Highlighting the enormous biodiversity of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve (ACR) and the critical role this protected area plays in the conservation of Madre de Dios, in southeastern Peru, with more ...than 1,700 vivid photographs, Amarakaeri: Connecting Biodiversity offers readers a glimpse into the extensive research conducted by scholars from the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and their Peruvian counterparts. For three years, scientists and local experts had the extraordinary opportunity to collect data at the premontane forests of the ACR to determine potential impacts of an exploratory gas platform on selected animal and plant groups. Amarakaeri also portrays the main threats to the ACR and presents a vision for the region’s future.
•Priority areas for connectivity were identified considering socio-economic factors (SF).•Connectivity representation in priority areas and their location changed after including SF.•Forest ...restoration outside protected areas is needed to improve connectivity.•Reconciling forest preservation with SF returned the likely most cost-effective solution.•Effective connectivity planning must consider SF to minimize conflicts and costs.
The Atlantic Forest in Paraguay has been severely affected by large-scale habitat loss and fragmentation, processes that have increasingly isolated its protected areas. Here we identified priority areas capable of maximizing connectivity between protected areas for multiple species while minimizing potential socio-economic conflicts in Paraguay's Atlantic Forest. We built multi-scale habitat suitability models for 15 species and mapped connectivity using circuit theory and least-cost path methods. Then, we used connectivity maps and different socio-economic factors to identify priority areas. We created three scenarios to explore the effects of including socio-economic factors in prioritization: Optimized-connectivity Scenario that assumes no conflicts; Optimistic Conflict Scenario that seeks a balance between biodiversity and socio-economic interests, with the former having greater priority over the latter; and Pessimistic Conflict Scenario that represents a high conflict situation. The inclusion of socio-economic data in the analysis caused a shift in priority areas from east to west and reduced the representation of connectivity by up to 15%. Regardless of the scenario considered, forest restoration is needed to improve connectivity. The Optimistic Conflict Scenario returned the likely most cost-effective solution because, compared to the Optimized-connectivity Scenario, the 7% decline in connectivity (from 34 to 27%) was offset by a reduction in restoration efforts from 2.2% to 0.6% of the study area. Our study presents solutions to balance the trade-offs between socio-economic issues and connectivity conservation in Paraguay's Atlantic Forest. In particular, well-planned conservation and restoration efforts outside protected boundaries have the potential to improve connectivity while boosting local socio-economic development.
Context
In human-modified landscapes, identification and structural assessment of remaining habitat is required to mitigate habitat loss and fragmentation. In transboundary regions, this analysis ...must consider ecological limits, as they often do not coincide with sociopolitical boundaries.
Objectives
We aimed to quantify the cover, configuration, protection status, and spatial overlap of suitable habitats for 24 birds and mammals of conservation concern in the trinational region (Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay) of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest.
Methods
Applying a multi-scale framework and the random forest algorithm, we built habitat suitability models considering presence-only data distributed across the Atlantic Forest biome and mapped the relative habitat suitability in the trinational region. We quantified habitat coverage and protection at country and regional scales. We also assessed the spatial configuration and overlap of forests predicted to be suitable for the target species.
Results
The total suitable habitat covered less than 17% of the study region for 20 of the 24 target species. On average, 40.9% of the suitable habitat can be found in Argentina, 30.5% in Brazil, and 28.6% in Paraguay. Only 2.4% of the entire study region is occupied by protected suitable habitat. Protected areas focused on biodiversity conservation showed greater relative coverage of suitable habitat than PAs allowing for multiple human uses. Suitable forests are highly fragmented, especially for threatened species. Nine species showed an average overlap of at least 70% of their suitable forest area in relation to that predicted for the other species.
Conclusions
The remaining habitat of the trinational region is unevenly distributed across countries, with low coverage, low protection, and high fragmentation. Species persistence will require cross-border collaboration to restore, expand, and connect the Upper Paraná forests, and our results provide important information to support this.
