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At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
USGS2021

A global perspective on the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on freshwater fish biodiversity

The COVID-19 global pandemic and resulting effects on the economy and society (e.g., sheltering-in-place, alterations in transportation, changes in consumer behaviour, loss of employment) have yielded some benefits and risks to biodiversity. Here, we considered the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced (or may influence) freshwater fish biodiversity (e.g., richness, abundance). In many cases, we could only consider potential impacts using documented examples (often from the media) of likely changes, because anecdotal observations are still emerging and data-driven studies are yet to be completed or even undertaken. We evaluated the potential for the pandemic to either mitigate or amplify widely acknowledged, pre-existing threats to freshwater fish biodiversity (i.e., invasive species, pollution, fragmentation, flow alteration, habitat loss and alteration, climate change, exploitation). Indeed, we identified examples spanning the extremes of positive and negative outcomes for almost all known threats. We also considered the pandemic's impact on freshwater fisheries demand, assessment, research, compliance monitoring, and management interventions (e.g., restoration), with disruptions being experienced in all domains. Importantly, we provide a forward-looking synthesis that considers the potential mechanisms and pathways by which the consequences of the pandemic may positively and negatively impact freshwater fishes over the longer term. We conclude with a candid assessment of the current management and policy responses and the extent to which they ensure freshwater fish populations and biodiversity are conserved for human and aquatic ecosystem benefits in perpetuity.

Biological Conservation↗
USGS2016

Toward an integrated understanding of perceived biodiversity values and environmental conditions in a national park

In spatial planning and management of protected areas, increased priority is being given to research that integrates social and ecological data. However, public viewpoints of the benefits provided by ecosystems are not easily quantified and often implicitly folded into natural resource management decisions. Drawing on a spatially explicit participatory mapping exercise and a Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) analysis tool, the present study empirically examined and integrated social values for ecosystem services and environmental conditions within Channel Islands National Park, California. Specifically, a social value indicator of perceived biodiversity was examined using on-site survey data collected from a sample of people who visited the park. This information was modeled alongside eight environmental conditions including faunal species richness for six taxa, vegetation density, categories of marine and terrestrial land cover, and distance to features relevant for decision-makers. Results showed that biodiversity value points assigned to places by the pooled sample of respondents were widely and unevenly mapped, which reflected the belief that biodiversity was embodied to varying degrees by multiple locations in the park. Models generated for two survey subgroups defined by their self-reported knowledge of the Channels Islands revealed distinct spatial patterns of these perceived values. Specifically, respondents with high knowledge valued large spaces that were publicly inaccessible and unlikely to contain on-ground biodiversity, whereas respondents with low knowledge valued places that were experienced first-hand. Accessibility and infrastructure were also important considerations for anticipating how and where people valued the protected land and seascapes of Channel Islands National Park.

California↗
USGS2020

Acoustic space occupancy: Combining ecoacoustics and lidar to model biodiversity variation and detection bias across heterogeneous landscapes

There is global interest in quantifying changing biodiversity in human-modified landscapes. Ecoacoustics may offer a promising pathway for supporting multi-taxa monitoring, but its scalability has been hampered by the sonic complexity of biodiverse ecosystems and the imperfect detectability of animal-generated sounds. The acoustic signature of a habitat, or soundscape, contains information about multiple taxa and may circumvent species identification, but robust statistical technology for characterizing community-level attributes is lacking. Here, we present the Acoustic Space Occupancy Model, a flexible hierarchical framework designed to account for detection artifacts from acoustic surveys in order to model biologically relevant variation in acoustic space use among community assemblages. We illustrate its utility in a biologically and structurally diverse Amazon frontier forest landscape, a valuable test case for modeling biodiversity variation and acoustic attenuation from vegetation density. We use complementary airborne lidar data to capture aspects of 3D forest structure hypothesized to influence community composition and acoustic signal detection. Our novel analytic framework permitted us to model both the assembly and detectability of soundscapes using lidar-derived estimates of forest structure. Our empirical predictions were consistent with physical models of frequency-dependent attenuation, and we estimated that the probability of observing animal activity in the frequency channel most vulnerable to acoustic attenuation varied by over 60%, depending on vegetation density. There were also large differences in the biotic use of acoustic space predicted for intact and degraded forest habitats, with notable differences in the soundscape channels predominantly occupied by insects . This study advances the utility of ecoacoustics by providing a robust modeling framework for addressing detection bias from remote audio surveys while preserving the rich dimensionality of soundscape data, which may be critical for inferring biological patterns pertinent to multiple taxonomic groups in the tropics. Our methodology paves the way for greater integration of remotely sensed observations with high-throughput biodiversity data to help bring routine, multi-taxa monitoring to scale in dynamic and diverse landscapes.

