Achieving high-level conservation goals with connectivity (with a marine bias)
Free nibbles and discussion after the lecture with the speaker at University Club, 1st floor Common Area, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ
Flows of organisms, energy, and matter in space are pivotal to maintain the many processes that ultimately underpin the persistence of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Such flows, typically termed ‘connectivity’, therefore play an important role in enabling managers to achieve spatial conservation goals. Yet, the implementation of connectivity in spatial conservation remains a research frontier because it remains difficult to define, quantify, and implement in conservation objectives.
Here, I will talk about different types of connectivity, including home range movement, ontogenetic movement, migration, propagule dispersal, land-sea flows, and recent gene flow, and how they are relevant and useful to spatial conservation. I will illustrate recent key advances in planning conservation area networks for different types of flows, with particular focus on a) home ranges; b) ontogenetic movement of sea turtles; c) marine larval dispersal; and, d) how the effects of global warming on marine larvae potentially propagate to altering effective conservation area networks.
Lastly, I will summarise the different approaches to incorporate connectivity into conservation decisions and introduce the new tool Marxan Connect that is about to make connectivity conservation planning accessible to everyone. Whilst concepts are applicable to any kind of connectivity, my work focusses on coral reef ecosystems – so the talk has a strong marine bias!
Date:
23 April 2018, 13:00
Venue:
University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road OX1 3PW
Venue Details:
Lecture Theatre
Speaker:
Maria Beger (University of Leeds)
Organisers:
Dr Roberto Salguero-Gomez (University of Oxford),
Professor Aziz Aboobaker (Dept Zoology, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
administrator.pa@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Dr Roberto Salguero-Gomez (University of Oxford)
Part of:
the zoology lectures 2017/18
Topics:
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Kirsty Jackson
