded wildlife products and a range of taxonomic groups during 1979–2014. We examined trends in legal trade and seizures of illegally traded items over time, and relationships between trade and four national measures of biodiversity. We found that: (1) there is an overall positive relationship between legal imports and seizures; (2) Asia was the main region exporting CITES-listed wildlife products to the USA; (3) bears, crocodilians and other mammals (i.e. other than Ursidae, Felidae, Cetacea, Proboscidea, Primates or Rhinocerotidae) increased in both reported legal trade and seizures over time; (4) legal trade in live specimens was reported to be primarily from captive-produced, artificially-propagated or ranched sources, whereas traded meat was primarily wild sourced; (5) both seizures and legally traded items of felids and elephants decreased over time; and (6) volumes of both legally traded and seized species were correlated with four attributes of exporting countries: species endemism, species richness, number of IUCN threatened species, and country size. The goal of our analysis was to inform CITES decision-making and species conservation efforts.

Do hotspots fall within protected areas? A Geographic Approach to Planning analysis of regional freshwater biodiversity

Abstract Identification of biodiversity hot spots is necessary for developing conservation strategies. The south‐eastern U.S.A. harbours high aquatic biodiversity; however, this diversity is threatened as a result of anthropogenic activities. We report patterns of fish and mussel biodiversity, locate hotspots of diversity and endemism, and identify gaps in protection of these hotspots. Maxent was used to generate species distribution models for native fish and mussel species in river basins throughout east Texas. Stacked species distribution models were used to assess spatial patterns of biodiversity and examine the concordance between fish and mussel hotspots. A Geographic Approach to Planning analysis was used to identify areas of high conservation concern. Predicted geographical variation in species richness of mussels corresponds to patterns shown in fish; however, there was discordance among endemicity hotspots between the two taxa. Because overall endemicity was low in both groups, species richness is likely to be the more informative measure of biodiversity at these regional scales. While hotspots represent a small percentage of the study area, almost all richness and endemicity hotspots (>95%) in east Texas occur outside of protected areas. The results of this study suggest that protected areas designated based on terrestrial habitat may fail to protect aquatic biodiversity. Studies such as this provide a baseline for development of conservation and management strategies for protection of regional freshwater biodiversity, while also suggesting that designating conservation lands should include consideration of both terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity.

Impact indicators: Effects of land use management on functional trait and phylogenetic diversity of wild bees

Changes in land use and management intensification, especially in agriculture, have led to alarming declines in bee populations and the important ecological services they provide. Little is known how wild bee communities respond to these landscape changes at the phylogenetic level. Phylogenetic diversity was found to be correlated to functional trait diversity, since the former reflects a species evolutionary history while the later reflects the traits a species has accumulated. Here we use a mix of traditional measures of biodiversity and phylogenetic methods to examine differences in wild bee assemblages at six landscapes associated with grazing pressure and different management schemes. We found that grazing pressure strongly influences bee abundance, species richness and functional trait diversity while management intensity has little effect. Interestingly, wild bee phylogenetic diversity was not highly affected by land use, management, or grazing pressure as landscapes retained high levels of phylogenetic evenness. We additionally found evidence of phylogenetic signaling of examined traits. Our findings reveal that wild bee communities can maintain functional trait diversity even with low abundance and species richness. Furthermore, our study supports the notion that trait conservation through evolutionary lineages may only occur for some traits.

