an introduction to biodiversity conservation
DESCRIPTION
Habitat fragmentation and loss, air pollution, urbanization, epidemics, nature protection, Yellowstone, national parks, some recent studies of the correlation between human population and biodiversity,TRANSCRIPT
Biodiversity Conservation
Marco Pautasso (marpauta(at)gmail.com)
London Metropolitan Univ. - 2010
Global biodiversity patterns: vascular plants
from Barthlott et al. (2007) Erdkunde
Global human population density patterns
from Small & Cohen (2004) Current Anthropology
Human impacts on biodiversity
Habitat fragmentation, degradation and loss
Water, air and soil pollution
Species introductions
Climate change
Trade, travel, transportation and tourism
Habitat fragmentation and loss in Amazonia
(2000) Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Habitat fragmentation and loss in Amazonia
(2005) Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Habitat fragmentation and loss in Amazonia
(2009) Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Air pollution due to urbanization: NO2
source: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/
[1015 mol/cm2; Jan 2003- Jun 2004]
Newton (1986) The Sparrowhawk.
Pollution effects on biodiversity: DDT
From: Hufnagel et al. (2005) PNAS (air) & Kaluza et al. (2010) Interface (sea)
Species movements in a globalized world
passengers
Fire blight epidemic development in Switzerland
From: Holdenrieder et al. (2008) ICPP, Turin, Italy
2003 2007
19991995
From: Denis Loustau (2006) Climate change impacts on extensively managed forest: a modelling approach, Wilton Park Conference
Climate change and plant distribution shifts
Pautasso et al. (2010) Biological Reviews
Nature protection in the USA
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA
Nature protection in the USA: the Northwest
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA
Yellowstone (1987)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Yellowstone (1988)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Yellowstone (1990)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Yellowstone (1995)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Yellowstone (2000)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Yellowstone (2008)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Nature protection in the USA: the Southwest
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA
Nature protection in the USA: Alaska
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA
Nature protection in the USA: the Midwest
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA
Nature protection in the USA: the East
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA
National Park Sites in the USA
* Tend to be larger in the West
* Are important for tourismand a source of jobs
* Biodiversity conservation is only one of their aims
* What will happen to them when climate changes?
Jobs at National Park Sites in the USA
By middle 1950s, the primary employee of the Service was the Park Ranger and they did
everything that was needed in the parks, e.g.:
Trash cleaners, heavy equipment operators, fire fighters, traffic managers,
trail and road clearing, visitor information, museum managers, rescues, aircraft
maintenance, crime investigation
Jobs at National Park Sites in the USAToday, there are many more career paths in the service:
* Park Manager (Superintendent/Deputy) * United States Park Police
* First Responders (EMT’s, medics, rescue specialist)* Dispatchers
* Maintenance Workers (including carpenters, plumbers, masons, laborers, auto mechanics, motor vehicle operators, electricians)* Park Planners, Architects, Engineers, and Landscape architects
* Resource Managers (biology, soil, water, etc.)* Historians (curators, historians, historic architects, archivists)
* Fire Management (weather specialist, firefighters, engine chiefs)* Public Affairs and Administrators (human resources, finance,
accountants, information technology, budgeting)
Nature protection in Europe
Nature protection in Europe
Nature protection in Europe
Source: RSPB
Natura 2000
* EU-wide ecological network of nature protection areas (1992)
* around 25,000 sites,covering ~ 17% of the EU territory
* two types: Special Areas of Conservation (habitats) and Special Protection Areas (birds)
* not a system of strict nature reserves where most human activities are excluded
UK National Parks
Source: UK National Parks
UK National Parks
Source: UK National Parks
•Most parks established in the 1950s, four new ones since 2000
* They cover ~ 9% of the UK, but less than 1% of the human population lives within them
* About 61 million visitors per year,with ~ 3.6 billion £ spent/yr by visitors
Data source: UK National Parks
y = -0.00x + 4.79R2 = 0.00, n.s.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
UK national park area (km2)vi
sito
rs p
er y
ear (
mill
ion)
Data source: UK National Parks
020000400006000080000
100000120000140000
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
UK national park area (km2)hu
man
pop
ulat
ion
size
(n)
Data source: UK National Parks
y = 26x + 147R2 = 0.20; p < 0.01
0100200300400500600700
0 5 10 15
visitors per year (million)m
oney
spe
nt b
y vi
sito
rs
(mill
ion
poun
ds)
Jobs in biodiversity conservation
Jobs in biodiversity conservation
Jobs in biodiversity conservation: jobs.ac.uk
Jobs in biodiversity conservation: jobs.ac.uk
Jobs in biodiversity conservation: the Guardian
from the Guardian
from the Guardian
Source: Greater London
Authority
from: Schlick-Steiner et al. (2008) J Biogeography
A key biodiversity pattern : the species-area relationship
ants in European countries
Species-people correlation in Europe
from Araujo (2003) Global Ecology & Biogeography
plants birds
people
spp
Some recent studies of the spp-people correlation
World wilderness map from: UNEP-WCMC World Atlas of Biodiversity, GIS analysis by R. Lesslie (ANU), method developed for the Australian Heritage Commission
Balmfordet al. (2001) ScienceReal et al.
