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Improving the surrogacy effectiveness of charismatic megafauna with well-surveyed taxonomic groups and habitat types
Journal of Applied Ecology
Abstract
Conservation planning often relies on the use of surrogates for representing many aspects of biodiversity. Previous tests on the effectiveness of charismatic mammals as biodiversity surrogates have suffered from the lack of fine‐resolution data and produced varied and contrasting results.
In this study, we used unique high‐resolution data for more than 600 biodiversity features from the M aputaland– P ondoland– A lbany global biodiversity hot spot to assess how the surrogacy effectiveness of the ‘ B ig F ive’ charismatic mammal species could be improved.
We found that combining the ‘ B ig F ive’ charismatic mammal species with well‐known and surveyed taxonomic groups, such as birds, amphibians and reptiles, and habitat types, which can be mapped quickly and inexpensively, increases the representation of poorly surveyed taxonomic groups, such as endemic and threatened invertebrate and plant species, as well as other mammal species. In particular, habitat types were found to be an integral component of a successful surrogate strategy. Nevertheless, a broad cross‐taxon surrogate group composed of the ‘ B ig F ive’, birds, amphibians and reptiles, was found to be a more effective surrogate than habitat types on their own. Meanwhile, other taxonomic groups and habitat types were not effective surrogates for the ‘ B ig F ive’ charismatic species.
As charismatic mammals have an important marketing value, they can be promoted to generate funding, which can then facilitate the implementation of conservation action and cover management costs, thereby indirectly benefiting other threatened biodiversity.
Synthesis and applications . While some geographic areas and taxa have been extensively studied, detailed information about the distributions of species is missing for much of the world. This study provides important information that can have operational relevance to prioritize areas for conservation action in areas of the world with poor data on biodiversity. We found that other taxa are not good surrogates for charismatic mammal species. We also found that habitat types are a necessary component of surrogacy strategies that cover plants and insects. Overall, a combination of habitat types and charismatic mammals, complemented with other well‐known taxa (birds, amphibians and reptiles), provided the highest surrogacy effects.
... Importantly, recent literature suggests a need to shift towards integrative approaches to selecting surrogates (Lundberg and Arponen 2022), and efforts to assess how to combine coarse and fine filter approaches (i.e. ecosystems or land classes and species) have been made, yet still with a focus on species representation (e.g., Lombard et al. 2003;Di Minin and Moilanen 2014). To date, no study has answered the questions: Would using threatened ecological communities (TEC) as management surrogates provide benefits to threatened species? ...
... Despite the large body of literature on the use of surrogates, such as indicators, umbrellas, or flagship species (Roberge and Angelstam 2004;Wiens et al. 2008;Caro 2010;Lundberg and Arponen 2022), and habitat-based surrogates (e.g., Lombard et al. 2003;Di Minin and Moilanen 2014;Lindenmayer et al. 2014), no study has compared the effectiveness of threatened ecological communities as management surrogates, and how to prioritize across both species and ecosystems to improve conservation management. We highlight the importance of implementing spatial prioritization approaches that account for threat abatement actions and costs to identify management surrogates, as suggested by Cattarino et al. (2015), Ward et al. (2020) and Salgado-Rojas et al. (2023), rather than solely accounting for spatial representation. ...
... The latter may not fully address all the necessary biodiversity requirements to effectively mitigate threats and ensure their persistence. Our findings are supported by Di Minin and Moilanen (2014), who concluded that habitat types are a critical part of successful surrogate strategies to account for poorly known Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
In the face of the ongoing biodiversity crisis and limited conservation funding, surrogate approaches have become a valuable tool to represent biodiversity. Management surrogates are those that indirectly benefit an ecological system or species by representing the management requirements of co-occurring biodiversity. Recent findings highlight the cost-effective potential of surrogate species in managing threatened species, however, evaluating higher levels of biodiversity as management surrogates remains unexplored. Here, we sought to maximize conservation outcomes for threatened species and threatened ecological communities (TECs) by prioritizing management based on overlapping distributions, threats, and costs. We describe a prioritization framework for identifying TECs that could serve as cost-effective surrogates, and compare it with prioritizing threatened species only or both species and TECs. We show that when the objective is to maximize benefits for threatened species, a community approach performs poorly due to limited geographic overlap and high costs, while prioritizing species returned 7.5 times more benefits delivered to species under the same budget. Yet, if the objective is to maximize benefits across species and TECs simultaneously, a combined approach including both as surrogates delivers the greatest benefit for the same costs as a species-only approach. Range sizes and taxonomic groups significantly influenced the priority list, with threatened invertebrates and TECs of smaller ranges more likely to be selected as surrogates. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of incorporating accurate data on factors such as threats and costs for identifying effective management surrogates, and highlights the potential benefits of prioritizing across multiple biodiversity features.
... .] represent (i.e., serve as a proxy for) another aspect of an ecological system" [8]. The efficacy and efficiency of surrogates for overall biodiversity (known and unknown) have progressively been evaluated [7,[9][10][11][12][13], and appear to be influenced by factors such as the size of the study area, type of surrogate, and the spatial resolution of surrogate data (e.g. [13][14][15]). ...
... The efficacy and efficiency of surrogates for overall biodiversity (known and unknown) have progressively been evaluated [7,[9][10][11][12][13], and appear to be influenced by factors such as the size of the study area, type of surrogate, and the spatial resolution of surrogate data (e.g. [13][14][15]). Nevertheless, it often remains ambiguous to what extent a surrogate represents other levels of biodiversity, in particular across different levels of organization. ...
... see [6,16] for a review, [17][18][19][20][21]). Although the reciprocal surrogacy among taxonomic groups is often limited ( [13,14,22], see [23] for a review, [24,25]), and prioritization should preferably be based on multiple groups [14,26]. accurate species distribution data is scarce for many areas in the world. ...
Because it is impossible to comprehensively characterize biodiversity at all levels of organization, conservation prioritization efforts need to rely on surrogates. As species distribution maps of relished groups as well as high-resolution remotely sensed data increasingly become available, both types of surrogates are commonly used. A good surrogate should represent as much of biodiversity as possible, but it often remains unclear to what extent this is the case. Here, we aimed to address this question by assessing how well bird species and habitat diversity represent one another. We conducted our study in Romania, a species-rich country with high landscape heterogeneity where bird species distribution data have only recently started to become available. First, we prioritized areas for conservation based on either 137 breeding bird species or 36 habitat classes, and then evaluated their reciprocal surrogacy performance. Second, we examined how well these features are represented in already existing protected areas. Finally, we identified target regions of high conservation value for the potential expansion of the current network of reserves (as planned under the new EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030). We found a limited reciprocal surrogacy performance, with bird species performing slightly better as a conservation surrogate for habitat diversity than vice versa. We could also show that areas with a high conservation value based on habitat diversity were represented better in already existing protected areas than areas based on bird species, which varied considerably between species. Our results highlight that taxonomic and environmental (i.e., habitat types) data may perform rather poorly as reciprocal surrogates, and multiple sources of data are required for a full evaluation of protected areas expansion.
... Nonetheless, it is recommended to make the best use of the data at hand immediately than waiting until sufficient data becoming available in the future . As a consequence, conservation planning analyses are frequently performed using biodiversity surrogates; for example using data on a well-studied species group as representative for the conservation status of other species groups or biodiversity altogether (Margules & Pressey, 2000;Possingham et al., 2006;Rodrigues, 2011;Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). Surrogates vary in their performance Franco et al., 2009;Wilson et al., 2009), and their choice is more often driven by data availability than ecological appropriateness (Margules & Pressey, 2000;Lentini & Wintle, 2015). ...
... Although priority rankings of the four surrogates are (fairly) positively correlated (Table S2), the choice of the target group for conservation strongly affects the mean species representation of the solution (Fig. 1). The variation due to surrogates implies that the taxonomic groups are not sufficiently representing each other (Franco et al., 2009;Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). As a consequence, even the collective use of these three groups will not adequately represent Egyptian biodiversity as a whole. ...
... Although priority rankings of the four surrogates were (fairly) positively correlated in Egypt, the choice of surrogate strongly affects the mean species representation of the solution. This implies that the used taxonomic groups are not sufficiently representing each other (Franco et al., 2009;Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). As a consequence, even the collective use of the three taxonomic groups (butterflies, reptiles, and mammals) will inadequately represent the entire Egyptian biodiversity. ...
Species distribution models have become essential tools in ecology and wildlife conservation. However, their reliability when used for conservation management is often compromised by many challenges and limitations, as for example the lack of sufficient data-quality and sampling bias. Especially when used for areas in developing countries, where unbiased good-quality data are scarce, the robustness of species distribution models is questionable. In this thesis, I studied some crucial issues affecting the reliability of presence-only species distribution models for wildlife conservation in developing countries.
In the first chapter, I studied the issue of sampling bias in data-poor situations of developing countries and how to correct for it in presence-only species distribution models. I implemented model-based bias correction by incorporating additional bias-predictors describing site accessibility (distance to closest city, road, and protected area) or estimated sampling effort. I showed that bias correction led to improved predictions, with comparable results using the three modelling algorithms (GLMs with subset selection, GLMs fitted with an elastic-net penalty and Maxent, all under the point process modelling framework). The improved prediction due to sampling bias correction was dependent on how well the bias-predictors describe the bias in the available data, with higher improvement when accessibility bias variables were used. However, objectively evaluating sampling bias correction requires bias-free presence-absence testing data, which is typically not available in data-poor situations. Nevertheless, my results showed that model-based bias correction is a useful tool to improve predictions in data-poor situations, in which other bias correction methods may not be applicable.
In the second chapter, I evaluated the adequacy of presence-only data from within one developing country’s boundary to calibrate national species distribution models. I used spatially explicit information representing predictions from the species’ global environmental niche (potential distribution) as an additional predictor (prior) in regional models aiming to improve predictions. The use of priors did not lead to improved regional predictions; meanwhile, the correction for sampling bias led to improved predictions whichever prior was used, making the use of priors less pronounced. Under biased and incomplete sampling, the use of global data did not improve regional model performance. However, the actual improvement could not be quantified without enough bias-free regional data. Nevertheless, predictions from global models, interpolated to regional scales, can still have great potential to guide future surveys and improve regional sampling in data-poor regions.
In the third chapter, I assessed the sensitivity (robustness) of a spatial conservation prioritisation application in an exemplary data-poor developing country to common sources of uncertainty, which are related to the quality of available species distributional data and the choice of some of the user-defined software parameters. I also evaluated the effectiveness of the Egyptian protected areas network for conservation. Conservation planning in data-poor situations was found to be sensitive to the selection of the surrogate group, correction for sampling bias, connectivity parameters, and the choice of modelling algorithm; collectively, these reflect data quality issues. Results showed a lower limit for data quality for the usefulness of the spatial conservation prioritisation approach, demanding improved data quality for data-poor countries. Using currently available data on the Egyptian butterflies, reptiles, and mammals, the Egyptian protected areas network was found inefficient for wildlife conservation. I determined the top priority sites for further on-the-ground field evaluation as potential areas for protected areas expansion.
Despite the promising results of improved predictions after correcting for sampling bias in data-poor developing countries, this improvement is not guaranteed and hence should not be considered a replacement for the urgent need for improving sampling strategies for the collection of biodiversity data on as many taxonomic groups as possible. Improving sampling strategies and data-quality from data-poor countries (mainly from the less visited areas) will consolidate the use of species distribution models for conservation planning in these areas.
... To identify optimal groups of protected areas that satisfy the principles of species representation and long-term persistence, ideally, we need to know the distribution and abundance of every species (Politi et al., 2021). However, obtaining a complete account of species and their distribution data is nearly impossible (Wilson, Cabeza, & Klein, 2009), hampering the task to identify critical areas for biodiversity (Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). In response, species distribution models are a commonly used tool that enable inferences about regions where occurrence data may be lacking, whether from limitations in historical accessibility or biased data collection (e.g., highway sampling). ...
... Performance curves quantify the proportion of original occurrences retained for each biodiversity feature (here species layers and land-use change scenarios) at each top fraction of the landscape chosen for conservation (Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). This allowed us to compare mean performance curves for all species, and best and worst performance curves per family in each analysis to evaluate the different conservation needs of each group. ...
Amphibian survival is imperiled by increasing anthropogenic disturbance and insufficient conservation efforts. Spatial prioritization is an essential tool that allows for optimization of scarce conservation resources and the identification of protected area networks that will maintain their effectiveness in the future. This study focuses on amphibians in the Sierra Madre del Sur, a Mexican biogeographic province with high amphibian species richness and endemism. We aim to (i) assess the performance of the current protected area network and (ii) identify potential expansion areas of the current network, considering their persistence in time. Using occurrence data of 107 species, we estimated distributions with species distribution models and buffers. Species were weighted according to their national and international conservation status, and future land‐use change scenarios were incorporated to identify priority areas using Zonation software. Results revealed poor performance of the current protected areas network for amphibian conservation, failing to cover any of the top 2% of amphibian priority areas. Many protected areas fall outside the top 30% priority, indicating inadequate location of protected areas for amphibian conservation. However, minimal network expansions could significantly enhance protection for high‐risk species, particularly for the Plethodontidae family. Our study highlights the potential of systematic conservation planning in improving efficient amphibian conservation, even with minimal expansions of key areas. Finally, our findings provide important insights into amphibian conservation in a region with high levels of endemism that has often been neglected in terms of biodiversity conservation efforts.
... This was achieved through: (1) trade-offs in municipal-owned land parcels in the 1989 iteration that was able to demonstrate financial sustainability of the proposed plan. In a resource-constrained environment, land trading to maximise biodiversity conservation is often inevitable [72], and understanding the full suite of costs in the design of a habitat network is essential to ensure cost-effective allocation of resources for biodiversity conservation [73]. (2) The quantification of areas within the open space plans considered to be undevelopable was important in demonstrating efficiency when open space planning shifted from an envisaged network of municipal-owned land to a development control layer across ownership types [35,38]. ...
... We certainly support the use of habitat maps as surrogates for biodiversity as an interim approach for cities with limited resources as it, inter alia, provides a data foundation that can immediately interact with urban spatial planning and land-use management. The caveat for this approach, however, is that habitat maps can be poor surrogates for certain species [83] and taxonomic groups [84], and require interrogation and adaptation over time [72]. Effective sustainable environmental decision-making requires investment in appropriate resolution environmental data [79]. ...
Conserving and restoring biodiversity is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The need to curb biodiversity loss through the mainstreaming of biodiversity considerations within land-use planning is consistently highlighted in global biodiversity assessments intended for policymakers and practitioners. We present a Global South local government-led examination of the mainstreaming of biodiversity issues within a biodiversity hotspot area. Here, we evaluated the four-decade-long evolution in open space planning in Durban, South Africa, in response to shifting urbanisation, governance and policy/legislative contexts. We assessed the role of science in responding to contextual changes, the need for champions, and key institutional interventions undertaken to embed a biodiversity function within local government. In addition, we investigated how biodiversity concerns have been incorporated into land-use planning applications via the city’s environmental planning function. We provide evidence of the advancement of mainstreaming biodiversity concerns within local government processes, institutional functions, and land-use decision-making. This has been achieved through effective and sustained leadership; the use of science and scientific information in advancing the policy and legislative environment and building political support by responding to shifting governance contexts; investment in institutional scientific capacity and generating scale-appropriate biodiversity information. Learnings from this paper may be useful for other local governments addressing biodiversity loss through land-use planning processes, by identifying critical investment areas that may shorten the time required for effective mainstreaming.
... It requires comprehensive, high-resolution, up-todate data on the distribution of biodiversity, but such data are usually incomplete or do not exist at all, making it challenging to develop reliable assessments in data-poor countries [1,8]. Such analyses are frequently performed using biodiversity surrogates, i.e. well-studied taxa representing biodiversity as a whole [13,17]. Surrogates vary in their representativeness [3,7,18], and their choice is more often driven by data availability than ecological appropriateness [19]. ...
... Here, we used four surrogates for the Egyptian fauna. Although their priority rankings are (fairly) positively correlated (Additional file 1: Table S2), choosing one strongly affects the mean species representation in the solution (Fig. 1), implying that they are not adequate to represent each other [7,17]. As a consequence, even the collective use of all three will not adequately represent Egyptian biodiversity as a whole. ...
