Scaling properties and non-linearities of anthropogenic processes affecting biodiversity

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Conservation efforts may be paying off for wild plants and insect pollinators

Since the 1990s, rates of biodiversity loss of wild plants and their insect pollinators have slowed down in north-west Europe, according to a recent study. It is likely that conservation activities, such as agri-environmental schemes, have contributed to this improving situation.

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Do Natura 2000 sites protect the most vulnerable species?

New research suggests that Natura 2000 sites are highly effective in minimising the number of endangered species of concern to European conservation. The findings may reduce concerns that poor coordination between Member States in setting up the European network of protected areas has led to inadequate protection of vulnerable species.

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Why monitor biodiversity?

For the long-term, multi-purpose surveillance can be advantageous to address general questions, such as the status and trend of distribution and abundance of a set of species, and the causes for their changes. This brief provides key recommendations for designing monitoring schemes.

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Impact of policy and socioeconomic drivers on anthropogenic processes and pressures affecting biodiversity

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Systematic reserve site selection in dynamic landscapes

Setting aside protected areas is widely recognized as one of the most effective measure to prevent species from extinction. The efficiency of networks of protected sites can be enhanced considerably by a systematic selection that considers the principle of complementarity (e.g. Margules and Pressey 2000). While the theory and practice of systematic reserve site selection has considerably advanced, changes in species composition, which is an important process in many ecosystems, especially in dynamic landscapes, is rarely considered. Usually, the data from several years are compiled. Site selection based on species occurrence data of a single year may result in remarkably divergent network configurations. Hence, temporal variability in species occurrences and composition should be routinely tested and considered in systematic reserve site selection in dynamic systems. For an implementation of conservation planning into praxis on a fine spatial scale in a fragmented landscape, this means, besides the collection of such temporal data (repeated surveys for more than 1 year), that species should be represented in a several sites so that recolonization from neighbouring sites is possible. Ideally, aggregated site networks that contain viable metapopulations should be considered as planning units. If the temporal variability is mainly due to low detection probability, sampling must be increased to obtain data suitable for systematic reserve site selection.

To assess the influence of temporal variability in species composition on the establishment of a reserve network in dynamic landscapes, Felinks et al. (2010) compared network configurations based on species data of small mammals and frogs sampled during two consecutive years in a fragmented Atlantic Forest landscape in south-eastern Brazil. Site selection with simulated annealing was carried out with the datasets of each single year and after merging the datasets of both years. Remarkable differences are reflected in both the identity of the selected fragments and in the amount of flexibility and irreplaceability in network configuration. Networks selected when data for both years were merged did not include all sites that were irreplaceable in one of the 2 years. Results of species number estimation revealed that significant changes in the composition of the species community occurred. Hence, temporal variability of community composition should be routinely tested and considered in systematic reserve site selection in dynamic landscapes.  

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Methods for cross-scale species distribution modelling

Knowledge of how to combine information about environmental factors that determine species distributions across spatial scales is indispensable for effective conservation and management. Researchers have tested three methodological approaches to combine distributional and environmental data for Finnish butterflies. They found that using the best information available at each spatial scale for the development of species distribution models and combining the results by simple multiplication significantly increases the predictive ability. This study highlights the notable potential of multi-scale approaches and demonstrates that the search for environmental correlates with species’ distributions must not only be addressed at an appropriate spatial scale, but also should be combined across the spatial scales due to the inherent hierarchy of processes where the higher levels constrain the lower levels.

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What is beta diversity and why is it important?

Biodiversity conservation and policy often focuses on species richness. This is called local or alpha diversity by scientists. However, there is another fundamental aspect of biodiversity that often receives less attention. Ecologists call it species turnover, spatial change in species composition, compositional similarity, or beta diversity. It applies to any change of species composition in space or even time. It can be expressed in many forms, from simple gains or losses of species one encounters while moving from site A to site B, to indices based on the numbers of species shared between two sites and the numbers of unique species at each site. Moreover, beta diversity is the link between species richness (alpha diversity) at smaller and larger scales. Knowledge about beta diversity and the factors that explain it can support applied biodiversity conservation and policy. It is particularly important in the design or assessment of networks of protected areas that together capture, in an efficient way, all of the targeted biodiversity and when assessing natural corridors and migration barriers. This knowledge is also important when designing monitoring schemes to secure that all targeted components of biodiversity are covered at an appropriate scale.

