A selection of UK national parks, Peak Districts, Exmoor, South Downs, Dartmoor, New Forest, Snowdonia, Lake District, Scholarships, Summer Schools. A selection of US national parks: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Everglades,

1. Biodiversity Conservation – week 2
London Metropolitan Univ. - 2010
Marco Pautasso (m.pautasso@ic.ac.uk)

2. UK National Parks
The oldest (since 1951)
and most visited (~10
million visitors/yr)
Peak District
Source: UK National Parks

3. UK National Parks: the Peak District
from Wikimedia Commons

4. UK National Parks: the Peak District
from Wikimedia Commons

5. UK National Parks
The newest (since 2009)
and most inhabited
(~120,000 people)
Peak District
South Downs
Source: UK National Parks

6. UK National Parks: the South Downs
from Wikimedia Commons

7. UK National Parks: the South Downs
from Wikimedia Commons

8. UK National Parks
Established 2005,
~570km2
Peak District
New
Forest South Downs
Source: UK National Parks

9. UK National Parks: the New Forest
from Wikimedia Commons

10. UK National Parks: the New Forest
from Wikimedia Commons

11. UK National Parks
2x New Forest
(size), but ~ same n
of inhabitants
Peak District
South Downs
Dartmoor
New Forest Source: UK National Parks

12. UK National Parks: Dartmoor
from Wikimedia Commons

13. UK National Parks: Dartmoor
from Wikimedia Commons

14. UK National Parks
Least visited (~1.4
million people/yr)
Peak District
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

15. UK National Parks: Exmoor
from Wikimedia Commons

16. UK National Parks: Exmoor
from Wikimedia Commons

17. UK National Parks
Second for money
spent by visitors
(~500 million £/yr)
Pembrokeshire Peak District
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

18. UK National Parks: Pembrokeshire
from Wikimedia Commons

19. UK National Parks: Pembrokeshire
from Wikimedia Commons

20. UK National Parks
~25,000 inhabitants,
4.3 million visitors/yr,
~2200 km2
Snowdonia
Peak District
Pembrokeshire
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

21. UK National Parks: Snowdonia
from Wikimedia Commons

22. UK National Parks
2nd for number of
inhabitants and
visitors
Lake District
Peak District
Snowdonia
Pembrokeshire
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

23. UK National Parks: Lake District
from Wikimedia Commons

24. UK National Parks: Lake District
from Wikimedia Commons

25. UK National Parks
Loch
Lomond
Lake District
Peak District
Snowdonia
Pembrokeshire
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

26. UK National Parks: Loch Lomond
from Wikimedia Commons

27. UK National Parks
Loch Lomond North
Yorkshire
Moors
Lake District
Peak District
Snowdonia
Pembrokeshire
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

28. UK National Parks: North Yorkshire Moors
from Wikimedia Commons

29. UK National Parks
~10% of the UK area
Cairngorms
Loch Lomond
Northumberland
North Yorkshire Moors
Lake District North Yorkshire Dales
Peak District
Snowdonia
Broads
Pembrokeshire Brecon
Beacons
South Downs
Exmoor
Dartmoor New Forest Source: UK National Parks

30. Species-people correlation in Europe
plants birds
from Araujo (2003) spp
Global Ecology &
Biogeography people

31. Global biodiversity patterns: vascular plants
from Barthlott et al. (2007) Erdkunde

32. US National Parks: ~270 million visitors/yr
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

33. Yellowstone (1988)
Source: NASA Earth Observatory

34. Nature protection in the USA: the Northwest
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

35. US National Parks: Mount Rainier
Source: Wikimedia Commons

36. US National Parks: Yosemite
Source: Wikimedia Commons

37. Nature protection in the USA: the Southwest
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

38. US National Parks: Yosemite
Source: Wikimedia Commons

39. US National Parks: Big Bend
Source: Wikimedia Commons

40. US National Parks: Big Bend
Source: Wikimedia Commons

41. Nature protection in the USA: Alaska
Source: Map Collection of the Library of the University of Texas at Austin, USA

42. US National Parks: Denali (Alaska)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

43. US National Parks: Glacier Bay
Source: Wikimedia Commons

44. US National Parks: the Everglades
Source: Wikimedia Commons

45. Five botanic gardens in the UK
PLANT AREA
NAME PLACE ESTABLISHED
SPECIES (HA)
Bodelva,
Eden Project ~5000 50 1997
Cornwall
Wales National Llanarthne,
~4000 60 2000
Botanic Garden Wales
Edinburgh Royal Edinburgh,
~12500 26 1670
Botanic Garden Scotland
Oxford University Oxford,
~8000 1.8 1621
Botanic Garden England
Chelsea Physic
London ~5000 1 1673
Garden
Source: BGCI

46. Species richness vs. % of protected area
1. Link country with n of plant species
Brazil 1,600
Britain 3,200
Canada 5,600
Italy 20,000
USA 56,000
60
1. Link country and % of terrestrial
number of countries
50
protected area
40
Brazil 15
30
China 22
Germany 27 20
UK 30 10
USA 56 0
less 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-30 more
than than
1% 30%
proportion of protected area
Source: UNEP, 2008

47. Are protected areas effective at preserving
biodiversity?
Many protected areas tend to be located in
relatively remote/inaccessible regions
Sometimes protected areas
become tourist attractions
Protected area networks have often been
created without international coordination

48. Efficiency and effectiveness of protected areas
Wiersma et al. (2009)
Biological Conservation

49. Protected areas in Spain and Portugal
Araujo et al. (2008)
Conservation Biology

50. Protected areas and human population growth
Wittemyer et al. (2008) Science

51. Random sample of 100 papers per year
on ‘species richness’ in WOS (1991-2004)
from: Lonsdale et al. (2008) European Journal of Forest Research

52. Which institutions other than National Parks
aim to protect biodiversity?
* Government Departments
* Research Institutes
* Foundations and charities
* NGOs
* Private individuals

57. What can the single individual do to stop
the loss of biodiversity?
Habitat fragmentation, degradation and loss
Water, air and soil pollution
Species introductions
Climate change
Trade, travel, transportation and tourism

58. Habitat fragmentation and loss in Amazonia
(2009) Source: NASA Earth Observatory

59. [1015 mol/cm2; Jan 2003- Jun 2004]
Air pollution due to urbanization: NO2
source: http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/EarthObservation/pollution_europe_hires.jpg

60. Species movements in a globalized world
passengers
From: Hufnagel et al. (2005) PNAS (air) & Kaluza et al. (2010) Interface (sea)

61. Climate change and plant distribution shifts
From: Denis Loustau (2006) Climate change impacts on extensively
managed forest: a modelling approach, Wilton Park Conference

62. Examples of how the single individual can make
a difference in biodiversity conservation
1) Volunteer in conservation activities/
biodiversity education
2) Reduce consumption/Carbon emissions?
3) Adopt an environmentally friendly lifestyle
4) avoid unintended introductions
of exotic species

63. Volunteering in biodiversity conservation

64. Volunteering in biodiversity conservation

65. Volunteering in biodiversity conservation

66. How can you get to
know more about
biodiversity?
Source:
Greater London
Authority

67. Scholarships in biodiversity conservation

68. Summer schools in biodiversity conservation

69. Conferences about biodiversity conservation

70. References
Barbosa AM, Fontaneto D, Marini L & Pautasso M (2010) Is the human population a large-scale indicator of the species richness of ground beetles?
Animal Conservation 13: 432-441
Cantarello E, Steck CE, Fontana P, Fontaneto D, Marini L & Pautasso M (2010) A multi-scale study of Orthoptera species richness and human
population size controlling for sampling effort. Naturwissenschaften 97: 265-271
Golding J, Güsewell S, Kreft H, Kuzevanov VY, Lehvävirta S, Parmentier I & Pautasso M (2010) Species-richness patterns of the living collections
of the world's botanic gardens: a matter of socio-economics? Annals of Botany 105: 689-696
Pautasso M (2010) Worsening file-drawer problem in the abstracts of natural, medical and social science databases. Scientometrics 85: 193-202
Pautasso M & Chiarucci A (2008) A test of the scale-dependence of the species abundance-people correlation for veteran trees in Italy. Annals of
Botany 101: 709-715
Pautasso M & Dinetti M (2009) Avian species richness, human population and protected areas across Italy’s regions. Environmental Conservation
36: 22-31
Pautasso M & Fontaneto D (2008) A test of the species-people correlation for stream macro-invertebrates in European countries. Ecological
Applications 18: 1842-1849
Pautasso M & Parmentier I (2007) Are the living collections of the world’s botanical gardens following species-richness patterns observed in natural
ecosystems? Botanica Helvetica 117: 15-28
Pautasso M & Powell G (2009) Aphid biodiversity is correlated with human population in European countries. Oecologia 160: 839-846
Pautasso M & Weisberg PJ (2008) Density-area relationships: the importance of the zeros. Global Ecology and Biogeography 17: 203-210
Pautasso M & Zotti M (2009) Macrofungal taxa and human population in Italy's regions. Biodiversity & Conservation 18: 473-485
Pautasso M et al (2010) Plant health and global change – some implications for landscape management. Biological Reviews 85: 729-755
Pautasso M et al (2011) Global macroecology of bird assemblages in urbanized and semi-natural ecosystems. Global Ecology & Biogeography 20:
426-436
Pecher C, Fritz S, Marini L, Fontaneto D & Pautasso M (2010) Scale-dependence of the correlation between human population and the species
richness of stream macroinvertebrates. Basic Applied Ecology 11: 272-280
Schlick-Steiner B, Steiner F & Pautasso M (2008) Ants and people: a test of two mechanisms behind the large-scale human-biodiversity correlation
for Formicidae in Europe. Journal of Biogeography 35: 2195-2206
Steck CE & Pautasso M (2008) Human population, grasshopper and plant species richness in European countries. Acta Oecologica 34: 303-310