Mato Grosso↗
USGS2018

Parasitism and the biodiversity-functioning relationship

Biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning. Biodiversity may decrease or increase parasitism. Parasites impair individual hosts and affect their role in the ecosystem. Parasitism, in common with competition, facilitation, and predation, could regulate BD-EF relationships. Parasitism affects host phenotypes, including changes to host morphology, behavior, and physiology, which might increase intra- and interspecific functional diversity. The effects of parasitism on host abundance and phenotypes, and on interactions between hosts and the remaining community, all have potential to alter community structure and BD-EF relationships. Global change could facilitate the spread of invasive parasites, and alter the existing dynamics between parasites, communities, and ecosystems. Species interactions can influence ecosystem functioning by enhancing or suppressing the activities of species that drive ecosystem processes, or by causing changes in biodiversity. However, one important class of species interactions – parasitism – has been little considered in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BD-EF) research. Parasites might increase or decrease ecosystem processes by reducing host abundance. Parasites could also increase trait diversity by suppressing dominant species or by increasing within-host trait diversity. These different mechanisms by which parasites might affect ecosystem function pose challenges in predicting their net effects. Nonetheless, given the ubiquity of parasites, we propose that parasite–host interactions should be incorporated into the BD-EF framework.

Trends in Ecology and Evolution↗
USGS2003

Information technology challenges of biodiversity and ecosystems informatics

Computer scientists, biologists, and natural resource managers recently met to examine the prospects for advancing computer science and information technology research by focusing on the complex and often-unique challenges found in the biodiversity and ecosystem domain. The workshop and its final report reveal that the biodiversity and ecosystem sciences are fundamentally information sciences and often address problems having distinctive attributes of scale and socio-technical complexity. The paper provides an overview of the emerging field of biodiversity and ecosystem informatics and demonstrates how the demands of biodiversity and ecosystem research can advance our understanding and use of information technologies.

Information Systems↗
USGS2020

Specialized meltwater biodiversity persists despite widespread deglaciation

Glaciers are important drivers of environmental heterogeneity and biological diversity across mountain landscapes. Worldwide, glaciers are receding rapidly due to climate change, with important consequences for biodiversity in mountain ecosystems. However, the effects of glacier loss on biodiversity have never been quantified across a mountainous region, primarily due to a lack of adequate data at large spatial and temporal scales. Here, we combine high-resolution biological and glacier change (ca. 1850–2015) datasets for Glacier National Park, USA, to test the prediction that glacier retreat reduces biodiversity in mountain ecosystems through the loss of uniquely adapted meltwater stream species. We identified a specialized cold-water invertebrate community restricted to the highest elevation streams primarily below glaciers, but also snowfields and groundwater springs. We show that this community and endemic species have unexpectedly persisted in cold, high-elevation sites, even in catchments that have not been glaciated in ∼170 y. Future projections suggest substantial declines in suitable habitat, but not necessarily loss of this community with the complete disappearance of glaciers. Our findings demonstrate that high-elevation streams fed by snow and other cold-water sources continue to serve as critical climate refugia for mountain biodiversity even after glaciers disappear.

Montana↗
USGS2010

Assessing macroinvertebrate biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems: Advances and challenges in dna-based approaches

Assessing the biodiversity of macroinvertebrate fauna in freshwater ecosystems is an essential component of both basic ecological inquiry and applied ecological assessments. Aspects of taxonomic diversity and composition in freshwater communities are widely used to quantify water quality and measure the efficacy of remediation and restoration efforts. The accuracy and precision of biodiversity assessments based on standard morphological identifications are often limited by taxonomic resolution and sample size. Morphologically based identifications are laborious and costly, significantly constraining the sample sizes that can be processed. We suggest that the development of an assay platform based on DNA signatures will increase the precision and ease of quantifying biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems. Advances in this area will be particularly relevant for benthic and planktonic invertebrates, which are often monitored by regulatory agencies. Adopting a genetic assessment platform will alleviate some of the current limitations to biodiversity assessment strategies. We discuss the benefits and challenges associated with DNA-based assessments and the methods that are currently available. As recent advances in microarray and next-generation sequencing technologies will facilitate a transition to DNA-based assessment approaches, future research efforts should focus on methods for data collection, assay platform development, establishing linkages between DNA signatures and well-resolved taxonomies, and bioinformatics. ?? 2010 by The University of Chicago Press.

