Combining Data from Field Surveys and Archaeological Records to Predict the Distribution of Culturally Important Trees

Aim:  Indigenous communities involved in conservation planning require spatial datasets depicting the distribution of culturally important species. However, accessing datasets on the location of these species can be challenging, particularly when the current distribution no longer reflects areas with the full range of suitable growing conditions because of past logging. We test whether using occurrence data from community‐based field surveys and archaeological records in species distribution models can help predict the distribution of monumental western redcedar trees (Thuja plicata)—large, high‐quality trees suitable for cultural purposes such as carving dug‐out canoes, totem poles and traditional houses. This species is critically important to indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest of North America, but trees suitable for traditional carving and building are diminishing in abundance due to logging. Location:  Our analysis covers the spatial extent of the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk First Nation, which encompasses a portion of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, Canada. Methods:  We built and compared species distribution models using the machine learning program, Maxent, based on occurrence data from field surveys and archaeological records of culturally modified trees. Results:  Our findings highlight similarities and differences between the predictions from these species distribution models. When validating these models against occurrences from an independent dataset, the archaeological record model performs better than the field survey model. These findings may arise because the independent dataset was collected on an unlogged island—an environment that aligns more closely with the historic forest conditions revealed by the archaeological records than the current distribution revealed by the field surveys. Main conclusions: We demonstrate and discuss the utility of using archaeological data in species distribution modelling and conservation planning when the target species is associated with shifting environmental baselines, data limitations and an important cultural resource

Watershed Classification Predicts Streamflow Regime and Organic Carbon Dynamics in the Northeast Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest

Watershed classification has long been a key tool in the hydrological sciences, but few studies have been extended to biogeochemistry. We developed a combined hydro-biogeochemical classification for watersheds draining to the coastal margin of the Northeast Pacific coastal temperate rainforest (1,443,062 km2), including 2,695 small coastal rivers (SCR) and 10 large continental watersheds. We used cluster analysis to group SCR watersheds into 12 types, based on watershed properties. The most important variables for distinguishing SCR watershed types were evapotranspiration, slope, snowfall, and total precipitation. We used both streamflow and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) measurements from rivers (n = 104 and 90 watersheds respectively) to validate the classification. Watershed types corresponded with broad differences in streamflow regime, mean annual runoff, DOC seasonality, and mean DOC concentration. These links between watershed type and river conditions enabled the first region-wide empirical characterization of river hydrobiogeochemistry at the land-sea margin, spanning extensive ungauged and unsampled areas. We found very high annual runoff (mean > 3,000 mm, n = 10) in three watershed types totaling 59,024 km2 and ranging from heavily glacierized mountain watersheds with high flow in summer to a rain-fed mountain watershed type with high flow in fall-winter. DOC hotspots (mean > 4 mg L−1, n = 14) were found in three other watershed types (48,557 km2) with perhumid rainforest climates and less-mountainous topography. We described four patterns of DOC seasonality linked to watershed hydrology, with fall-flushing being widespread. Hydro-biogeochemical watershed classification may be useful for other complex regions with sparse observation networks.Author Contributions: Conceptualization: Ian J. W. Giesbrecht, Suzanne E. Tank, Gordon W. Frazer, Eran Hood, David E. Butman, David V. D’Amore, Allison Bidlack, Ken P. Lertzman Data curation: Ian J. W. Giesbrecht, Santiago G. Gonzalez Arriola, David Hutchinson Formal analysis: Ian J. W. Giesbrecht, Gordon W. Frazer, Santiago G. Gonzalez ArriolaYe

Scientists' Warning to Humanity on Threats to Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems

The knowledge systems and practices of Indigenous Peoples and local communities play critical roles in safeguarding the biological and cultural diversity of our planet. Globalization, government policies, capitalism, colonialism, and other rapid social-ecological changes threaten the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their environments, thereby challenging the continuity and dynamism of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK). In this article, we contribute to the “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity,” issued by the Alliance of World Scientists, by exploring opportunities for sustaining ILK systems on behalf of the future stewardship of our planet. Our warning raises the alarm about the pervasive and ubiquitous erosion of knowledge and practice and the social and ecological consequences of this erosion. While ILK systems can be adaptable and resilient, the foundations of these knowledge systems are compromised by ongoing suppression, misrepresentation, appropriation, assimilation, disconnection, and destruction of biocultural heritage. Three case studies illustrate these processes and how protecting ILK is central to biocultural conservation. We conclude with 15 recommendations that call for the recognition and support of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their knowledge systems. Enacting these recommendations will entail a transformative and sustained shift in how ILK systems, their knowledge holders, and their multiple expressions in lands and waters are recognized, affirmed, and valued. We appeal for urgent action to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world to maintain their knowledge systems, languages, stewardship rights, ties to lands and waters, and the biocultural integrity of their territories—on which we all depend.Peer reviewe

