Reserve Area (reserve + area)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Evaluating land use/land cover changes and fragmentation in the Camili forest planning unit of northeastern Turkey from 1972 to 2005

LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2007
F. Sivrikaya
Abstract Changes in land use/land cover have important consequences on the management of natural resources including soil and water quality, global climatic systems and biodiversity. This study analysed the spatial and temporal pattern of land use/land cover change in the Camili forest planning unit that includes the Camili Biosphere Reserve Area within the Caucasian hotspot, in the northeast corner of Turkey. To assess the patterns during a 33-year period, the necessary data were obtained from forest stand maps and evaluated with Geographic Information Systems and FRAGSTATS. Results showed that the total forested areas increased from 19,946·5,ha (78·6% of the study area) in 1972 to 20,797·3,ha (81·9 per cent) in 2005 with a slight net increase of 851,ha. Softwood cover types (411·8,ha) completely transitioned to other cover types over 33-year period. In terms of spatial configuration, the total number of forest fragments increased from 172 to 608, and mean size of forest patch (MPS) decreased from 147·7,ha to 41·8,ha during the period. Nearly 84 per cent of the patches in 1972 and 93 per cent of them in 2005 generally seem to concentrate into 0,100,ha patch size class, indicating more fragmented landscape over time that might create a risk for the maintenance of biodiversity of the area. There were apparent trends in the temporal structure of forest landscape, some of which may issue from mismanagement of the area, social conflict, and illegal utilization of forest resources due to ineffective forest protection measurements. The study revealed that it is important to understand both spatial and temporal changes of land use/land cover and their effects on landscape pattern to disclose the implications for land use planning and management. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Incorporation of Recreational Fishing Effort into Design of Marine Protected Areas

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2006
TIM P. LYNCH
consulta pública; modelos de reservas marinas; pesca con caña; suposiciones de poza dinámica Abstract:,Theoretical models of marine protected areas (MPAs) that explore benefits to fisheries or biodiversity conservation often assume a dynamic pool of fishing effort. For instance, effort is homogenously distributed over areas from which subsets of reserves are chosen. I tested this and other model assumptions with a case study of the multiple-use Jervis Bay Marine Park. Prior to zoning of the park I conducted 166 surveys of the park's recreational fisheries, plotting the location of 16,009 anglers. I converted these plots into diagrams of fishing effort and analyzed correlates between fishing and habitat and the effect of two reserve designs,the draft and final zoning plans of the park,on the 15 fisheries observed. Fisheries were strongly correlated with particular habitats and had negatively skewed and often bimodal spatial distribution. The second mode of intensely fished habitat could be 6 SD greater than the fishery's mean allocation of effort by area. In the draft-zoning plan, sanctuary zone (no-take) area and potential subduction of fishing effort were similar. In the final plan, which was altered in response to public comment, the area of sanctuary zone increased, and the impact on fishing effort decreased. In only one case was a fishery's most intensely targeted location closed to fishing. Because of the discriminating manner with which fishers target habitats, if simple percentage targets are used for planning, sanctuary location can be adjusted to avoid existing fishing effort. According to modeled outcomes, the implication of this may be diminished reserve effectiveness. To address this, reserve area should be implicitly linked to subducted fishing effort when promoting or modeling MPAs. Resumen:,Los modelos teóricos de áreas marinas protegidas (AMPs) que exploran los beneficios para las pesquerías o la conservación de la biodiversidad a menudo asumen que hay una poza dinámica en el esfuerzo de pesca. Por ejemplo, el esfuerzo es distribuido homogéneamente en áreas en las que se seleccionan subconjuntos de reservas. Probé esta y otras suposiciones del modelo con un estudio de caso del Parque Marino Jarvis Bay. Antes de la zonificación del parque, realicé 166 muestreos de las pesquerías recreativas del parque, dibujando la localización de 16,009 pescadores con caña. Convertí estos dibujos en diagramas de esfuerzo de pesca y analicé las correlaciones entre la pesca, el hábitat y el efecto de dos diseños de reserva,el anteproyecto y los planes finales de zonificación del parque,sobre las 15 pesquerías observadas. Las pesquerías se correlacionaron fuertemente con los hábitats particulares y tenían una distribución espacial sesgada negativamente y a menudo bimodal. El segundo tipo de hábitat pescado intensivamente podría ser 6 DS mayor que la asignación promedio de esfuerzo de pesquería por unidad de área. En el anteproyecto de plan de zonificación, el área santuario (sin pesca) y la subducción potencial del esfuerzo de pesca eran similares. En el plan final, que fue alterado en respuesta a comentarios del público, el área del santuario fue incrementada, y el impacto del esfuerzo de pesca disminuyó. En solo un caso fue cerrado a la pesca la localidad de pesca más intensiva. Debido a la forma discriminada en que los pescadores eligen los hábitats, si se utilizan objetivos porcentuales simples para la planificación, la localización del santuario puede ser ajustada para evitar el esfuerzo de pesca existente. De acuerdo con los resultados del modelo, la implicación puede ser la disminución de la efectividad de la reserva. Para abordar esto, el área de la reserva debiera estar implícitamente relacionada con la reducción del esfuerzo de pesca cuando se promueven o modelan AMPs. [source]


Plant species richness of nature reserves: the interplay of area, climate and habitat in a central European landscape

GLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2002
Petr Py
Abstract Aim To detect regional patterns of plant species richness in temperate nature reserves and determine the unbiased effects of environmental variables by mutual correlation with operating factors. Location The Czech Republic. Methods Plant species richness in 302 nature reserves was studied by using 14 explanatory variables reflecting the reserve area, altitude, climate, habitat diversity and prevailing vegetation type. Backward elimination of explanatory variables was used to analyse the data, taking into account their interactive nature, until the model contained only significant terms. Results A minimal adequate model with reserve area, mean altitude, prevailing vegetation type and habitat diversity (expressed as the number of major habitat types in the reserve) accounted for 53.9% of the variance in species number. After removing the area effect, habitat diversity explained 15.6% of variance, while prevailing vegetation type explained 29.6%. After removing the effect of both area and vegetation type, the resulting model explained 10.3% of the variance, indicating that species richness further increased with habitat diversity, and most obviously towards warm districts. After removing the effects of area, habitat diversity and climatic district, the model still explained 9.4% of the variance, and showed that species richness (i) significantly decreased with increasing mean altitude and annual precipitation, and with decreasing January temperature in the region of the mountain flora, and (ii) increased with altitudinal range in regions of temperate and thermophilous flora. Main conclusions We described, in quantitative terms, the effects of the main factors that might be considered to be determining plant species richness in temperate nature reserves, and evaluated their relative importance. The direct habitat effect on species richness was roughly equal to the direct area effect, but the total direct and indirect effects of area slightly exceeded that of habitat. It was shown that the overall effect of composite variables such as altitude or climatic district can be separated into particular climatic variables, which influence the richness of flora in a context-specific manner. The statistical explanation of richness variation at the level of families yielded similar results to that for species, indicating that the system of nature conservation provides similar degrees of protection at different taxonomic levels. [source]


Habitat heterogeneity overrides the species,area relationship

JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2008
András Báldi
Abstract Aim, The most obvious, although not exclusive, explanation for the increase of species richness with increasing sample area (the species,area relationship) is that species richness is ultimately linked to area-based increases in habitat heterogeneity. The aim of this paper is to examine the relative importance of area and habitat heterogeneity in determining species richness in nature reserves. Specifically, the work tests the hypothesis that species,area relationships are not positive if habitat heterogeneity does not increase with area. Location, Sixteen nature reserves (area range 89,11,030 ha) in central Hungary. Methods, Four-year faunistic inventories were conducted in the reserves involving c. 70 fieldworkers and 65 taxonomists. CORINE 50,000 land-cover maps were used for calculating the heterogeneity of the reserve landscape (number of habitat types, number of habitat patches and total length of edges). Results, Large reserves were less heterogeneous than small reserves, probably because large reserves were established in large blocks of unproductive land whereas small reserves tended to be in more fertile land. In total, 3975 arthropod species were included in the analysis. The slope of the species,area relationship was positive only for Neuroptera and Trichoptera. There was no significant relationship in the other nine taxa examined (Collembola, Acari, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, Coleoptera, Araneae, Diplopoda, Chilopoda, Diptera). The density (number of species ha,1) of all species, however, showed a positive correlation with heterogeneity. Main conclusions, The general lack of fit of species,area relationships in this study is inconsistent with most previous published studies. Importantly, and unlike many other studies, habitat heterogeneity was not correlated with reserve area in the studied system. In the absence of this source of covariation, stronger relationships were identified that suggested a fundamental link between species richness and habitat heterogeneity. The results indicate that habitat heterogeneity rather than area per se is the most important predictor of species richness in the studied system. [source]


CREATION OF MARINE RESERVES AND INCENTIVES FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 2 2010
QUACH THI KHANH NGOC
Abstract Despite a number of benefits, marine reserves provide neither incentives for fishermen to protect biodiversity nor compensation for financial loss due to the designation of the reserves. To obtain fishermen's support for marine reserves, some politicians have suggested that managers of new marine reserves should consider subsidizing or compensating those fishermen affected by the new operations. The objective of this paper is to apply principal,agent theory, which is still infrequently applied to fisheries, to define the optimal reserve area, fishing effort, and transfer payments in the context of symmetric and asymmetric information between managers and fishermen. The expected optimal reserve size under asymmetric information is smaller than that under symmetric information. Fishing efforts encouraged with a transfer payment are always less compared to those without payment. This reflects the fact that as the manager induces the fishermen to participate in the conservation program, the fishermen will take into account their effects on fish stock by decreasing their effort. Examples are also supplied to demonstrate these concepts. [source]