Part 5: Practical Applications

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Part 5 Practical Applications
2
Part 5 Practical Applications

• Chapter 15 Establishing Protected Areas
• Chapter 16 Designing Networks of Protected
  Areas
• Chapter 17 Managing Protected Areas
• Chapter 18 Outside Protected Areas
• Chapter 19 Restoration Ecology

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Establishing Protected Areas

• Chapter 15

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Establishing Protected Areas

• Most effective way to conserve biological
  diversity
• Peak of establishment of protected areas
• 1970s
• Fell off in 1980s
• Political reasons
• Perception enough protected

5
Existing Protected Areas

• 9 total land surface
• 13 million square km
• 4 strictly protected
• 1 marine environments
• Establishment difficult
• 20 needs to be protected to manage for
  commercial fishing

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Creating New Protected Areas

• Mechanisms
• Government action
• Purchases
• Individual
• Conservation organizations
• Customs of indigenous peoples
• Development of biological field stations

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Creating New Protected Areas

• Steps
• Identifying species and biological communities at
  highest priority for conservation
• Determining areas of world to be protected
• Linking new conservation areas to existing
  conservation networks using techniques such as
  gap analysis

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Identifying Priorities for Protecting Biodiversity

• Establishing Priorities for Protection
• Distinctiveness
• Endangerment
• Utility

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Distinctiveness

• Higher priority
• Biological community with rare endemic species
• Opposed to common, widespread species
• Taxonomically unique species
• Only species in that genus
• Unusual genetic characteristics

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Endangerment

• Species in danger of extinction
• Small populations
• Biological communities threatened with imminent
  destruction

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Utility

• Species with present or potential value to people
• Food species
• Major economic value coastal wetlands

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Prioritization Systems

• Complementary
• Species approaches
• Protect particular species
• In doing so protect entire biological community
• Focal species
• Individual species of special concern
• Rare, endangered, keystone, or culturally
  significant species
• Indicator species
• Species associated with endangered biological
  community
• Northern spotted owl of old growth forests of
  Pacific northwest
• Flagship species
• Charismatic megafauna
• Capture public attention

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Prioritization Systems

• Approaches using biological diversity indicators
• When data about whole communities unavailable
• Diversity in plants and birds good indicators
• Water quality monitoring example
• Britian
• Protect hot spots of richness
• Protect hot spots of rare species
• Protect sets of complementary areas
• Community and ecosystem approaches
• Representative site
• Includes the species and environmental conditions
  characteristic of the biologic community

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National Priorities for Establishing Protected
Areas

• National governments (or local) must determine
  own priorities
• Global Environmental Facility
• 1991
• 500 million yearly
• Biodiversity 1/3

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Determining Which Areas Should be Protected

• 14 major terrestrial biomes
• Ecosystem types linked by the structure and
  characteristics of their vegetation
• Greatest priority is temperate grasslands and
  lake systems
• Limited in area
• Only small their area is protected
• See table 15.1 page 428

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Centers for Biodiversity

• Identifies key areas of world
• Great biological diversity
• High levels endemism
• Global hot spots for preservation
• species extinctions
• habitat destruction
• 25 global hot spots
• Encompass 44 worlds plant species
• 28 bird species
• 30 mammals
• 38 reptiles
• 54 amphibians
• 1.4 land surface
• table 15.2 page 430
• Figure 15.6 page 429
• None in United States
• Most in tropics

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Wilderness Areas

• Wilderness
• Large blocks of land unaffected by humans
• Roadless
• High priority for conservation and protection
• My thought
• No roadsSo no drilling!!!
• Make do with less oil
• More gas efficient cars
• Make less trips
• Car pool
• For what it is worth!
• What was your trip to the Boundary Waters worth???

