Effect of biogeographic history on population vulnerability in European amphibians.

The genetic diversity of populations, which contributes greatly to their adaptive potential, is negatively affected by anthropogenic habitat fragmentation and destruction. However, continental-scale losses of genetic diversity also resulted from the population expansions that followed the end of the last glaciation, an element that is rarely considered in a conservation context. We addressed this issue in a meta-analysis in which we compared the spatial patterns of vulnerability of 18 widespread European amphibians in light of phylogeographic histories (glacial refugia and postglacial routes) and anthropogenic disturbances. Conservation statuses significantly worsened with distances from refugia, particularly in the context of industrial agriculture; human population density also had a negative effect. These findings suggest that features associated with the loss of genetic diversity in post-glacial amphibian populations (such as enhanced fixation load or depressed adaptive potential) may increase their susceptibility to current threats (e.g., habitat fragmentation and pesticide use). We propose that the phylogeographic status of populations (i.e., refugial vs. post-glacial) should be considered in conservation assessments for regional and national red lists.

De l'agriculture urbaine à la都市農業 (toshinogyo) Une analyse de leur émergence dans le cas de Genève et Tokyo

Il y a aujourd'hui un relatif consensus autour de l'émergence de l'agriculture urbaine. Les projets d'agriculture urbaine se développeraient, car il y aurait une nécessité à réinstaurer des relations entre l'urbain et l'agricole. Les dispositifs qui ont été mis en place par la modernité comme le zonage, l'économie de marché, les transports, l'usage de fertilisants ou les filières agroalimentaires auraient en effet fait disparaître ces relations qu'il s'agirait aujourd'hui de reconnecter. L'agriculture urbaine serait alors présentée comme une stratégie alternative à cette distinction. Elle serait le résultat de relations réciproques - et donc équivalentes - entre l'urbain et l'agricole. Elle serait alors à la fois urbaine et agricole. Nous pensons qu'il faut sortir aujourd'hui de cette conception d'agriculture urbaine. Nous remettons tout d'abord en question le fait que l'agriculture urbaine aurait pour objectif de reconnecter l'urbain et l'agricole. Cela présuppose qu'il n'y aurait plus de relations durant la modernité entre l'agricole et l'urbain. Or, comme le montre l'étude des aspects spatiaux, fonctionnels et sociaux de ces relations sous la modernité pour les cas de Genève et de Tokyo, ces relations existeraient toujours, voire même s'intensifieraient. Nous cherchons aussi à montrer qu'il faut faire évoluer l'idée que l'agriculture urbaine étant le résultat de relations réciproques entre l'urbain et l'agricole, elle se devait d'être à la fois urbaine et agricole. Dans les faits, l'agriculture urbaine apparaît plus souvent comme un projet de l'urbain au bénéfice de celui-ci, que comme un projet partagé entre l'urbain et l'agricole. Enfin, nous mettons en avant que l'agriculture urbaine n'aurait pas la capacité de reconnecter de façon effective l'agricole et l'urbain. Ainsi, l'agriculture urbaine n'est pas en mesure de se substituer aux dispositifs mis en place par la modernité. Elle ne peut rendre les villes autonomes en denrées alimentaires, établir des symbioses agro-urbaines ou remettre en question le système des filières agroalimentaires. Dans ce contexte, nous défendons la thèse que la conception d'agriculture urbaine doit aujourd'hui évoluer vers celle de toshinogyo. L'objectif est alors de rendre visibles les relations entre l'agricole et l'urbain. Les dispositifs mis en place sous la modernité n'ont pas eu pour effet de supprimer les relations entre l'urbain et l'agricole, mais de les rendre invisibles. Il s'agit aujourd'hui de leur redonner une visibilité. En devenant cette prise qui rend visibles ces relations, la toshinogyo ne serait alors plus tenue d'être urbaine et agricole à la fois, de même qu'elle ne s'opposerait pas aux dispositifs modernes, mais en serait complémentaire. Dans le contexte Genevois, le passage de l'agriculture urbaine à la toshinogyo est loin d'être encore évident. Dans le cas de Tokyo, l'optique de la toshinogyo est clairement affirmée et pourrait alors donner des amorces de pistes à suivre.

Conservation banking and the economization of nature : an institutional analysis

During the last decade, conservation banking mechanisms have emerged in the environmental discourse as new market instruments to promote biodiversity conservation. Compensation was already provided for in environmental law in many countries, as the last step of the mitigation hierarchy. The institutional arrangements developed in this context have been redefined and reshaped as market-based instruments (MBIs). As such, they are discursively disentangled from the complex legal-economic nexus they are part of. Monetary transactions are given prominence and tend to be presented as stand alone agreements, whereas they take place in the context of prescriptive regulations. The pro-market narrative featuring conservation banking systems as market-like arrangements as well as their denunciation as instances of nature commodification tend to obscure their actual characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the latter, adopting an explicitly analytical stance on these complex institutional arrangements and their performative dimensions. Beyond the discourse supporting them and notwithstanding the diversity of national policies and regulatory frameworks for compensation, the constitutive force of these mechanisms probably lies in their ability to redefine control, power and the distribution of costs and in their impacts in terms of land use rather than in their efficiency.

How to describe species richness patterns for bryophyte conservation?