Background: Spatial conservation prioritisation (SCP) is a set of computational tools designed to support the efficient spatial allocation of priority areas for conservation actions, but it is subject to many sources of uncertainty which should be accounted for during the prioritisation process. We quantified the sensitivity of an SCP application (using software Zonation) to possible sources of uncertainty in data-poor situations, including the use of different surrogate options; correction for sampling bias; how to integrate connectivity; the choice of species distribution modelling (SDM) algorithm; how cells are removed from the landscape; and two methods of assigning weights to species (red-list status or prediction uncertainty). Further, we evaluated the effectiveness of the Egyptian protected areas for conservation, and spatially allocated the top priority sites for further on-the-ground evaluation as potential areas for protected areas expansion.
Results: Focal taxon (butterflies, reptiles, and mammals), sampling bias, connectivity and the choice of SDM algorithm were the most sensitive parameters; collectively these reflect data quality issues. In contrast, cell removal rule and species weights contributed much less to overall variability. Using currently available species data, we found the current effectiveness of Egypt’s protected areas for conserving fauna was low.
Conclusions: For SCP to be useful, there is a lower limit on data quality, requiring data-poor countries to improve sampling strategies and data quality to obtain unbiased data for as many taxa as possible. Since our sensitivity analysis may not generalise, conservation planners should use sensitivity analyses more routinely, particularly relying on more than one combination of SDM algorithm and surrogate group, consider correction for sampling bias, and compare the spatial patterns of predicted priority sites using a variety of settings. The sensitivity of SCP to connectivity parameters means that the responses of each species to habitat loss are important knowledge gaps.
... IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Birdlife International) to inform the location of priority conservation areas (Beresford et al., 2011;Dorji et al., 2018;Pimm et al., 2018;Santarem et al., 2019). However, in many cases, these distributional databases contain geographic biases, are only updated every 5-10 years, and provide very general information on species distributions, limiting their value in developing fine-scale conservation priorities (Rondinini et al., 2006;Hoffmann et al., 2008;Di Minin and Moilanen., 2014;Brooks et al., 2019). For proper zoning and management planning at smaller scales, it is essential to have dimensionally accurate and high-resolution information of the geographical range of target species. ...
... Following past protocols (Tulloch et al., 2011;Di Minin and Moilanen., 2014;Santarem et al., 2019), we selected our five target or flagships from our initial survey of 32 species using the following criteria: (1) the species' should be of relatively large body length (70 cm) and easily identifiable; ...
The black or Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri) was discovered in the Gaoligong Mountains of northeastern Kachin state, Myanmar in 2010, and was subsequently found in the mountains of northwestern Yunnan, China in 2011. Across these regions, there were an estimated 14-15 sub-populations with approximately 950 individuals in total (10 sub-populations with 490-620 individuals in China, and 4-5 sub-populations with 260-330 individuals in Myanmar). However, teams of people conducting field surveys and camera trap studies, of which I was part, only confirmed five sub-populations with 400 individuals on the Sino-Myanmar border from data collected 2012-2017. Based on approximately two years field searching, I and my colleagues discovered one sub-population (Luoma population) in the Gaoligong Mountains and conducted another 203 days of field observation to collect dietary data. I also conducted cafeteria feeding trials with 600 wild plant species on two captive individuals housed at Yaojiaping Wildlife Rescue Centre in the Gaoligong Mountains National Nature Reserve. I found that R. strykeri can potentially consume 593 items from more than 170 food plants of trees, bushes, and herbs representing 76 genera and 41 plant families, as well as 15 species of lichen. Among these food items and species, 14 plant species and four lichen species also are consumed by the wild monkeys as well. The food plants mainly distribute in intact sub-tropical evergreen broadleaf forests and hemlock-broadleaf mixed forests at an altitude of 2200-3000 m. Based on interview surveys, camera trap records, and habitat distribution modelling, I confirm this is the main elevational range used by R. strykeri. Nutritional studies and comparisons of 100 leaf items the monkeys selectively consumed (n = 70 plant species) with the nutrient content of 54 leaf items (n = 48 plant species) the monkeys’ avoided in spring and autumn reveal that R. strykeri preferentially select leaves high in moisture (77.7%), crude protein (21.2%), total nonstructural carbohydrates (34.9%) and phosphorus (0.37%) while tending to avoid foods with a neutral detergent fibre content close to 35%. Foods selected in autumn were characterized by a higher amount of metabolisable energy than those rejected (1350 kJ/100g vs. 1268 kJ/100g). Random Forests modeling, an ensemble learning method, indicated that foods consumed during the two seasons were selected primarily based on their proportion of moisture, crude protein, neutral detergent fibre, metabolisable energy, phosphorus and total nonstructural carbohydrates. This nutritional profile is similar to other snub-nosed monkeys. Using interview-based survey data and MAXENT modelling of R. strykeri along the Sino-Myanmar border, I found that R. strykeri may inhabit a range from E98°20′–98°50′ to N25°40′–26°50′. Within this range, high-quality habitat at 1420 km2, medium-quality habitat at 750 km2, and low-quality habitats at 1410 km2. Only 13.9% of the highly suitable habitat (medium + core habitat) for R. strykeri falls within protected areas in China. Approximately 2.6% of the entire habitat has been lost in the past 15 years, 96% of which has been in Myanmar. Two national parks (Imawbum National Park in Myanmar and Nujiang Grand Canyon National Park in China) are therefore proposed for saving this species. Lastly, for structuring a systematic transboundary conservation network in the highly-biodiverse but poorly-studied Gaoligong Mountains region, I used interview-based survey results (on animal distribution data) of three taxa (Primates, Pheasants and Mishmi Takin) and identified five flagship species (R. strykeri, Hoolock tianxing, Trachypithecus shortridgei, Lophophorus sclateri, Budorcas taxicolor) as surrogates of community biodiversity in the Gaoligong Mountains. After confirming the reliability of species distribution data via selective field surveys, I applied multicriteria decision analysis techniques along with data on habitat suitability (MAXENT Models) to highlight areas for transboundary conservation efforts. My results indicate that approximately 83.4% (10,398.7 km2) of remaining habitat with high conservation value for each of the five flagship species is unprotected. This includes six large zones separated by rivers and human settlements that should be designated as transboundary World Nature Heritage, National Parks, or Wildlife sanctuaries along the northern Sino-Myanmar border. Accordingly, I propose related conservation actions and policies for transboundary conservation in the Gaoligong Mountains along the northern Sino-Myanmar border.
... Forestry policy and practice have been designed to deliver habitat enhancement and protection measures for these species (Forestry Commission, 2017), in line with wider conservation effort targeting species which are rare and/or at risk of extinction (Favaro et al., 2014;Winter et al., 2013 knowledge of what habitat features a species requires and how these are distributed. This is complicated by the fact that many of these protected species are cryptic and poorly recorded (Minin and Moilanen, 2014). The challenge is further increased when there is a need to deliver conservation management for multiple protected and data-deficient species simultaneously. ...
... Our modelling approach was wider and more ambitious in scope (a greater number of species and a wider range of taxa) than other attempts to inform conservation planning with multi-species models (e.g. Franco et al., 2009;Lentini and Wintle, 2015;Minin and Moilanen, 2014) and as such is a novel application of EHSMs. Although developed for protected woodland species, the framework could be adapted for use with other habitats or suite of species. ...
First habitat suitability model for all protected woodland species within a country.
Predicts potential species occurrence to aid strategic to tactical decision-making.
Provides often inaccessible expert knowledge to end user in a user-friendly format.
Integrates information on habitat requirements for multiple taxa.
Niche classification links to spatial datasets and is interpretable in the field.
... In contrast, conservation networks for jaguar Panthera onca in Latin America represent substantial proportion of high-quality habitats for other terrestrial mammals (Thornton et al., 2016), and the giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca is an effective surrogate for endemic mammal and bird species in China (Li & Pimm, 2016). In Africa, the priority conservation areas for the African "Big Five" species highly represent priority areas for the other mammals, yet provide poor representations for amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates and plants (Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). ...
... Considering that charismatic megafauna did not represent the whole extent of identified priority areas, even with all species combined, our results suggest that conservation managers and policy makers in Sumatra should protect important areas for biodiversity that occur outside the range of charismatic species. Our findings agree with previous work suggesting that targeting charismatic megafauna in conservation is not enough to achieve broader biodiversity conservation targets, yet the benefit of their protection can be improved by using well-surveyed taxonomic groups and habitat types(Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). ...
Conservation organisations and governments often use charismatic megafauna as surrogates to represent broader biodiversity. While these species are primarily selected as “flagships” for marketing campaigns, it is important to evaluate their surrogacy potential, i.e. the extent to which their protection benefits other biodiversity elements. Four charismatic megafauna species are used as surrogates in the megadiverse island of Sumatra: the Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae, Sumatran elephant Elephas maximus sumatranus, Sumatran orangutan Pongo abelii and Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis. We examined how well each of these species performed in representing the distribution of all co‐occurring terrestrial mammal species on the island, and the priority areas for the conservation of three facets of mammalian biodiversity (taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional).
We used habitat suitability models to represent the distribution of 184 terrestrial mammal species, 160 phylogenetic groups and 74 functional trait groups. We then identified priority conservation areas using the spatial prioritisation software Zonation.
We found that the habitat overlap between each of the four charismatic species and the other mammal species varied, ranging from a mean of 52% (SD = 27%) for the tiger to 2% (SD = 2%) for the rhino. Combining the four species together improved the representation levels only marginally compared to using the tiger only. Among the four charismatic megafauna species, the extent of suitable habitat of Sumatran tiger covered the highest proportion of priority conservation areas. The Sumatran tiger also outperformed most of other mammal species with similar range sizes.
We found that some of the top‐ranked conservation areas for taxonomic (28%), phylogenetic (8%) and functional diversity (19%) did not overlap with any of the charismatic species’ suitable habitat.
Synthesis and applications. Wide‐ranging charismatic species can represent broader mammalian biodiversity, but they may miss some key areas with high biodiversity importance. We suggest that a combination of systematic spatial prioritisation and surrogacy analyses are important in order to determine the allocation of conservation resources in biodiversity‐rich areas such as Sumatra, where an expansion of the protected area network is required.
... Because cross-taxonomic surrogates offer expedient means to evaluate biodiversity for conservation planning, easily surveyed taxa such as birds have been widely proposed as surrogates (e.g. Eglington et al., 2012;Carrascal et al., 2012;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014). However, while some studies endorse the use of cross-taxonomic surrogates (e.g. ...
... This question is important because it allows initially identified surrogate taxa to be validated in realistic conservation planning scenarios. Ideally, an effective surrogate taxon should be expected to capture a high proportion of the representation targets for other taxa (Larsen et al., 2012;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014), without being excessively costly itselfi.e. requiring the conservation of a large amount of woodland patches. ...
Cross-taxonomic surrogates are often used in conservation planning because inventorying large suites of taxa is either not feasible or too costly. However, cross-taxonomic surrogates are seldom tested rigorously using both correlational and representation-based approaches at the spatial scales at which conservation management occurs. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of five ecologically contrasting taxa (birds, herpetofauna, wild bees, beetles, trees) as cross-taxonomic surrogates in native woodland patches within a heavily modified, farming and plantation-dominated landscape. We first compared species richness and compositional heterogeneity across taxa before testing for cross-taxonomic congruence using a correlative approach. We then quantified how well each taxon incidentally represented other taxa in their best patch sets, and the costs of doing so using a complementarity-based approach. We found significant pairwise associations between some taxa (birds, bees), but no single taxon was strongly correlated with all other taxa. Woodland patch sets prioritised for beetles represented other taxa best, followed by birds, but were the costliest and required the largest amount of woodland. This contrasted with patch sets prioritised for wild bees or herpetofauna, which achieved higher representation of other taxa at lower costs. Our study highlighted the influence of taxon-specific patterns of diversity and heterogeneity on how remnant vegetation patches should be prioritised for conservation, a consideration not immediately obvious in correlative analyses of surrogacy. Second, taxa that are not the most speciose (e.g. wild bees) can be efficient surrogates, achieving higher incidental representation for other taxa at lower costs. Thus, while species-rich taxa are ideal as surrogates for prioritising conservation, conservation planners should not overlook the potential of less speciose taxa such as bees, while considering the cost-effectiveness of surveying multiple different taxa.
... We highlighted with these results that it could be necessary to consider not only threatened species but also non-threatened and DD species when the goal is to include species and NCPs in spatial planning, as suggested by Bianco et al. (2024) with their quantitative framework for identifying the role of individual species in NCPs. In the same way, and combined with the "cascade network" of Bianco et al. (2024), the species-NCP relationship table could be helpful to apply potential weights directly in the implementation of the spatial prioritization (e.g., as simple species weights with Zonation software; Lehtomäki and Moilanen, 2013), identifying key species or communities when considering species with a high overall NCP value (e.g., Breckheimer et al., 2014;Carroll et al., 2001;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014;Roberge and Angelstam, 2004). ...
Over the last half-century, nature conservation has shifted through several steps from 'nature for itself' to 'nature and people', corresponding to a new perspective that all species count to ensure ecosystem functioning, and with them that nature's contributions to people (NCPs) are effective and maintained. Yet, despite these conceptual shifts in the academic literature, conservation practices have remained largely focused on threatened species and protected areas. The last Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity insisted on the need to use biodiversity sustainably and ensure nature's contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services for the benefit of present and future generations by 2050. Here, using recently developed tables relating a large number of species observed in the Western Swiss Alps (vascular plants and vertebrates; n = 2066) to 17 key NCPs, we show that focusing on protecting threatened species only does not ensure the maintenance of key NCPs. Our results suggest that all species (threatened or not) need to be considered, in addition to strict conservation of threatened species, to support NCP provision. Similarly, considering all species better supports existing conservation programs. Developing such direct species-NCP relationships more broadly will be needed to support spatial prioritizations and help reach the 2050 GBF goals.
... Despite being a fundamental tool in wildlife monitoring, the reliability of the umbrella species approach is uncertain since there is limited quantitative evaluation of species performance to reflect overall patterns of biodiversity (Steenweg et al., 2023;Thornton et al., 2016). For example, large-bodied charismatic species (generally mammals) are typically selected as umbrellas based on public interest or their capacity to generate conservation funding, rather than an underlying correlation between their distributions and those of other taxa (Caro, 2010;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014;McGowan et al., 2020). Moreover, umbrella species assessment is often hampered by insufficient data due to the high cost of monitoring programs in terms of data acquisition and analysis, as well as difficulties in evaluating the status of cryptic and elusive species (Wearn and Glover-Kapfer, 2019). ...
Conservation managers often monitor umbrella species as indicators of broader biodiversity patterns, but this assumption is seldom evaluated due to lack of survey data and objective umbrella criteria. We evaluated the performance of eight candidate umbrella species in representing broader patterns of mammal biodiversity in Sumatra, Indonesia, using a comprehensive camera trap dataset from the island's largest remaining tropical rainforest. We employed an occupancy modeling framework to quantify the association between species-level occupancy and four community-level biodiversity parameters while accounting for imperfect detection. Sambar deer and clouded leopard were consistently ranked the top umbrellas. Areas where these species were prevalent were associated with higher levels of community occupancy, species richness, functional and phylo-genetic diversity. Sumatran tiger and rhino were among the lower ranked umbrellas, and inadequately represented other biodiversity parameters despite being the main subjects of monitoring. Our results demonstrate that the occurrence status of charismatic species commonly regarded as umbrellas does not necessarily represent broader patterns of biodiversity. Species that are frequently overlooked by conservation decision-making may better represent overall mammal diversity. We advocate utilizing umbrella fleets with multiple species monitored to better represent biodiversity patterns, and encourage broader application of our data-driven framework to assess umbrella species performance.
... To evaluate the effect of different species or habitats on conservation planning outcomes, we used surrogacy analysis, which is used to measure how the quality of the conservation outcome changes as the quality of data improves (Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014;Rodrigues & Brooks, 2007). The data were divided into two sets: one that drives the prioritization (the surrogate), and one that has no effect on the final results. ...
