Scale dependence of plant species richness in a network of protected areas

Despite the widely recognised importance of reserve networks, their effectiveness in encompassing and maintaining biodiversity is still debated. Species diversity is one of the most affordable measures of biodiversity, but it is difficult to survey such data over large scales. This research aimed to perform a sample-based assessment of species richness of groups of plants with different conservation value (alien species, protected species, and all species) within a reserve network, testing the use of partitioning as a tool for assessing diversity at different spatial scales, from the plot to the entire network. Plant diversity patterns differed for the groups of species for most of the investigated spatial scales. Despite these patterns assumed divergent tendencies when different species groups were considered, most of the species richness within the network was given by larger scale β-diversity for both alien and protected species, as well for all species. Diversity partitioning proved an effective tool to quantify the role of spatial scales in structuring the total species richness of the network, and is helpful in planning reserve networks.     

国家尺度自然保护地生态系统联网监测指标体系构建与应用研究

自然保护地是维护国家生态安全, 提升生物多样性保护成效的重要载体, 对保护地生态系统进行实时、高频、多尺度的监测是认知其动态变化的有效手段, 也是实现自然保护地生态系统健康管理的基石。由于目前我国没有形成自然保护地生态系统监测网络, 缺少统一的联网监测指标体系, 导致多数自然保护地生态系统组成家底不清、动态不明, 应对生物多样性保护新问题的能力不足, 并且在国家尺度上的自然保护地生态系统健康状况及保护成效评估缺乏联网监测数据支撑。因此, 亟需构建国家尺度的自然保护地生态系统组成和动态监测网络, 以及一套科学、系统、规范的自然保护地生态系统联网监测指标体系。该文针对自然保护地生物多样性和生态系统监测的目标和内容, 参考国内外现有的生态系统监测网络的指标体系, 确定了自然保护地生态系统联网监测指标体系建立和选取的基本原则, 建立了一套适用于国家尺度的自然保护地生态系统联网监测指标体系, 并在6个国家级自然保护区进行示范。构建的指标体系针对构成生态系统的6类关键要素(生境要素、生物要素、气象要素、土壤要素、大气和水环境要素、景观要素)制定了30个监测指标, 有效应用于森林、草地、荒漠、湿地等生态系统类型的自然保护地, 能够实现对不同类型自然保护地生态系统组分和结构的现状和演变特征进行长期、动态化监测, 并可为自然保护地保护成效评估和健康管理提供规范化、标准化的基础数据。     

Land use change and the dependence of national priority species on protected areas

The establishment and maintenance of a system of protected areas is central to regional and global strategies for the conservation of biodiversity. The current global trend towards human population growth and widespread environmental degradation means that such areas are becoming increasingly isolated, fragmented habitat islands. In regions in which this process is well advanced, a high proportion of species are thus predicted to have become restricted to protected areas. Here, using uniquely detailed datasets for Britain, a region with close to the global level of percentage coverage by statutory protected areas, we determine the extent of restriction of species of conservation concern to these areas. On the basis of currently known distributions, more than a half of such species are highly dependent on protected areas for their continued persistence, occurring either entirely or largely within their bounds. Such coverage is of particular importance for those species with narrower distributions, and therefore, under the greatest threats, underlining the vital importance of adequately resourcing, maintaining, and developing protected areas to prevent these species from being lost.     

Conservation of Bolivian flora: representation of phytogeographic zones in the national system of protected areas

The protected areas of Bolivia cover 10.2% of its territory, but only 60% of this surface is considered to be of conservation value. Protected areas are unevenly distributed over the eight phyto-geographic regions of Bolivia. The Pantanal is not represented in any conservation unit. Inventories and basic information are usually lacking as plant surveys have been carried out mostly outside protected areas.     

