The Effects of Seasonal Hypoxia on the Spatial Distribution of Protected Marine Species and Apex Predators in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Hypoxia (dissolved oxygen, DO, ≤2.0 mg/l) is a growing problem within marine systems that results primarily from high levels of nitrogen in fresh water runoff. The inherent interplay between terrestrial and marine stakeholders makes hypoxia a particularly challenging issue. Low DO can lead to mortality for sessile organisms and altered habitat for fishes and other upper trophic level species. Prior studies have shown that forage fishes can avoid bottom water hypoxia by aggregating near hypoxic edges. This study investigates the effects of riverine inputs and hypoxia-induced shifts in the distribution of prey species on protected species (sea turtles and dolphins) and apex predators (sharks). For four summers, synoptic aerial and oceanographic surveys were conducted within the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (seasonal hypoxic events can be >20,000 km2). Using spatial interpolations, electivity indices, and generalized models, we found evidence that the spatial distributions of these marine megafauna are altered in the vicinity of the hypoxic zone, but patterns are complex and vary by species. Understanding the indirect effects of hypoxia on top predators and protected species may influence commercial fishery bycatch standards and support downsizing intensive farming operations on land. Our data also suggests the presence of a biodiversity hotspot associated with the Mississippi River plume. Elucidating fluctuations in its location could guide the establishment of a marine reserve.

Weeds infestations can easily cross property boundaries. As a result one individual’s decision to manage or not manage a weed can affect everyone else in the surrounding area, and the success of large scale weed control programs. This makes it imperative to understand how human behavior affects coordination of local management efforts, and subsequently persistence and spread of weed species at landscape scales. I will look at what game theory and agent based models can teach us about how individual manager behavior interacts with weed population ecology. One recurrent finding is that while coordination is very important for weed control, it is likely to be difficult to achieve in large groups of weed mangers. We use an agent based model to show that high social or economic cost can help coordinate weed management. Social cost was only important if it was independent of weed prevalence, suggesting that early access to information, and incentives to act on that information, may be crucial in stopping a weed infesting large areas. Our results show that the behavior of individual land managers can have a large effect on a weeds extent at the landscape scale, even if each individual weed manager only had access to a small part of that landscape.

Many conservation policies are based on the idea that secure property rights prevent the overexploitation of resources. Evidence from studies of fisheries indicate that secure property rights do not necessarily prevent "roving bandits," who have high levels of mobility and low levels of dependence on a particular resource, from overexploiting resources they own, and then moving on. In this paper we conduct an exploratory case-based examination to test whether roving bandits are present in forest conservation. As sessile resources, forests do not require an inherent level of user mobility, and thus may not encourage roving banditry the way that fisheries do. However, as slow-growing resources they may provide additional incentives for resource users to "cut and run" from one resource system to the next. To test for the presence of and explore the mechanisms behind roving banditry in forest conservation, we use published literature to examine the behavior of forest product firms in the United States and Southeast Asia. With heavily capitalized forest industries, these two areas represent likely cases for the existence of roving banditry. We find evidence of roving banditry in some, but not all, forest products firms in these regions, and conduct a systematic comparison of cases that exhibit and do not exhibit roving banditry in order to assess policy options that may prevent roving bandits from destroying forests.

Protected areas are the cornerstone of global conservation efforts yet despite their importance our knowledge of the financial resources required to effectively manage them is remarkably poor. For the vast majority of protected areas we have little understanding of what is being spent, what should be spent or what factors drive costs. Here I present the results of a project to answer these questions in some of Queensland's 10 million hectares of protected estate. I present estimates of current spending broken down by separate management activities and calculations of the extra funding required to meet all stated management objectives. The results show that currently when funding is constrained managers prioritize activities which are unrelated to biodiversity such as maintenance of visitor facilities, leaving biodiversity related activities especially underfunded. Analysis using mixed effect models shows that the key factors driving variation in spending levels changes with location within Queensland, however it is clear that visitor numbers, ecosystem type and the frequency of extreme meteorological events are important drivers of costs. These new data offer the opportunity to gain a much improved understanding of the costs of managing protected areas effectively; which in turn will lead to better spatial planning and improved allocation of limited funds across protected area networks.

Accurate baseline data are crucial for establishing the extent of species declines and their threat status. Whilst conservationists can often access species occurrence data on decadal time scales, reliable information from older periods can be rare or seldom used, leading to so-called 'extinction filters' where populations and species lost prior to historical memory are omitted from conservation research. I used a comprehensive database of c.20,000 zooarchaeological records and regional last occurrence data of European large mammals to track their distributions in ArcGIS over the past 10,000 years (the 'Holocene' epoch), a period of relative climatic stability. This enabled analysis of range contractions for extant species as well as species which were already highly threatened or extinct prior to the industrial 'historical era'. Overall results indicated that most large mammal ranges have fluctuated in response to human activity rather than remained stable throughout the Holocene. Spatial trajectories over time were species-specific and several large herbivores appear to have been impacted more heavily and earlier than carnivores, challenging current consensus on the particular vulnerability of large carnivores. The research demonstrates the importance of linking ecology and conservation with disciplines such as archaeology and palaeontology in order to understand long-term declines and extinction risk even for apparently well-studied species and regions.