Conservation policies and environmental impact assessments commonly target threatened species and habitats. Nevertheless, macroecological research provides reasons why also common species should be considered. We investigate the consequences of focussing solely on legally protected species and habitats in a spatial conservation planning context using a comprehensive, benthic marine data set from the northern Baltic Sea. Using spatial prioritization and surrogacy analysis, we show that the common approach in conservation planning, where legally listed threatened species and habitats are the focus of conservation efforts, could lead to poor outcomes for common species (and therefore biodiversity as a whole), allowing them to decline in the future. If conservation efforts were aimed solely at threatened species, common species would experience a loss of 62% coverage. In contrast, if conservation plans were based only on common species, threatened species would suffer a loss of 1%. Threatened species are rare and their ecological niches distinct, making them poor surrogates for biodiversity. The best results are achieved by unified planning for all species and habitats. The minimal step towards acknowledging common species in conservation planning would be the inclusion of the richness of common species, complemented by information on indicator species or species of high importance for ecosystem functioning. The trade‐off between planning for rare and common species should be evaluated, to minimize losses to biodiversity.
... However, data on species occurrence are frequently biased since the records strongly associate with roads, rivers, or cities, which require some analytical treatment to solve the spatial autocorrelation problem (Costa et al., 2010;Kramer-Schadt et al. 2013;Loiselle et al., 2003;Phillips, 2009) or controlling issues like model overprediction or scale of representation (Di Marco et al., 2017;Velazco et al., 2020). When data on desired conservation features are scarce, the use of surrogates or proxies is an alternative explored in several assessments (Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014;Payet et al., 2010;Pressey et al., 2000;Reyers et al., 2001). ...
Systematic Conservation Planning is a set of sequential steps to define a comprehensive protected area system in any region or scale. The goal is to ensure that critical biodiversity components, such as populations, species occurrences, ecosystems, or ecological processes, are adequately represented in protected areas, considering the existing ones plus the complementary areas that deserve formal protection. The number and potential spatial solutions for selecting additional areas can be high, so reserve selection algorithms are widely used to solve the problem. Implementing the conservation plan for a region is usually the primary constraint of an SCP because local stakeholders and authorities must agree to put in practice the chosen conservation plan.
... However, the amount of data required to ensure biodiversity is fully represented by spatial prioritisation in GB is unknown; prioritisation may be sensitive to the taxonomic groups used or could require only a selection of species or taxa . Although SCP has been applied within Britain before (Franco et al. 2009;Cunningham et al. 2021), a complementarity-based approach across multiple taxa, while incorporating future expected changes to species distributions, has not been implemented in GB despite the importance of such approaches being shown elsewhere (Kremen et al. 2008;Di Minin and Moilanen 2014;Stralberg et al. 2020;Carroll et al. 2010). ...
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.
... Beyond the concerns of evaluating biodiversity and ecosystem health, the potential biasing effects of using surro gates is also important in historical ecology, which typically has to focus on the subset of taxa that are most likely to have been reported upon (e.g. commercial and sport taxa; Brind'Amour et al. 2014, Di Minin & Moilanen 2014, and in paleoecology (our motivation), which typically has to rely on the subset of taxa with greatest postmortem durability under ordinary conditions of slow burial that characterize most marine environments (e.g. shelled mollusks, calcifying arthropods, and bryozoans; Schopf 1978, Tyler & Kowalewski 2017. ...
Surrogates of macrobenthic assemblages, intended to alleviate the effort and taxonomic expertise required for monitoring, can take many forms, such as using coarser taxonomic levels (‘sufficiency’) or only a subset of the whole fauna (‘subsetting’). Here, the power of both approaches to retain community-level patterns of spatial and temporal variation were evaluated using an exceptionally long (47 yr) infaunal dataset generated from monitoring wastewater impacts on an urban shelf in southern California, USA. Four taxonomic sets (whole infauna, polychaetes, bivalves, malacostracans) were evaluated at 5 resolutions (species, genus, family, order, functional guild) along a pollution gradient subdivided into 2 spatial bins based on proximity to
the wastewater outfall (near-field vs. far-field) and 3 temporal bins based on wastewater treatment phases. All taxonomic sets detected weakening of the spatial gradient with improved wastewater
treatment, i.e. communities became more similar in richness, evenness, and composition through time, and patterns were robust when coarsened to families or guilds. Polychaetes mirrored (‘proxied’) whole-fauna patterns most accurately, as expected since they constitute most of the individuals and species. However, bivalves outperformed all other sets in detecting (‘indicating’) the pollution gradient itself, owing to their breadth of feeding strategies. These results strengthen the consistently positive results from taxonomic coarsening emerging from tests elsewhere and the
caveats for taxonomic subsetting: clade strengths serve different objectives. Comparable datasets should exist in environmental agency archives elsewhere, promoting the general surrogacy model. For monitoring programs still in their planning stages, regional insights could be acquired via analogous nested analyses of a single survey.
... At a vernal pool, one local official noted a strip of road where residents help frogs to safely cross the road during mating season. Charismatic animals, as with most environmental conservation efforts, can be useful in gaining public support -especially when the connection between the species and their habitat is clear (48). Beavers, for example, are common in New Paltz wetlands and are generally admired and loved by residents, which made it simpler to help people understand how protecting wetlands also protected these animals. ...
Local land use regulation has been described as one of the most powerful tools available to address flood risk. In a 2013 New York State survey, Riverkeeper, Inc. found that 78 municipalities had adopted wetland and watercourse regulations above and beyond those required by state law. As our analysis of Dutchess, Ulster, and Westchester counties illustrates, however, these regulations are not evenly distributed or necessarily adopted in areas of highest flood risk. We find that 78% of Westchester County municipalities have adopted wetland and watercourse regulations, while only 54% of Dutchess County municipalities have done so, and just 28% in Ulster County. Widespread adoption of wetland and watercourse regulations could significantly increase the ability of municipalities to govern their floodplains. To understand why some towns have adopted these regulations, and how they overcame the challenges inherent in adopting new local laws, we studied three towns that have successfully adopted local wetland and watercourse regulations: East Fishkill, Dutchess County; New Paltz, Ulster County; and New Castle, Westchester County.
... Top predators are keystones in the conservation strategy as an integral part of biodiversity and their great importance for ecological community dynamics (Sergio et al. 2006, 2008, Regos et al. 2017. They are usual flagships to promote nature protection, and important for the economic benefits of local communities from nature-friendly management of protected areas (Burgas et al. 2014, di Minin & Moilanen 2014. The Eurasian Eagleowl (Bubo bubo) is the largest and strongest nocturnal avian predator, the least concern and increasing European population of which has an unfavorable conservation status in the continent (BirdLife International 2017). ...
The effectiveness and efficiency of the natUra 2000 network for the Eurasian Eagle-owl conservation in SE Bulgaria was assessed by comparing data collected during a long-term study on number of breeding pairs and fledglings before and after network establishment. The natUra 2000 network and non-protected areas showed similar values of the calculated indices according to the number of occupied localities. However, the pairs in natUra 2000 sites bred significantly less fledglings after the creation of the network than the pairs in non-protected ones. The Special Protection Areas (SPA) system created specifically for the preservation of birds has the lowest efficiency in respect to Eurasian Eagle-owl protection. Proposals were made after 'gap analysis' for real protection and optimization of the protected-area network to increase the stability of the Eurasian Eagle-owl population in the changing environment. Összefoglalás Délkelet-Bulgária területén hosszú távú vizsgálat alapján elemeztük a natUra 2000 hálózat haté-konyságát és eredményességét az uhu konzervációbiológiájában, amelyhez számos, a hálózat kijelölése előtti és utáni időszakban gyűjtött költőpár és fióka adatait használtuk fel. A natUra 2000-es hálózat és a nem védett terü-letek esetén az elfoglalt területek száma szerint számított mutatók hasonlóak voltak. A natUra 2000-es területe-ken költő párok a hálózat kijelölése után azonban szignifikánsan kevesebb kirepült fiókát neveltek fel, mint a nem védett területeken fészkelő párok. A kifejezetten a madarak megőrzésére létrehozott SPA rendszer az uhu védel-mét tekintve a legkevésbé hatékony. A gap-elemzést követően javaslatot tettünk a védelem hatékonyságának ja-vítására és a védett területek hálózatának optimalizálására annak érdekében, hogy növeljük az uhu populáció sta-bilitását a változó környezetben.
... China has implemented two important policies, the Natural Forest Conservation Program and the Grain-to-Green Program, which not only help conserve the giant panda's natural habitat ranges, but also make it possible for the government to establish national nature reserves dedicated to its protection (Li & Pimm, 2016;Ren et al., 2015). Conservation planning, as a complex process that often accounts for different goals and many species apart from those well known for their charisma, has relied on proxies like the giant panda to describe, characterize, and measure aspects of progress and overall biodiversity (Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). While charismatic megafauna are not perfect stand-ins for threatened biodiversity, their effective marketing value can facilitate vital policies and funding that make conservation practices possible, and by sharing the spotlight with other species, charismatic megafauna can bring other threats to the forefront of conservation discourse. ...
While anthropogenic climate change, habitat loss from human encroachment, and poaching are leading to increased rates of extinction, mass audiences are exposed to only a few endangered species. These charismatic species become central to conservation efforts worldwide, and no species has become more ubiquitous than the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Through a mixed-methods analysis of the giant panda’s rise to prominence, this chapter advances understanding of the species’ significance in mediated conservation discourse, what roles it plays in global conservation, and what implications a panda-centric point of view may have in protecting endangered and threatened species worldwide.
... In other words, the PI and the AI have different environmental drivers, indicating that one of these indices cannot replace the other. Consistently no single biodiversity surrogate can fully reflect regional biodiversity (Di Minin andMoilanen, 2014, Yang et al., 2016), and this is universal, even in areas with environmental heterogeneity. Therefore, coupling the environmentally heterogeneous regions, which have multiple dimensions of biodiversity, will help increase the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation within priority conservation areas based on environmental heterogeneity. ...
Understanding regional environmental heterogeneity (EH) and biodiversity relationships (heterogeneity-diversity relationships: HDRs) is the first step toward coupling environmental variables with biodiversity surrogates into regional systematic conservation planning. However, there is no universal method for determining regional HDRs that considers various environmental variables and biodiversity in different regions. This study selected 32 nature reserves as natural areas in Yunnan, China, to examine regional HDRs in Yunnan. We calculated 17 EH parameters (of soil, topography, and climate) and three (ecosystem, plant, and animal) biodiversity indices in the nature reserves. By examining the explanatory power of each EH parameter and area of the nature reserve, we identified the primary parameters and constructed an optimal model for each biodiversity index. The explanatory powers of these parameters varied for each biodiversity index, and those of climatic parameters were generally higher than soil and topographic heterogeneity ones. Heterogeneity of the temperature annual range, followed by area and heterogeneity of soil type, were important parameters for ecosystem diversity of Yunnan and the optimal model explained 56.9%. Plant diversity was explained 54.5% by its optimal model, consisting of heterogeneity of precipitation of the coldest quarter and annual precipitation. Heterogeneity of temperature annual range was important for animal diversity in Yunnan and explained 29.6% of its optimal model. This study suggests that EH parameters can be an effective surrogate for biodiversity, therefore, we suggested that the significance and role of climatically heterogeneous regions for the conservation of biodiversity in Yunnan should be further studied in the future.
... Systematic conservation planning aiming at safeguarding the maximum number of species is very efficient when species occurrences are thoroughly known (Carvalho et al., 2011;Moilanen et al., 2006). However, in many parts of the world it is almost impossible to have a complete tally of species at any given site, or even distribution data for most species, due to the resources required; therefore, pinpointing places of importance for biodiversity can be challenging (Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014). However, while information on distribution of all species in a given habitat or area is typically lacking, often there is information on the distribution of a few high-profile species. ...
Prioritizing candidate areas to achieve species richness representation is relatively straightforward when distributions are known for many taxa; however, it may be challenging in data-poor regions. One approach is to focus on the distribution of a few charismatic species in areas that overlap with areas with little human influence, and another is to expand protection in the vicinity of existing protected areas. We assessed the effectiveness of these two approaches for protecting the potential distribution of 21 bird species affiliated with the piedmont dry forest in Argentina. We assessed the degree to which current protected areas met the representation target for each bird species. We found that 8% of the piedmont dry forest and 11% of the extent of occurrence of the bird species within piedmont dry forest were protected, indicating a shortfall. Areas with little human influence that overlap with the distribution of charismatic species had a higher number of bird species than areas with high human influence. Areas within the vicinity of protected areas performed similarly to priority areas, but included high human influence areas. We suggest that a prioritization scheme based on areas of charismatic species distribution that overlap with areas of low human influence can function as an effective surrogate for bird species affiliated with the piedmont dry forest in Argentina. Our results have operational implications for conservation planning in those regions of the world where biodiversity data are poor, but where decisions and actions to sustain biodiversity are urgently needed.
... While this resolution may reduce omission errors (when the species is mistakenly thought to be absent) in the distribution data, it may still suffer from commission errors (when the species is mistakenly thought to be present). Beyond the local studies which are already available (Sergio et al., 2006(Sergio et al., , 2008Burgas et al., 2014;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014), it will be thus important to perform surrogacy analyses of the type presented here at the national or regional level and by considering a broader taxonomic diversity, including non-avian species. This can be possible by harnessing the unprecedented information on species ecology, life-history and biogeography that is now made available thanks to citizen science programs and open data platforms such as e-bird and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (Fink et al., 2020;GBIF.org, ...
Stemming from a pervasive lack of knowledge on biodiversity, important areas for conservation are typically identified using a subset of well known species, commonly termed surrogate or indicator groups. Birds have been commonly used as biodiversity surrogates due to the good level of knowledge on their taxonomy, ecology and distribution. Raptors in particular have been often proposed as an effective surrogate for other biodiversity based on their dietary diversity, being at the top of the food chain, their preference for highly productive areas, their generally threatened status and high public appeal. However, so far the surrogacy effectiveness of raptors has been largely studied locally or using a narrow selection of surrogate and surrogated taxa.
Here we use a spatial conservation planning tool to quantify the surrogacy performance of raptors, overall and by different raptor groups (hawks and eagles, falcons, vultures, owls) to represent important biodiversity areas (such as IUCN protected areas and key biodiversity areas), wilderness areas and the worlds ecoregions. We compared the above surrogacy performance with that of all other non-raptor avian species.
We show that raptors perform marginally worse than all other avian species in representing important biodiversity areas and ecoregions. However, raptors representation for wilderness areas was similar or slightly better compared to that of using all non-raptor birds. We also report a large variation in the representation performance by the four raptor groups. Falcons had a particularly high potential in representing protected areas and wilderness areas, equaling or largely surpassing the representation potential provided by all raptors and all other non-raptor birds.
Overall, the results suggest that raptors, and particularly falcons, can perform relatively well in representing some important areas for conservation, such as protected areas and wilderness areas, but are relatively poor surrogates for key biodiversity areas and ecoregions. These rather contrasting results call for caution on the use of raptors as global surrogates of wider biodiversity.
... Th e term charismatic species encapsulates the concept of animals that appeal to humans due to specifi c physical and/or behavioral traits and that have therefore been the recipients of intensive focus surrounding their conservation. Such species are now used as fl agships or surrogates and are deployed deliberately across medias to collect funding, political will, and momentum for larger, more species-diverse conservation eff orts (Caro and O'Doherty 1999;Di Minin and Moilanen 2014;Verissimo et al. 2011). How such animals, and the environment more broadly, have come to intersect with media, with celebrity culture, and with constituent consuming publics, has been characterized as a kind of "spectacular environmentalism" (Goodman et al. 2016). ...
With the International Whaling Commission’s 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling in force, much of today’s cetacean hunting is done by traditional or indigenous communities for subsistence use. However, many communities continue to face pressure from other global stakeholders to stop. Informed by my research with marine hunters in Indonesia, this article combines scholarship from biology, philosophy, and law with global anthropology on cetacean hunting groups to explore a set of recurring arguments arising between hunting communities, management and conservation bodies, and publics. These include the role of charismatic species in Western imagination and conservation; how understandings of animal sentience determine acceptable prey; disputes about the authenticity of and control over traditional hunting practice; and the entanglement of cultural sovereignty and rights to animal resources. Bringing these arguments together allows for an examination of how the dominant global discourse about traditional whaling is shaped and how it affects extant hunting communities.
