scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal Article•DOI•

The legacy of past human land use in current patterns of mammal distribution

Ester Polaina1, Manuela González-Suárez2, Manuela González-Suárez1, Eloy Revilla1•
Spanish National Research Council1, University of Reading2
01 Oct 2019-Ecography (Wiley)-Vol. 42, Iss: 10, pp 1623-1635
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of past land-use modifications in the current distribution and conservation status of mammals worldwide using spatial data characterizing human land use from c.6000 to c.2000 was evaluated.
Abstract: Multiple environmental factors are known to shape species distributions at the global scale, including climate and topography, but understanding current extents of occurrence and biodiversity patterns requires considering anthropogenic factors as well. Numerous studies have explored the relationship between contemporary human activities and different biodiversity metrics, but the influence of past activities, such as land-use, remains poorly understood despite being one of the oldest human impacts. Here we evaluate the role of past land-use modifications in the current distribution and conservation status of mammals worldwide using spatial data characterizing human land use from c.B.C.6000 to c.A.D.2000. First, we applied a clustering method that revealed three generalized past human land-use trajectories that represent low-, recently- and steadily-used areas widely represented across the globe. Second, we fitted boosted regression trees to predict total and threatened mammalian richness, globally and within trajectory-clusters, testing the role of environmental factors and multiple human land-use metrics reflecting: total used area at different time spans, rates of land-use change, and the occurrence of remarkable land-use shifts. Environmental factors were identified as the main correlates of current mammalian richness, but several proposed metrics of past land-use were also relevant predictors. Overall, these results highlight the likely existence of a land-use legacy in some regions of the world that has influenced the distribution of extant mammals, particularly of those currently classified as threatened. Even if we cannot change that legacy, our results show that we need to account for past human impacts to understand present biodiversity patterns and, arguably, to guide future actions.

Summary (3 min read)

Jump to: [Introduction] – [Data sources and selection] – [Statistical analyses] – [Results] – [Discussion] – [Low-used areas] – [Recently-used areas] – [Steadily-used areas] and [Conclusions]

Introduction

  • Threatened species are unevenly distributed across the world, with remarkable differences among taxonomic groups (Grenyer et al. 2006).
  • As a result, the relationship between environmental factors, overall species richness, and the number of threatened species is not straightforward and shows spatial heterogeneity (Orme et al.
  • Since the beginning of sedentary human societies and the advent of agriculture, around B.C.8000-6000, the amount of land under human dominance has grown at an accelerating pace (Ellis 2011).
  • The authors study aims to provide an understanding of how past human land use relates with current global mammalian biodiversity patterns.

Data sources and selection

  • Data of mean proportion of land use per unit area at different time spans were obtained from Ellis et al. (2013; available at http://ecotope.org/products/datasets/used_planet/).
  • Grid-cells with an emerged area smaller than 10,000 km2 were excluded to avoid comparing grid-cells with very unequal areas.
  • For the purpose of the present work, it was represented as the value of human land use at c.A.D.2000, the most recent time break available on this data source.
  • The proportion of threatened mammals was calculated by dividing the number of threatened mammals over the total mammal richness per grid-cell.

Statistical analyses

  • To synthetize trajectory trends in longitudinal data of global land use the authors employed a clustering method that incorporates a k-means algorithm (Celeux and Govaert 1992) implemented in the kml package ('kml' function; Genolini et al. 2015) in R v.3.2.3 (R Core Team 2015).
  • The obtained trajectory-clusters were used as a categorical past land-use predictor in global models to test differences among clusters in terms of mammalian diversity and vulnerability.
  • Finally, from correlated pairs of two past land-use indicators the authors selected the past land-use indicator representing the oldest temporal span to increase the contrast with present land use (a control variable).
  • To fit the models the authors used the function ‘gbm.step’, which calculates the optimal number of boosting trees using 10-fold cross validation, and it is included in the dismo package (Hijmans et al. 2013) in R.
  • The explanatory power of each model was calculated as the percentage of deviance explained respect to a null model, defined as one without any splits –equivalent to an intercept only model in linear regression (Ferrier and Watson 1997).

