Protected area asset stewardship

Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy to conserve natural values and reduce biodiversity loss. However, with increasing global food requirements, using land for protecting landscapes and species is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Here, we argue that framing PAs as spatial assets provides an ideal platform for generating investment and increasing their political/cultural resilience. Specifically, we define and characterize PAs in terms of their biophysical, human, infrastructure, institutional and cultural assets, making explicit the forms of value they create and for whom, and identifying types of investment needed to generate value in the medium and long term. These assets can be protected, managed and/or invested in to generate (monetizable and non-monetizable) forms of value. They can also be at risk from a variety of factors. Building on contemporary conservation policy, our asset framework provides an innovative approach to the development and management of PAs in the 21st Century

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Pervasive transition of the Brazilian land-use system

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Does soil pyrogenic carbon determine plant functional traits in Amazon Basin forests?

Amazon forests are fire-sensitive ecosystems and consequently fires affect forest structure and composition. For instance, the legacy of past fire regimes may persist through some species and traits that are found due to past fires. In this study, we tested for relationships between functional traits that are classically presented as the main components of plant ecological strategies and environmental filters related to climate and historical fires among permanent mature forest plots across the range of local and regional environmental gradients that occur in Amazonia. We used percentage surface soil pyrogenic carbon (PyC), a recalcitrant form of carbon that can persist for millennia in soils, as a novel indicator of historical fire in old-growth forests. Five out of the nine functional traits evaluated across all 378 species were correlated with some environmental variables. Although there is more PyC in Amazonian soils than previously reported, the percentage soil PyC indicated no detectable legacy effect of past fires on contemporary functional composition. More species with dry diaspores were found in drier and hotter environments. We also found higher wood density in trees from higher temperature sites. If Amazon forest past burnings were local and without distinguishable attributes of a widespread fire regime, then impacts on biodiversity would have been small and heterogeneous. Alternatively, sufficient time may have passed since the last fire to allow for species replacement. Regardless, as we failed to detect any impact of past fire on present forest functional composition, if our plots are representative then it suggests that mature Amazon forests lack a compositional legacy of past fire

The response of tropical rainforests to drought : lessons from recent research and future prospects

Key message: we review the recent findings on the influence of drought on tree mortality, growth or ecosystem functioning in tropical rainforests. Drought plays a major role in shaping tropical rainforests and the response mechanisms are highly diverse and complex. The numerous gaps identified here require the international scientific community to combine efforts in order to conduct comprehensive studies in tropical rainforests on the three continents. These results are essential to simulate the future of these ecosystems under diverse climate scenarios and to predict the future of the global earth carbon balance. - Context: tropical rainforest ecosystems are characterized by high annual rainfall. Nevertheless, rainfall regularly fluctuates during the year and seasonal soil droughts do occur. Over the past decades, a number of extreme droughts have hit tropical rainforests, not only in Amazonia but also in Asia and Africa. The influence of drought events on tree mortality and growth or on ecosystem functioning (carbon and water fluxes) in tropical rainforest ecosystems has been studied intensively, but the response mechanisms are complex.- Aims: herein, we review the recent findings related to the response of tropical forest ecosystems to seasonal and extreme droughts and the current knowledge about the future of these ecosystems. - Results: this review emphasizes the progress made over recent years and the importance of the studies conducted under extreme drought conditions or in through-fall exclusion experiments in understanding the response of these ecosystems. It also points to the great diversity and complexity of the response of tropical rainforest ecosystems to drought. - Conclusion: the numerous gaps identified here require the international scientific community to combine efforts in order to conduct comprehensive studies in tropical forest regions. These results are essential to simulate the future of these ecosystems under diverse climate scenarios and to predict the future of the global earth carbon balance

Culturomic assessment of Brazilian protected areas: exploring a novel index of protected area visibility

