Habitat restoration opportunities, climatic niche contraction, and conservation biogeography in California's San Joaquin Desert

Stewart, Joseph A. E.; Butterfield, H. Scott; Richmond, Jonathan Q.; Germano, David J.; Westphal, Michael F.; Tennant, Erin N.; Sinervo, Barry

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210766

Cited by 22 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…This workflow has not been extensively used in the literature except in a recent instance applied to the blunt-nosed leopard lizard using GBIF and a similar occurrence resource VertNet (Stewart et al 2018). Historic occurrences are also reported in GBIF and provide another valuable mechanism to examine reported occurrences for a region and by time.…”

Section: Tool Classification Description Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is common in grasslands globally suggesting that restoration should focus on ecosystem function by identifying the specific functions that foundation plants can provide ) rather than on historic vegetation to support the endemic animal species within a region (Evett and Bartolome 2013). For instance in California, the Ciervo-Panoche Area and the Carrizo Plain have co-existing populations of the three target animal species and relatively well-established populations of dominant native plants (Germano et al 2011, Bean et al 2014, Richmond et al 2017, Stewart et al 2018. or Atriplex spp.…”

Section: Insights From Historical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historic occurrences are also reported in GBIF and provide another valuable mechanism to examine reported occurrences for a region and by time. This workflow has not been extensively used in the literature except in a recent instance applied to the blunt-nosed leopard lizard using GBIF and a similar occurrence resource VertNet (Stewart et al 2018). This is an important set of evidence that can support systematic reviews and future primary research endeavors.…”

Section: Regional Maps That Provided Longitudinal Data For Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Facilitation by foundation plant species is a well-established ecological process in many ecosystems (McIntire and Fajardo 2014, Silliman et al 2015, Soliveres et al 2015, and sites that retain some native vegetation and key animals species can be used to examine the function that foundation plant species provide. For instance in California, the Ciervo-Panoche Area and the Carrizo Plain have co-existing populations of the three target animal species and relatively well-established populations of dominant native plants (Germano et al 2011, Bean et al 2014, Richmond et al 2017, Stewart et al 2018). If restored to even intermediate densities, shrubs have been shown to be a better predictor of lizard abundances than precipitation in California (Barrows 2006).…”

Section: Insights From Historical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Better late than never: a synthesis of strategic land retirement and restoration in California

et al. 2018

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Strategic retirement and restoration of agricultural lands is a critical conservation opportunity globally. The objective of this synthesis was to examine whether ecological habitat assessments, endangered species historical occurrence data, and restoration research can be used to develop evidence-based strategy for retiring and restoring agricultural lands. The San Joaquin Desert (SJD) of California is a prominent example because it experienced an extensive conversion to agriculture. Now, new groundwater regulations will lead to retirement on large areas of agricultural lands over the next 20 yr. This presents an opportunity to not only restore some of these lands but also explore the challenges associated with balancing direct human needs with other ecosystem-level functions. California is thus an ideal case study for globally rethinking context-specific, single-case study solutions. We used a systematic review and synthesis to address the following three main questions for habitat recovery of endangered species in the SJD. (1) What are the habitat requirements for key endangered animal species in the region? (2) Is there historical evidence to support an assessment of suitable habitats for these species? (3) What restoration techniques apply to these species? Using the Web of Science and other resources, we reviewed over 1000 independent studies on this topic, refined the evidence, and selected a total of 266 relevant publications. Habitat requirements for each species were described, but there was a critical need to examine quantitative thresholds for these factors to better evaluate habitat suitability of retired lands. There was sufficient evidence of historical vegetation to model suitable habitats and design the physical restoration of retired lands. Direct interventions associated with restoration strategies have been infrequently tested. Sparse and diverse evidence associated with direct experimental manipulations is not uncommon in applied ecology, and synthesis is an excellent tool for highlighting these gaps for future research to examine. This review suggests that retired agricultural land is a viable asset for threatened and endangered species, but to effectively advance restoration research and management, direct tests of restoration techniques and an assessment of relative costs for interventions are needed for a given region.

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Section: Tool Classification Description Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Insights From Historical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Regional Maps That Provided Longitudinal Data For Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Insights From Historical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Better late than never: a synthesis of strategic land retirement and restoration in California

et al. 2018

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“…California ecosystems within the San Joaquin Valley are changing rapidly (Ramón Vallejo, et al 2012) and are an excellent ecological representative of drylands globally (Stewart, et al 2018). The San Joaquin Valley and Desert regions are home to unique flora and fauna that provides a profound opportunity to examine ecological processes critical to restoration (Germano, et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A synthesis of dryland restoration lessons relevant to the San Joaquin Valley

Lortie¹,

Filazzola²,

Miguel³

2020

Preprint

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Scientific synthesis is a set of tools relevant to evidence-informed decision making for the drylands of California. Tools include comprehensive theory and formal scientific syntheses of the published primary literature examining restoration in drylands. Restoration lessons consistently reported in the literature provide insights into applicable theory, species-specific practices, and vegetation-driven interventions both actively and passively to support the San Joaquin Valley.

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The importance of open data describing prey item species lists for endangered species

Lortie

Braun

King

et al. 2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Open data and code can be transformative tools in supporting evidence‐informed solutions for stakeholders. Data can take many forms of evidence in the discipline of applied ecology including tables, lists, maps and visualizations to name a few. Endangered and listed species are often a catalyst for research, conservation and planning. Here, a novel, open data set summarizing all the reported diet and prey items for all endangered, terrestrial dryland species listed in central California is provided as a case study. These data highlight the critical need for sharing data rapidly and transparently to support ecological solution science. Systematic review practices were used, data were compiled and the resulting data set was published in an open access, federated data repository using ecological metadata language and FAIR principles. The goal is to show that these data can now be used and analysed by applied ecologists and stakeholders to identify not only the habitat and spatial needs for the endangered species but to widen the conservation protection net to include prey species. Conserving viable habitat with higher likelihoods of prey presence will better support conservation of endangered species, and data describing reported species are a crucial first step. Interactive tables, local species lists and maps are simple tools that can now be developed regionally with open data such as these.

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Habitat restoration opportunities, climatic niche contraction, and conservation biogeography in California's San Joaquin Desert

Cited by 22 publications

References 44 publications

Better late than never: a synthesis of strategic land retirement and restoration in California

Better late than never: a synthesis of strategic land retirement and restoration in California

A synthesis of dryland restoration lessons relevant to the San Joaquin Valley

The importance of open data describing prey item species lists for endangered species

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