14: Conserved and restored areas

Question 1

What is the Degradation of ecosystems continuum

Answer 1

different levels of degradation from completely artificial to natural
Conservation must occur across many levels

Question 2

What value do unprotected areas have in terms of conservation?

Answer 2

Reconciliation ecology, restoration ecology, urban conservation

Question 3

Types of non-protected conserved areas

Answer 3

• military land
• unprotected public forests, grasslands, public waterways, undesirable areas

Question 4

Land sharing vs land sparing

Answer 4

Land sparing: industrial/intensive agriculture supported by reserves (some natural habitat, some farmland)

Land sharing: less intensive agriculture that supports biodiversity (wildlife friendly farmland)

Question 5

Pros and cons of land sparing? Land sharing?

Answer 5

Sparing = cost effective (more $/ha), large unused habitat, but fragmentation

Sharing = connection, less fragmentation but disease and conflict

Question 6

What is countryside biogeography

Answer 6

Proposed alternative to island biogeography
Isolated fragments in agricultural matrixes can retain a high number of species
Can be applied to similar landscapes (e.g. urban areas)

Question 7

What are the shape of decay functions

Answer 7

Function of biodiversity against human activity intensity
Type 1,2,3
Slide 13

Question 8

Example of an indigenous protected and conserved area

Answer 8

Tweedsmuir provincial park
Co-management of Bear populations by Nuxalk Nation
Hunting ban, bear viewing managed cooperatively

Question 9

What is ‘30 by 30’

Answer 9

Goal is to reach 30% of land and ocean protection by 2030

Question 10

What does ecosystem management emphasize? It manages…

Answer 10

Emphasizes ecological functions, services, large spatial/temporal scales
Manages traditional commodities, biodiversity, works across jurisdictional boundaries

Question 11

What is natural disturbance? What does it mean to be natural?

Answer 11

Disturbance = no single reference state
Natural/historical range of variation

Question 12

What is ecological integrity

Answer 12

Retain ecological composition, structure and function

Question 13

What is the Natural Disturbance Model

Answer 13

Emulate natural disturbance via landscape-level management
Patch size, disturbance frequency

Question 14

Why is Ecosystem-level conservation used? (3)

Answer 14

Too many species to manage them all individually
Habitat is main threat for most species
Ecosystems are components of biodiv that merit conservation in their own right

Question 15

Conservation is motivated by…

Answer 15

a desire to protect biotic systems from anthropogenic threats

Question 16

Natural means…

Answer 16

the condition of a species or ecosystem as it would be today in the absence of anthropogenic disturbances (ecological reference state)

Question 17

What is Ecological Integrity

Answer 17

Summary measure that describes the condition of an ecosystem relative to the ecological reference state
Not very meaningful (ecosystems far too complex)

Question 18

An ecosystem has ecological integrity when (3):

Answer 18

• it has the living and non-living pieces expected in its natural region
• its processes occur with the freq and intensity expected in its natural region
• displays resilience to perturbation

Question 19

What is the composition, structure and function of an ecological reference state?

Answer 19

Composition: variety and abundance of species in a system
Structure: spatial arrangement of ecosystem components at multiple scales
Function: ecological processes characteristic of the natural ecosystem

Question 20

What is the natural range of variation of an ecosystem?

Answer 20

Since ecosystems are dynamic, we characterize them using the mean and variance of individual ecosystem components, processes and states over time
Slide 30 graph

Question 21

What is the ecological reference state? vs management target?

Answer 21

baseline for conservation. What we would like to achieve from a biocentric perspective
What we actually manage for after considering competing management objectives

Question 22

Ecosystem management of forestry is easier to achieve with…

Answer 22

few users of a similar type (e.g. foothills: mostly industry)

Question 23

What are indicators of sustainable forestry management (SFM)

Answer 23

• biological diversity
• stability/resilience of forestry systems
• soil and water quality and quantity
• carbon cycle

Question 24

Disturbance is a natural feature of forest ecosystems, so if human disturbances can …

Answer 24

be made to emulate natural disturbances, ecological integrity should be maintained

Question 25

Ecological reference state parameters for forests

Answer 25

Stand composition (age), stand structure (height), landscape patterns (patch metrics), ecological processes

Question 26

What is the CBFA? What are the goals

Answer 26

Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement: 21 forest companies and nine ENGOs Goal to recover SAR, have world-leading forest practices standards, climate change, have a network of PA's

Question 27

What is reconciliation ecology

Answer 27

Emphasizes Urban Ecology, accept human domination of most landscapes. Look for new ways to increase biodiversity in them. Want to generate benefits for people and other spp Manage urban-exploiting, hyper-abundant spp

Question 28

What are hyper-abundant (urban-adapting) wildlife

Answer 28

An urban challenge Often impact SAR Exploit anthropogenic habitat change May not be invasive or alien Often attract well-meaning animal or wildlife protection

Question 29

Conventional vs aggregated forestry harvest

Answer 29

Conventional is random without accounting for biology Aggregated: there is connection between habitat which is almost continuous

Question 30

What is the Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative

Answer 30

Functional connectivity for grizzly bears between Yellowstone and Yukon

Question 31

What is restoration ecology

Answer 31

Goal is to return ecological function to degraded areas Cannot recover full ecological functions

Question 32

Restoration ecology often promotes...

Answer 32

Some archetypical component - particular species - particular communities - particular ecological function

Question 33

Restored ecosystems deliver fewer...

Answer 33

benefits with more costs Graph on slide 78**

Question 34

Four options for going about restoration

Answer 34

1. No action (passive restoration) 2. Rehabilitation (e.g. remove invasive) 3. Partial restoration 4. Complete restoration graph slide 79**

Question 35

What is resilience

Answer 35

Ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and function Capacity to adapt to stress and change

Question 36

Economic effects of urchin in kelp forests

Answer 36

Urchin destroy kelp forests which costed $562 billion

Question 37

What are alternative stable states?

Answer 37

Catastrophic shifts between states can occur in nature and are often difficult to reverse Drawing on slide 87

Question 38

What is 'hysteria' when ecosystems change

Answer 38

Vegetation declines slowly, then very suddenly

Question 39

What are conservation thresholds

Answer 39

Points or zones of catastrophic change Ecological tipping points

Question 40

What is a bioindicator test

Answer 40

Stress a bioindicator to find out where the conservation threshold is

Question 41

Example of a biodiversity threshold

Answer 41

Diversity, stability and resilience of the human gut microbiota Persistent stressors that reach the threshold lead to change from healthy stable state to degraded stable state Slide 92

Question 42

Name the five characteristics that make ecosystems more resilient

Answer 42

1. Latitude 2. Resistance 3. Precariousness 4. Panarchy 5. Adaptive capcity

Question 43

Describe the five characteristics that make ecosystems more resilient

Answer 43

1. Latitude: max amnt a system can change before losing ability to recover (crossing threshold) 2. Resistance: ease or difficulty changing the system 3. Precariousness: how close current state is to threshold 4. Panarchy: degree to which one hierarchical level of an ecosystem is influenced by others 5. Adaptive capacity: change in stability landscapes and resilience