Two ecologically and economically important, and threatened Dipterocarp trees Sal (Shorea robusta) and Garjan (Dipterocarpus turbinatus) form mono‐specific canopies in dry deciduous, moist deciduous, ...evergreen, and semievergreen forests across South Asia and continental parts of Southeast Asia. They provide valuable timber and play an important role in the economy of many Asian countries. However, both Dipterocarp trees are threatened by continuing forest clearing, habitat alteration, and global climate change. While climatic regimes in the Asian tropics are changing, research on climate change‐driven shifts in the distribution of tropical Asian trees is limited. We applied a bioclimatic modeling approach to these two Dipterocarp trees Sal and Garjan. We used presence‐only records for the tree species, five bioclimatic variables, and selected two climatic scenarios (RCP4.5: an optimistic scenario and RCP8.5: a pessimistic scenario) and three global climate models (GCMs) to encompass the full range of variation in the models. We modeled climate space suitability for both species, projected to 2070, using a climate envelope modeling tool “MaxEnt” (the maximum entropy algorithm). Annual precipitation was the key bioclimatic variable in all GCMs for explaining the current and future distributions of Sal and Garjan (Sal: 49.97 ± 1.33; Garjan: 37.63 ± 1.19). Our models predict that suitable climate space for Sal will decline by 24% and 34% (the mean of the three GCMs) by 2070 under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. In contrast, the consequences of imminent climate change appear less severe for Garjan, with a decline of 17% and 27% under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. The findings of this study can be used to set conservation guidelines for Sal and Garjan by identifying vulnerable habitats in the region. In addition, the natural habitats of Sal and Garjan can be categorized as low to high risk under changing climates where artificial regeneration should be undertaken for forest restoration.
We applied a bioclimatic modeling approach to two ecologically and economically important, and threatened, Dipterocarp trees Sal (Shorea robusta), and Garjan (Dipterocarpus turbinatus), which form mono‐specific canopies in moist deciduous, dry deciduous, evergreen, and semievergreen forests across tropical Asia. Our models predict that suitable climate space for both Sal and Garjan will decline by 2070 under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. We discussed the application of the results for the conservation of these Dipterocarp trees.
Anecdotes from local residents and modeling studies suggest that deforestation may delay the onset of the rainy season (O) in western Brazil, but detection studies using climatological time series ...are not available. Here we investigate trends in O in the state of Rondonia, Brazil, a region that has been continuously deforested since the 1970s. Daily rainfall data from 16 station time series, spanning periods of at least 25 years, with five covering more than 30 years, are used. We define O as the first day after 1 September with rainfall greater than 20 mm d−1. A t test indicates that for stations that lie inside the major deforested area, O has significantly shifted to, on average, 11 days (and up to 18 days) later in the year over the last three decades. However, for stations that lie in areas that have not been heavily deforested, O has not shifted significantly. Nonparametric and parametric trend analyses all gave similar results for the change of O with time, and all of the statistically significant results indicated a delay in O. Twenty‐five percent (four) of the stations analyzed showed a marked shift in timing of O: these stations are located inside deforested areas, primarily near the BR 364 highway that crosses Rondonia. Delayed onset may be a result of land use change, and this signal may strengthen in future: current delaying trends may be as great as 0.6 days per year, and after 30 years of deforestation the onset of the rainy season is expected to be 18 days later.
Key Points
To describe the detection of a delay in rainy season onset in Rondonia, Brazil
To relate the rainy season onset delay to deforestation
To discuss the mechanisms working to produce this interaction
Land clearing and protected area provision are two contrasting forces shaping the persistence of species in the landscape. Using Australia's flora as a case study, we characterize the three possible ...states of species persistence: protected, cleared, or at risk of future loss based on agricultural capability, using a comprehensive suite of plant distributions and traits. We test the assumption that plant species, assemblages, and growth forms are adequately preserved in protected areas in Australia, and contrast this result with historic and future loss driven by trajectories of continued land clearing. We find levels of protection and clearing are inversely related, with both bioregions and species with high levels of clearing having low protection. We find only one third of Australian bioregions meet international protection targets of 30 % of area in formal protection. Similarly, we find that 29 % of plant species have met representation protection targets (with 30 % of their range protected), while similar numbers (33 %) have clearing as the dominant land use across their ranges. Protection and clearing have also unevenly affected species with different growth forms, range sizes, and distributions across agricultural land capability. Narrow-ranged woody species (e.g., trees) are the most at-risk group in relation to clearing, whereas large-ranged non-woody species (e.g., graminoids, herbs) are afforded a high level of protection in reserved lands. We demonstrate that the Australian protected-area network, although theoretically underpinned by sound CAR principles (comprehensive, adequacy, representativeness), falls short in protecting both individual plant species and growth forms.
