Biodiversity Conservation – week 2

Marco Pautasso (m.pautasso@ic.ac.uk)

London Metropolitan Univ. - 2010

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

The oldest (since 1951) and most visited (~10

million visitors/yr)

UK National Parks: the Peak District

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: the Peak District

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

The newest (since 2009) and most inhabited

(~120,000 people)

UK National Parks: the South Downs

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: the South Downs

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

New Forest

Established 2005, ~570km2

UK National Parks: the New Forest

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: the New Forest

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South DownsDartmoor

2x New Forest (size), but ~ same n

of inhabitants

New Forest

UK National Parks: Dartmoor

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: Dartmoor

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South DownsExmoor

Least visited (~1.4 million people/yr)

New ForestDartmoor

UK National Parks: Exmoor

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: Exmoor

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

Pembrokeshire

Second for money spent by visitors

(~500 million £/yr)

New ForestDartmoor

Exmoor

UK National Parks: Pembrokeshire

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: Pembrokeshire

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

Snowdonia

~25,000 inhabitants,4.3 million visitors/yr,

~2200 km2

New ForestDartmoor

Exmoor

Pembrokeshire

UK National Parks: Snowdonia

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

Lake District

2nd for number of inhabitants and

visitors

New ForestDartmoor

Exmoor

Pembrokeshire

Snowdonia

UK National Parks: Lake District

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks: Lake District

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

Loch Lomond

New ForestDartmoor

Exmoor

Pembrokeshire

Snowdonia

Lake District

UK National Parks: Loch Lomond

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

New ForestDartmoor

Exmoor

Pembrokeshire

Snowdonia

Lake District

North Yorkshire Moors

Loch Lomond

UK National Parks: North Yorkshire Moors

from Wikimedia Commons

UK National Parks~10% of the UK area

Source: UK National Parks

Peak District

South Downs

New ForestDartmoor

Exmoor

Pembrokeshire

Snowdonia

Lake District

Loch LomondCairngorms

North Yorkshire Moors

Northumberland

BreconBeacons

Broads

North Yorkshire Dales

Species-people correlation in Europe

from Araujo (2003) Global Ecology & Biogeography

plants birds

people

spp

Global biodiversity patterns: vascular plants

from Barthlott et al. (2007) Erdkunde

US National Parks: ~270 million visitors/yr

Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

Yellowstone (1988)

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Nature protection in the USA: the Northwest

Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

US National Parks: Mount Rainier

Source: Wikimedia Commons

US National Parks: Yosemite

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Nature protection in the USA: the Southwest

Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

US National Parks: Yosemite

Source: Wikimedia Commons

US National Parks: Big Bend

Source: Wikimedia Commons

US National Parks: Big Bend

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Nature protection in the USA: Alaska

Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

US National Parks: Denali (Alaska)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

US National Parks: Glacier Bay

Source: Wikimedia Commons

US National Parks: the Everglades

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Five botanic gardens in the UK

Source: BGCI

NAME PLACE PLANT SPECIES

AREA (HA) ESTABLISHED

Eden Project Bodelva, Cornwall ~5000 50 1997

Wales National Botanic Garden

Llanarthne, Wales ~4000 60 2000

Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden

Edinburgh, Scotland ~12500 26 1670

Oxford University Botanic Garden

Oxford, England ~8000 1.8 1621

Chelsea Physic Garden London ~5000 1 1673

Species richness vs. % of protected area

1. Link country with n of plant species Brazil 1,600 Britain 3,200 Canada 5,600 Italy 20,000 USA 56,000 1. Link country and % of terrestrial

protected area Brazil 15 China 22 Germany 27 UK 30 USA 56

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

lessthan1%

1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-30 morethan30%

proportion of protected area

num

ber o

f cou

ntri

es

Source: UNEP, 2008

Are protected areas effective at preserving biodiversity?

Many protected areas tend to be located in relatively remote/inaccessible regions

Sometimes protected areas become tourist attractions

Protected area networks have often been created without international coordination

Efficiency and effectiveness of protected areas

Wiersma et al. (2009) Biological Conservation

Protected areas in Spain and Portugal

Araujo et al. (2008) Conservation Biology

Protected areas and human population growth

Wittemyer et al. (2008) Science

from: Lonsdale et al. (2008) European Journal of Forest Research

Random sample of 100 papers per year on ‘species richness’ in WOS (1991-2004)

Which institutions other than National Parks aim to protect biodiversity?

