Network of Conservation Educators & Practitioners Biogeography in Conservation: Tools to Explore the Past and Future of Species in a Changing World Author(s): Carlos Alberto Arnillas, Sandy M. Smith, Felicity J. N, and Adam Martin Source: Lessons in Conservation, Vol. 9, Issue 1, pp. 55-94 Published by: Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History Stable URL: ncep.amnh.org/linc This article is featured in Lessons in Conservation, the official journal of the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP). NCEP is a collaborative project of the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) and a number of institutions and individuals around the world. Lessons in Conservation is designed to introduce NCEP teaching and learning resources (or “modules”) to a broad audience. NCEP modules are designed for undergraduate and professional level education. These modules—and many more on a variety of conservation topics—are available for free download at our website, ncep.amnh.org. To learn more about NCEP, visit our website: ncep.amnh.org. All reproduction or distribution must provide full citation of the original work and provide a copyright notice as follows: “Copyright 2019, by the authors of the material and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.” Illustrations obtained from the American Museum of Natural History’s library: EXERCISE 55 Biogeography in Conservation: Tools to Explore the Past and Future of Species in a Changing World Carlos Alberto Arnillasi, Sandy M. Smithii, Felicity J. Nii,iii, and Adam Martiniv iUniversity of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, CA; iiUniversity of Toronto, Faculty of Forestry, Toronto, Ontario, CA; iiiUniversity of Toronto, School of the Environment, Toronto, Ontario, CA; ivUniversity of Toronto Scarborough, Centre for Critical Development Studies, Toronto, Ontario, CA ABSTRACT Humans have now altered essentially every natural ecosystem in the world, and among the numerous consequences of anthropogenic global change, many of the Earth’s species are currently living under drastically different environmental and ecological conditions. On one hand, many species that once thrived in the wild are now threatened by extinction, while at the same time, species that were historically benign are becoming invasive in different parts of the world. To address this major challenge, it is critical that conservation practitioners understand the multiple short- and long-term climatological, geological, and evolutionary mechanisms that have resulted in the current distribution of species; understanding how these same mechanisms interact is also key in predicting species distributions—and possible extinctions—into the future. Using the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an open-access worldwide database of species occurrences, this research project exercise is designed to guide teams of students through the process of: a) identifying and researching characteristics relevant to understanding species distribution (e.g., age of the group, habitat requirements, dispersal capabilities); b) representing the present and historic species distribution; c) critically assessing the quality and amount of information available; d) using that information to understand species history and potential future challenges the species may either face or impose on the ecosystems; and e) sharing the results with peers and learning from that experience. LEARNING OBJECTIVES A"er completing this research project exercise, students will be able to: 1. Understand the methods used to study both current and historical species distributions; 2. Use open-access biodiversity databases to record, map, and model the distribution of selected taxa; 3. Use basic database management tools to analyze, interpret, and communicate scientific data on species distributions graphically, orally, and in wri$en reports; 4. Interpret and apply biodiversity data in the context of informing biodiversity conservation planning and policy; and finally, 5. Critically evaluate the potential use and limitations of open-access biodiversity databases, in understanding species historical and current distributions. BACKGROUND Biodiversity Conservation in the Anthropocene At the same time, anthropogenic climate change now threatens to completely redraw the geographic map The fate of animals, plants, and arguably entire of life on this planet. Increasingly, scientific evidence ecosystems or biomes, is in the midst of unprecedented suggests that these massive, global anthropogenic change as a result of human action (Ladle and Whi$aker changes in the composition of ecosystems are unique 2011, Pachauri et al. 2014). Currently, scientists, env- on geological timescales, which is one of the reasons our ironmentalists, policy-makers, and citizens recognize current geological era—the “Anthropocene” or the “Era of that the structure, function, and composition of many the Human”—is becoming more widely acknowledged as habitats worldwide have been completely destroyed or a distinct period of Earth’s history (Crutzen 2002). severely damaged by human activity (Richardson and Whi$aker 2010). Of the numerous impacts humans have While some species are able to thrive in the had on the natural world, among the most prominent Anthropocene, evidence suggests that the vast majo- are both deliberate and accidental changes in the rity of species face a higher degree of susceptibility composition of species across all taxonomic kingdoms. to anthropogenic changes, which in turn results LESSONS IN CONSERVATION VOLUME 9 JANUARY 2019 56 EXERCISE in: a) reduced local or global population numbers; reproductive fitness of different individuals or species b) increased rates of local or global extinction; in response to climatic change. Such factors in turn and ultimately, c) increased likelihood of species exert major controls on species demographics and compositional change in essentially all ecosystems effective population sizes, and the commonness or globally (McKinney and Lockwood 1999). From a stri- rarity of species (Sahney et al. 2010). At the same ctly human perspective, the consequences of such time, anthropogenic influences are creating scenarios changes for ecosystems services that people directly (or “natural experiments”) where biogeographers can rely on, such as clean air or water provisioning, are observe in real-time how species arise, the conditions difficult to predict (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of global change under which different species flourish 2005). or decay, and the key determinants of speciation, dispersal, and extinction (Kueffer 2015). Integrating Conservation Biology and Biogeography While the principles of biogeography tend to relate Conservation biology—a term first coined as recently to “bigger picture” changes in the Earth systems, its as 1978 (Douglas 1978)—is an applied field of scientific conceptual tools and methods are widely applied to study that focuses on understanding spatial and address real world conservation problems. Indeed, the temporal pa$erns in the Earth’s biodiversity, with the principles of biogeography inform the conservation aim of managing species, their habitats, and ecosystems, of species globally and are now well reflected in the in order to prevent their extinction (Soulé 1985, Soulé emergence of the sub-discipline of “conservation bio- 1986). To predict the fate of key species and ecosystems, geography” (Whi$aker et al. 2005). For example, the and ultimately prescribe solutions, conservation biology “Island Theory of Biogeography” is arguably one of draws on tools and methods employed in many fields the most important guiding principles in conservation of study including fundamental taxonomy-based sci- biology to date, as can be seen in the debate as to ences, such as botany and zoology, as well as more whether single-large or several-small conservation quantitative predictive sciences, such as population areas are the most effective in conserving biodiversity and community ecology. Because potential solutions to (commonly referred to as the “SLOSS debate”; e.g., prevent biodiversity loss must be implemented by people Tjørve 2010). Additionally, new tools are improving our at different scales (e.g., local, regional, global), con- capacity to link conservation biology with biogeography, servation biology is structured as an interdisciplinary including: a) global databases on species occurrences and active research field, with critical participation from (e.g., the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF); biologists, social scientists, economists, policy-makers, Box 1), climate data (e.g., WorldClim), and geography and engaged citizens. and geomorphology (e.g., the Shu$le Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)) and b) free computing so"ware that has Complementary to conservation biology, is biogeo- high computational power (e.g., R Statistical So"ware, graphy: the field of study focused on understanding Maxent species modeling so"ware). Coupled with the processes that give rise to the spatial distribution of rapidly expanding Internet access, these tools continue species. While biogeography and conservation biology to increase our capacity to analyze and interpret current undoubtedly share certain elements, biogeography biogeographic trends, and use this information to focuses more specifically