Input Template for Content Writers

(e-Text and Learn More)

 1. Details of Module and its Structure

Module Detail

Subject Name < Botany>

Paper Name <Ecology>

Module Name/Title < Biodiversity Drivers>

Pre-requisites <Basic knowledge about biodiversity, its status, monitoring, and

documentation>
Objectives <To make an understanding for biodiversity and its conservation
through monitoring, management and documentation>
Keywords <habitat>,<biodiversity>,<taxa>,<species>

Structure of Module/Syllabus of a module (Define Topic / Sub-topic of module )

<Biodiversity <Major Drivers of biodiversity change>, <Biodiversity

Drivers> management approaches>
2. Development Team

Role Name Affiliation

Subject Coordinator <Prof.SujataBhargava> Savitribai Phule Pune

University
Paper Coordinator <N.S.R.Krishnayya> MS University, Baroda

Content Writer/Author (CW) <N.S.R.Krishnayya>

Content Reviewer (CR) < N.S.R. Krishnayya>

Language Editor (LE) <Dr. A Y Latey> Savitribai Phule Pune
University

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 TABLE OF CONTENTS(for textual content)

1. Major drivers of biodiversity change

2. Biodiversity management approaches
3. References

1. Major drivers of biodiversity change:

Global biodiversity is changing at an unprecedented rate as a complex response to several

human-induced changes in the global environment. Primary drivers of changes in biodiversity at the
global scale are: changes in land use (habitat loss and fragmentation), atmospheric CO2
concentration, nitrogen deposition and acid rain, small populations, overharvesting, climate, and
biotic exchanges (deliberate or accidental introduction of plants and animals to an ecosystem) (Fig.
1).

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 Fig. 1:Different pressurizing processes can cause a loss in biodiversity (either by lowering the
abundance levels of species or resulting in the loss of species from community structure of that
region).These processes can act as either solo or in combination. The diagram shows examples of
pressurizing processes such as habitat loss, excessive harvesting and climate change. (a) Each
process on its own has varying negative effects on biodiversity such as a reduction in carrying
capacity (coming from the loss in natural habitat), decline in abundanceor reduction in adaptive
nature of the species. Inset: a fragmented forest reserve in the northeast Brazilian Amazon in
2004 succumbing to fire. (b) Ecosystems show about different pressurising processes acting
synergistically. An additive model simply sums up negative impacts of all the processes. In
reality this may not happen exactly in a similar manner. Additive impact can differ from one
situation to another. At times multiplicative impact, partial or non additive impact can also be
seen. Larger additive or multiplicative impacts can significantly lower population size (at times
lower than Minimum Viable Population) increasing the extinction risk of the species. Some of
the species can continue over longer time scales with smaller population size (small population
paradigm) (Source: Brook et al., 2008)

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 These drivers of biodiversity change act either antagonistically or synergistically. In
antagonistic interactions, biodiversity will respond only to the driver to which it is the most
sensitive. In synergistic interactions, biodiversity will respond either additively or multiplicatively
to the drivers of biodiversity change.The most severe driver of changes in biodiversityis Land-use
change (Fig. 2). For example, change of tropical forests into grasslands outcomes into local
extinction of most plant species and the associated animals whose habitat is largely determined by
plant species composition. Below-ground organisms are also affected most severely by these kinds
of land-use change.

Fig. 2: Relative impact of changes in major drivers of biodiversity. For the year 2100
ADexcepted biodiversity change for each biome was calculated as the product of the predictable
change in drivers multiplied by the force of each driver on biodiversity for each biome. Values
are averages of the estimates for each biome and they are made relative to the maximum change,
which resulted from change in land use. Thin bars are standard errors and signify variability
among biomes. (Source: Sala et al., 2000)

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 The increase in atmospheric CO2 is expected to have the largest effect on biodiversity of
those biomes where plant growth is most limited by water availability and where there is a mixture
of C3 and C4 species. These species differ in the effect of CO2 on their water-use efficiency,
differential physiological response. A hike in Nitrogen deposition may have maximum impact on
biodiversity in biomes relatively more sensitive to changes in soil Nitrogen. In Nitrogen-limited
systems, additional deposition can primarily give a combativeadvantage to plant species with high
growth rates, which then stop the slower growing species. In deserts and tropical
forests,biodiversity may respond the least to supplementary Nitrogen deposition because plant
growth is strongly limited by water and Phosphorus. Biomes, characteristic for their extreme
climate (e.g. Polar regions) show proportional change because of changing climate. Small changes
in temperature or precipitation will have a more pronounced impact on arctic, alpine, and desert
ecosystems’ biodiversity. The same can have minimal impact on tropics because of their broader
functional range. Impact of Biotic exchange (such as invasive /introduced species) varies according
to environmental conditions and biogeographic considerations. There is a wide range of variation in
the response of biomes towards the thriving establishment of invasive/introduced species,
depending on the new diversity and their segregation from similar habitats. For example, islands
typically have low diversity and are more prone to biotic invasions. Small populations are more
likely to go extinct as a result of their critical population size, narrow geographical range and
dispersal ability. Extinction in these populations occurs mostly because of emerging new threats
that are exterior of the evolutionary experience of species or occur at a rate that outpaces adaptation
(Fig. 3, 4). Overharvesting has a severe impact on the continuity of species. It is more pronounced
for commercially exploited species, species with smaller population size and/or the ones with
slower growth rates.

