Flexibility and the use of indicator taxa in the selection of sites for nature reserves |
| |
Authors: | Paul Hopkinson Justin M.J. Travis Julianne Evans Richard D. Gregory Mark G. Telfer Paul H. Williams |
| |
Affiliation: | (1) NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK;(2) Present address: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Biological Records Centre, Monks Wood, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE17 2LS, UK;(3) Present address: Department of Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK;(4) Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL, UK;(5) British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, UK;(6) Biogeography and Conservation Laboratory, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK |
| |
Abstract: | 'Minimum' sets of complementary areas represent all species in a region a given number of times. In recent years, conservation assessments have centred around the evaluation of these 'minimum' sets. Previous research shows little overlap between 'minimum' sets and existing nature reserves and between 'minimum' sets for different taxonomic groups. The latter has been used as an argument to discount the use of indicator taxa in the selection of sites for nature reserves. However, these 'minimum' set analyses have only considered a single set for each taxonomic group when there are, in fact, a large number of equally valid 'minimum' sets. We present new methods for evaluating all of these alternative 'minimum' sets. We demonstrate that if all of the sets are evaluated, significantly higher levels of overlap are found between 'minimum' sets and nature reserves, and pairs of 'minimum' sets for different taxonomic groups. Furthermore, significantly higher proportions of species from non-target taxonomic groups are recorded in the 'minimum' sets of target groups. Our results suggest that previous conservation assessments using 'minimum' sets may have been unduly pessimistic. |
| |
Keywords: | biodiversity near-minimum sets priorities protected areas selection algorithm |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|