Conservationists have recently recognized that conservation planning does not happen in a vacuum. To effectively integrate conservation with land use, resource management, and infrastructure planning, it is necessary to engage the various sector agencies in multi-objective planning. While several difficulties must be overcome, primarily from the stove-pipe history of such planning, the development of information workflows supported by software tools can lower the bar for such collaborative planning. The complexity of such spatial planning requires the use of a variety of specialized tools including ecological modeling tools, ecosystem process tools, sector-specific modeling tools such as urban growth modeling, and a variety of conservation assessment, optimization, and planning tools. This session will provide a methodology for visualizing the information workflow among sectors using a scenario-based planning approach and identifying and integrating tools into the workflow. The approach will be illustrated with several examples applied to integrated land-sea planning, managed area planning, land use planning, and infrastructure planning. The approach was recently published in the Journal of Conservation Planning and participants will be provided with links to technical guides that detail the methodology.

Illegal wildlife trade is ranked as the third largest illegal trade after drugs and weapons in scope and value. An increasing demand for wildlife is putting a strain on wild populations through unsustainable harvesting, resulting in possible extinction in the wild. Southeast Asia is the hub for international wildlife trade as key consumer and supplier Wildlife trade is a multi-faceted commerce continuum involving a number of different actors along the complex harvester to end-consumer supply chain. Traders are the suppliers to the end-consumer who drive demand for live animals for the exotic, live pet trade and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). There is currently very limited research and literature in aligning socio-economic aspects into illegal wildlife trade, yet economic and social factors drive demand and supply. Understanding motivational drivers, demographic and socio-economic factors and social & cultural values allows for long-term solutions to combat this conservation challenge. I conducted semi-structured interviews with traders at six live, pet markets in Jakarta and Bali to understand the traders' socioeconomic profile and demography and gain an insight of their perceptions, attitudes and behaviours using 12 focal species as a point of reference. Conservation actions are based on human behaviours. Any solution requires a multidisciplinary approach and include all the major stakeholders from hunter, trader to end-consumer.

Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea is one of the most important places in Africa for primate conservation, but a lack of effective law enforcement has encouraged commercial bushmeat hunting, which now threatens the remaining primate populations. Since, 1997, the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program has recorded over 41,000 primates in the market of the capital, Malabo, documenting both a "mardi gras" phenomenon in consumption patterns, and the negative effects resulting from government intervention. Nevertheless, the relationship between market dynamics and the status of wild populations is poorly understood, detracting from the efficacy of conservation efforts. To address this, surveys were conducted to assess how the relative abundance of monkey species varied spatially in relation to differing degrees of hunting intensity. Overall, primate abundance decreased as hunting intensity increased, while variation existed in species specific responses to hunting levels. Our data suggest that terrain features and a steady research presence have afforded some populations a modicum of protection; however, given current bushmeat trends, an absence of enforcement, and rapid development allowing greater access to remote areas, these modest defenses will be short lived. We conclude that in addition to institutionalized support and effective law enforcement, current monitoring efforts should be nationalized and expanded to provide economic incentives for public conservation.

There are currently more than 1300 endangered and threatened domestic species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have developed joint guidance for the development of recovery plans to guide the development and implementation of individually tailored recovery programs to return these species to a point where they no longer need to be listed under the ESA. The current guidance was developed in 2004 and was designed to create effective recovery programs based on the best science available at the time of plan development. The agencies are currently working on updates and revisions to this guidance, focusing on 3 areas in particular. The revisions are intended to enable more precise development of recovery criteria, make plans more useful for agency biologists applying the section 7 consultation provisions of the ESA, and facilitate easier adaptation to new information as it becomes available.

Multiple-use plant species are commercially logged, provide food for wildlife, and non-timber forest products for human populations. In the neotropics the range of these species inevitably straddles a diversity of land ownership arrangements, including indigenous lands, State-owned properties, and protected areas, where different approaches to resource management persist. For rare species different management approaches could potentially push them towards extinction. The probabilistic distribution of six locally-rare and four abundant species was examined to determine how they may be impacted by gold mining on State-owned lands. Species were mapped at fourteen Southern Guyana study sites within a 50,000 km2 study area and their distribution characteristics used to generate probabilistic landscape-level distribution models. All species, rare and abundant, showed probabilistic distribution on State-owned and indigenous lands and within protected areas. Distribution on State-owned lands subjects species to gold mining pressures, which are increasing with the climbing market price for gold and leading to higher demands for mining permits. Current approaches to gold mining in the neotropics involve widespread removal of trees regardless of their conservation status or ecological importance. Sustainable management of these resources therefore requires reformation of codes of practices for gold mining and inputs from all stakeholders at the landscape-level.