(2003) J Biogeog
McKinney (2003) Biol Cons
Vazquez & Gaston (2006) Biodiv & Cons
Chown et al. (2003) Ecol Appl
Luck (2007)J Biogeog
Araujo(2003) GEB
Hunter & Jonzon(1993) CB
Ding et al. (2006) J Biogeog
Moreno-Rueda &
Pizarro (2008) Ecol Res
Diniz-Filho et al. (2006) Acta Oecol.
from: Marini et al. (2009) J Biogeography
Both species and people correlate with productivity
Altitude Plant species richness in Trentino, Italy
from: Chiari et al. (2010) J Animal Ecology
Locally, the spp-people correlation tends to be negative
birds in Florence
Air pollution due to urbanization: NO2
source: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/EarthObservation/pollution_europe_hires.jpg
[1015 mol/cm2; Jan 2003- Jun 2004]
Air pollution, lichen biodiversity and lung cancer
Cislaghi & Nimis (1987) Nature
from: Lonsdale et al. (2008) European Journal of Forest Research
Random sample of 100 papers per year on ‘species richness’ in WOS (1991-2004)
ReferencesBarbosa AM, Fontaneto D, Marini L & Pautasso M (2010) Positive regional species–people correlations: a sampling artefact or a key issue for sustainable development? Animal Conservation 13: 446-447Cantarello E, Steck CE, Fontana P, Fontaneto D, Marini L & Pautasso M (2010) A multi-scale study of Orthoptera species richness and human population size controlling for sampling effort. Naturwissenschaften 97: 265-271Golding J, Güsewell S, Kreft H, Kuzevanov VY, Lehvävirta S, Parmentier I & Pautasso M (2010) Species-richness patterns of the living collections of the world's botanic gardens: a matter of socio-economics? Annals of Botany 105: 689-696Pautasso M (2009) Geographical genetics and the conservation of forest trees. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Systematics & Evolution 11: 157-189Pautasso M & Chiarucci A (2008) A test of the scale-dependence of the species abundance-people correlation for veteran trees in Italy. Annals of Botany 101: 709-715 Pautasso M & Dinetti M (2009) Avian species richness, human population and protected areas across Italy’s regions. Environmental Conservation 36: 22-31Pautasso M & Fontaneto D (2008) A test of the species-people correlation for stream macro-invertebrates in European countries. Ecological Applications 18: 1842-1849Pautasso M & Parmentier I (2007) Are the living collections of the world’s botanical gardens following species-richness patterns observed in natural ecosystems? Botanica Helvetica 117: 15-28Pautasso M & Powell G (2009) Aphid biodiversity is correlated with human population in European countries. Oecologia 160: 839-846Pautasso M & Weisberg PJ (2008) Density-area relationships: the importance of the zeros. Global Ecology and Biogeography 17: 203-210Pautasso M & Zotti M (2009) Macrofungal taxa and human population in Italy's regions. Biodiversity & Conservation 18: 473-485Pautasso M et al (2010) Plant health and global change – some implications for landscape management. Biological Reviews 85: 729-755Pautasso M et al (2011) Global macroecology of bird assemblages in urbanized and semi-natural ecosystems. Global Ecology & Biogeography 20: 426-436Pecher C, Fritz S, Marini L, Fontaneto D & Pautasso M (2010) Scale-dependence of the correlation between human population and the species richness of stream macroinvertebrates. Basic Applied Ecology 11: 272-280Schlick-Steiner B, Steiner F & Pautasso M (2008) Ants and people: a test of two mechanisms behind the large-scale human-biodiversity correlation for Formicidae in Europe. Journal of Biogeography 35: 2195-2206Steck CE & Pautasso M (2008) Human population, grasshopper and plant species richness in European countries. Acta Oecologica 34: 303-310