The economic response to covid-19 and the Conservative party’s failure to depart from Thatcherite orthodoxy

Tom Hoctor writes that, despite much talk around ‘levelling up’, the government’s response to the pandemic points towards an inability to resolve a long-standing Conservative Party dispute: that between Thatcherism and the more interventive, investment-led approach to the economy which the country needs

A Vulnerability Assessment of 300 Species in Florida: Threats from Sea Level Rise, Land Use, and Climate Change

Species face many threats, including accelerated climate change, sea level rise, and conversion and degradation of habitat from human land uses. Vulnerability assessments and prioritization protocols have been proposed to assess these threats, often in combination with information such as species rarity; ecological, evolutionary or economic value; and likelihood of success. Nevertheless, few vulnerability assessments or prioritization protocols simultaneously account for multiple threats or conservation values. We applied a novel vulnerability assessment tool, the Standardized Index of Vulnerability and Value, to assess the conservation priority of 300 species of plants and animals in Florida given projections of climate change, human land-use patterns, and sea level rise by the year 2100. We account for multiple sources of uncertainty and prioritize species under five different systems of value, ranging from a primary emphasis on vulnerability to threats to an emphasis on metrics of conservation value such as phylogenetic distinctiveness. Our results reveal remarkable consistency in the prioritization of species across different conservation value systems. Species of high priority include the Miami blue butterfly (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri), Key tree cactus (Pilosocereus robinii), Florida duskywing butterfly (Ephyriades brunnea floridensis), and Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium). We also identify sources of uncertainty and the types of life history information consistently missing across taxonomic groups. This study characterizes the vulnerabilities to major threats of a broad swath of Florida\u27s biodiversity and provides a system for prioritizing conservation efforts that is quantitative, flexible, and free from hidden value judgments

Forty species consistently ranked as having the highest combined vulnerability to threats (VU), lack of adaptive capacity (LAC), conservation value (CV), and information availability (IA).

<p>Five weightings schemes are presented, corresponding to 1: stepwise (see methods), 2: 45/25/20/10 percentage weighted averaging of scores for VU, LAC, CV, and IA, respectively, 3: 25/25/25/25 weighting, 4: 20/20/50/10 weighting, and 5: 15/15/35/35 weighting. Species are sorted by the average rank across all five weighting schemes, ranging from 1^st to 86^th rank (where 1 indicates the highest conservation priority). Red denotes species ranked in the top quartile of this range, orange in the second quartile, yellow in the third, and green in the fourth. The number within each colored square is the relative rank of that species under that weighting scheme. Note that some species consistently fall within the high priority (top) quartile, while others vary depending on what type of information is emphasized in a given ranking scheme.</p

Histograms of SIVVA scores for all 300 species.

<p>The number of species in each bin (frequency) is given. Histograms depict the range and dispersion of values for the 300 species surveyed. SIVVA scores follow a statistically normal distribution for Vulnerability, a dispersed distribution for Lack of Adaptive Capacity, a clustered distribution for Conservation Value, and a high frequency of species with low scores for Information Availability, and very few species with high scores for this module. </p

Habitat Fragmentation Handbook for Installation Planners Status and Options

Under Work Unit #CNN-T602FF ABSTRACT: The primary objective of this work is to provide military installation planners with a sourcebook on the state of the art in how to analyze the probability and risks of habitat fragmentation for animal Threatened and Endangered Species (TES). The document provides a review of habitat fragmentation issues, focusing on those of highest concern to Army Military Installation Land Managers. It has been designed to capture information developed during the 4-year ERDC research project called: Quantify Effects of Fragmentation and Approaches to Mitigate. Major components include: • TES habitat background survey • Army TES Life histories and potential supporting data types • Description of major Fragmentation initiatives • Survey of the major Fragmentation modeling techniques • Evaluation of Data Quality • Potential inputs for a long term TES monitoring capability • Recommendations for future directions. DISCLAIMER: The contents of this report are not to be used for advertising, publication, or promotional purposes