Citizen science projects are gaining popularity in herpetological research and conservation. The use of citizen science projects to document amphibian and reptile distribution patterns has increased over the past decade with global, national, and regional projects being initiated. The Maryland Amphibian and Reptile Atlas (MARA) was launched in 2010. It is a five-year, citizen science project to document the distribution of all the herpetofauna in Maryland. A variety of approaches are being used to engage the public in the MARA, including the use of web-based social media, electronic newsletters, live animal exhibits, a dedicated project website, a smartphone mapping application, and online data submission. These efforts resulted in 788 volunteers participating in the project to date. Additionally, the MARA has been used as a project in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in some public schools in Maryland. At the mid-point of the project, 20,612 animal sightings during 18,823 active survey hours have documented 88 of Maryland's 93 species. The MARA will establish a baseline by which future changes in the distribution of native herpetofauna can be assessed. As a citizen science project it has the added benefit of educating citizens about native herpetofauna, an important step in creating an informed society that actively participates in the long-term conservation of Maryland's nature heritage.

With the future of funding for conservation projects and research being uncertain, it is crucial that scientists rally public support for science. The Clarion-Limestone Amphibian Research Center (CLARC) is a model for promoting science and conservation to the public on a local-scale. Located on the grounds of a public school district in Clarion, Pennsylvania, this facility brings university, high school, and elementary students together in herpetological conservation and research. Projects utilizing models like the timber rattlesnake, spotted salamander, and eastern hellbender provide students with experiences unique to CLARC. Not only are students involved in conservation research and public education, but they are directly involved in the design, construction, and day-to-day operation of the facility. The students are empowered and also gain skills across disciplines including science, the arts, management, marketing, and public relations. By linking a public school district, a state university, and community organizations and businesses, CLARC has become a successful example of community-based conservation that is largely publicly-funded. By designing this facility around student education and professional development, we have increased public participation and support of science within the local community and beyond.

This talk will address the benefits from an integrated family health and conservation project in Papua New Guinea (PNG). PNG is one of the most diverse countries and one of the poorest. PNG ranks 148 out of 182 countries in the 2007 Human Development Index (UNDP). The YUS Conservation Area (CA) is the first government-recognized conservation area in PNG and encompasses approximately 180,000 acres of forest. It serves as a model for protecting other significant ecosystems in PNG. In this remote area of high biodiversity, the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) has been working to protect and manage forest and wildlife through a holistic community-based conservation program building local capacity for conservation and improving socio-economic services and livelihoods. Since 2011, TKCP has been working with the US AID-funded BALANCED Project to integrate health and conservation activities. The project has implemented an integrated approach to: train community agents to educate about linking family health, community health and natural resources to improve human health and protect nature; train youth peer educators to become stewards of the environment and their own health; advocate to local authorities about the benefits of the Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) approach as a means for achieving improved health for YUS; increase male participation in family health activities. This presentation will discuss an innovative integration of conservation and health.

Most learning happens in informal settings for most people, which certainly holds true for school teachers. We were interested in exploring the value of informal science learning environments for enhancing teacher training and professional development. To this end, we quantified the short-term (months) and longer-term (years) improvements in objective content knowledge and curricular integration of an immersive, three-day teacher training workshop at the research arm of the San Diego Zoo. Middle school and high school life science teacher alumni (N=151) from across the nation were involved, as were a set of teachers (N=65) who had applied to the program but were not selected to participate, who then acted as a control group. Relative to the control group, the treatment teachers demonstrated significant gains in teaching effectiveness, conservation attitude, and ability to integrate workshop materials into existing subject matter back in their classrooms. We conclude that informal science learning environments can significantly contribute to helping teachers integrate conservation into their classrooms, and the in the process building support for in-situ conservation efforts.

Conserving biodiversity in the face of climate change and existing human pressures is particularly challenging for species-rich ecosystems, such as coral reefs. We investigate the usefulness of a trait-based, life-history approach to evaluate the impacts of multiple stressors on reef-building corals, a notoriously species-rich and threatened group. We show that life-history strategies can predict community responses to fishing and temperature-driven bleaching using a 20-year time series of coral assemblages in Kenya. Prior to the 1998 bleaching event, coral communities within no-take marine reserves were composed of three distinct life histories - competitive, stress-tolerant and weedy species - that exhibited strong declines following bleaching with limited recovery. In contrast, fished reefs had lower coral cover and fewer genera, and were composed only of stress-tolerant and weedy corals that were less affected by bleaching. We also discuss a new cross-disciplinary project that seeks to integrate life-history traits and functional diversity with climate models to develop a regional climate adaptation plan for Indo-Pacific coral reefs.