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Identifying Keystone Threats to Biological Diversity

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Landscape-scale Conservation Planning

Abstract

Human beings have become the dominant force for environmental change and the task of conservation planning is to counter those changes most threatening biodiversity by identifying key areas providing resiliency and refuge. Landscape-scale conservation planners need to dissect those ‘threats’ (human activities that have driven ecological processes beyond the range of natural variability) to understand exactly what anthropogenic activities are influencing which aspects of ecosystem pattern and process. This chapter reviews two aspects of land use/land cover change (disaggregated and aggregated transitions), and introduces other anthropogenic activities that are treated in more depth in other chapters (i.e., pollution, disease, and climate change) before describing an ecoregional threat assessment project focused on identifying, mapping, and forecasting ‘keystone threats.’ Keystone threats are those strongly-interacting human activities – e.g., land use/land cover change – that if captured and modeled with some degree of accuracy can provide insights into where and when to protect habitats. The chapter suggests that in more wild or pristine areas, pollution or disease may be keystone threats while land use/land cover change will be the primary driver of biodiversity loss elsewhere. Given enough information any of these threats can be mapped and modeled to assist conservation planners in making decisions.

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  1. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Clemson University, 261 Lehotsky Hall, Clemson, SC, 29634-0317, USA

    Robert F. Baldwin

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  1. Robert F. Baldwin
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Correspondence to Robert F. Baldwin .

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  1. , Department of Biology and Program in Env, Middlebury College, Middlebury, 05753, USA

    Stephen C. Trombulak

  2. , Department Forestry and Natural Resource, Clemson University, Lehotsky Hall 261, Clemson, SC, 29634-0317, USA

    Robert F. Baldwin

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Baldwin, R.F. (2010). Identifying Keystone Threats to Biological Diversity. In: Trombulak, S., Baldwin, R. (eds) Landscape-scale Conservation Planning. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9575-6_2

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