Results

  • All quality criteria supported the differentiation of three generalized trajectory-clusters describing global temporal patterns in past land use from c.B.C.6000 to c.A.D.2000 (Fig. S1.1).
  • Recently-used areas largely correspond to territories of relatively modern human colonization and expansion, such as North America, Australia or southern and East Africa.
  • While quality criteria supported three clusters, there were additional configurations that had partial support.
  • These suggested further division of recently and steadilyused areas into more clusters with low-used areas always remaining as a single group (Fig. S1.2).
  • Both total mammalian richness and proportion of threatened species distribution were mainly explained by environmental indicators; with the exception of the relevance of past land use (c.A.D.1000) on total richness (Table 1) and pre-industrial rate of land-use change on proportion of threatened mammals within recently-used areas (Table 3).

Discussion

  • The authors results show that land-use history across the world can be broadly summarized into three trajectory-clusters: low-, recently- and steadily-used areas.
  • There are disparities in the influence of different predictors in explaining mammal diversity metrics within each cluster, and in the shape of the relationship between predictors and responses.
  • When disaggregating by trajectory-cluster, the authors detected descriptors of past landuse change as relevant.
  • This signal of the past is most noticeable for recently-used areas and when assessing differences in total numbers of threatened mammals.
  • Current land use or descriptors of remarkable past land-use changes were not identified as relevant in any model.

Low-used areas

  • According to their results, more than 50% of the global land area analyzed (excluding Antarctica and most of Greenland) have followed a low-used trajectory.
  • This high share of the global surface may explain why general trends in the effects of environmental and land-use predictors within these areas resemble the global trends.
  • These areas broadly coincide with last-of-the-wild regions, traditionally seen as opportunities to preserve biodiversity given the relatively low human influence to which they are exposed (Sanderson et al. 2002).
  • Lack of historical human pressure may be explained by two different reasons: low primary productivity associated to biomes in the northern hemisphere, such as the boreal forests, the Tundra, and deserts worldwide; and relative remoteness, limiting accessibility in some tropical forests, e.g. Amazon or Borneo (Fig. 1).
  • The fact that more threatened species tend to occur in areas more rapidly transformed during the period c.A.D. 0-1750 suggests the existence of a land-use legacy on these parts of the Earth, where mammals remain negatively influenced by past human impacts and local extinctions have not yet occurred given the low magnitude of land-use changes (Bürgi et al. 2017).

Recently-used areas

  • Around 32% of global land is classified as a recently-used trajectory, which coincide with areas humanized after the great colonization events of the 15th century onwards.
  • Many of these regions are located within highly developed countries, such as the United States or Australia (Fig. 1).
  • Today, these areas do not present particularly high species richness or accumulations of threatened mammals (Table S2.1), thus they are not generally considered a global priority (Brooks et al. 2006).
  • As for the land-use-history variables of interest, total mammalian richness is lower where the proportion of land use c.A.D.1000 had been relatively low (Fig. 4), opposite to what the authors expected under a time-lag effect (lower species richness predicted for areas heavily modified in the past).
  • Therefore, there is not a lagged effect of past land-use changes on current total richness, which remains relatively high within these areas (Table S2.1).

Steadily-used areas

  • Less than 16% of global land belongs to this trajectory-cluster, which is characterized by a relatively high and long-lasting human land use covering different tropical and temperate regions.
  • In these areas, steep changes in use were rare, but their average level of human appropriation of land by A.D.0 was already higher than levels observed today in low-used areas (Table S2.1).
  • Furthermore, areas with more threatened mammals are also characterized by rapid, very low, or even negative preindustrial changes (i.e. where human land use decreased; Fig.4).
  • On the other hand, in areas like Eastern Europe and African regions from Guinea to Chad, changes were pronounced and their prediction of species not having had time to recover from past human pressures may hold (Fig. S4.18).
  • Nevertheless, it is important to note that, within these areas, environmental factors have the greatest relevance in explaining diversity, therefore, time-lagged effects must be cautiously interpreted (Table 2).

Conclusions

  • To their knowledge, the use of temporal trajectory-clusters' delineation has never been applied in biogeographical or ecological studies.
  • In particular, the rate of change during the period c.A.D.0-1750 repeatedly appears as relevant in tested models, highlighting the importance of this time-span.
  • Extinction debts at regional scales have been found to reflect more recent habitat modifications and particularly affect sensitive species, agreeing with their global results (Uezu and Metzger 2016).
  • Overall, their study shows current biodiversity patterns reflect a signal of environmental drivers but also of past land use.

