Why conserve biodiversity?

Conservation is not a single thing - if you look at the people involved in conservation biology in lec we have fisheries, economics, socioeconomics people working on taxa, forest ecology it is a heterogenuous field integrates a whole range of fields.

Lecture overview 

• What is Conservation Biology?

• Why should we conserve species and habitats?

the applied science of maintaining biological diversity on Earth

• Foundations in biology and ecology

• Interdisciplinary:

• Social environment
• Physical environment:
• Biological & ecological context
• Implementational environment

• Focused on applied practice of natural resource management

• Steeped in personal, professional and society ethical questions (Hunter & Gibbs 2007)

We're not just studying what fish are being traded in the Philippines- doing it with the aim that we have a moral imperative to protect them. but one of the things about that is that conservation biology holds a set of ethics about the fact that we need to protect the environment- we're candid about certain sets of objectives

• harmonize the increasing kit of scientific tools
• we are mediators
• resource in isolation from all other resources, is not enough.
• social understanding
• crisis-driven, mission-driven
• rallying point
• solve problems.
  A recognition that these have to be integrated - different tools interdisciplinary 

what values do people hold over particular types of nature - social dimension is where solutions lie- it is ethics laden - self admission laden and driven by crisis - critique of crisis language it makes people feel dis-empowered - too much of our language is steeped in pessimism which limits our ability to respond. that is a valid critique but at the same time we have to acknowledge realities of lectures of biodiversity decline. 

it is institutions/ policies do we make sacrifices to human development to protect environments?do we have to be vegetarians or should we only eat only sustainable meats instead of others?there are ethical decisions we have to make in conservation biology

1978: The First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology, University of California, San Diego in La Jolla

• Growing focus on: neglected fields (e.g., social sciences), neglected systems (marine and freshwater), capacity building and international engagement

• Increasing policy focus and policy voice

• Range of key journals: Conservation Letters, Biological Conservation, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

the first international conservation biology was 1978 - which makes us the initial generations of this field - changed in its growing focus on neglected fields - social sciences were underrepresented in the field - terrestrial systems focused on N America, now grasslands and marine focused on.

mission responsibility  - growing focus on international field- working with local ngo that does research- exchanging local things they know- sharing methods that ngo may use in future when designing and making their policies.

settlement at the end of research my research is important for conservation because this is no longer enough or the hallmark of great conservation biologists- conservationists now attend meetings, write blogs and conservation policies.

powerful global statement about key issues in conservation - scientific community has something to say about this

Aims of conservation biology

aims are very heterogeneous some are very descriptive - we need to understand what biodiversity is out there so we can protect them in the first place- how we are changing species - groups of species and their interactions with the broader environment 

mission to develop practical processed to biodiversity, maintaining species, functions of ecosystems, injured systems- conservation biology is about restoring systems too and not just protecting the pristine.

• To document the full range of biological diversity on Earth

• To investigate human impact on species, communities and

ecosystems

• To develop practical approaches to:

– Prevent the species extinction

– Maintain diversity (species, genetic, ecological)

– Maintain ecosystem functions and the interactions among

species

– Restore injured biological communities and systems

• To take actions to support conservation

historical origins 

preservation was linked to the establishment of huge protected areas notably US linked to romantic transcendental writers- saying nature is pristine we need to protect it - we need to remove human intervention. nature is intrinsically valuable, has its own inherent values - our role is to pull ourselves away from it - a romantic vision

Conservation

• Historically: Very utilitarian conservation ethic

• Now: Amendable to resource use in sustainable ways

• Conservation is important to human development

• Human development is inevitable and important

The value of species

• Instrumental / utilitarian / use values
(historically these characterised the movement of conservation in the last century.) 

• Ecological values

• Intrinsic (non-use) values

• Uniqueness values

Instrumental / utilitarian / use values

• Direct economic values

• Strategic values

• Diverse cultural use values

DISS 
overlaps three categories 

• Food, medicines, clothing, fuel 
direct uses people harvesting fish- for use in aquariums - recreational use. harvesters- direct income- harvesting fish you eat. 

• Pollination, pest control  economic cost of  pollinator services of bees- if the bee decline continues this has direct economic costs on UK agriculture- untold cost- we do not understand causal links. 

• Recreation hunting, tourism, photography, pet trade 

Strategic values

• Indicator species

– Reflect the quality and changes in environmental conditions as well as aspects of community composition

• Umbrella species

– Have demanding habitat requirements and large area requirements that saving it will automatically save many other species

• Flagship species

– Popular, charismatic and serve as symbols and rallying points to stimulate conservation awareness and action

Indicator species

– Reflect the quality and changes in environmental conditions as well as aspects of community composition

otters, intuitively if certain species in a habitat this indicates a happy environment- because these species are very sensitive- reflect changes in habitat - water quality air. 

the absence of them will tell us something about the present system. anurids are a great indicator species for changes in climate.

