Representation of Andean Dry Ecoregions in the Protected Areas of Bolivia: The Situation in Relation to the New Phytogeographical Findings

Bolivia is a megadiverse country. A large part of its biodiversity is due to the fact that in its territory different biogeographical regions meet. As a preliminary means to understand how this biodiversity is being protected, three previous studies undertook an evaluation of how well represented the ecological regions were in the National System of Protected Areas (NSPA). However, the most recent biogeographical findings in Bolivia call for a new analysis of this sort. We try to achieve this, emphasizing the situation in the Andean dry regions, which have been given scarce priority, despite their high biological value. In general, xeric ecoregions are under-represented while humid ones are over-represented. The Prepuna and the central altiplano (which includes the Dry Puna sub-ecoregion) are not represented within the NSPA, nor is the Beni Cerrado sub-ecoregion. The Inter-Andean Dry Valleys cover only ca. 0.5% of the protected area, in spite of their diverse flora and status as one of Bolivia’s most important centers or endemism. Although the diverse Chiquitos Dry Forest is well represented, it is protected mostly as an ‘Integrated Management Natural Area’, and thus lacks full protection. The Semi-Humid Puna and the Flooded Savannas of the Moxos Plains, important subdivisions of two main ecoregions, are markedly under-represented in the NSPA, despite the importance of Moxos plains as a center of endemism for birds. Other ecoregions have a representation in the NSPA which can be considered adequate or even excessive. The over-representation of the humid Yungas mountain forests seems to be justified as this is probably Bolivia’s most important center of diversity and endemism. There is a need for a more proper distribution of some protected areas which consider true limits, size, diversity, endemism and other attributes of the different ecoregions in a more rigorous manner.     

Land Cover Change in Colombia: Surprising Forest Recovery Trends between 2001 and 2010

Background

Monitoring land change at multiple spatial scales is essential for identifying hotspots of change, and for developing and implementing policies for conserving biodiversity and habitats. In the high diversity country of Colombia, these types of analyses are difficult because there is no consistent wall-to-wall, multi-temporal dataset for land-use and land-cover change.

Methodology/Principal Findings

To address this problem, we mapped annual land-use and land-cover from 2001 to 2010 in Colombia using MODIS (250 m) products coupled with reference data from high spatial resolution imagery (QuickBird) in Google Earth. We used QuickBird imagery to visually interpret percent cover of eight land cover classes used for classifier training and accuracy assessment. Based on these maps we evaluated land cover change at four spatial scales country, biome, ecoregion, and municipality. Of the 1,117 municipalities, 820 had a net gain in woody vegetation (28,092 km²) while 264 had a net loss (11,129 km²), which resulted in a net gain of 16,963 km² in woody vegetation at the national scale. Woody regrowth mainly occurred in areas previously classified as mixed woody/plantation rather than agriculture/herbaceous. The majority of this gain occurred in the Moist Forest biome, within the montane forest ecoregions, while the greatest loss of woody vegetation occurred in the Llanos and Apure-Villavicencio ecoregions.

Conclusions

The unexpected forest recovery trend, particularly in the Andes, provides an opportunity to expand current protected areas and to promote habitat connectivity. Furthermore, ecoregions with intense land conversion (e.g. Northern Andean Páramo) and ecoregions under-represented in the protected area network (e.g. Llanos, Apure-Villavicencio Dry forest, and Magdalena-Urabá Moist forest ecoregions) should be considered for new protected areas.     

East with the Night: Longitudinal Migration of the Orinoco Goose (Neochen jubata) between Manú National Park,Peru and the Llanos de Moxos,Bolivia

We report on the intra-Amazonian migration of a pair of Orinoco Geese (Neochen jubata) from Manú National Park, Peru. The species is Critically Endangered in Peru, so a major aim of the study was to aid conservation planning by learning the wet season location of the country''s last known breeding population. We captured a breeding pair on October 27, 2010, and fitted the birds with Microwave Telemetry, Inc. GPS/Argos satellite PTT''s. The pair migrated ∼655 km from Manú National Park to the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia (Dept. of Bení) in a predominantly longitudinal migration, reaching their final destination on December 23, 2010. Major movements (>5 km per time period) were almost exclusively at night and were undertaken with and without moonlight. Foraging areas used at stopovers in the Llanos de Moxos were remarkably limited, suggesting the importance of grazing lawns maintained by the geese and other herbivores, possibly including cattle. Orinoco Geese are resident in the Llanos de Moxos year-round, so the Manú geese represent a partial migration from the Bení region. We hypothesize that cavity nest limitation explains the partial migration of Orinoco Geese from the Llanos de Moxos.     

