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Society for Conservation Biology: 2002 Annual Meeting

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Society for Conservation Biology: 2002 Annual Meeting

Society for Conservation Biology 16th Annual Meeting July 14-July 19 2002
co-hosted by DICE and the British Ecological Society


Abstracts for Spatial Ecology and Conservation
Session Two

Monday 15th July, 13.30 - 15.00, Eliot Lecture Theatre 2

Chair: Luigi Boitani




(BLOCK CAPITALS indicate the presenting author)


13.30 - 13.45
HARCOURT, ALEXANDER H., Sean A. Parks, and Stephanie A. Coppeto. Department of Anthropology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA, <ahharcourt@ucdavis.edu>.

HUMAN INFLUENCES ON EXTINCTION: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS

The main threat to biodiversity is humans. However, do conservation biologists, being biologists, tend to study the biodiversity at the expense of analysis of the threat? It seems that they might. Thus, analyses of extinction in the biological conservation literature concentrate on, for instance, species-area relationships, metapopulation dynamics, and responses of the species to the threats, as opposed to the action of the threat itself. Using human density as a surrogate measure of threat, we show that: a) globally, degree of threat often correlates negatively with level of protection afforded (there are more people around smaller reserves); b) level of threat (i.e. local human density) sometimes explains more variation in extinction rates than does level of protection afforded (i.e. size of protected area); and that c) taking level of threat into more explicit account in judgements of conservation status can lead to some major changes from current lists (low risk species become critically endangered, and vice versa). We suggest that both management decisions, and also biological understanding of, for example, corridors and metapopulation connectivitiy, could alter if more attention were paid to the relationships that we demonstrate.

13.45 - 14.00
COPPOLILLO, PETER and Samantha Strindberg. Wildlife Conservation Society, International Conservation, 2300 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10460, USA <PCoppolillo@wcs.org> (PC, SS), Living Landscapes Program, International Conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10460 USA.

USING A SPATIALLY-STRUCTURED HARVEST MODEL TO SET TARGETS FOR RESERVE AREAS

Spatially-structured harvest models have been used to identify the minimum proportions of a landscape that must remain unharvested for species’ persistence (Joshi and Gadgil 1991; McCullough 1996; Novaro et al. 2000). As previously applied, these models assume an even spatial distribution of individuals throughout the landscape. We extend these models by assuming that the distances individuals penetrate into harvested matrix are related to their home range size. This allows us to set minimum area requirements for reserves based on each species’ life-history characteristics. We also examine the reserve sizes necessary to maintain target densities of focal species in reserves when individuals penetrate into the harvested matrix. We apply the model to real landscapes in South America and Africa to examine its real-world utility. Because the model deals with three highly-salient parameters (individuals’ movements into matrix habitat, mortality in matrix habitat, and home range sizes; Fahrig 2001), we contend that spatially-structured harvest models offer a powerful tools for setting area requirements and for prioritising conservation action in heterogeneous landscapes.



14.00 - 14.15
CEBALLOS, GERARDO. Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ap. Postal 70-275, 04510, Mexico, D.F. México, <gceballo@miranda.ecologia.unam.mx>.

GLOBAL PATTERNS OF MAMMAL SPECIES DIVERSITY, ENDEMISM AND ENDANGERMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION

The loss of biological diversity is a major global environmental crisis caused by the explosive growth of human population. Extinction rates have steadily increased in the last two centuries, and hundreds of vertebrates have become extinct. In recent years there have been considerable efforts to develop methods to select priority areas or hotspots for conservation, maximising the number of species represented in protected areas. Patterns of species distribution provide an underlying framework for determining priorities for conservation. In this paper I analyse the patterns of distribution of 4500 mammal species to identify the most important areas for conservation. Using a heuristic algorithm I analysed the complementarily of 2 X 2 degree cell required to protect at least one population of the different groups of mammals; i.e. all species, endemic species, restricted species, and endangered species. Preliminary results indicate that relatively few areas dispersed across all continental land-masses are necessary to protect 70% of all species. However, more than 120 additional areas area needed to protect the additional species, which in general have very restricted geographic ranges.


14.15 - 14.30
KIER, GEROLD, Jens Mutke, Wolfgang Küper, Holger Kreft and Wilhelm Barthlott. Botanical Institute, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany, <kier@uni-bonn.de>.