Linear infrastructure such as pipelines and power lines is ubiquitous and responsible for loss of habitats and disruption of landscape connectivity. We reviewed published research to answer the ...following questions: (1) Which organisms are commonly used to indicate impacts of pipelines and power lines to biodiversity? (2) How do pipelines and power lines impact biodiversity? and (3) How are these impacts mitigated? Studies of pipelines most often used mammals and plants as bioindicators, whereas studies of power lines focused largely on birds and plants. A myriad of impacts were identified, including the mortality of plants during construction, changes to the structure and composition of plant and animal communities that resulted from construction, the creation of open and shrubby corridors within intact forests, and collisions and electrocutions of birds with power lines. However, in most studies baseline data were not collected, so magnitudes of the impacts are often unknown. Mitigation in many studies was mentioned only in the discussion as a way to reduce impacts, but mitigation techniques were rarely tested directly. We outline considerations when selecting bioindicators—research that takes a community- or ecosystem-level approach will more fully determine the scope of impacts of linear infrastructure than the historical approach of focusing on populations of select bioindicators. Mitigation strategies must ultimately result from appropriate baseline studies, scientific data collection and analyses, and be implemented within an adaptive management strategy.
Exotic forest insects and pathogens (EFIP) have become regular features of temperate forest ecosystems, yet we lack a long-term perspective on their net impacts on tree mortality, carbon ...sequestration, and tree species diversity. Here, we analyze 3 decades (1987–2019) of forest monitoring data from the Blue Ridge Mountains ecoregion in eastern North America, including 67 plots totaling 29.4 ha, along with a historical survey from 1939. Over the past century, EFIP substantially affected at least eight tree genera. Tree host taxa had anomalously high mortality rates (≥ 6% year
−1
from 2008 to 2019 vs 1.4% year
−1
for less-impacted taxa). Following the arrival of EFIP, affected taxa declined in abundance (− 25 to − 100%) and live aboveground biomass (AGB; − 13 to − 100%) within our monitoring plots. We estimate that EFIP were responsible for 21–29% of ecosystem AGB loss through mortality (− 87 g m
−2
year
−1
) from 1991 to 2013 across 66 sites. Over a century, net AGB loss among affected species totaled roughly 6.6–10 kg m
−2
. The affected host taxa accounted for 23–29% of genera losses at the plot scale, with mixed net effects on
α-
diversity. Several taxa were lost from our monitoring plots but not completely extirpated from the region. Despite these losses, both total AGB and
α-
diversity were largely recovered through increases in sympatric genera. These results indicate that EFIP have been an important force shaping forest composition, carbon cycling, and diversity. At the same time, less-affected taxa in these relatively diverse temperate forests have conferred substantial resilience with regard to biomass and
α-
diversity.
The Amazonian ecosystems of Madre de Dios (MDD) region, considered Peru’s “capital of biodiversity” due to its impressive species richness, are threatened by the rapid expansion of infrastructure. ...The paving of the Interoceanic Highway in 2010 has brought rapid population growth and environmental degradation, threatening large-scale conservation efforts such as the Vilcabamba-Amboro Conservation Corridor (VACC). To quantify the impacts of development processes and to identify critical areas where further conservation efforts should be focused, we analyzed 20 years of land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics, drivers, and fragmentation patterns in MDD. We mapped LULC in 1993, 2003, and 2013 using Landsat imagery and modeled the proximate drivers of change related to deforestation, forest regrowth, gold mining, agriculture, and urban expansion in two time periods (1993–2003 and 2003–2013). We characterized habitat fragmentation patterns in four regional target areas. Our results show accelerated deforestation triggered by the road network spreading, mining and agriculture expansion, and population growth. LULC changes produced two contrasting spatial landscape patterns: numerous small forest fragments in the north due to agricultural expansion along the Interoceanic Highway and large continuous forest losses caused by gold mining expansion in the south. Current unplanned development in this region is threatening its outstanding biodiversity. We suggest that further conservation efforts should focus on strengthening the legal framework of the VACC, implementing a sustainable management plan for MDD, promoting agroforestry strategies along the Interoceanic Highway, and preserving smaller corridors for animal movement.
Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes ...conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come.
Researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, in collaboration with Gabonese scientists, are studying the biological diversity of the Gamba Complex of Protected Areas. Studies ...under the Gabon Biodiversity Program, a partnership with an oil company, first consisted of biological assessments of select plant, vertebrate, and invertebrate taxonomic groups. In its second phase, the program is addressing ecological questions and assessing effects of human activities. Information generated is disseminated via education and outreach activities for the town of Gamba (> 9,000 people), as well as at the national level, to promote the value of biodiversity. The program demonstrates the importance that the private sector can have in protecting the biodiversity that we all require for survival.
