Global patterns and environmental correlates of high‐priority conservation areas for vertebrates

Albuquerque, Fábio Suzart de; Beier, Paul

doi:10.1111/jbi.12498

Cited by 34 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This finding is consistent with the recent demonstration that complementarity can be modeled as a function of a site's environmental variables for 11 datasets spanning global to local extents (Albuquerque and Beier ,c; and in review). This finding is also consistent with a previous study that modeled species turnover and applied the model at a different resolution.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Downscaling patterns of complementarity to a finer resolution and its implications for conservation prioritization

Albuquerque

Beier

2016

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given species inventories of all sites in a planning area, integer programming or heuristic algorithms can prioritize sites in terms of the site's complementary value, that is, the ability of the site to complement (add unrepresented species to) other sites prioritized for conservation. The utility of these procedures is limited because distributions of species are typically available only as coarse atlases or range maps, whereas conservation planners need to prioritize relatively small sites. If such coarse‐resolution information can be used to identify small sites that efficiently represent species (i.e., downscaled), then such data can be useful for conservation planning. We develop and test a new type of surrogate for biodiversity, which we call downscaled complementarity. In this approach, complementarity values from large cells are downscaled to small cells, using statistical methods or simple map overlays. We illustrate our approach for birds in Spain by building models at coarse scale (50 × 50 km atlas of European birds, and global range maps of birds interpreted at the same 50 × 50 km grid size), using this model to predict complementary value for 10 × 10 km cells in Spain, and testing how well‐prioritized cells represented bird distributions in an independent bird atlas of those 10 × 10 km cells. Downscaled complementarity was about 63–77% as effective as having full knowledge of the 10‐km atlas data in its ability to improve on random selection of sites. Downscaled complementarity has relatively low data acquisition cost and meets representation goals well compared with other surrogates currently in use. Our study justifies additional tests to determine whether downscaled complementarity is an effective surrogate for other regions and taxa, and at spatial resolution finer than 10 × 10 km cells. Until such tests have been completed, we caution against assuming that any surrogate can reliably prioritize sites for species representation.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Downscaling patterns of complementarity to a finer resolution and its implications for conservation prioritization

Albuquerque

Beier

2016

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although we acknowledge that government priorities will continue to focus on corridors based on giant panda habitat needs, we believe this conservation planning can incorporate a multispecies approach without compromising the primary species. In the past decade, researchers have proposed innovative techniques including umbrella based on multiple species (Sattler et al., ), targeting landscapes rather than species (Albuquerque & Beier, ), introducing comprehensive biodiversity indices (Siddig et al., ) and developing adaptive frameworks (Tulloch et al., ). The different approaches only enhance the power of corridor planning and do not distract from, or delay, the planning process when baseline knowledge is available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does one size fit all? A multispecies approach to regional landscape corridor planning

Wang

McShea

et al. 2017

Diversity and Distributions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim The practical value of the single‐species approach to conserve biodiversity could be minimal or negligible when sympatric species are limited by factors that are not relevant to the proposed umbrella species. In this study, we quantitatively evaluated as follows: (1) habitat suitability and potential movement corridors of a single umbrella species, giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca); (2) habitat suitability of sympatric mammals; and (3) the potential effectiveness of the single‐species corridor planning to preserve suitable habitat and its connectivity of other focal species. Location Qinling Mountains, central part of China (15,000 km2). Methods We collected species distribution, environmental and anthropogenic data and conducted species occupancy modelling for giant panda and six other sympatric species (i.e., takin Budorcas taxicolor, tufted deer Elaphodus cephalophus, Chinese goral Naemorhedus griseus, Reeve's muntjac Muntiacus reevesi, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis and yellow‐throated marten Martes flavigula). We then conducted circuit models to identify potential corridors for each species and evaluated the effectiveness of giant panda corridors to restore the habitat connectivity for these sympatric mammals. Results Occupancy modelling revealed that each species had a unique set of environmental variables associated with its distribution in the Qinling Mountains. We found that giant panda and all other focal species had some degree of fragmentation to their suitable habitat that required restoring habitat connectivity. Among the eight potential giant panda corridors, conservation efforts to reduce anthropogenic impacts would significantly improve the effectiveness of six corridors, while the other two corridors would require altering the vegetation. Five proposed giant panda corridors had remarkable overlap with corridors proposed for other species. We suggest two giant panda corridors as a priority due to their potential to maximize the benefits to both giant panda and a broader suite of mammals. Main conclusions Corridor planning in this region of China will likely continue using the single‐species policy, but our results highlight that not all potential giant panda corridors have equal effectiveness for other wildlife species. When offered multiple alternative actions, conservation planners can prioritize corridor development based on a multispecies perspective without loss of connectivity for the priority species. This approach has strong implications to the conservation of wildlife communities in China, and elsewhere, where conservation plans developed for a single‐species garner most available funding and institutional support.

show abstract

“…The consistency (or inconsistency) of the environmental factors that drive biodiversity patterns within a protected area and, more broadly, across the whole biogeographic region, may be used as a heuristic measure for evaluating process-based representativeness that contributes to improving the long-term effectiveness of conservation plans (Sa´nchez-Ferna´ndez et al 2013;Albuquerque and Beier 2015). In Japan, plant diversity patterns are correlated with a variety of environmental factors that are a proxy for ecological and historical (evolutionary) processes: for example, current climate and edaphic factors drive species sorting; paleoclimatic and geological stability promote species accumulation; and geographical isolation is related to allopatric speciation .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How well are biodiversity drivers reflected in protected areas? A representativeness assessment of the geohistorical gradients that shaped endemic flora in Japan

Kusumoto

Shiono

Konoshima

et al. 2017

Ecological Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Protected areas function as a lifeboat that can preserve the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. We assessed the representativeness of biodiversity in existing protected areas in Japan using a distribution dataset and phylogenetic tree for 5565 Japanese vascular plant species. We first examined the overlap of species distribution with the existing protected areas and identified the minimum set representing all plant species. Second, we evaluated the relative importance of environmental variables in explaining the spatial arrangement of protected areas using a random forest model. Finally, we clarified how potential drivers of plant diversity were sufficiently captured within the protected areas network. Although the protected areas captured the majority of species, nearly half of the minimum set areas were selected from outside the existing protected areas. The locations of existing protected areas are mainly associated with geographical and socio-economic factors rather than key biodiversity features (including evolutionary distinctiveness). Moreover, critical biodiversity drivers, which include current climate, paleoclimatic stability, and geographical isolation, were biasedly emulated within the existing protected areas. These findings demonstrate that current conservation planning fails to represent the ecological and evolutionary processes relevant to species sorting, dispersal limitation, and allopatric speciation. In particular, under-representativeness of historically stable habitats that function as evolutionary hotspots or refugia in response to climate changes may pose a threat to the long-term persistence of Japan's endemic biota. This study provides a fundamental basis for developing prioritization measures to retain species assembly processes and in situ diversification along current climatic and geohistorical gradients.

show abstract

Global patterns and environmental correlates of high‐priority conservation areas for vertebrates

Cited by 34 publications

References 44 publications

Downscaling patterns of complementarity to a finer resolution and its implications for conservation prioritization

Downscaling patterns of complementarity to a finer resolution and its implications for conservation prioritization

Does one size fit all? A multispecies approach to regional landscape corridor planning

How well are biodiversity drivers reflected in protected areas? A representativeness assessment of the geohistorical gradients that shaped endemic flora in Japan

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About