Landscape Partnership Resources Library
Wild Pollinators Enhance Fruit Set of Crops Regardless of Honey Bee Abundance
The diversity and abundance of wild insect pollinators have declined in many agricultural landscapes. Whether such declines reduce crop yields, or are mitigated by managed pollinators such as honey bees, is unclear. We found universally positive associations of fruit set with flower visitation by wild insects in 41 crop systems worldwide. In contrast, fruit set increased significantly with flower visitation by honey bees in only 14% of the systems surveyed. Overall, wild insects pollinated crops more effectively; an increase in wild insect visitation enhanced fruit set by twice as much as an equivalent increase in honey bee visitation. Visitation by wild insects and honey bees promoted fruit set independently, so pollination by managed honey bees supplemented, rather than substituted for, pollination by wild insects. Our results suggest that new practices for integrated management of both honey bees and diverse wild insect assemblages will enhance global crop yields.
Future climate change driven sea-level rise: secondary consequences from human displacement for island biodiversity
Sea-level rise (SLR) due to global warming will result in the loss of many coastal areas. The direct or primary effects due to inundation and erosion from SLR are currently being assessed; however, the indirect or secondary ecological effects, such as changes caused by the displacement of human populations, have not been previously evaluated. We examined the potential ecological consequences of future SLR on >1,200 islands in the Southeast Asian and the Pacific region. Using three SLR scenarios (1, 3, and 6 m elevation, where 1 m approximates most predictions by the end of this century), we assessed the consequences of primary and secondary SLR effects from human displacement on habi- tat availability and distributions of selected mammal species. We estimate that between 3–32% of the coastal zone of these islands could be lost from primary effects, and consequently 8–52 million people would become SLR refugees. Assuming that inundated urban and intensive agricultural areas will be relocated with an equal area of habitat loss in the hinterland, we project that secondary SLR effects can lead to an equal or even higher percent range loss than primary effects for at least 10–18% of the sample mammals in a moderate range loss scenario and for 22–46% in a maximum range loss scenario. In addition, we found some species to be more vulnerable to secondary than primary effects. Finally, we found high spatial variation in vulnerability: species on islands in Oceania are more vulnerable to primary SLR effects, whereas species on islands in Indo-Malaysia, with potentially 7–48 million SLR refugees, are more vulnerable to secondary effects. Our findings show that primary and secondary SLR effects can have enormous consequences for human inhabitants and island biodiversity, and that both need to be incorporated into ecological risk assessment, conservation, and regional planning. Keywords: conservation priorities, extinction risk, global change, human migration, human settlements, Indo-Malaysia, insular biodiversity, range contractions, sea-level change
Phylogenetic and functional diversity in large carnivore assemblages
Large terrestrial carnivores are important ecological components and promi- nent flagship species, but are often extinction prone owing to a combination of biological traits and high levels of human persecution. This study com- bines phylogenetic and functional diversity evaluations of global and continental large carnivore assemblages to provide a framework for conser- vation prioritization both between and within assemblages. Species-rich assemblages of large carnivores simultaneously had high phylogenetic and functional diversity, but species contributions to phylogenetic and func- tional diversity components were not positively correlated. The results further provide ecological justification for the largest carnivore species as a focus for conservation action, and suggests that range contraction is a likely cause of diminishing carnivore ecosystem function. This study high- lights that preserving species-rich carnivore assemblages will capture both high phylogenetic and functional diversity, but that prioritizing species within assemblages will involve trade-offs between optimizing contempor- ary ecosystem function versus the evolutionary potential for future ecosystem performance. Carnivora, predation, ecosystem function, conservation priorities, biodiversity
WWF : A CLOSING WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY - GLOBAL GREENHOUSE REALITY 2008
Scientific evidence accumulating since the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report reveals that global warming is accelerating, at times far beyond projections outlined in earlier studies, including the latest IPCC Report. New modelling studies are providing updated and more detailed indications of the impacts of continued warming. The emerging evidence is that important aspects of climate change seem to have been underestimated and the impacts are being felt sooner. For example, early signs of change suggest that the less than 1°C of global warming that the world has experienced to date may have already triggered the first tipping point of the Earth’s climate system – a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean. This process could open the gates to rapid and abrupt climate change, rather than the gradual changes that have been projected so far.