The Quarterly Review of Biology↗
USGS2020

Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: An emergency recovery plan

Despite their limited spatial extent, freshwater ecosystems host remarkable biodiversity, including one-third of all vertebrate species. This biodiversity is declining dramatically: Globally, wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests, and freshwater vertebrate populations have fallen more than twice as steeply as terrestrial or marine populations. Threats to freshwater biodiversity are well documented but coordinated action to reverse the decline is lacking. We present an Emergency Recovery Plan to bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss. Priority actions include accelerating implementation of environmental flows; improving water quality; protecting and restoring critical habitats; managing the exploitation of freshwater ecosystem resources, especially species and riverine aggregates; preventing and controlling nonnative species invasions; and safeguarding and restoring river connectivity. We recommend adjustments to targets and indicators for the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals and roles for national and international state and nonstate actors.

BioScience↗
USGS2022

Biodiversity underpins fisheries resilience to exploitation in the Amazon River basin.

Inland fisheries feed greater than 150 million people globally, yet their status is rarely assessed due to their socio-ecological complexity and pervasive lack of data. Here, we leverage an unprecedented landings time series from the Amazon, Earth's largest river basin, together with theoretical food web models to examine (i) taxonomic and trait-based signatures of exploitation in inland fish landings and (ii) implications of changing biodiversity for fisheries resilience. In both landings time series and theory, we find that multi-species exploitation of diverse inland fisheries results in a hump-shaped landings evenness curve. Along this trajectory, abundant and large species are sequentially replaced with faster growing and smaller species. Further theoretical analysis indicates that harvests can be maintained for a period of time but that continued biodiversity depletion reduces the pool of compensating species and consequently diminishes fisheries resilience. Critically, higher fisheries biodiversity can delay fishery collapse. Although existing landings data provide an incomplete snapshot of long-term dynamics, our results suggest that multi-species exploitation is affecting freshwater biodiversity and eroding fisheries resilience in the Amazon. More broadly, we conclude that trends in landings evenness could characterize multi-species fisheries development and aid in assessing their sustainability.

Amazon River basin↗
USGS2023

The RACE for freshwater biodiversity: Essential actions to create the social context for meaningful conservation

Freshwater habitats are experiencing two to three times the rate of biodiversity loss of terrestrial and marine habitats. As status quo actions within the conservation community are not reversing the downward trajectory for freshwater biodiversity, we propose four actions to shift the narrative such that freshwater biodiversity is no longer invisible and overlooked, but rather explicitly recognized, valued, and protected: (1) Reshape our relationship with freshwater habitats and biodiversity, (2) Appreciate indigenous knowledge systems relating to freshwater habitats, (3) Connect science more directly to action, and (4) Elevate freshwater habitats as a unique “domain” that requires explicit recognition in conservation planning (RACE). We highlight roles that both freshwater scientists and the wider conservation community can play in implementing the four actions such that the “RACE” can be won.

Conservation Science and Practice↗
USGS2010

An overview of marine biodiversity in United States waters

Marine biodiversity of the United States (U.S.) is extensively documented, but data assembled by the United States National Committee for the Census of Marine Life demonstrate that even the most complete taxonomic inventories are based on records scattered in space and time. The best-known taxa are those of commercial importance. Body size is directly correlated with knowledge of a species, and knowledge also diminishes with distance from shore and depth. Measures of biodiversity other than species diversity, such as ecosystem and genetic diversity, are poorly documented. Threats to marine biodiversity in the U.S. are the same as those for most of the world: overexploitation of living resources; reduced water quality; coastal development; shipping; invasive species; rising temperature and concentrations of carbon dioxide in the surface ocean, and other changes that may be consequences of global change, including shifting currents; increased number and size of hypoxic or anoxic areas; and increased number and duration of harmful algal blooms. More information must be obtained through field and laboratory research and monitoring that involve innovative sampling techniques (such as genetics and acoustics), but data that already exist must be made accessible. And all data must have a temporal component so trends can be identified. As data are compiled, techniques must be developed to make certain that scales are compatible, to combine and reconcile data collected for various purposes with disparate gear, and to automate taxonomic changes. Information on biotic and abiotic elements of the environment must be interactively linked. Impediments to assembling existing data and collecting new data on marine biodiversity include logistical problems as well as shortages in finances and taxonomic expertise.

Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean↗
USGS2006

Biodiversity management of fens and fen meadows by grazing, cutting and burning

Question: Can the biodiversity of fens in Europe and North America be maintained through the use of grazing (especially cattle grazing), fire, and/or cutting? Location: European and North American fens. Methods: This paper is a review of the literature on the effects of grazing, fire and cutting on fens, to explore the relationship between management and biodiversity in fens. Results: A reduction of cattle grazing, mowing and burning in fens has led to a reduction in biodiversity in fens. The vegetation of abandoned fens shifts to trees and shrubs after 10-15 years, which shade the smaller and rarer species of these wetlands. While careful use of fire is used to manage fens in North America, it is not widely used in European fens, perhaps because the peat of drained fens may catch fire. Cattle grazing cannot be considered a natural disturbance in North America, since cattle did not evolve on that continent. In Europe, cattle do not generally graze in unaltered fens, but they do use slightly drained fen meadows. Conclusions: Three approaches have been used to control the dominance of tall woody and herbaceous species in abandoned fens, including the re-introduction of cattle, mowing, and burning. Overgrazing results in a permanent reduction in biodiversity, therefore cattle re-introduction must be approached cautiously. In Europe, but not in North America, mowing has been an important management tool, and mowing has been successful in maintaining species richness, particularly in fens that have been mowed annually for centuries. Fire has been the most common and successful management tool in North America although it is not effective in removing shrubs that have become large. Because the problems and solutions are similar, the literature of both European and North American fen management can be analyzed to better assess the management of fens on both continents. Many management questions require further study and these are listed in the paper. ?? IAVS; Opulus Press.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2015

Biodiversity and Habitat Markets—Policy, Economic, and Ecological implications of Market-Based Conservation

This report is a primer on market-like and market-based mechanisms designed to conserve biodiversity and habitat. The types of markets and market-based approaches that were implemented or are emerging to benefit biodiversity and habitat in the United States are examined. The central approaches considered in this report include payments for ecosystem services, conservation banks, habitat exchanges, and eco-labels. Based on literature reviews and input from experts and practitioners, the report characterizes each market-based approach including policy context and structure; the theoretical basis for applying market-based approaches; the ecological effectiveness of practices and tools for measuring performance; and the future outlook for biodiversity and habitat markets. This report draws from previous research and serves as a summary of pertinent information associated with biodiversity and habitat markets while providing references to materials that go into greater detail on specific topics.

Circular↗
USGS2005

Establishing an analytical framework for calculating consistent and sensitive measures of the rate of biodiversity change

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) VIth Conference of the Parties (COP) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development agreed to a target to achieve a significant reduction of the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The VIIth COP adopted a conceptual framework to facilitate the assessment of global progress toward 2010 and to encourage national and regional targets and indicators. However, most of the indicators identified are not and will not be adequately quantified at desired accuracy and with desired frequency by 2010. What is possible is the establishment of an analytic framework that can provide guidelines and baselines for biodiversity estimates that can steadily improve with time. A judicious combination of remotely sensed data, Geographic Information System data, ground samples, and expert knowledge of species trends and species’ use of habitats form a solid basis for assessing biodiversity. National development of sensitive, consistent, and affordable indicators that can contribute to the CBD global indicators requires access to a baseline set of global ecosystem, climate, topography, land cover, and human impact information. Fortunately, over the last ten years, a number of relevant information sources have become available. Such information, as well as appropriate methods for use, should be promoted and made highly accessible to countries and organizations that support the CBD. The NASA-Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Conservation Working Group is collaborating to evaluate and demonstrate the meaningful role remote sensing can play in developing biodiversity indicators to meet the targets specified. The Working Group members are evaluating indicators across a range of biomes and scales. The results are being synthesized in a handbook describing the use of remote sensing for monitoring the 2010 target to be published in 2006.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2022

Stoneflies in the genus Lednia (Plecoptera: Nemouridae): Sentinels of climate change impacts on mountain stream biodiversity