•We test the extent to which plant species have been retained in protected areas or lost due to land clearing.•Protection and clearing unevenly affect species with different growth forms, range size, and agricultural land capability.•Our analysis highlights that narrow-ranged trees are the most at-risk group in relation to clearing.•We demonstrate that the Australian protected-area network, falls short in protecting plant species and growth forms.
1. Achieving global targets for forest restoration will require cost-effective strategies to return agricultural land to forest, while minimizing implementation costs and negative outcomes for ...agricultural production. 2. We present a landscape approach for optimizing the cost-effectiveness of largescale forest restoration. Across three different landscapes within Brazil's Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, we modelled landscape scenarios based on spatially explicit data on the probability of natural regeneration, restoration costs, land opportunity costs, and forest restoration outcomes for increasing carbon stocking and landscape connectivity. We compare benefits of our cost-reduction approach to the legally mandated riparian restoration and randomly distributed approaches. 3. Compared with riparian prioritization and considering both implementation and opportunity costs, our cost-reduction scenario produced the greatest savings (20.9%) in mechanized agricultural landscapes. 4. When only considering implementation costs, our cost-reduction scenario led to the highest savings (38.4%) in the landscape with highest forest cover where natural regeneration potential is highest and enables cost-effective carbon stocking and connectivity. 5. Synthesis and applications. We present a guide for forest restoration planning that maximizes specific outcomes with minimal costs and reduction of agricultural production. Furthermore, we show how policies could encourage prioritization of low-cost restoration via natural regeneration, increasing cost-effectiveness. While our study focuses on Brazil's Atlantic Forest, the approach can be parameterized for other regions.
1. Long-term habitat mapping and change detection are essential for the management of coastal wetlands as well as for evaluating the impact of conservation policies. Earth observation (EO) data and ...techniques are a valuable resource for long-term habitat mapping. Although the use of EO data is well developed for the automatic production of land cover (LC) maps, this is not the same for habitat maps, which are highly related to biodiversity. 2. In a previous paper, we used the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) environmental attributes (e.g. water quality, lithology, soil surface aspect) for LC-to-habitat class translation. However, these environmental attributes are often not openly available, not updated or are missing. 3. This paper offers an alternative, knowledge-based solution to automatic habitat mapping. When only expert rules and EO data are used, the final overall map accuracy, which is obtained by comparing reference ground truth patches to the ones depicted in the output map, is lower (75·1%) than the accuracy obtained using environmental attributes alone (97·0%). Some ambiguities that still remain in habitat discrimination are resolved by integrating the use of LCCS environmental attributes (if available) and expert rules. 4. In this paper, we use very high-resolution (VHR) satellite data and LIDAR data. LC classes are labelled according to the LCCS taxonomy, which offers a framework to integrate EO data with in situ and ancillary data. Output habitat classes are labelled according to the European Habitats Directive (92/43 EEC Directive) Annex I habitat types and Eunis habitat classification. Two Natura 2000 coastal wetland sites in southern Italy are considered. 5. Synthesis and applications. In this paper, we study the exploitation of ecological rules on vegetation pattern, plant phenology and habitat geometric properties for automatic translation of land cover (LC) maps to habitat maps in coastal wetlands. The methodology is useful for relatively inaccessible sites (e.g. wetlands) as it does not require in-field campaigns (generally costly) but only the elicitation of ecological expert rules. This can support site (e.g. Natura 2000) managers in long-term automatic habitat mapping. Habitat changes can be automatically detected by comparing map pairs, and trends can be quantified. This is particularly useful to satisfy the commitments of the European Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), which requires Member States to take measures to maintain as, or restore to, favourable conservation status those natural habitat types and species of community interest that are listed in the Annexes to the Directive.
