Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
global-scale diversity. This perspective suggests practice transform traditional
models of insular conservation that tend to emphasize alpha diversity
and large intact systems while discounting the potential importance and
opportunity of investing in more diverse assemblages of ecosystem elements
(both intact and not so). It is not just island-by-island, but also pan-regional
dynamics that should guide our actions. Future conservation strategies
should mirror a perception common to many tropical island cultures: “The
ocean does not divide us, it is what unites us”.
2011-12-08 11:30 A Paradox of Resource Abundance: Food Security on
the Shores of Lake Victoria
Fiorella, KJ*, UC Berkeley;
While ecosystem services and human health have been closely linked, the
mechanisms through which natural systems interact with livelihoods and
human health are often poorly understood. Yet, how ecosystems provision
food resources and how conservation of biodiversity protects these resources
constitutes a critical ecosystem service. I will explore links between human
health and natural resource use by analyzing the role of fish access in the
Kenya’s Lake Victoria fishery in shaping human nutrition, livelihoods, and
women’s resource use. Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest freshwater lake and the
site of a highly productive, multi-national fishery. The adjacent province,
Nyanza, is home to approximately 5 million people who experience Kenya’s
highest rates of poverty and HIV/AIDS infection, and who largely rely
on subsistence fishing and farming, and remain particularly vulnerable to
food insecurity. I will present preliminary results from a baseline health
and demographic household survey and focus groups exploring community
perceptions of the links among health, the environment, and fishery access,
and will outline future research questions on these topics.
2011-12-08 10:45 Mitigating local causes of ocean acidification with
existing laws
Foley, MM*, Center for Ocean Solutions; Kelly, RP, Center for
Ocean Solutions; Fisher, WS, US Environmental Protection Agency;
Feely, RA, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Lab; Halpern, BS,
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; Waldbusser,
GG, Oregon State University; Caldwell, MR, Center for Ocean
Solutions;
Ocean acidification is an inevitable and indisputable consequence of rising
atmospheric CO2. The world’s oceans have already seen an average decrease
in pH from 8.21 to 8.10, a 30% decrease that will impact marine ecosystems
on a global scale. Although most of our attention has focused on the main
global driver—-atmospheric CO2 levels-—there are numerous local drivers,
including erosion, runoff, and point source pollution that can act in concert
with increased atmospheric CO2 to form ocean acidification hotspots in the
coastal ocean. These coastal hotspots could have dramatic consequences for
coastal economies and communities given the level of our dependence on
these ecosystems. Our understanding of the ecological, economic, and social
ramifications of increasingly acidic oceans has substantially increased in the
last five years, but political will on the international and national levels has
been slow to gain traction. In this presentation, we highlight the increasing
presence of coastal acidification hotspots, discuss the local stressors that
may be driving the formation of these local hotspots, and provide local
and regional decisionmakers and grassroots organizers with suggestions for
preventing and mitigating the most immediate stressors using existing legal
authority. By ameliorating more immediate threats to coastal resources, local
and state governments can safeguard ecosystem resilience and sustainable
economic benefits from the ocean.
2011-12-07 14:45 Congruency of predictions between population
dynamic and species distribution models under climate change:
implications for conservation planning
Fortin, M-J*, University ot Toronto; Naujokaitis-Lewis, I, University
of Toronto;
Species ranges are dynamic due to disturbances and global environmental
changes. Although climate change is expected to lead to range expansions
at high latitude range margins, habitat fragmentation might influence
colonization success and ultimately species persistence. Methods are needed
to account for both dynamics of climate changes on species ranges, and the
dynamics of populations that integrate landscape habitat patterns. This is
especially true in southern Ontario where several species reach either the
northern or southern edge of their geographical range. Here, we compare
predictions of species’ responses to climate change using correlative species
distribution models and process-based population dynamics models,
which differ in their data requirements and assumptions. We evaluate the
spatial congruency of predictions of the alternative methods applied to a
model bird species, the Hooded Warbler (a species-at-risk in Canada). By
accounting for uncertainty in model predictions, we identify regions that
appear to be invariant over time and space but habitat fragmentation at
the northern range margin leads to declines in measures of persistence. We
discuss the implications of uncertainty and the use of alternative approaches
for integration with methods for conservation planning, especially in the
identification of critical habitat for recovery planning.
2011-12-06 16:45 Return of the living dead: Protecting the rediscovered
weevil, Hadramphus tuberculatus, through historic DNA and the
community
Fountain, ED*, Lincoln University; Bowie, M, Lincoln University;
Cruickshank, R, Lincoln University; Paterson, A, Lincoln University;
The rarest weevil in New Zealand, Hadramphus tuberculatus, was last sighted
in 1922 and presumed extinct until its rediscovery in 2004. It is classified
as Nationally Endangered but historical records suggest that the weevil was
once widespread among lowland areas of Canterbury. H. tuberculatus is
host-plant specific and lives on speargrass, (Aciphylla sp. Apiaceae Family).
Severe habitat loss and mammalian predator introduction have left only
one known remaining population at Burkes Pass Scenic Reserve. Since
2005, the reserve has been surveyed for the weevil by visual searches and
pitfall trapping. Captured weevils were applied mark recapture and tissue
extraction. The mitochondrial gene, CO1, and nuclear gene, ITSII, were
analysed for weevils collected in 2007, 2009 and 2010. Molecular analysis
suggests the population maintains unexpected genetic diversity and markrecapture
shows a relatively mobile population. DNA from pinned weevil
museum specimens (1890 to 1915) has also been collected so that historical
and current populations can be compared to map the loss of species’ genetic
diversity. The molecular information will be integrated with a conservation
program involving intensive maintenance of Burkes Pass Scenic Reserve
and community outreach to develop a management program to sustain H.
tuberculatus. It is hoped that education through a conservation brochure
and publicity through news articles will facilitate the discovery of additional
weevil populations.
2011-12-08 18:30 Using Local Knowledge of Traditional Management
Practices from Kubulau District (Fiji) to Inform Current Actions to
Maintain Sustainable Livelihood Practices
Fox, M*, Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji Country Programme;
Tokota’a, M, The Coral Reef Alliance; Dulunaqio, S, Wildlife
Conservation Society Fiji Country Programme; Williams, H, The
Coral Reef Alliance; Jupiter, SD, Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji
Country Programme;
As new markets for terrestrial and marine resources have been introduced in
Fiji in the past few decades, community residents have lost many traditional,
more sustainable practices for farming and fishing. We conducted semistructured
interviews with village elders in the ten villages of the remote
district of Kubulau in Bua Province, Fiji, to record local knowledge
of traditional harvesting practices of terrestrial and marine resources.
Respondents were specifically asked to recall past connections of the
Kubulau people with charismatic and totemic terrestrial and marine species.
We found that the large majority of traditional forms of management were
no longer being practiced; moreover the youngest generation within each
village was not familiar with most of the traditional associations with plants
and animals. We highlight several key examples of extinct management
practices which could be resurrected in Kubulau to deal with ongoing and
future challenges of overharvesting and to maintain sustainable livelihood
practices. We additionally highlight how these lessons are being used by the
Kubulau Resource Management Committee and village chiefs to adapt their
ridge-to-reef management plan for Kubulau District and adjacent fisheries
management area, the first of its kind in Fiji.
52