Mapping cumulative impacts on biodiversity in Canada and globally

环境压力，如石油和天然气基础设施、农业用地和城市扩张，是有可能损害自然的人类采取的行动。这些压力在空间和时间上都在发生变化，对地球的生物多样性产生了深远的影响。例如，环境压力现在是如此无处不在，以至于它们正在催生一个被称为人类世的新纪元，同时也是一场全球大灭绝危机。*通过一个名为人类足迹的跨学科项目，我和同事们提供了最高分辨率和最完整的视角，展示了地球陆地地区八种就地环境压力是如何变化的。这项工作导致了一些重要的发现。例如，在大多数地方，人类足迹正在增加，地球上75%的地区现在正在经历可测量的环境压力。此外，在生物多样性高度集中的地方，压力大得离谱。相反，地球上最后的野生景观主要分布在高纬度和沙漠地区，以及一些热带森林地区。*然而，这种对人类足迹如何变化的更好的理解提出了与它已经回答的一样多的问题。这笔探索基金将资助一个由学生主导的研究项目，以回答这些问题中最紧迫的一些问题。具体地说，我们将使用空间分析和统计建模来汇集一系列大型数据集，目的是提高我们对环境压力如何相互作用推动生物多样性下降，以及累积压力和生物多样性下降之间是否存在特定临界点的理解。此外，我的学生和我将在加拿大全国范围内绘制新的精细化累积压力地图，因为全球地图似乎不能很好地代表加拿大的压力，以及对这些压力在全球和加拿大规模的未来预测。*结合起来，这项拟议的研究计划在与人类主导的环境生态有关的两个主要主题上进行创新。首先，该项目将为累积压力测绘这一新兴领域提供一个全新的扩展，大大提高其将累积环境压力与其对生物多样性的影响联系起来的能力。其次，该项目将开发新的方法来预测未来人类足迹在荒野地区的扩张和收缩。这将为加拿大提供关键信息，加拿大正在进行大规模的石油和天然气开发，北部的大部分地区正变得越来越适合人类使用。此外，我们的栖息地干扰地图将为加拿大的保护规划提供关键信息，加拿大有雄心勃勃的扩大保护区的政策，有助于将未来生物多样性的下降降至最低。

Environmental pressures, such as oil and gas infrastructure, agricultural lands and urban sprawl, are the actions taken by humans with the potential to harm nature. These pressures are changing spatially and temporally, with profound implications for the planet's biodiversity. For instance, environmental pressures are now so ubiquitous that they are precipitating a new epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene, and concurrently a global mass extinction crisis. ******Through an interdisciplinary project termed the human footprint', colleagues and I have provided the highest resolution and most complete view of how eight in-situ environmental pressures are changing across Earth's land areas. This work has led to a number of important discoveries. For instance, the human footprint is increasing in most places, and 75% of the planet is now experiencing measurable environmental pressures. Moreover, pressures are perversely intense in places that house high concentrations of biodiversity. Conversely, Earth's last wild landscapes are primarily in high latitudes and desert regions, as well as some tropical forest areas. ******However, this improved understanding of how the human footprint is changing has raised as many questions as it has answered. This Discovery Grant will fund a student-led research program to answer some of the most pressing among these questions. Specifically, we will use spatial analyses and statistical modelling to bring together a range of large data sets with the aim of improving our understanding of how environmental pressures interact to drive biodiversity declines, and whether specific tipping points exist between accumulating pressures and biodiversity declines. Moreover, my students and I will develop new refined maps of cumulative pressures at the Canadian national scale, as the global maps appear to poorly represent pressures in Canada, as well as future projections of these pressures at the global and Canadian scale.******In combination, this proposed research program innovates across two major themes relating to the ecology of human-dominated environments. First, this project will present an entirely novel extension to the nascent field of cumulative pressure mapping, substantially improving its ability to relate cumulative environmental pressures to their impacts on biodiversity. Second, this project will develop novel methods for projecting future expansion of the human footprint and contraction in wilderness areas. This will provide crucial information for Canada, where large scale oil and gas developments are underway, and much of the north is becoming increasingly suitable for human uses. Moreover, our maps of habitat disturbance will provide key information for conservation planning in Canada, which has ambitious policy to expand protected areas, helping to minimize future biodiversity declines.