Did you find this useful? Give us your feedback

Figures (6)

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

The legacy of past human land use in
current patterns of mammal distribution
Article
Accepted Version
Polaina, E., González-Suárez, M. and Revilla, E. (2019) The
legacy of past human land use in current patterns of mammal
distribution. Ecography, 42 (10). pp. 1623-1635. ISSN 0906-
7590 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04406 Available at
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/84799/
It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the
work. See Guidance on citing
.
To link to this article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04406
Publisher: Wiley
All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law,
including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other
copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in
the End User Agreement
.
www.reading.ac.uk/centaur
CentAUR
Central Archive at the University of Reading
Reading’s research outputs online
1
The legacy of past human land use in current patterns of mammal distribution 1
2
Ester Polaina (e.polaina@gmail.com) 3
Conservation Biology Department, Doñana Biological Station-CSIC, Seville, Spain 4
Ecology Department, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Uppsala, Sweden 5
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5064-5881 6
7
Manuela González-Suárez (manuela.gonzalez@reading.ac.uk) 8
Conservation Biology Department, Doñana Biological Station-CSIC, Seville, Spain 9
School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK 10
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5069-8900 11
12
Eloy Revilla (revilla@ebd.csic.es) 13
Conservation Biology Department, Doñana Biological Station-CSIC, Seville, Spain 14
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5534-5581 15
16
Corresponding author: Ester Polaina 17
18
Acknowledgements 19
We thank the IUCN Red List team for making and maintaining its database freely 20
available online. We also acknowledge the Laboratory for Anthropogenic Landscape 21
Ecology, directed by Dr. Erle C. Ellis, for publicly sharing anthropogenic land cover 22
change datasets. This work was funded by the program ‘Junta para la Ampliación de 23
Estudios’ (JAEPre022. BOE-A-2011-10745, co-funded by the European Social Fund), 24
the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ grant n° 235897 and 25
2
EU BON project nº 308454), and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation co-26
funded by FEDER (CGL2009-07301/BOS, CGL2012-35931/BOS and JCI-2011-27
09158). 28
29
3
Abstract 30
Multiple environmental factors are known to shape species distributions at the global 31
scale, including climate and topography, but understanding current extents of 32
occurrence and biodiversity patterns requires considering anthropogenic factors as well. 33
Numerous studies have explored the relationship between contemporary human 34
activities and different biodiversity metrics, but the influence of past activities, such as 35
land-use, remains poorly understood despite being one of the oldest human impacts. 36
Here we evaluate the role of past land-use modifications in the current distribution and 37
conservation status of mammals worldwide using spatial data characterizing human 38
land use from c.B.C.6000 to c.A.D.2000. First, we applied a clustering method that 39
revealed three generalized past human land-use trajectories that represent low-, recently- 40
and steadily-used areas widely represented across the globe. Second, we fitted boosted 41
regression trees to predict total and threatened mammalian richness, globally and within 42
trajectory-clusters, testing the role of environmental factors and multiple human land-43
use metrics reflecting: total used area at different time spans, rates of land-use change, 44
and the occurrence of remarkable land-use shifts. Environmental factors were identified 45
as the main correlates of current mammalian richness, but several proposed metrics of 46
past land-use were also relevant predictors. Overall, these results highlight the likely 47
existence of a land-use legacy in some regions of the world that has influenced the 48
distribution of extant mammals, particularly of those currently classified as threatened. 49
Even if we cannot change that legacy, our results show that we need to account for past 50
human impacts to understand present biodiversity patterns and, arguably, to guide future 51
actions. 52
53
4
Keywords: land-use history, land-use trajectory, KK10 model, IUCN, threatened 54
species, distribution, cluster analysis 55
Citations
More filters
Journal Article•
Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere

[...]