Umbrella species

– Have demanding habitat requirements and large area requirements that saving it will automatically save many other species.

valuable to conservation biologists because we cant go out and measure everything to understand that status of an ecosystem- dont have the time resources, ecological understanding. but species like bear species help us to understand the broader quality of the environment, because they are so broad that we can tell if we protect these species it will trickle down and affect other species.

conversely some species that arent umbrella species if you protect them e.g. orchids which have narrow endemics- protecting them wont yield cascading effects for other species. 

Flagship species

– Popular, charismatic and serve as symbols and rallying points to stimulate conservation awareness and action

the panda but of most jokes in conservation biology, these are characteristic symbols which we're using to bring policies/societal attention to our conservation. embracing the fact that conservation is a mission-based field. bring in non-traditional flagships- can we use ugly species to get society's attention- still attracts attention

Indicator species 

Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) score system measures water pollution at a particular site based on species indicators.

widely used scoring system- considers different microinvertbrates some of these will be more sensitive to bad environmental quality to others- the ones that are more tolerant of low conditions get a low score- gives you an idea into the condition of the water- bluebells indicator of old, stable fairly good condition forest- may look at different environments this way.

• Eats >85 species

• Requires large tracts of land

• Requires corridors

• Sympatric with other felids

also eating frogs great generalists but they draw on a big range of species- broad species- if protecting them these other species affected- need large areas - jaguar can exist in a lot of habitats but heavily extirpated from a lot of their ranges. 

this is also an umbrella species which allows us to protect a lot of biodiversity and charismatic 

Cultural values (more cultural how we relate to them socially, some scientific e.g. darwins finches - protecting them as scientific values and important historical value- these species become part of our scientific culture. these cultural spiritual values represented a lot of ways ) 

• Scientific & educational

• Spiritual

• Cultural (diff cultural - contemporary and ancient diff cultural affiliations with diff taxa- may be non-consumptive use, but still a direct, significant use for why we might want to protect them.) 

• Historical (who they are) 

Ecological values (should not only think about us and how we use them consume, use them as conservation scientists or consumers, indirect historical cultural.)

thinking about the values species deliver ecologically.

• Keystone species

– Impact on its community or ecosystem is large, and disproportionately large relative to its abundance

• Dominant species

– Constitute a large proportion of the biomass of an ecosystem

• Ecological functions

– Play key, large roles in ensuring the function of the overall ecosystem

Keystone species

– Impact on its community or ecosystem is large, and disproportionately large relative to its abundance

this is a species that has a lot of impact on its own ecosystem- their impacts on that system are profound. the beaver is a good example- don't have to be a lot of them to fundamentally change the system ecology- they build dams- those dams change the rates of saltation downstream, conditions for fish, conditions of bank and rate of erosion, change which species can colonise. may not have a lot but cascading effects.

Dominant species

– Constitute a large proportion of the biomass of an ecosystem

dominant species also have huge ecological impacts just because they represent such a large amount of the biomass in the system- they determine a lot about ecology of the system- what is available to eat there, shade, which species are allows to establish which they do or do not compete 

Ecological functions

– Play key, large roles in ensuring the function of the overall ecosystem

may be things such as decomposition, waste collection, beetles important part of systems in the tropics- understanding dung beetles collect dung from range of species and bury it - increase nutrient cycling. beetles also indicator species - in stable tropical forests.

for us temperate forest -thinking about them in terms of their impact on the system and biomass e.g. wolves, keystone predators- determine how many deers there are, who gets eaten but dont represent much of the biomass

dominant species which represent a lot of biomass and closely related with their impacts on the system itself  Dominant species forest trees, deer, giant kelps 

rare species widlflowers, butterflies, mosses 

dont have a lot of knock-on effects, interested in species level conservation and intrinsic value of species , saving them would not cause the whole ecosystem to benefit- are not affecting ecosystem- not keystone species or dominant. 

• Positive relationship between biodiversity and  key ecosystem functions (can be as a result of a species being very dominant)

The more species you have in a system doesnt mean you have a lot of biomass because the contribution of these functions is carried out by certain individuals- in systems we're also interested in species function in their system

• But non-relationship: Functions carried out by few species

• Functional diversity is different from species diversity

plant biomass- things that herbivores eat stocks of carbon - ecosystem function

plant cover is an ecosystem service that we value as a community erosion and crops

neo-tropics 

are plants, epiphytes usually pineapple are these. as a result they retain a huge amount of water - which means that frogs can lay their eggs there and mosquitoes can complete their larvae stage within the tanks- theres not a lot of water at the top of the soil canopy- this means that species can live in the canopy and have access to water- niche partitioning. have insects here birds hunt here- they provide a big function- water availability and food

• All species have inherent value independent of their usefulness to people or their ecological value

• Has implications for welfare

• Subjective

• Presents challenges for prioritisation

understanding these values are subjective can go out and ask people - difficult to understand-  it is very present in conservation decision-making but is a struggle when we try to use it for prioritisation. if we think it has intrinsic value people might disagree with you. we are laiden with assumptions about what is more valuable than everything else- reality is we cant protect everything. how do we deal with intrinsic value when making decisions? idk but we have to acknowledge that it conditions how we do our jobs- preservation for understanding wildlife places important - has a right to exist - welfare implications keeping fish in small bag - how we handle species - how we engage with them for conservation not clear. 

