Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
2011-12-09 11:15 Prairie dogs and ecosystem services: A key element in
the maintenance of Mexican grasslands
MARTINEZ-ESTEVEZ, LOURDES*, Laboratorio de Ecología y
Conservación de Fauna Silvestre, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Circuito Exterior S/N,
Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510 México, D.F. México.;
Pacheco, Jesús, Laboratorio de Ecología y Conservación de Fauna
Silvestre, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México (UNAM) Circuito Exterior S/N, Ciudad Universitaria,
Coyoacán, 04510 México, D.F. México.; Ceballos, Gerardo,
Laboratorio de Ecología y Conservación de Fauna Silvestre, Instituto
de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Circuito Exterior S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510
México, D.F. México.;
Grasslands are one of the most threaten ecosystems in the world due to
human activities, loss of native species, and desertification. Prairie dogs
are an extremely important feature of North American grasslands. They
are considered a keystone species for their role in maintaining grasslands’
structure and function, and preventing desertification, especially in southern
US and Mexico. Their decline to less than 2% of the original range has
resulted in severe negative environmental effects, and has raised concerns on
the impact on the provision of ecosystem services, especially those related
to food production as habitat degradation reduces its ability to maintain
agriculture and grazing. Here we compare grasslands and invading mesquite
scrublands and provide solid evidence that prairie dogs are fundamental
in the provision of ecosystem services. Water infiltration, prevention of
soil erosion, soil characteristics (e.g. compactation layer), plant cover, and
primary productivity were all higher or better in prairie dog grasslands
when compared with the mesquite scrubland. These indicate severe loss of
ecosystem services with the increasing landscape desertification, and have
strong implications for conservation, land management, and human well
– being.
2011-12-07 17:30 Cumulative impacts to coastal ecosystem services in
British Columbia
Martone, Rebecca G*, Institute for Resources, Environment and
Sustainability, University of British Columbia; Thompson, Allison,
Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University
of British Columbia; Singh, Gerald G, Institute for Resources,
Environment and SusInstitute for Resources, Environment and
Sustainability, University of British Columbia; Chan, Kai M.A.,
Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of
British Columbia;
To provide for the well-being of coastal communities and practice an
ecosystem-based approach, resource management must contend with
cumulative human impacts on ecosystem services, or the ecosystem
processes that benefit people. Despite the increase in popularity of the
ecosystem services framework, there is little information available on the
impacts of multiple human activities on ecosystem service provisioning.
What is missing is a transparent, transferable method to explicitly consider
impacts to and trade-offs among ecosystem services to inform managers so
that they can set priorities and plan human activities spatially. Using data
available from the literature, we developed spatially explicit mechanistic
models of how several land-based activities—agriculture, forestry practices,
and coastal development—can lead to shellfish harvest closures along
the British Columbia coast. We demonstrate the utility of a mechanistic
approach, providing managers the detailed understanding necessary for
making informed decisions about activities that cross ecosystem boundaries,
and clarifying how human activities link to the benefits derived from marine
systems.
2011-12-07 17:15 Using private agreements and collaborative research
to design and test area-based fisheries management approaches
Mary Gleason*, The Nature Conservancy; Michael Bell, The Nature
Conservancy; Matt Merrifield, The Nature Conservancy; Steve
Rienecke, The Nature Conservancy; Jono Wilson, Bren School, Univ.
of California Santa Barbara; Chuck Cook, The Nature Conservancy;
In California’s Central Coast region, a coalition of conservation, fishing
interests, and academic partners are using the best available science and local
knowledge to design and test area-based management approaches for the
groundfish fishery. The Nature Conservancy purchased trawl permits in
a quid pro quo arrangement with local fishermen to design and establish
trawl closure areas through a regulatory process in 2006 to protect sensitive
habitats and to reduce trawling effort. Since then, we have implemented
further local zoning of fishing effort and converted some trawl effort to more
selective gear through private legal agreements that incorporate mechanisms
to capture better local data on spatial patterns of fishing effort, bycatch,
and landings to facilitate the refinement over time of a regional area-based
management plan. We have reduced the fishing footprint, reduced bycatch
of 6 overfished species, and increased economic returns to participating
fishermen. Collaborative research (eg. on trawling impacts), near real-time
capture of spatial fishery information, performance metrics, and modeling
have informed adaptive management of the fishery. As the fishery has
transitioned to an Individual Transferable Quota (“catch shares”) system, we
are using spatial fishery plans to further reduce bycatch of overfished species
and maximize fishing opportunities in the “working seascape” outside of
protected areas to achieve significant conservation and economic gains.
2011-12-06 14:00 Understanding the Connections between Birds and
People in Urban Areas Informs Conservation
Marzluff, JM*, University of Washington;
Urban bird communities can be extraordinarily diverse and engaging
to human residents, yet fragile. I discuss the diverse and stimulating
nature of urban bird communities and investigate the direct connections
between human attitudes and actions and bird behavioral, ecological,
and evolutionary responses. The response of birds to land cover change,
resource supplementation, and persecution in urban areas is especially
pronounced. Conserving birds in urban areas requires an understanding
of these responses, and it may be enhanced by a mechanistic understanding
of how human actions affect bird population processes (size, reproduction,
survivorship, and dispersal in particular). While ecologists understand that
population viability determines community richness, in most studies of
avian ecology in urban areas population ecology is ignored. Rather, avian
ecologists typically enumerate species richness and relate this metric directly
to human actions. I will consider what, if anything, we lose by our focus
on richness over mechanistic understanding. Those interested in conserving
birds in urban areas face the challenge of balancing the needs of birds with
those of people. I will argue that the more we understand the myriad direct,
indirect, reinforcing and destabilizing connections between the populations
of birds and people the more effective will be our efforts to conserve the
urban biota.
2011-12-09 15:30 Marine protected areas and poverty alleviation:
Insights from Papua, Indonesia
Mascia, Michael B.*, WWF-US; Pakiding, Fitryanti, UNIPA;
Fox, Helen E., WWF-US; Glew, Louise, WWF-US;
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an integral component of local, national,
and international strategies for biodiversity conservation, but their impacts
on human well-being remain contested. Advocates tout MPAs as a ‘win-win’
strategy that simultaneously alleviates poverty and conserves biodiversity,
while skeptics argue that MPAs place the welfare of fish above that of
impoverished fishing communities. To inform this debate, we initiated a
pilot study to develop and test rigorous, quasi-experimental methods for
documenting the social impacts of MPAs. We examine MPA impacts on
~30 indicators of social well-being across five social domains: economic
well-being, health, political empowerment, education, and culture. We
characterize the governance of marine resources in MPA and matched
non-MPA communities, enabling us to explore if, and how the long-term
impact of MPAs is shaped by the intervention itself. Baseline results from
Teluk Cendrawasih National Park and Teluk Mayalibit KKLD highlight the
importance of research design, sampling power, and measuring human wellbeing
in multiple dimensions. Future research will continue to follow these
sites and others over time, laying the foundation for rigorous documentation
and exploration of protected area-poverty linkages.
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