Erle C. Ellis1•
University of Maryland, Baltimore County1
01 Jan 2011-Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
TL;DR: In this article, the Earth system has entered a new geological epoch, spatially explicit global estimates of human populations and their use of land were analysed across the Holocene for their potential to induce irreversible novel transformation of the terrestrial biosphere.
Abstract: Human populations and their use of land have transformed most of the terrestrial biosphere into anthropogenic biomes (anthromes), causing a variety of novel ecological patterns and processes to emerge. To assess whether human populations and their use of land have directly altered the terrestrial biosphere sufficiently to indicate that the Earth system has entered a new geological epoch, spatially explicit global estimates of human populations and their use of land were analysed across the Holocene for their potential to induce irreversible novel transformation of the terrestrial biosphere. Human alteration of the terrestrial biosphere has been significant for more than 8000 years. However, only in the past century has the majority of the terrestrial biosphere been transformed into intensively used anthromes with predominantly novel anthropogenic ecological processes. At present, even were human populations to decline substantially or use of land become far more efficient, the current global extent, duration, type and intensity of human transformation of ecosystems have already irreversibly altered the terrestrial biosphere at levels sufficient to leave an unambiguous geological record differing substantially from that of the Holocene or any prior epoch. It remains to be seen whether the anthropogenic biosphere will be sustained and continue to evolve.

578 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Land-use change and biodiversity: Challenges for assembling evidence on the greatest threat to nature.

[...]

Charles W. Davison1, Carsten Rahbek, Naia Morueta-Holme1•
University of Copenhagen1
29 Aug 2021-Global Change Biology
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employ named entity recognition to analyze more than 4000 abstracts, alongside full reading of 100 randomly selected papers, highlighting the broad range of study designs and methodologies used; the most common being local space-for-time comparisons that classify land use in situ.
Abstract: Land-use change is considered the greatest threat to nature, having caused worldwide declines in the abundance, diversity, and health of species and ecosystems. Despite increasing research on this global change driver, there are still challenges to forming an effective synthesis. The estimated impact of land-use change on biodiversity can depend on location, research methods, and taxonomic focus, with recent global meta-analyses reaching disparate conclusions. Here, we critically appraise this research body and our ability to reach a reliable consensus. We employ named entity recognition to analyze more than 4000 abstracts, alongside full reading of 100 randomly selected papers. We highlight the broad range of study designs and methodologies used; the most common being local space-for-time comparisons that classify land use in situ. Species metrics including abundance, distribution, and diversity were measured more frequently than complex responses such as demography, vital rates, and behavior. We identified taxonomic biases, with vertebrates well represented while detritivores were largely missing. Omitting this group may hinder our understanding of how land-use change affects ecosystem feedback. Research was heavily biased toward temperate forested biomes in North America and Europe, with warmer regions being acutely underrepresented despite offering potential insights into the future effects of land-use change under novel climates. Various land-use histories were covered, although more research in understudied regions including Africa and the Middle East is required to capture regional differences in the form of current and historical land-use practices. Failure to address these challenges will impede our global understanding of land-use change impacts on biodiversity, limit the reliability of future projections and have repercussions for the conservation of threatened species. Beyond identifying literature biases, we highlight the research priorities and data gaps that need urgent attention and offer perspectives on how to move forward.

31 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Current climate, but also long‐term climate changes and human impacts, determine the geographic distribution of European mammal diversity

[...]

Ana M. C. Santos, Marcus Vinicius Cianciaruso, Ana Márcia Barbosa, Luis Mauricio Bini, José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho, Frederico V. Faleiro, Sidney F. Gouveia1, Rafael Loyola, Nagore G. Medina2, Thiago F. Rangel, Geiziane Tessarolo3, Joaquín Hortal4, Joaquín Hortal5 •
Universidade Federal de Sergipe1, Autonomous University of Madrid2, Goiás State University3, Spanish National Research Council4, University of Lisbon5
12 Jul 2020-Global Ecology and Biogeography
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present tools to unify range dynamics and community-level processes into a single analytical framework to predict diversity variations across scales through process-based models linking com-munity ecology and biogeography.
Abstract: This work was supported by the projects ‘Developing tools to unify range dynamics and community-level processes into a single analytical framework’ (cooperation project Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico CSIC-CNPq P2011BR0071) and ‘Predicting diversity variations across scales through process-based models linking com-munity ecology and biogeography’ (Pesquisador Visitante Especial CNPq, PVE314523/2014-6). AMCS was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (IEF 331623 ‘COMMSTRUCT’), by a ‘Juan de la Cierva’ Fellowship (IJCI-2014-19502) funded by the cur-rent Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, by Universidad de Alcala, through a travel grant within the ‘Ayudas de movilidad de personal docente y personal investigador’ program, and by the Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (contract CEEIND/03425/2017). RL’s research is funded by CNPq (grant #306694/2018-2). This paper is a contribution of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia (INCT) in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation funded by Brazilian Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia, Inovacoes e Comunicacoes, CNPq and Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do estado de Goias (grant MCTIC/CNPq/FAPEG 465610/2014-5).