... Moreover, the complexity and dynamics of marine ecosystems make it difficult to evaluate ecosystem services and calculate the spatial subsidy. For example, for humpback dolphins, the challenges that are faced include measuring and experimentally manipulating the number of terrestrial users, their preferences and desires to encounter or see humpback dolphins or their actual costs and willingness to pay for them (Arbieu et al., 2018;Ament et al., 2017;Balmford et al., 2015;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014;Naidoo et al., 2016). Therefore, we need to propose a new method to quantify environmental supply. ...
Human activities are considered a critical impact factor for decision-making in coupled human-nature systems, such as conservation of coastal systems. Identifying key human activities that cause significant habitat degradation for coastal species remains challenging. We improved the spatial subsidy approach to identify and prioritize control strategies for human-caused distribution shifts of marine species. We applied this method to a threatened Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) in Xiamen Bay, China. Our results indicate that (1) a significant distribution shift for humpback dolphins from existing nature reserves to peripheral waters occurred from 2011 to 2014; (2) coastal tourism and industrial and urban construction had more significant negative impacts on humpback dolphins than maritime transportation and reclamation; and (3) proactive management should be implemented for maritime transportation and reclamation, while reactive management should be implemented for coastal tourism and industrial and urban construction. Human impact analysis, combined with spatially explicit modeling, contributes to determining the spatial alternatives for conservation planning. In response to possible ecological damage caused by human activities, the improved spatial subsidy results help provide knowledge and platforms for ecological compensation.
... Besides the irreversible loss of vertebrates themselves, the extinction and declines in vertebrate population might change the species composition in local community and further cause great loss in ecosystem function (Dirzo et al., 2014;Tilman et al., 2014;Bello et al., 2015). In addition, threatened vertebrates are often used as umbrella species or surrogates of conservation (Wiens et al., 2008;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014;Li and Pimm, 2016;Magg et al., 2019), because their critical attributes reflecting the complexity, uniqueness and endangerment of biodiversity (Bonn et al., 2002;Luo et al., 2015). A bunch of evidences have indicated that current species extinction rates are much higher than the natural background (Pimm et al., 2014;Ceballos et al., 2015), and the risk of species extinction is still increasing (IUCN, 2019). ...
... Our approach is flexible in that it can accommodate different objectives according to organizational values 32 , but is grounded in traditional planning principles that underpin current global conservation policies for representation and complementarity ( Supplementary Fig. 1). This guarantees that all measured biodiversity 33 , not just biodiversity that co-occurs with desirable species or places, is safeguarded in the prioritization approach 30,34 . ...
Conservation strategies based on charismatic flagship species, such as tigers, lions, and elephants, successfully attract funding from individuals and corporate donors. However, critics of this species-focused approach argue it wastes resources and often does not benefit broader biodiversity. If true, then the best way of raising conservation funds excludes the best way of spending it. Here we show that this conundrum can be resolved, and that the flagship species approach does not impede cost-effective conservation. Through a tailored prioritization approach, we identify places containing flagship species while also maximizing global biodiversity representation (based on 19,616 terrestrial and freshwater species). We then compare these results to scenarios that only maximized biodiversity representation, and demonstrate that our flagship-based approach achieves 79−89% of our objective. This provides strong evidence that prudently selected flagships can both raise funds for conservation and help target where these resources are best spent to conserve biodiversity. Conservation actions focused on flagship species are effective at raising funds and awareness. Here, McGowan et al. show that prioritizing areas for conservation based on the presence of flagship species results in the selection of areas with ~ 79-89% of the total species that would be selected by maximizing biodiversity representation only.
... Nor need they be threatened; choice experiments suggest threatened species do not receive more money from public donations (Senzaki et al., 2017). Instead, selected species are often 'charismatic megafauna'large animals with high public appeal (Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014). 'Charismatic' refers to aesthetically appealing species, which are often anthropomorphic (e.g. with forward-facing eyes), vertebrates (particularly mammals), and highly sentient (Ducarme et al., 2013;Lorimer, 2007;Veríssimo et al., 2011). ...
... 65% of the 57 ranges in Canada's distribution of boreal caribou contain areas with > 10 mammals or birds considered at-risk, offering abundant opportunities to simultaneously conserve caribou and other imperilled fauna, and iii. Recent evidence that forest management practices aimed at maintaining caribou habitat can directly benefit other boreal fauna (Bichet et al., 2016), suggest that woodland caribou in Canada, like other mammals with wide public appeal (Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014), has high value as an umbrella species for boreal biodiversity. ...
Understanding how conservation of woodland caribou, an at-risk species for which large undisturbed areas are often proposed to maintain viable populations, can contribute to conservation of boreal biodiversity is an important consideration for an ecosystem warming at twice the global average and experiencing rapid resource development. We assess the focal or 'umbrella' value of the boreal population of woodland caribou for conservation of mammalian and avian richness (n = 432) in the boreal region of Canada by (i) evaluating co-occurrence of caribou distribution with that of boreal mammals (n = 102), birds (n = 330), at-risk mammals (n = 11) and at-risk birds (n = 47); and (ii) conducting systematic conservation planning using MARXAN software to identify minimum representative and complementary reserve networks, comprised of planning units deemed large enough (10,000 km 2) for persistence of terrestrial wildlife, both at the extent of boreal caribou distribution and the entire boreal region. While boreal caribou overlap with the range of 90% of boreal birds and mammals, area-efficient networks representative of boreal diversity focus on species-rich areas south of caribou distribution and other areas that contain relatively small-ranged species. A similar pattern occurs when the MARXAN analysis focused only on caribou distribution, i.e. representative networks are preferentially located on southern herd ranges. However, this situation differs markedly to include large areas within the distribution of caribou if anthropogenic footprint on the landscape is considered as a constraint on reserve design. Efforts to sustain boreal caribou offer considerable opportunities to conserve diversity of co-occurring mammals and birds, including areas of the relatively more disturbed caribou southern ranges that have irreplaceable value in an efficient and representative pan-boreal network of reserves. The high focal value of boreal caribou for animal diversity should be considered when making decisions and policy choices about how to best allocate conservation efforts across its extensive distribution.
... The former tends to prevail, generating a species-centered practice that Ernest Small calls "the New Noah's Ark" [15] for its necessary exclusion of a large share of organisms. Those species that are easier to identify and observe, aesthetically remarkable, and thrilling to encounter receive a disproportionate share of attention from the global assemblage of conservation actors [15][16][17]. One analysis found that the "flagship species" of environmental groups are best explained in terms of marketing theory rather than ecological significance [18]. ...
Across the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia, millions of newly planted trees struggle to survive amid adverse ecological conditions. They were planted by a wide variety of actors in an attempt to protect, restore, or modify the local environment, despite evidence of their negative consequences upon local ecosystems. This paper investigates how these afforestation projects both challenge and affirm recent theoretical work on conservation, while also providing key insights into the decision-making framework of land management across the world’s third largest desert region. This analysis, supported by evidence from corporate practice, government policy, and participant observation, builds primarily on the work of Jamie Lorimer and other authors who identify the charisma of certain species as a primary driver of contemporary conservation. But the case of afforestation in the Gobi is inadequately explained by a desire to protect individual species; rather, I show how the charisma at the level of the landscape influences conservation practice. I extend this analysis to suggest that the management of deserts worldwide may be mediated by their perception as absent or empty spaces, thus explaining projects like afforestation which seem to re-place rather than conserve. Using the framework of absence and presence to better understand land use and environmental governance could have implications extending well beyond the Gobi Desert.
... First, multiple surrogate species are better than any single surrogate species, because management actions that target a single species do not necessarily benefit the conservation of all co-occurring species, especially those limited by different ecological factors (Carroll et al., 2001, Roberge andAngelstam, 2004, but see Olds et al., 2014 for an effective single-species design). Second, surrogate species from a given taxon may not necessarily confer protection to assemblages composed of other taxa (Breckheimer et al., 2014;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014). Third, a systematic selection of a diverse set of species has proven to reflect well the needs of other species (Roberge and Angelstam, 2004;Cushman and Landguth, 2012). ...
... The study was conducted in ten protected areas distributed across KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces, South Africa ( Fig. 1), which represent highly suitable leopard and lion habitat (E Di Minin & Moilanen, 2014;Riggio et al., 2013;Swanepoel, Lindsey, Somers, van Hoven, & Dalerum, 2013). Study sites were state-run (n = 3) and private (n = 7) protected areas that form part of a national leopard monitoring initiative established to systematically assess leopard population status across South Africa. ...
Although interspecific competition plays a principal role in shaping species behaviour and demography, little is known about the population‐level outcomes of competition between large carnivores, and the mechanisms that facilitate coexistence.
We conducted a multilandscape analysis of two widely distributed, threatened large carnivore competitors to offer insight into coexistence strategies and assist with species‐level conservation.
We evaluated how interference competition affects occupancy, temporal activity and population density of a dominant competitor, the lion ( Panthera leo ), and its subordinate competitor, the leopard ( Panthera pardus ). We collected camera‐trap data over 3 years in 10 study sites covering 5,070 km ² . We used multispecies occupancy modelling to assess spatial responses in varying environmental and prey conditions and competitor presence, and examined temporal overlap and the relationship between lion and leopard densities across sites and years.
Results showed that both lion and leopard occupancy was independent of—rather than conditional on—their competitor's presence across all environmental covariates. Marginal occupancy probability for leopard was higher in areas with more bushy, “hideable” habitat, human (tourist) activity and topographic ruggedness, whereas lion occupancy decreased with increasing hideable habitat and increased with higher abundance of very large prey. Temporal overlap was high between carnivores, and there was no detectable relationship between species densities.
Lions pose a threat to the survival of individual leopards, but they exerted no tractable influence on leopard spatial or temporal dynamics. Furthermore, lions did not appear to suppress leopard populations, suggesting that intraguild competitors can coexist in the same areas without population decline. Aligned conservation strategies that promote functioning ecosystems, rather than target individual species, are therefore advised to achieve cost‐ and space‐effective conservation.
... All of these can affect species' distributions and their changes (Amano and Yamaura 2007;Yamaura et al. 2009;Thornton and Fletcher 2014), which makes it difficult to generalize community ecology (Wiens 2001). Various approaches have been proposed to overcome this challenge in biodiversity conservation, including multiple surrogate species (Mac Nally and Fleishman 2004;Di Minin and Moilanen 2014) and focusing on the important elements of ecosystems for many species (e.g., snags, logs, and springs), which is called a meso-filter (Hunter 2005). ...
Charismatic megafauna are a conservation concern and a flagship of conservation for many other species in the practice of biodiversity conservation. However, some studies support the roles of charismatic megafauna while others do not. In this chapter, we review the ecological mechanisms of why charismatic megafauna can be surrogate species. Based on the niche theory, specialist charismatic species, such as umbrella species, are likely to be surrogate species for richness or abundance of specialist species sharing the same niche axis. Citizen data are promising for testing this hypothesis; however, they are usually collected in a spatially biased manner, which hampers their usage. Here we analyzed citizen data with a hierarchical community model accounting for sampling processes and mapped Hokkaido bird species richness at different resolutions. By overlaying these maps with the distributions of Blakiston’s fish owl and red-crowned crane breeding sites, we show that these sites had higher forest or grassland/wetland bird species richness. Furthermore, the surrogacy was scale-dependent. Conservation practices entail social costs, and continued focus on the role of surrogate species would be due to public understanding and support being prerequisites for their implementation. We advocate selecting species with charismatic features and umbrella roles or flagship-umbrella species, given the strengths and limitations of surrogate schemes, as they play prominent roles linking biodiversity conservation and society.
... However, these metrics can also be applied to specific subsets of biodiversity in the assessment of the service of wildlife tourism, since people may also be attracted to specific groups of species. In particular, they may prefer charismatic (Arbieu et al., 2017;Di Minin et al., 2013;Di Minin and Moilanen, 2014), rare (Angulo and Courchamp, 2009;Booth et al., 2011) or threatened species (Siikamäki et al., 2015). Assessments of the recreational service of wildlife tourism should therefore cover different components of biodiversity that reflect different recreational opportunities (see Fig. 1), not only considering all species present in an area, but also subsets of charismatic, rare and threatened species (see Dallimer et al., 2012;Siikamäki et al., 2015). ...
Relationships between biodiversity and cultural ecosystem services have been little studied compared to other ecosystem services, although fundamental for environmental management. Recreational ecosystem services like wildlife tourism are specific cultural ecosystem services that often involve relationships between the supply of opportunities to interact with biodiversity and the demand of wildlife tourists. Here, we first investigated whether different biodiversity measures based on three metrics applied to four components of large mammal diversity influenced the distribution of visitors within four Protected Areas (PAs) in Southern Africa. Second, we explored whether these effects were context-specific across the four PAs. We counted large mammals and visitor numbers along 196 road transects to test these relationships. All species-mammal diversity metrics related positively to visitor numbers. Subsets of mammal diversity were also positively associated with the distribution of visitors in all PAs. Relationships between supply and demand for the recreational service of wildlife tourism were mainly context-specific: the relationships between biodiversity measures and visitor numbers differed among PAs. Our results could help managers to optimize the use of recreational services within PAs, by diversifying viewing opportunities while reducing disturbance to wildlife. The supply-demand approach presented here offers promising avenues for further assessments of recreational ecosystem services.
Urban ecosystems represent heterogeneous environments with mosaics of natural, semi-natural and man-made habitats, with plenty of vascular plants including native and alien species. In-depth biodiversity research in urban areas might be time- and personnel-consuming. Therefore, we selected six habitat types within 30 towns in Slovakia (Central Europe) to determine whether any urban habitats could serve as a ‘surrogate habitat’ for the total, alien and Red List vascular plant richness of the towns. We found 1054 vascular plant taxa overall; alien and Red List plants comprised 33.9% and 7.3% of all taxa, respectively. The most species-rich habitat was the cemetery (mean number of taxa = 121), while the town centre hosted the lowest mean number of plant taxa (87). The habitat type that best predicted total species richness in the study towns was the floodplain (RMSE ≈ 20 species, RRMSE = 8.5%). In the case of aliens, the number of species in railways and town centres could be used for the rapid estimation of total alien richness in towns (RMSE ≈ 8 species, RRMSE = 10.8%). For Red List species, none of the habitats (including combinations of two habitats) could be recommended for a rapid estimation, as their prediction errors were exceptionally high (RRMSE = 45–62%).
En este capítulo se presenta la situación actual de
la diversidad ornitológica en la entidad, su estacionalidad,
grado de endemismo y estado de conservación;
promoviendo estudios poblacionales o de comunidades
en virtud de su conservación.
Biodiversity offsetting, a conservation approach to offset loss of habitat and ecosystem services, has been widely accepted and implemented in different legislative frameworks around the globe. I assigned sentiment scores (from −3 [very negative] to +3 [very positive]) to online news articles to examine public sentiment toward offsetting. I identified 86 pertinent articles published from 2013 to 2023 by web scraping online media outlets through keywords. I examined article content based on topics commonly associated in scientific literature with offsetting, such as risks or financial aspects. Most articles were from Australia (44%), 16% were from the United Kingdom, and 5% were from Colombia and Madagascar. Three distinct groups covered finances (n = 47), species, and social impacts of offsetting (n = 23) and offsetting frameworks (n = 16). Articles covering monetary and finance aspects had a lower predicted sentiment score (−0.72, 95% CI −0.98 to −0.47) than articles that covered new, alternative offsetting forms (−0.15, 95% CI −0.46 to 0.17), such as mitigation banking and credits. In articles focused on charismatic species and loss of livelihood, offsetting risk and social issues were associated with low sentiment scores (<−0.85). Sentiment scores were high for articles on offsetting at a multicountry or global scale (0.47, 95% CI −0.06 to 0.99), and scores were the lowest in Australia (−1.03, 95% CI −1.36 to −0.70). Public sentiment based on media articles was generally negative toward offsetting, and many of the ecological and methodological issues and risks were reflected in the articles, but mitigation measures as a prerequisite to offsetting were mentioned in only 18% of all articles. With the seemingly high public interest in conservation and hence offsetting, it will be imperative to expand the current breadth of information about offsetting that is being communicated or made available to the public.
