Dataset Information

Biodiversity conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas.

ABSTRACT: Although Brazil is a megadiverse country and thus a conservation priority, no study has yet quantified conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas (PAs) using extensive empirical data. Here, we evaluate the degree of biodiversity protection and knowledge within all the Brazilian PAs through a gap analysis of vertebrate, arthropod and angiosperm occurrences and phylogenetic data. Our results show that the knowledge on biodiversity in most Brazilian PAs remain scant as 71% of PAs have less than 0.01 species records per km². Almost 55% of Brazilian species and about 40% of evolutionary lineages are not found in PAs, while most species have less than 30% of their geographic distribution within PAs. Moreover, the current PA network fails to protect the majority of endemic species. Most importantly, these results are similar for all taxonomic groups analysed here. The methods and results of our countrywide assessment are suggested to help design further inventories in order to map and secure the key biodiversity of the Brazilian PAs. In addition, our study illustrates the most common biodiversity knowledge shortfalls in the tropics.

SUBMITTER: Oliveira U

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5567310 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Biodiversity conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas.

Oliveira Ubirajara U Soares-Filho Britaldo Silveira BS Paglia Adriano Pereira AP Brescovit Antonio D AD de Carvalho Claudio J B CJB Silva Daniel Paiva DP Rezende Daniella T DT Leite Felipe Sá Fortes FSF Batista João Aguiar Nogueira JAN Barbosa João Paulo Peixoto Pena JPPP Stehmann João Renato JR Ascher John S JS de Vasconcelos Marcelo Ferreira MF De Marco Paulo P Löwenberg-Neto Peter P Ferro Viviane Gianluppi VG Santos Adalberto J AJ

Scientific reports 20170822 1

Although Brazil is a megadiverse country and thus a conservation priority, no study has yet quantified conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas (PAs) using extensive empirical data. Here, we evaluate the degree of biodiversity protection and knowledge within all the Brazilian PAs through a gap analysis of vertebrate, arthropod and angiosperm occurrences and phylogenetic data. Our results show that the knowledge on biodiversity in most Brazilian PAs remain scant as 71% of PAs have less ...[more]

PMID: 28831073

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Project description:Mapping the drivers of change that pose negative pressures or threats to biodiversity can help to identify where biodiversity is most threatened and can be used to determine priority sites to target conservation actions. Overlapping drivers of change maps with distribution maps of sensitive species provides valuable information to identify where and when it would be better to target actions to minimize the risk. The overall aim of this study was to develop a methodology for the integration of risk mapping associated with high human frequentation to guide conservation actions in two case study: the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) and Posidonia meadows (Posidonia oceanica), both sensitive to human frequentation. To achieve this, we used two types of geolocated mobile phone information from the STRAVA platform: mapped paths and roads number of visitors at hourly precisions and a sporting activities heatmap representative of a wider period, together with species ecological information and complementary human frequentation data. The final, monthly risk maps identified the areas for Kentish plover with null, low, moderate, high, very high risk attributed to different aspects of the breeding biology of the species, nests, nestlings, and adults. The risk thresholds for nests are lower than for nestlings and adults, thought nestlings were generally less sensitive to human frequentation than adults. Visitors number ranges between 250 and 700 approximately suppose a moderate risk for the three assessed periods, and more than 1200 visitors appeared to prevent the nesting of the species completely. The final risk maps for Posidonia meadows determine the areas with low, moderate, hight and very high risk for human marine activities. Human frequentation values in this case study are scaled between 0 and 1, the results shows that values above 0.1 imply a high risk for the species. Both types of information can be used to target concrete, spatially explicit actions to minimize the risk caused by human frequentation. Furthermore, the first case study would allow to adapt the target actions to the species breeding phenology. The proposed risk assessment workflow is flexible and may be adjusted to match the available information and eventually could be adapted to other conservation objectives arising from different threats. In addition, data gathered from mobile mobility applications show great potential to accurately identify human frequentation, both spatially and temporally.

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Dataset Information

Biodiversity conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas.

Publications

Biodiversity conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas.

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