Conservation Conflicts - new cards and studies Flashcards
tom webb lectures
The case study on H– h—— and grouse makes the case that e——-, s——- and s——— have to work together to achieve goals
Hen harriers, ecology, sociollogy and stakeholders
What did the Webb and Raffaeli —– paper investigate?
2008.
Whether language varied between pro-hedgehog and pro-waterbird reporting in an Outer Hebridean island. SNH wanted to eradicate hedgehogs
People talked about the same issue in different ways
Anti-hedgehog cull - more emotive, welfare, economic and hedgehog orientated
Pro-cull -More conservation-based, scientific, bird-based and local
Both parties valued nature but newsstories generally took a more Hedgehog approach
The Cod is God wars (Gray et al. 2008) had what main takeaways?
- Consensus dificult to reach
- Management required difficult decisions to be made
- There are often multiple plausible interpretations of the same advice - The Rashomon effect
What is classed as severe bleaching, and not just physiological bleaching?
When 60-90% of symbionts are expelled. Biomass reduced in host.
How are El Nino events harming corals? What study showed this
Temperatures just 1-2 degrees above average can cause severe bleaching in corals/ El Nino more frequent and severe, likely not going to allow for full recovery. Tropics in la nina now warmer than they were in el nino 3 decades ago ( Hughes et al. 2018) Tropical sea temperatures now. Can additionally interact with other stressors (ocean acidification). Thus annual bleaching could become the norm.
About – % of GBR died in 2016 bleaching event. Mainly in Northern barrier reed.
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what happens to most plastic after use?
Most is discarded - 80% in landfills
Some is recycled, a tiny proportion the second time.
Some is incinerated
Bioplastics only account for 1% of global plastic production.
Sunlight fragments it into microplastic (mm-nanometres in size)
Nearly 2% of fishing gear is lost in the oceans annually. Cite this Stat
Richardson et al. 2022
Cite this study.
- Looked at worldwide waste disposal within 50 km of the sea
- Vase majority of plastic originated from 10 river catchements, 8 of which were in Asia
- Mos plastic available to enter the oceans was in SE Asia.
- UK had NO mismanaged litter but littering was a problem. 4g per person per day.
Jambeck et al. 2015
Microplastics have been found consistently in deep-sea i——– for - decades.
invertebrates, 4 decades - Courtene-Jones et al. 2019
Who did this study?
What was one pro of more plastics being in the sea?
Tries to demonstrate what is ACTUAL threat and what is PERCEIVED threats across different sizes of marine debris and different scales of biological organisation (cell, organism, community etc.)
Most impacts found to be individual organisms deaths due to plastic debris
ingestion, entanglement and smothering.
Demonstrated impacts were derelict fishing gear smothering coral.
Rochman et al. 2016
On a plus side, plastic bottles and glass jars creating a hard substrate for things to colonise in a soft benthic environment.
Evidence of effects of m———– on marine organisms and communities is scarce, but does exist
Evidence of effects of m——— at these scales of biological organisation is very hard to find, but studies have suggested they have the potential to ———– impact aquatic biota across taxa - Foley et al. 2018
macrodebris
microplastics
negatively
M—— and o—- and f——- f—— make up t——- of pounds in global trade, falling only below agriculture and forestry produces
metals & ores
Fossil fuels
trillions
A—– et al. 2—- - Gold mining increasing rapidly, especially since financial crash.
Used satellite data, aircraft surveys and fieldwork to show this. Other studies also find significant forest loss due to gold mining
Asner et al. 2012
–% of mines found to be within 5-10km of a PA. Ecological impacts of mine unsurprisingly extend beyond mines footprint
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What are some positives of new mines if they are managed well? (4)
Large-scale mines can create biodiversity set-asides (Edwards et al. 2014)
Can alleviate poverty if avoiding corruption and weakening governments.
Improve transport networks may decrease farm yield gaps as they can get agrichemicals more easily → helps land-sparing potentially. (Edwards et al. 2014)
Projects WITH low-income artisanal miners can reduce mercury pollution.
What is the situation of the Congo basin and new mine creation?
- Good news is that lots of congo basin does not overlap with valuable mineral deposits.
- The bad news is there is a lot of potential for oil here.
- Endemic Bird Areas at risk
- 23% of PAs could be 5-10km of a potential mine, leading to degradation, downsizing and degazettement (removing a PAs protective title)
- Governments may well care more about mining investments than protection.
Give some impacts of land degradation. 4-5.
Loss of landscape productivity & resilience - more drought / flood / landslide prone
Desertification
Ecological, social and economic threats
40% of intrastate conflicts linked to natural resources - 70% of nations identify CC / land degradation as national security risk
Forest regeneration on sheep pastures is not economically viable T/F
False. It could break even at £4 per tonne of C02
Tree planting not always best choice for landscape such as in ……… where much carbon is stored underground
Savannahs / the peak district
Gilroy et al. 2014
Looks at birds and dung beetles in low-intensity pasture → primary → secondary forest. What did they find?