Identifying how populations living in landscapes at the forefront of climate change observe and interpret ecological shifts offers critical insights into communication and motivation regarding environmental change and broader climate adaptation. The use of scientific indicators to monitor local change often relies on quantitative methodologies that do not necessarily reflect how varied individuals within a landscape measure and document change. As a result, there is a need to better understand how individuals and interest groups across shared landscapes track climate change impacts at the local level. We conducted 43 semi-structured interviews with residents and professionals living and working in and around the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, AZ, shortly after the 2020 Bighorn Fire to address this research gap. Specific biota emerged as socially defined “indicators” for monitoring environmental change and related processes. Selection and use of these indicators, including saguaro cacti and bighorn sheep, were embedded within varied place-based understandings in the Catalinas. We propose that the use of locally valued species for socially tracking longitudinal environmental change may benefit from the use of the term “charismatic indicators.” Charismatic indicators may vary across landscapes and place-based understandings and merit further exploration. We conclude with insights and guidance for the potential identification and use of charismatic indicators of environmental change in both research and management.
Introduced invasive plants are a major environmental problem, but public interest in invasive plants is generally considered low compared to climate change and threatened flagship species, hindering support for effective management and policy. To understand what does drive public interest in invasive plants in the US, we investigated Google Trends search data from 2010 to 2020 for 209 introduced plant species found in the continental US. Using a phylogenetically-controlled structural equation model, we investigated three hypothesized drivers of interest: (1) plant abundance as quantified by national and state-level occurrence records in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, (2) four key plant traits that might influence plant conspicuousness to the general public: ornamental use, human health risks, monoculture formation, and plants with positive economic value, and (3) media coverage, in particular the volume and sentiment of news articles over the same 10-year period. Public search interest was highest for the most abundant introduced species and those with human health risks, but significantly lower for ornamentals. News coverage was mostly negatively toned and disproportionately focused on a relatively small group of widespread invasive species, with significantly lower and more positively-worded coverage of ornamentals. Ultimately, we suggest that a narrow emphasis on a few highly covered ‘notorious’ invasive plant species, with lower and more positive coverage of ornamental introduced species, could send mixed messages and weaken public awareness of the threats of biological invasions. However, the generally strong linkages between public search interest and media coverage of invasive plants suggests ample opportunity to improve messaging and increase public awareness.
Internet search data can accurately assess the intensity of public interest in environmental issues. Although invasive plants are a major environmental problem, public interest in invasive plants is generally considered low compared to climate change and threatened flagship species. To understand what drives public interest in invasive plants in the US, we investigated Google Trends search data from 2010 to 2020 for 210 invasive plant species found in the continental US. We investigated three hypothesized drivers of interest: (1) plant abundance as quantified by national and state-level occurrence records in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, (2) media coverage, in particular the volume and tone of news articles over the same 10-year period, and (3) five key plant traits that might influence plant conspicuousness to the general public: ornamental use, human health risks, monoculture formation, plants with positive economic value, and time since introduction. Google search interest was positively but indirectly influenced by species’ state and national level abundance patterns. In contrast, public search interest was most strongly and directly determined by species with greater human health risk and enhanced media coverage (through the number and tone of published articles). Ultimately, this suggests that enhanced media coverage of invasive plant species, particularly articles that detail their negative impacts, could generate increased public awareness for biological invasions.
Over the past fifty years, the world's wildlife populations have drastically declined. This stems from multiple causes, including the loss of natural habitat, which plays a vital role. Effective strategies to help endangered wildlife species recovery requires broad public support to be politically viable. In this study, we conducted a randomized survey to elicit and describe the Quebec population’s preferences and concerns regarding endangered wildlife and estimate its willingness-to-pay (WTP) for their recovery. We used stated preference approaches, namely a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and best-worst scaling (BWS), to estimate WTP and rank respondent preferences towards categories of wildlife species and recovery program attributes. In the selection of animals listed, results also reveal strong public preferences for large mammals, more specifically the beluga whale and woodland caribou. Simulation exercises from our DCE results show that a quarter of respondents would be willing to pay 12 for birds, or insects, or fish and molluscs recovery programs. Despite respondents’ strong preferences for the protection of megafauna, BWS and DCE simulation results indicate that a broader multispecies approach would be favoured by a larger segment of the population than a single specie approach. The survey results also revealed that the public likes to spend time in nature and is both concerned about endangered wildlife and aware of the interdependence between humans and nature. Therefore, our findings suggest that policymakers have a social acceptance to use both flagship species and multispecies approaches to implement endangered species recovery strategies. Moreover, our findings and the related literature on the value of ecosystem services indicate that communication on wildlife conservation could be buttressed by emphasizing conservation’s contributions to ecosystem services.
The main role of flagship species in biodiversity conservation is to raise awareness and funds for conservation. Because of their marketing role, flagship species are often selected based on other than biodiversity related criteria, such as species charisma or aesthetic appeal. Nonetheless, funds raised through flagship species are often used to protect the species itself, making it important to evaluate the effectiveness of flagship species as conservation tools: For example, could superior fundraising ability outweigh the low biodiversity surrogate power of a flagship, justifying this ambivalent role in conservation? To assess flagship effectiveness from this dual perspective, we must synthesize evidence on a) the fundraising potential of flagship species vs. other conservation targets, such as ecosystems or biodiversity, and b) the biodiversity surrogate power of potential flagship taxa. We approached this broad topic through an overview of reviews on both subtopics. We found no evidence that charismatic flagship species were superior fundraisers over other conservation targets. In addition, studies evaluating the biodiversity surrogacy power of different taxa had mainly resulted in mixed findings, contesting the overall usefulness of the concept in conservation. The variability of study setups and methods made comparisons between studies difficult, highlighting the need to standardize future research (e.g., standardizing explanatory variables). Further possible reasons for lack of conclusive evidence on fundraising potential are the dominance of factors other than flagship identity (e.g., scope and conservation status) and differences in donor preferences. We recommend Environmental NGOs to develop and diversify their fundraising strategies based on best available knowledge, and rely less on mere species charisma.
Wildlife tourism benefits regional economies and biodiversity conservation, yet visitor numbers remain below capacity in many wildlife destinations. With an aging population and increasing pressure on the natural environment, the need to attract a younger generation (Millennials) to nature and conservation is becoming more important than ever. To see increasing visitation from Millennials it is necessary to understand their perceptions of and expectations about wildlife tourism experiences and how that may require improved management effectiveness. To this end, six focus groups were conducted with South African Millennials in different family life cycle stages. The findings show that focus group participants’ expectation of a wildlife tourism experience is to have an encounter with wildlife. They expect the experience to be authentic and responsible. They want opportunities to engage in various activities, and show a keen interest in visiting national parks. The paper contributes to the limited research on Millennials and their preferences for nature and wildlife-based experiences. Insights gained from this cohort have implications for wildlife tourism organizations in terms of product development and species conservation.
Global biodiversity loss seriously threatens the multiple functions and services of ecosystems. Cost-effectively and representatively identifying micro-priority areas on the fine scale is an effective way to promote the success of regional biodiversity conservation. This study
selected the endangered, endemic and national protected plants in the southeastern Himalayas priority area as surrogate taxa to represent community biodiversity of the region. Systematic conservation planning model (Zonation) was used along with data on habitat suitability (Maxent) of each plant species to systematically identify the biodiversity micro-priority areas in the study area and analyze its ecological representativeness. Accordingly, the conservation gaps in the study areas were identified. Our results show that: (1) the species distribution model accurately predicts that these representative plant species are mainly concentrated in southeastern Tibet; (2) the identified micro-priority areas are mainly distributed in the high mountains and valleys in southeastern Tibet, the original lake basins and valleys in southern Tibet, and the middle section of the Himalayas in southwestern Tibet; (3) The micro-priority areas identified based on endangered species surrogate has better ecological representation for ecosystem and its services, but it is also necessary to combine species, ecosystem and its services to identify micro-priority areas in
conservation planning in the future; (4) There are some differences in the geographical distribution between the micro-priority areas and the in situ protected areas. The conservation gaps were mainly located in Zayü, northern Mêdog, northern Lhozhag, southern Nagrze, Kamba, Yadong, Kangmar, and central Saga. The future optimization work in the national park planning in the southeastern Himalayas should focus on these gap areas. This research can provide methodological support to improve the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation on a fine scale, and provide decision support for local administration to integrate and optimize the protected areas system.
Difficult to study species that inhabit inaccessible terrain, present significant challenges in obtaining accurate ecological, distributional, and conservation information. To address these challenges, we used an effective set of time- and cost-efficient methods including interview-based surveys assisted by Google earth 3D maps to document the distributional range of 32 native animal taxa in the biodiverse but difficult to access Gaoligong Mountains (GLGMS), located on the northern Sino-Myanmar Border. Five threatened flagship species, including the black snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri), the Skywalker hoolock gibbon (Hoolock tianxing), Shortridge's langur (Trachypithecus shortridgei), Sclater's monal (Lophophorus sclateri) and the Mishmi takin (Budorcas taxicolor) were selected for intensive surveys and used as surrogate taxa to study community biodiversity. Field surveys of each species were conducted to determine their presence/absence and to confirm the reliability of species distribution data obtained from interview-based surveys. Multicriteria Decision Analyses were used along with data on habitat suitability (MAXENT) to prioritize transboundary conservation areas. Our results indicate that approximately 83.4% (10,398.7 km2) of the remaining habitat with high biodiversity conservation value in the GLGMs is unprotected. This includes six large zones located along the northern Sino-Myanmar border, separated by rivers and human settlements. These areas should be designated as a transboundary World Nature Heritage Site, national parks, or wildlife sanctuaries. This study presents a reliable, rapid and integrative method for developing informed policies for conservation prioritization in data poor areas, which can be applied successfully to assess conservation priorities in other mountainous regions where obtaining data on biodiversity is difficult.
Aim
On the basis of multitaxon biogeographical processes related to region‐specific geohistory and palaeoclimate, we identified a balanced and area‐effective protected area network (PAN) expansion in the East Asian islands, a global biodiversity hotspot.
Location
Japanese archipelago, Ryukyu archipelago and Izu‐Bonin oceanic islands.
Methods
We modelled the distributions of 6,325 species (amphibians, birds, freshwater fish, mammals, plants and reptiles) using 4,389,489 occurrence data points. We then applied the Zonation software for spatial conservation prioritization. First, we identified environmental drivers underpinning taxon‐specific biodiversity patterns. Second, we analysed each taxon individually to understand baseline priority patterns. Third, we combined all taxa into an inclusive analysis to identify the most important PAN expansions.
Results
Biodiversity patterns were well explained by geographical factors (climate, habitat stability, isolation and area), but their explanatory power differed between the taxa. There was remarkably little overlap between priority areas for the individual higher taxa. The inclusive prioritization analysis across all taxa identified priority regions, in particular in southern subtropical and mountainous areas. Expanding the PAN up to 17% would cover most of the ranges for rare and/or restricted‐range species. On average, approximately 30% of the ranges of all species could be covered by the 17% expansion identified here.
Main conclusions
Our analyses identified top candidates for the expansion of Japan's protected area network. Taxon‐specific prioritization was informative for understanding the conservation priority patterns of different taxa associated with unique biogeographical processes. For the basis of PAN expansion, we recommend multi‐taxon prioritization as an area‐efficient compromise that reflects taxon‐specific priority patterns. Spatial prioritization across multiple taxa provides a promising start for the development of conservation plans with the aim of long‐term persistence of biodiversity on the East Asian islands.
L’Algérie est un cas d’école en matière d’ignorance en biodiversité. A ce jour, on ne dispose d'aucun inventaire complet pour aucun taxon ni aucun atlas à l’échelle du pays ! Pourtant, l’Algérie est d’une grande importance pour la biodiversité mondiale. La façade littorale de l’Algérie fait partie du hostpot de biodiversité mondial qui est le pourtour méditerranéen et compte plusieurs points rouges de biodiversité régionaux. Par ailleurs, la partie saharienne contient une diversité d’organismes endémiques adaptés aux fortes conditions de sécheresse. Les autorités algériennes déploient un projet ambitieux pour la conservation en fixant 50 % de la surface du pays comme objectif pour les aires protégées ! Mais, l’emplacement de ces aires protégées et leur gestion n’obéit pas à des critères basés sur une bonne connaissance de la diversité, mais sont plutôt panifiés à dire d’expert. L’objectif général de cette thèse c’est l’étude de la distribution de l’ignorance en biodiversité en Algérie en se concentrant sur les « Linnean, Wallacean et Darwinian Shortfalls » et de contribuer à les réduire. J’ai consacré un chapitre qui a pour but de réduire le Linnean Shortfall en proposant 1) une première checklist des reptiles et amphibiens d’Algérie qui est le fruit d’un examen précis des publications scientifiques sur ces taxons en Afrique du Nord. 2) une première pré-évaluation des statuts de conservations des reptiles et amphibiens d’Algérie pour la production de la première liste rouge nationale. La deuxième partie de ce manuscrit traite la question de l’ignorance de la distribution géographique des espèces. Le but de cette partie est de cartographier l’ignorance qui est la différence entre la diversité la richesse spécifique attendue et la richesse spécifique observée. La richesse spécifique attendue a été modélisée avec deux approches : 1 l’utilisation des modèles de niches avec la méthode de maximum d’entropie (MaxEnt) pour prédire les habitats favorables pour chaque espèce puis additionner les différentes couches binaires de présence des espèces pour calculer la richesse spécifique. 2) l’addition des couches des aires d’occurrences des espèces construite par la méthode du minimum convex polygon pour produire la carte de distribution de la richesse spécifique. Les deux approches ont montré la même tendance à l’échelle nationale, c’est-à-dire la concentration des zones les plus riches sur le long de l’Atlas Saharien et des hauts plateaux qui sont la zone de transition entre le Sahara et la partie méditerranéenne de l’Algérie. L’opposition de la partie saharienne globalement pauvre en espèce et la moitié nord plus riche. En fin, les massifs sahariens du Hoggar et Tassili forment une zone très distincte avec une richesse nettement supérieure par rapport au reste du Sahara. Pour ce qui est des lacunes, dans la Partie nord, la Kabylie, le parc national d’El Kala et la région d’Oran sont assez bien prospectées. Dans le Sahara, seuls quelques points sont assez bien prospectés comme Biskra, Béchar et quelques zones du Hoggar et Tassili. En fin, la troisième partie porte sur la distribution des lignées génétiques dans le Maghreb. Les objectif de cette partie est localiser les zones de sutures entre les lignées génétiques divergentes des populations de l’est et de l’ouest du Maghreb et d’essayer de comprendre les mécanismes qui ont conduit à ce patron de diversité génétique. Pour répondre à ces questions, j’ai effectué une phylogéographie comparées sur 11 espèces de reptiles et amphibiens à distribution continue et large dans le Maghreb. Deux zones de sutures ont été identifiées : une zone à la frontière de l’Algérie et du Maroc, l’autre EN Kabylie à l’ouest de la vallée de la Soummam. Les divergences entre les clades est et les clades ouest ont eu lieu entre la période pré-messinienne jusqu’au à la limite plio-pleistocène et se seraient maintenues dans des refuges climatiques à l’est et à l’ouest du Maghreb.
