Conserving Biodiversity: Practical Guidance about Climate Change Adaptation Approaches in Support of Land-use Planning

Schmitz, Oswald J.; Lawler, Joshua J.; Beier, Paul; Groves, Craig; Knight, Gary; Boyce, Douglas A.; Bulluck, Jason; Johnston, Kevin M.; Klein, Mary L.; Muller, Kit; Pierce, D. John; Singleton, W. Ralph; Strittholt, James R.; Theobald, David M.; Trombulak, Stephen C.; Trainor, Anne M.

doi:10.3375/043.035.0120

Cited by 102 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Many of the Mountain Treasures lie between existing protected areas and therefore represent important priorities for maintaining connections between existing conservation reserves including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and wilderness areas in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests (Figure 4). Creating a connected network of protected areas is among the highest recommended adaptation strategies to maintain biodiversity under a changing climate [7,10,33,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our assessment is based on a number of widely accepted principles from conservation science that provide guidance on how to construct a system of protected areas to maintain biodiversity and ecological processes in the face of habitat fragmentation and climate change [3,4,10,[28][29][30]. A conservation reserve system that is ecologically intact, connected in a network of protected areas, and representative of ecosystem and species diversity may provide the greatest degree of adaptive capacity in the face of a global change [10,31]. Unprotected lands that possess these qualities may be considered high priorities for adding to the existing system of conservation reserves [5].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantifying the National Significance of Local Areas for Regional Conservation Planning: North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

Belote¹,

Irwin²

2017

Land

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Conservation scientists recognize that additional protected areas are needed to maintain biological diversity and ecological processes. As regional conservation planners embark on recommending additional areas for protection in formal ecological reserves, it is important to evaluate candidate lands for their role in building a resilient protected areas system of the future. Here, we evaluate North Carolina's Mountain Treasures with respect to their (1) ecological integrity, (2) role in connecting existing core protected areas, (3) potential to diversify the ecosystem representation of reserves, and (4) role in maintaining hotspots of biologically-rich areas that are not well protected. Mountain Treasures represent a citizen inventory of roadless areas and serve as candidates for elevated levels of conservation protection on U.S. federal lands. We compared Mountain Treasures to other candidate lands throughout the country to evaluate their potential national significance. While the Mountain Treasures tended to be more impacted by human modifications than other roadless areas, they are as important as other roadless areas with respect to their role in connecting existing protected areas and diversifying representation of ecosystems in conservation reserves. However, Mountain Treasures tended to have a much higher biodiversity priority index than other roadless areas leading to an overall higher composite score compared to other roadless areas. Our analysis serves as an example of how using broad-scale datasets can help conservation planners assess the national significance of local areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the National Significance of Local Areas for Regional Conservation Planning: North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

Belote¹,

Irwin²

2017

Land

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“…Without protection, species, especially those that are rare and threatened, will have little chance of persisting until other adaptive approaches are possible or effective (Schmitz et al, 2015). Even though conservation is needed in all parts of the vegetation landscape in this study area, priority is needed for the areas that have high species diversity, found in high altitude areas, low similarity between community types and low species evenness between community types ( Figure 5).…”

Section: Protect Current Patterns Of Plant Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant diversity analysis for conservation of Afromontane vegetation in socio-ecological mountain landscape of Gurage, South Central Ethiopia

Sahle¹,

FÃ1⁄4rst²,

Yeshitela³

2018

Int. J. Biodivers. Conserv.

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The present study was conducted for the conservation and management of vegetation in a socioecological mountain landscape through assessment of floristic composition, community types and structure of woody species in the Wabe River catchment of the Gurage Mountains in Ethiopia. The preferential sampling technique was applied to collect floristic and vegetation structure data, and within each plot, woody species diameter at breast height (DBH) was measured. R statistical software was used to analyze the vegetation cluster, diversity and structure. As a result of the heterogeneous nature of the catchment vegetation, the optimum number of six clusters (community types) were identified which were named through high ranked species. The majority of the community types had high diversity indexes and equitability or evenness. Most of the species had lower DBH classes and frequency. Besides, the important value index (IVI) for most of the species showed high value. This information facilitated for sustaining the biodiversity through identification of high plant diversity spot community types to be protected, degraded vegetation areas to be rehabilitated and fragmented vegetation areas to establish ecological connectivity. Further studies on the ecosystem services provided by the vegetation could be important for understanding their value and to advance the planning and management mechanisms.

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“…Incorporating the impact of climate change into conservation planning, such as prioritizing conservation actions for future distribution, climate refugia and connectivity as in ours and other studies (e.g., Schmitz et al (2015), Jones et al (2016), and Iwamura, Fuller and Possingham (2014)), can help to achieve the conserve species persistence under changing climate.…”

Section: Future Directions and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserving migratory species under human impacts and climate change

Lin¹

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Migratory species use multiple habitats types and ecosystems to complete their life cycles, which exposes them to multiple human-caused stressors along their migratory routes. Overexploitation, habitat degradation, invasive species and connectivity loss have contributed to the decrease of migratory fishes globally in particular diadromous fishes that migrate between marine and freshwater systems. Therefore, understanding the joint impacts from anthropogenic disturbances and climate change on different habitats (e.g., both feeding and spawning grounds) and habitat connectivity (e.g., migration routes) is important for conserving migratory fish.Management will be most effective when management scales match ecological scales. This is particularly important for conserving migratory species, because of the requirement of multiple connected habitats that may cross local management boundaries. The main goals of this Ph.D. thesis are to quantify the impacts of multiple stressors on migratory fish species and prioritize management actions for conserving populations (chapters 2 & 3), species (chapter 4), and communities (chapter 5).A central challenge for managing diadromous fishes (species that migrate between freshwater and saltwater ecosystems) is to quantify increases in population persistence from actions that improve connectivity or reduce fishing mortality. In chapter 2, I used a population dynamic model and fish movement data to predict the interactive impacts of fishing pressure and connectivity loss by human modification of river flows on Australian bass Percalates novemaculeata. Then, in chapter 3, the monetary cost of management actions which included seasonal closures and restoring connectivity, were included in the model to find the most cost-effective way to conserve this fish population. The results reveal that the cost-effectiveness of management actions may vary with river flow and fishing pressure before implementing management actions, and implementation times. The spatiotemporal dynamics of how fish species and key resource users (i.e., anglers) respond to management actions can influence the effectiveness of management strategies. Flexible management plans and increased cooperation between water and fishery managers can be used to achieve the most effective balance between conserving migratory fish populations and minimising cost.Migratory species are particularly vulnerable to climate change as they occupy different ecosystems, as well as transitional habitat which are all impacted by climate change differently.Anthropogenic barriers can further reduce the ability of species to respond to a shifting climate. In ii chapter 4, I assessed the impact of climate change on the distribution of a migratory fish species, Australian grayling Prototroctes maraena, and how it affected priorities for restoring connectivity. I found climate change moves at different rates in marine and freshwater systems, decoupling the habitats used by grayling. In addition, the changing spatial distribution of suitable ...

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Conserving Biodiversity: Practical Guidance about Climate Change Adaptation Approaches in Support of Land-use Planning

Cited by 102 publications

References 43 publications

Quantifying the National Significance of Local Areas for Regional Conservation Planning: North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

Quantifying the National Significance of Local Areas for Regional Conservation Planning: North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

Plant diversity analysis for conservation of Afromontane vegetation in socio-ecological mountain landscape of Gurage, South Central Ethiopia

Conserving migratory species under human impacts and climate change

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