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Displaying publications 21 - 29 of 29 in total

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Incorporating connectivity into conservation planning for the optimal representation of multiple species and ecosystem services

Williams SH, Scriven SA, Burslem DFRP, Hill JK, Reynolds G, Agama AL, et al.

Conserv Biol, 2020 08;34(4):934-942.
PMID: 31840279 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13450

Conservation planning tends to focus on protecting species' ranges or landscape connectivity but seldom both-particularly in the case of diverse taxonomic assemblages and multiple planning goals. Therefore, information on potential trade-offs between maintaining landscape connectivity and achieving other conservation objectives is lacking. We developed an optimization approach to prioritize the maximal protection of species' ranges, ecosystem types, and forest carbon stocks, while also including habitat connectivity for range-shifting species and dispersal corridors to link protected area. We applied our approach to Sabah, Malaysia, where the state government mandated an increase in protected-area coverage of approximately 305,000 ha but did not specify where new protected areas should be. Compared with a conservation planning approach that did not incorporate the 2 connectivity features, our approach increased the protection of dispersal corridors and elevational connectivity by 13% and 21%, respectively. Coverage of vertebrate and plant species' ranges and forest types were the same whether connectivity was included or excluded. Our approach protected 2% less forest carbon and 3% less butterfly range than when connectivity features were not included. Hence, the inclusion of connectivity into conservation planning can generate large increases in the protection of landscape connectivity with minimal loss of representation of other conservation targets.
Author Correction: Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity

Brodie JF, Mohd-Azlan J, Chen C, Wearn OR, Deith MCM, Ball JGC, et al.

Nature, 2024 Apr;628(8009):E5.
PMID: 38594342 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07333-z
Fulltext Predicting the geographical distributions of the macaque hosts and mosquito vectors of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria in forested and non-forested areas

Moyes CL, Shearer FM, Huang Z, Wiebe A, Gibson HS, Nijman V, et al.

Parasit Vectors, 2016 Apr 28;9:242.
PMID: 27125995 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-016-1527-0

BACKGROUND: Plasmodium knowlesi is a zoonotic pathogen, transmitted among macaques and to humans by anopheline mosquitoes. Information on P. knowlesi malaria is lacking in most regions so the first step to understand the geographical distribution of disease risk is to define the distributions of the reservoir and vector species.
METHODS: We used macaque and mosquito species presence data, background data that captured sampling bias in the presence data, a boosted regression tree model and environmental datasets, including annual data for land classes, to predict the distributions of each vector and host species. We then compared the predicted distribution of each species with cover of each land class.
RESULTS: Fine-scale distribution maps were generated for three macaque host species (Macaca fascicularis, M. nemestrina and M. leonina) and two mosquito vector complexes (the Dirus Complex and the Leucosphyrus Complex). The Leucosphyrus Complex was predicted to occur in areas with disturbed, but not intact, forest cover (> 60% tree cover) whereas the Dirus Complex was predicted to occur in areas with 10-100% tree cover as well as vegetation mosaics and cropland. Of the macaque species, M. nemestrina was mainly predicted to occur in forested areas whereas M. fascicularis was predicted to occur in vegetation mosaics, cropland, wetland and urban areas in addition to forested areas.
CONCLUSIONS: The predicted M. fascicularis distribution encompassed a wide range of habitats where humans are found. This is of most significance in the northern part of its range where members of the Dirus Complex are the main P. knowlesi vectors because these mosquitoes were also predicted to occur in a wider range of habitats. Our results support the hypothesis that conversion of intact forest into disturbed forest (for example plantations or timber concessions), or the creation of vegetation mosaics, will increase the probability that members of the Leucosphyrus Complex occur at these locations, as well as bringing humans into these areas. An explicit analysis of disease risk itself using infection data is required to explore this further. The species distributions generated here can now be included in future analyses of P. knowlesi infection risk.
Publisher Correction: Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity

Brodie JF, Mohd-Azlan J, Chen C, Wearn OR, Deith MCM, Ball JGC, et al.

Nature, 2024 Jan;625(7996):E28.
PMID: 38182924 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-07007-2
Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity

Brodie JF, Mohd-Azlan J, Chen C, Wearn OR, Deith MCM, Ball JGC, et al.

Nature, 2023 Aug;620(7975):807-812.
PMID: 37612395 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06410-z

The United Nations recently agreed to major expansions of global protected areas (PAs) to slow biodiversity declines1. However, although reserves often reduce habitat loss, their efficacy at preserving animal diversity and their influence on biodiversity in surrounding unprotected areas remain unclear2-5. Unregulated hunting can empty PAs of large animals6, illegal tree felling can degrade habitat quality7, and parks can simply displace disturbances such as logging and hunting to unprotected areas of the landscape8 (a phenomenon called leakage). Alternatively, well-functioning PAs could enhance animal diversity within reserves as well as in nearby unprotected sites9 (an effect called spillover). Here we test whether PAs across mega-diverse Southeast Asia contribute to vertebrate conservation inside and outside their boundaries. Reserves increased all facets of bird diversity. Large reserves were also associated with substantially enhanced mammal diversity in the adjacent unprotected landscape. Rather than PAs generating leakage that deteriorated ecological conditions elsewhere, our results are consistent with PAs inducing spillover that benefits biodiversity in surrounding areas. These findings support the United Nations goal of achieving 30% PA coverage by 2030 by demonstrating that PAs are associated with higher vertebrate diversity both inside their boundaries and in the broader landscape.
Reply to: Causal claims, causal assumptions and protected area impact

Brodie JF, Mohd-Azlan J, Chen C, Wearn OR, Deith MCM, Ball JGC, et al.

Nature, 2025 Feb;638(8052):E42-E44.
PMID: 40011724 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08513-7
Combining camera trap surveys and IUCN range maps to improve knowledge of species distributions

Chen C, Granados A, Brodie JF, Kays R, Davies TJ, Liu R, et al.

Conserv Biol, 2023 Nov 08.
PMID: 37937455 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14221

Reliable maps of species distributions are fundamental for biodiversity research and conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps are widely recognized as authoritative representations of species' geographic limits, yet they might not always align with actual occurrence data. In recent area of habitat (AOH) maps, areas that are not habitat have been removed from IUCN ranges to reduce commission errors, but their concordance with actual species occurrence also remains untested. We tested concordance between occurrences recorded in camera trap surveys and predicted occurrences from the IUCN and AOH maps for 510 medium- to large-bodied mammalian species in 80 camera trap sampling areas. Across all areas, cameras detected only 39% of species expected to occur based on IUCN ranges and AOH maps; 85% of the IUCN only mismatches occurred within 200 km of range edges. Only 4% of species occurrences were detected by cameras outside IUCN ranges. The probability of mismatches between cameras and the IUCN range was significantly higher for smaller-bodied mammals and habitat specialists in the Neotropics and Indomalaya and in areas with shorter canopy forests. Our findings suggest that range and AOH maps rarely underrepresent areas where species occur, but they may more often overrepresent ranges by including areas where a species may be absent, particularly at range edges. We suggest that combining range maps with data from ground-based biodiversity sensors, such as camera traps, provides a richer knowledge base for conservation mapping and planning.
Latitudinal gradients in seed predation persist in urbanized environments

Hargreaves AL, Ensing J, Rahn O, Oliveira FMP, Burkiewicz J, Lafond J, et al.

Nat Ecol Evol, 2024 Sep 05.
PMID: 39237759 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02504-7

Urbanization is creating a new global biome, in which cities and suburbs around the world often resemble each other more than the local natural areas they replaced. But while urbanization can profoundly affect ecology at local scales, we know little about whether it disrupts large-scale ecological patterns. Here we test whether urbanization disrupts a macroecological pattern central to ecological and evolutionary theory: the increase in seed predation intensity from high to low latitudes. Across 14,000 km of latitude spanning the Americas, we compared predation intensity on two species of standardized experimental seeds in urbanized and natural areas. In natural areas, predation on both seed species increased fivefold from high latitudes to the tropics, one of the strongest latitudinal gradients in species interactions documented so far. Surprisingly, latitudinal gradients in predation were equally strong in urbanized areas despite significant habitat modification. Nevertheless, urbanization did affect seed predation. Compared with natural areas, urbanization reduced overall predation and vertebrate predation, did not affect predation by invertebrates in general, and increased predation by ants. Our results show that macroecological patterns in predation intensity can persist in urbanized environments, even as urbanization alters the relative importance of predators and potentially the evolutionary trajectory of urban populations.
Fulltext Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape

Burton AC, Beirne C, Gaynor KM, Sun C, Granados A, Allen ML, et al.

Nat Ecol Evol, 2024 May;8(5):924-935.
PMID: 38499871 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02363-2

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely. Under higher human activity, mammals were less active in undeveloped areas but unexpectedly more active in developed areas while exhibiting greater nocturnality. Carnivores were most sensitive, showing the strongest decreases in activity and greatest increases in nocturnality. Wildlife managers must consider how habituation and uneven sensitivity across species may cause fundamental differences in human-wildlife interactions along gradients of human influence.