Search for new methodologies guides biological conservation

Researchers assess current obstacles facing the field in a book about applied ecology and human dimensions in biodiversity governance.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – The need to expand the conceptual basis of biological conservation and the need for methodological and technological innovations and improved management have limited the identification and solution of problems related to biological conservation on earth.

This assessment is made in the book Applied Ecology and Human Dimensions in Biological Conservation, recently published by Springer. The publication is the outcome of two international workshops sponsored by the FAPESP Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use (Biota-FAPESP) in 2009 and 2010, and the advances brought about by these events.

At the 2009 workshop, the subject addressed was applied ecology and human dimensions in biological conservation. In 2010, the workshop addressed long-term studies of biodiversity, primarily in terms of monitoring patterns of biological diversity.

“One new feature of these two workshops was discussing biological conservation from the standpoint of obstacles, such as the need to expand the conceptual basis of the field,” Luciano Martins Verdade, professor at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (Cena) at the University of São Paulo (USP) and one of the book’s editors, told Agência FAPESP.

“We often don’t know how to identify and solve problems because we lack concepts for the subject,” said Verdade, who coordinated the two workshops and is a member of the Biota-FAPESP Program Coordination Panel.

According to Verdade, one concept that needs to be enhanced is the notion of biological diversity itself. In referring to species as units of biological diversity – assuming that the more species there are, the larger the biological diversity of a particular group – we run the risk of underestimating the value of the older lineages in terms of evolution because they were more conservative and had less speciation than more recent groups.

“Even though they may have given rise to fewer species, the genetic heritage of these older lineages may have more value from the evolutionary standpoint than more recent groups,” he remarked.

Another concept that needs to be reviewed, in the eyes of the researcher, is the historical role of humans in establishing the biodiversity patterns that we observe today.

There is a tendency to think that biomes such as the Amazon Rainforest and even the Atlantic Forest contain untouched (pristine) areas that reflect biodiversity patterns not influenced by humans.

By studying the history of these biomes, however, it is possible to observe a record of significant human presence there in recent millennia.

Even before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, there had been extensive land use that can be reflected in the current biodiversity patterns of biomes such as the Amazon Rainforest, Verdade indicated.

“There are records that Kayapo Indians planted orchards in the Amazon Rainforest at more or less regular intervals, thus contributing to the diversity of flora and fauna in that biome because animals would be attracted to the orchards’ fruit trees and become hunting targets,” he said.

Therefore, the role of humans in establishing biodiversity patterns in the past and present is a critical factor that cannot be ignored, Verdade underscored.

“Human pressure associated with agricultural expansion today is so strong that it most likely caused genetic changes in the species that, from the genetic heritage standpoint, are different from those in the past,” he explained.

Biodiversity monitoring

According to Verdade, another obstacle for biological conservation decision-making is the absence of a monitoring policy that allows us to detect problems associated with biodiversity changes in biomes in time to be able to take effective action.

As yet, there is no set of indicators that enables measurements of biodiversity to be conducted in a way that shows whether a particular species is in decline or has become a plague, or whether sustainable use is being made of it, according to Verdade.

For this reason, the book’s authors defend the need to establish a global network of long-term biodiversity monitoring stations to effectively contribute to the processes involved in decision-making in matters of conservation, use and control of the earth’s biodiversity.

“Implementation of a biodiversity monitoring policy requires well-organized institutions that know how to monitor, when to monitor and what needs to be monitored,” Verdade said. “Moreover, they require the establishment of long-term research programs such as Biota-FAPESP to expand the concepts and enable the detection of problems related to biodiversity conservation.”

The researchers also note in the book that there is a need to develop and improve population survey methods and technologies that help detect and identify species in the field and evaluate ecological and evolutionary processes, particularly in environments that have already been altered by human activity.

“The use of molecular markers in feces of animals that are not normally easy to monitor in the field, for example, could help estimate species populations in a less invasive and even more accurate and precise manner than by direct observation,” Verdade opined.

Sections of the book

The book Applied Ecology and Human Dimensions in Biological Conservation has 14 chapters, written by 38 specialists from Brazil and other countries, and is divided into three sections.

The first section emphasizes the important need for an extensive network to monitor patterns of biodiversity and the role that ecological, evolutionary and historical processes have played in current patterns of biodiversity.

The second section discusses the methodological and technological innovations that will allow further development of biological conservation, and the third section presents examples of biodiversity governance.

“The authors of the various chapters provide state-of-the-art information on concepts, innovation and management in biological conservation from the standpoint of applied ecological science, which we refer to as applied ecology, and the human dimensions associated with it,” Verdade said.
 

• Applied Ecology and Human Dimensions in Biological Conservation
  Release: 2014
  Price: US$ 189 (print) and US$ 149 (eBook)
  Pages: 228
  
  For more information visit: www.springer.com/life+sciences/ecology/book/978-3-642-54750-8.