Collaborative Research: The Persistence of Biodiversity in Southern California Under Future Land-use Scenarios

栖息地丧失和破碎化是全球生物多样性面临的最严重威胁。此外，城市化导致的栖息地丧失带来了无数其他威胁，加剧了对生物多样性的影响。在美国，由于城市化导致的栖息地丧失比任何其他人类活动都更为普遍，并危及更多物种。因此，识别一些物种比其他物种更容易灭绝的特征已经成为保护生物学的圣杯，因为这些特征有可能作为灭绝风险的可测量替代品。面对美国植物物种面临的三大威胁——栖息地丧失、火灾制度改变和与入侵物种的竞争，该项目将确定植物的生活史特征，这些特征可以预测灭绝风险。这一识别将通过将人口和景观模型与广泛的植物人口统计数据、现实的土地利用变化预测以及威胁加州植物区主要过程的影响相结合来实现。这项工作的结果将传达给南加州现有的公共和私人土地管理者、保护专家和政策制定者网络。现有的合作将确保科学成果直接传达给负责管理研究区域和其他地方的保护计划的机构。

Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most serious threats to biodiversity worldwide. Furthermore, habitat loss due to urbanization brings with it myriad other threats that exacerbate impacts on biodiversity. In the United States, habitat loss due to urbanization is more widespread and endangers more species than any other human activity. Consequently, the identification of traits that deem some species more vulnerable to extinction than others has become the Holy Grail of conservation biology because of the potential for such traits to serve as measurable surrogates for extinction risk. This project will identify the life history traits of plants that are predictive of extinction risk in the face of the top three threats to plant species in the United States - habitat loss, altered fire regimes and competition with invasive species. This identification will be achieved by connecting population and landscape models to extensive plant demographic data, realistic land-use change projections and the effects of the major processes threatening plants in the Californian floristic region, a global biodiversity hotspot.The results of this work will be communicated to an existing network of public and private land managers, conservation specialists, and policy makers in southern California. Existing collaborations will assure direct communication of scientific results to those agencies responsible for regulating conservation plans in the study area and elsewhere.