VASCULAR PLANT SPECIES RICHNESS OF THE TERRESTRIAL ECOREGIONS OF THE WORLD

Broad-scale conservation requires a map which divides the world into an appropriate set of units, such as the ecoregion map by Olson et al. (2001). We estimated the vascular plant species richness of these 867 terrestrial ecoregions. The estimates were derived from a set of over 1500 selected records with numbers of plant species occurring in political (countries, provinces, etc.) and natural units (deserts, mountains, etc.). The richness estimates relied on species-area calculations and additional information (topodiversity, vegetation, etc.). Of the 57 ecoregions with 5000+ species, 50 are part of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome. Highest in richness are the Borneo Lowlands (10,000 spp.) followed by seven ecoregions with 8000+ spp. each in Southern Central America, Western Amazon, and SE Brazil. Non-tropical ecoregions with 5000+ species include three forest ecoregions in SW China, one Southern African (Fynbos and Renosterveld) and one European ecoregion (Alps). Large regions for which we found little suitable richness data are the Amazon Basin, the Tibetan Plateau, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and arid Australia. The main data gaps by biome are: 1) flooded grasslands and savannahs, and 2) tropical and subtropical coniferous forests. Future broad-scale investigations should prioritise these regions and biomes.



14.30 - 14.45
Turak, Ayse Suzan, CEMAL CAN BILGIN, and Aykut Kence Department of Biology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, <cbilgin@metu.edu.tr>.

SPECIES RICHNESS, ENDEMISM AND RARITY PATTERNS IN TURKEY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATES OF THESE PATTERNS

Turkey is one of the few countries whose territory coincides with more than one global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al 2000). Determining environmental factors that correlate with richness hotspots may aid conservation evaluation procedures. With this aim, the land surface of Turkey was divided into 104 grid squares as defined by lines of latitude and longitude of one-degree difference. For each grid, species richness, endemic species richness and rarity scores were calculated for butterflies, songbirds, milkvetches (Astragalus), mulleins (Verbascum), vetches (Vicia), amphibians, reptiles and bats. The resulting patterns were analysed to detect geographic trends correlated with geographic and climatic variables related to altitude, precipitation, temperature, seasonality and presence of coastline. All grid cells were then evaluated from a conservation perspective. The results indicated that, species, endemism or rarity hotspots could not be explained by only a few geographic or climatic variables, although higher rainfall, lower latitude, diverse habitats and higher altitude generally meant more species, both total and endemic. Grids found to have high conservation priority did not coincide well with locations of current protected areas. It is necessary to set up new protected areas in these regions and to revise the current system of conservation planning.



14.45 - 15.00
BOITANI, LUIGI, Fabio Corsi, Alessandra Falcucci, Ilaria Marzetti, Monica Masi, Alessandro Montemaggiori, Daniela Ottaviani, Gabriella Reggiani and Carlo Rondinini. Department of Animal and Human Biology, University of Rome, Viale Università 32, Rome, Italy, <l.boitani@pan.bio.uniroma1.it> (LB, DO, CR), Institute of Applied Ecology, Via Spallanzani 32, Rome, Italy (FC, IM, MM, AM, GR) and Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, US (AF)

TOWARD THE IDENTIFICATION OF A NATIONAL ECOLOGICAL NETWORK FOR TERRESTRIAL VERTEBRATES IN ITALY

In 1998 the Italian Government launched a programme (National Ecological Network) aiming at identifying a network of areas and corridors that would minimise fragmentation of habitat types and species ranges. We developed a conceptual framework and a database to explore alternative hypotheses of nation-wide ecological networks for all Italian terrestrial vertebrates and freshwater fishes. Our methodology seeks to overcome the gross results that are normally obtained using only known distribution ranges. Extent of occurrence and species-habitat relationships of all species (505) were stored in a geo-referenced database. For each species, a deductive model showing three classes of increasing habitat suitability was obtained using at least four environmental variables layers (100-meter resolution). Nine modelling procedures were developed to suit the different life histories. Models were validated using sets of independent data on species distribution, and were used to identify more accurate areas of occupancy within the species’ extent of occurrence. Identification of core and connecting areas, and discussion of their fragmentation in relation to geographic and ecological features was performed combining the three suitability classes. Various multi-species analyses were performed to identify and compare areas of overlap for selected groups of species (by taxon, level of threat, umbrella species, etc.).