15 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Threatened bird species are concentrated in regions with less historical human impacts

[...]

Xueting Yang1, Shicheng Li2, Alice C. Hughes3, Gang Feng1•
Inner Mongolia University1, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)2, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden3
01 Mar 2021-Biological Conservation
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that there are higher proportions of threatened bird species in Northern China, especially Northeastern and Northwestern China, compared with less historical anthropogenic activities, i.e., smaller changes in forest cover and cropland area in northern China between 1700 and 1800.

5 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Where wolves were: setting historical baselines for wolf recovery in Spain

[...]

Marta Teixidó i Clavero, Andreína García-Reyes, Alberto Fernández-Gil, Eloy Revilla, Néstor Fernández 
02 Sep 2022-Animal Conservation
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used probabilistic distribution models to estimate the wolf historical range with unprecedented detail, allowing the quantification of the historical reduction in occupancy area, which represented an average range reduction of 68% between the mid 19th century and present time, resulting in the current restriction of the species to the country's northwestern quadrant.
Abstract: Reference conditions are necessary to assess the conservation status of species, understand their declines, and manage their recovery. Historical documents offer large amounts of records of a wide variety of species, which may be used to generate reference baselines on the historical distribution range of species. We collected information on the Iberian wolf Canis lupus signatus presence or assumed absence for 6734 localities in Spain from the geographical dictionary edited by Pascual Madoz in the mid‐19th century. We used probabilistic distribution models to estimate the wolf historical range with unprecedented detail, allowing the quantification of the historical reduction in occupancy area. Wolf records were widely distributed in mid‐19th century Spain, being present in all its mainland provinces. The probability of occurrence was positively associated with landscape roughness and negatively with human population density and the landscape suitability for agriculture. The area estimated to be occupied by wolves ranged between 212 200 and 317 600 km2, depending on the approach used to set cut‐off values from the predictions. Our estimations represented an average range reduction of 68% between the mid‐19th century and present time, resulting in the current restriction of the species to the country's north‐western quadrant. The putative recent recovery of the wolf in Spain consists mainly of the accumulation of wolf records in areas where the species had persisted and the recolonization of some peripheral areas, but there is no indication of widespread recovery of the historical distribution range. We show that the compilation of historical species records allows producing baseline range scenarios with much higher resolution than usually available to inform species status and set recovery targets, an approach that can be implemented in other areas and taxa.

3 citations

References
More filters
Journal Article•
R: A language and environment for statistical computing.

[...]

R Core Team
01 Jan 2014-MSOR connections
TL;DR: Copyright (©) 1999–2012 R Foundation for Statistical Computing; permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Abstract: Copyright (©) 1999–2012 R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the R Core Team.

272,030 citations

"The legacy of past human land use i..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...To synthetize trajectory trends in longitudinal data of global land use we employed a clustering method that incorporates a k-means algorithm (Celeux and Govaert 1992) implemented in the kml package ('kml' function; Genolini et al. 2015) in R v.3.2.3 (R Core Team 2015)....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
WorldClim 2: new 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas

[...]

