Abstracts cover:Layout 1 2009/09/28 8:47 AM Page 1 BIODIVERSITY AND SOCIETY UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS, ADAPTING TO CHANGE A B S T R A C T S DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference 2 13 – 16 October 2009 CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA CONTENTS w w w. d i v e r s i t a s - i n t e r n a t i o n a l . o r g NB: This is an interactive programme. To go to an abstract, click on the letter corresponding to the initial of the first author’s last name. To come back to this Content page, click on “Back to content” on lower right corner of each page. Contents Plenary speakers Symposiums overview Symposiums A-D E-H I-L M-O P-Z Orals A-D E-H I-L M-O P-Z Posters A-D E-H I-L M-O P-Z Plenary speakers • • • • 3 • • • • Plenary speakers Brown George, Lavelle Patrick, Jackson Louise, Brussaard Lijbert Unearthing below-ground biodiversity: Management and conservation implications Embrapa Florestas, Ecology, Brazil, [email protected] Plenary session Soils are living entities and the home of a vast diversity of organisms, with a broad range of body sizes (from bacteria to earthworms), feeding strategies, and life habits. The great spatial and temporal variability in soils promotes a complex niche structure and an incredibly dense packing of species: a typical healthy soil may have a few species of vertebrates, springtails and oligochaetes, dozens of species of nematodes, spiders, mites and myriapods, more than one hundred species of insects and fungi and perhaps thousands of species of bacteria and actinomycetes. This may be the case even when the diversity of above-ground species is much lower, e.g., in agroecosystems. This myriad of animal and microbial community provides a range of essential functions and ecosystem services, including: biocontrol of pests, parasites and diseases; decomposition; nutrient cycling; carbon sequestration; soil formation; alteration of physical properties (especially porosity and aggregation), that affect soil stability, erodibility, gas exchanges, C sequestration, water runoff, infiltration and storage capacity; sources of food for indigenous human societies; plant pollination; plant growth control (both positive and/or negative). Nevertheless, this vital and dynamic subterranean ecosystem is often unrecognized, little understood and therefore mismanaged. Human decisions regarding landscape use and management play a crucial role in the determination of several factors important to the maintenance of active and beneficial soil communities. For instance, the conversion of natural habitats and the intensification of agriculture represent major threats to soil biodiversity and soil quality, but with appropriate landscape and farm management practices, negative effects can be abated and positive synergies can be promoted. Several international projects and initiatives are presently studying these issues, and the challenges involved and the progress obtained thus far will be explored. Keywords: soils, biodiversity, agricultural sustainability, landscape, ecosystem services Daily Gretchen, Polasky Stephen, Kareiva Peter, Goldstein Joshua, Pejchar Liba, Ricketts Taylor Ecosystem Services in Decision-Making: Time to Deliver Stanford University, Biology, USA, [email protected] Plenary session Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if institutions recognize the values of Nature, then we can greatly enhance investments in conservation and foster human well-being at the same time. In practice, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, and the policy and finance mechanisms, for integrating natural capital into resource and land-use decisions on a large scale. We propose a conceptual framework and sketch a strategic plan to deliver on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from around the world. We introduce InVEST, a decision-support system for quantifying the ecosystem services produced under alternative scenarios. And we describe the Natural Capital Project, an international effort to advance the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments. Keywords: biodiversity, InVEST, Natural Capital Project, production functions, tradeoffs Dobson Andrew The ecological role of parasites and infectious disease in a changing world Princeton University, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, USA, [email protected] Plenary session The best available estimates suggest that parasitic species comprise around forty percent of biodiversity; the remaining 60% are hosts and essential resources for the parasitic species. These proportions could easily be reversed, we simply have too few people identifying and enumerating parasite biodiversity. Detailed examination of the few natural food-webs that have included parasites suggest that around 80% of the links involve a parasite species. We know from detailed field studies of a limited number of host-parasite systems that parasites can have profound impacts on host fitness and abundance. In this talk I will give examples from three or four different systems where we can examine the impact of parasitic species at the level of the host population, community level and at the level of the whole ecosystem. Geographically, we will visit the backyards of New England, the few remaining grasslands of California, the salt marshes of Mexico and the savannahs of East Africa. My ultimate goal is to persuade you that any understanding we have of how natural systems operate, or how we might manage them, will fall far short of being comprehensive if it ignores the central role that parasites and infectious disease play in determining their structure and function. Keywords: parasite, foodweb, Serengeti, salt marsh, biodiversity • • • • 5 • • • • Plenary speakers Mace Georgina Biodiversity science and the post 2010 Biodiversity targets Imperial College London, Life Sciences, UK Plenary session Over the past 20 years there has been considerable progress in understanding how biodiversity underpins ecosystem processes and functions, and therefore how it contributes to ecosystem services. More recently, especially since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the studies that developed from it, we understand the importance of recognising and valuing the full range of ecosystem services, and managing our ecosystems accordingly. These two lines of evidence can provide a firm footing for developing goals and targets for biodiversity. In this presentation I will discuss this in the context of targets to be adopted after 2010. I will outline some new approaches that can inform and be informed by biodiversity science. Keywords: targets, ecosystems, policy, global, research priorities Midgley Guy Projecting biodiversity responses to climate change: Playing dice, dominoes, or just plain dubious? South African National Biodiversity Institute, Climate Change and Bioadaptation Division, South Africa, [email protected] Plenary session What are the best ways forward for projecting the responses of species, communities and ecosystems to climate change? Have such projections provided any useful information at all so far? Should we continue to refine and elaborate existing methods, or abandon them and invent new ones? Is the challenge currently simply beyond our ability? Are species responses stochastic and independent (dice model), or are they deterministic and interdependent (domino model)? These are all questions that continue to plague the community of ecologists engaged in projecting the impacts of climate change. It is important and urgent to make credible progress on this issue because there is a growing need to develop adaptive responses to climate change. The investment in adaptive responses for conservation and sustainable development objectives is likely to be dependent on the nature, the sensitivity, and the vulnerability of the biodiversity response. Up to now, a mixed bag of approaches has evolved to model the responses of species and higher levels of ecological organization to climate change. It is possible to identify a patchy landscape of methods with some areas of high skill interspersed with large knowledge and integration gaps. One way to make progress is to pursue the linking up of areas of expertise to create more coherent and self- consistent tool boxes. Ways to check the progression of impacts against projections will become increasingly critical to developing robust methods of projection. I will attempt to draw these threads together and suggest how a co-ordinated international focus could satisfy a key need for more reliable projections of biodiversity responses, and could provide guidance on where to play dice and where to play dominoes. Keywords: climate change, biodiversity, uncertainty, fire, elevated CO2 Muthiga Nyawira Linking science to management: the case of managing coral reefs in East Africa Wildlife Conservation Society, Marine Program, Kenya, [email protected] Plenary session The marine and coastal resources of the East African region provide ecological, economic and social resources for millions of people. Anthropogenic pressures including overfishing and climate change threaten these resources. Contrary to expectations that the ecological and social diversity of the region will present insurmountable challenges, this very diversity provides opportunities for testing innovative ways to address management.