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How Much Protection is Needed

• Compromise
• Protecting biological diversity
• Ecosystem function
• Satisfying immediate long-term needs for
  resources

19
The IUCN System of Classification

• Strict Nature Reserves Wilderness Areas
• National Parks
• National Monuments Landmarks
• Managed Wildlife Sanctuaries Nature Reserves
• Protected Landscapes Seascapes
• Managed Resource Protected Areas

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Strict Nature Reserves/Wilderness Areas

• Protect species
• Protect natural process
• Undisturbed state
• Provide representative examples of diversity
• For scientific study
• Education
• Environmental monitoring

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National Parks

• Large areas
• Scenic and natural beauty
• Maintained to provide protection
• Use
• Scientific study
• Education
• Recreation
• Occassional commercial extraction of resources

22
National Monuments/Landmarks

• Smaller reserves
• Preserve unique biological, geological, or
  cultural features of special interest

23
Managed Wildlife Sanctuaries Nature Reserves

• Human manipulation involved
• Removing exotic species
• Prescribed burns
• Controlled harvest

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Protected Landscapes Seascapes

• Allow traditional uses by resident peoples
• Notebly in areas with disinctive culture,
  aesthetic, or ecological characteristics
• Provide tourism and recreation

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Truly Protected Areas

• By strictest definition only
• Strict nature reserves and wilderness
• National Parks
• National momuments and landmarks
• By looser definition
• Managed wildlife sanctuaries/ reserves
• Protected landscapes/seascapes

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Protected Areas

• Existing Protected Areas
• 4500 worldwide strictly protected
• 5899 partially protected
• Represents only 4 Earths land surface
• Varies greatly among countries
• Maximum could only be 7-10 due to demands

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Establishing Protected Areas with Limited Data

• In general new areas should encompass
• Endemic species of restricted range
• Community types underrepresented in other
  protected areas
• Support threatened species
• Contain resources of potential use to people
• Species of potential ag or medicinal use
• Ecosystem services understood by public
• Rapid biodiversity assessments (RAP)
• Map vegetation
• List species
• Check for species of special concern
• Estimate total number of species
• Look out for species and features of special
  interest

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Linking New Protected Areas to Reserve Networks

• Link new areas to existing
• Use technology to assist in this
• GAP analysis

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Gap Analysis

• Method to compare biodiversity priorities with
  existing and proposed protected areas
• This identifies gaps in preservation that need to
  be filled with new areas
• GIS/GPS method
• Figure 15.11, page 443

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Summary

• Protect habitat
• 9 Earths surface protected
• Strictly protected 4
• Priorities for protection
• Distinctiveness
• Endangerment
• Utility
• Hot spots
• Gap analysis

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Designing Networks of Protected Areas

• Chapter 16

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Designing Networks of Protected Areas

• Issues involved
• Money
• Land
• Ecology
• Three Rs
• Representation
• Resiliency
• Redundancy

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Issues of Reserve Design

• Size
• SLOSS
• Single large or several small
• How many to protect
• Shape
• How far apart
• Connected by corridors?

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Creating Adequately Sized Reserves

• SLOSS
• Single large
• Capable of supporting large, wide-ranging,
  low-density species
• Large carnivores
• Minimize edge habitat
• Encompass more species
• Have greater habitat diversity
• Several small

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Principles of reserve design 16.1 page 450

• Ecosystem completely protected
• Larger reserve
• Unfragmented
• More reserves
• Corridors maintained
• Stepping stones to facilitate movement
• Diverse habitats
• Shape close to round
• Mix of large and small reserves
• Reserves managed regionally
• Buffer zones for humans

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Reserve Design Fig. 16.1
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Reserve Design Species Preservation

• Population size best predictor of extinction
  probability
• More than one population desirable
• Could manage as metapopulation

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Minimizing Edge Fragmentation Effects

• Round minimizes edge effect most
• Center farther from edge
• Minimize edge to area ratio
• Square better than rectangle
• Long, linear have more edge
• Most are irregular shapes due to land acquisition
  issues
• Avoid internal fragmentation by roads, etc.
• Aggregate small reserves into larger blocks
• Embed in larger matrix
• May reduce effects of fragmentation
• Greater representation of species and habitats
• Maintain corridors