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 Fig. 3:Biodiversity threatening processes show energy relative to habitat loss and fragmentation.
(a) A large population growing in a unmodified, contiguous habitat occupies all the available
niches and its long-term abundance fluctuates near full carrying capacity (K). (b) When natural
habitat is reduced (e.g. 50% area loss), total abundance declines accordingly. (c) However, this
simple habitat–abundance relationship is complicated by the spatial configuration of habitat loss.
In the given example, all remaining fragmented subpopulations might fall below their minimum
viable population (MVP) sizes even though total abundance is in the same proportion as of K as
seen in (b). As such, limited connectivity between subpopulations implies much greater
extinction risk than that predicted for the same habitat loss in less fragmented landscapes.
Further synergies (positive feedbacks among threatening processes; arrows) might accompany
high fragmentation, such as enhanced penetration of predators, invasive species or wildfire,
microhabitat edge effects and reduced resistance to drought with climate change. (Source: Brook
et al., 2008)

Fig. 4:An example of the synergistic feedbacks which threaten species in disturbed tropical rain
forests (Source: Brook et al., 2008).

It is expected that Land-use change isto have the largest global impact on biodiversity,
mostly because of its negative impact on natural habitat availability and consequential species

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 extinctions. Climate change will be another important driver of biodiversity change, mostly having
a negative impact on high latitudes, polar regions. Overharvesting, smaller population sizes are
critical drivers in changing biodiversity. Future biodiversity also will have extensive alterations due
to changes in atmospheric CO2, biotic exchange, and Nitrogen deposition, with their relative
importance being regionally variable. Variability among biomes is maximal for land use, indicating
their larger sensitivity towards this driver. In contrast, changes in atmospheric CO2 showed minimal
variability because CO2 is well mixed in the atmosphere and the range of ecological responses is
quite narrow. In coming decades this could augment the problem. The other drivers have
intermediate variability. There are large differences among biomes in causing any future change in
biodiversity. Biomes such as tropical and southern temperate forest show large changes, mostly due
to changes in land use with relatively small effects due to other drivers. Arctic ecosystems are also
influenced largely by a single factor (i.e. climate change). In contrast, Mediterranean ecosystems,
savannas, and grasslands are substantially affected by most of the drivers. Finally, biomes such as
the northern temperate forests and deserts show contributions by all the drivers but most of them are
moderate.

Table 1: Five Major themes and their main conclusions on extinction trends, patterns, drivers, processes
and predictions, drawn from two decades (1988–2007) of extinction-related reviews.(Source: Brook et
al., 2008)

Major theme Main conclusions

Mass extinction events  Varied causes: bolide impact; volcanism; marine anoxia; climate
change
 No periodicity observed over geological time
 Extinctions continue through ‘recovery’ period
 Mass extinctions permit radiation and speciation of previously
subordinate taxa
Correlates of extinction  Primary drivers: habitat destruction and fragmentation;
overexploitation; pollution
 Secondary drivers of increasing importance: climate change;
environmental variability; invasive species
 Evolved traits predispose species to extinction: narrow geographic
extent; ‘slow’ vital rates; natural rarity; specialisation

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
  Allee effects; inbreeding depression important but poorly quantified
Pattern and process  Modern extinction rates >> background rate; nonrandom across taxa;
lags common
 Causes of decline decoupled from causes of extinction
 Emergence of generalists following major die-offs
 Rapid modern extinctions change processes of evolution
 Biodiversity loss reduces ecosystem function and leads to more
extinctions of codependent species
Role of humans  Humans are agents of ‘6th mass extinction event,’ which started _50
000 years ago and intensified during the past 500 years
 Language and agriculture permitted humans to exceed expected
densities for large predators
Predictions  Patterns of past and modern endemicity required for prediction
 Multiple lines of evidence and generalised datarequired for
meaningful predictions

2. Biodiversity management approaches:

A better understanding of how species respond to drivers of biodiversity change is crucial

for assessing their vulnerability and guiding efforts to avoid potentially severe biodiversity loss.
Understanding and predicting the effects of different drivers on species, let alone communities and
ecosystems, is an urgent and fundamental challenge. Understanding the adaptive capacity of species
to these drivers of change in situ is crucial to predict and manage many of the vulnerable species
(Fig. 5). Species and ecosystems are naturally dynamic. Maintaining a status quo should not be the
goal of conservation; rather, it should seek to manage system dynamics within bounds to avoid
large-scale changes because of various drivers.