Climate change poses significant challenges to the long-term management of threatened species. Pre-emptive assessments of the capacity for threatened species to adapt to climate change are essential ...for choosing appropriate management actions that minimise extinction risk. Here, we use species traits and range metrics linked to ecological performance to assess the capacity to respond to climate change of 342 plant species, listed as threatened under IUCN-compatible criteria in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). Traits capturing variation in phenology, morphology, physiology and geographic range were used to assess species’ response(s) to four factors likely to influence their climate change response: Reproduction, Movement Capability, Abiotic Niche Specialisation, and risk spreading across Spatial Coverage. Assessment scores were combined into
high
,
medium
and
low
rankings based on two complementary approaches for assessing climate change risk: (i) fully precautionary, where species were classified as
high
risk if any one of the four response factors was high; and (ii) integrative, combining scores across all four response factors to assign an overall risk ranking. 84% of threatened species assessed had a
high
risk ranking for at least one response factor, whereas 30, 55 and 15% of species were ranked
high
,
medium
or
low
respectively, based on our integrative measure of risk. Importantly, basic information for at least one trait for an additional 237 threatened plants in NSW was not available, despite thorough searching across 727 resources. This lack of fundamental baseline data for threatened plants may have wide-ranging implications for their management, including an inability to assess their response capacity to threats, and plan accordingly.
Abstract
The social dimensions of human–wildlife conflicts are becoming increasingly important. In regions where crop‐raiding is a common issue, local people's attitudes toward wildlife is an ...important indicator of how successful conservation efforts are likely to be. One such area is the east Tibetan Plateau—a biodiversity hotspot with well‐preserved forest ecosystems and mountain villages where subsistence farming is practiced. In this context, we conducted a survey of people's tolerance toward wildlife in five Tibetan villages that experience conflicts arising from crop‐raiding incidents. We interviewed 83 respondents, 76 of whom were participants in a compensation scheme that provided payments for crop damage. Wildlife tolerance was generally high, mostly due to mutualistic wildlife values, whereby people believed they should coexist with animals equally instead of exploiting them as natural resources. Tolerance was influenced by people's wildlife preference rather than the level of damage to croplands: people were likely to show higher tolerance toward culturally important species even when they were crop‐raiding animals. While economic and mitigation efforts as part of traditional conservation management led to increased tolerance, the compensation scheme and fencing were less important than wildlife preference. We suggest that conservation management for human‐wildlife conflicts should develop region and stakeholder‐specific engagement strategies. Crucially, such strategies should incorporate cultural considerations to fully address the complex human dimensions inherent in these issues.
摘要
人兽冲突中的社会科学视角正在变得越来越重要。在野生动物食用农作物的冲突频发地区，当地人对野生动物的态度是衡量保护工作成功与否的重要指标。位于生物多样性热点地区的青藏高原东部农区便是该类型区域的其中之一，这里森林生态系统保存完好，农区山地居民以自给农业为主。在此背景下，本研究针对因野生动物肇事而农作物受损高发的5个藏族村庄，调查了其村民对野生动物的容忍度。研究采访了83户村民，其中76户参与过针对作物损失的人兽冲突补偿项目。结果显示，受访者对野生动物的容忍度普遍较高，主要是由平等共生的野生动物价值观影响，人们认为他们应该与动物平等共存，而不是将其视作自然资源加以利用。容忍度受人们对野生动物的偏好所影响，而不是农田被破坏的程度，特别在文化上有一定意义的肇事动物，人们也通常对其表现出更高的容忍度。虽然经济手段和缓解措施作为传统保护管理的一部分，能在一定程度上提高人们的容忍度，但在此研究中补偿计划和围栏在针对容忍度的影响方面并没有人们对野生动物的偏好程度影响大。我们建议，人兽冲突的保护管理应制定针对特定区域以及特定利益相关方的具体策略。至关重要的是，这些策略应将本地文化因素纳入考量，以充分解决人兽冲突所固有的复杂的人文因素问题。【审阅:李梦姣】
Plain language summary
In the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, people in agricultural areas often face the problem of wild animals eating their crops. Understanding how local farmers feel about these wild animals is crucial for ensuring effective conservation efforts. We interviewed people in five villages where animals eating crops is a significant problem. Most of the 83 people we spoke with were part of an initiative compensating them financially when animals damage their crops. We discovered that most people have positive feelings toward wildlife, mainly because they believe in living together with animals in harmony, not just exploiting them as natural resources. Interestingly, how much people liked certain animals affected their feelings more than how much damage their crops suffered. For example, if an animal was important to their culture, they were more likely to put up with it eating their crops. Even though giving financial compensation for crop damage and trying other ways to stop animals from eating crops helped people be more tolerant, what really mattered was how much they liked wildlife in general. We think that the plans to solve human–wildlife conflicts should be tailored to fit each specific area and group of people, taking the local culture into consideration when doing so. In this manner, we can better understand the complex reasons behind people's attitudes toward wildlife.