Humans and Nature Duel Over the Next Decade’s Climate
Rising greenhouse gases are changing global climate, but during the next few decades natural climate variations will have a say as well, so researchers are scrambling to factor them in.
Presentation: Climate Change in CTR Design
Presentation by Scott Schwenk on Climate Change in the Connecticut River Design
Presentation: Climate Metrics and Latest Design Drafts
Presentation by Kevin McGarigal. Reviews new climate stressor metrics and how they were incorporated to generate a new core area network design.
Decision Documentation (updated 03-27-2015) [Word]
Mid-depth summary of decisions made throughout the full pilot process. Word document for contributing edits via track changes.
Decision Documentation (updated 03-27-2015)
Mid-depth summary of decisions made throughout the full pilot process
Products Documentation - Abstracts (Word)
Word version of the products documentation with active links. Must be downloaded to a personal computer. Updated on 4/1/2015, reflecting decisions made at the March 27 core team meeting.
Products Documentation - Abstracts (PDF)
PDF version of the products documentation - posted for viewing in the browser. Most recent update: 3/21/2015
Literature by Brook Trout Modeling Group
Literature
Brook Trout Modeler Questionnaire PDF
Text for Online Survey
Participant List - Urban Woodland Workshop, March 11, 2015
List of invitees and participants for the Urban Woodland Conservation and Management Workshop held on March 11, 2015 at NCTC, Shepherdstown, WV
Agenda - March 11, 2015 Workshop
Urban Woodlands Conservation and Management Workshop. Organized and facilitated by the National Park Service to identify and create opportunities for greater collaboration among urban woodland researchers and managers working to restore and manage urban woodland ecosystems. To view the goals and objectives of the workshop, please open the workshop agenda.
Energy Assessment News Release
A new study and online mapping tool by the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) and The Nature Conservancy are intended to inform discussions among conservation agencies and organizations, industry, policy makers, regulators and the public on how to protect essential natural resources while realizing the benefits of increased domestic energy production.
Assessing Future Energy Development across the Appalachian LCC. Final Report
In this study funded by the Appalachian LCC, The Nature Conservancy assessed current and future energy development across the entire region. The research combined multiple layers of data on energy development trends and important natural resource and ecosystem services to give a comprehensive picture of what future energy development could look like in the Appalachians. It also shows where likely energy development areas will intersect with other significant values like intact forests, important streams, and vital ecological services such as drinking water supplies.
Fact Sheet: Assessing Future Energy Development Managers Guide
Provides a general overview of the need for the Energy Assessment research, the major products and findings that came out of the project, and the relevance of the study, models, and tools to the resource management community.
Document: Summary of CT Pilot Core Team Meeting & Call, 01-05-2015
Summary of meeting to discuss connectivity layer and relationship to connectors with the terrestrial design.
Modeling spatially varying landscape change points in species occurrence thresholds
by T. Wagner and S. Miday, Abstract. Predicting species distributions at scales of regions to continents is often necessary, as largescale phenomena influence the distributions of spatially structured populations. Land use and land cover are important large-scale drivers of species distributions, and landscapes are known to create species occurrence thresholds, where small changes in a landscape characteristic results in abrupt changes in occurrence. The value of the landscape characteristic at which this change occurs is referred to as a change point. We present a hierarchical Bayesian threshold model (HBTM) that allows for estimating spatially varying parameters, including change points. Our model also allows for modeling estimated parameters in an effort to understand large-scale drivers of variability in land use and land cover on species occurrence thresholds. We use range-wide detection/nondetection data for the eastern brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), a stream-dwelling salmonid, to illustrate our HBTM for estimating and modeling spatially varying threshold parameters in species occurrence. We parameterized the model for investigating thresholds in landscape predictor variables that are measured as proportions, and which are therefore restricted to values between 0 and 1. Our HBTM estimated spatially varying thresholds in brook trout occurrence for both the proportion agricultural and urban land uses. There was relatively little spatial variation in change point estimates, although there was spatial variability in the overall shape of the threshold response and associated uncertainty. In addition, regional mean stream water temperature was correlated to the change point parameters for the proportion of urban land use, with the change point value increasing with increasing mean stream water temperature. We present a framework for quantify macrosystem variability in spatially varying threshold model parameters in relation to important largescale drivers such as land use and land cover. Although the model presented is a logistic HBTM, it can easily be extended to accommodate other statistical distributions for modeling species richness or abundance.