Stephen E. Fick1, Robert J. Hijmans1•
University of California, Davis1
01 Oct 2017-International Journal of Climatology
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors created a new dataset of spatially interpolated monthly climate data for global land areas at a very high spatial resolution (approximately 1 km2), including monthly temperature (minimum, maximum and average), precipitation, solar radiation, vapour pressure and wind speed, aggregated across a target temporal range of 1970-2000, using data from between 9000 and 60,000 weather stations.
Abstract: We created a new dataset of spatially interpolated monthly climate data for global land areas at a very high spatial resolution (approximately 1 km2). We included monthly temperature (minimum, maximum and average), precipitation, solar radiation, vapour pressure and wind speed, aggregated across a target temporal range of 1970–2000, using data from between 9000 and 60 000 weather stations. Weather station data were interpolated using thin-plate splines with covariates including elevation, distance to the coast and three satellite-derived covariates: maximum and minimum land surface temperature as well as cloud cover, obtained with the MODIS satellite platform. Interpolation was done for 23 regions of varying size depending on station density. Satellite data improved prediction accuracy for temperature variables 5–15% (0.07–0.17 °C), particularly for areas with a low station density, although prediction error remained high in such regions for all climate variables. Contributions of satellite covariates were mostly negligible for the other variables, although their importance varied by region. In contrast to the common approach to use a single model formulation for the entire world, we constructed the final product by selecting the best performing model for each region and variable. Global cross-validation correlations were ≥ 0.99 for temperature and humidity, 0.86 for precipitation and 0.76 for wind speed. The fact that most of our climate surface estimates were only marginally improved by use of satellite covariates highlights the importance having a dense, high-quality network of climate station data.

7,558 citations

"The legacy of past human land use i..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...Present environmental conditions were synthesized for each 110 km grid-cell in terms of annual mean actual evapotranspiration (AET), obtained from Zhang et al. (2010); annual mean temperature and precipitation, obtained from WorldClim2 (Fick and Hijmans 2017); and mean elevation, extracted from the global digital elevation model GTOPO30 (LP DAAC 2004; Table S2....

    [...]

  • ...…grid-cell in terms of annual mean actual evapotranspiration (AET), obtained from Zhang et al. (2010); annual mean temperature and precipitation, obtained from WorldClim2 (Fick and Hijmans 2017); and mean elevation, extracted from the global digital elevation model GTOPO30 (LP DAAC 2004; Table S2....

    [...]

  • ...…AET mm, accumulated 2000 1 degree month Zhang et al. (2010, 2015) Mean annual temperature Temperature ºC, average 1970-2000 10 arc minutes month Fick & Hijmans (2017) Mean annual precipitation Precipitation mm, average 1970-2000 10 arc minutes month Fick & Hijmans (2017) Global digital…...

    [...]

  • ...…Mean annual temperature Temperature ºC, average 1970-2000 10 arc minutes month Fick & Hijmans (2017) Mean annual precipitation Precipitation mm, average 1970-2000 10 arc minutes month Fick & Hijmans (2017) Global digital elevation model Elevation m 1996 30 arc seconds - LP DAAC (2004) Figure S2....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet

[...]

Will Steffen1, Will Steffen2, Katherine Richardson3, Johan Rockström2, Sarah Cornell2, Ingo Fetzer2, Elena M. Bennett4, Reinette Biggs5, Reinette Biggs2, Stephen R. Carpenter6, Wim de Vries7, Cynthia A. de Wit8, Carl Folke9, Carl Folke2, Dieter Gerten10, Jens Heinke11, Jens Heinke12, Jens Heinke10, Georgina M. Mace13, Linn Persson14, Veerabhadran Ramanathan15, Veerabhadran Ramanathan16, Belinda Reyers2, Belinda Reyers5, Sverker Sörlin17 •
Australian National University1, Stockholm Resilience Centre2, University of Copenhagen3, McGill University4, Stellenbosch University5, University of Wisconsin-Madison6, Wageningen University and Research Centre7, Stockholm University8, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences9, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research10, International Livestock Research Institute11, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation12, University College London13, Stockholm Environment Institute14, The Energy and Resources Institute15, University of California, San Diego16, Royal Institute of Technology17
13 Feb 2015-Science
TL;DR: An updated and extended analysis of the planetary boundary (PB) framework and identifies levels of anthropogenic perturbations below which the risk of destabilization of the Earth system (ES) is likely to remain low—a “safe operating space” for global societal development.
Abstract: The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system. Here, we revise and update the planetary boundary framework, with a focus on the underpinning biophysical science, based on targeted input from expert research communities and on more general scientific advances over the past 5 years. Several of the boundaries now have a two-tier approach, reflecting the importance of cross-scale interactions and the regional-level heterogeneity of the processes that underpin the boundaries. Two core boundaries—climate change and biosphere integrity—have been identified, each of which has the potential on its own to drive the Earth system into a new state should they be substantially and persistently transgressed.

