Biodiversity clock and conservation triangle: Integrative platform for biodiversity monitoring, evaluation, and preemptive conservation intervention

Abstract

25Business-as-usual is no more an option on the table for biodiversity conservation. Disruptive 26 transformation at both policy and polity levels are pressing needs. The possibilities presented by 27 the current wave of information and communication technology can act as travelators to meet the 28 conservation targets. Here, we introduce twin concepts of biodiversity clock and conservation 29 triangle that posit as convergence plane to seamlessly consolidate ongoing discrete efforts and 30 convey real-time biodiversity information in a lucid schematic form. In its present form, the 31 biodiversity clock depicts 12 ecological and 6 biophysical components. The universal 32 consistency in clock-reading facilitates the biodiversity clock to be read and interpreted 33 identically across the world. A ternary plot of the International Union of Conservation of Nature 34 (IUCN) species conservation status is presented as the conservation triangle. Together, the 35 biodiversity clock and the conservation triangle are invaluable in strategizing biodiversity 36 conservation, post-2020. Leveraged smartly, they make possible pre-emptive intervention for 37 biodiversity conservation. 38 Introduction 40 Biological diversity is a strategic investment made by nature that ensures perpetual competition 41 and progressive improvement of life forms. Individual species, like entrepreneurs, scout for 42 opportunities (niches) within and beyond their native habitats. Successful entrepreneurs acquire 43 more niches, gain a competitive edge, and become keystone assets. The synchronized orchestra 44 of different life forms generates value-added (ecosystem) services. As an immaculate 45 bandmaster, nature has designed seamless ways to ensure cooperative-competition among 3 46 different species. However, unlike the notion of collective action in human societies [1], 47individual cost-benefits in the natural schema are conjoined with that of the whole. The splice 48 ensures no free lunch and preempts a proprietary claim to the ecosystem services by any species. 49All species have to contribute in order to enjoy the benefits of value-added services. The system 50 satiates both the micro and macro contributors. While the former gets a habitat, the status of the 51 latter (keystones) is imaginary, sans the former. 52The total productivity of an ecosystem is linked to the individual productivity of all constituent 53 species and is governed by the limiting factor resource [2]. Nature has designed the system in 54 such a way as to predominantly expend the value-added services, in-situ. The design of activities 55 (biotic-biotic, biotic-abiotic and abiotic-abiotic interactions) and the spatio-temporal distribution 56 of resources within (eco) systems, help to generate unique services. Within a stable structural 57 ensemble, ecosystems remain sustainable and productive. Here too, the ingenuity of the 58 bandmaster is on display. Albeit stable, structural ensembles are not rigid. They are amenable to 59 gradual changes, which in-turn coerce the vying...