Long-term forest-savannah dynamics in the Bolivian Amazon: implications for conservation

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the respective roles of past changes in climate, geomorphology and human activities in shaping the present-day forest-savannah mosaic of the Bolivian Amazon, and consider how this palaeoecological perspective may help inform conservation strategies for the future. To this end, we review a suite of palaeoecological and archaeological data from two distinct forest-savannah environments in lowland Bolivia: Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (NKMNP) on the Precambrian Shield and the 'Llanos de Moxos' in the Beni basin. We show that they contain markedly contrasting legacies of past climatic, geomorphic and anthropogenic influences between the last glacial period and the Spanish Conquest. In NKMNP, increasing precipitation caused evergreen rainforest expansion, at the expense of semi-deciduous dry forest and savannahs, over the last three millennia. In contrast, pre-Hispanic indigenous cultures were instrumental in facilitating recent forest expansion in the Llanos de Moxos by building a vast network of earthworks. Insights from Mid-Holocene palaeodata, together with ecological observations and modelling studies, suggest that there will be progressive replacement of rainforest by dry forest and savannah in NKMNP over the twenty-first century in response to the increased drought predicted by general circulation models. Protection of the latitudinal landscape corridors may be needed to facilitate these future species reassortments. However, devising appropriate conservation strategies for the Llanos de Moxos will be more difficult due to its complex legacy of Palaeo-Indian impact. Without fully understanding the degree to which its current biota has been influenced by past native cultures, the type and intensity of human land use appropriate for this landscape in the future will be difficult to ascertain.     

Global patterns of plant diversity and floristic knowledge

Aims We present the first global map of vascular plant species richness by ecoregion and compare these results with the published literature on global priorities for plant conservation. In so doing, we assess the state of floristic knowledge across ecoregions as described in floras, checklists, and other published documents and pinpoint geographical gaps in our understanding of the global vascular plant flora. Finally, we explore the relationships between plant species richness by ecoregion and our knowledge of the flora, and between plant richness and the human footprint – a spatially explicit measure of the loss and degradation of natural habitats and ecosystems as a result of human activities. Location Global. Methods Richness estimates for the 867 terrestrial ecoregions of the world were derived from published richness data of c. 1800 geographical units. We applied one of four methods to assess richness, depending on data quality. These included collation and interpretation of published data, use of species–area curves to extrapolate richness, use of taxon‐based data, and estimates derived from other ecoregions within the same biome. Results The highest estimate of plant species richness is in the Borneo lowlands ecoregion (10,000 species) followed by nine ecoregions located in Central and South America with ≥ 8000 species; all are found within the Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests biome. Among the 51 ecoregions with ≥ 5000 species, only five are located in temperate regions. For 43% of the 867 ecoregions, data quality was considered good or moderate. Among biomes, adequate data are especially lacking for flooded grasslands and flooded savannas. We found a significant correlation between species richness and data quality for only a few biomes, and, in all of these cases, our results indicated that species‐rich ecoregions are better studied than those poor in vascular plants. Similarly, only in a few biomes did we find significant correlations between species richness and the human footprint, all of which were positive. Main conclusions The work presented here sets the stage for comparisons of degree of concordance of plant species richness with plant endemism and vertebrate species richness: important analyses for a comprehensive global biodiversity strategy. We suggest: (1) that current global plant conservation strategies be reviewed to check if they cover the most outstanding examples of regions from each of the world's major biomes, even if these examples are species‐poor compared with other biomes; (2) that flooded grasslands and flooded savannas should become a global priority in collecting and compiling richness data for vascular plants; and (3) that future studies which rely upon species–area calculations do not use a uniform parameter value but instead use values derived separately for subregions.     

Spatial and temporal patterns of changes in protected areas across the Southwestern United States

Protected areas are the core units for preserving habitats and ecological processes. Yet in most regions of the world their geographic, categorical, and institutional evolution remains poorly understood. Here, we report on changes in protected areas in the Southwestern US from 1890 to 2005. Our analysis used the dates of protection of individual parcels in the region to analyze changes by: (a) designating authority (e.g., congressional, administrative), (b) managing agency, (c) protected area types (e.g., wilderness), (d) elevation, (e) ecoregion, and (f) land cover class. In the 1990s, protected area additions tripled compared with the previous decade. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed the most protected area after 1990, surpassing that of the US Forest Service. Prior to 1990, most protected areas were found at high elevations, but more recent additions occurred at lower elevations. Land cover types represented in protected areas changed significantly over the last century, with protected areas in forest and woodland systems added prior to 1930 and shrubland, steppe, and savanna systems added after 1980. Additions by BLM occurred mostly by administrative designation. These areas are not permanently protected and so do not provide the level of protection afforded other additions. However these additions are critical for conservation of biodiversity across the region because they occur at elevations and in ecoregions and land cover types that are minimally protected otherwise. Our analysis yielded new insights about permanency, level of protection, and spatial distribution of protected areas, characteristics critical for biodiversity conservation.     

渭河底栖动物性状和功能对空间尺度环境变量响应的生态区差异性

以我国中部渭河南部流域山区和平原生态区的底栖动物为研究对象,通过计算29个生物性状类别和7个功能多样性指数,比较了不同生态区的生物性状组成和功能与性状多样性指数差异性;应用综合RLQ和fourth-corner方法探索底栖动物生物性状组成与土地利用和理化变量的关系;通过广义线性模型(GLM)比较不同空间尺度环境变量对底栖动物功能与性状多样性指数影响的生态区差异性。研究发现,共18个底栖动物性状组成在山区和平原间存在显著差异性,其中具有无庇护所和以叶片为庇护所材料、外骨骼轻微骨化和骨化良好、草食性、捕食性等生物性状的底栖动物栖息于栖境状况较好的山区,体壁呼吸、虫体柔软、集食者等生物性状更多的集中在人类活动较严重的平原区。除了功能均匀度指数外,山区的性状和功能多样性指数均显著高于平原,说明平原环境干扰显著降低了底栖动物性状和功能多样性。综合RLQ和fourth-corner方法表明底栖动物生物性状对环境胁迫的响应存在可预测性。GLM模型结果表明,山区和平原生物性状和功能多样性指数受到不同空间尺度土地利用和理化环境变量的影响:流域尺度城镇用地、水温和TN含量是影响山区功能和性状多样性指数模型的重要环境变量,但平原区河段尺度农业用地面积百分比和平均水深是影响功能和性状多样性的主要因子。     

Protected areas in the world’s ecoregions: How well connected are they?

Protected areas (PAs) are the main instrument for biodiversity conservation, which has triggered the development of numerous indicators and assessments on their coverage, performance and efficiency. The connectivity of the PA networks at a global scale has however been much less explored; previous studies have either focused on particular regions of the world or have only considered some types of PAs.Here we present, and globally assess, ProtConn, an indicator of PA connectivity that (i) quantifies the percentage of a study region covered by protected connected lands, (ii) can be partitioned in several components depicting different categories of land (unprotected, protected or transboundary) through which movement between protected locations may occur, (iii) is easy to communicate, to compare with PA coverage and to use in the assessment of global targets for PA systems.We apply ProtConn to evaluate the connectivity of the PA networks in all terrestrial ecoregions of the world as of June 2016, considering a range of median dispersal distances (1–100 km) encompassing the dispersal abilities of the large majority of terrestrial vertebrates.We found that 9.3% of the world is covered by protected connected lands (average for all the world’s ecoregions) for a reference dispersal distance of 10 km, increasing up to 11.7% for the largest dispersal distance considered of 100 km. These percentages are considerably smaller than the global PA coverage of 14.7%, indicating that the spatial arrangement of PAs is only partially successful in ensuring connectivity of protected lands. The connectivity of PAs largely differed across ecoregions. Only about a third of the world’s ecoregions currently meet the Aichi Target of having 17% of the terrestrial realm covered by well-connected systems of PAs. Finally, our findings suggest that PAs with less strict management objectives (allowing the sustainable use of resources) may play a fundamental role in upholding the connectivity of the PA systems.Our analyses and indicator make it possible to identify where on the globe additional efforts are most needed in expanding or reinforcing the connectivity of PA systems, and can be also used to assess whether newly designated sites provide effective connectivity gains in the PA system by acting as corridors or stepping stones between other PAs. The results of the ProtConn indicator are available, together with a suite of other global PA indicators, in the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.     

基于爱知生物多样性目标11的我国自然保护地管理有效性评估进展与分析

本文基于我国相关政府部门、国际机构、科研机构和文献关于我国自然保护地管理有效性评估数据, 梳理和分析了我国针对爱知生物多样性目标11的自然保护地管理有效性评估的进展情况。结果显示, 我国已按时完成了爱知生物多样性目标11中2015年之前对60%以上自然保护地管理有效性评估的指标; 目前已开展管理有效性评估的自然保护地面积达136.19万km², 占我国自然保护地面积(186.60万km²)的72.99%; 我国自然保护地管理有效性受多方关注。本研究调查数据与世界自然保护地数据库、自然保护地管理有效性全球数据库的数据差异较大; 我国自然保护地管理有效性评估工具多样, 各类型自然保护地管理有效性评估工作进展差异显著, 管理有效性评估标准化和连续性有待提高。最后, 提出了如下建议: 加强自然保护地整体性和连通性; 参考世界自然保护区委员会的评估框架和世界自然保护联盟自然保护地绿色名录标准, 按照国家公园、自然保护区和自然公园分类制定管理有效性评估规范并将评估制度化; 有效利用评估结果促进我国自然保护地建设的标准化、科学化并建立激励机制等。     

Vegetation–environment relationships and classification of the seasonal savannas in Venezuela

The seasonal savannas dominated by the C₄ grasses of the genus Trachypogon, are widespread in northern South America. In Venezuela, they extend from the central lowland Llanos to intermediate elevations in the Coastal and Andean Mountains and to the Guiana Plateau (Gran Sabana) in the south. This study aims to classify these savannas and to understand the environmental factors that determine their composition and structure. Thirty-seven sites were sampled, plant cover and density were measured in 376 one square meter quadrats and the importance value index (IVI) was calculated. Climate data were obtained from climatological stations and soil properties were analyzed. The results were classified by clustering and TWINSPAN. Floristic and environmental data were ordered with the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA).Trachypogon savannas are heterogeneous, both floristically and environmentally. An altitudinal gradient of 2000 m separates the intermediate elevation Coastal Mountains (Type I) and the Guiana savannas (Type II) from the lowland Llanos. In the lowlands, sparsely covered and treeless communities on extremely oligotrophic and sandy soils (Type IV) differ structurally and floristically from woody savannas (Type III). The floristics and structure of the savannas respond directly or indirectly to elevation and water and nutrient availability. These responses were evidenced by: (a) floristic composition, as Neotropical lowland savanna species merged with those of the Andean sub-páramo in Type I savannas or with those from the Guianan flora in Type II savannas. (b) Species richness, which ranged from an average of 13.8 per site in sandy Type IV savannas to 38.9 per site in Type I intermediate elevation savannas. (c) Community physiognomy, which changes from an homogeneous herbaceous matrix with dispersed trees in Type III savannas to a shrubby Type I savannas to “treeless” Types II and IV savannas. (d) Plant cover which varied from 93.8% in the fertile Type I savannas to around 80% in the sandy oligotrophic savannas of Types II and IV. Each savanna type is related to one of the major geomorphological regions of Venezuela.     

