Multi-taxon biodiversity assessment of Southern Patagonia: Supporting conservation strategies at different landscapes.

In the last years, different spatial analyses were developed to support multi-taxon biodiversity conservation strategies. In fact, the use of species distribution models as input allowed to create spatial decision-support maps. Of special interest are maps of potential biodiversity (MPB), which define distribution and ecological requirements of relevant species and maps of priority conservation areas (MPCA), which define priority areas considering endemism and richness. The objective of this paper was to assess multi-taxon biodiversity based on two different spatial analyses and to test their efficiency to support conservation decision at Patagonia. We computed 119 potential habitat suitability maps (one deer, birds, lizards, darkling-beetles, plants) with ENFA (Environmental Niche Factor Analysis) and 15 environmental variables, using Biomapper software. ENFA calculate two ecological indexes (marginality and specialization) which describe the narrowness of species niches and how extreme are the optimum environmental conditions related to the whole study area. These maps were combined obtaining a MPB and MPCA using Zonation software. Multivariate analyses were performed to compare methodologies, analysing environmental variables, ecological areas, forest types and protected areas. Multivariate and ecological indexes showed that deer, lizards and darkling-beetles presented a narrow range, while birds and plants presented a large range of marginality and specialization mainly related to vegetation and climate. At provincial level, highest potential biodiversity and conservation priority values were related to shrublands and humid steppes. However, MPCA showed higher values related to forests and alpine vegetation due to endemism, while MPB showed differences among forest types. These analyses showed that the most valuable areas were not represented in the protected areas, however, many higher conservation priority values were found inside the protected compared with unprotected areas. Different spatial decision-support maps presented similar outputs at provincial scale, but differed in the forest landscape matrix. Both methodologies can be used to plan conservation strategies depending on the specific objectives (e.g. highlighting richness or endemism).

Frontiers of protected areas versus forest exploitation: Assessing habitat network functionality in 16 case study regions globally.

Exploitation of natural forests forms expanding frontiers. Simultaneously, protected area frontiers aim at maintaining functional habitat networks. To assess net effects of these frontiers, we examined 16 case study areas on five continents. We (1) mapped protected area instruments, (2) assessed their effectiveness, (3) mapped policy implementation tools, and (4) effects on protected areas originating from their surroundings. Results are given as follows: (1) conservation instruments covered 3-77%, (2) effectiveness of habitat networks depended on representativeness, habitat quality, functional connectivity, resource extraction in protected areas, time for landscape restoration, "paper parks", "fortress conservation", and data access, (3) regulatory policy instruments dominated over economic and informational, (4) negative matrix effects dominated over positive ones (protective forests, buffer zones, inaccessibility), which were restricted to former USSR and Costa Rica. Despite evidence-based knowledge about conservation targets, the importance of spatial segregation of conservation and use, and traditional knowledge, the trajectories for biodiversity conservation were generally negative.

Potential biodiversity map of understory plants for Nothofagus forests in Southern Patagonia: Analyses of landscape, ecological niche and conservation values.

The role of understory plants in native forests is critical for ecosystem function, wildlife protection and ecosystem productivity. The interest to estimate biodiversity increased during the last decades at landscape level. The objective was to elaborate a map of potential biodiversity (MPB) of understory species of Nothofagus forest using potential habitat suitability maps (PHS) of 15 plants in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Additionally, we asked the following questions: (i) Were plant species differentially distributed according to the forest types?, (ii) do forest types represent different plant species assemblage with specific ecological niche requirements?, and (iii) is it possible to detect hotspots in the MBP according to the forest types? We used 721 plots database of vascular plants, from where 15 indicator species were identified. The assemblage species for different forests (Nothofagus antarctica, N. pumilio and evergreen mixed) were analysed using a detrended correspondence analysis. Also, we explored 41 potential explanatory variables to develop PHS, and combined these maps to obtain one MPB (1-100%). Finally, we analysed the outputs into a GIS through different landscapes alternatives to detect hotspot areas. Marginality and specialization values allowed identifying species assemblage that presented similar variability in the habitat requirements. MPB varied across the landscape, with higher values in the south and lower values near glaciers. MPB had the highest values in N. antarctica forest with >50% cover at landscape level. N. antarctica present more hotspots than N. pumilio forests, mainly in the south, compared to mixed evergreen forests which present few hotspots near glaciers. These results can be used as a tool to design new management and conservation strategies at landscape level.