Rapid recession of glaciers and snowfields is threatening the habitats of cold-water biodiversity worldwide. In many ice-sourced headwaters of western North America, stoneflies in the genus Lednia (Plecoptera: Nemouridae) are a prominent member of the invertebrate community. With a broad distribution in mountain streams and close ties to declining glacier cover, Lednia has emerged as a sentinel of climate change threats to high-elevation aquatic biodiversity. Lednia tumana , which is endemic to Glacier National Park, USA and the surrounding mountains, is the most well-studied species in the genus and in 2019 became federally protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to climate-induced loss of meltwater habitats. Three other Lednia species have also been described, and like L. tumana , each is endemic to a mountain region of western North America: Lednia sierra in the Sierra Nevada, Lednia borealis in the Cascade Range, and Lednia tetonica in the Teton Range. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of Lednia ecology, genetics, and physiology, with an emphasis on the conservation outlook for the group and species with similar headwater distributions. We highlight substantial progress made in the last decade to better understand the ecology and evolution of Lednia , including the identification of 140 Lednia- containing streams (an increase from 12 streams in 2010), and a more complete understanding of the degree to which warming streams may imperil species in the genus. In light of the ESA listing of L. tumana , we show that similar conservation threats likely face all extant Lednia species. However, substantial gaps in our knowledge remain, primarily centering around their distributions (and the potential for as yet undescribed species), life history, ecophysiology, and trophic ecology. We conclude by describing pressing questions for Lednia that when addressed will expand knowledge of the genus and its conservation as well as broader understanding of climate risks to mountain stream biodiversity worldwide.

California, Montana, Washington, Wyoming↗
USGS2025

Impacts of onshore wind energy production on biodiversity

Wind is increasingly used as a renewable source of energy worldwide. However, harvesting wind energy can have negative consequences for biodiversity. In this Review, we summarize the growth of onshore wind power, its impacts on species and ecosystems, and how those impacts are assessed and mitigated. Across the construction, operation and decommissioning stages, wind facilities are associated with wildlife fatality and behavioural change as well as alteration, loss and fragmentation of terrestrial and aerial habitat. These negative consequences can be mitigated by avoiding construction of wind turbines at sensitive sites, detecting and deterring wildlife, curtailing turbines to reduce fatalities, and replacing lost habitats. Uncertainty about wildlife populations and their demographic parameters, the rate and extent of build-out of onshore wind energy, and best practices for mitigation, as well as variability in regulatory requirements by country or region, all contribute to the difficulty of predicting the consequences of this technology for biodiversity. Scenario-based modelling that incorporates population- and community-level consequences to biodiversity from varying degrees of wind energy development — including the cumulative effects of multiple facilities — is key to addressing this uncertainty.

Nature Biodiversity Reviews↗
USGS2013

Biodiversity losses and conservation trade-offs: Assessing future urban growth scenarios for a North American trade corridor

The Sonoran Desert and Apache Highlands ecoregions of North America are areas of exceptionally high plant and vertebrate biodiversity. However, much of the vertebrate biodiversity is supported by only a few vegetation types with limited distributions, some of which are increasingly threatened by changing land uses. We assessed the impacts of two future urban growth scenarios on biodiversity in a binational watershed in Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico. We quantified and mapped terrestrial vertebrate species richness using Wildlife Habitat Relation models and validated the results with data from National Park Service biological inventories. Future urban growth, based on historical trends, was projected to the year 2050 for 1) a “Current Trends” scenario and, 2) a “Megalopolis” scenario that represented a transnational growth corridor with open-space conservation attributes. Based on Current Trends, 45% of existing riparian woodland (267 of 451species), and 34% of semi-desert grasslands (215 of 451 species) will be lost, whereas, in the Megalopolis scenario, these types would decline by 44% and 24% respectively. Outcomes of the two models suggest a trade-off at the taxonomic class level: Current Trends would reduce and fragment mammal and herpetofauna habitat, while Megalopolis would result in loss of avian-rich riparian habitat.

International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Eco↗
USGS2018

Hypotheses from recent assessments of climate impacts to biodiversity and ecosystems in the United States

Climate change poses multiple threats to biodiversity, and has already caused demonstrable impacts. We summarize key results from a recent national assessment of observed climate change impacts to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems in the United States, and place results in the context of commonly articulated hypotheses about ecosystem response to climate change for global implications. Specific impacts we consider include: range shifts; phenological shifts; phenotypic changes; primary production changes; biological invasions; and novel communities. Significant effort has been made recently to incorporate adaptation measures into land and water management at both national and international scales, but the scale of impacts and associated uncertainties pose challenges to existing management institutions. Using commonly articulated hypotheses about climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystem response can provide context for informed decisions at multiple scales and can help to provide a clearer understanding of the ecological and mechanistic linkages between climate change and biodiversity.

Book chapter↗