7,169 citations

"The legacy of past human land use i..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…notable transitions, such as the European invasions in the 15th century, the 19th century Industrial Revolution with its productive, technological and demographic shifts and, more recently, the Green Revolution that triggered the so-called 'great acceleration' (c.A.D.1950, Steffen et al. 2015)....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
A Cluster Separation Measure

[...]

David L. Davies1, Donald W. Bouldin1•
University of Tennessee1
01 Feb 1979-IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
TL;DR: A measure is presented which indicates the similarity of clusters which are assumed to have a data density which is a decreasing function of distance from a vector characteristic of the cluster which can be used to infer the appropriateness of data partitions.
Abstract: A measure is presented which indicates the similarity of clusters which are assumed to have a data density which is a decreasing function of distance from a vector characteristic of the cluster. The measure can be used to infer the appropriateness of data partitions and can therefore be used to compare relative appropriateness of various divisions of the data. The measure does not depend on either the number of clusters analyzed nor the method of partitioning of the data and can be used to guide a cluster seeking algorithm.

6,757 citations

"The legacy of past human land use i..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...…was defined using five non-parametric quality indices according to different criteria: three variants of the Calinski & Harabanz criterion, the Ray-Turi criterion and the Davies-Bouldin criterion (Calinski and Harabasz 1972, Davies and Bouldin 1979, Ray and Turi 1999, Kryszczuk and Hurley 2010)....

    [...]

  • ...…different quality tests, 1(black): Calinski-Harabatz (Calinski & Harabasz 1972); 2 (red): Calinski-Harabatz2, Kryszczuk variant (Kryszczuk & Hurley 2010); 3 (green): Calinski-Harabatz3, Genolini variant; 4 (blue): Ray-Turi (Ray & Turi 1999); 5 (cyan): Davies-Bouldin (Davies & Bouldin 1979)....

    [...]

  • ...The optimal number of clusters was defined using five non-parametric quality indices according to different criteria: three variants of the Calinski & Harabanz criterion, the Ray-Turi criterion and the Davies-Bouldin criterion (Calinski and Harabasz 1972, Davies and Bouldin 1979, Ray and Turi 1999, Kryszczuk and Hurley 2010)....

    [...]

  • ...Different numbers and colors represent different quality tests, 1(black): Calinski-Harabatz (Calinski & Harabasz 1972); 2 (red): Calinski-Harabatz2, Kryszczuk variant (Kryszczuk & Hurley 2010); 3 (green): Calinski-Harabatz3, Genolini variant; 4 (blue): Ray-Turi (Ray & Turi 1999); 5 (cyan): Davies-Bouldin (Davies & Bouldin 1979)....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges

[...]

David Dudgeon1, Angela Arthington2, Mark O. Gessner3, Zen'ichiro Kawabata, Duncan Knowler4, Christian Lévêque, Robert J. Naiman5, Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard, Doris Soto6, Melanie L. J. Stiassny7, Caroline A Sullivan •
University of Hong Kong1, Cooperative Research Centre2, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology3, Simon Fraser University4, University of Washington5, Austral University of Chile6, American Museum of Natural History7
01 May 2006-Biological Reviews
TL;DR: This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities and advocates continuing attempts to check species loss but urges adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods.
Abstract: Freshwater biodiversity is the over-riding conservation priority during the International Decade for Action - 'Water for Life' - 2005 to 2015. Fresh water makes up only 0.01% of the World's water and approximately 0.8% of the Earth's surface, yet this tiny fraction of global water supports at least 100000 species out of approximately 1.8 million - almost 6% of all described species. Inland waters and freshwater biodiversity constitute a valuable natural resource, in economic, cultural, aesthetic, scientific and educational terms. Their conservation and management are critical to the interests of all humans, nations and governments. Yet this precious heritage is in crisis. Fresh waters are experiencing declines in biodiversity far greater than those in the most affected terrestrial ecosystems, and if trends in human demands for water remain unaltered and species losses continue at current rates, the opportunity to conserve much of the remaining biodiversity in fresh water will vanish before the 'Water for Life' decade ends in 2015. Why is this so, and what is being done about it? This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities. We document threats to global freshwater biodiversity under five headings: overexploitation; water pollution; flow modification; destruction or degradation of habitat; and invasion by exotic species. Their combined and interacting influences have resulted in population declines and range reduction of freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Conservation of biodiversity is complicated by the landscape position of rivers and wetlands as 'receivers' of land-use effluents, and the problems posed by endemism and thus non-substitutability. In addition, in many parts of the world, fresh water is subject to severe competition among multiple human stakeholders. Protection of freshwater biodiversity is perhaps the ultimate conservation challenge because it is influenced by the upstream drainage network, the surrounding land, the riparian zone, and - in the case of migrating aquatic fauna - downstream reaches. Such prerequisites are hardly ever met. Immediate action is needed where opportunities exist to set aside intact lake and river ecosystems within large protected areas. For most of the global land surface, trade-offs between conservation of freshwater biodiversity and human use of ecosystem goods and services are necessary. We advocate continuing attempts to check species loss but, in many situations, urge adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods in order to provide a viable long-term basis for freshwater conservation. Recognition of this need will require adoption of a new paradigm for biodiversity protection and freshwater ecosystem management - one that has been appropriately termed 'reconciliation ecology'.