A flexible tool to prioritize areas for conservation combining landscape units, measures of biodiversity, and threats

AbstractExpanding the reserve system is a key strategy to enhance biodiversity protection. Yet, conservation outcomes can be undermined by underrepresentation of some habitats and opportunistic placement of protected areas. Irreplaceability and vulnerability, the key principles of conservation, should thus be combined within a bioregionalization framework to implement protection in the habitats that most need it. We proposed a simple and flexible method to prioritize bioregions for conservation based on these principles and used it to rank the 85 bioregions of the Australian continent. To do so, we quantified biodiversity values and threats in each bioregion by gathering open‐access data on species, landscapes, and land use. Bioregions were then ranked using a set of customizable scenarios, including ecologically meaningful combinations of measures of irreplaceability and vulnerability. To identify biodiverse areas under threat but potentially overlooked, we compared our results with the location of already established biodiversity hotspots (i.e., areas identified as important for biodiversity and under threat). We found that bioregions with the highest biodiversity values are predominantly located in the southwest, east, and north of the continent. Similarly, threats, particularly land clearance, are concentrated along the east coast and in the southwest. When ranking bioregions using scenarios including both threats and biodiversity values, the majority (75%) of the highest‐ranking bioregions were already included in biodiversity hotspots. For five of these bioregions, the proportion of protected land to date still falls below the 17% recommended by the Convention on Biological Diversity and thus they likely require prompt prioritization and intervention. The method proposed can support ongoing monitoring and prioritization of land units for conservation. Its simplicity and flexibility mean it can be easily adopted for different areas and adjusted to local priorities.

Phylogenetic Diversity as a Measure of Biodiversity: Pros and Cons

Species richness is predominantly used as one of the fundamental measures of biodiversity for prioritization of areas for conservation. However, species richness often underestimates true diversity, as it does not take into account the evolutionary histories of the species in an area. In this regard, phylogenetic diversity, which incorporates information regarding species relationships in calculating diversity, has been proposed as an alternative. Here we compare species richness and phylogenetic diversity of mammals in nine sanctuaries to explore the importance and use of evolutionary relationships in characterizing diversity. Our analyses suggest that even though species richness and phylogenetic diversity are correlated, they are often decoupled. Importantly, areas with low species richness might harbour high phylogenetic diversity and vice-versa. We recommend the use of both the diversity measures for a holistic understanding of biodiversity and for prioritization of areas for conservation.

Widespread Effects of Climate Change on Local Plant Diversity.

Human activity has sent many measures of biodiversity into long-term decline, and there are suggestions that the sheer scale of this impact is sufficient to consider the modern era as a geological epoch of its own, known as "The Anthropocene" [1]. However, recent meta-analyses show that local alpha diversity is often stable or slightly increasing [2-4]. Here, we show that the local alpha diversity (species richness) of plants found in quadrats and transects has increased the most in cooler regions of the world that have experienced the highest absolute changes (i.e., changes in either direction) in climate. The greatest statistical support is for the effects of precipitation change. On average, alpha diversity declined slightly (-4.2% per decade) in the third of sites that experienced the lowest precipitation change but increased (+10.8% per decade) in the third of sites with the highest precipitation change. These results suggest that the "perturbation" of local communities during climatic transitions increases the average number of species, at least temporarily, an effect likely to remain important as climate change continues.

The contribution of constructed green infrastructure to urban biodiversity: A synthesis and meta‐analysis

Abstract The development of buildings and other infrastructure in cities is viewed as a threat to local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning because natural habitat is replaced. However, there is momentum for implementing green infrastructure (GI), such as green roofs, wetland detention basins and community gardens, that partially offset these impacts and that benefit human health. GI is often designed to explicitly support ecosystem services, including implied benefits to biodiversity. The effects of GI on biodiversity have been rarely quantified, but research on this topic has increased exponentially in the last decade and a synthesis of the literature is needed. Here, we examined 1,883 published manuscripts and conducted a meta‐analysis on 33 studies that were relevant. We determined whether GI provides additional benefits to biodiversity over conventional infrastructure or natural counterparts. We also highlighted research gaps and identified opportunities to improve future applications. We determined that GI significantly improves biodiversity over conventional infrastructure equivalents, and that in some cases GI had comparable measures of biodiversity to natural counterparts. Many studies were omitted from these analyses because we found GI research has generally neglected conventional experimental design frameworks, including controls, replication or adequate sampling effort. Synthesis and applications. Our synthesis identified that taxa specificity is an important consideration for green infrastructure (GI) design relative to the more common measurements at the community level. We also identified that ignoring multi‐trophic interactions and landscape‐level patterns can limit our understanding of GI effects on biodiversity. We recommend further examination of species‐specific differences among infrastructures (i.e. green, conventional or natural equivalents) or using functional traits to improve the efficacy of GI implementation on urban biodiversity. Furthermore, we encourage policy makers and practitioners to improve the design of GI to benefit urban ecosystems because of the potential benefits for both humans and global biodiversity.

