Measuring Habitat and Biodiversity Outcomes

Sara Vickerman and Frank Casey

September 26, 2013

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What is biodiversity?

Variety of life and its processesGenetic, species, habitat, large landscapes

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Biodiversity conservation requires:  • Right amount, configuration, and

management of land and water in each region (coarse filter)

• Attention to individual elements (fine filter)

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Broad agreement that biodiversity is threatened by:

• Human development • Degradation, conversion of

native habitat• Invasive species• Toxics, other direct mortality • Climate change

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Many approaches to tracking impacts and conservation outcomes to habitats and species but . . . Little progress reaching agreement on more consistent approach

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Effectiveness of biodiversity conservation is difficult to measure• Goals often not stated or agreed upon • May conflict with human activities • Focus on single species, habitats • Need measures at multiple scales –

species to landscapes

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Status and trends for biodiversity poorly monitored • Nobody is responsible for

comprehensive system• Biodiversity is not uniformly regulated• Tendency to re-invent the wheel • Low priority for public and policy-

makers

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Why consistent metrics?

• To help improve conservation outcomes – what works, what doesn’t

• Work across land ownership boundaries

• Connect disparate program investments to address scale issues

• Align management plans • Apply adaptive management

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Level of involvementCapture everything

PrecisionPracticalitySpeedCost

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Purpose

• To examine a few efforts to date • Engage experts in conversation• Propose workable, practical

framework• Test alternative approaches

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Three approaches with considerable overlap

• Individual habitat metrics • Ecological Integrity Assessments • Biodiversity Index

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Site level metrics

• Developed by Willamette Partnership and others

• Prairie, wetland, salmon, water temperature

• Focus on regulations that drive trading or mitigation programs

• Measuring Up report outlined framework for biodiversity metrics

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Defenders metrics

• Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bullitt funded

• Address unregulated biodiversity values in Western U.S.

• Oak, floodplain, sage brush / sage grouse• Percent of optimal ecological functioning

• Site level conditions –Context–Vegetation–Species–Abiotic–Practices–Risk

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What the metrics measure

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Sagebrush metric: Final scores

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Where to find these metrics

• Marketplace for Nature web sitehttp://marketplace.conservationregistry.org

• Counting on the Environment – Willamette Partnership http://willamettepartnership.org/

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Challenge with site level metrics

• Should they be habitat specific?• How many habitats? • Who develops, maintains, updates

them? • How do they connect to larger

landscape scale metrics?

• Not useful for landscape scale conservation planning

Setting Ecological Integrity Goals

Rank A

Rank B

Rank C

Rank D

Increasing human disturbance

Incr

easi

ng

eco

log

ical

in

teg

rity

Ecosystem Conservation Goal

Ecological Integrity Monitoring

Level 1) Remote assessment

Level 2) Rapid field assessment

Level 3) Intensive assessment

Level 1: Remote assessment

Landscape context – Connectivity, surrounding land use, patch size, and stressors

Level 2: Rapid field assessment

Landscape characteristicsVegetation cover and compositionSoil conditionDisturbance regimesWildlife abundance and compositionStressorsCalibration of remote techniques

Level 2: Rapid field assessment

Photo plots as example

1957 2006

Level 3: Intensive assessment

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Application

• Initially to select priority conservation areas

• Useful where natural habitat of interest

• Also used for wetland assessment, monitoring

• Expanded to measure habitat quality • Can be applied at multiple scales• NatureServe network supports

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Challenges

• Might not fit where biodiversity is a secondary goal

• Less useful where data are limited - like other methods, requires sustained investment

Challenge of representing biodiversity

Biodiversity is an ecosystem service

• People harvest, consume wild plants and animals

• Healthy ecosystems filter water, control erosion, pollinate crops

• Nature has cultural (existence) values

• Landscape pattern, functions, species, combine – Biodiversity Service Score

Biodiversity can be characterized by: • Mapped features • Quantitative tabular data• Narrative description

Assumptions underlying biodiversity framework• Coarse filter looks at habitat

abundance, type, integrity, rarity and distribution

• Fine filter looks at species needs not captured in coarse filter

• Ecological integrity characterizes functioning systems that support native biodiversity

Ecological integrity

• Vegetation, structure, composition

• Ecological processes – fire, hydrology

• Species composition–Common species – Invasive species

• Rare, uncommon species not good indicators

Species measures

• Rarity weighting applied – priority

• Relevant regulations • Migratory patterns for some

fish, wildlife• Population sizes • Biotic condition

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Application for biodiversity index

• Broad scale conservation planning• Context of ecosystem service

assessments• Linked to social, economic factors • Impact of corporate sourcing decisions

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Challenges

• May be too complex as presented• Needs translation for broad

application • Requires high quality, detailed

information

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Questions for the group

• Examples of habitat/biodiversity measures ?• Other approaches?• Field applications?• Collaborate to find creative solutions?

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Sara VickermanDefenders of Wildlife

Svickerman@defenders

http://marketplace.conservationregistry.org/