Proposta per a un pla de zonificació dels usos en l'àmbit marí del Parc Natural del Montgrí, les Illes Medes i el Baix Ter

L’objectiu d’aquest projecte és desenvolupar un pla de zonificació del usos comercials i turístics a la costa del Montgrí compresa dins el Parc Natural del Montgrí, les Illes Medes i el Baix Ter. Aquesta proposta es farà tenint en compte la extensió i distribució dels diferents hàbitats presents a la zona i la seva distribució en base a la cartografia bionòmica desenvolupada l’any 12012 (Hereu et al., 2010; Hereu i Quintana, 2012), la seva importància en el manteniment de la biodiversitats i la seva sensibilitat als diferents usos i possibles pertorbacions en base a les evidències científiques, així com tenint en compte els actuals usos que s’hi fan, amb l’objectiu de prioritzar la conservació fent-la compatible amb els usos que s’hi donen. Aquesta proposta es farà de utilitzant mètodes de decisió objectius en funció de la informació disponible, mitjançant l’ús de sistemes d’informació geogràfica (SIG) i programes analítics de distribució espacial (MARXAN)

Assisting adaptation in a changing world

Today, all ecosystems are undergoing environmental change due to human activity, and in many cases the rate of change is accelerating due to climate change. Consequently, conservation programs are increasingly focused on the response of organisms, populations, and ecosystems to novel conditions. In parallel, the field of conservation biology is developing and deploying new tools to assist adaptation, which we define as aiming to increase the probability that organisms, populations, and ecosystems successfully adapt to ongoing change in biotic and abiotic conditions. Practitioners are aiming to assist a suite of adaptive processes, including acclimatization, range shifts, and evolution, at the individual and population level, while influencing the aggregate of these responses to assist ecosystem reorganization. The practice of assisting adaptation holds promise for environmental conservation, but effective policy and implementation will require thoughtful consideration of potential social and biological benefits and risks

Marine spatial planning in a transboundary context: linking Baja California with California's network of Marine Protected Areas

It is acknowledged that an effective path to globally protect marine ecosystems is through the establishment of eco-regional scale networks of MPAs spanning across national frontiers. In this work we aimed to plan for regionally feasible networks of MPAs that can be ecologically linked with an existing one in a transboundary context. We illustrate our exercise in the Ensenadian eco-region, a shared marine ecosystem between the south of California, United States of America (USA), and the north of Baja California, Mexico; where conservation actions differ across the border. In the USA, California recently established a network of MPAs through the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), while in Mexico: Baja California lacks a network of MPAs or a marine spatial planning effort to establish it. We generated four different scenarios with Marxan by integrating different ecological, social, and management considerations (habitat representation, opportunity costs, habitat condition, and enforcement costs). To do so, we characterized and collected biophysical and socio-economic information for Baja California and developed novel approaches to quantify and incorporate some of these considerations. We were able to design feasible networks of MPAs in Baja California that are ecologically linked with California's network (met between 78.5 and 84.4% of the MLPA guidelines) and that would represent a low cost for fishers and aquaculture investors. We found that when multiple considerations are integrated more priority areas for conservation emerge. For our region, human distribution presents a strong gradient from north to south and resulted to be an important factor for the spatial arrangement of the priority areas. This work shows how, despite the constraints of a data-poor area, the available conservation principles, mapping, and planning tools can still be used to generate spatial conservation plans in a transboundary context

Proposta per a un pla de zonificació dels usos en l'àmbit marí del Parc Natural del Montgrí, les Illes Medes i el Baix Ter

L’objectiu d’aquest projecte és desenvolupar un pla de zonificació del usos comercials i turístics a la costa del Montgrí compresa dins el Parc Natural del Montgrí, les Illes Medes i el Baix Ter. Aquesta proposta es farà tenint en compte la extensió i distribució dels diferents hàbitats presents a la zona i la seva distribució en base a la cartografia bionòmica desenvolupada l’any 12012 (Hereu et al., 2010; Hereu i Quintana, 2012), la seva importància en el manteniment de la biodiversitats i la seva sensibilitat als diferents usos i possibles pertorbacions en base a les evidències científiques, així com tenint en compte els actuals usos que s’hi fan, amb l’objectiu de prioritzar la conservació fent-la compatible amb els usos que s’hi donen. Aquesta proposta es farà de utilitzant mètodes de decisió objectius en funció de la informació disponible, mitjançant l’ús de sistemes d’informació geogràfica (SIG) i programes analítics de distribució espacial (MARXAN)

