6 research outputs found
Bioquality Hotspots in the Tropical African Flora.
Identifying areas of high biodiversity is an established way to prioritize areas for conservation [1-3], but global approaches have been criticized for failing to render global biodiversity value at a scale suitable for local management [4-6]. We assembled 3.1 million species distribution records for 40,401 vascular plant species of tropical Africa from sources including plot data, herbarium databases, checklists, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and cleaned the records for geographic accuracy and taxonomic consistency. We summarized the global ranges of tropical African plant species into four weighted categories of global rarity called Stars. We applied the Star weights to summaries of species distribution data at fine resolutions to map the bioquality (range-restricted global endemism) of areas [7]. We generated confidence intervals around bioquality scores to account for the remaining uncertainty in the species inventory. We confirm the broad significance of the Horn of Africa, Guinean forests, coastal forests of East Africa, and Afromontane regions for plant biodiversity but also reveal the variation in bioquality within these broad regions and others, particularly at local scales. Our framework offers practitioners a quantitative, scalable, and replicable approach for measuring the irreplaceability of particular local areas for global biodiversity conservation and comparing those areas within their global and regional context
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Implications for conservation assessment from flux in the botanical record over 20 years in southwest Ghana.
Funder: Clarendon Fund; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100014748Funder: King's College Cambridge, University of Cambridge; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000648Funder: Merton College, University of Oxford; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010352Funder: Overseas Development Institute; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000669Funder: Oxford University Expeditions CouncilAt best, conservation decisions can only be made using the data available at the time. For plants and especially in the tropics, natural history collections remain the best available baseline information upon which to base conservation assessments, in spite of well-documented limitations in their taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage. We explore the extent to which changes to the plant biological record over 20 years have changed our conception of the conservation importance of 931 plant taxa, and 114 vegetation samples, recorded in forest reserves of the southwest Ghana biodiversity hotspot. 36% of species-level assessments changed as a result of new distribution data. 12% of species accepted in 2016 had no assessment in 1996: of those, 20% are new species publications, 60% are new records for SW Ghana, and 20% are taxonomic resolutions. Apparent species ranges have increased over time as new records are made, but new species publications are overwhelmingly of globally rare species, keeping the balance of perceived rarity in the flora constant over 20 years. Thus, in spite of considerable flux at the species record level, range size rarity scores calculated for 114 vegetation samples of the reserves in 1996 and 2016 are highly correlated with each other: r(112) = 0.84, p < .0005, and showed no difference in mean score over 20 years: paired t(113) = -0.482, p = .631. This consistency in results at the area level allows for worthwhile conservation priority setting over time, and we argue is the better course of action than taking no action at all
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England's statutory biodiversity metric enhances plant, but not bird nor butterfly, biodiversity
Publication status: PublishedFunder: King's College, University of CambridgeFunder: Ecological Continuity TrustFunder: Lawes Agricultural TrustFunder: Heather TrustAbstract
Biodiversity net gain is a policy focus worldwide, acknowledging ongoing losses of biodiversity to development, and a commitment to offsetting any residual impacts on biodiversity elsewhere. At least 37 countries have mandatory offsetting policies, and a further 64 countries enable voluntary offsets. Offsets rely on credible and evidence‐based methods to quantify biodiversity losses and gains.
Following the introduction of the United Kingdom's Environment Act in November 2021, all new developments requiring planning permission in England must demonstrate a biodiversity net gain of at least 10% biodiversity net gain from 2024, calculated using a statutory biodiversity metric framework. The metric uses habitat as a proxy for biodiversity, scoring habitats' intrinsic distinctiveness and current condition.
We carried out a study of the metric's performance across England in terms of outcomes for biodiversity. We used generalized linear mixed models to regress baseline biodiversity units against five long‐established single‐attribute proxies for biodiversity (species richness, individual abundance, number of threatened species, mean species range and mean species range/population change). Data were gathered for species belonging to three commonly used indicator taxa (vascular plants, butterflies and birds) from 24 sites, including all terrestrial broad habitats except urban.