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 Fig. 5:Adaptation measures classified along a risk continuum. Within each risk category examples
of general approaches followed by examples of specific adaptation measures are mentioned. A
complete strategy should span a risk continuum.(Source: Heller and Zavaleta, 2009)

Drivers of biodiversity change created new challenges for biodiversity conservation and
management. Species ranges and ecological dynamics at currently functional reserves are already
getting altered and these marked areas may not persist to support all species they were planned to
protect.These problems are exacerbated by other global changes. Several consistent
recommendations and management practices have been suggested for action at diverse spatial
scales, requiring participation of people at various levels. These include improved regional
institutional coordination, expanded spatial and temporal perspective, incorporation of climate
change and other potential scenarios into all kinds of planning and action (Fig. 6).Greater efforts are
to be made to focus on multiple pressures of global change drivers concurrently that are responsive
to and comprehensive of human communities.These drivers of change raise concerns about the
effectiveness of existing biodiversity protection strategies. Biodiversity conservation lean

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 predominately on fixed systems of protected areas, and to protect particular species assemblages are
the mandated goals of many conservation agencies and institutions and ecosystems within these
systems.

Fig. 6:Adaptation scheme involves a few key steps, each complex and requiring collaboration
among land managers, the public, scientists, funders and lawmakers. Recommendations reviewed
here address aspects of these steps, but without specifying where they fit in relation to one another.

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 (Source: Heller and Zavaleta, 2009)

Current changes are driving many vegetation types and individual species to loss
anddepletion in most of the protected areas.Due to human activities, landscapes on the exteriorside
of protected areas are antagonistic to the survival of many species. Projected rates of change are so
fast that in situ genetic adaptation of many populations to new climate conditions is not probablyto
be supportive, nor their migration is likely to be fast enough for many species. Most of the
management recommendations to date largely overlook social science and are devastatingly focused
on ecological data. This bias is alarming given the obvious importance of human behavior, their
actions and preferences in determining conservation outcomes. Aninclusive landscapeapproach to
conservation, driven by a vision of humans and other species co-minglingacross reserves and
developed lands, has gradually gained prominence over the past decades. Many management
recommendations have been made in the literature (Table 2) to focus on the roles of conservation
and restoration in human-dominated landscapes. These ideas emphasize the need to integrate
ecology with other disciplines and approaches that clearly address the roles of institutions, policy,
politics and people in successful conservation strategies.

Table 2:A chronicle of suggestions for climate change adaptation tactics for biodiversity
administration.(Source: Heller and Zavaleta, 2009)

Rank Recommendation
1  Increase in connectivity (design corridors, remove barriers for dispersal, locate
reserves close to each other, reforestation)
2  Integrate climate change into planning exercises (reserve, pest outbreaks,harvest
schedules, grazing limits,incentive programs)
3  Mitigate other threatssuch as invasive species, disintegration, pollution
4  Study response of species to climate change physiological, behavioral, demographic
 Securing populations by practicing intensive management
 Translocate species
5  Number of fundsincreased
6  Address scale problems match modeling, management, and experimental spatial scales
for improved predictive capacity
 Improve inter-agency, regionalcoordination