Protect Catalonia's corals despite politics

I   De las muchas cosas que lleva ya escritas Jorge Riechmann sobre problemas sustantivos relacionados con la crisis ecológica, la última publicada, Cuidar la T(t)ierra, es seguramente la más notable. Y, sin duda, es la aportación más sugerente que ha aparecido por estos pagos al concepto de sostenibilidad y a su práctica en el mundo actual. Se trata de un libro de más seiscientas páginas en el que el lector atento apreciará un montón de cosas que sólo excepcionalmente suelen darse juntas: l..

Incorporating climate velocity into the design of climate‐smart networks of marine protected areas

Abstract Climate change is redistributing terrestrial and marine biodiversity and altering fundamental ecological interactions. To conserve biodiversity and promote its long‐term persistence, protected areas should account for the ecological implications of species’ redistribution. Data paucity across many systems means that achieving this goal requires generic metrics that act as proxies for likely responses of multiple taxa to climate change. Climate velocity is one such metric, representing the potential speed and direction of species’ range shifts. Here, we explore three approaches for incorporating climate velocity into the design of marine protected areas and demonstrate their application in the Mediterranean Sea. Our methods are designed to meet the climate‐smart adaptation strategy of protecting climate refugia by selecting slow‐moving climate velocity areas. For our case study, we found that incorporating climate velocity as a cost measure in Marxan best selects slower moving areas, which are robust indicators of climate refugia. However, this approach is unable to accommodate socio‐economic cost data and is thus impractical. Incorporating climate velocity as a boundary or as a feature selects slower moving areas with a lower socio‐economic cost. We recommend incorporating velocity as a boundary, where possible because it is a more flexible approach. The boundary approach considers the climate velocity of all planning units, rather than being limited to a subjective classification of ‘slow‐moving’ planning units when treated as a feature. However, further assessment is required. For different planning scales and for grid structures other than squares, the relative performance of incorporating climate velocity as a boundary or as a feature might vary among case studies. This work presents simple and practical ways of including climate velocity in conservation plans to achieve the key climate‐smart objective of protecting climate refugia, thereby enhancing ecological resilience. Our methods are widely applicable, encouraging researchers and practitioners to advance the field and deliver networks of climate‐smart protected areas by 2030

Extreme Marine Heatwaves alter kelp forest community near its equatorward distribution limit

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of marine heatwaves. A recent extreme warming event (2014-2016) of unprecedented magnitude and duration in the California Current System allowed us to evaluate the response of the kelp forest community near its southern (warm) distribution limit. We obtained sea surface temperatures for the northern Pacific of Baja California, Mexico, and collected kelp forest community data at three islands, before and after the warming event. The warming was the most intense and persistent event observed to date, with low-pass anomalies 1°C warmer than the previous extremes during the 1982-1984 and 1997-1998 El Niños. The period between 2014-2017 accounted for ~50% of marine heatwaves days in the past 37 years, with the highest maximum temperature intensities peaking at 5.9°C above average temperatures for the period. We found significant declines in the number of Macrocystis pyrifera individuals, except at the northernmost island, and corresponding declines in the number of fronds per kelp individual. We also found significant changes in the community structure associated with the kelp beds: half of the fish and invertebrate species disappeared after the marine heatwaves, species with warmer affinities appeared or increased their abundance, and introduced algae, previously absent, appeared at all islands. Changes in subcanopy and understory algal assemblages were also evident; however, the response varied among islands. These results suggest that the effect of global warming can be more apparent in sensitive species, such as sessile invertebrates, and that warming-related impacts have the potential to facilitate the establishment of tropical and invasive species