Woody vegetation structure of Brazilian Cerrado invaded by Pteridium arachnoideum (Kaulf.) Maxon (Dennstaedtiaceae)

Biological invasion is one of the major components of global change. In the Brazilian Cerrado, the fern Pteridium arachnoideum (neotropical bracken) is a potentially invasive species which is expected to change the vegetation structure of savannas. We assessed effects of the dominance of P. arachnoideum on the diversity of woody Cerrado species. We compared three sites dominated by neotropical bracken with three sites without neotropical bracken. We used multivariate analyses of variance and rarefaction curves with confidence limits to test whether the groups of species found in invaded areas were different from those found in non-invaded ones. We also analyzed the density of individuals and species and the mean area at breast height per plot. We found significant floristic differences between the areas. The diversity and the densities in the invaded areas were lower than in non-invaded ones. However, we did not observe differences in the mean area at breast height of woody plants. Thus, the P. arachnoideum invasion is a potential threat to Cerrado biodiversity. Management efforts should be made to control the bracken, since its dominance in the plant community may lead to impoverishment and simplification of the savanna vegetation.     

Review of the protected area network in Guinea, West Africa, and recommendations for new sites for biodiversity conservation

With only five protected areas dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity (two national parks, one strict nature reserve and two faunal reserves), Guinea has one of the smallest protected area networks in West Africa. As a result, two of the five ecoregions of the country and six of the 14 globally threatened large and medium-sized mammals occurring in Guinea are not found in the national protected area network. To identify areas with high biodiversity that could be included in the national protected area network, we used the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) methodology. We devised a scoring system to rank the identified KBAs according to their relative conservation significance. We identified a total of 16 KBAs throughout the country. Their proclamation as protected areas would result in the protection of all ecoregions and all but one of Guinea’s globally threatened large and medium-sized mammals. Twelve of the 16 KBAs have the legal status of classified forest, a status that should facilitate the change into formal biodiversity protected areas (IUCN category I–IV). Our analysis indicates that even if only the two areas with the highest conservation significance score, the Ziama and Diécké forests, become formal protected areas, this would provide protection to both the western Guinean lowland forests, one of the most threatened ecoregions in Africa, and to 11 of the 14 threatened large and medium-sized mammals occurring in Guinea.     

Monitoring the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) framework using evaluation of effectiveness methods. The Italian case

Protected areas play an important role in the preservation and implementation of bold environmental agreements, among which the 20 Aichi Targets (Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, COP 10), with their focus on effective management systems supporting the conservation of biodiversity and eco-system services (Aichi Biodiversity Target 11). The aim of this paper is to illustrate the MEVAP (Monitoring and EValuation of Protected Areas) methodology, Italy's contribution to the topic of evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas within the international landscape (WDPA–IUCN, World Database on Protected Areas – Union for Conservation of Nature). The purpose of MEVAP is to provide a periodical review procedure as part of the process to improve the management of protected areas. Its starting point is the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data pertinent to the environmental, social and economic aspects of protected areas and to their governance.This paper illustrates the results obtained using the MEVAP method and its application to several clusters of Italian national parks. While highlighting the potential of this method, the document also proposes an initial assessment of the environmental, social and economical performance of protected areas and how performance is connected to its governance.Underpinning the study is the need to expand the use of evaluation practices and to spur scientific debate in the direction of widely spread adaptive management methods, with a view to optimising policies and management procedures and, therefore, achieving the protection targets that must be met by protected areas through their institutions.     

自然保护区管理有效性评价方法的比较与应用

建立自然保护区是保护生物多样性的最重要的途径之一,开展自然保护区管理有效性评价是了解自然保护区管理状况、提升保护区管理水平、实现保护区管理目标的有效途径。在国际自然保护联盟世界保护区委员会(WCPA)提出的保护区管理有效性评价框架的基础上, 世界上很多国家和组织机构根据本国的实际情况开发了更为详细的评价方法。这些方法可以归为4类, 包括基于证据的深入评价法、基于同行评定的综合评价法、基于专家知识的快速记分评价法, 以及基于假设的分类评价法。本文比较了这4类方法的应用范围、对象、目的、形式, 以及各类方法的优缺点及其适用条件, 总结了8种主要方法的评价指标的构成及其应用现状。在此基础上, 分析了自然保护区管理有效性评价方法在中国自然保护区中的应用及存在的问题, 并提出了适用于中国自然保护区管理有效性评价的方法及其评价指标构成。     

Effects of Climate Change on the Potential Species Richness of Mesoamerican Forests

The realized species richness of tropical forests cannot yet be reliably mapped at a regional scale due to lack of systematically collected data. An estimate of the potential species richness (PSR), however, can be produced through the use of species distribution modelling. PSR is interpretable as a climatically determined upper limit to observed species richness. We mapped current PSR and future PSR under climate change scenarios for Mesoamerica by combining the spatial distributions of 2000 tree species as predicted by generalized additive models built from herbaria records and climate layers. An explanatory regression tree was used to extract conditional rules describing the relationship between PSR and climate. The results were summarized by country, ecoregion and protected area status in order to investigate current and possible future variability in PSR in the context of regional biodiversity conservation. Length of the dry season was found to be the key determinant of PSR. Protected areas were found to have higher median PSR values than unprotected areas in most of the countries within the study area. Areas with exceptionally high PSR, however, remain unprotected throughout the region. Neither changes in realized species richness nor extinctions will necessarily follow changes in modelled PSR under climate change. However model output suggests that an increase in temperature of around 3°C, combined with a 20 percent decrease in rainfall could lead to a widespread reduction of around 15 percent of current PSR, with values of up to 40 percent in some moist lower montane tropical forests. The modelled PSR of dry forest ecoregions was found to be relatively stable. Some cooler upper montane forests in northern Mesoamerica, where few species of tropical origin are currently found, may gain PSR if species are free to migrate.     

Climate change may plunder the facultative top predator Yellow-throated Martin from the Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region

The mountain ecosystems are fragile because of topography and extreme climatic conditions. The Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is a biodiversity-rich ecosystem and highly vulnerable to climate change and anthropogenic activities among the mountains. In HKH, the climate change impacts on ecologically specialist species are already evident, but generalist species are not much studied. One such generalist species distributed throughout the HKH is Yellow-Throated Marten (YTM) (Martes flavigula Boddaert, 1785), a facultative predator that occupies the Southern flank of the HKH. The YTM is one of the least studied animals distributed up to 4510-m elevation. The HKH covers 61 terrestrial ecoregions and 304 Protected Areas (PAs). An ecologically successful facultative predator of the region is seriously threatened because of habitat loss and climate change. Hence, we used an ensemble model to map the distribution of suitable habitats and their representativeness in terms of ecoregions and PA coverage. The results indicated that by 2050, the distribution range might decline to 58.78% and 49.33% with reference to the current scenario under the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, respectively. The species may lose much of its range, mainly in the eastern part of the HKH landscape. Furthermore, the centroid of the distribution may also shift to the northwest, thereby abandoning many areas and occupying new refugia. The Upper Gangetic plains moist deciduous forests ecoregion possess the highest suitable habitats for the YTM, with a mean value of 0.744. At the same time, the existing PA network represents only 12.2% of its suitable habitat in HKH. Hence, for the long-term viability of the species, there is a need to enhance protection and improve habitat quality.     

Nitrogen cycling in tropical and temperate savannas

Savannas are the most common vegetation type in the tropics and subtropics, ranging in physiognomy from grasslands with scattered woody plants to woodlands with heterogeneous grass cover. Productivity and organic matter turnover in savannas are controlled by interactions between water and nutrient availability, and this basic environmental structure is modified by fire frequency and land management practices. We compared temperate and tropical savannas in order to understand the strength of nitrogen (N) limitation of productivity. American tropical and temperate savannas are N limited systems, and the N cycle differs according to the woody plant density, fire frequency, land use change, N deposition and N fixation. Grazing and conversion to pasture have been the predominant land-use changes in most savannas. In the Cerrado and the Llanos tropical savannas, intensified use of fire for pasture management is leading to decreased woody plant density. Oppositely, in the Chaco and North American temperate savannas, fire suppression and grazing are leading to increases in woody density. In addition, the higher soil P availability in the Gran Chaco and the higher N deposition in North American savannas may be contributing to increases of N cycling and net productivity rates. Some aspects of the N budget for savannas of the American continent are still unclear and require further analysis to determine rates of N fixation, and to understand how spatial and temporal soil heterogeneity control N fluxes through soil solution and into streams.     

