Seminar Biodiversitt, Dr. Angela Schmitz Orns Biodiversity monitoring and assessment methods

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Seminar Biodiversität, Dr. Angela Schmitz
OrnésBiodiversity monitoring and assessment
methods

• Margarita Berg, 20.11.2007

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outline

• monitoring
• why monitor? ( ecosystem services)
• constraints on current programmes
• global biodiversity monitoring network
• assessment
• Red List of species
• ecosystem assessment

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Why monitor?

• biodiversity usually in combination with
  loss, decline, reduction
• investigate trends in biodiversity ? monitoring

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2010 Biodiversity Target

• to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction
  of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the
  global, regional and national level as a
  contribution to poverty alleviation and to the
  benefit of all life on Earth.

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aims of monitoring

• evaluate progress and highlight where
  conservation efforts need to be focussed
• determine how current conservation efforts can be
  improved
• increase understanding of how the quality of
  human life depends upon services provided by
  other species

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ecosystem services

• benefits that people obtain from ecosystems

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constraints on current programmes

• lack of compatibility between data sets
• insufficient integration at different scales
• bias towards species-poor temperate zone
  charismatic vertebrate species ? minimal services
  to human economy

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Pereira Cooper, 2006
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regional monitoring of species

• US Breeding Bird Survey
• 2500 volunteers, 4100 survey routes
• mallard
  raven

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• some of the best-quality wildlife data available
• populations increase when hunted, decrease when
  hunting quota are low
• reason for elk decline?
• little correlation between annual rates of change
  in different populations

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Gambia Biodiversity Database and Monitoring
System

• Department of Parks and Wildlife in The Gambia
• occurrence and status of marine turtles, African
  manatees, bird nesting colonies, several species
  of dolphins and freshwater fish

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regional monitoring of ecosystems

• should combine remote sensing with on-the-ground
  monitoring and aerial photography, e.g. for
  wetlands and coral reefs
• European CORINE Land Cover project

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Germany 2000
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global sampling of species

• ideal indicators
• respond over short timescales to anthropogenic
  perturbations
• correlate well with responses of other taxa
• play key roles in delivering ecosystem services
• monitoring capacity already exists
• widely understood and appreciated groups

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• vascular plants
• fundamental to ecosystem functioning
• best available predictors of diversity of other
  taxa
• several organizations already work on them

• birds
• easy to census, many volunteers
• moderate number of species
• ongoing monitoring programmes
• need for international cooperation

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• Red List Indices compare current classification
  of vulnerability of each species with the
  previous Red List
• chart overall changes in the threat status of the
  world's birds and amphibians

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global monitoring of land cover

• remote sensing data, but different sensors,
  different classification systems (eg forests)
• no directly comparable sets of global land-cover
  data for two different dates
• GLOBCOVER aims at producing a global land cover
  map to a resolution three times sharper than any
  previous satellite map

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GLC 2000
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Red Lists of species

• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides
  taxonomic, conservation status, and distribution
  information on taxa facing a high risk of global
  extinction
• categories ranging from extinct to least concern
• 41,500 species, 15,000 of them currently well
  documented

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objectives of the IUCN Red List

• to assess, in the long term, the status of a
  selected set of species
• to establish a baseline from which to monitor the
  status of species
• to provide a global context for the establishment
  of conservation priorities at the local level
  and
• to monitor, on a continuing basis, the status of
  a representative selection of species (as
  biodiversity indicators) that cover all the major
  ecosystems of the world

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ecosystem assessment (Rodriguez Balch)

• develop criteria for assessing extinction risk at
  a higher level of organization
• advantages
• creation of regional reserves aimed at ensuring
  ecosystem function
• more rapid production of assessments

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methodology

• ecosystem unit of biological organization that
  encompasses a unique and relatively homogeneous
  composition of species and abiotic elements and
  their dynamic processes
• considered extinct if no intact land cover of the
  original ecosystem exists
• temporal scale 30 years into the future
• spatial scale determined by geographical extent
  of area and type of data available

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• A reduction in area
• B focus on process
• C threat through edge effects
• D acute restriction in geographical extent

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Kalimantan - lowland tropical forest

• logging, habitat conversion, fire
• 56 were transformed by 2001 ? VU
• might be reduced to less than 10 of its original
  extent soon after 2010 ? CR
• critically endangered

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Isla Margarita dry forest

• urbanization infrastructure development
• 17 lost between 1986 and 2001
• 60 will remain within 30 years ? VU
• vulnerable

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Thank you for your attention!!
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sources

• Towards the global monitoring of biodiversity
  change H. Pereira D. Cooper
• Monitoring global rates of biodiversity change
  challenges that arise in meeting the Convention
  on Biological Diversity (CBD) 201 goals A.
  Dobson
• Assessing extinction risk in the absence of
  species-level data quantitative criteria for
  terrestrial ecosystems J. Rodriguez J. Balch
• Measuring Global Trends in the Status of
  Biodiversity Red List Indices for Birds S.
  Butchart et al.
• www.cbd.int/
• www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBS/
• www.chorographics.com/projects.html
• terrestrial.eionet.europa.eu/CLC2000
• www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHKL5TI8E_Germany_0.html
• www.iucnredlist.org
• img155.imageshack.us/birdwatching2tu9.jpg
• www.environment.gov.au/images/invert.gif
• anet.vbnlive.com/SITE/UPLOAD/Image/to20sort/
• photos.mongabay.com/07/0212borneo.jpg
• assets.panda.org/img/borneo_montane_forests.cfm
• www.hajosiewer.de/venezuela/margarita.jpg
• http//www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/environment/faqs/b
  iodiversity.jpg
• edinburgh.gov.uk/webcover2.jpeg
• www.globel.de/karibik-jamaika-bahamas.jpg