Distribution and management of invasive alien plant species in protected areas in Central Europe

Protected areas play a key role in biodiversity conservation, yet they face numerous pressures including the spread of invasive alien species (IAS). We designed a structured online survey to investigate the distribution and management of 53 invasive alien plant species in large protected areas, i.e. national parks and biosphere reserves, in eight Central European countries. We contacted 93 protected areas management authorities, of which 46 replied. In 44 protected areas (96% of those responding), at least one IAS was present, and in 37 protected areas (80%) IAS were managed. On average, 11.2 ± 6.9 IAS were present per protected area and 4.3 ± 3.4 (41%) of these were managed. A one-way ANOVA showed no significant difference in the number of IAS present or managed between the different protected area designations (national parks, biosphere reserves). Similarly, neither the size nor the founding year of the protected area influenced the number of IAS present or managed. Thirty-one species (58%) were managed in at least one protected area. The most widely managed species were Fallopia japonica (23 protected areas), Heracleum mantegazzianum (20), and Impatiens glandulifera (16). The amount of financial resources devoted to IAS management was rather low, corresponding to 3.1 ± 4.4% of the total budget for natural resources management of the protected areas. We conclude that a lack of dedicated funding for IAS management in most protected areas and a lack of coordinated response between protected areas currently limit the effectiveness of the IAS management. In particular, an increased exchange of expertise between protected areas, and the development of minimum standards for IAS surveillance and management are pivotal. In addition, documenting best practice examples and synthesizing lessons learned in IAS management are urgently needed.     

Low ecological representation in the protected area network of China

Protected areas are considered as an essential strategy to halt the decline of biodiversity. Ecological representation in protected areas is crucial for assessment on the progress toward conservation targets. Although China has established a large number of protected areas since the 1950s, ecological representation of protected areas is poorly understood. Here, we performed the complementarity analysis to evaluate ecological representation of protected areas in China. We used a database of the geographical distribution for 10,396 woody plant species, 2,305 fern species, 406 amphibian species, 460 reptile species, 1,364 bird species, and 590 mammal species from 2,376 counties across China. We identified complementary sets of counties for all species or threatened species of plant and vertebrate species using a complementarity algorithm. We evaluated ecological representation of 3,627 protected areas and discerned conservation gaps by comparing the distribution of protected areas with complementary sets. The results show that the spatially representative and complementary sites for biodiversity are poorly covered, and a fairly large proportion of protected areas is not designed to efficiently represent biodiversity at the national scale. Our methodology can serve as a generic framework for assessment on ecological representation of protected areas at the national scale.     

Effectiveness of protected areas in maintaining plant production

Given the central importance of protected area systems in local, regional and global conservation strategies, it is vital that there is a good understanding of their effectiveness in maintaining ecological functioning. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first such global analysis, focusing on plant production, a "supporting" ecosystem function necessary for multiple other ecosystem services. We use data on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of variation in plant production in the core, boundary and surroundings of more than 1000 large protected areas over a 25 year period. Forested protected areas were higher (or similar), and those non-forested were lower (or similar), in NDVI than their surrounding areas, and these differences have been sustained. The differences from surrounding areas have increased for evergreen broadleaf forests and barren grounds, decreased for grasslands, and remained similar for deciduous forests, woodlands, and shrublands, reflecting different pressures on those surroundings. These results are consistent with protected areas being effective both in the representation and maintenance of plant production. However, widespread overall increases in NDVI during the study period suggest that plant production within the core of non-forested protected areas has become higher than it was in the surroundings of those areas in 1982, highlighting that whilst the distinctiveness of protected areas from their surroundings has persisted the nature of that difference has changed.     

Statutory protected areas and avian species richness in Britain

An effective portfolio of protected areas should, all else being equal, give rise to positive relationships between the amount of protected land in a region and the numbers of species present. Tests of this prediction are, however, extremely scarce, and most do not control for the potentially confounding effects of environmental factors that influence broad geographic trends in biodiversity. Here, we document the form of the relationship between species richness and coverage by protected areas using the British avifauna as a case study. We contrast relationships that arise for breeding and wintering assemblages, considering both all species collectively and threatened species only. We use spatially explicit multiple regression analyses that take into account environmental factors previously shown to exert a marked influence on avian species richness in Britain (temperature and altitude). Avian species richness and the amount of protected land are consistently positively correlated with each other, and the slopes of these relationships do not differ between assemblages (breeding/wintering and all species/threatened species). Explanatory power is, however, very weak which may be indicative of the ability of conservation measures in the wider landscape to maintain avian species richness, reducing any distinctive influence of protected areas. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Leaf-cutting ant nests near roads increase fitness of exotic plant species in natural protected areas