The loss of biodiversity is largely acknowledged by the scientific community but also by the public and politicians. Most research on biodiversity loss is focused on climate change effects, and neglects the main factor of biodiversity loss: habitat destruction. The aim of this thesis is to study species-habitats relationships with a particular focus on the different components of these relationships. In a first part, the thesis deals with the history and the evolution of the concept of habitat in ecology. Particularly, it highlights a complex construction of this concept. For instance, the analysis shows a dichotomy around the definition of the concept of habitat with on one hand, a species-centered approach and on the other hand, a community-centered approach. These definitions are still used nowadays by the different actors of conservation, from scientists to politicians, but with different degrees of importance. Then, through the prism of landscape ecology, the thesis is interested in spatial scale issues via a study of arthropods species distribution in French landscapes. Results show that the spatial scales of species responses to landscapes measures are highly variable. This result holds true whatever the representation of landscape used in the analysis. However, theory would predict some consistencies in spatial scales of response, for example in relation to ecological traits of species. Hence, the spatial scale of relationship between a species and its landscape, which is considered as the scale of perception and interaction of the species with its environment, seems difficult to characterize using usual methodology developed in landscape ecology. Species-habitats relationships can be quantified using specialization measurement. In the next part of the thesis, we try to understand how specialist species are spread along a continuous gradient of habitat and in particular, the role of heterogeneous environments in driving observed patterns of specialization. In this theoretical context, the hypothesis of complementation, which states that particular species need some environmental heterogeneity to strive, cannot be verified. Even if some species prefer heterogeneous landscape, they cannot be classified as specialists. These species seems to be generalists that are excluded from more homogeneous landscape due to competition rather than real specialists that are more often found in these landscapes. These results shed a new light on rules of assemblage of species communities, particularly along a continuous gradient of habitat.Finally, in a last part, the importance of the concept of habitat in conservation public policies is studied. An evaluation of the “habitat” part of the European Habitats Directive is proposed. Different criteria, related to the application, construction, legitimacy and outcomes of the directive were used to evaluate the policy. Through some concrete examples and an extensive literature analysis, this work allows identifying important knowledge gaps in the directive that imped evaluation criteria. Results show a discrepancy between scientific aspects and their application in the directive, questioning the opportunity to use the habitat level to answer to conservation issues. To conclude, this thesis, focused on the concept of habitat, allows identifying important theoretical and applied knowledge gaps that imped a better understanding of species-habitats relationships. This work offers new perspectives and challenges the way we usually think, as scientists, these relationships.
Funding constraints highlight the need for efficient approaches to manage wildlife habitat. One such approach is to monitor a single species that serves as an indicator of management effectiveness. The grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) is an obligate species of dry, upland prairie that has been proposed as a surrogate species for the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie, USA. To evaluate whether this species (or another) would make a suitable indicator for grassland birds, we examined the strength of associations in the density and occurrence of grasshopper sparrows and densities of other grassland species: sedge wren (Cistothorus platensis), Savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), Henslow's sparrow (A. henslowii), dickcissel (Spiza americana), bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), and western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta). No single species was a good predictor for all other species, but grasshopper sparrow density was the best predictor of the densities of other obligate upland prairie species. We also compared avian community composition between grassland sites with and without grasshopper sparrows; densities of all species except sedge wren were significantly higher at sites with grasshopper sparrows. Therefore, the grasshopper sparrow is the best choice as a single indicator species for tallgrass prairies within our study area. However, a better approach would be to select multiple, complementary indicator species to ensure that species not well-indicated by grasshopper sparrows are adequately represented. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.
Conservation relies heavily on external funding, much of it from a supportive public. Therefore it is important to know which species are most likely to catalyse such funding. Whilst previous work has looked at the physical attributes that contribute to a species’ appeal, no previous studies have tried to examine the extent to which a species’ sympatriots might contribute to it's potential as flagship for wider conservation. Therefore, here we estimate ‘flexibility’ and ‘appeal’ scores for all terrestrial mammals (n = 4320) and identify which of these might serve as ambassadors (defined as both highly appealing and flexible). Relatively few mammals (between 240 and 331) emerged as ambassadors, with carnivores featuring heavily in this group (representing 5% of terrestrial mammals but 39% of ambassadors). ‘Top ambassadors’ were defined as those with both flexibility and appeal scores greater than 1 standard deviation above the mean. Less than a quarter of the 20 most endangered and evolutionary distinct species in this study were classed as ambassadors, highlighting the need for surrogate species to catalyse conservation effort in areas with such priority species. This is the first global analysis bringing together flexibility and appeal for all terrestrial mammals, and demonstrates an approach for determining how best to market species in order to achieve maximal conservation gain in a world with urgent conservation need but limited resources.
Aim
To quantify and compare species coverage in priority areas for conservation identified using species richness as opposed to approaches that use individual species range maps.
Location
Global.
Methods
We compare the coverage of species when global priority areas for conservation are identified based on (1) twelve species richness maps of all and small‐range amphibians, birds and mammals and all and small‐range threatened (i.e., vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered) species; (2) weighted range size rarity, a richness measure corrected for range size; and (3) a complementarity‐based analysis including species range maps for 21,075 terrestrial vertebrate species listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. We also assessed whether any combination of small‐range and/or threatened species richness could be a suitable surrogate for a complementarity‐based analysis by assessing species coverage in priority areas located using (1) richness of small‐range species only; (2) richness of all threatened species only; and (3) richness of small‐range and threatened species.
Results
Our results show clear differences in the spatial pattern of priority areas for conservation among the prioritizations based on species richness, weighted range size rarity and species range maps, with the species richness‐based priority areas being highly aggregated in the tropics and the species range map priority areas being more evenly spread among the global terrestrial area. We also find that identifying priority areas for conservation using species richness produces a lower coverage of species than priority areas based on complementarity methods and identified using species range maps, where just one species was left without any protection.
Main Conclusions
As methods and software currently exist for processing large numbers of individual species distribution maps in spatial prioritization, the use of species richness appears to be an unnecessary simplification of biodiversity pattern.
More biodiversity could be protected in
situ if the few species that attract the most popular support (the ‘flagship’ species) had distributions that also covered the broader diversity of organisms. We studied how well different groups of mammals performed for representing the diversity of mammals and breeding birds among 1° areas of sub-Saharan Africa. We demonstrate that choosing areas of sub-Saharan Africa using either conservationists' six primary flagship mammals, or the six ‘Big Five’ mammals popular with wildlife tourists, is not significantly better for representing the diversity of mammals and birds than choosing areas at random. Furthermore, neither of these groups is significantly better for representing the diversity of mammals and birds than groups of the same number of species chosen at random. We show that in order to succeed in representing many mammals and birds in area selection, it is not sufficient for the groups used for selection to occur in many different eco-regions, they must also have low overlaps in distribution, so as to provide high ecological complementarity (a similar pattern of ecological complementarity must be shared by the larger group of species to be represented). Therefore there may be a need for an explicit policy to balance the requirements of flagship conservation and broader biodiversity conservation, which will have implications for the distribution of resources.
Spatial conservation prioritization concerns the effective allocation of conservation action. Its stages include development of an ecologically based model of conservation value, data pre-processing, spatial prioritization analysis, and interpretation of results for conservation action. Here we investigate the details of each stage for analyses done using the Zonation prioritization framework. While there is much literature about analytical methods implemented in Zonation, there is only scattered information available about what happens before and after the computational analysis. Here we fill this information gap by summarizing the pre-analysis and post-analysis stages of the Zonation framework. Concerning the entire process, we summarize the full workflow and list examples of operational best-case, worst- case, and typical scenarios for each analysis stage. We discuss resources needed in different analysis stages. We also discuss benefits, disadvantages, and risks involved in the application of spatial prioriti- zation from the perspective of different stakeholders. Concerning pre-analysis stages, we explain the development of the ecological model and discuss the setting of priority weights and connectivity re- sponses.We also explain practical aspects of data pre-processing and the post-processing interpretation of results for different conservation objectives. This work facilitates well-informed design and application of Zonation analyses for the purpose of spatial conservation planning. It should be useful for both sci- entists working on conservation related research as well as for practitioners looking for useful tools for conservation resource allocation
The ideal conservation planning approach would enable decision-makers to use population viability analysis to assess the effects of management strategies and threats on all species at the landscape level. However, the lack of high-quality data derived from long-term studies, and uncertainty in model parameters and/or structure, often limit the use of population models to only a few species of conservation concern. We used spatially explicit metapopulation models in conjunction with multi-criteria decision analysis to assess how species-specific threats and management interventions would affect the persistence of African wild dog, black rhino, cheetah, elephant, leopard and lion, under six reserve scenarios, thereby providing the basis for deciding on a best course of conservation action in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, which forms the central component of the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot. Overall, the results suggest that current strategies of managing populations within individual, small, fenced reserves are unlikely to enhance metapopulation persistence should catastrophic events affect populations in the future. Creating larger and better-connected protected areas would ensure that threats can be better mitigated in the future for both African wild dog and leopard, which can disperse naturally, and black rhino, cheetah, elephant, and lion, which are constrained by electric fences but can be managed using translocation. The importance of both size and connectivity should inform endangered megafauna conservation and management, especially in the context of restoration efforts in increasingly human-dominated landscapes.
Viability analysis of well-selected focal species can complement ecosystem- level conservation planning by revealing thresholds in habitat area and landscape connec- tivity. Mammalian carnivores are good candidates for focal species because their distri- butional patterns often strongly reflect regional-scale population processes. We incorporated focal species analysis of four carnivore species, fisher (Martes pennanti), lynx (Lynx can- adensis), wolverine (Gulo gulo), and grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), into a regional conser- vation plan for the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada. We developed empirical habitat models for fisher, lynx, and wolverine based on a geographically extensive data set of trapping and sighting records. Predictor variables derived directly from satellite imagery were significantly correlated with carnivore distribution and allowed us to predict distribution in areas lacking detailed vegetation data. Although we lacked similar distri- butional data for grizzly bear, we predicted bear habitat by adapting and extrapolating previously published, regional-scale habitat models. Predicted habitat for grizzly bear has high overlap with that for wolverine, intermediate overlap with fisher, and low overlap with lynx. High-quality habitats for fisher and lynx, unlike those for wolverine and grizzly bear, are not strongly associated with low levels of human population and roads. Nevertheless, they are naturally fragmented by topography and vegetation gradients and are poorly rep- resented in existing protected areas. Areas with high biological productivity and low human impact are valuable habitat for all four species but are limited in extent. Predicted habitat values for lynx and wolverine are significantly correlated with trapping data from an area outside the extent of the original data set. This supports the use of empirical distribution models as the initial stage in a regional-scale monitoring program. Our results suggest that a comprehensive conservation strategy for carnivores in the region must consider the needs of several species, rather than a single, presumed umbrella species. Coordinated planning across multiple ownerships is necessary to prevent further fragmentation of carnivore hab- itat, especially in the U.S.-Canada border region.
Read the Feature Paper: Understanding heterogeneous preference of tourists for big game species: implications for conservation and management
Commentaries on this Feature Paper: To use tourism as a conservation tool, first study tourists ; The Big 5 and conservation
Read the Commentaries on this Feature Paper: To use tourism as a conservation tool, first study tourists ; The Big 5 and conservation
Response from the authors: Conservation marketing and education for less charismatic biodiversity and conservation businesses for sustainable development
Conservationists often advocate for landscape approaches to wildlife management while others argue for physical separation between protected species and human communities, but direct empirical comparisons of these alternatives are scarce. We relate African lion population densities and population trends to contrasting management practices across 42 sites in 11 countries. Lion populations in fenced reserves are significantly closer to their estimated carrying capacities than unfenced populations. Whereas fenced reserves can maintain lions at 80% of their potential densities on annual management budgets of 2000 km-2 to attain half their potential densities. Lions in fenced reserves are primarily limited by density dependence, but lions in unfenced reserves are highly sensitive to human population densities in surrounding communities, and unfenced populations are frequently subjected to density-independent factors. Nearly half the unfenced lion populations may decline to near extinction over the next 20-40 years.
We define African savannahs as being those areas that receive between 300 and
1,500 mm of rain annually. This broad definition encompasses a variety of habitats. Thus
defined, savannahs comprise 13.5 million km2 and encompass most of the present range of the African lion (Panthera leo). Dense human populations and extensive conversion of
land to human use preclude use by lions. Using high-resolution satellite imagery and
human population density data we define lion areas, places that likely have resident lion
populations. In 1960, 11.9 million km2 of these savannahs had fewer than 25 people per
km2. The comparable area shrank to 9.7 million km2 by 2000. Areas of savannah Africa
with few people have shrunk considerably in the last 50 years and human population
projections suggest they will likely shrink significantly in the next 40. The current extent of
free-ranging lion populations is 3.4 million km2 or about 25 % of savannah area. Habitats
across this area are fragmented; all available data indicate that between 32,000 and 35,000
free-ranging lions live in 67 lion areas. Although these numbers are similar to previous
estimates, they are geographically more comprehensive. There is abundant evidence of
widespread declines and local extinctions. Under the criteria we outline, ten lion areas
qualify as lion strongholds: four in East Africa and six in Southern Africa. Approximately
24,000 lions are in strongholds, with an additional 4,000 in potential ones. However, over
6,000 lions are in populations of doubtful long-term viability. Lion populations in West
and Central Africa are acutely threatened with many recent, local extinctions even in
nominally protected areas.
Global conservation strategies commonly assume that different taxonomic
groups show congruent geographical patterns of diversity, and that the
distribution of extinction-prone species in one group can therefore act
as a surrogate for vulnerable species in other groups when conservation
decisions are being made. The validity of these assumptions remains
unclear, however, because previous tests have been limited in both
geographical and taxonomic extent. Here we use a database on the global
distribution of 19,349 living bird, mammal and amphibian species to show
that, although the distribution of overall species richness is very
similar among these groups, congruence in the distribution of rare and
threatened species is markedly lower. Congruence is especially low among
the very rarest species. Cross-taxon congruence is also highly scale
dependent, being particularly low at the finer spatial resolutions
relevant to real protected areas. `Hotspots' of rarity and threat are
therefore largely non-overlapping across groups, as are areas chosen to
maximize species complementarity. Overall, our results indicate that
`silver-bullet' conservation strategies alone will not deliver efficient
conservation solutions. Instead, priority areas for biodiversity
conservation must be based on high-resolution data from multiple taxa.
Detailed large-scale information on mammal distribution has often been lacking, hindering conservation efforts. We used the information from the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a baseline for developing habitat suitability models for 5027 out of 5330 known terrestrial mammal species, based on their habitat relationships. We focused on the following environmental variables: land cover, elevation and hydrological features. Models were developed at 300 m resolution and limited to within species' known geographical ranges. A subset of the models was validated using points of known species occurrence. We conducted a global, fine-scale analysis of patterns of species richness. The richness of mammal species estimated by the overlap of their suitable habitat is on average one-third less than that estimated by the overlap of their geographical ranges. The highest absolute difference is found in tropical and subtropical regions in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia that are not covered by dense forest. The proportion of suitable habitat within mammal geographical ranges correlates with the IUCN Red List category to which they have been assigned, decreasing monotonically from Least Concern to Endangered. These results demonstrate the importance of fine-resolution distribution data for the development of global conservation strategies for mammals.
Because of their popular appeal, top vertebrate predators have frequently been used as flagship or umbrella species to acquire financial support, raise environmental awareness and plan systems of protected areas. However, some have claimed that the utilization of charismatic predators may divert a disproportionate amount of funding to a few glamorous species without delivering broader biodiversity benefits, an accusation aggravated by the fact that the conservation of top predators is often complex, difficult and expensive. Therefore, tests are needed of whether apex predators may be employed to achieve ecosystem‐level targets.
To test such a hypothesis, we compared the biodiversity values recorded at the breeding sites of six raptor species, differing widely in diet and habitat associations, with those observed at three types of control locations, (i) sites randomly chosen in comparable habitat, (ii) breeding sites of a randomly selected bird species of lower trophic level and (iii) breeding sites of a lower trophic level species with specialized ecological requirements. Biodiversity was measured as the richness and evenness of bird, butterfly and tree species.
Biodiversity levels were consistently higher at sites occupied by top predators than at any of the three types of control sites. Furthermore, sites occupied by top predators also held greater densities of individual birds and butterflies (all species combined) than control sites.
In a reserve‐selection simulation exercise, networks of protected sites constructed on the basis of top predators were more efficient than networks based on lower trophic level species, enabling higher biodiversity coverage to be achieved with a smaller number of reserves.
Synthesis and applications . Our results provide evidence of a link between the strategic utilization of top predatory species and ecosystem‐level conservation. We suggest that, at least in some biological systems, conservation plans based on apex predators could be implemented to deliver broader biodiversity benefits.