Plant species dominance increases pollination complementarity and plant reproductive function.

Worldwide, anthropogenic change is causing biodiversity loss, disrupting many critical ecosystem functions. Most studies investigating the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning focus on species richness, predominantly within the context of productivity-related functions. Consequently, there is limited understanding of how other biodiversity measures, such as species evenness (the distribution of abundance among species), affect complex multitrophic functions such as pollination. We explore the effect of species evenness on the ecosystem function of pollination using a controlled experiment with selected plants and insects in flight cages. We manipulated the relative abundances of plant and pollinator species, while holding species richness, composition, dominance order, and total abundance constant. Then, we tested how numerical species evenness affected network structure and consequently, seed production, in our artificial communities. Contrary to our expectation, numerical dominance in plant communities increased complementarity in pollinator use (reduced pollinator sharing) among plant species. As predicted by theory, this increased complementarity resulted in higher seed production for the most dominant and rare plant species in our cages. Our results show that in a controlled experimental setting, numerical species evenness can alter important aspects of plant-pollinator networks and plant reproduction, irrespective of species richness, composition, and total abundance. Extending this understanding of how species evenness affects ecosystem functioning to natural systems is crucial as anthropogenic disturbances continue to alter species' abundances, likely disrupting ecosystem functions long before extinctions occur.

Is catchment geodiversity a useful surrogate of aquatic plant species richness?

AbstractAimConserving freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world requires updated planning schemes and research efforts. Geodiversity – the diversity of Earth surface forms, materials and processes – and biodiversity are interlinked at a fundamental level. This relationship is being considered in a growing number of studies, yet research from freshwater environments is scarce. We used geodiversity (rock‐type, soil‐type and geomorphological richness), local and climatic variables to explore whether geodiversity can be used as a surrogate for aquatic plant species richness in lakes and rivers.LocationFinland.TaxonAquatic plants.MethodsWe compared geodiversity variables (measured within 1‐km2 grid cells) to well‐studied local (e.g. area, alkalinity) and climate (e.g. growing degree‐days) variables, and examined the patterns between habitat types (lakes and rivers) and among all taxa and major functional groups (helophytes and hydrophytes). We modelled lake (n = 145) and river (n = 146) plant species richness with generalized linear models, and further partitioned variation to measure the independent and shared contributions of the geodiversity, climate and local environmental variable groups. As a complementary analysis, and to identify single important variables explaining variation in aquatic plant species richness, we utilized boosted regression trees.ResultsWe found a positive relationship between aquatic plant species richness and catchment geodiversity variation with recurring patterns across two different freshwater habitat types and two aquatic plant functional groups. Higher variation in geodiversity (measured at landscape scale) supported higher freshwater biodiversity (measured at the local scale) of lakes and rivers.Main conclusionsGeodiversity can be a useful addition to biodiversity modelling, and it should be considered in conservation schemes and monitoring efforts, further supporting the principle of conserving nature's stage. Yet, differences between habitats and functional groups suggest that more habitat‐specific approaches and multiple biodiversity measures should be considered. Our study is an important signpost guiding further studies on the biodiversity–geodiversity relationship in freshwater ecosystems.