In baseline assessments, metric‐derived biodiversity units correlated with most plant biodiversity variables, but not with any of the bird or butterfly biodiversity variables used in this study. Plant species recorded in habitats with higher baseline biodiversity units had slightly more restricted ranges (slope −16.22 ± 1.52, p < 0.001) on average and had shown stronger past declines (slope −0.02 ± 0.00, p < 0.001) than those in habitats with lower baseline biodiversity units. Each additional baseline biodiversity unit was associated with a 1% increase in plant species richness (p < 0.01).
Synthesis and applications: Using the statutory biodiversity metric to define 10% biodiversity net gain without additional species‐focused conservation management is likely to translate into small gains for plant biodiversity, and negligible gains for birds and butterflies. We make specific recommendations to improve the metric's efficacy in achieving desirable biodiversity outcomes. Our results provide a valuable case study for other countries interested in developing metrics to support biodiversity net gain policies.
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Predictors of plant endemism in two west African forest hotspots
Peer reviewed: TrueAcknowledgements: We thank Samartex, FORIG and the Ghana Herbarium for facilitating the new field work in SW Ghana. We acknowledge the support of the ODA to WH for previous field work in SW Ghana. We thank John Howell and Jamison Suter of ArcelorMittal Liberia and BHP Billiton for supporting the field work in Liberian Nimba. We thank Pierre Poilecot, Carel Jongkind, Daniel Dorbor, Wing-Yunn Crawley and Steven Heathcote, for fieldwork and identification in Nimba, and Lincy Barlon, Eric Bontor and Rosemarie Wonbenyakeh for field work in Liberian Nimba. We thank Carel Jongkind, Jan Reitsma, Elze Hesse, Danae Maniatis, Malika Virah-Sawmy, Paquilé Cherif, Moussa Diabaté, Jean-Louis Holié, Delamou Londiah, John Amponsah, Nèma Soua Loua, Gononan Traoré, Guila Gbamou and M. Zojbelema for fieldwork and identification in Guinean Nimba.Centres of endemism have been much studied by biogeographers, ecologists, and evolutionary theorists, and are considered conservation priorities. It is therefore important to understand the ecological traits of restricted range taxa, and the landscape-scale drivers of high endemism. Here, we investigate correlates of floristic endemism within two of west Africa’s forest biodiversity hotspots at local scale. We assembled distribution data for 1,042 vascular plant taxa from 114 sample locations within forest reserves of south west Ghana, and for 1,735 vascular plant taxa from 454 sample locations within the Nimba Mountains (Liberia and Guinea). A quantitative index of global endemism called the Genetic Heat Index was modelled linearly. We tested the significance of modern climate, altitude and disturbance as factors predicting endemism rates in these two forest reserves. Annual rainfall was significantly and positively related to endemism rates in both south west Ghana and the Nimba Mountains. Altitude was a significant predictor of endemism rates in the Nimba Mountains, with a quadratic relationship highlighting particularly high endemism over 1,000 m. Local topography rather than altitude was a significant predictor or endemism in SW Ghana, where altitude varies less. Areas of high rainfall and high altitude are geographically restricted across the western African forests, acting as edaphic islands driving spatial isolation. Disturbed vegetation samples had lower endemism rates than undisturbed samples in both Nimba and SW Ghana, and overall pioneer species had wider areas of occupancy than shade-bearing species. Endemism rates increased slightly with each year following clearance. Disturbance thus creates and maintains vegetation types which support a lower proportion of globally rare species in the two biodiversity hotspots surveyed. From the point of view of the conservation of globally rare plants, it is important to keep additional disturbance in the south west Ghana hotspot, particularly Ankasa, to a minimum, as is the current practice, and in the Nimba mountains to establish community forests which may be left relatively undisturbed amid farming and mining activities.</jats:p
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Urban wildflower meadow planting for biodiversity, climate and society: An evaluation at King's College, Cambridge
Funder: Gatsby Charitable Foundation; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000324Funder: King's College Cambridge, University of Cambridge; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000648The biodiversity and climate crises are critical challenges of this century. Wildflower meadows in urban areas could provide important nature‐based solutions, addressing the biodiversity and climate crises jointly and benefitting society in the process. King's College Cambridge (England, UK) established a wildflower meadow over a portion of its iconic Back Lawn in 2019, replacing a fine lawn first laid in 1772. We used biodiversity surveys, Wilcoxon signed rank and ANOVA models to compare species richness, abundance and composition of plants, spiders, bugs, bats and nematodes supported