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Issues Brief for the SCALES stakeholder workshop 21 September 2010, Brussels

Scale-related issues are key challenges for the EU biodiversity policy beyond 2010. This document outlines the importance of crossing scales in biodiversity conservation and provides important examples  of mismatches between governance and ecological scale.

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Addressing the mismatches of scale in biodiversity conservation

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Fragmented forests and grasslands: plant sensitivity to habitat loss

General ecological theory suggests that shrinking the size of a habitat and cutting it off from surrounding patches of similar habitat – known as isolation - will reduce the population size of plant species. Isolation, or fragmentation, is a common feature of European agricultural landscapes and reports suggest that just 0.4-1.1% of original grassland remains.

While some scientific studies have revealed the link between habitat size and population size in forests, the effect on grassland species is less clear. The sensitivity of forest plants also appears to vary between species, leading scientists to look more closely at the underlying reasons for this. However, it can be difficult to separate the effects of isolation and habitat size from deterioration in habitat quality, which may occur in response to the same disturbance, i.e. land use change.

A new study exploring the sensitivity of grassland and forest plants to decreasing habitat size and isolation in north-central Europe concludes that an irreversible shift in the most dominant plant species may already be underway in forests and grassland, where forests are more vulnerable than grasslands.

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Habitat mapping method could help restore biodiversity

Driven by increased demand for food and growing populations, major changes in rural landscapes during the second half of the 20th century, particularly in Western Europe, have had damaging effects on biodiversity. Intensive agriculture, afforestation for timber production and urbanisation have been shown to not only reduce available habitat for wildlife, but to also cut the links between habitats - the ‘ecological connectivity’ that allows species to spread and move around. Without these connections, there is a greater risk of extinction. There is increasing interest in restoring habitats at a landscape and regional scale. This study, conducted under the EU SCALES project, presents a new method of mapping habitat change to assist these efforts. The researchers argue that mapping is an important first step in conservation planning, with implications for the EU’s Natura 2000 initiative, and that their approach is unique in that it can cover a large area of land, show small details and assess changes over a long period of time.

They demonstrated its use by applying it to Dorset, a county in the UK of over 2500 sq.km. The researchers combined historic maps and soil data from the 1930s, before the onset of intensive agriculture, and developed appropriate habitat classifications, such as ‘heathland’ and ‘managed grassland’. Referring to habitat types, instead of land use functions, makes it easier to compare maps produced at different times or using different methods. The information was used to produce a digital map of Dorset in the 1930s, with a fine-scaled resolution of 25 x 25 metres. The map illustrated the range of habitat types across the district at the time, and presents what could be considered an ‘ideal’ situation for semi-natural habitats. These maps were then compared to a land cover map of Dorset, produced from satellite data, for the year 2000.

The maps revealed that the total area of semi-natural vegetation in Dorset fell by 74% over the 70 year period, considerably reducing the amount of quality habitat for wildlife. This was mainly the result of conversion to land for intensive agriculture, but afforestation also played a role by introducing conifer plantations for timber. Furthermore, the connectivity between the remaining fragments of habitat had fallen considerably. Most grasslands in 2000 had almost zero connectivity with other habitats more than a few hundred metres away, when ‘connectivity’ is considered as the ability of seeds from one habitat patch to disperse and end up at another habitat patch of the same type. The case study demonstrates the capacity of this mapping method, although its accuracy could be improved with better data; the researchers suggest that actual losses in habitat are likely to be even greater than the maps indicate. They propose a quantitative framework for conservation planning that uses high resolution maps, such as these, to help identify habitats for preservation and a target level of connectivity.

Source: Hooftman, D.A.P., Bullock, J.M. (2012) Mapping to inform conservation: A case study of changes in semi-natural habitats and their connectivity over 70 years. Biological Conservation. 145(1):30-38. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2011.09.015.

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