Coming undone: hemiparasite presence and effects in a prairie grassland diminish over time

Root hemiparasites acquire resources from neighboring plants' vascular systems and can limit host growth, depress community productivity, and exert keystone effects. The strength of these effects is posited to be greater where hosts are nutrient-stressed but studies of annual hemiparasites show effects to be short-lived and variable. We conducted a 10-year experiment testing whether fertilizer addition alters the impact of the clonal, perennial hemiparasite Pedicularis canadensis on a prairie community and examine whether short-term trends reflect longer-term effects on community dynamics. Hemiparasite removal in 1-m2 plots increased productivity over the first three field seasons, but later the difference between removal and non-removal plots diminished as P. canadensis disappeared from 24 of the 48 non-removal plots. Effects of hemiparasite removal were context independent relative to fertilizer and shade treatments, but fertilizer initially increased, and then subsequently suppressed P. canadensis biomass. In non-removal plots, hemiparasite biomass was negatively associated with total community dry mass, which was greater in fertilized plots. Initially, fertilizer promoted graminoids, but after seven more field seasons, non-legume forbs responded most strongly. Measures of biodiversity tended to increase with hemiparasite cover. Demographic data collected at two different times for P. canadensis show high survivorship of established plants, high seed input, with seedling survival greater in taller vegetation. Unlike annual hemiparasite populations, well-established P. canadensis buffer populations against large demographic swings. At the scale of a few square meters, this keystone species produces significant heterogeneity in a prairie, but its presence at that scale is transient over approximately one decade.

Mapping Soil Biodiversity in Europe and the Netherlands

Soil is fundamental for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, but our knowledge about soil organisms and the habitat they provide (shortly: Soil biodiversity) is poorly developed. For instance, the European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity and the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas contain maps with rather coarse information on soil biodiversity. This paper presents a methodology to map soil biodiversity with limited data and models. Two issues were addressed. First, the lack of consensus to quantify the soil biodiversity function and second, the limited data to represent large areas. For the later issue, we applied a digital soil mapping (DSM) approach at the scale of the Netherlands and Europe. Data of five groups of soil organisms (earthworms, enchytraeids, micro-arthropods, nematodes, and micro-organisms) in the Netherlands were linked to soil habitat predictors (chemical soil attributes) in a regression analysis. High-resolution maps with soil characteristics were then used together with a model for the soil biodiversity function with equal weights for each group of organisms. To predict soil biodiversity at the scale of Europe, data for soil biological (earthworms and bacteria) and chemical (pH, soil organic matter, and nutrient content) attributes were used in a soil biodiversity model. Differential weights were assigned to the soil attributes after consulting a group of scientists. The issue of reducing uncertainty in soil biodiversity modelling and mapping by the use of data from biological soil attributes is discussed. Considering the importance of soil biodiversity to support the delivery of ecosystem services, the ability to create maps illustrating an aggregate measure of soil biodiversity is a key to future environmental policymaking, optimizing land use, and land management decision support taking into account the loss and gains on soil biodiversity.

Using citizen science data to define and track restoration targets in urban areas

Abstract Habitat fragmentation and land degradation, directly and indirectly caused by urbanization, are drastically altering the world's ecosystems and are therefore driving an imperative for ecological restoration within the world's cities. Current methods for the implementation and monitoring of restoration are limited. Restoration ecology needs cost‐effective and repeatable tools for tracking changes at global scales, but with local relevance. We propose the Urban Greenspace Integrity Index—a locally relevant measure of an urban greenspace's response to urbanization, derived from widely accessible citizen science data. Unlike classical measurements of biodiversity (e.g. species richness, species diversity), this index measures species‐specific responses to continuous measures of urbanization. Increases in this index are evidence of a successful urban restoration project; that is, restoration results in a community shift that favours urban‐sensitive species. Importantly, data for this index are easily and efficiently collected by citizen scientists, providing long‐term repeatable data. This urban index, calculated from greenspace surveys, correlates with and complements traditional biodiversity metrics. Synthesis and applications. Policymakers and practitioners can use the index—a measure of the urbanness of the local bird community—to define and track restoration of urban ecosystems, effectively measuring changes in biodiversity in response to urbanization: measuring whether the urbanness of the bird community changes through time. Importantly, this index can be calculated using citizen science data, providing a potentially long‐term monitoring effort of restoration projects.

