A quantitative global review of species population monitoring

Abstract: Species monitoring, defined here as the repeated, systematic collection of data to detect long‐term changes in the populations of wild species, is a vital component of conservation practice and policy. We created a database of nearly 1200 schemes, ranging in start date from 1800 to 2018, to review spatial, temporal, taxonomic, and methodological patterns in global species monitoring. We identified monitoring schemes through standardized web searches, an online survey of stakeholders, in‐depth national searches in a sample of countries, and a review of global biodiversity databases. We estimated the total global number of monitoring schemes operating at 3300–15,000. Since 2000, there has been a sharp increase in the number of new schemes being initiated in lower‐ and middle‐income countries and in megadiverse countries, but a decrease in high‐income countries. The total number of monitoring schemes in a country and its per capita gross domestic product were strongly, positively correlated. Schemes that were active in 2018 had been running for an average of 21 years in high‐income countries, compared with 13 years in middle‐income countries and 10 years in low‐income countries. In high‐income countries, over one‐half of monitoring schemes received government funding, but this was less than one‐quarter in low‐income countries. Data collection was undertaken partly or wholly by volunteers in 37% of schemes, and such schemes covered significantly more sites and species than those undertaken by professionals alone. Birds were by far the most widely monitored taxonomic group, accounting for around half of all schemes, but this bias declined over time. Monitoring in most taxonomic groups remains sparse and uncoordinated, and most of the data generated are elusive and unlikely to feed into wider biodiversity conservation processes. These shortcomings could be addressed by, for example, creating an open global meta‐database of biodiversity monitoring schemes and enhancing capacity for species monitoring in countries with high biodiversity. Article impact statement: Species population monitoring for conservation purposes remains strongly biased toward a few vertebrate taxa in wealthier countries

Modeling The Effect Of Habitat Selection Mechanisms On Population Responses To Landscape Structure

Novel habitats can become ecological traps for mobile animals if individuals consistently select them over habitats with better fitness consequences. Due to challenges with the measurement of habitat selection and quality, ecological traps are difficult to study in the field. Previous modeling approaches have overlooked the importance of selection cues as a key component in the mechanisms giving rise to ecological traps. We created a spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model to evaluate the effects of landscape structure on population dynamics of a hypothetical species under two mechanisms of habitat selection. In habitat-based selection, individuals preferred high-quality patches (leading to adaptive outcomes), selected patches at random (equal-preference) or preferred lower-quality patches (severe ecological traps). In cue-based selection they chose based on a structural attribute that was not directly related to fitness (canopy cover). We applied the model to the case of resident birds in landscapes composed of remnant forests and shade coffee agriculture. We designed simulation experiments with scenarios varying in landscape composition, configuration, search area and criteria for habitat preference. While all factors affected population size and individual fitness, the most important variables were proportion of high-quality habitat in the landscape, criteria for habitat preference and their interaction. The specific arrangement of habitat patches and search area had weaker and sometimes unexpected effects, mainly through increasing outcome variance. There was more variation among scenarios when selection was habitat-based than cue-based, with outcomes of the latter being intermediate between those of adaptive and equal-preference choices. Because the effects of ecological traps could be buffered by increasing the amount of high-quality habitat in the landscape, our results suggest that to truly understand species adaptation to habitat transformation we must always include landscape context in our analyses, and make an effort to find the appropriate scales and cues that organisms use for habitat selection

Modeling the effect of habitat selection mechanisms on population responses to landscape structure

Novel habitats can become ecological traps for mobile animals if individuals consistently select them over habitats with better fitness consequences. Due to challenges with the measurement of habitat selection and quality, ecological traps are difficult to study in the field. Previous modeling approaches have overlooked the importance of selection cues as a key component in the mechanisms giving rise to ecological traps. We created a spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model to evaluate the effects of landscape structure on population dynamics of a hypothetical species under two mechanisms of habitat selection. In habitat-based selection, individuals preferred high-quality patches (leading to adaptive outcomes), selected patches at random (equal-preference) or preferred lower-quality patches (severe ecological traps). In cue-based selection they chose based on a structural attribute that was not directly related to fitness (canopy cover). We applied the model to the case of resident birds in landscapes composed of remnant forests and shade coffee agriculture. We designed simulation experiments with scenarios varying in landscape composition, configuration, search area and criteria for habitat preference. While all factors affected population size and individual fitness, the most important variables were proportion of high-quality habitat in the landscape, criteria for habitat preference and their interaction. The specific arrangement of habitat patches and search area had weaker and sometimes unexpected effects, mainly through increasing outcome variance. There was more variation among scenarios when selection was habitat-based than cue-based, with outcomes of the latter being intermediate between those of adaptive and equal-preference choices. Because the effects of ecological traps could be buffered by increasing the amount of high-quality habitat in the landscape, our results suggest that to truly understand species adaptation to habitat transformation we must always include landscape context in our analyses, and make an effort to find the appropriate scales and cues that organisms use for habitat selection

Volumen 18 Número 1

Revista seriada del Instituto Humboldt en asocio con el Invemar, el Instituto de Ciencias Naturales (ICN) y el Missouri Botanical Garden, como una estrategia para ampliar la base del conocimiento de uno de los países con mayor diversidad biológica del mundo. Inicia como una publicación de listados de especies pero en 2005 amplía su espectro temático hacia la sistemática y la biogeografía. En 2010, a propósito del Año Internacional de la Biodiversidad y en pro del conocimiento, la conservación y el uso sostenible de la biodiversidad, se abre a un público más amplio, considerando trabajos inéditos de investigación sobre botánica, zoología, ecología, biología, limnología, pesquerías, conservación, manejo de recursos y uso de la biodiversidad, con buena aceptación por parte de la comunidad científica y académica. En 2013, en asocio con el SiB Colombia y con el apoyo de la GBIF, se institucionaliza la inclusión de Artículos de Datos (Data Papers) en Biota Colombiana

Biota Colombiana Volumen 18 No. 1 (2017)

Volumen 18 Número 1 de la revista Biota ColombianaBogotá, Colombi

Volumen 18 Número 1

Revista seriada del Instituto Humboldt en asocio con el Invemar, el Instituto de Ciencias Naturales (ICN) y el Missouri Botanical Garden, como una estrategia para ampliar la base del conocimiento de uno de los países con mayor diversidad biológica del mundo.Inicia como una publicación de listados de especies pero en 2005 amplía su espectro temático hacia la sistemática y la biogeografía. En 2010, a propósito del Año Internacional de la Biodiversidad y en pro del conocimiento, la conservación y el uso sostenible de la biodiversidad, se abre a un público más amplio, considerando trabajos inéditos de investigación sobre botánica, zoología, ecología, biología, limnología, pesquerías, conservación, manejo de recursos y uso de la biodiversidad, con buena aceptación por parte de la comunidad científica y académica. En 2013, en asocio con el SiB Colombia y con el apoyo de la GBIF, se institucionaliza la inclusión de Artículos de Datos (Data Papers) en Biota Colombiana.Artículo revisado por pare

Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus, initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness

Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness