The effect of temperature and habitat quality on abundance of the Glanville fritillary on the Isle of Wight: implications for conservation management in a warming climate

Creating variation in microclimates through habitat management is often advocated as a way of ameliorating the impact of climate warming, although the effectiveness of microclimate management has rarely been studied. We compared temporal variation in habitat quality (the availability of suitably warm microclimates) and ambient air temperature on the abundance of a highly thermophilous species of butterfly, the Glanville fritillary Melitaea cinxia, at one site on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, UK, from 1997 to 2010. Ground temperatures beneath the various habitat successional stages were measured and compared, and the relationship between butterfly abundance and hostplant and weather variables was examined. Temporal variation in habitat quality was almost twice as strong as a predictor of butterfly abundance as ambient air temperature. We found no relationship between abundance and rainfall. Comparisons of ground temperatures beneath habitats showed that earlier successional stages were considerably warmer than later successional stages, and the distribution of Glanville fritillary larval ‘webs’ within plots was restricted to these warmer habitats. Hostplants selected for oviposition by gravid females were also considerably warmer than ambient temperature. The importance of habitat quality reinforces the notion that thermophilous insects would benefit from site management practices that create thermally diverse environments. Heterogeneous habitats provide refugia for species intolerant of climate change, as well as opportunities for range expansion

The rise and demise of the Glanville fritillary on the Isle of Wight

The Glanville fritillary is one of Britain’s rarest breeding butterflies, and is predominantly restricted to the south coast of the Isle of Wight. Populations have been monitored annually at a high proportion of known sites by counting the number of larval ‘webs’ during spring since 1996. In this paper, we present population time series for eight core sites. Populations have been observed to fluctuate considerably over the last 18 years, with a high degree of synchrony between sites. Recently, numbers of larval webs have shown a severe decline, with simultaneous extinctions occurring across many former strongholds. We combine our web count data with counts of adult butterflies from five sites of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Together, these data suggest that the Glanville fritillary is threatened by extinction on the Isle of Wight, and that the total area used for breeding is likely no more than a few km2. The results flag up the need for a national census of remaining populations and further research to understand causes of decline, so that a conservation recovery plan can be developed

Scoping the use of predictive models to address priority questions concerning terrestrial biodiversity

Rapid environmental change caused by anthropogenic activities has a major influence on the state of natural ecosystems, impacting the biodiversity and human societies that depend on them. Determining the likely future impacts of environmental changes, and how to manage them, can be greatly enhanced using modelling approaches able to predict future ecosystem states and biodiversity patterns. This report scopes the priorities and potential for informative predictive analyses of terrestrial biodiversity patterns. Specifically, the report describes 12 research priorities and broadly summarises the data requirements needed for addressing them using predictive modelling. The report concludes with some more detailed case studies of research questions and how they could be addressed

CaPTrends: a database of large carnivoran population trends from around the world

Motivation Population trend information is an ‘essential biodiversity variable’ for monitoring change in biodiversity over time. Here, we present a database of 1,122 population trends from around the world, describing changes in abundance over time in large mammal species (n = 50) from four families in the order Carnivora. For this subset of taxa, we provide approximately 21 times more trends than BioTIME and three times more trends than the Living Planet database. Main types of variables included Key data fields for each trend: species, coordinates, trend time-frame, methods of data collection and analysis, and population time series or summarized trend value. Population trend values are reported using quantitative metrics in 75% of records that collectively represent more than 6,500 population estimates. The remaining records qualitatively describe population change (e.g., increase). Spatial location and grain Trends represent 621 unique locations across the globe (latitude: −51.0 to 80.0; longitude: −166.0 to 166.0). Most trends (86%) are found within the Northern Hemisphere. Time period and grain On average (mean), trends are derived from 6.5 abundance observations, and span in time from 1726 to 2017, with 92% of trends starting after 1950. Major taxa and level of measurement We conducted a semi-systematic search for population trend data in 87 species from four families in the order Carnivora: Canidae, Felidae, Hyaenidae and Ursidae. We compiled data for 50 of the 87 species. Software format .csv

Climate change refugia for the flora and fauna of England

A variety of evidence suggests that species have, in the past, been able to withstand the effects of climatic change in localised environments known as refugia, where specific environmental conditions acted as a buffer against broader-scale climatic changes. Therefore, an important question for conservation is whether refugia might exist under current and future anthropogenic climate change. If there are areas that are likely to remain relatively climatically stable and so enable species to persist despite climate change making surrounding areas unsuitable, identifying and protecting these places will be an important part of future conservation strategies. This report is part of a project that is investigating this question. The report was commissioned to identify the characteristics of potential refugia, to investigate evidence for the existence of contemporary refugia by analysing patterns of local persistence and disappearance of over 1000 species across a range of taxa, and to identify sites in England with the potential to function as refugia for different taxonomic groups at a range of spatial scales

BICCO-Net II. Final report to the Biological Impacts of Climate Change Observation Network (BICCO-Net) Steering Group

• BICCO-Net Phase II presents the most comprehensive single assessment of climate change impacts on UK biodiversity to date. • The results provide a valuable resource for the CCRA 2018, future LWEC report cards, the National Adaptation Programme and other policy-relevant initiatives linked to climate change impacts on biodiversity

The EDGE2 protocol: Advancing the prioritisation of Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered species for practical conservation action

The conservation of evolutionary history has been linked to increased benefits for humanity and can be captured by phylogenetic diversity (PD). The Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) metric has, since 2007, been used to prioritise threatened species for practical conservation that embody large amounts of evolutionary history. While there have been important research advances since 2007, they have not been adopted in practice because of a lack of consensus in the conservation community. Here, building from an interdisciplinary workshop to update the existing EDGE approach, we present an “EDGE2” protocol that draws on a decade of research and innovation to develop an improved, consistent methodology for prioritising species conservation efforts. Key advances include methods for dealing with uncertainty and accounting for the extinction risk of closely related species. We describe EDGE2 in terms of distinct components to facilitate future revisions to its constituent parts without needing to reconsider the whole. We illustrate EDGE2 by applying it to the world’s mammals. As we approach a crossroads for global biodiversity policy, this Consensus View shows how collaboration between academic and applied conservation biologists can guide effective and practical priority-setting to conserve biodiversity

The state of Britain’s larger moths 2021

This report summarises current knowledge of the state of Britain’s c.900 species of larger moths, presenting analyses of long-term change based on millions of records gathered through the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) and National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS)

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives