A suite of essential biodiversity variables for detecting critical biodiversity change

Key global indicators of biodiversity decline, such as the IUCN Red List Index and the Living Planet Index, have relatively long assessment intervals. This means they, due to their inherent structure, function as late‐warning indicators that are retrospective, rather than prospective. These indicators are unquestionably important in providing information for biodiversity conservation, but the detection of early‐warning signs of critical biodiversity change is also needed so that proactive management responses can be enacted promptly where required. Generally, biodiversity conservation has dealt poorly with the scattered distribution of necessary detailed information, and needs to find a solution to assemble, harmonize and standardize the data. The prospect of monitoring essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) has been suggested in response to this challenge. The concept has generated much attention, but the EBVs themselves are still in development due to the complexity of the task, the limited resources available, and a lack of long‐term commitment to maintain EBV data sets. As a first step, the scientific community and the policy sphere should agree on a set of priority candidate EBVs to be developed within the coming years to advance both large‐scale ecological research as well as global and regional biodiversity conservation. Critical ecological transitions are of high importance from both a scientific as well as from a conservation policy point of view, as they can lead to long‐lasting biodiversity change with a high potential for deleterious effects on whole ecosystems and therefore also on human well‐being. We evaluated candidate EBVs using six criteria: relevance, sensitivity to change, generalizability, scalability, feasibility, and data availability and provide a literature‐based review for eight EBVs with high sensitivity to change. The proposed suite of EBVs comprises abundance, allelic diversity, body mass index, ecosystem heterogeneity, phenology, range dynamics, size at first reproduction, and survival rates. The eight candidate EBVs provide for the early detection of critical and potentially long‐lasting biodiversity change and should be operationalized as a priority. Only with such an approach can science predict the future status of global biodiversity with high certainty and set up the appropriate conservation measures early and efficiently. Importantly, the selected EBVs would address a large range of conservation issues and contribute to a total of 15 of the 20 Aichi targets and are, hence, of high biological relevance.     

Standards for biodiversity: a proposal based on biodiversity standards for forest plantations

The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity has not only focused attention on the concept of biodiversity it has also set expectations that the signatory nations will establish objectives. It is suggested here that the use of biodiversity standards could have a useful role in quantifying these objectives. The use of biodiversity standards is explored in connection with the levels of biodiversity In plantation forests. Forest plantations have been used for the basis of this investigation because such plantations could be used as large-scale experiments in which the use of standards, and the ecological monitoring of these standards, could be researched. The impact of intensive forestry practices on wildlife has often been the cause of concern and indeed controversy. Recently there has been a move towards the development of multipurpose forest plantations where management for recreation and wildlife takes place alongside management for timber. Some forest authorities are actively looking at ways of restoring levels of biodiversity in plantation forests. We suggest that if levels of biodiversity are to be restored, then forest managers must have something to aim for; that is, there must be a standard. The adoption of standards could provide a means whereby forest managers can meet biodiversity objectives. Standards may also enable managers to determine the effectiveness of those management practices which are intended to increase levels of biodiversity. We suggest a conceptual plan which combines a monitoring procedure with biodiversity objectives.     

Why mountains matter for biodiversity

Mountains are arguably Earth's most striking features. They play a major role in determining global and regional climates, are the source of most rivers, act as cradles, barriers and bridges for species, and are crucial for the survival and sustainability of many human societies. The complexity of mountains is tightly associated with high biodiversity, but the processes underlying this association are poorly known. Solving this puzzle requires researchers to generate more primary data, and better integrate available geological and climatic data into biological models of diversity and evolution. In this perspective, we highlight emerging insights, which stress the importance of mountain building through time as a generator and reservoir of biodiversity. We also discuss recently proposed parallels between surface uplift, habitat formation and species diversification. We exemplify these links and discuss other factors, such as Quaternary climatic variations, which may have obscured some mountain-building evidence due to erosion and other processes. Biological evolution is complex and the build-up of mountains is certainly not the only explanation, but biological and geological processes are probably more intertwined than many of us realize. The overall conclusion is that geology sets the stage for speciation, where ecological interactions, adaptive and non-adaptive radiations and stochastic processes act together to increase biodiversity. Further integration of these fields may yield novel and robust insights.     

以经济手段促进生物多样性保护

当前各国协调经济与生态的关系呈加速态势, 主要表现在: (1)深化。从“发展优先, 兼顾保护”到二者并重, “在发展中保护, 在保护中发展”, 再到“保护优先”, 越来越强调统筹协同“以保护优化发展, 以发展促进保护”; (2)分化。发展中国家大多依赖财政与金融, 发达国家则将市场作为主要资金渠道, 逐步形成以系统化的法律体系、多元化的激励机制、契约化的公私合作模式和市场化交易为主体的生态产品价值实现体系; (3)多元化。自然价值的多元性决定政府需要综合运用多种举措, 以减少单一政策的局限性; (4)市场化。加强市场解决财政在环保投入不足的主体作用已成为主流。本文为探索我国向“自然受益型”经济转型, 梳理了30多个国家在不同行业实施经济手段的150个实例, 以多元化视角归纳为8种举措: 顶层设计、环经核算、生态转型、绿色金融、市场认证、激励改革、气候协同和实施配套; 并从10个方面分析以经济手段促进生物多样性保护的国际经验和趋势, 各国之间的共性及分化; 最后提出利用“2020后全球生物多样性框架”提供协调各国行动一致的平台机制, 以外促内, 内外结合, 通过创新政策工具和组合应用, 促进我国经济政策与生态环境政策融合的建议。     

Place prioritization for biodiversity content

The prioritization of places on the basis of biodiversity content is part of any systematic biodiversity conservation planning process. The place prioritization procedure implemented in the ResNet software package is described. This procedure is primarily based on the principles of rarity and complementarity. Application of the procedure is demonstrated with two analyses, one data set consisting of the distributions of termite genera in Namibia, and the other consisting of the distributions of bird species in the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands. The attributes that data sets should have for the effective and reliable application of such procedures are discussed. The procedure used here is compared to some others that are also currently in use.     

Operationalizing biodiversity for conservation planning

Biodiversity has acquired such a general meaning that people now find it difficult to pin down a precise sense for planning and policy-making aimed at biodiversity conservation. Because biodiversity is rooted in place, the task of conserving biodiversity should target places for conservation action; and because all places contain biodiversity, but not all places can be targeted for action, places have to be prioritized. What is needed for this is a measure of the extent to which biodiversity varies from place to place. We do not need a precise measure of biodiversity to prioritize places. Relative estimates of similarity or difference can be derived using partial measures, or what have come to be called biodiversity surrogates. Biodiversity surrogates are supposed to stand in for general biodiversity in planning applications. We distinguish between true surrogates, those that might truly stand in for general biodiversity, and estimator surrogates, which have true surrogates as their target variable. For example, species richness has traditionally been the estimator surrogate for the true surrogate, species diversity. But species richness does not capture the differences in composition between places; the essence of biodiversity. Another measure, called complementarity, explicitly captures the differences between places as we iterate the process of place prioritization, starting with an initial place. The relative concept of biodiversity built into the definition of complementarity has the level of precision needed to undertake conservation planning.     

替代指标在生物多样性快速评价中的应用

生物多样性评价工作是生物多样性保护的基础,而替代指标的应用是在环境影响评价中实现生物多样性快速评价的重要方法之一.本文介绍了生物多样性替代指标的概念,分析了不同生物类群之间广泛存在的相关性,总结了大尺度上兽类、鸟类、维管束植物物种数的经验比例(1:5:50).对目前可供使用的生物多样性替代指标进行了系统整理和分类,将其划分为生物类替代指标(包括指示类群、功能类群和珍稀濒危类群)和生境类替代指标(包括环境因子、景观格局和自然圣境).对不同指标的替代机理、有效性、使用方法和适用范围等进行了归纳,探讨了增强生物多样性替代指标应用有效性和评价精度的主要途径.研究可为保护地规划、生物多样性监测和环境影响评价等领域开展生物多样性快速评价,以及环境评价制度中生物多样性影响评价的完善提供参考.     

Institutions and incentives for biodiversity conservation

Incentive measures for biodiversity conservation cannot be evaluated and compared outside the context of institutional performance and relationships. The institutional framework for biodiversity incentives includes a variety of organizations operating on different spatial scales. The institutional actors with an impact on biodiversity include community groups, local and national governmental structures, NGOs, business enterprises and international organizations. But the positve influence of conservation-oriented organizations is often significantly outweighed by the negative influence of other sets of institutional actors who are largely unaware of biodiversity as a concept and not unduly concerned with its conservation. There are several options for improving the institutional framework for biodiversity incentives: (1) decentralization of resource management decision making to local levels; (2) engaging and reorienting government institutions; (3) establishing new national and international institutions; and (4) establishing functional linkages between key institutional actors. The role of local, national and international institutions in designing and implementing effective incentive measures for biodiversity conservation will be critical. But the dynamics within and between institutional actors influencing biodiversity conservation are complex, variable and insufficiently understood, somewhat like biodiversity itself.     