Not even wrong: the spurious measurement of biodiversity's effects on ecosystem functioning.

Understanding how biodiversity influences ecosystem functioning is one of the central goals of modern ecology. The early and often acrimonious debates about the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning were largely resolved following the advent of a statistical partitioning scheme that decomposed the net effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning into a "selection" effect and a "complementarity" effect. Here we show that both the biodiversity effect and its statistical decomposition into selection and complementarity are fundamentally flawed because these methods use a naïve null expectation based on neutrality, likely leading to an overestimate of the net biodiversity effect, and because they fail to account for the nonlinear abundance-ecosystem-functioning relationships widely observed in nature. Furthermore, under nonlinearity no such statistical scheme can be devised to partition the biodiversity effect. We also present an alternative approach that provides a more reasonable starting point for estimating biodiversity effects. Overall, our results suggest that all studies conducted since the early 1990s are likely to have overestimated the positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning.

DNA barcoding reveals underestimated species diversity of mantis shrimp larvae (stomatopods) in Banten Bay, Indonesia

Abstract. Abinawanto, Intan MDB, Wardhana W, Bowolaksono A. 2019. DNA barcoding reveals species diversity of mantis shrimp larvae (stomatopods) from Banten Bay, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 20: 1758-1763. Larvae of stomatopods can be morphologically identified by linking between larval and adult form, but it's difficult applied in the laboratory because of requirement of condition to rearing larvae collected either from plankton, or spawning adults in the laboratory. Molecular methods are the alternative approach to gather accurate taxonomic identification. One of molecular methods is DNA barcoding based upon sequence diversity in cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI). Research on stomatopod larvae diversity and distribution at six stations in Banten Bay has been studied from October 2013 to March 2014. This study was conducted to identify the diversity of stomatopod larvae through DNA barcoding and also to examine the distribution of stomatopod larvae in Banten Bay. DNA barcoding was used to identify mantis shrimp larvae in Banten Bay, Indonesia. Partial mitochondrial COI were obtained for 37 larvae, revealing five distinct molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). All MOTUs distinctively fell into Squillidea clade. Two Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units, MOTUs were successfully identified to species level (i.e. Anchisquilla fasciata), while three others remained identified to genus level (i.e. Stomatopoda spp). The intraspecific variation of COI ranged from 0% to 3.1% (Kimura 2-parameter distance), whereas interspecific divergence ranged from 5.9% to 20.4%. These results imply that COI genes are suitable for species identification of stomatopod larvae in this area, though the number of unidentified species was higher than the identified ones. This is likely because of the limited database in GenBank. In addition, the two identified species represents new records for this area, suggesting that the mantis shrimp in the area have been underestimated based on traditional biodiversity measures. We recommend to develop a taxonomically-comprehensive DNA barcoding database to improve the accuracy and feasibility of using DNA barcoding for species identification of Indonesia mantis shrimps.

Accounting for biodiversity in life cycle impact assessments of forestry and agricultural systems—the BioImpact metric