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Conservation Networks

• Strategies for aggregating small nature reserves
  into larger conservation networks
• Chicago Wilderness Project
• Prairie Passage

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Linking Reserves With Habitat Corridors

• Habitat Corridors
• Strips of protected land between reserves
• Links isolated areas
• Allows plants and animals to disperse
• Facilitates gene flow
• Facilitates colonization of suitable sites
• Migration routes
• Preserve animals that migrate seasonally
• Habitat Corridors Drawbacks
• May facilitate movement of pest species and
  disease
• May expose greater risk of predation
• Human hunters as example
• Animal predators
• Advantages generally outweigh drawbacks

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Habitat Corridor Case Studies

• Wildlands Project
• Proposes plan to link all large protected areas
  in US
• Corridors in Loouisiana Wetlands
• Community Baboon Sanctuary

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Landscape Ecology Park Design

• Landscape Ecology
• Interaction of actual land-use patterns,
  conservation theory, and park design
• Integrates patterns of habitat types on a
  regional scale
• Their influence on species distribution and
  ecosystem processes
• More studied in Europe
• New housing design in United States with
  greenscapes

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Landscapes Fig.16.9
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Landscape Ecology

• Area where a cluster of interacting stands or
  ecosystems is repeatedin similar form
• Scattered patch
• Open clearning in a forest
• Groves of trees in a field
• Network landscapes
• Roads on plantation
• Riparian network of rivers and tributaries in
  forest
• Interdigitated landscapes
• Tributary streams
• Shifting forest with grassland borders
• Checkerboard landscapes
• Farmland under cultivation
• Lots in residential development

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Conclusion

• Optimal procedures for designing network of
  protected areas
• Approach each land acquisition on individual
  merits
• Plan ahead

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Summary

• Design protected networks
• SLOSS
• Minimize edge effects
• Corridors
• Landscape ecology

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Managing Protected Areas

• Chapter 17

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Introduction

• Determine objective of protected area
• What is the management plan?
• Active management does not always produce desired
  results
• Removal of predators result in increased
  herbivores
• Cleaning parks of dead trees removes habitat
• Removing horns to stop poaching results in
  animals lack of defense mechanism

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Monitoring as a Management Tool

• Water level
• Soil erosion
• Plant counts
• Vegetative cover
• Saguaro cactus

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Identifying Managing Threats

• Exotic species
• Low population size among rare species
• Habitat destruction
• Fragmentation or degradation
• Human use

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Managing Invasive Species

• Aggressive remove at first arrival
• While at low densities
• Cost effective compared to mass eradication later
• Once established often impossible to remove

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Managing Habitat

• May need aggressive management to maintain all
  habitat types
• If part of management plan
• Natural disturbances may have failed to persist
• Rare species may not have persisted either
• Full range of successional habitats no longer
  present

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Managing Water

• Biological reserves most likely to be affected by
  human alterations of hydrology
• Located in lower potions of watershed
• Everglades
• Contaminated
• Urban
• Agricultural
• Sediment
• Pesticides
• Nutrients
• Sewage
• industry

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Managing Keystone Resources

• Food
• Water
• Minerals
• Natural shelter
• Alternatives
• Feeding platforms
• Artificial pools
• Planting native fruit trees
• Building artificial ponds

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Managing Parks People

• Zoning
• Core concept
• Undisturbed core
• Buffer zone
• Traditional activities, monitoring, research
• Transition zone
• Sustainable development
• Public Use Zone

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Regulating Activities inside Protected Areas

• Incompatible with maintaining biological
  diversity
• Must be abolished or regulated
• Commercial harvesting of game and fish
• Intensive harvesting of natural plant products
• Fruits, fibers, resins, mushrooms
• Illegal logging and farming
• Fire
• What are they thinking?????
• Your thoughts here
• Recreational activities
• Off trail

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Park Management Resources

• Must be adequate funding for effective park
  management
• Must also have funding for personnel
• Vast sums spent on zoos and developed countries
• Compared to undeveloped countries

