A New Framework to Assess Relative Ecosystem Vulnerability to Climate Change

Lee, Calvin K. F.; Duncan, Clare; Owen, Harry; Pettorelli, Nathalie

doi:10.1111/conl.12372

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vulnerability assessment is the premise for implementing conservation actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation [33,34]. At present, vulnerability assessments have been made predominantly at the species level [33,35], with only a few conducted at the ecosystem level [34,36]. While some efforts have been made to incorporate multiple-level indicators on mangrove ecosystem health [37], there are yet no reports simultaneously assessing the vulnerability at the species, population, community, and ecosystem levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can Strict Protection Stop the Decline of Mangrove Ecosystems in China? From Rapid Destruction to Rampant Degradation

Wang

Lee

et al. 2020

Forests

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China has lost about 50% of its mangrove forests from 1950 to 2001. Since 2001, mangrove forest area has increased by 1.8% per year due to strict protection of the remaining mangrove forests and large-scale restoration. By 2019, 67% of the mangrove forests in China had been enclosed within protected areas (PAs). In terms of the proportion of PAs of mangrove forests, China has achieved the conservation target of “Nature Needs Half”. The ongoing degradation of mangrove forests was assessed at the species, population, community and ecosystem levels. The results show that despite the strict protection, the remaining mangrove forests are suffering extensive degradation due to widespread anthropogenic disturbance. Of the 26 mangrove species, 50% are threatened with extinction, a proportion higher than the average for all higher plants in China (10.8%). Local extinction of some common species like Bruguiera gymnorhiza is widespread. About 53% of the existing mangrove areas were dominated by low-intertidal pioneer species. Consequently, the carbon stock in vegetation has decreased by 53.1%, from 21.8 Tg C in the 1950s to 10.2 Tg C in 2019. Meanwhile, there is an estimated 10.8% concomitant decrease in the carbon sequestration rate. The root cause for this degradation in China is seawall construction because most mangroves are outside seawalls in China. Without fundamental changes in protection and restoration strategies, mangrove forests in China will continue to degrade in spite of strict protection and large-scale restoration. Future mangrove conservation effort should aim to preserve the diversity of both the biota and the ecological processes sustaining the mangrove ecosystem. A few suggestions to raise the effectiveness of mangrove conservation actions were provided.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Strict Protection Stop the Decline of Mangrove Ecosystems in China? From Rapid Destruction to Rampant Degradation

Wang

Lee

et al. 2020

Forests

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“…For this reason, we envisioned the SES to be a single and coupled system where social and ecological components interact closely , López-Angarita et al 2014. Additionally, to date most approaches to dealing with coastal vulnerability have considered the ongoing and expected impacts of climate change (Beck 2014, Lee et al 2018) and overlooked other harmful structural and systemic factors driving vulnerability (Hinkel 2011, Tschakert et al 2013. To partially avoid this shortcoming, we used overfishing as a crucial environmental factor that is both affected by and affects the environment, food security, and livelihoods and is capable of triggering regime shifts in SESs.…”

Section: A Brief Review Of Vulnerability Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social-ecological trends: managing the vulnerability of coastal fishing communities

Silva¹,

Pennino²,

Lopes³

2019

E&S

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The loss of biodiversity, including the collapse of fish stocks, affects the vulnerability of social-ecological systems (SESs) and threatens local livelihoods. Incorporating community-centered indicators and SES drivers and exposures of change into coastal management can help anticipate and mitigate human and/or coastal vulnerability. We have proposed a new index to measure the socialecological vulnerability of coastal fishing communities (Index of Coastal Vulnerability [ICV]) based on species, ecosystem, and social indicators. The ICV varies from 0 (no vulnerability) to 1 (very high vulnerability) and is composed of 3 components: species vulnerability, i.e., fish biological traits; ecosystem vulnerability, i.e., environmental indicators of ecosystem health; and adaptive capacity, i.e., human ability to cope with changes. We tested the ICV of Brazil's 17 coastal states. The average ICV for the Brazilian coast was 0.77, and variation was low among states. More than half of the coastal states revealed very high vulnerability (> 0.8). The ecosystem vulnerability values were worse than the adaptive capacity and species vulnerability values, and the North and Northeast regions were revealed to be vulnerable hot spots. Additionally, we investigated how the ICV related to specific anthropogenic risks, i.e., fish landing richness, fishery instability, market, coastal extension, and coastal population, and found that states with fewer species landings and higher coastal populations presented higher ICVs. At a time when human impacts are overtaking natural processes, understanding how these impacts lead to coastal vulnerability can help improve conservation policies. For this case study, we suggest both fisheries management measures and restoration of sensitive habitats to protect species and decrease vulnerability. The integrated evaluation developed here could be used as a baseline for coastal monitoring and conservation planning and be applied to coastal regions in which governments evaluate both social and biological aspects.

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“…The consequences of ECEs on wildlife populations are difficult to observe and document (Fey et al, 2015) yet mitigating actions need to be designed and implemented. Geospatial information about recent ECEs is growing and can be used for the identification of areas and species most likely to be affected (Ameca y Juárez & Jiang, 2016; Lee et al, 2017). For recently exposed and intrinsically susceptible species, pre-existing or novel environmental stressors can lead to serious population declines (Craig et al, 1994;Munson et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, the stochasticity and spatiotemporal scale of ECEs, in particular of hurricanes, makes it difficult to predict future trends of exposure with any reliability(Seneviratne et al, 2012). Nevertheless, observations of recent past exposure are valuable for identifying species and ecosystems that may be less resilient to current and/or near-future threats, and hence inform adaptive management(Lee et al, 2017). This study illustrates how such identification process of vulnerable species may be conducted.Vulnerability to hurricane-driven population declines for the25 species assessed was not taxonomically homogenous.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative vulnerability to hurricane disturbance for endangered mammals in Mexico: a call for adaptation strategies under uncertainty

Ameca

Mace

Cowlishaw

et al. 2018

Animal Conservation

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Most climate change vulnerability assessments of species focus on characterizing the degree to which species are likely to be affected by changes in mean climatic conditions. Yet, there has been little progress in the explicit assessment of species vulnerability to extreme climatic events (ECEs) which have the potential to cause substantial environmental disturbance and potentially catastrophic declines of wildlife populations. Using a trait-based approach, we assessed the relative vulnerability of populations of wild animal species to hurricanes, focusing on 25 terrestrial mammals at high risk of extinction in Mexico. Our assessment uses biological traits associated with heightened sensitivity (low vagility and territoriality) and low adaptive capacity (restricted diet and habitat specialization) in relation to their predicted exposure to hurricanes, based on records of occurrence of hurricanes in their geographical range over the past 45 years. We found that territoriality was present in most of the species assessed (n = 20) followed by habitat specialization (n = 6), low vagility (n = 6) and diet specialization (n = 3). Two subspecies of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi vellerosus and A. g. yucatanensis), two howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra and Alouatta palliata mexicana) and the silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) all emerged from this assessment as highly-vulnerable to population declines from exposure to hurricanes. In the absence of any robust predictive framework for assessing risk to species from ECEs we suggest that the integration of data on hurricane exposure and species' intrinsic biology, as presented here, represents a coherent and informative basis for risk evaluation and the design of possible mitigation strategies.

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A New Framework to Assess Relative Ecosystem Vulnerability to Climate Change

Cited by 16 publications

References 35 publications

Can Strict Protection Stop the Decline of Mangrove Ecosystems in China? From Rapid Destruction to Rampant Degradation

Can Strict Protection Stop the Decline of Mangrove Ecosystems in China? From Rapid Destruction to Rampant Degradation

Social-ecological trends: managing the vulnerability of coastal fishing communities

Relative vulnerability to hurricane disturbance for endangered mammals in Mexico: a call for adaptation strategies under uncertainty

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