5,857 citations

Related Papers (5)
EDITOR'S CHOICE: REVIEW: Effects of land use on plant diversity – A global meta‐analysis

[...]

01 Dec 2014-Journal of Applied Ecology
Katharina Gerstner, Carsten F. Dormann, Anke Stein, Ameur M. Manceur, Ralf Seppelt 
Land Use in Life Cycle Assessment: Global Characterization Factors Based on Regional and Global Potential Species Extinction

[...]

07 Aug 2013-Environmental Science & Technology
Laura de Baan, Christopher L. Mutel, Michael Curran, Stefanie Hellweg, Thomas Koellner 
Assessment of Land Use Impacts on the Natural Environment Part 2: Generic Characterization Factors for Local Species Diversity in Central Europe

[...]

01 Jan 2008-International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Thomas Koellner, Roland W. Scholz
Local factors mediate the response of biodiversity to land use on two African mountains

[...]

01 Aug 2017-Animal Conservation
Martin Jung, Samantha L. L. Hill, Samantha L. L. Hill, Philip J. Platts, Rob Marchant, Stefan J. Siebert, Anne Fournier, F. B. Munyekenye, Andy Purvis, Andy Purvis, Neil D. Burgess, Neil D. Burgess, Tim Newbold, Tim Newbold 
Considering habitat conversion and fragmentation in characterisation factors for land-use impacts on vertebrate species richness.

[...]

18 Aug 2021-Science of The Total Environment
Koen J. J. Kuipers, Roelof Frans May, Francesca Verones
Frequently Asked Questions (7)
Q1. What have the authors contributed in "The legacy of past human land use in current patterns of mammal distribution" ?

In this paper, the relationship between environmental factors, overall species richness, and the number of threatened species is not straightforward and shows spatial heterogeneity. 

The fact that past land-use metrics are more relevant in explaining total and especially threatened mammalian richness distributions than present land use also has implications for future studies given the widespread practice of including present land use, but not past use, as a predictor of numbers of threatened species ( Lenzen et al. 2009, Koh and Ghazoul 2010, Brum et al. 2013 ). Deeper impacts on species biodiversity may have already occurred, but they may only be apparent to the conservation biologists of the future. On the other hand, what the authors call current mammalian biodiversity patterns may be an optimistic picture of what actually remains, since rapid changes may not be captured by global biodiversity databases and, although their resolution of 1° is recommended at the global scale, IUCN range maps are known to overestimate species geographic ranges ( Hurlbert and Jetz 2007 ). Recentlyused areas, which have been rarely prioritized for conservation up to now, are likely most affected by extinction debt which may be best addressed via restoration initiatives. 

Less than 16% of global land belongs to this trajectory-cluster, which is characterized by a relatively high and long-lasting human land use covering different tropical and temperate regions. 

Around 32% of global land is classified as a recently-used trajectory, which coincide with areas humanized after the great colonization events of the 15th century onwards. 

According to their results, more than 50% of the global land area analyzed (excluding Antarctica and most of Greenland) have followed a low-used trajectory. 

It seems clear that whereas the most threatening activities are normally related to lower total species richness, the relationship between threats and threatened species likely varies across regions and spatial scales in more complex ways. 

Within low-used areas, effects directions were the same as described for the global modeland, additionally, more threatened mammals were found where pre-industrial land-use change was relatively faster (Fig. 4).