ICCB 2013 Program - Society for Conservation Biology

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Symposium: Conserving the Stage: Using Geophysical Units as Coarse-Filter Targets in
Conservation Planning for Climate Change. Session II
Room 303
Tuesday, July 23, 10:30 to 12:30
Organizer(s):
Paul Beier, Northern Arizona University; Malcolm Hunter, Jr., University of Maine; Mark Anderson, The Nature Conservancy
By exploring geophysical units as coarse-filter targets for conservation planning, this symposium connects the abiotic system
to the biotic system, and connects the disciplines of geography, geology, climate science, paleoecology, and conservation
biology. We have invited diverse stakeholders (advocates for fine-filter approaches and other skeptics) to challenge our
approach.
Tuesday
Conservation decision makers want to identify lands that will help biodiversity cope with climate change. A geophysical
unit (land facet) is a recurring landscape unit defined by topographic and soil attributes. A reserve network that encompasses
the diversity of geophysical units should conserve biodiversity and the ecological and evolutionary processes that maintain
and generate biodiversity. The appeal of “conserving the stage” derives from fundamental concepts of ecology, and the
realization that the fine-filter approach (1 species at a time, relying on complex models of emissions, global circulation,
species’ climate envelopes, and species’ dispersal abilities) is not a practical conservation strategy. But the approach needs
more than this common sense appeal if it is to enter the mainstream of science and practice. This symposium (the first on
this topic at any professional meeting) will articulate the assumptions, arguments, models, and evidence for the approach,
provide examples in conservation planning, and identify gaps in scientific understanding.
10:30 Marine reserve systems constructed using environmental domains do not comprehensively represent seabed
fauna
Trish Sutcliffe; University of Queensland
10:45 Targeting the geography of climate and climatic changes to increase the resilience of protected area networks
Nicole Heller; Duke University
11:00 Conservation status and hotspots of enduring features by ecoregion for the conterminous USA
Lee Elloitt, University of Missouri; David Diamond, University of Missouri
11:15 Conserving the stage: using geophysical units as coarse-filter targets in conservation planning for climate
change
Steve Buttrick; The Nature Conservancy
11:30 Methods and tools to integrate biophysical variability into the design of climate-smart conservation networks
Pat Comer; NatureServe
11:45 An attractive but unsupported idea Moving from case studies to insights into environmental surrogates for
conservation planning
Bob Pressey; James Cook University
12:00-12:30 Open discussion: Where do we go from here How can we improve the scientific basis for coarse-filter
conservation planning in the face of climate change
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Symposium: New Directions in Conservation Medicine: Connecting Systems, Disciplines
and Stakeholders for Ecological Health in Practice. Session II
Room 304
Tuesday, July 23, 10:30 to 12:30
Organizer(s):
Alonso Aguirre, Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation; Mark Pokras, Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Species and ecosystems have been threatened by many anthropogenic factors manifested in local and global declines
of populations and species. Conservation medicine, an emerging discipline is the result of the long evolution of
transdisciplinary thinking within the health and ecological sciences to better understand the complexity within these
fields of knowledge. Conservation medicine examines the links among changes in climate, habitat quality, and land
use; emergence and re-emergence of infectious agents, parasites and environmental contaminants; and maintenance of
biodiversity and ecosystem functions as they sustain the health of plant and animal communities including humans.
During the last decade, new tools and institutional initiatives for assessing integrated, ecological health have emerged:
landscape epidemiology; disease ecological modeling; web-based analytics; the development of non-invasive physiological
and behavioral monitoring techniques; the adaptation of modern molecular biological and biomedical techniques; the
design of population level disease monitoring strategies; the creation of ecosystem-based health and sentinel species
surveillance; and the adaptation of health monitoring systems for appropriate developing country situations. This
symposium addresses these issues with relevant case studies and will challenge the notion that human health is an isolated
concern removed from the bounds of biodiversity, ecology and species interactions.
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