Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
There has recently been extensive heated debate about the merits of “assisted
colonisation” in response to climate change. The different perspectives
reflect differences in values, confidence in ecological understanding, and
attitudes toward uncertainty. It is therefore useful to create logical and
transparent decision frameworks that allow optimal decisions to be made
based on current knowledge and values. However, this is extremely
challenging due to a complex range of uncertainties from multiple areas
of research as well as the range of attitudes among the many stakeholders.
In contrast, with many reintroductions the objectives are much clearer and
we are also able to make much clearer predictions. In the most favourable
situations, we already have data for several previous reintroductions of the
same species, and are able to use Bayesian inference to create fairly precise
prior distributions of outcomes for any proposed reintroduction. However,
the principles of structured decision making remain the same for these
contrasting situations, and here we attempt to create a unified framework
that can be applied to the full spectrum of conservation translocations.
2011-12-07 14:32 Spatial conservation prioritization for multiple
administrative regions
Arponen, A*, University of Helsinki; Cabeza, M, University of
Helsinki; Moilanen, M, University of Helsinki;
Spatial conservation prioritization typically takes place in areas delimited
by administrative boundaries. Planning across all regions is more costeffective
than planning for each region separately, but may not be politically
acceptable. There may also be other reasons to protect locally threatened
species, even though they would not be at risk of extinction at the global
scale. Moreover, biodiversity patterns and processes, such as connectivity,
do not obey such man made boundaries. Therefore compromise solutions
between purely local vs. global prioritization are needed. We describe
how it is possible to account for conservation priorities that vary between
administrative sub-regions in conservation prioritization. Connectivity
effects also extend across borders in the prioritization. The method is
implemented in the Zonation v3 software. We show with European species
data how assumptions about selection methods and feature weights can
significantly influence the outcome mapping of conservation priority.
Our method provides a range of options for finding reasonable trade-offs
between global cost-effectiveness and local conservation goals. The method
should prove useful for practical planning problems, as typically the
planning regions are biologically arbitrary, administrative areas.
2011-12-08 18:30 Changing Climate and Ecosystem of the Trans-
Himalaya in Nepal
Aryal, A*, Massey University, NZ; David Raubenheimer , Massey
University, NZ; Dianne Brunton, Massey University, NZ; Weihong
JI , Massey University, NZ;
The Trans-Himalayas boast an immense biodiversity, provide habitat for
several threatened wildlife species, and support the livelihood of local
human populations. Blue sheep (Pseuduois nayaur) are main prey species
of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and distributed throughout the Trans-
Himalayas of Nepal. A total of 839 blue sheep were counted in upper
mustang (0.43-0.99 blue sheep/Km2). There were 2-5 snow leopards
distributed per 100 km2. Diet analysis of snow leopards showed that 76%
diet covered by natural prey and 23% of domestic livestock including Yak,
goat, horse which created conflict between human-leopards. In the upper
mustang region, the average annual maximum temperature of 0.140C
was found to be increasing. A combination of rising temperatures and
diminished snowfall led to a depleted water resource and to unusable land,
in terms of agriculture, with the most serious issues occurring in Samjung
village (at 4100m altitude) and in Dye village (3900m), of Upper Mustang,
where villagers were forced to relocate to an area of better water availability.
Grasses and shrubs were no longer found in abundance at higher elevations
due to climate change, therefore blue sheep must forage on these foods as
well as on crops found at lower elevations, drawing snow leopards down
from their higher elevation habitat. The shift in blue sheep foraging ecology
has resulted in an increase in the number of depredations as well as humansnow
leopard conflicts, impacting the livelihood of local people. Therefore,
changing climate in the Trans-Himalayas induces changes in the ecosystem
and in the livelihood of both wildlife and the local people.
2011-12-08 11:30 Disentangling time and traffic volume effects on
road genetic differentiation
Ascensão, Fernando*, Centre for Environmental Biology, FCUL,
Portugal / Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University,
USA.; Ruiz-Capillas, Pablo, Obrascón Huarte Lain, S.A. Research,
Development and Innovation (R&D) Service, Madrid, Spain.;
Mullins, Jacinta, Centre for Environmental Biology, FCUL,
Portugal.; Fernandes, Carlos, Centre for Environmental Biology,
FCUL, Portugal.; Clevenger, Anthony, Western Transportation
Institute, Montana State University, USA.; Malo, Juan E. ,
Terrestrial Ecology Group-TEG, Departamento Ecologia, Universidad
Autonoma de Madrid, Spain.; Santos-Reis, Margarida, Centre for
Environmental Biology, FCUL, Portugal.; Mata, Cristina, Terrestrial
Ecology Group-TEG, Departamento Ecologia, Universidad Autonoma
de Madrid, Spain.
Roads may cause population genetic differentiation in several taxa, although
little is known for Mediterranean species. In this study we quantified the
relative importance of traffic volume and time since the natural population
was divided (road age) in genetic differentiation emergence, using the wood
mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) as model species. We consider this vital
information to prioritize where to invest mitigation measures: if we detect
a significant effect of traffic, those roads with higher traffic volumes, despite
its age, should be improved with passages that allow movements between
road sides. Conversely, if traffic has a minor effect then mitigation actions
should be firstly implemented in older roads. We sampled 3 highways in
Portugal and Spain with different ages and traffic volumes: one older and
with higher traffic volume, AP6 (built in 1976 with a MDT of 28,000
vehicles); and two with similar age but very different traffic volumes, A2
(1997, MDT 18,000) and AP51 (2002, MDT 8,000). For each highway
we set 2 sampling replicates and trapped wood mice in both road sides
up to 50 m from pavement. To date 345 samples were collected, whilst
the field work for second replicate of AP6 is still ongoing. Preliminary
results revealed a significant genetic differentiation between road sides in
AP6 which demonstrate that highways may hamper the gene flow between
populations living in both road sides, despite the small distance separating
them.
2011-12-09 10:45 Evaluating the potential of non-native mutualists to
rescue native species from extinction
Aslan, CE*, Department of Environmental Studies, University of
California-Santa Cruz;
Mutualism disruption stemming from species extinctions can create
widow species lacking mutualist partners. Conservative estimates suggest
that almost 10% of angiosperm species may be at risk of widowhood, and
that widows are likely to experience reproductive declines of 20-50%.
Researchers in some systems propose taxon substitution, the deliberate
introduction of non-native mutualists, as a conservation strategy to
reestablish mutualist functions and rescue widows from extinction. To
evaluate the likely effectiveness of substitute mutualists, I performed a
meta-analysis of known cases of pollination and seed dispersal mutualisms
between native plants and non-native animal species. A total of 48 studies
and 90 introduced species-study combinations were included in the analysis.
Meta-analysis results indicated that non-native mutualists are generally less
effective partners than are native mutualists of the same plants. When native
mutualists have been extirpated, however, plant reproductive success is
higher in the presence of non-native mutualists than in complete mutualist
absence. My analysis suggests that conservation of native mutualists should
have high priority, but that taxon substitution may be warranted if all native
mutualists have become extinct. Management measures as drastic as taxon
substitution require rigorous guidelines and acceptability standards and
should therefore be debated among the full conservation community.
2011-12-09 11:30 Illegal wildlife trade between South America and
the United States
Asmüssen, M. V*, Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de
Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC). EcoHealth Alliance, New York,
United States of America.; Ferrer-Paris, J.R. , Centro de Ecología,
Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas; Zambrana-
Torrelio, C., EcoHealth Alliance, New York, United States of
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