通俗语言摘要
在青藏高原东部，农区的人们经常面临野生动物食用庄稼的问题。了解当地村民对这些野生动物的态度对于确保有效的保护工作至关重要。我们采访了5个村庄的村民，他们面临着具体的野生动物食用庄稼的问题。在我们采访的83户中，大多数人参与过一个人兽冲突补偿项目，当野生动物破坏了作物时，他们将会得到一定的经济补偿。我们发现，大多数人对野生动物有积极的情感，主要是因为当地人相信应该与动物平等共生，而不是将其视作自然资源加以利用。有趣的是，人们对某些野生动物的情感往往更受对其喜爱程度的影响，而不是农作物受到的损害程度。例如，如果某种动物在文化上有一定的意义，人们更愿意去容忍它吃掉部分自己的农作物。针对作物损失给予经济补偿，并尝试其他缓解措施阻止该类冲突的发生，这些举措都有助于增加人们的容忍度，但研究显示在此地区更重要的是人们整体有多喜爱野生动物。我们认为，致力于解决人兽冲突的方法需要区分特定的地区和人群，充分考虑到当地文化。这样，我们才能更好地理解人们对野生动物态度背后的复杂原因。
Practitioner points
Understanding the social dynamics of human communities is a crucial part of human–wildlife conflict resolution.
Conservation practitioners should avoid inferring a direct correlation between conflicts and retaliatory actions and avoid creating opposition; a broader spectrum of social factors should be considered in conflict management.
Tailoring conservation management to the local context and actively engaging all relevant stakeholders are essential steps for the overall success of conservation initiatives.
实践者要点
了解人类社区内的社会动力是缓解人兽冲突的关键部分。
保护实践者应避免首先就将冲突与报复行为直接关联起来制造对立；在冲突管理中应考虑更广泛的社会因素。
根据当地情况量身定制保护管理策略，并争取所有利益相关方的积极参与是保护举措取得全面成功的重要步骤。
Mammals can serve as an indicator of global climate change impacts on species’ distributions due to the wide range of ecological niches they utilize. Tropical Asia encompasses several biodiversity ...hotspots, is the largest reservoir of mammalian diversity on earth, and has already experienced the extinction of several mammal species either regionally or locally. Global climate change could become a significant driver of species extinction, either directly or synergistically with other factors, such as habitat loss, agricultural expansion, overexploitation, and land use change. Despite the variability of climatic regimes across tropical Asia, the potential impacts of climate change on continental-scale distributions of mammals have not been examined. To address this issue, we developed habitat suitability models for four threatened large mammals (
Ursus thibetanus
,
Elephas maximus
,
Hoolock hoolock
, and
Panthera tigris tigris
), across their entire distributions in Asia. We used presence-only distribution records and nine bioclimatic and environmental variables and built species-specific habitat suitability models using a maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt). We used a moderate and an extreme climate scenario (RCP6.0 and RCP8.5) and three time steps: current, 2050, and 2070. Our results suggest that changes in annual precipitation, annual mean temperature, precipitation, and temperature seasonality could reduce suitable habitat for these mammals and therefore increase their extinction risks. However, several patches of stable habitat are projected to persist through the late twenty-first century, and these climate change refugia areas can be managed as an important strategy for conservation of the mammal species and the maintenance of biodiversity in the face of ongoing climate change. In this context, we recommend the following steps for the conservation of global mammal populations: (i) define the spatial extent (local, regional, or continental scale) of the target mammals, (ii) identify and prioritize climate change refugial areas following ecological niche models or other methods based on biological data, and (iii) implement management actions by analyzing current management tools and the strategies required (e.g., habitat restoration or assisted migration for prioritized species) to achieve long-term conservation goals.
