Biological aspects of crisis management

Question 1

Crisis management

Answer 1

Rapid decisions needed based on limited knowledge
•Wrong decision = highly detrimental (partula snails and rosy wolfsnail)
•Lack of action damaging too E.g. Golden toad has hardly any tadpoles - massive pop crash = 1 male and went extinct
E.g. In 1960s >100 wintering slender-billed curlew in Morocco, less wintering in later years - applied conservation too late and went extinct

Question 2

5 general biological principles of management

Answer 2

1. Critical biodiversity composition and ecological processes must be maintained
2. Minimise external threats and maximise external benefits
3. Capacity for evolutionary processes must be restored
4. Management should be minimally intrusive
5. Management must be monitored and adapted if any issues

Question 3

Critical biodiversity composition and ecological processes must be maintained…

Answer 3

•Management areas contains 1000s of spp
Not possible for management of all
2 solutions - 1. focus of spp of special interest
2. focus on ecosystem

Question 4

Ecosystem management

Answer 4

Natural processes and disturbances are key to maintaining biodiversity
Ecosystem management encourages these processes
Hindered by…
•lack of data on natural disturbances
•small areas limit development of large diverse habitats

Question 5

Ecosystem management examples

Answer 5

Can work…
Fire regimes in N America encouraged pine regeneration and reduced fire damage- different tree ages support different spp
Can fail…
Everglades NP and wood storks - restored natural flows but failed to reach woodstork requirements = pop decline

Question 6

Min external threats and max external benefits

Answer 6

E.g. Ethiopian wolf - highly threatened - feral dogs transmit rabies and cause canine distemper = 76% decline
•Primary management - dog vaccination and sterilisation - prevent spread etc.
•Benefits public health and ecotourism
•Not complete success = secondary management - educating on benefits, reducing livestock predation - reinforces benefits and provides further

Question 7

Capacity for evolutionary processes must be conserved

Answer 7

Requires natural selection & individual death
Amakihi population threatened by Avian Malaria - constant exposure = evolved resistance, pop increasing
Conservation focuses heavily on extinction - needs to consider long-term speciation
Certain areas have high speciation rates
-tropics are cradles…

Question 8

Management minimally intrusive

Answer 8

NZ Chetham island Black robin threatened
Exterminated closely related tom-tit - ‘competition’
Double clutching and cross fostering (intensive programme) - fostering failed with 1st parent host
Only spp it worked with was tom-tit which was now on other island - risk journey
Luckily managed to still be successful

Question 9

Management must be monitored if any issues - cycle of adaptive management

Answer 9

Conceptualise -> plan actions and monitor -> implement actions and monitor -> analyse, adapt and use -> capture and share learning
E.g. island fox critically endangered by habitat destruction from feral pigs, attracting golden eagles which predated foxes too
-controlled pigs = more predator on foxes

Question 10

Centre for evidence based conservation (CEBC)

Answer 10

Focuses mainly on making conservation evidence much more available to conservation practitioners
As there is limited access to such data due to…
•poor connections to each other and science community
•much data in grey literature or unpublished
•time and financial constraints on data access