Strassburg et al. Global Congruence of Carbon Storage and Biodiversity in Terrestrial Ecosystems

Question 0

What is the aim of the paper?

Answer 0

To analyse (for the first time) the global congruence between carbon storage in biomass and biodiversity in order to investigate the sunergiew between climate- and biodiversity-oriented conservation

Question 1

What does REDD stand for?

Answer 1

Reduce emission from deforestation and forest degradation

Question 2

What kind of data is used?

Answer 2

3 global data sets of the distribution of mammal, amphibian and bird species (totaling 20697 species) and on a new global carbon data set (represents estimates of both above- and below-ground biomass)

Question 3

What biodiversity measures are used?

Answer 3

Richness (number of species per cell)
Threat (number of threatened species per cell)
Range-size rarity (number of species per cell whose ranges are in the lowest quartile for their class)

Question 4

What was the main result?

Answer 4

Mechanisms for conserving biomass carbon (such as REDD) would have substantial cobenefits for biodiversity, and vice versa.

High congruence between species richness and biomass carbon at the global level (rs = 0.82, Table 1; Figure 2A)

Synergies between conservation of threatened or restricted-range species and carbon-based conservation (less striking at least at global scale)

Moderate congruence between biomass carbon and threatened (rs = 0.55; fig. 2B) and restricted-range (rs=0.42; fig 2C)

Some areas would provide a high degree of cobenefits for the goals of consering biomass carbon and biodiversity, including areas of high congruence between carbon and overall species (e.g. the Amazon), threatened species (e.g. Indonesia) and endemic species (e.g. New Guinea)

Question 5

What could be a risk if a carbon-focused REDD mechanism was implemented?

Answer 5

That biordiversity-rich and relativeæy carbon-poor regions could suffer from double conservation jeopardy, with conservation investment diverted away from them, as carbon-rich areas become the focus of conservation efforts. Areas potentially at risk include some that are wide,y recognised as global biodiversity conservation priorities sich as the brazilian Cerrado, the Cape Floristic provience, and Succulent Karoo

The scale could influence the results e.g. Deforestated areas fragmented areas could be of high conservation value but have a low (on a coarse-scale) carbon per cell

Difficulties in estimating the soil carbon pools which made it impossible to assess the importance of soil carbon stocks for climate change mitigation without taking into consideration a dynamic land-use context

Question 6

Is it according to Strassburg et al. possible to combine climate change and biodiveristy loss?

Answer 6

If combined there will also be mutual gains, mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation will have side benefits in term of biodiversity protection. However, it doesnt necessarily focus on those forests where biodiveristy conservation is most urgent