Trends in Ecology & Evolution
ReviewHow Should Beta-Diversity Inform Biodiversity Conservation?
Section snippets
Conservation Targets at Multiple Spatial Scales
As we enter the Anthropocene, humankind is reorganizing the biosphere [1]. Processes ranging from overhunting of large-bodied vertebrates [2] and moving alien species across biogeographic barriers [3] to wholesale clearing of natural habitats for agriculture [4] continue to erode biodiversity. Society values biodiversity at multiple spatial scales, with concerns ranging from local provision of ecosystem services [5] to global preservation of the intrinsic and instrumental value of species [6].
Diversity Loss and Spatial Scaling
Conservation planning requires detailed biodiversity data to inform actions ranging from land purchases and management 31, 32, 33 to agricultural policy and international carbon payments 34, 35, 36. However, our understanding of the magnitude of biodiversity loss (or gain) depends on the scale at which we measure it [37]. For example, local-scale patterns often suggest that diversity is maintained 38, 39, whereas global-scale patterns indicate that we are in the midst of an unprecedented
How Humans Have Impacted on Beta-Diversity
When human impacts are patchy in space, beta-diversity is likely to increase at the landscape scale 47, 48. However, human activities often generate completely novel landscapes, with unpredictable changes to alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity. We review here the beta-diversity impacts of five globally ubiquitous conservation issues. Our primary goal is to extract rules of thumb for interpreting alpha-scale studies of human disturbance, notwithstanding the potential for patterns of
Applications to Conservation Management
By revealing the spatial scaling of diversity loss and the mechanistic underpinnings of diversity maintenance, beta-diversity has much to offer conservation science. We discuss here the application of beta-diversity to specific longstanding problems in conservation management.
Concluding Remarks and Future Directions
Much of what we know in conservation science comes from studies conducted in small areas. Detailed gamma-diversity data will likely never exist for most of the globe, especially at regional scales and in understudied remote tropical regions. Therefore, we need to better understand processes and patterns underlying the maintenance and loss of beta-diversity to effectively conserve gamma-diversity [12]. We need to examine how beta-diversity responds during land-use change to understand when and
Acknowledgments
We thank Paul Elsen, Xingli Giam, Bethanne Bruninga-Socolar, David Wilcove, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful discussions and comments. J.B.S. was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) award; J.J.G. by a Norwegian Research Council fellowship awarded to D.P.E.; W.E.K. was supported by the European Commission Framework Programme 7 (FP7) EU-BON project.
Glossary
- Alpha-diversity
- the species diversity of a relatively small area, frequently expressed as species richness or other low-order Hill number [29]. For the purposes of this review, alpha-diversity corresponds to the scales at which biodiversity studies commonly make measurements (i.e., diversity of a quadrat, plot, or study site).
- Beta-diversity
- the component of gamma-diversity (see below) that accumulates as a result of differences between sites. Includes heterogeneity resulting from including
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