Publisher :
Place of publication :
Publication year : 0
Thematic : Conservation
Language : English
Note
Networks of no-take reserves are important for
protecting coral reef biodiversity from climate change and
other human impacts. Ensuring that reserve populations are
connected to each other and non-reserve populations by
larval dispersal allows for recovery from disturbance and is
a key aspect of resilience. In general, connectivity between
reserves should increase as the distance between them
decreases. However, enhancing connectivity may often
tradeoff against a network’s ability to representatively
sample the system’s natural variability. This ‘‘representation’’
objective is typically measured in terms of species
richness or diversity of habitats, but has other important
elements (e.g., minimizing the risk that multiple reserves
will be impacted by catastrophic events). Such representation
objectives tend to be better achieved as reserves
become more widely spaced. Thus, optimizing the location,
size and spacing of reserves requires both an understanding
of larval dispersal and explicit consideration of how well
the network represents the broader system; indeed the lack
of an integrated theory for optimizing tradeoffs between
connectivity and representation objectives has inhibited the
incorporation of connectivity into reserve selection algorithms.
This article addresses these issues by (1) updating
general recommendations for the location, size and spacing
of reserves based on emerging data on larval dispersal in
corals and reef fishes, and on considerations for maintaining
genetic diversity; (2) using a spatial analysis of the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to examine potential
tradeoffs between connectivity and representation of biodiversity
and (3) describing a framework for incorporating
environmental fluctuations into the conceptualization of the
tradeoff between connectivity and representation, and that
expresses both in a common, demographically meaningful
currency, thus making optimization possible.
Go to source
Keywords : Ochotona thibetana
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