A Hierarchical Classification of Benthic Biodiversity and Assessment of Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean

An international effort is underway to establish a representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean to help provide for the long-term conservation of marine biodiversity in the region. Important to this undertaking is knowledge of the distribution of benthic assemblages. Here, our aim is to identify the areas where benthic marine assemblages are likely to differ from each other in the Southern Ocean including near-shore Antarctica. We achieve this by using a hierarchical spatial classification of ecoregions, bathomes and environmental types. Ecoregions are defined according to available data on biogeographic patterns and environmental drivers on dispersal. Bathomes are identified according to depth strata defined by species distributions. Environmental types are uniquely classified according to the geomorphic features found within the bathomes in each ecoregion. We identified 23 ecoregions and nine bathomes. From a set of 28 types of geomorphic features of the seabed, 562 unique environmental types were classified for the Southern Ocean. We applied the environmental types as surrogates of different assemblages of biodiversity to assess the representativeness of existing MPAs. We found that 12 ecoregions are not represented in MPAs and that no ecoregion has their full range of environmental types represented in MPAs. Current MPA planning processes, if implemented, will substantially increase the representation of environmental types particularly within 8 ecoregions. To meet internationally agreed conservation goals, additional MPAs will be needed. To assist with this process, we identified 107 spatially restricted environmental types, which should be considered for inclusion in future MPAs. Detailed supplementary data including a spatial dataset are provided.     

Hierarchical partitioning of ant diversity: implications for conservation of biogeographical diversity in arid and semi‐arid areas

Aim The scale of observation is important in detecting the spatial variation of biological assemblages, which should be taken into consideration for an appropriate plan of biogeographical conservation. We investigated whether (1) World Wildlife Fund’s ecoregion units are the appropriate scale for conserving ant diversity in Iran, (2) each ecoregion represents a distinct ant community composition and (3) patterns of diversity partitioning differ among four ecoregions. Location Iran, a sampling transect along four arid and semi‐arid ecoregions. Methods We applied hierarchical partitioning to data collected from a nested sampling design including four hierarchical levels: ‘local’, ‘landscape’, ‘ecoregional’ and ‘whole‐region’. Observed alpha and beta diversity components were compared with values of null distributions. Hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to evaluate similarity of ant species composition among ecoregions. Results Partitioning of whole‐region species richness showed that 85% of the species richness was generated by beta diversity among ecoregions and landscapes. The highest value of diversity was generated by beta diversity among ecoregions. Unlike whole‐region partitioning, separate partitioning within each ecoregion revealed that beta component among localities contributed to species richness of each ecoregion. Ecoregions showed different patterns of diversity partitioning. The alpha component contributed largely to the total diversity of two ecoregions, but for two other ecoregions, beta component contributed more than alpha component. Cluster analysis identified four discrete ant species compositions; however, it split landscapes of one ecoregion into two distinct groups. Main conclusions Whole‐region diversity partitioning indicates that ecoregions represent the appropriate scale for conserving ant diversity and that each ecoregion has a distinct ant fauna. However, different conservation strategies should be considered for different ecoregions owing to the differing scales of variation within them. Boundaries of ecoregions remain a subject for further studies. The influence of climate change on ecoregional boundaries should be considered and should be predicted with respect to future conservation maps.     

Integrating phylogenetic and functional biodiversity facets to guide conservation: a case study using anurans in a global biodiversity hotspot

The Cerrado is one of the most threatened biomes in Brazil, with little spatial representation within the Protected Area network. Recently, proposed conservation plans worldwide have advocated for the use of multiple biodiversity facets to protect unique evolutionary and functional processes. Our aim was to identify areas with high biodiversity representativeness applying this multifaceted perspective, and propose conservation plans based on the joint analysis of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity. We used a database of the Brazilian National Program for Research in Biodiversity, which employs a standard protocol for sampling tadpoles. The Cerrado database includes samples from 165 water bodies spread over 15 localities, covering most of the Central Brazilian Cerrado. We selected four morphological traits to calculate functional diversity and used a dated phylogeny available in the literature to compute phylogenetic diversity. Our approach selected five priority areas for conservation, one of which is already protected. Our results highlighted the importance of four new areas which show high values of diversity, including original lineages and traits, and urgently need conservation prioritization. Furthermore, unlike the current protected network, our approach performs significantly better than random at protecting sites with high phylogenetic and functional diversity. We therefore discuss how the multifaceted indices considered can help protect key ecosystem functions and evolutionary legacy in anuran communities of the Brazilian Cerrado.