Reconciling biodiversity conservation and flood risk reduction : The new strategy for freshwater protected areas

Aim: Natural disaster risk reduction (DRR) is becoming a more important function of protected area (PAs) for current and future global warming. However, biodiversity conservation and DRR have been handled separately and their interrelationship has not been explicitly addressed. This is mainly because, due of prevailing strategies and criteria for PA placement, a large proportion of PAs are currently located far from human-occupied areas, and habitats in human-occupied areas have been largely ignored as potential sites for conservation despite their high biodiversity. If intensely developed lowland areas with high flooding risk overlap with important sites for biodiversity conservation, it would be reasonable to try to harmonize biodiversity conservation and human development in human-inhabited lowland areas. Here, we examined whether extant PAs can conserve macroinvertebrate and freshwater fish biodiversity and whether human-inhabited lowland flood risk management sites might be suitable to designate as freshwater protected areas (FPAs). Location: Across Japan. Methods: We examined whether extant PAs can conserve macroinvertebrate and freshwater fish biodiversity and analysed the relationship between candidate sites for new FPAs and flood disaster risk and land use intensity at a national scale across Japan based on distribution data for 131 freshwater fish species and 1395 macroinvertebrate species. Results: We found that extant PAs overlapped with approximately 30% of conservation-priority grid cells (1 km2) for both taxa. Particularly for red-listed species, only one species of freshwater fish and three species of macroinvertebrate achieved the representation target within extant PAs. Moreover, more than 40% of candidate conservation-priority grid cells were located in flood risk and human-occupied areas for both taxa. Main conclusions: Floodplain conservation provides suitable habitat for many freshwater organisms and helps control floodwaters, so establishing new FPAs in areas with high flood risk could be a win-win strategy for conserving freshwater biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem-based DRR (eco-DRR)

The Distribution of Cool Spots as Microrefugia in a Mountainous Area

It has recently been proposed that microrefugia played an important role in species survival during past climate change events. However, the current distributions of microrefugia remain largely unknown. Wind-hole sites are areas affected by preferential flows of cool air generated in interstitial spaces created by rock fragments or colluvia. Alpine plant species occurring in lowland wind-hole sites isolated from alpine zones may be relicts of the last glacial period. Hokkaido, northern Japan, is known to contain many wind-hole sites in which alpine plant species can occur. Here we surveyed 55 wind-hole sites in the Kitami region, eastern Hokkaido, and observed two alpine plant species (lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, and Labrador tea, Rhododendron groenlandicum ssp. diversipilosum var. diversipilosum) in 14 wind-hole sites. Statistical modeling showed that wind-hole sites are likely to occur in areas with high maximum slope angles and volcanic rock cover, and concave surfaces. Our predictions of wind-hole site distributions suggest that such topographic conditions are common in our study area, and that many undiscovered wind-hole sites exist. Ignoring microhabitats may greatly underestimate species distributions in topographically complex regions, and dispersed cool spots may also function as stepping stones and temporal habitats for cold-adapted species. Because these localized unique habitats usually occur in economically unproductive sites, identifying and protecting potential microrefugia (cool spots) would be a robust and cost-effective mitigation of climate change impacts

カン ビショウ ケッカン キョウシンショウ カンジャ ニ オケル CYP2C19 キノウ ソウシツ ガタ ト epoxyeicosatrienoic acids EETs ノ カンレン

博士(医学)熊本大

Data from: The distribution of cool spots as microrefugia in a mountainous area

It has recently been proposed that microrefugia played an important role in species survival during past climate change events. However, the current distributions of microrefugia remain largely unknown. Wind-hole sites are areas affected by preferential flows of cool air generated in interstitial spaces created by rock fragments or colluvia. Alpine plant species occurring in lowland wind-hole sites isolated from alpine zones may be relicts of the last glacial period. Hokkaido, northern Japan, is known to contain many wind-hole sites in which alpine plant species can occur. Here we surveyed 55 wind-hole sites in the Kitami region, eastern Hokkaido, and observed two alpine plant species (lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, and Labrador tea, Rhododendron groenlandicum ssp. diversipilosum var. diversipilosum) in 14 wind-hole sites. Statistical modeling showed that wind-hole sites are likely to occur in areas with high maximum slope angles and volcanic rock cover, and concave surfaces. Our predictions of wind-hole site distributions suggest that such topographic conditions are common in our study area, and that many undiscovered wind-hole sites exist. Ignoring microhabitats may greatly underestimate species distributions in topographically complex regions, and dispersed cool spots may also function as stepping stones and temporal habitats for cold-adapted species. Because these localized unique habitats usually occur in economically unproductive sites, identifying and protecting potential microrefugia (cool spots) would be a robust and cost-effective mitigation of climate change impacts

Reconciling biodiversity conservation and flood risk reduction : The new strategy for freshwater protected areas

Aim Natural disaster risk reduction (DRR) is becoming a more important function of protected area (PAs) for current and future global warming. However, biodiversity conservation and DRR have been handled separately and their interrelationship has not been explicitly addressed. This is mainly because, due of prevailing strategies and criteria for PA placement, a large proportion of PAs are currently located far from human-occupied areas, and habitats in human-occupied areas have been largely ignored as potential sites for conservation despite their high biodiversity. If intensely developed lowland areas with high flooding risk overlap with important sites for biodiversity conservation, it would be reasonable to try to harmonize biodiversity conservation and human development in human-inhabited lowland areas. Here, we examined whether extant PAs can conserve macroinvertebrate and freshwater fish biodiversity and whether human-inhabited lowland flood risk management sites might be suitable to designate as freshwater protected areas (FPAs). Location Across Japan. Methods We examined whether extant PAs can conserve macroinvertebrate and freshwater fish biodiversity and analysed the relationship between candidate sites for new FPAs and flood disaster risk and land use intensity at a national scale across Japan based on distribution data for 131 freshwater fish species and 1395 macroinvertebrate species. Results We found that extant PAs overlapped with approximately 30% of conservation-priority grid cells (1 km(2)) for both taxa. Particularly for red-listed species, only one species of freshwater fish and three species of macroinvertebrate achieved the representation target within extant PAs. Moreover, more than 40% of candidate conservation-priority grid cells were located in flood risk and human-occupied areas for both taxa. Main conclusions Floodplain conservation provides suitable habitat for many freshwater organisms and helps control floodwaters, so establishing new FPAs in areas with high flood risk could be a win-win strategy for conserving freshwater biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem-based DRR (eco-DRR)

Results of model selection using logistic regressions.

<p>See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0135732#pone.0135732.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a> for abbreviated parameter names.</p><p>Results of model selection using logistic regressions.</p