Reserve design

About: Reserve design is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 359 publications have been published within this topic receiving 32755 citations.

Systematic Conservation Planning

Abstract: The realization of conservation goals requires strategies for managing whole landscapes including areas allocated to both production and protection. Reserves alone are not adequate for nature conservation but they are the cornerstone on which regional strategies are built. Reserves have two main roles. They should sample or represent the biodiversity of each region and they should separate this biodiversity from processes that threaten its persistence. Existing reserve systems throughout the world contain a biased sample of biodiversity, usually that of remote places and other areas that are unsuitable for commercial activities. A more systematic approach to locating and designing reserves has been evolving and this approach will need to be implemented if a large proportion of today's biodiversity is to exist in a future of increasing numbers of people and their demands on natural resources.

Mapping Species Distributions: Spatial Inference and Prediction

Abstract: Maps of species' distributions or habitat suitability are required for many aspects of environmental research, resource management and conservation planning. These include biodiversity assessment, reserve design, habitat management and restoration, species and habitat conservation plans and predicting the effects of environmental change on species and ecosystems. The proliferation of methods and uncertainty regarding their effectiveness can be daunting to researchers, resource managers and conservation planners alike. Franklin summarises the methods used in species distribution modeling (also called niche modeling) and presents a framework for spatial prediction of species distributions based on the attributes (space, time, scale) of the data and questions being asked. The framework links theoretical ecological models of species distributions to spatial data on species and environment, and statistical models used for spatial prediction. Providing practical guidelines to students, researchers and practitioners in a broad range of environmental sciences including ecology, geography, conservation biology, and natural resources management.

The impact of marine reserves: do reserves work and does reserve size matter?

Abstract: Marine reserves are quickly gaining popularity as a management option for marine conservation, fisheries, and other human uses of the oceans. Despite the popularity of marine reserves as a management tool, few reserves appear to have been created or designed with an understanding of how reserves affect biological factors or how reserves can be designed to meet biological goals more effectively (e.g., attaining sustainable fish populations). This shortcoming occurs in part because the many studies that have examined the impacts of reserves on marine organisms remain isolated examples or anecdotes; the results of these many studies have not yet been synthesized. Here, I review the empirical work and discuss the theoretical literature to assess the impacts of marine reserves on several biological measures (density, biomass, size of organisms, and diversity), paying particular attention to the role reserve size has in determining those impacts. The results of 89 separate studies show that, on average, with the exception of invertebrate biomass and size, values for all four biological measures are significantly higher inside reserves compared to outside (or after reserve establishment vs. before) when evaluated for both the overall communities and by each functional group within these communities (carniv- orous fishes, herbivorous fishes, planktivorous fishes/invertebrate eaters, and invertebrates). Surprisingly, results also show that the relative impacts of reserves, such as the proportional differences in density or biomass, are independent of reserve size, suggesting that the effects of marine reserves increase directly rather than proportionally with the size of a reserve. However, equal relative differences in biological measures between small and large reserves nearly always translate into greater absolute differences for larger reserves, and so larger reserves may be necessary to meet the goals set for marine reserves. The quality of the data in the reviewed studies varied greatly. To improve data quality in the future, whenever possible, studies should take measurements before and after the creation of a reserve, replicate sampling, and include a suite of representative species. Despite the variable quality of the data, the results from this review suggest that nearly any marine habitat can benefit from the implementation of a reserve. Success of a marine reserve, however, will always be judged against the expectations for that reserve, and so we must keep in mind the goals of a reserve in its design, management, and evaluation.

Freshwater biodiversity conservation: recent progress and future challenges

Abstract: Freshwater habitats occupy ,1% of the Earth's surface, yet are hotspots that support ,10% of all known species, and ,M of vertebrate species. Fresh waters also are hotspots for human activities that have led to widespread habitat degradation, pollution, flow regulation and water extraction, fisheries overexploitation, and alien species introductions. These impacts have caused severe declines in the range and abundance of many freshwater species, so that they are now far more imperiled than their marine or terrestrial counterparts. Here, we review progress in conservation of freshwater biodiversity, with a focus on the period since 1986, and outline key challenges for the future. Driven by rising conservation concerns, freshwater ecologists have conducted a great deal of research over the past 25 y on the status, trends, autecology, and propagation of imperiled species, threats to these species, the consequences of biodiversity loss for ecosystem functioning, metapopulation dynamics, biodiversity hotspots, reserve design, habitat restoration, communication with stakeholders, and weaknesses of protective legislation. Nevertheless, existing efforts might be insufficient to stem the ongoing and coming multitude of freshwater extinctions. We briefly discuss 4 important challenges for freshwater conservation. First, climate change will imperil both freshwater species and human uses of fresh water, driving engineering responses that will further threaten the freshwater biota. We need to anticipate both ecological and human responses to climate change, and to encourage rational and deliberate planning of engineering responses to climate change before disasters strike. Second, because freshwater extinctions are already well underway, freshwater conservationists must be prepared to act now to prevent further losses, even if our knowledge is incomplete, and engage more effectively with other stakeholders. Third, we need to bridge the gap between freshwater ecology and conservation biology. Fourth, we suggest that scientific societies and scholarly journals concerned with limnology or freshwater sciences need to improve their historically poor record in publishing important papers and influencing practice in conservation ecology. Failure to meet these challenges will lead to the extinction or impoverishment of the very subjects of our research.