Rapid biodiversity assessment and conservation planning require the use of easily quantified and estimated surrogates for biodiversity. Using data sets from Québec and Queensland, we applied four methods to assess the extent to which environmental surrogates can represent biodiversity components: (1) surrogacy graphs; (2) marginal representation plots; (3) Hamming distance function; and (4) Syrjala statistical test for spatial congruence. For Québec we used 719 faunal and floral species as biodiversity components, and for Queensland we used 2348 plant species. We used four climatic parameter types (annual mean temperature, minimum temperature during the coldest quarter, maximum temperature during the hottest quarter, and annual precipitation), along with slope, elevation, aspect, and soil types, as environmental surrogates. To study the effect of scale, we analyzed the data at seven spatial scales ranging from 0.01° to 0.10° longitude and latitude. At targeted representations of 10% for environmental surrogates and biodiversity components, all four methods indicated that using a full set of environmental surrogates systematically provided better results than selecting areas at random, usually ensuring that ≥90% of the biodiversity components achieved the 10% targets at scales coarser than 0.02°. The performance of surrogates improved with coarser spatial resolutions. Thus, environmental surrogate sets are useful tools for biodiversity conservation planning. A recommended protocol for the use of such surrogates consists of randomly selecting a set of areas for which distributional data are available, identifying an optimal surrogate set based on these areas, and subsequently prioritizing places for conservation based on the optimal surrogate set.
Prediction of species’ distributions is central to diverse applications in ecology, evolution and conservation science. There is increasing electronic access to vast sets of occurrence records in museums and herbaria, yet little effective guidance on how best to use this information in the context of numerous approaches for modelling distributions. To meet this need, we compared 16 modelling methods over 226 species from 6 regions of the world, creating the most comprehensive set of model comparisons to date. We used presence-only data to fit models, and independent presence-absence data to evaluate the predictions. Along with well-established modelling methods such as generalised additive models and GARP and BIOCLIM, we explored methods that either have been developed recently or have rarely been applied to modelling species’ distributions. These include machine-learning methods and community models, both of which have features that may make them particularly well suited to noisy or sparse information, as is typical of species’ occurrence data. Presence-only data were effective for modelling species’ distributions for many species and regions. The novel methods consistently outperformed more established methods. The results of our analysis are promising for the use of data from museums and herbaria, especially as methods suited to the noise inherent in such data improve.
International treaties call for the protection of biodiversity in all its manifestations, including ecosystem and species diversities. The selection of most priority area networks focuses, however, primarily on species richness and occurrence. The effectiveness of this approach in capturing higher order manifestations of biodiversity, that is ecosystem and environmental diversity patterns, remains poorly understood. Using a case study of birds and environmental data from South Africa and Lesotho, we test how complementary networks that maximise species diversity perform with regard to their representation of ecosystem and environmental diversity, and vice versa. We compare these results to the performance of the existing reserve network. We conclude that focusing on any single biodiversity component alone is insufficient to protect other components. We offer explanations for this in terms of the autocorrelation of species diversity in environmental space.
In the face of unprecedented global biodiversity loss, conservation planning must balance between refining and deepening knowledge versus acting on current information to preserve species and communities. Phylogenetic diversity (PD), a biodiversity measure that takes into account the evolutionary relationships between species, is arguably a more meaningful measure of biodiversity than species diversity, but cannot yet be applied to conservation planning for the majority of taxa for which phylogenetic trees have not yet been developed. Here, we investigate how the quality of data on the taxonomy and/or phylogeny of species affects the results of spatial conservation planning in terms of the representation of overall mammalian PD. The results show that the better the quality of the biodiversity data the better they can serve as a basis for conservation planning. However, decisions based on incomplete data are remarkably robust across different levels of degrading quality concerning the description of new species and the availability of phylogenetic information. Thus, given the level of urgency and the need for action, conservation planning can safely make use of the best available systematic data, limited as these data may be.
Detailed large-scale information on mammal distribution has often been lacking, hindering conservation efforts. We used the information from the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a baseline for developing habitat suitability models for 5027 out of 5330 known terrestrial mammal species, based on their habitat relationships. We focused on the following environmental variables: land cover, elevation and hydrological features. Models were developed at 300 m resolution and limited to within species' known geographical ranges. A subset of the models was validated using points of known species occurrence. We conducted a global, fine-scale analysis of patterns of species richness. The richness of mammal species estimated by the overlap of their suitable habitat is on average one-third less than that estimated by the overlap of their geographical ranges. The highest absolute difference is found in tropical and subtropical regions in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia that are not covered by dense forest. The proportion of suitable habitat within mammal geographical ranges correlates with the IUCN Red List category to which they have been assigned, decreasing monotonically from Least Concern to Endangered. These results demonstrate the importance of fine-resolution distribution data for the development of global conservation strategies for mammals.
Conservation planners represent many aspects of biodiversity by using surrogates with spatial distributions readily observed or quantified, but tests of their effectiveness have produced varied and conflicting results. We identified four factors likely to have a strong influence on the apparent effectiveness of surrogates: (1) the choice of surrogate; (2) differences among study regions, which might be large and unquantified (3) the test method, that is, how effectiveness is quantified, and (4) the test features that the surrogates are intended to represent. Analysis of an unusually rich dataset enabled us, for the first time, to disentangle these factors and to compare their individual and interacting influences. Using two data-rich regions, we estimated effectiveness using five alternative methods: two forms of incidental representation, two forms of species accumulation index and irreplaceability correlation, to assess the performance of 'forest ecosystems' and 'environmental units' as surrogates for six groups of threatened species-the test features-mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, plants and all of these combined. Four methods tested the effectiveness of the surrogates by selecting areas for conservation of the surrogates then estimating how effective those areas were at representing test features. One method measured the spatial match between conservation priorities for surrogates and test features. For methods that selected conservation areas, we measured effectiveness using two analytical approaches: (1) when representation targets for the surrogates were achieved (incidental representation), or (2) progressively as areas were selected (species accumulation index). We estimated the spatial correlation of conservation priorities using an index known as summed irreplaceability. In general, the effectiveness of surrogates for our taxa (mostly threatened species) was low, although environmental units tended to be more effective than forest ecosystems. The surrogates were most effective for plants and mammals and least effective for frogs and reptiles. The five testing methods differed in their rankings of effectiveness of the two surrogates in relation to different groups of test features. There were differences between study areas in terms of the effectiveness of surrogates for different test feature groups. Overall, the effectiveness of the surrogates was sensitive to all four factors. This indicates the need for caution in generalizing surrogacy tests.
Biodiversity is too complex to measure directly, so conservation planning must rely on surrogates to estimate the biodiversity of sites. The species richness of selected taxa is often used as a surrogate for the richness of other taxa. Surrogacy values of taxa have been evaluated in diverse contexts, yet broad trends in their effectiveness remain unclear. We reviewed published studies testing the ability of species richness of surrogate taxa to capture the richness of other (target) taxa. We stratified studies into two groups based on whether a complementarity approach (surrogates used to select a combination of sites that together maximize total species richness for the taxon) or a richness-hotspot approach (surrogates used to select sites containing the highest species richness for the taxon) was used. For each comparison of one surrogate taxon with one target, we used the following predictor variables: biome, spatial extent of study area, surrogate taxon, and target taxon. We developed a binary response variable based on whether the surrogate taxon provided better than random representation of the target taxon. For studies that used an evaluation approach that was not based on better than random representation of target taxa, we based the response variable on the interpretation of results in the original study. We performed a categorical regression to elucidate trends in the effectiveness of surrogate taxa with regard to each of the predictor variables. A surrogate was 25% more likely to be effective with a complementarity approach than with a hotspot approach. For hotspot-based approaches, biome, extent of study, surrogate taxon, and target taxon significantly influenced effectiveness of the surrogate. For complementarity-based approaches, biome, extent, and surrogate taxon significantly influenced effectiveness of the surrogate. For all surrogate evaluations, biome explained the greatest amount of variation in surrogate effectiveness. From most to least, extent, surrogate taxon, and target taxon explained the most variation after biome. Surrogate taxa were most effective in grasslands and in some cases boreal zones, deserts, and tropical forests; surrogate taxa also were more effective in studies examining larger areas. Herpetofauna were the most effective taxon as both surrogate and target when a richness-hotspot approach was used; however, herpetofauna were analyzed in fewer studies, so this result is tentative. For complementarity approaches, taxa that are easy to measure and tend to have a large number of habitat specialists distributed collectively across broad environmental gradients (e.g., plants, birds, and mammals) were the most effective surrogates.
Resumen: La biodiversidad es muy compleja para ser medida directamente, así que la planeación de la conservación debe depender de sustitutos para estimar la biodiversidad de sitios. La riqueza de especies de taxa seleccionados a menudo es utilizada como un sustituto de la riqueza de otros taxa. Los valores de subrogación de taxa han sido evaluados en diversos contextos, sin embargo las tendencias en su efectividad son poco claras. Revisamos estudios publicados que prueban la habilidad de la riqueza de especies de taxa sustitutos para capturar la riqueza de otros taxa (blanco). Estratificamos los estudios en dos grupos basados la utilización de un enfoque de complementariedad (sustitutos utilizados para seleccionar una combinación de sitios que en conjunto maximizan la riqueza total de especies del taxón) o de riqueza de la zona conflictiva para la biodiversidad (sustitutos utilizados para seleccionar sitios que contienen la mayor riqueza de especies para el taxón). Para cada comparación de un taxón sustituto con un blanco, utilizamos las siguientes variables predictoras: bioma, extensión espacial del área de estudio, taxón sustituto y taxón blanco. Desarrollamos una variable de respuesta binaria en función de sí el taxón sustituto proporcionaba una representación mejor que aleatoria del taxón blanco. Para estudios que utilizaron un enfoque de evaluación que no estaba basado en la representación mejor que aleatoria de los taxa sustitutos, basamos la variable de respuesta en la interpretación de los resultados en el estudio original. Realizamos una regresión categórica para esclarecer tendencias en la efectividad de los taxa sustitutos en relación con cada una de las variables predictoras. Un sustituto tenía 25% mayor probabilidad de ser efectivo con un enfoque de complementariedad que en el enfoque de zonas conflictivas para la biodiversidad. Para el enfoque de zonas conflictivas para la biodiversidad, el bioma, la extensión, el taxón sustituto y el taxón blanco influyeron significativamente en la efectividad del sustituto. Para los enfoques basados en complementariedad, el bioma, la extensión y el taxón sustituto influyeron significativamente en la efectividad del sustituto. Para todas las evaluaciones de sustitutos, el bioma explicó la mayor proporción de variación en la efectividad del sustituto. De más a menos, la extensión, el taxón sustituto y el taxón blanco explicaron la mayor variación después del bioma. Los taxa sustitutos fueron más efectivos en pastizales y, en algunos casos, zonas boreales, desiertos y bosques tropicales; los taxa sustitutos también fueron más efectivos en estudios que examinaron áreas más extensas. La herpetofauna fue el taxón más efectivo tanto con sustituto como blanco cuando se utilizó un enfoque de riqueza-zona conflictiva para la biodiversidad; sin embargo, la herpetofauna fue analizada en menos estudios, así que este resultado es tentativo. Para enfoques de complementariedad, los taxa que son fáciles de medir y que tienden a tener un gran número de especialistas de hábitat distribuidos colectivamente a lo largo de gradientes ambientales amplios (e. g., plantas, aves y mamíferos) fueron los sustitutos más efectivos.
In 2002, world leaders committed, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, to achieve a significant reduction in the
rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. We compiled 31 indicators to report on progress toward this target. Most indicators of
the state of biodiversity (covering species’ population trends, extinction risk, habitat extent and condition, and community
composition) showed declines, with no significant recent reductions in rate, whereas indicators of pressures on biodiversity
(including resource consumption, invasive alien species, nitrogen pollution, overexploitation, and climate change impacts)
showed increases. Despite some local successes and increasing responses (including extent and biodiversity coverage of protected
areas, sustainable forest management, policy responses to invasive alien species, and biodiversity-related aid), the rate
of biodiversity loss does not appear to be slowing.
Data about biodiversity are either scattered in many databases or reside on paper or other media not amenable to interactive searching. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is a framework for facilitating the digitization of biodiversity data and for making interoperable an as-yet-unknown number of biodiversity databases that are distributed around the globe. In concert with other existing efforts, GBIF will catalyze the completion of a Catalog of the Names of Known Organisms and will develop search engines to mine the vast quantities of biodiversity data. It will be an outstanding tool for scientists, natural resource managers, and policy-makers.
There are many proposals for managing biodiversity by using surrogates, such as umbrella, indicator, focal, and flagship species. We use the term biodiversity management unit for any ecosystem-based classificatory scheme for managing biodiversity. The sufficiency of biodiversity management unit classification schemes depends upon (1) whether different biotic elements (e.g., trees, birds, reptiles) distinguish between biodiversity management units within a classification (i.e., coherence within classes); and (2) whether different biotic elements agree upon similarities and dissimilarities among biodiversity management unit classes (i.e., conformance among classes). Recent evaluations suggest that biodiversity surrogates based on few or single taxa are not useful. Ecological vegetation classes are an ecosystem-based classification scheme used as one component for biodiversity management in Victoria, Australia. Here we evaluated the potential for ecological vegetation classes to be used as biodiversity management units in the box-ironbark ecosystem of central Victoria, Australia. Eighty sites distributed among 14 ecological vegetation classes were surveyed in the same ways for tree species, birds, mammals, reptiles, terrestrial invertebrates, and nocturnal flying insects. Habitat structure and geographic separations also were measured, which, with the biotic elements, are collectively referred to as variables. Less than half of the biotic element-ecological vegetation class pairings were coherent. Generalized Mantel tests were used to examine conformance among variables with respect to ecological vegetation classes. While most tests were not significant, birds, mammals, tree species, and habitat structure together showed significant agreement on the rating of similarities among ecological vegetation classes. In this system, use of ecological vegetation classes as biodiversity management units may account reasonably well for birds, mammals, and trees; but reptiles and invertebrates would not be accommodated. We conclude that surrogates will usually have to be augmented or developed as hierarchies to provide general representativeness.
The realization of conservation goals requires strategies for managing
whole landscapes including areas allocated to both production and protection.
Reserves alone are not adequate for nature conservation but they are the cornerstone
on which regional strategies are built. Reserves have two main roles. They
should sample or represent the biodiversity of each region and they should
separate this biodiversity from processes that threaten its persistence. Existing
reserve systems throughout the world contain a biased sample of biodiversity,
usually that of remote places and other areas that are unsuitable for commercial
activities. A more systematic approach to locating and designing reserves
has been evolving and this approach will need to be implemented if a large
proportion of today's biodiversity is to exist in a future of increasing numbers
of people and their demands on natural resources.
The allocation of land to biological diversity conservation competes with other land uses and the needs of society for development, food, and extraction of natural resources. Trade‐offs between biological diversity conservation and alternative land uses are unavoidable, given the realities of limited conservation resources and the competing demands of society. We developed a conservation‐planning assessment for the South African province of KwaZulu‐Natal, which forms the central component of the Maputaland–Pondoland–Albany biological diversity hotspot. Our objective was to enhance biological diversity protection while promoting sustainable development and providing spatial guidance in the resolution of potential policy conflicts over priority areas for conservation at risk of transformation. The conservation‐planning assessment combined spatial‐distribution models for 646 conservation features, spatial economic‐return models for 28 alternative land uses, and spatial maps for 4 threats. Nature‐based tourism businesses were competitive with other land uses and could provide revenues of >US$60 million/year to local stakeholders and simultaneously help meeting conservation goals for almost half the conservation features in the planning region. Accounting for opportunity costs substantially decreased conflicts between biological diversity, agricultural use, commercial forestry, and mining. Accounting for economic benefits arising from conservation and reducing potential policy conflicts with alternative plans for development can provide opportunities for successful strategies that combine conservation and sustainable development and facilitate conservation action.
Negocios de Conservación y Planificación de la Conservación en un Sitio de Importancia para la Biodiversidad
The allocation of land to biological diversity conservation competes with other land uses and the needs of society for development, food, and extraction of natural resources. Trade-offs between biological diversity conservation and alternative land uses are unavoidable, given the realities of limited conservation resources and the competing demands of society. We developed a conservation-planning assessment for the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, which forms the central component of the Maputaland–Pondoland– Albany biological diversity hotspot. Our objective was to enhance biological diversity protection while promot-ing sustainable development and providing spatial guidance in the resolution of potential policy conflicts over priority areas for conservation at risk of transformation. The conservation-planning assessment combined spatial-distribution models for 646 conservation features, spatial economic-return models for 28 alternative land uses, and spatial maps for 4 threats. Nature-based tourism businesses were competitive with other land uses and could provide revenues of >US$60 million/year to local stakeholders and simultaneously help meeting conservation goals for almost half the conservation features in the planning region. Accounting for opportunity costs substantially decreased conflicts between biological diversity, agricultural use, commercial forestry, and mining. Accounting for economic benefits arising from conservation and reducing potential policy conflicts with alternative plans for development can provide opportunities for successful strategies that combine conservation and sustainable development and facilitate conservation action.