Understanding the mechanisms that promote the invasion of natural protected areas by exotic plants is a central concern for ecology. We demonstrated that nests of the leaf-cutting ant, Acromyrmex lobicornis, near roadsides promote the abundance, growth and reproduction of two exotic plant species, Carduus nutans and Onopordum acanthium, in a national park in northern Patagonia, Argentina and determine the mechanisms that produce these effects. Refuse dumps (RDs) from ant nests have a higher nutrient content than nearby non-nest soils (NNSs); foliar nutrient content and their 15N isotopic signature strongly suggest that plants reach and use these nutrients. Both species of exotic plants in RDs were 50-600% more abundant; seedlings had 100-1000% more foliar area and root and leaf biomass; and adult plants produced 100-300% more seeds than nearby NNS plants. Plants can thus gain access to and benefit from the nutrient content of ant RD, supporting the hypotheses that enhanced resource availability promotes exotic plant performance that could increase the likelihood of biological invasions. The two exotics produce an estimated of 8385000 more seeds ha(-1) in areas with ant nests compared with areas without; this exceptional increase in seed production represents a potential threat to nearby non-invaded communities. We propose several management strategies to mitigate this threat. Removal efforts of exotics should be focused on ant RDs, where plants are denser and represent a higher source of propagules.     

基于随机森林模型的国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种优先保护区的识别

准确可靠地识别国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种的优先保护区,是生物多样性保护的热点问题之一。采用随机森林(random forests)模型,基于12个环境变量,对中国263种国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物建模,并预测各个物种在背景点的适生概率,迭加计算得到国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种的生境适宜性指数。此外,基于对生境适宜性指数的空间自相关分析,识别和确定国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种优先保护区,并对优先保护区目前的被保护情况进行分析。结果表明,国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种的优先保护区的面积为103.16万km~2,约占我国国土面积的10.90%。优先保护区主要分布在我国的西部地区,包括西南地区的秦岭-大巴山山区、云南省与印度及缅甸的交界地区、武陵山山区、喜马拉雅山-横断山脉山区、阿尔泰山脉山区、天山山脉山区、昆仑山山脉山区;东北的大、小兴安岭、东北-华南沿海地区及长江中下游地区有少量分布。优先保护区中被保护的面积为50.40万km~2,占优先保护区总面积的48.86%,保护率偏低,未被充分保护。利用系统聚类分析,将未被保护的优先保护区划分成3种优先保护顺序,以期为相关部门的决策提供科学依据,更好地保护生物多样性。     

Bats of Borneo: diversity,distributions and representation in protected areas

Protected areas are valuable in conserving tropical biodiversity, but an insufficient understanding of species diversity and distributions makes it difficult to evaluate their effectiveness. This is especially true on Borneo, a species rich island shared by three countries, and is particularly concerning for bats, a poorly known component of mammal diversity that may be highly susceptible to landscape changes. We reviewed the diversity, distributions and conservation status of 54 bat species to determine the representation of these taxa in Borneo’s protected areas, and whether these reserves complement each other in terms of bat diversity. Lower and upper bound estimates of bat species composition were characterised in 23 protected areas and the proposed boundaries of the Heart of Borneo conservation area. We used lower and upper bound estimates of species composition. By using actual inventories, species representation was highly irregular, and even if some reserves were included in the Heart of Borneo, the protected area network would still exhibit low complementarity. By inferring species presence from distributions, composition between most reserves was similar, and complementarity was much higher. Predicting species richness using abundance information suggested that bat species representation in reserves may lie between these two extremes. We recommend that researchers better sample biodiversity over the island and address the conservation threats faced in Borneo both within and outside protected areas. While the Heart of Borneo Initiative is commendable, it should not divert attention from other conservation areas.     

西双版纳保护植物特征研究

经过重新统计和分析,确定了西双版纳地区一共分布有国家级(60种)和省级(41种)保护植物101种,对它们的一些特征进行了初步研究.主要研究了种类及数量特征、分布特征,包括其分布的海拔、植被、区域特征和保护价值等,并且就西双版纳地区保护植物的保护措施提出了建议.     