Information pyramids for informed biodiversity conservation

We discuss a paradigm for informed ecosystem management that provides a quantitative and rigorous foundation for informing conservation decisions and sustainable ecosystem management. Information pyramids incorporate conceptual and technological advances in ecosystem depiction and provide a framework for the integration and generalization of raw data into forms that are spatially extensive and at the appropriate level of generalization for a particular use. The basic tenets of the pyramid are: (1) Higher levels of the pyramid are entirely derived from a foundation of underlying data. (2) The process of generalization and integration upward should be objective and explicit. (3) Pyramids for different purposes often overlap, with common data and common methods for integration. (4) All levels of the pyramid should be developed together, including base data, methods and kinds of integration, and algorithms for using the information for planning and decision-making. Information pyramids are a powerful approach to organizing research science, and provide a mechanism by which research, data collection, storage and generalization can be focused on conservation outcomes. Common data and methods lead to increased efficiency, while also allowing for separate disciplines and programs. A case study of an integrated pyramid from New Zealand is discussed, which illustrates the characteristics of information pyramids. Components of this pyramid are discussed that provide examples of integration and generalization at various levels of the pyramid, from base data, to derived data, to spatial predictions and classifications, to a method of integrating this information into conservation decisions.     

Testing indicators of biodiversity for plantation forests

In many parts of the world, plantations make up a considerable proportion of the total forest area. In such regions, the identification of high biodiversity value stands and of management practices to enhance biodiversity is essential if the goals of Sustainable Forest Management are to be achieved. Since complete biodiversity assessments are rarely possible, efforts have been increasingly focussed on the use of indicators. Of particular interest are indicators applicable to individual stands that require no specialist taxonomic or technical knowledge to assess. Candidate biodiversity indicators had been identified in a previous study using data from Irish Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior) plantations but had yet to be tested on independent data. In the present study, the provisional indicators for vascular plant, bryophyte, spider and bird diversity were tested on data from Irish Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), oak (Quercus petraea/Quercus robur), Sitka spruce and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) plantations. Conifer canopy cover was confirmed as an important biodiversity indicator, due to its influence on below-canopy microclimatic and structural conditions. Bryophyte species richness was higher in relatively high canopy cover plantations on poorly drained soils, while bird species richness was higher in more open plantations with high shrub cover. Coarse woody debris was an important substrate for forest-associated bryophytes, with higher species richness at higher volumes of deadwood. Both proximity to old woodland and stand age were confirmed as positive indicators for forest-associated vascular plants. This is related to dispersal limitation in these species, with nearby woodlands acting as important seed sources and colonisation increasing with time. Stand age was also confirmed as a positive indicator for forest-associated spiders and is related to the development of suitable habitat as the plantation matures. All of the confirmed indicators can be assessed without need for specialist knowledge, are ecologically meaningful and applicable to a range of forests managed under a clearfelling system. They can be used to assess the potential value of stands for the taxonomic groups to which they apply, as well as giving insights into management practices to enhance diversity in these groups.     

生物多样性经济价值评估的基本方法

目前,生物多样性经济价值的基本评价方法包括三种类型,一种是基于个人支付意愿(WTP)的直接经济价值评估方法,再一种是利用实际或替代市场的间接经济价值评估方法,第三种是针对生物多样性价值在空间上流动的现象,基于定量分析的过程－效益评价法。     

生物多样性保护主流化的新机遇

<正>生物多样性是人类赖以生存和发展的物质基础。不断加剧的人类活动,致使生物多样性受到严重威胁,引起国际社会的广泛关注。生物多样性保护必须实现主流化,与社会经济可持续发展紧密结合,否则很难奏效。在全球尺度上,统领发展的最重要的理念即可持续发展(World Commission on Environment and Development,1987)。1992年联合国环境与发展大会通过了《21世纪议程》,被称为世界范围内可持续发展行动计划;2000年联合国世界首脑会议通过了     

Aquatic biodiversity assessment for the lazy

The world is covered in DNA. In any ecosystem, extracellular DNA fragments can be found that once formed the genomes of a variety of micro‐ and macroorganisms. A few years ago, it was proposed to use this environmental DNA (eDNA) as a source of information on local vertebrate biodiversity (Ficetola et al. 2008 ; Taberlet et al. 2012 ). This idea offered an elegant solution to take up the gauntlet of rapidly increasing monitoring needs. Coupled with barcoding efforts, it promised to be cost‐efficient in many respects, for example man‐hours and taxonomic expertise. Ecologists and conservation biologists with an interest in aquatic ecosystems have enthusiastically adopted and pioneered this new method, producing dozens of eDNA studies. Most of these studies have, however, focused on a single or a few aquatic species. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Valentini et al. ( 2016 ) move the field a step further by demonstrating that metabarcoding approaches – which simultaneously target large groups of organisms such as amphibians or fish – can match and sometimes even outperform other inventory methods.