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Summary

• Protected areas must be managed to maintain
  biological diversity
• Management
• Burning
• Disturbance
• Creation of successional stages
• Keystone resources protected
• Core concept
• Adequate funding

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Habitat Management

• Keystone Resources
• Resources on which many species depend
• Preserve
• Reconstruct
• Keystone species
• Providing enough keystone resources in
  concentrated area, allowing species to expand

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Outside Protected Areas

• Chapter 18

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Introduction

• If we cant protect whats inside protected
  areashow can we protect what is outside?
• Shortsided to rely on parks and reserves to
  protect biodiversity alone
• Park boundary is psychological
• Cant abuse the surrounding lands

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Value of Unprotected Habitat

• Strategy of encouraging private landowners to
  protect rare species and biological communities
• Wetland reserve program
• Conservation reserve program
• Florida panther

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Multiple Use Habitat

• Government-owned land (large areas)
• Designated for many uses
• Provide variety of goods and services
• Ecotourism
• Products
• BLM
• Logging
• Grazing
• Ecotourism
• Mining
• Wildlife
• Recreation
• Hunting

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Ecosystem Management

• Enhanced multiple-use management
• Landscape scale
• Involves many stakeholders
• Integrates scientific knowledge of ecological
  relationships within a complex sociopolitical and
  values framework toward the general goal of
  protecting native ecosystem integrity over the
  long term

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Ecosystem Management

• Themes
• Seeking and understanding connections between all
  levels and scales in the ecosystem hierarchy
• Ensuring viable populations of all species
• Monitoring significant components of the
  ecosystem
• Changing rigid policies and practices of
  land-management agencies
• Minimizing external threats
• Recognizing that humans are part of the ecosystem
  and influence management goals

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Case Studies

• Managed Coniferous Forests
• African Wildlife outside Parks
• Community-Based Wildlife Management in Zambia

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Restoration Ecology

• Chapter 19

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Introduction

• Ecological Restoration
• Process of intentionally altering a stie to
  establish a defined indigenous, historic
  ecosystem
• Emulate the structure, function, diversity, and
  dynamics of the specified ecosystem
• Provides data
• Restoration Ecology
• Science of restoration
• Research and scientific study of restored
  populations, communities and ecosystems
• Interprets and evaluates projects to lead to
  improved methods

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Damage Restoration

• Natural phenomena
• Volcanoes
• Fire
• Flood
• Hurricanes
• Some ecosystems so degraded cannot recover
• Soil erosion
• Mitigation
• Compensate for habitats damaged or destroyed
  elsewhere

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Ecological Restoration Techniques

• No action
• Rehabilitation
• Replace a degraded ecosystem with another
  productive type using a few or many species
• Partial restoration
• Restore some species
• Dominant one
• Complete restoration
• To original species composition and structure

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Case Studies

• Wetlands Restoration in Japan
• Grand Canyon-Colorado Ecosystem
• Restoration in Urban Areas

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Wetlands

• Major work done
• wetland mitigaton
• Flood control
• Water quality maintainence
• Preservation of biological communities
• Florida Kissimmee River project
• Tutorial for Comprehensive Everglades Restoration
  Plan

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Lakes

• Cultural eutrophication
• Excess mineral nutrients
• Byproducts of human activity
• Increased algal production
• Then die and eventually decompose
• The decomposition process utilizes oxygen
• Deprives the water of oxygen that fish, etc. need
• Creates areas of Dead Zone
• Low dissolved oxygen areas of waterbad for fish
• Lake Erie
• Cultural eutrophication
• Sewage treatment facilities
• Phosphorus reduction
• Special no phosphate detergents required now

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Prairies

• Prairie restoration
• Prairie reconstruction
• Iowa
• Hawkeye
• Living Roadway Trust Fund

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Future of Restoration Ecology

• Major growth area in conservation biology
• Society for Ecological Restoration
• Journals
• Restoration Ecology
• Ecological Restoration

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Summary

• Ecological Restoration
• Restoration Ecology