* Government Departments

* Foundations and charities

* Research Institutes

* Private individuals

* NGOs

What can the single individual do to stop the loss of biodiversity?

Habitat fragmentation, degradation and loss

Water, air and soil pollution

Species introductions

Climate change

Trade, travel, transportation and tourism

Habitat fragmentation and loss in Amazonia

(2009) Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Air pollution due to urbanization: NO2

source: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/EarthObservation/pollution_europe_hires.jpg

[1015 mol/cm2; Jan 2003- Jun 2004]

From: Hufnagel et al. (2005) PNAS (air) & Kaluza et al. (2010) Interface (sea)

Species movements in a globalized world

passengers

From: Denis Loustau (2006) Climate change impacts on extensively managed forest: a modelling approach, Wilton Park Conference

Climate change and plant distribution shifts

Examples of how the single individual can make a difference in biodiversity conservation

1) Volunteer in conservation activities/ biodiversity education

2) Reduce consumption/Carbon emissions?

3) Adopt an environmentally friendly lifestyle

4) avoid unintended introductions of exotic species

Volunteering in biodiversity conservation

Volunteering in biodiversity conservation

Volunteering in biodiversity conservation

How can you get to know more about

biodiversity?

Source: Greater London

Authority

Scholarships in biodiversity conservation

Summer schools in biodiversity conservation

Conferences about biodiversity conservation

ReferencesBarbosa AM, Fontaneto D, Marini L & Pautasso M (2010) Is the human population a large-scale indicator of the species richness of ground beetles? Animal Conservation 13: 432-441Cantarello E, Steck CE, Fontana P, Fontaneto D, Marini L & Pautasso M (2010) A multi-scale study of Orthoptera species richness and human population size controlling for sampling effort. Naturwissenschaften 97: 265-271Golding J, Güsewell S, Kreft H, Kuzevanov VY, Lehvävirta S, Parmentier I & Pautasso M (2010) Species-richness patterns of the living collections of the world's botanic gardens: a matter of socio-economics? Annals of Botany 105: 689-696Pautasso M (2010) Worsening file-drawer problem in the abstracts of natural, medical and social science databases. Scientometrics 85: 193-202Pautasso M & Chiarucci A (2008) A test of the scale-dependence of the species abundance-people correlation for veteran trees in Italy. Annals of Botany 101: 709-715 Pautasso M & Dinetti M (2009) Avian species richness, human population and protected areas across Italy’s regions. Environmental Conservation 36: 22-31Pautasso M & Fontaneto D (2008) A test of the species-people correlation for stream macro-invertebrates in European countries. Ecological Applications 18: 1842-1849Pautasso M & Parmentier I (2007) Are the living collections of the world’s botanical gardens following species-richness patterns observed in natural ecosystems? Botanica Helvetica 117: 15-28Pautasso M & Powell G (2009) Aphid biodiversity is correlated with human population in European countries. Oecologia 160: 839-846Pautasso M & Weisberg PJ (2008) Density-area relationships: the importance of the zeros. Global Ecology and Biogeography 17: 203-210Pautasso M & Zotti M (2009) Macrofungal taxa and human population in Italy's regions. Biodiversity & Conservation 18: 473-485Pautasso M et al (2010) Plant health and global change – some implications for landscape management. Biological Reviews 85: 729-755Pautasso M et al (2011) Global macroecology of bird assemblages in urbanized and semi-natural ecosystems. Global Ecology & Biogeography 20: 426-436Pecher C, Fritz S, Marini L, Fontaneto D & Pautasso M (2010) Scale-dependence of the correlation between human population and the species richness of stream macroinvertebrates. Basic Applied Ecology 11: 272-280Schlick-Steiner B, Steiner F & Pautasso M (2008) Ants and people: a test of two mechanisms behind the large-scale human-biodiversity correlation for Formicidae in Europe. Journal of Biogeography 35: 2195-2206Steck CE & Pautasso M (2008) Human population, grasshopper and plant species richness in European countries. Acta Oecologica 34: 303-310