Mature secondary forests have similar biodiversity patterns to primary.
Rare species recovered too. In mature forests, 83% of species back, in occurence probabilities only 21% lower than primary. Good 🙂
Some FLR doesnt actually take specific considerations for biodiversity, such as C—- monoculture plantations. Mixed FLR does not need to be more expensive though
China
Give some studied trade-offs between natural regeneration and tree planting in terms of soil erosion, biodiversity and carbon aboveground storage
Natural regeneration is better for soil erosion and biodiversity
Carbon aboveground is pretty neutral between the two, until harvest takes place
Timber obviously does better in plantations
Sooo where timber is not explicitly goal, should promote natural regeneration.
What did Beresford et al. 2013 study? What did they find out?
Studied PAs in Africa, specifically IBAs (important bird and biodiversity areas)
Matched PAs to nonPAs accounting for confounding variables
Used satellite imagery
IBAs DID reduce bird loss
Bigger IBAs did better
Buffer area for both did not so good :(
Briefly describe the EU birds directive. Was it a success?
Binding law, increasingly scientific, international approach to protecting bird species across the EU. EU birds did better after it’s introduction.
Give some examples of highly-motivated people in conservation
- Carl Jones. Always wanted to be conservationist. Helped captively rear Mauritius Kestrel and Pink Pigeon back from extinction on Mauritius, but both now struggling again.
- Doug Boucher. Massive promoter of clear scientific communication which is accessible to all with Union of Concerned Scientists
- Daniel Katz, developer of rainforest alliance
- Diana Fossey. Lead gorilla conservation in DRC. Lived alone in mountains, killed by local people. DRC locals now lead conservation efforts like Angele Kavira Nzalamingi
Give an example of why accuracy in conservation reporting matters, as ‘the truth is already bad enough’
‘only 100 cod left in North Sea’ headlines in 2012, when in fact this was just fish over the age of 13, a very old age in Cod Years
- Also WWF reporting 85 % of fisheries at or beyond biological limits - true, but miselading. Only 34.2% were actually OVER fished
What point did the Guardian article ‘Bottom trawling is realeasing as much C02 as air travel’ make?
Even high profile articles require scrutiny
- Modelling used in Sala et al. study found to overestimate carbon released to several magnitudes
- Problematic, as carbon credits could be given for businesses to stop trawling, whilst they still continue with other Actually degrading activities
What is the evidence for the ‘fishing down the foodweb’ hypothesis? What final ‘conservation lesson’ does this teach us?
Supported in SOME older studies, but Essington et al. 2008 finds that mainly lower-trophic level species are fished AS WELL as those in the higher levels insetad of fishing down the food web so much.
Trophic levels also found to not actually correlate with price
Mean trophic level also appears to have increased since the 80s
Shows us that we must be wiling to change conclusions based on new data
Duarte et al. 2020 - give the 4 major historic and current pressures on the oceans
- Climate change
- Chemical Pollution
- Habitat loss
- Hunting / overexploitation
D—– et al. 2020. Give the 4 impactful interventions for our oceans
Duarte et al. 2020
Regulate hunting - IWC for example
Manage fisheries - enforcing better management and regular scientific assessment on all fisheries
Improve water quality - usually done via international policy frameworks. Baltic sea = positive recovery story
Protect and restore habitats
When was whale-hunting ‘paused’ by the IWC?
Decided on in 1982, and actually happened in 1985-1986, but it stayed in place and whales recovered marvelously, such as fin whales recovering from near-extinction in the southern hemisphere
What does Duarte et al. 2020 identify as the 4 potential roadblocks to marine recovery?
What extra one does Tom Webb add on?
- Natural variability and intensification of environmental extremes
- Unexpected natural or social events
- Increased pressure on marine resources and habitats from growing pop
- Failure to meet commitments to reduce and mitigate CC - “Climate change is the critical backdrop against which all future rebuilding efforts will play out”
- Gaps and biases in our understanding of marine ecosystems - lots of fisheries not assessed - 1/2 of all, especially in small-scale fisheries in mangroves and especially ecologically important areas
Coastal and marine habitats can be protected and restored, and this has long-term benefits for people AND nature - T/F. What does NEOLI stand for?
True
MPAs must be no-take zones, enforced, old, large and isolated to be effective. Enforced is especially important
A conclusion by Duarte et al. 2020 again
T/F It is likely not achievable to achieve substantial and complete conservation of our oceans? D—- et al. 2020
FALSE - Duarte et al. 2020 thinks this is likely possible