Bias toward legally protecting and prioritizing charismatic taxonomic groups, such as mammals and birds, and against others, such as insects and plants, is well documented. However, the relative ...costs of conserving various taxonomic groups and the potential of these costs to interact with existing biases have been much less explored. We analyzed conservation programs across more than 2,000 species in 3 countries to investigate the costs of conserving species within taxonomic groups and how these costs might affect conservation planning. For each data set, we tested for differences in mean annual cost among taxonomic groups. For the data set from the United States, recovery plans differed in duration, so we also tested for differences in total costs among taxonomic groups. Although the costs for individual species varied widely, there were strong international consistencies. For example, mammals cost 8–26 times more on average to conserve than plants and 13–19 times more to conserve than aquatic invertebrates. On average, bird species cost 5–30 times more to conserve than plants and 6–14 times more to conserve than aquatic invertebrates. These cost differences could exacerbate unequal resource allocation among taxonomic groups such that more charismatic groups both receive more attention and require more resources, leading to neglect of other taxonomic groups.
Costos Relativos de la Conservación de Especies Amenazadas entre Grupos Taxonómicos
Resumen
El sesgo hacia la protección legal y la priorización de grupos taxonómicos carismáticos, como los mamíferos y las aves, y el sesgo que no favorece a otros grupos, como los insectos y las plantas, está bien documentado. A pesar de esto, los costos relativos de la conservación de varios grupos taxonómicos y el potencial que tienen estos costos para interactuar con los sesgos existentes no han sido explorados a profundidad. Analizamos los programas de conservación para más de 2,000 especies en tres países y así investigar los costos de la conservación de especies limitada a los grupos taxonómicos y cómo estos costos podrían afectar a la planeación de la conservación. Buscamos diferencias en el costo medio anual entre los grupos taxonómicos en cada conjunto de datos. Para el conjunto de datos de los Estados Unidos, los planes de recuperación difirieron en su duración, por lo que también buscamos diferencias en los costos totales entre los grupos taxonómicos. Aunque los costos para cada especie individual variaron ampliamente, hubo consistencias internacionales sólidas. Por ejemplo, la conservación de los mamíferos cuesta en promedio de 8–26 veces más que la de las plantas y de 13–19 veces más que la de los invertebrados acuáticos. En promedio, cuesta de 5–30 veces más la conservación de especies de aves que la de las plantas y de 6–14 veces más que la de los invertebrados acuáticos. Estas diferencias en los costos podrían agravar la asignación desigual de recursos entre los grupos taxonómicos de tal manera que los grupos taxonómicos más carismáticos reciben más atención y requieren de más recursos, resultando en el descuido de otros grupos taxonómicos.
摘要
既有报道表明, 那些更受人们喜爱的类群如哺乳动物和鸟类, 获得的立法保护和保护优先等级均优于其它类群如昆虫和植物。然而, 保护各类群的相对成本以及保护成本与保护偏好性可能的相互作用尚不清楚。我们分析了 3 个国家 2000 余个物种的保护项目, 以研究各个类群中物种的保护成本及其对保护规划的影响。我们检验了每个数据集中类群之间年均保护成本的差异;其中, 美国的数据集由于持续年限不同, 我们还对其计算了类群之间总保护成本的差异。结果显示, 虽然对每个物种的保护成本相差很大, 但在不同国家情况是一致的。例如, 哺乳动物的平均保护成本是植物的 8–26 倍, 是水生无脊椎动物的 13–19 倍。而鸟类的平均保护成本则是植物的 5–30 倍, 同时是水生无脊椎动物的 6–14 倍。这样的差异可能会加剧类群之间资源分配的不平等, 使更受喜爱的类群受到更多关注的同时还得到更多资源, 从而导致其它类群受到忽视。【翻译:胡怡思;审校:聂永刚】
Article impact statement: Costs of conserving birds and mammals are much higher than for invertebrates and plants, which can reinforce biases in resource allocation.
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