Implications for conservation

Question 1

key conservation initiatives

Answer 1

• identifying species most at risk
• identifying regions with greatest diversity
• predicting distribution responses of plants/animals to future climate change
• documenting biological invasions

Question 2

IUCN red list system

Answer 2

• developed in 1963 to provide inventory of global conservation status of plant and animal species
• used to make quantitative assessment of extinction rate and extinction threat

Question 3

conservation initiatives related to measuring extinction

Answer 3

• assumption is that small and declining populations are under greatest threat of extinction & should therefore be prioritised for conservation
• but this assumption may be flawed for may species
• some small, spatially restricted populations have persisted for thousands of yrs
• some small, declining populations have naturally fluctuating population sizes
• fossil record can reveal which taxa are at the end of their evolutionary life
• other groups are expanding evolutionary

Question 4

conservation of regions of greatest diversity/threat

Answer 4

• different indices used

- species richness, endemic, rarity and threat

Question 5

biodiversity hotspots

Answer 5

• regions of greatest threat
• > 70% of vegetation lost
• return to natural state (pre human activity?)

Question 6

relevance of palaeoecology to conservation

Answer 6

• conditions required for establishment of key species may no longer exist
• modern vegetation may have become established under climate conditions different from today
• if conservation goal is to return a threatened/degraded ecosystem to its pre-human natural state, then conservationists need to engage with palaeoecologists

Question 7

palaeoecology can reveal how an ecosystem has changed through time

Answer 7

• natural state vs human modified state
• different natural states
• it can also reveal the processes that lad to the current ecosystem: disturbance regime etc.

Question 8

Climate change-integrated conservation strategies

Answer 8

• bioclimate models to determine:
• potential range shift in species and biomes
• changes in ecosystem structure and function
• enable conservationists to plant park boundaries to allow for future range shift
  Dispersal corridors!

Question 9

cloud forest

Answer 9

• biodiversity hotspot
• increase in cloud base and frost line due to warming and drying
• inferred from mid-Holocene pollen data
• altitude migration corridors?

Question 10

individualistic response of species

Answer 10

• species composition of a community changes in response to climate change
• plant communities are not fixed entities that move about in masse

Question 11

conservation initiatives related to biological invasions

Answer 11

• a key priority is the removal of alien/invasive species

- Palaeoecology can test whether certain doubtful native are native or alien

Question 12

Amazonia in 1942

Answer 12

• an ancient pristine wilderness?
• small scale human impact
• low population density
• poor soils and little protein

Question 13

agro-forestry

Answer 13

• management of shade-trees with agricultural crops
• human land use
• biodiversity
• habitat connectivity (buffer/corridors)