by the meadow, and remaining lawn, over 3 years. We estimated the climate change impact of meadow vs lawn from maintenance emissions, soil carbon sequestration and reflectance effect. We surveyed members of the university to quantify the societal benefits of, and attitudes towards, increased meadow planting on the collegiate university estate. In spite of its small size (0.36 ha), the meadow supported approximately three times more plant species, three times more spider and bug species and individuals, and bats were recorded three times more often over the meadow than the remaining lawn. Terrestrial invertebrate biomass was 25 times higher in the meadow compared with the lawn. Fourteen species with conservation designations were recorded on the meadow (six for lawn), alongside meadow specialist species. Reduced maintenance and fertilising associated with meadow reduced emissions by an estimated 1.36 Mg CO2‐e per hectare per year compared with lawn. Relative reflectance increased by 25%–34% for meadow relative to lawn. Soil carbon stocks did not differ between meadow and lawn. Respondents thought meadows provided greater aesthetic, educational and mental wellbeing services than lawns. In open responses, lawns were associated with undesirable elitism and social exclusion (most colleges in Cambridge restrict lawn access to senior members of college), and respondents proved overwhelmingly in favour of meadow planting in place of lawn on the collegiate university estate. This study demonstrates the substantial benefits of small urban meadows for local biodiversity, cultural ecosystem services and climate change mitigation, supplied at lower cost than maintaining conventional lawn
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The socioecological benefits and consequences of oil palm cultivation in its native range: The Sustainable Oil Palm in West Africa (SOPWA) Project.
Agriculture is expanding rapidly across the tropics. While cultivation can boost socioeconomic conditions and food security, it also threatens native ecosystems. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), which is grown pantropically, is the most productive vegetable oil crop worldwide. The impacts of oil palm cultivation have been studied extensively in Southeast Asia and - to a lesser extent - in Latin America but, in comparison, very little is known about its impacts in Africa: oil palm's native range, and where cultivation is expanding rapidly. In this paper, we introduce a large-scale research programme - the Sustainable Oil Palm in West Africa (SOPWA) Project - that is evaluating the relative ecological impacts of oil palm cultivation under traditional (i.e., by local people) and industrial (i.e., by a large-scale corporation) management in Liberia. Our paper is twofold in focus. First, we use systematic mapping to appraise the literature on oil palm research in an African context, assessing the geographic and disciplinary focus of existing research. We found 757 publications occurring in 36 African countries. Studies tended to focus on the impacts of palm oil consumption on human health and wellbeing. We found no research that has evaluated the whole-ecosystem (i.e., multiple taxa and ecosystem functions) impacts of oil palm cultivation in Africa, a knowledge gap which the SOPWA Project directly addresses. Second, we describe the SOPWA Project's study design and-using canopy cover, ground vegetation cover, and soil temperature data as a case study-demonstrate its utility for assessing differences between areas of rainforest and oil palm agriculture. We outline the socioecological data collected by the SOPWA Project to date and describe the potential for future research, to encourage new collaborations and additional similar projects of its kind in West Africa. Increased research in Africa is needed urgently to understand the combined ecological and sociocultural impacts of oil palm and other agriculture in this unique region. This will help to ensure long-term sustainability of the oil palm industry-and, indeed, all tropical agricultural activity-in Africa.M.D.P. thanks and acknowledges funding from the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission (MACC), BBSRC Impact Acceleration Account (BB/S506710/1), St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, Varley Gradwell Travelling Fellowship in Insect Ecology (University of Oxford), Johanna Darlington Trust Fund, Cambridge Philosophical Society, and from Jesus College Oxford (through R.R.). M.D.P and B.F. thank and acknowledge funding from the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund. C.A.M.M. thanks and acknowledges funding from King’s College Cambridge. A.F.P. received financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 854248 (TROPIBIO) and from Jesus College Oxford (through R.R.). Collaborations between M.D.P., B.F., E.C.T., and J.D. were supported by a NERC Environmental Sciences Global Partnerships Seedcorn Fund Award (NE/Y003136/1), and J.D. received further funding from the NERC National Capability Science: International Award “Options for Net Zero Plus and Climate Change Adaptation” (NE/X006247/1). M.T.H. was funded by NERC C-CLEAR Research Experience Placement (REP) funding while working on this project