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful method for assessing environmental impacts at large scales. Biodiversity and ecosystem diversity are site-specific, often complex, and difficult to generalise within an LCA framework. There is currently no globally acceptable means of assessing biodiversity within the LCA framework. We introduce, test and revise BioImpact, a method for incorporating biodiversity into an LCA framework, on four production systems (native forestry, plantation softwood timber production, cropping and rangeland grazing) in Australia. Our proposed method, a metric we call BioImpact, incorporates biodiversity and ecological impacts through a series of semi-quantitative questions, published data and expert opinion which aim to encapsulate the main issues relating to biodiversity within a disturbance impact framework appropriate to LCA. Results are scaled to a single biodiversity measure that can be incorporated into LCA. We test and revise BioImpact scores on four production systems (native forestry, plantation softwood timber production, cropping and rangeland grazing) in comparison to species richness and net primary productivity (NPP) for these production systems. We demonstrate how the scores can be incorporated into LCA using SimaPro as a platform. For pine plantation, cropping/pastures and rangeland grazing, BioImpact demonstrated greater impact, which represents biodiversity loss for multiple species groups. Native forestry scored significantly lower impact than that of other land uses. As a comparison, all production processes scored highly for species richness of main multiple species groups (vascular plants, invertebrates, birds) and were not different in terms of NPP. Integration of BioImpact into LCA found that the softwood system, despite having a higher biodiversity impact per ha year, had a marginally lower BioImpact score per cubic metre compared to native forestry. This was possibly due to cumulative effects and consideration of the reference benchmark, e.g., low levels of pre-harvest biodiversity when not established on native forests; fewer threatened species (and lesser impact) compared to native forestry; questions not weighted sufficiently; and the difference between establishment on either agricultural cleared land or native forest area. Improvement in scaling and/or weighting within the BioImpact scores within each question is discussed. BioImpact encapsulates different components of biodiversity, is transparent, easily applied (subject to literature/ecological experts) and can be incorporated into LCA. Application of BioImpact for LCA requires co-ordination to identify key regions and production systems; develop the relevant scores with the assistance of ecologists; and make the results available in public LCA databases.

Ecological and sociopolitical assessment of congressional and presidential designation of federal protected areas.

Protected areas are one of the most effective means by which biodiversity is conserved, but are often criticized for either neglecting the importance of local communities or sacrificing conservation objectives for political expedience. In the United States, federal protected areas can be designated via a democratic legislation process or via executive action, which allows for comparison of the ecological and sociopolitical context of these top-down and bottom-up processes. We compared protected areas resulting from congressional designation vs. presidential designation with respect to their ecological context (using measures of biodiversity and climate refugial potential) and sociopolitical context (using measures of local support for conservation and reliance on natural resource-based industries). We found minimal differences between these designation modes for both ecological and sociopolitical variables. These results suggest that presidentially designated protected areas tend to be no more burdensome to local communities and no less valuable for ecological conservation than more widely accepted federal protected areas such as national parks, and they provide new evidence to inform the current debate over national monuments.

Birds and plants as indicators of arthropod species richness in temperate farmland

Agricultural intensification has led to severe declines in biodiversity. Arthropods in particular have suffered from agricultural intensification but are rarely incorporated in large-scale biodiversity monitoring. Instead, a few established indicator taxa such as birds or plants are often used as a cost- and time-efficient assessment of overall biodiversity. However, recent studies provide varying results regarding correlations between these indicators and other taxa. The strong variability in cross-taxa relationships has been attributed to the spatial scale of the analyses, the studied habitat types, and the trophic interactions between taxa.Here, we studied cross-taxa relationships of birds, spiders, butterflies and moths, leaf- and plant-hoppers, and plants across different spatial scales in 21 landscapes. We first compared species richness of birds with the species richness of different arthropod taxa and plants at the landscape scale. In addition, we compared the species richness of plants with the species richness of the different arthropod taxa at the landscape and the plot scale. Therefore, we distinguished between three different habitat types and between trophic interactions of varying degrees of specialization.Positive relationships between the studied taxa were scarce and depended on the spatial scale of the analysis. Spiders were the only taxon that was positively related to the species richness of birds. At the plot scale, the species richness of plants was positively related to all studied arthropod taxa across different habitat types. Relationships between adjacent trophic levels and those with a high degree of specialization were stronger compared to less specialized species, with some exceptions.Given the inconsistency of positive cross-taxa relationships, we suggest that the use of indicator taxa involves a high degree of uncertainty concerning predictions on the species richness of arthropods. We therefore encourage conservationists to incorporate multiple arthropod taxa in large-scale monitoring in order to achieve a more comprehensive and reliable measurement of biodiversity.