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A new method for conservation planning for the persistence of multiple species

Version 2 2024-06-04, 04:39
Version 1 2015-06-03, 10:16
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-04, 04:39 authored by Emily NicholsonEmily Nicholson, MI Westphal, K Frank, WA Rochester, RL Pressey, DB Lindenmayer, HP Possingham
Although the aim of conservation planning is the persistence of biodiversity, current methods trade-off ecological realism at a species level in favour of including multiple species and landscape features. For conservation planning to be relevant, the impact of landscape configuration on population processes and the viability of species needs to be considered. We present a novel method for selecting reserve systems that maximize persistence across multiple species, subject to a conservation budget. We use a spatially explicit metapopulation model to estimate extinction risk, a function of the ecology of the species and the amount, quality and configuration of habitat. We compare our new method with more traditional, area-based reserve selection methods, using a ten-species case study, and find that the expected loss of species is reduced 20-fold. Unlike previous methods, we avoid designating arbitrary weightings between reserve size and configuration; rather, our method is based on population processes and is grounded in ecological theory.

History

Journal

Ecology letters

Volume

9

Pagination

1049-1060

Location

Chichester, Eng.

eISSN

1461-0248

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, Blackwell Publishing

Issue

9

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell