1. |
- Downey, Harriet, et al.
(author)
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Training future generations to deliver evidence-based conservation and ecosystem management
- 2021
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In: Ecological Solutions and Evidence. - : Wiley. - 2688-8319. ; 2:1
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 1. To be effective, the next generation of conservation practitioners and managers need to be critical thinkers with a deep understanding of how to make evidence-based decisions and of the value of evidence synthesis.2. If, as educators, we do not make these priorities a core part of what we teach, we are failing to prepare our students to make an effective contribution to conservation practice.3. To help overcome this problem we have created open access online teaching materials in multiple languages that are stored in Applied Ecology Resources. So far, 117 educators from 23 countries have acknowledged the importance of this and are already teaching or about to teach skills in appraising or using evidence in conservation decision-making. This includes 145 undergraduate, postgraduate or professional development courses.4. We call for wider teaching of the tools and skills that facilitate evidence-based conservation and also suggest that providing online teaching materials in multiple languages could be beneficial for improving global understanding of other subject areas.
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2. |
- Jansson, Roland, et al.
(author)
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Future changes in the supply of goods and services from natural ecosystems : prospects for the European north
- 2015
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In: Ecology and Society. - : Resilience Alliance. - 1708-3087. ; 20:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Humans depend on services provided by ecosystems, and how services are affected by climate change is increasingly studied. Few studies, however, address changes likely to affect services from seminatural ecosystems. We analyzed ecosystem goods and services in natural and seminatural systems, specifically how they are expected to change as a result of projected climate change during the 21st century. We selected terrestrial and freshwater systems in northernmost Europe, where climate is anticipated to change more than the global average, and identified likely changes in ecosystem services and their societal consequences. We did this by assembling experts from ecology, social science, and cultural geography in workshops, and we also performed a literature review. Results show that most ecosystem services are affected by multiple factors, often acting in opposite directions. Out of 14 services considered, 8 are expected to increase or remain relatively unchanged in supply, and 6 are expected to decrease. Although we do not predict collapse or disappearance of any of the investigated services, the effects of climate change in conjunction with potential economical and societal changes may exceed the adaptive capacity of societies. This may result in societal reorganization and changes in ways that ecosystems are used. Significant uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the forecast make specific conclusions about societal responses to safeguard human well-being questionable. Adapting to changes in ecosystem services will therefore require consideration of uncertainties and complexities in both social and ecological responses. The scenarios presented here provide a framework for future studies exploring such issues.
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3. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(author)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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4. |
- Kühn, Ingolf, et al.
(author)
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MACIS: Minimisation of and Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts on BiodiverSity
- 2008
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In: GAIA. - 0940-5550. ; 17:4, s. 393-395
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The recently finished EU funded project MACIS reviewed observed and projected climate change impacts on biodiversity. It assessed mitigation and adaptation options. It also reviewed and developed methods to assess future impacts of climate change on biodiversity including the identification of policy options to prevent and minimise these impacts.
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5. |
- Trivino, Maria, et al.
(author)
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Risk assessment for Iberian birds under global change
- 2013
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In: Biological Conservation. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-2917 .- 0006-3207. ; 168, s. 192-200
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Conservation priority areas and programs are often established without consideration of future changes in species distributions. However, global change is expected to threaten the persistence of several species while offering opportunities for range expansion to others. In this study, building on previous work, we develop and implement an approach to classify bird species according to their degree of exposure and vulnerability to future climate and land-use change, including climatically driven changes in vegetation. To examine species exposure to environmental changes, we first fitted environmental envelope models and projected then into the future under scenarios of climate, land use and vegetation change. Then, we estimated species vulnerability by taking into account traits that are expected to render species vulnerable to environmental change while considering, simultaneously, the current IUCN conservation status of species. Our results show that bird species highly (and negatively) exposed to future environmental changes are currently less threatened and possess characteristics that render them less susceptible to local extinction than species that are less exposed. Our results reinforce the need to complement studies of global change impacts on biodiversity, typically based on assessments of species exposure to changes, with additional information related to the ability of species to persist under such changes. Nevertheless, we stress that while combining different sources of information is important, it is the comparison of outcomes from these different sources of information that enables development of alternative management strategies. Depending on the source of risk (e.g., exposure to global change versus vulnerability traits to multiple stressors) alternative conservation actions might be required. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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6. |
- Trivino, Maria, et al.
(author)
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The Contribution of Vegetation and Landscape Configuration for Predicting Environmental Change Impacts on Iberian Birds
- 2011
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In: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 6:12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although climate is known to be one of the key factors determining animal species distributions amongst others, projections of global change impacts on their distributions often rely on bioclimatic envelope models. Vegetation structure and landscape configuration are also key determinants of distributions, but they are rarely considered in such assessments. We explore the consequences of using simulated vegetation structure and composition as well as its associated landscape configuration in models projecting global change effects on Iberian bird species distributions. Both present-day and future distributions were modelled for 168 bird species using two ensemble forecasting methods: Random Forests (RF) and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT). For each species, several models were created, differing in the predictor variables used (climate, vegetation, and landscape configuration). Discrimination ability of each model in the present-day was then tested with four commonly used evaluation methods (AUC, TSS, specificity and sensitivity). The different sets of predictor variables yielded similar spatial patterns for well-modelled species, but the future projections diverged for poorly-modelled species. Models using all predictor variables were not significantly better than models fitted with climate variables alone for ca. 50% of the cases. Moreover, models fitted with climate data were always better than models fitted with landscape configuration variables, and vegetation variables were found to correlate with bird species distributions in 26-40% of the cases with BRT, and in 1-18% of the cases with RF. We conclude that improvements from including vegetation and its landscape configuration variables in comparison with climate only variables might not always be as great as expected for future projections of Iberian bird species.
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