Improving the targeted delivery of conservation management to halt biodiversity loss
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Biological Sciences
Abstract
A recent global assessment shows that the rate of biodiversity loss is not slowing, making it unlikely that the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) target to achieve a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010 will be met. Worryingly, biodiversity declines are continuing despite increases in the scale and intensity of policy and management responses designed to halt them. This suggests that the nature, structure and scale of these conservation measures are insufficient to counteract existing drivers of decline and are likely to be wholly inadequate in offsetting the detrimental effects of either further increases in existing pressures or the emergence of novel drivers. The key challenge now is to understand why biodiversity declines are continuing and why conservation management is not achieving its objectives. One of the principle drivers of biodiversity losses is land-use change, particularly to meet increasing human needs for food, fuel and fibre. These changes alter the quantity, quality and distribution of key resources for biodiversity, such as food and breeding sites, which determine a species' niche space in the landscape. Reductions in niche availability can have detrimental impacts on reproduction and survival rates which then drives population declines. As a consequence, most conservation policy and management strategies focus on returning these resources back into landscapes. However, one of the key gaps in the evidence-base underpinning such conservation action is an understanding of the quantity and quality of resources which are required to support stable populations. Without this knowledge, it is impossible to assess which resources are currently below the threshold levels required and therefore to effectively deliver targeted conservation management action which provides appropriate and sufficient resources to ensure population stability. This project will develop tools which can be used to identify these critical thresholds in resource availability and therefore to guide the delivery of conservation management designed to halt biodiversity loss. I will use farmland and woodland birds as model systems for this work. The UK and European governments have identified birds as proxies for wider biodiversity health and have adopted indices of population trends as headline indicators of sustainable development. Using the quantity and quality of key resources provided as a common currency, I will re-classify land-uses according to their contribution to a species' niche space and then relate niche availability to population abundance and trends. The analyses will be based on existing data collected from a number of long-term bird monitoring schemes across the UK and Europe. Assessing the links between niche availability and population dynamics across broad spatial scales and contrasting land-uses will allow the development of generic rules for predicting niche requirements across species, spatial scales and ecosystems.
People |
ORCID iD |
Simon Butler (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Méndez V
(2018)
Resource diversity and provenance underpin spatial patterns in functional diversity across native and exotic species.
in Ecology and evolution
Wade AS
(2013)
Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
in PloS one
Description | I have demonstrated that a previously developed trait-based risk assessment framework, used to link changes in land-use and management in UK farmland systems to changes in biodiversity health can be extended to more complex forest systems and applied at a pan-European level. This extension underpins and justifies the ongoing work to quantify functional space requirements for a range of species, which will then be used to identify critical thresholds for delivering population stability and thus to guide the delivery of conservation management. As an extension of this work, I have used this trait-based framework to develop an algorithm for the objective selection of indicator species, based on their resource use. This has been made freely available through the internet and has been used by conservation organisations in Germany and Austria to explore develop of new biodiversity indicators. Through collaborations with research teams in Spain and New Zealand, developed as part of this project, I have also been able to demonstrate that the trait-based framework developed to link land-use and management to population dynamics has broad generality; it has been used to predict bird responses to land-use change at fine spatial scales in Spain and to predict occupancy of native and introduced species across ecosystems in New Zealand. |
Exploitation Route | The principal objective of the award was to facilitate the improved targeting of conservation action. This goal remains and work is continuing to deliver it. Through links and collaborations within the project with researchers, conservation organisations and government bodies across Europe, it is anticipated that findings will be used to inform conservation policy and delivery. |
Sectors | Environment |
Description | New Zealand bird risk assessment |
Organisation | Landcare Research |
Country | New Zealand |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Collaborative project funded by LandCare Research, New Zealand to apply modelling frameworks for predicting the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity, developed for UK and European agricultural and forest systems, to equivalent systems in New Zealand. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data provision; staff time for data preparation and analyses |
Impact | Two papers currently in review |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Steppe birds in Catalonia |
Organisation | Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The collaboration was set up to develop and apply a resource-based modelling framework to assess habitat suitability for Steppe birds in semi-arid Mediterranean agricultural systems. I provided technical input to facilitate the development and application of the models, based on work developed as part of this award and the work on which it builds. |
Collaborator Contribution | This work was led by the Spanish partners and they provided both the field data used to validate the models developed and the staff time to undertake the necessary analyses. |
Impact | This collaboration led to: Cardador et al (2014) PLoS ONE 9(3): e92790 |
Start Year | 2012 |
Title | SpecSel |
Description | A free-to-download algorithm to facilitate objective selection of indicator species on the basis of key ecological and functional traits. First described in paper by Wade et al (2013) PLoS ONE 9(5): e97217. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Impact | In collaboration with Butler, algorithm has been downloaded and used by BirdLife Austria to help develop national forest bird index. Discussions about potential use held with organisations in Germany and New Zealand. |
URL | https://www.uea.ac.uk/computing/specsel |
Description | Listening to Nature's View |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation at Sainsbury's Centre for Visual Arts of outputs from collaborative work undertaken with Kingsley Ash, Centre for Creative Technology Leeds Metropolitan University. The project involved exploration of the potential value of data sonification, the process of turning data into sound, as a tool for data analysis, music composition and public engagement. This was a multi-part presentation, covering aspects relating to the data source (issue of agricultural intensification, farmland bird declines, challenges of sustainable development), the process of data sonification and potential applications. No notable impact apart from encouragement to pursue/develop ideas further. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | Targeting conservation action using trait-based frameworks |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited lecture at University of Sheffield Not aware of notable impact |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | Targeting conservation action using trait-based frameworks |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation given to staff of Department of Conservation, NZ and LandCare Research in October 2012. This was part of two-week research visit to discuss my research and explore collaborative opportunities to apply my work to New Zealand agricultural and forest ecosystems. This has resulted in a six month project, quantifying functional space availability for native and introduced bird species across New Zealand. Two papers currently in preparation as output from this collaboration |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | The use of trait-based frameworks to target conservation action |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar at University College, Cork, Ireland Not aware of notable impact |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |