Threatened species and the spatial concentration of humans

Pandit, Ram; Laband, David N.

doi:10.1007/s10531-006-9140-8

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The EKC findings for woodland, shrubland, and wetland bird populations in this study are complementary to previous EKC findings for threatened bird species (i.e., Naidoo & Adamowicz 2001;McPherson & Nieswiadomy 2005;Pandit & Laband 2007a, 2007b. Why an EKC was not found for urban and grassland bird populations, however, is unclear.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

“…In the context of our study, it follows that increases in human population density may negatively affect bird populations through habitat fragmentation and loss and positively affect bird populations through increased public awareness of habitat loss and the resulting pressure to enact conservation policies that help maintain and enhance wildlife habitat (e.g., wildlife reserves). In related studies, others have found evidence that increasing population densities tend to increase the percentage or number of threatened bird species (Kerr & Currie 1995;McKinney 2001;McKee et al 2003;Pandit & Laband 2007a). On the other hand, relationships between human population density and birds vary, depending on various modeling specifications (Dietz & Adger 2003;McPherson & Nieswiadomy 2005;Pandit & Laband 2007b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, researchers have used bird species as environmental-quality indicators in EKC studies (e.g., Naidoo & Adamowicz 2001;Asafu-Adjaye 2003;Dietz & Adger 2003;McPherson & Nieswiadomy 2005;Pandit & Laband 2007a, 2007b. Birds have been cited as good indicators of environmental quality because they are relatively high in the food chain, are highly mobile, have relatively long life spans, are pleasing to the eye, and are easy to identify (Furness et al 1993;Bibby 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis with Bird Populations as Habitat‐Specific Environmental Indicators: Evidence from Canada

Lantz

Martı́nez-Espiñeira

2008

Conservation Biology

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The traditional environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis postulates that environmental degradation follows an inverted U-shaped relationship with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. We tested the EKC hypothesis with bird populations in 5 different habitats as environmental quality indicators. Because birds are considered environmental goods, for them the EKC hypothesis would instead be associated with a U-shaped relationship between bird populations and GDP per capita. In keeping with the literature, we included other variables in the analysis-namely, human population density and time index variables (the latter variable captured the impact of persistent and exogenous climate and/or policy changes on bird populations over time). Using data from 9 Canadian provinces gathered over 37 years, we used a generalized least-squares regression for each bird habitat type, which accounted for the panel structure of the data, the cross-sectional dependence across provinces in the residuals, heteroskedasticity, and fixed- or random-effect specifications of the models. We found evidence that supports the EKC hypothesis for 3 of the 5 bird population habitat types. In addition, the relationship between human population density and the different bird populations varied, which emphasizes the complex nature of the impact that human populations have on the environment. The relationship between the time-index variable and the different bird populations also varied, which indicates there are other persistent and significant influences on bird populations over time. Overall our EKC results were consistent with those found for threatened bird species, indicating that economic prosperity does indeed act to benefit some bird populations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis with Bird Populations as Habitat‐Specific Environmental Indicators: Evidence from Canada

Lantz

Martı́nez-Espiñeira

2008

Conservation Biology

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“…In a cross-country context, a number of factors, both natural and anthropogenic, that influence species' ecological imperilment have been confirmed empirically by previous researchers (Naidoo and Adamowicz 2001;McPherson and Nieswiadomy 2005;Pandit and Laband 2007c). These include species endemism, human population density, the spatial distribution of the human population, economic conditions (per capita income), and special geographic considerations.…”

Section: Model Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Economic Freedom, Corruption, and Species Imperilment: A Cross-Country Analysis

Pandit

Laband

2009

Society & Natural Resources

Self Cite

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We weave together two strands of the scientific literature: we have been presented with the proposition that economic freedom and corruption are linked to economic prosperity and with the proposition that economic prosperity is related to environmental degradation. The question we explore empirically is whether economic freedom and corruption are linked, albeit perhaps indirectly through economic prosperity, to environmental degradation. Using data from 152 countries, we estimate models of factors that influence species imperilment and, controlling for cross-border effects, find evidence across several taxa groups of a statistically significant relationship between economic freedom and species imperilment. However, we find consistent evidence of a similar relationship between corruption and species imperilment for only one taxa group.The nations that have the best track records on environmental protection and improvement are those with the highest amount of free-market capitalism. (Aldrich and Lehr 2006, 15) Economic freedom and corruption perception indices have been widely used in the economic growth literature, as researchers investigate possible linkages between these indices and the distribution of economic performance across countries. The empirical literature is divided on the effect of economic freedom and corruption on economic growth. One strand of this literature suggests a positive and significant relationship

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“…However, high numbers of people have been frequently shown to pose a threat to species (e.g., Kirkland and Ostfeld 1999;Thompson and Jones 1999;Cincotta et al 2000;Scharlemann et al 2005). Since the relation between the spatial concentration of people and presence of threatened species is likely to suffer from scaledependence and could differ amongst taxa (Pandit and Laband 2007;Pautasso 2007) there is the need for an assessment of this issue also for fungi over a range of scales.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrofungal taxa and human population in Italy’s regions

Pautasso

Zotti

2008

Biodivers Conserv

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Fungi are relatively understudied, particularly in terms of biogeographical patterns. We analyse whether there is a spatial correlation between macrofungi (Basidiomycota) and human population (both in terms of size and rate of change) in Italy's regions. Although current fungal taxonomic richness increases with increasing number of inhabitants (censused in 1986 and 2006 and predicted for 2026) and with their density, these relationships are not significant when controlling for variations in area amongst regions. This result, along with other recent independent studies, suggests that the large-scale spatial correlation of people and species can be often explained by both variables correlating with a third factor such as area, habitat heterogeneity or energy availability. Macrofungal richness significantly increases with percentage of forest cover, but not with percentage of protected area, suggesting that the conservation of Italian fungi needs to be addressed also outside the current network of national and regional nature reserves. The absence of any significant association of the estimate of macrofungal taxa with human population change observed in the last and predicted for the next two decades implies that there is no current clear trend towards a change of the ratio between macrofungal taxa and human presence at this scale of analysis. Further work at a higher resolution is needed to assess the consequences for Italy's fungal biodiversity of the abandonment of marginal land and the expansion of urbanized areas in regions of high environmental productivity.

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Threatened species and the spatial concentration of humans

Cited by 16 publications

References 24 publications

Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis with Bird Populations as Habitat‐Specific Environmental Indicators: Evidence from Canada

Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis with Bird Populations as Habitat‐Specific Environmental Indicators: Evidence from Canada

Economic Freedom, Corruption, and Species Imperilment: A Cross-Country Analysis

Macrofungal taxa and human population in Italy’s regions

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