Reinvestigation on species richness and environmental correlates of bryophytes at a regional scale in China

Aims The aim of this article is 4-fold: (i) to update species richness of bryophytes for each of the Chinese provinces based on the most current knowledge on distributions of bryophytes in China, (ii) to provide a set of analyses based on the updated species richness data and the environmental variables used in a recent article on species richness of bryophytes in China, (iii) to expand the analysis presented in the recent article by relating species richness of bryophytes to over 15 additional climatic variables and (iv) to determine the degree to which the relationships between bryophyte species richness and environmental variables that were reported in the recent article might have been biased.Methods Over 180 literatures with national, provincial and local species lists of bryophytes in China were used in this study. Taxonomy and nomenclature of bryophytes in China were standardized according to The Plant List. Correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between species richness or species density of bryophytes in Chinese provinces and environmental variables.Important findings On average, each Chinese province possesses 700.6 species of bryophytes, which is 112.1 species more than previously reported. With the updated species richness data reported in this study, stronger relationships between species richness of bryophytes and environmental variables have been found, compared with those found in a recently published study for China. When single environmental variables were considered, precipitation-related variables were, on average, more strongly correlated with species richness and species density than were temperature-related variables. Environmental variables were on average correlated more strongly with species density than with species richness of bryophytes at the regional scale in China. Our study showed that measures quantifying the average and variation of environmental conditions within each Chinese province explained 82.7% and 71.1% of the variation in species richness of liverworts and mosses, respectively, and explained 86.5% and 70.7% of the variation in species density of liverworts and mosses, respectively.     

Larval connectivity in an effective network of marine protected areas

Acceptance of marine protected areas (MPAs) as fishery and conservation tools has been hampered by lack of direct evidence that MPAs successfully seed unprotected areas with larvae of targeted species. For the first time, we present direct evidence of large-scale population connectivity within an existing and effective network of MPAs. A new parentage analysis identified four parent-offspring pairs from a large, exploited population of the coral-reef fish Zebrasoma flavescens in Hawai'i, revealing larval dispersal distances ranging from 15 to 184 km. In two cases, successful dispersal was from an MPA to unprotected sites. Given high adult abundances, the documentation of any parent-offspring pairs demonstrates that ecologically-relevant larval connectivity between reefs is substantial. All offspring settled at sites to the north of where they were spawned. Satellite altimetry and oceanographic models from relevant time periods indicated a cyclonic eddy that created prevailing northward currents between sites where parents and offspring were found. These findings empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of MPAs as useful conservation and management tools and further highlight the importance of coupling oceanographic, genetic, and ecological data to predict, validate and quantify larval connectivity among marine populations.     

Planning the priority protected areas of endangered orchid species in northeastern China

We used endangered orchid species as a case study for establishing priority protected areas (PPAs). We conducted a detailed investigation of 2,884 plots in northeastern China and selected 6 nationally protected orchid species (the number of plots for each species ≥5) to plan PPAs in order to conserve these endangered plants. First, we estimated the potential habitat distributions of 6 orchid species using species distribution models (in the program Maxent). Second, we identified PPAs using the results of both Maxent and systematic conservation planning software (Zonation). We found that the PPAs we identified were all distributed in the eastern, northeastern, and northern parts of the study region on which we focused. We observed that existing nature reserves in those areas were much smaller than the PPAs we identified, suggesting the need for expansion of these zones. Finally, we identified some recommended protection areas based on our PPAs, which we believe are suitable areas of in situ conservation. These areas could assist in the formulation of protection policies for these endangered orchid species. Our results have broad implications for conservation biology and the redefinition of protective zones for at-risk species.     

Spatial scale and the determinants of plant species richness

Traditional ecological theory has stressed the importance of competitive interactions in regulating species richness. Recent research has transcended this viewpoint by considering the role of stochastic processes, mosaic phenomena and nonequilibrium conditions in the regulation of richness. This growing body of work indicates that the determinants of plant species richness may vary predictably over different spatial scales.