Search

Protected land: Many factors shape success

Effective Biodiversity Conservation Requires Dynamic, Pluralistic, Partnership-Based Approaches

Biodiversity loss undermines the long-term maintenance of ecosystem functions and the well-being of human populations. Global-scale policy initiatives, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, have failed to curb the loss of biodiversity. This failure has led to contentious debates over alternative solutions that represent opposing visions of value-orientations and policy tools at the heart of conservation action.

Linking Land and Sea through Collaborative Research to Inform Contemporary applications of Traditional Resource Management in Hawaii

Across the Pacific Islands, declining natural resources have contributed to a cultural renaissance of customary ridge-to-reef management approaches. These indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCA) are initiated by local communities to protect natural resources through customary laws. To support these efforts, managers require scientific tools that track land-sea linkages and evaluate how local management scenarios affect coral reefs.

Biocultural Restoration of Traditional Agriculture: Cultural, Environmental, and Economic Outcomes of Lo‘i Kalo Restoration in He‘eia, O‘ahu

There are growing efforts around the world to restore biocultural systems that produce food while also providing additional cultural and ecological benefits. Yet, there are few examples of integrated assessments of these efforts, impeding understanding of how they can contribute to multi-level sustainability goals.

Governance of marine aquaculture: Pitfalls, potential, and pathways forward

Marine aquaculture is a rapidly growing industry that presents both opportunities and risks for the environment and society. Whether aquatic farming (bivalves and finfish) in the ocean can mitigate food security concerns and be done without significant ecological impact depends in large part on the governance infrastructure of the sector.

Circuit-theory applications to connectivity science and conservation

Conservation practitioners have long recognized ecological connectivity as a global priority for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem function. In the early years of conservation science, ecologists extended principles of island biogeography to assess connectivity based on source patch proximity and other metrics derived from binary maps of habitat. From 2006 to 2008, the late Brad McRae introduced circuit theory as an alternative approach to model gene flow and the dispersal or movement routes of organisms.

Thirty years of change and the future of Alaskan fisheries: Shifts in fishing participation and diversification in response to environmental, regulatory and economic pressures

Heterogeneity in human responses and decision‐making can contribute to the resilience of social–ecological systems in the face of environmental, political and economic pressures. In fishery systems worldwide, the ability of harvesters to maintain a diverse portfolio of fishing strategies is important for building adaptive capacity. We used a case‐study approach to examine the complexity of factors that inhibit or promote diversification in fisheries of Alaska, one of the major fishing regions of the world.

Phylogenetically weighted regression: A method for modelling non‐stationarity on evolutionary trees

Aim: Closely related species tend to resemble each other in their morphology and ecology because of shared ancestry. When exploring correlations between species traits, therefore, species cannot be treated as statistically independent. Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) attempt to correct statistically for this shared evolutionary history. Almost all such approaches, however, assume that correlations between traits are constant across the tips of the tree, which we refer to as phylogenetic stationarity.

Codyn R Package: Community Dynamics Metrics

Univariate and multivariate temporal and spatial diversity indices, rank abundance curves, and community stability measures. The functions implement measures that are either explicitly temporal and include the option to calculate them over multiple replicates, or spatial and include the option to calculate them over multiple time points. Functions fall into five categories: static diversity indices, temporal diversity indices, spatial diversity indices, rank abundance curves, and community stability measures.

Developing biocultural indicators for resource management

Resource management and conservation interventions are increasingly embracing social–ecological systems (SES) concepts. While SES frameworks recognize the connectedness of humans and nature, many fail to acknowledge the complex role of sociocultural factors in influencing people's interactions with the environment. As such, when indicators in SES frameworks are used to measure the social dimension, easy to measure, socioeconomic indicators are the norms, while more complex social and cultural indicators are rare.