The paradigm of management, management systems, and resource stewardship

The idea of ''management'' is central to our understanding of how people interact with their resources, but many challenges have arisen to traditional concepts of western, science-based resource management. Management is a set of actions taken to guide a system towards achieving desired goals and objectives. A Management System is the sum of these actions, goals and objectives, the process through which they are legitimized by social norms, and the institutions and actors involved in carrying them out. Reframing the concept from management to management system provides a tool for better understanding how social and ecological dynamics act as coupled drivers of managed ecosystems. Seen from this perspective, there are strong parallels between the traditional resource management systems of indigenous peoples and western science-based management systems. Stewardship is a western concept which resonates with the foundations of traditional resource management systems. Both systems of management can be understood on gradients of human influence on ecosystems and of management intensity. Sustainability can emerge across various locations along these gradients. Achieving an integrated understanding of the coupled dynamics of social and ecological systems is a central challenge for both managers and for researchers. Key words: traditional resource management system, western science-based management system, management failure, stewardship, sustainability. La idea de ''manejo'' es central para nuestro entendimiento de cómo la gente interactú a con sus recursos. Sin embargo, muchos retos han surgido a los conceptos tradicionales occidentales sobre el manejo de recursos basados en la ciencia. Manejo es un conjunto de acciones tomadas con el fin de guiar un sistema para alcanzar metas y objetivos deseados. Un Sistema de Manejo es la suma de estas acciones, sus metas y objetivos, el proceso a través del cual éstas se legitiman por normas sociales, y las instituciones y actores involucrados en llevarlas a cabo. Replantear el concepto de manejo por el de sistema de manejo proporciona una herramienta para el mejor entendimiento de cómo las dinámicas sociales y ecológicas actú an como conductores acoplados de los ecosistemas manejados. Desde esta perspectiva, existen fuertes paralelismos entre los sistemas tradicionales de manejo de recursos de los pueblos indígenas y los sistemas de manejo occidentales basados en la ciencia. Stewardship es un concepto occidental que armoniza con las bases éticas de los sistemas tradicionales del manejo de recursos. Ambos sistemas de manejo pueden ser entendidos como gradientes de influencia humana sobre los ecosistemas y la intensidad de manejo. La sustentabilidad puede emerger en varios puntos a lo largo de estos gradientes. Alcanzar un entendimiento integrado de la dinámica acoplada de los sistemas sociales y ecológicos es un reto central tanto para manejadores como para investigadores

Scaling of Natal Dispersal Distances in Terrestrial Birds and Mammals

Natal dispersal is a process that is critical in the spatial dynamics of populations, including population spread, recolonization, and gene flow. It is a central focus of conservation issues for many vertebrate species. Using data for 77 bird and 68 mammal species, we tested whether median and maximum natal dispersal distances were correlated with body mass, diet type, social system, taxonomic family, and migratory status. Body mass and diet type were found to predict both median and maximum natal dispersal distances in mammals: large species dispersed farther than small ones, and carnivorous species dispersed farther than herbivores and omnivores. Similar relationships occurred for carnivorous bird species, but not for herbivorous or omnivorous ones. Natal dispersal distances in birds or mammals were not significantly related to broad categories of social systems. Only in birds were factors such as taxonomic relatedness and migratory status correlated with natal dispersal, and then only for maximum distances. Summary properties of dispersal processes appeared to be derived from interactions among behavioral and morphological characteristics of species and from their linkages to the dynamics of resource availability in landscapes. In all the species we examined, most dispersers moved relatively short distances, and long-distance dispersal was uncommon. On the basis of these findings, we fit an empirical model based on the negative exponential distribution for calculating minimum probabilities that animals disperse particular distances from their natal areas. This model, coupled with knowledge of a species' body mass and diet type, can be used to conservatively predict dispersal distances for different species and examine possible consequences of large-scale habitat alterations on connectedness between populations. Taken together, our results can provide managers with the means to identify species vulnerable to landscape-level habitat changes such as forest fragmentation. In addition, our dispersal models can be used to predict which species in a community are likely to be the most vulnerable to loss of connectedness and allow managers to test the merits of alternative habitat conservation plans