A large amount of data for inconspicuous taxa is stored in natural history collections; however, this information is often neglected for biodiversity patterns studies. Here, we evaluate the performance of direct interpolation of museum collections data, equivalent to the traditional approach used in bryophyte conservation planning, and stacked species distribution models (S-SDMs) to produce reliable reconstructions of species richness patterns, given that differences between these methods have been insufficiently evaluated for inconspicuous taxa. Our objective was to contrast if species distribution models produce better inferences of diversity richness than simply selecting areas with the higher species numbers. As model species, we selected Iberian species of the genus Grimmia (Bryophyta), and we used four well-collected areas to compare and validate the following models: 1) four Maxent richness models, each generated without the data from one of the four areas, and a reference model created using all of the data and 2) four richness models obtained through direct spatial interpolation, each generated without the data from one area, and a reference model created with all of the data. The correlations between the partial and reference Maxent models were higher in all cases (0.45 to 0.99), whereas the correlations between the spatial interpolation models were negative and weak (-0.3 to -0.06). Our results demonstrate for the first time that S-SDMs offer a useful tool for identifying detailed richness patterns for inconspicuous taxa such as bryophytes and improving incomplete distributions by assessing the potential richness of under-surveyed areas, filling major gaps in the available data. In addition, the proposed strategy would enhance the value of the vast number of specimens housed in biological collections.

Why evolution matters for species conservation: perspectives from three case studies of plant metapopulations

We advocate the advantage of an evolutionary approach to conservation biology that considers evolutionary history at various levels of biological organization. We review work on three separate plant taxa, spanning from one to multiple decades, illustrating extremes in metapopulation functioning. We show how the rare endemics Centaurea corymbosa (Clape Massif, France) and Brassica insularis in Corsica (France) may be caught in an evolutionary trap: disruption of metapopulation functioning due to lack of colonization of new sites may have counterselected traits such as dispersal ability or self-compatibility, making these species particularly vulnerable to any disturbance. The third case study concerns the evolution of life history strategies in the highly diverse genus Leucadendron of the South African fynbos. There, fire disturbance and the recolonization phase after fires are so integral to the functioning of populations that recruitment of new individuals is conditioned by fire. We show how past adaptation to different fire regimes and climatic constraints make species with different life history syndromes more or less vulnerable to global changes. These different case studies suggest that management strategies should promote evolutionary potential and evolutionary processes to better protect extant biodiversity and biodiversification.

Predicting the future effectiveness of protected areas for bird conservation in Mediterranean ecosystems under climate change and novel fire regime scenarios

AimGlobal environmental changes challenge traditional conservation approaches based on the selection of static protected areas due to their limited ability to deal with the dynamic nature of driving forces relevant to biodiversity. The Natura 2000 network (N2000) constitutes a major milestone in biodiversity conservation in Europe, but the degree to which this static network will be able to reach its long-term conservation objectives raises concern. We assessed the changes in the effectiveness of N2000 in a Mediterranean ecosystem between 2000 and 2050 under different combinations of climate and land cover change scenarios. LocationCatalonia, Spain. MethodsPotential distribution changes of several terrestrial bird species of conservation interest included in the European Union's Birds Directive were predicted within an ensemble-forecasting framework that hierarchically integrated climate change and land cover change scenarios. Land cover changes were simulated using a spatially explicit fire-succession model that integrates fire management strategies and vegetation encroachment after the abandonment of cultivated areas as the main drivers of landscape dynamics in Mediterranean ecosystems. ResultsOur results suggest that the amount of suitable habitats for the target species will strongly decrease both inside and outside N2000. However, the effectiveness of N2000 is expected to increase in the next decades because the amount of suitable habitats is predicted to decrease less inside than outside this network. Main conclusionsSuch predictions shed light on the key role that the current N2000may play in the near future and emphasize the need for an integrative conservation perspective wherein agricultural, forest and fire management policies should be considered to effectively preserve key habitats for threatened birds in fire-prone, highly dynamic Mediterranean ecosystems. Results also show the importance of considering landscape dynamics and the synergies between different driving forces when assessing the long-term effectiveness of protected areas for biodiversity conservation.

Areas of high conservation value in Georgia: present and future threats by invasive alien plants

Georgia is known for its extraordinary rich biodiversity of plants, which may now be threatened due to the spread of invasive alien plants (IAP). We aimed to identify (i) the most prominent IAP out of 9 selected potentially invasive and harmful IAP IAP by predicting thetheir distribution of 9 selected IAP under current and future climate conditions in Georgia as well as in its 43 Protected Areas, as a proxy for areas of high conservation value and (ii) the Protected Areas most at risk due to these IAP. We used species distribution models based on 6 climate variables and then filtered the obtained distributions based on maps of soil and vegetation types, and on recorded occurrences, resulting into the predicted ecological distribution of the 9 IAP's at a resolution of 1km2. We foundOur habitat suitability analysis showed that Ambrosia artemisiifolia, (24% and 40%) Robinia pseudoacaia (14% and 19%) and Ailanthus altissima (9% and 11%) have the largest potential distribution are the most abundant (predicted % area covered)d) IAP, with Ailanthus altissima the potentially most increasing one over the next fifty years (from 9% to 13% and from 11% to 25%), for Georgia and the Protected Areas, respectively. Furthermore, our results show indicate two areas in Georgia that are under specifically high threat, i.e. the area around Tbilisi and an area in the western part of Georgia (Adjara), both at lower altitudes. Our procedure to identify areas of high conservation value most at risk by IAP has been applied for the first time. It will help national authorities in prioritizing their measures to protect Georgia's outstanding biodiversity from the negative impact of IAP.