Represent a disproportionate amount of unique evolutionary history. They have few close relatives, and are often the only species in their genus or only genus remaining of their family.

unique in number of ways may be at family level, species level then we have sub-species of two unique groups that exist in a family. or a cluster of species that represent something or one of two v rare species. zoological society of london looking at top 10 endangered species that are evolutionary unique e.g. terrestrial parrot

endemicity - species that only exist in one small geographic space but because species exist in a small narrow range it doesnt mean it has uniqueness in evolutionary history. 

really unique taxonomic attributes e.g. the platypus - bill, mammal that lays eggs

We value not just species themselves,but also the broader ecosystem goods & services that biodiversity supports

Ecosystem services

Provisional:instrumental/ direct use values- using things
FOOD 
FRESH WATER
WOOD AND FIBER 
FUEL 
Regulating:
CLIMATE REGULATION 
FLOOD REGULATION
DISEASE REGULATION
WATER PURIFICATION 
instrumental using them but not direct- flood regulation these are things that biodiversity does not provide - but having functional diversity and systems that are healthy results in a system that is good - primary production for herbivores. 

Cultural

- AESTHETIC 
- SPIRITUAL
- EDUCATIONAL
- RECREATIONAL 

tourism these are embedded within an idea of biodiversity- cannot exist without biodiversity but protecting species alone does not deliver these species

Supporting 

- NUTRIENT CYCLING
- SOIL FORMATION
PRIMARY PRODUCTION 

Security

PERSONAL SAFETY
SECURE RESOURCE ACCESS 
SECURITY FROM DISASTERS 

utilitarian framework these do not feed one way- the decisions we make have feedbacks that influence our ability to protect biodiversity

Conceptual framework how we think about the values we have about ecosystem services and well-being. if we cannot demonstrate to broader society the links between ecosystem services and security then the things that society cares about health, security.. we may not be able  care enough about conservation

Health
STRENGTH
FEELING WELL
ACCESS TO CLEAN AIR
AND WATER

Freedom of choice and action 

opportunity to be able to achieve what an individual values doing and being 

assessment of local residents around protected area- asked about their livelihoods and the different goods and services that people value- we often look as protected areas as singular something we do to protect species. but protected areas provide a lot of services, people who live around here. the values that local residents hold for protected areas is very important if not more-ancestors work there  protcted areas at the forefront of conservation ideas. the trade-offs that exist, we have to work through. engage more with the locals who live around here. what are their values and how does this relate to different type of natural capital. 

• There is broad recognition of goods and services beyond direct instrument use values.

• There are relationships among different demographic, economic and educational variables, and the types of goods and services people value

helps expose different processes to society- implications for how people associate with things, conservation psychology education - what decisions do you make, values you hold about environment quite new. very much on the forefront so many things happen - based on how people feel- how society recognises systems- interesting area to pay attention to and growing 

• Food (poultry, pigeons, red grouse)
• Pest control (insectivorous birds)
• Biological indicators (pesticides)
• Recreation (hunting, falconry, pets, song competition)
• Diverse intrinsic values
• Uniqueness values (spoonbill, kokapo)
• Ornamentation (egrets, birds of paradise)
• Religion & mythology (eagles, ibises, owls)
• Cultural & arts (literature, music, visual art)
• Other utilitarian uses (insulation, letter-carrying)
• Functional values (seed dispersers, pollinators, fertilizer)

if we're interested in our own motivations as conservation biologists how we've made our decisions we need to understand these values ad articulate our relationship with them - because a lot of places will be altered to put in protected areas. 

if we're interested in understanding our own motivations what priorities  should be we need to understand these to articulate to policy makers  - set up protected area.

Reading:

• Sodhi, N.S., Erlich, P.R. (Eds.). 2008. Conservation Biology for All.

Oxford University Press, Oxford. See pages 07-21. URL:

https://conbio.org/images/content_publications/

ConservationBiologyforAll_reducedsize.pdf.

• Sodhi, N.S., et al. 2010. Local people value environmental services

provided by forested parks. Biodiversity Conservation 19:1175–

1188.