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
 7  Growth and maintain basic monitoring programs
 Practice adaptive management
 Conserve large areas, increase reserve size
8  Generate and control buffer zones around reserves
9  Construct ecological reserve networks big reserves, associated by small reserves,
treading stones
 Develop improved modeling and analysis capacity i.e. more effective software,
integration with GIS, integrate greater complexity
 Do integrated study of multiple global change drivers
 Develop techniques for the extrare-establishment of wetlands and rivers
 Increase interdisciplinary collaboration
 Promote conservation policies that engage local users and promote healthy human
communities
 Protect occupied range of bioclimatic alteration
 Soften land use practices in the matrix
10  Adopt long-term and regional perspective in planning, modeling, and management
 Re-assess conservation aims (i.e. move away from ideas of natural, embrace processes
over patterns
 Study species dispersal across landuse boundaries, gene flow, migration rates, historic
flux
 Study species distributions,existingas well as historic
11  Broaden genetic and species diversity in restoration and forestry
 Develop adaptation tactics now; early adaptation is fortified
 Do not enforce CO2 emission mitigation projects that negatively influence biodiversity
 Manage for flexibility, use of portfolio of approaches, maintain options
 Validate model results with empirical data
12  Do regional impact assessments
 Identify indicator species
 Initiate long-term studies of species responses to climate
 Model species ranges in the future
 Protect refugia current and predicted future
 Study adaptive genetic variation
13  Leadership by those with power senior management, government agencies
 Limit CO2 emissions
 Predict effects of directional climate change on ecosystems, communities,populations
 Preserve genetic diversity in populations
 Represent each species in more than one reserve
14  Create culturally appropriate adaptation/management options
 Generate education programs for public about land use practices and effects on and
with climate
 Develop best management practices for climate change scenarios
 Institute flexible zoning around reserves
 Increase investment in climate related research
 Increase communication of knowledge about climate change impacts to policymakers
and stakeholders

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
  Initiate dialogue among stakeholders Institute government reform (i.e. adaptive
governance)
 Locate reserves in areas of high heterogeneity, endemism
 Maintain natural disturbance dynamics of ecosystems
 Practice proactive management of habitat to mitigate warming
 Protectedges of existing preserves
 Start tactical zoning of landuse to reducetheir impact on climate
 Study and monitor ecotones and gradients
 Study effectiveness of corridors
 Use predictive models to make decisions on where to situate new reserves
15  Anticipate surprises and threshold effects i.e. major extinctions or invasions
 Plan biological conserves for complex changes in time, not just directional change
 Locate reserves at northern boundary of species’ ranges
 Manage the matrix
 Practice proactive research on climate change
 Protect many small reserves rather than a singularly large one
 Provide education opportunities and summaries of primary literature for management
staff to learn and network about climate change
 Study and protect metapopulations
 Study processes of change at multiple spatial and temporal scales
 Use GIS to study species distributions and landscape patterns
16  Action plans must be time-bound and measurable
 Adjust park boundaries to capture anticipated movement of critical habitats
 Create institutional flexibility
 Create linear reserves oriented longitudinally
 Establish cross-national collaboration
 Establish neo-native forests plant species where they were in the past, but are not
found currently
 Experiment with refugia
 Focus protection on sensitive biomes
 Focus on annual plants rather than perennials near climate boundaries
 Increase wetland protection
 Institutional capacity enhancement to address climate change
 Institute reform to improve support for interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research
 Locate reserves so major vegetation transitions are in core
 Locate reserves at core of ranges
 Manage for landscape asynchrony
 Manage human-wildlife conflict as change occurs
 Manage populations to reduce temporal fluctuations in population sizes
 Develop guidelines for climate sensitive restoration and infrastructure development
 Need to increase social acceptance of shared resilience goals
 Promote personal action plans among employees to reduce emissions
 Protect endangered species ex situ
 Protect functional groups and keystone species
 Protect mountains

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers
  Protect primary forests
 Protect urban green space
 Quantify environmental susceptibility versus adaptive capacity to inform conservation
planning
 Schedule dam releases to protect stream temperatures
 Study changes in populations at rear of range rather than only range fronts
 Study response of undisturbed areas to climate change
 Study social agency and human decision making
 Study time-series data on species dynamics
 Substitute space for time to study the responses of species to climate change
 Train more taxonomists
 Use caution in predictive modeling because the responses of some species are not well
predicted
 Use simple decision rules for reserve planning
 Use social networks for education about climate change
 Use triage in short-term to prioritize action

3. References

1. Heller N.E., ZavaletaE.S., (2009). Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: A review
of 22 years of recommendations. Biological Conservation 142:14–32

2. Sala O.E., F. Stuart Chapin III, Juan J. Armesto, Eric Berlow, Janine Bloomfield, Rodolfo Dirzo,
Elisabeth Huber-Sanwald, Laura F. Huenneke, Robert B. Jackson, Ann Kinzig, Rik Leemans, David
M. Lodge, Harold A. Mooney, MartõnOesterheld, N. LeRoy Poff, Martin T. Sykes, Brian H.
Walker, Marilyn Walker, Diana H. Wall, (2000). Global Biodiversity Scenarios for the Year 2100.
Science 287, 1770–1774

3. BrookB.W., Sodhi N.S., Bradshaw C.J.A., (2008). Synergies among extinction drivers under
global change. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 23(8): 453–460

Biodiversity
Ecology
Biodiversity Drivers