In response to growing demand for ecosystem‐level risk assessment in biodiversity conservation, and rapid proliferation of locally tailored protocols, the IUCN recently endorsed new Red List criteria ...as a global standard for ecosystem risk assessment. Four qualities were sought in the design of the IUCN criteria: generality; precision; realism; and simplicity. Drawing from extensive global consultation, we explore trade‐offs among these qualities when dealing with key challenges, including ecosystem classification, measuring ecosystem dynamics, degradation and collapse, and setting decision thresholds to delimit ordinal categories of threat. Experience from countries with national lists of threatened ecosystems demonstrates well‐balanced trade‐offs in current and potential applications of Red Lists of Ecosystems in legislation, policy, environmental management and education. The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems should be judged by whether it achieves conservation ends and improves natural resource management, whether its limitations are outweighed by its benefits, and whether it performs better than alternative methods. Future development of the Red List of Ecosystems will benefit from the history of the Red List of Threatened Species which was trialed and adjusted iteratively over 50 years from rudimentary beginnings. We anticipate the Red List of Ecosystems will promote policy focus on conservation outcomes in situ across whole landscapes and seascapes.
Venezuela's upheaval threatens Yanomami Paniz-Mondolfi, Alberto E; Grillet, María E; Tami, Adriana ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2019, Letnik:
365, Številka:
6455
Journal Article
Forests of the Americas and the Caribbean are undergoing rapid change as human populations increase and land use intensifies. We applied the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) criteria and simple ...cost‐efficiency analyses to provide the first regional perspective on patterns of relative risk integrated across multiple threats. Based on six indicators of ecosystem distribution and function, we find that 80% of the forest types and 85% of the current forest area is potentially threatened based on RLE criteria. Twelve forest types are Critically Endangered due to past or projected future deforestation, and Tropical Dry Forests and Woodland have highest threat scores. To efficiently reduce risks to forest ecosystems at national levels, scenario analyses show that countries would need to combine large forest protection measures with focused actions, tailored to their sociopolitical context, to help restore ecological functions in a selection of threatened forest types.
Genetic research is a well-recognized component of understanding biodiversity and is an invaluable approach for documenting and mitigating increasingly high rates of loss. Here we present a ...quantitative synthesis of conservation genetics science in Latin America and its progress, focusing on evolving trends on different taxonomic groups, environments and markers. We reviewed 528 conservation genetics research papers published in 57 journals from 1992 to 2013. Brazil and Mexico were the most represented countries in the literature and there was a marked disparity between terrestrial (~64%) and aquatic-marine research (~36%). More than a third or the articles focused on plants (~35%) while the other (65%) were animal studies with a clear emphasis on mammals (35%) and bony fishes (24%). Most research (42%) addressed patterns of population structure, while 17% focused on genetic diversity issues and 14% focused on the description of novel genetic markers. Finally, although genetics has become an integral part of conservation biology, genetic analyses have often not been completely integrated into the development of conservation and management strategies and formal policies. We discuss the levels to which these types of studies can effectively contribute to biodiversity conservation in this region, and offer suggestions on how conservation genetic approaches may be used more broadly, enhancing the connectivity between scientists and policy makers.
This study was conducted with the objective of testing the hypothesis that tomato fruits from organic farming accumulate more nutritional compounds, such as phenolics and vitamin C as a consequence ...of the stressing conditions associated with farming system. Growth was reduced in fruits from organic farming while titratable acidity, the soluble solids content and the concentrations in vitamin C were respectively +29%, +57% and +55% higher at the stage of commercial maturity. At that time, the total phenolic content was +139% higher than in the fruits from conventional farming which seems consistent with the more than two times higher activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) we observed throughout fruit development in fruits from organic farming. Cell membrane lipid peroxidation (LPO) degree was 60% higher in organic tomatoes. SOD activity was also dramatically higher in the fruits from organic farming. Taken together, our observations suggest that tomato fruits from organic farming experienced stressing conditions that resulted in oxidative stress and the accumulation of higher concentrations of soluble solids as sugars and other compounds contributing to fruit nutritional quality such as vitamin C and phenolic compounds.
As the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic continues to expand, healthcare resources globally have been spread thin. Now, the disease is rapidly spreading across ...South America, with deadly consequences in areas with already weakened public health systems. The Amazon region is particularly susceptible to the widespread devastation from Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) because of its immunologically fragile native Amerindian inhabitants and epidemiologic vulnerabilities. Herein, we discuss the current situation and potential impact of COVID-19 in the Amazon region and how further spread of the epidemic wave could prove devastating for many Amerindian people living in the Amazon rainforest.
An understanding of risks to biodiversity is needed for planning action to slow current rates of decline and secure ecosystem services for future human use. Although the IUCN Red List criteria ...provide an effective assessment protocol for species, a standard global assessment of risks to higher levels of biodiversity is currently limited. In 2008, IUCN initiated development of risk assessment criteria to support a global Red List of ecosystems. We present a new conceptual model for ecosystem risk assessment founded on a synthesis of relevant ecological theories. To support the model, we review key elements of ecosystem definition and introduce the concept of ecosystem collapse, an analogue of species extinction. The model identifies four distributional and functional symptoms of ecosystem risk as a basis for assessment criteria: A) rates of decline in ecosystem distribution; B) restricted distributions with continuing declines or threats; C) rates of environmental (abiotic) degradation; and D) rates of disruption to biotic processes. A fifth criterion, E) quantitative estimates of the risk of ecosystem collapse, enables integrated assessment of multiple processes and provides a conceptual anchor for the other criteria. We present the theoretical rationale for the construction and interpretation of each criterion. The assessment protocol and threat categories mirror those of the IUCN Red List of species. A trial of the protocol on terrestrial, subterranean, freshwater and marine ecosystems from around the world shows that its concepts are workable and its outcomes are robust, that required data are available, and that results are consistent with assessments carried out by local experts and authorities. The new protocol provides a consistent, practical and theoretically grounded framework for establishing a systematic Red List of the world's ecosystems. This will complement the Red List of species and strengthen global capacity to report on and monitor the status of biodiversity.
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