In a time when protected areas are under increasing societal and political pressure, ensuring their public visibility and support will be essential to guarantee their long-term maintenance. The high levels of societal participation and global reach of emerging digital technologies provide exciting new opportunities to assess the public salience of environmental and conservation related subjects, including protected areas. Here, we test the relationship between measures of public interest and internet saliency of protected areas and evaluate how the characteristics of different protected areas relate to their cultural visibility. We show there is a strong relationship between public interest in protected areas (as measured by Google Trends) and their visibility on the internet. Our results also indicate that governance sphere and protected area category are the most important factors driving internet salience, with national parks being the most visible to the public. Other important factors include the age of a protected area, its geographical extent, human population density in surrounding areas and proximity to touristic centres. Finally, our results suggest that downgrading, downsizing and degazettement (PADDD) events have targeted protected areas independently of their public visibility but they were more likely to be enacted in those protected areas with lower levels of public interest. While further studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between internet content and public sentiment towards different protected areas, our results suggest that internet saliency can be considered as a broad proxy of public awareness and engagement with protected areas

Culturomic assessment of Brazilian protected areas: exploring a novel index of protected area visibility

In a time when protected areas are under increasing societal and political pressure, ensuring their public visibility and support will be essential to guarantee their long-term maintenance. The high levels of societal participation and global reach of emerging digital technologies provide exciting new opportunities to assess the public salience of environmental and conservation related subjects, including protected areas. Here, we test the relationship between measures of public interest and internet saliency of protected areas and evaluate how the characteristics of different protected areas relate to their cultural visibility. We show there is a strong relationship between public interest in protected areas (as measured by Google Trends) and their visibility on the internet. Our results also indicate that governance sphere and protected area category are the most important factors driving internet salience, with national parks being the most visible to the public. Other important factors include the age of a protected area, its geographical extent, human population density in surrounding areas and proximity to touristic centres. Finally, our results suggest that downgrading, downsizing and degazettement (PADDD) events have targeted protected areas independently of their public visibility but they were more likely to be enacted in those protected areas with lower levels of public interest. While further studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between internet content and public sentiment towards different protected areas, our results suggest that internet saliency can be considered as a broad proxy of public awareness and engagement with protected areas

Monitoring carbon assimilation in South America's tropical forests: Model specification and application to the Amazonian droughts of 2005 and 2010

Net primary production (NPP) is a key variable for monitoring and understanding the impacts of environmental change on ecosystems and for generating realistic global and regional carbon budgets. In this paper we present a regional algorithm (RATE) for automatically monitoring the rate of carbon fixation (as measured by NPP) of tropical forests in South America. The algorithm is based on a modification of the SITE ecosystem model and uses data obtained from the procedures for aggregation and correction of data from the MOD12Q1 and MOD15A2 products and meteorological data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). A correction procedure for the MOD15A2 Leaf area index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) used by the RATE algorithm produced satisfactory LAI and FAPAR estimates when compared against observed values. The algorithm was successfully validated in eight field sites from two types of tropical forests in South America (Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic forest), producing an average error of only 4.72%. When applied to Amazonia, RATE indicates that NPP showed little variation in the 2005 and 2010 drought years (NPP = 1.28 kg-C m(-2) year(-1)) in comparison to non-drought years (NPP = 1.31 kg-C m(-2) year RATE also provides some limited evidence for small decreasing trends in Amazonia carbon assimilation during the period 2001-2010. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.117449463NASALBA (Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia)Aracruz Celulose S

Protected area asset stewardship

Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy to conserve natural values and reduce biodiversity loss. However, with increasing global food requirements, using land for protecting landscapes and species is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Here, we argue that framing PAs as spatial assets provides an ideal platform for generating investment and increasing their political/cultural resilience. Specifically, we define and characterize PAs in terms of their biophysical, human, infrastructure, institutional and cultural assets, making explicit the forms of value they create and for whom, and identifying types of investment needed to generate value in the medium and long term. These assets can be protected, managed and/or invested in to generate (monetizable and non-monetizable) forms of value. They can also be at risk from a variety of factors. Building on contemporary conservation policy, our asset framework provides an innovative approach to the development and management of PAs in the 21st Century