Utilizing multi-objective decision support tools for protected area selection

Establishing and maintaining protected areas (PAs) is a key action in delivering post-2020 biodiversity targets. PAs often need to meet multiple objectives, ranging from biodiversity protection to ecosystem service provision and climate change mitigation, but available land and conservation funding is limited. Therefore, optimizing resources by selecting the most beneficial PAs is vital. Here, we advocate for a flexible and transparent approach to selecting PAs based on multiple objectives, and illustrate this with a decision support tool on a global scale. The tool allows weighting and prioritization of different conservation objectives according to user-specified preferences as well as real-time comparison of the outcome. Applying the tool across 1,346 terrestrial PAs, we demonstrate that decision makers frequently face trade-offs among conflicting objectives, e.g., between species protection and ecosystem integrity. Nevertheless, we show that transparent decision support tools can reveal synergies and trade-offs associated with PA selection, thereby helping to illuminate and resolve land-use conflicts embedded in divergent societal and political demands and values.publishedVersio

Spatio-temporal evolution of Cedrela (Meliaceae) : climatic niche dynamics, phylogeography and taxonomy

Understanding major causes of biodiversity and range dynamics requires research on evolutionary processes under consideration of environmental changes. In my thesis, I investigated the spatio-temporal evolution of the Neotropical tree genus Cedrela from the Meliaceae family by studying its genetic diversity, taxonomy, colonization history, climatic niche changes and dynamics of species distributions. My results show that climatic and geological changes are major drivers of biological diversification in Cedrela.Um Biodiversitäts- und Verbreitungsdynamiken verstehen zu können, ist die Erforschung evolutionsbiologischer Vorgänge in Zusammenhang mit Veränderungen der Umwelt notwendig. In meiner Doktorarbeit habe ich die räumlich-zeitliche Evolution von Cedrela, einer prominenten Baumgattung der Neotropis aus der Familie Meliaceae untersucht. Dabei habe ich mich der Analyse genetischer Diversität, der phylogenetischen und klassischen Taxonomie, der Kolonisierungsgeschichte, sowie den Dynamiken klimatischer Nischen und Artverbreitungsmustern gewidmet. Die Ergebnisse meiner Arbeit zeigen, dass klimatische und geologische Veränderungen Einfluss auf die biologische Vielfalt von Cedrela hatten

How to resolve conflicting conservation objectives: A decision support tool for the global selection of multi-purpose protected areas

The establishment and maintenance of protected areas(PAs) is viewed as a key action in delivering post-2020 biodiversity targets. PAs often need to meet a multitude of objectives, ranging from biodiversity protection to ecosystem service provision and climate change mitigation. As available land and conservation funding are limited, optimizing resources by selecting the most beneficial PAs is vital. Here we present a decision support tool that enables a flexible approach to PA selection on a global scale, allowing different conservation objectives to be weighted and prioritized according to user-specified preferences. We apply the tool across 1347 terrestrial PAs and highlight frequent trade-offs among different objectives, e.g., between biodiversity protection and ecosystem integrity. These results indicate that decision makers must usually decide among conflicting objectives. To assist this our decision support tool provides an explicitly value-based approach that can help resolve such conflicts by considering divergent societal and political demands and values