The 'Big Five' charismatic megafauna concept is considered key for financial competitiveness of protected areas in South Africa. However, this Western colo-nial concept is also leading to an underappreciation of wider biodiversity and the recovery of other endangered species. This study assessed the heterogeneity of tourist preferences for big game species in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, using a choice experiment approach, employing latent class modelling, in order to identify tourists' segments not necessarily drawn to the Big Five. The latent class segmen-tation identified two segments for both international and national tourists, largely defined by socio-economic characteristics. Less experienced and wealthier tourists were mostly interested in charismatic megafauna, while more experienced, but lower income tourists showed preferences for a broader range of species. Explor-ing viewing preferences in this way illustrates the potential to realign conservation businesses to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives. In the short term, man-aging protected areas for the Big Five and other favourite species will continue to deliver significant financial benefits to local stakeholders, but policy makers should consider using financial mechanisms to subsidize conservation actions for less charismatic species and develop the biodiversity base of safari tourism in South Africa.
Biodiversity is not completely known anywhere, so conservation planning is always based on surrogates for which data are available and, hence, assumed effective for the conservation of unknown biodiversity. We review the literature on the effectiveness of surrogates for conservation planning based on complementary representation. We apply a standardized approach based on a Species Accumulation Index of surrogate effectiveness to compare results from 575 tests in 27 studies. Overall, we find positive, but relatively weak, surrogacy power. Cross-taxon surrogates are substantially more effective than surrogates based on environmental data. Within cross-taxon tests, surrogacy was higher for tests within the same realm (terrestrial, marine, freshwater). Surrogacy was higher when extrapolated (rather than field) data were used. Our results suggest that practical conservation planning based on data for well-known taxonomic groups can cautiously proceed under the assumption that it captures species in less well-k...
Current global patterns of biodiversity result from processes that operate over both space and time and thus require an integrated macroecological and macroevolutionary perspective. Molecular time trees have advanced our understanding of the tempo and mode of diversification and have identified remarkable adaptive radiations across the tree of life. However, incomplete joint phylogenetic and geographic sampling has limited broad-scale inference. Thus, the relative prevalence of rapid radiations and the importance of their geographic settings in shaping global biodiversity patterns remain unclear. Here we present, analyse and map the first complete dated phylogeny of all 9,993 extant species of birds, a widely studied group showing many unique adaptations. We find that birds have undergone a strong increase in diversification rate from about 50 million years ago to the near present. This acceleration is due to a number of significant rate increases, both within songbirds and within other young and mostly temperate radiations including the waterfowl, gulls and woodpeckers. Importantly, species characterized with very high past diversification rates are interspersed throughout the avian tree and across geographic space. Geographically, the major differences in diversification rates are hemispheric rather than latitudinal, with bird assemblages in Asia, North America and southern South America containing a disproportionate number of species from recent rapid radiations. The contribution of rapidly radiating lineages to both temporal diversification dynamics and spatial distributions of species diversity illustrates the benefits of an inclusive geographical and taxonomical perspective. Overall, whereas constituent clades may exhibit slowdowns, the adaptive zone into which modern birds have diversified since the Cretaceous may still offer opportunities for diversification.
Conservation actions could be more efficient if there is congruence among taxa in the distribution of species. Patterns in the geographical distribution of five taxa were used to identify nationally important regions for conservation in Canada. Two measures of surrogacy were significantly and positively correlated among taxa, and conservation areas selected for one taxon represented other taxa significantly better than random selections. However, few large protected areas exist in the sites of highest conservation value in southern Canada; these regions are therefore a priority for future conservation regard. By focusing this effort on threatened and endangered species, which are a national priority in Canada, most other species could also benefit.
Summary • Regions of the world with highest biodiversity and greatest conservation needs are often simultaneously data poor. An effective surrogate strategy would be invaluable for conservation prioritization in such regions. Large-scale environmental data are readily available, but the effectiveness of environmental surrogate strategies for conservation planning has not been confirmed. In this study, we compare a range of such strategies. • Environmental surrogacy is based on the idea that by covering a wide range of different environmental conditions, one also achieves high species representation. The effectiveness of this strategy may be enhanced by using community-level modelling techniques, in conjunction with best-available biological (species distribution) data, to calibrate the relationship between environmental gradients and community richness and composition. We develop a novel approach, called maximization of complementary richness, which accounts for gradients in species richness and non-constant turnover rates of community composition in environmental space. • We show that our novel technique can achieve notably higher species representation than what is achieved using past approaches. Simple strategies, such as direct use of environmental data only or environmental clustering, achieved species representation only slightly better than random selection of sites. P-median selection from ordinations of community composition had intermediate performance. Performance of our new maximization of complementary richness technique was closer to the representation levels of optimal reserve networks than to random selection of sites. • Synthesis and applications. We found that there are three critical components that are relevant for success: a good model for community turnover (compositional dissimilarity), a good model for species richness, and a selection procedure that appropriately utilizes both turnover and richness information. By taking these into account, one can achieve reasonable levels of species representation. We conclude that using surrogates based on community-level modelling is a highly promising strategy for cost-effective conservation prioritization.
We demonstrate a novel method for spatial conservation prioritization at a community-level that takes account of: (i) an environmentally-based classification of the landscape into community classes; (ii) similarities between community classes to allow for community complementarity-based selection; (iii) variation in species richness; (iv) variation in human impacts on ecological integrity; and (v) requirements for maintenance of upstream–downstream connectivity in riverine systems. While this technique has generic application, we demonstrate its application using a biologically-trained environmental classification of New Zealand’s river network. Our analysis produces a priority ranking of planning units (here 4th order catchments or sub-catchments) and performance estimates in terms of expected biodiversity returns given varying degrees of geographic protection. Accounting for community similarity ensures high protection for distinct habitat classes with low similarity to other classes; our results indicate a 28% loss in conservation efficiency of the highest-ranked 10% of the landscape if it is ignored. Accounting for human pressures and connectivity also had clear influences on spatial priority rankings, indicating the need to consider these factors in the conservation planning process.
It is generally assumed that gathering more data is a good investment for conservation planning. However, the benefits of additional data have seldom been evaluated by analyzing the return on investment. If there are diminishing returns in terms of improved planning, then resources might be better directed toward other actions, depending on their relative costs and benefits. Our aim was to determine the return on investment from spending different amounts on survey data before undertaking a program of implementing new protected areas. We estimated how much protea data is obtained as a function of dollars invested in surveying. We then simulated incremental protection and loss of habitat to determine the benefit of investment in that data on the protection of proteas. We found that, after an investment of only US$100,000 (∼780,000 South Africa Rand [ZAR]), there was little increase in the effectiveness of conservation prioritizations, despite the full data set costing at least 25 times that amount.
A principal goal of protected‐area networks is to maintain viable populations of as many species as possible, particularly those that are vulnerable to environmental change outside reserves. Ideally, one wants to be able to protect all biodiversity when selecting priority areas for conservation.
Using the area‐prioritization algorithm ZONATION, we identified the locations where UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species of mammals, birds, herptiles, butterflies and plants occur in concentrated populations with high connectivity. Both these features are likely to be correlated with population persistence. The analyses were successful in maintaining a high proportion of the connectivity of narrow‐range species, and large total amounts of the connectivity of wider‐range species over 10% of the land surface of Great Britain.
Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP – high priority) species of one taxonomic group were not particularly good surrogates (indicators) for BAP species of other taxonomic groups. Hence, maintaining population concentrations of one taxonomic group did not guarantee doing likewise for other taxa.
Species with narrow geographic ranges were most effective at predicting conservation success for other species, probably because they represent the range of environmental conditions required by other species.
Synthesis and applications. This study identifies landscape‐scale priority areas for conservation of priority species from several taxonomic groups, using the Zonation software. ‘Indicator groups’ were only partially successful as predictors of priority areas for other taxonomic groups, and therefore, the identification of priority areas for biodiversity conservation should include information from all taxonomic groups available. Larger areas should be protected to account for species not included in the analyses. Conservation solutions based on data for many different species, and particularly those species with narrowly defined ranges, appear to be most effective at protecting other rare taxa.
Because it is so difficult to monitor and manage every aspect of biodiversity, several shortcuts have been proposed whereby we monitor and/or protect single species. The indicator species concept is problematic because there is no consensus on what the indicator is supposed to indicate and because it is difficult to know which is the best indicator species even when we agree on what it should indicate. The umbrella species (a species that needs such large tracts of habitat that saving it will automatically save many other species) seems like a better approach, although often whether many other species will really fall under the umbrella is a matter of faith rather than research. Intensive management of an indicator or an umbrella species (for example, by transplant or supplemental feeding) is a contradiction in terms because the rest of the community to be indicated or protected does not receive such treatment. A flagship species, normally a charismatic large vertebrate, is one that can be used to anchor a conservation campaign because it arouses public interest and sympathy, but a flagship need not be a good indicator or umbrella. And conservation of flagship species is often very expensive. Further, management regimes of two flagship species can conflict. Ecosystem management, often on a landscape scale, is a proposed solution to problems of single-species management. Keep the ecosystem healthy, according to this view, and component species will all thrive. However, conservationists have concerns about ecosystem management. First, it is variously defined, and many definitions emphasize the commodities ecosystems provide for humans rather than how humans can protect ecosystems. Second, the term ‘ecosystem health’ is ill-defined and associated with an outmoded, superorganismic view of the ecosystem. Third, ecosystem management seems focused on processes and so would appear to permit losses of species so long as they did not greatly affect processes like nutrient-cycling. Fourth, ecosystem management is often implemented by adaptive management. This may make it difficult to study the underlying mechanisms driving an ecosystem and to know when an entirely new management approach is needed. Thus, some conservationists see ecosystem management as a Trojan horse that would allow continued environmental destruction in the name of modern resource management.The recognition that some ecosystems have keystone species whose activities govern the well-being of many other species suggests an approach that may unite the best features of single-species and ecosystem management. If we can identify keystone species and the mechanisms that cause them to have such wide-ranging impacts, we would almost certainly derive information on the functioning of the entire ecosystem that would be useful in its management. Some keystone species themselves may be appropriate targets for management, but, even when they are not, our understanding of the ecosystem will be greatly increased. Keystone species may not be a panacea, however. We do not yet know how many ecosystems have keystone species, and the experiments that lead to their identification are often very difficult.
Land classes are often used in conservation planning as surrogates for species. The relationship between these surrogates and the distribution of species is usually assumed but rarely tested. Using broad habitat units (BHUs) to represent biodiversity pattern in the Cape Floristic Region, together with point locality data for species (proteas and selected vertebrates), we calculated the effectiveness of BHUs as surrogates for species. Our planning units were grid cells of about 40 km2, together with boundaries of existing reserves. After assigning conservation targets to BHUs, we derived minimum sets of planning units to meet all targets and calculated irreplaceability values for all units (irreplaceability measures the likelihood of a unit being required to achieve targets). Results showed that BHUs were good surrogates for the majority of protea species, but were not good surrogates for vertebrate species or for a small subset of protea species. These species shared the following characteristics: rarity, limited ranges, Red Data Book status, specialised habitats not defined by BHUs, and distributions driven by historical rather than contemporary ecological factors. We show that targeting land classes and species simultaneously is a viable option and requires only 0.1–0.8% more land (depending on species targets) than targeting land classes alone. We conclude by recommending two different strategies for combining land class and species data in conservation planning, depending on data availability.
Herbivore damage is generally detrimental to plant fitness, and the evolu- tionary response of plant populations to damage can involve either increased resistance or increased tolerance. While characters that contribute to resistance, such as secondary chem- icals and trichomes, are relatively well understood, characters that contribute to a plant's ability to tolerate damage have received much less attention. Using Helianthus annuus (wild sunflower) and simulated damage of Haplorhynchites aeneus (head-clipping weevil) as a model system, we examined morphological characters and developmental processes that contribute to compensatory ability. We performed a factorial experiment that included three levels of damage (none, the first two, or the first four inflorescences were clipped with scissors) and eight sires each mated to four dams. We found that plants compensated fully for simulated head-clipper damage and that there was no variation among plant families in compensatory ability: seed production and mean seed mass did not vary among treat- ments, and sire X treatment interactions were not significant. Plants used four mechanisms to compensate for damage: (1) Clipped plants produced significantly more inflorescences than unclipped plants. Plants produced these additional inflorescences on higher order branches at the end of the flowering season. (2) Clipped plants filled significantly more seeds in their remaining heads than did unclipped plants. (3) Clipped plants, because they effectively flowered later than unclipped plants, were less susceptible to damage by seed- feeding herbivores other than Haplorhynchites. (4) In later heads, seed size was greater on clipped plants, which allowed mean seed size to be maintained in clipped plants. Although there was genetic variation among the families used in this experiment for most of the characters associated with compensation for damage (seed number, mean seed size, mean flowering date, length of the flowering period, and branching morphology), in analyses of these characters, no sire X treatment interactions were significant indicating that all of the families relied on similar mechanisms to compensate for damage.
1. Most biodiversity is still unknown, and therefore, priority areas for conservation typically are identified based on the presence of surrogates, or indicator groups. Birds are commonly used as surrogates of biodiversity owing to the wide availability of relevant data and their broad popular appeal. However, some studies have found birds to perform relatively poorly as indicators. We therefore ask how the effectiveness of this approach can be improved by supplementing data on birds with information on other taxa.
2. Here, we explore two strategies using (i) species data for other taxa and (ii) genus‐ and family‐level data for invertebrates (when available). We used three distinct species data sets for sub‐Saharan Africa, Denmark and Uganda, which cover different spatial scales, biogeographic regions and taxa (vertebrates, invertebrates and plants).
3. We found that networks of priority areas identified on the basis of birds alone performed well in representing overall species diversity where birds were relatively speciose compared to the other taxa in the data sets. Adding species data for one taxon increased surrogate effectiveness better than adding genus‐ and family‐level data. It became apparent that, while adding species data for other taxa increased overall effectiveness, predicting the best‐performing additional taxon was difficult. Finally, we demonstrate that increasing overall effectiveness required supplementary data for several additional taxa.
4. Synthesis and applications . Good surrogates of biodiversity are necessary to help identify conservation areas that will be effective in preventing species extinctions. Birds perform fairly well as surrogates in cases where birds are relatively speciose, but overall effectiveness will be improved by adding additional data from other taxa, in particular from range‐restricted species. Conservation solutions with focus on birds as biodiversity surrogate could therefore benefit from also incorporating species data from other taxa.
The planning of representative systems of nature conservation reserves can be based on a wide variety of criteria. The ready availability of data on the physical attributes of the environment, and the patchiness of biological data, have made reservation planning based on environmental classifications an attractive option for decision makers. We developed an environmental classification based on ecologically relevant variables and used it to plan a forest reserve system for Tasmania. We then used biological distributional data and the same targets and procedures to choose a forest reserve system. The analyses based on the environmental classification selected the same areas as equivalent analyses based on biological distributional data to a greater degree than could be expected by chance. Many rare species and communities missed selection by environmental classificatory units (environmental domains), however, and the proportions of ranges of selected taxa varied widely. Conversely, environmental domains were missed by a reservation strategy based only on biological data. These domains might reflect some gaps in the biological data. A reservation planning approach based on both biological data and domains may produce better results than either used in isolation.
Pressure on ecosystems to provide various different and often conflicting services is immense and likely to increase. The impacts and success of conservation prioritization will be enhanced if the needs of competing land uses are recognized at the planning stage. We develop such methods and illustrate them with data about competing land uses in Great Britain, with the aim of developing a conservation priority ranking that balances between needs of biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, agricultural value, and urban development potential. While both carbon stocks and biodiversity are desirable features from the point of view of conservation, they compete with the needs of agriculture and urban development. In Britain the greatest conflicts exist between biodiversity and urban areas, while the largest carbon stocks occur mostly in Scotland in areas with low agricultural or urban pressure. In our application, we were able successfully to balance the spatial allocation of alternative land uses so that conflicts between them were much smaller than had they been developed separately. The proposed methods and software, Zonation, are applicable to structurally similar prioritization problems globally.