HR: 14:25h
AN: B13D-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Land Use Change Around Nature Reserves: Implications for Sustaining Biodiversity
AU: * Hansen, A J
EM: hansen@montana.edu
AF: Ecology Department, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717 United States
AU: DeFries, R
AF: Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Parak, MD 20742 United States
AU: Curran, L
AF: Tropical Resources Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 United States
AU: Liu, J
AF: Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 United States
AU: Reid, R
AF: Ecology Program, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, 98261 Kenya
AU: Turner, B
AF: Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610 United States
AB: The effects of land use change outside of reserves on biodiversity within reserves is not well studied. This paper draws on research from Yellowstone, East Africa, Yucatan, Borneo, and Wolong, China to examine land use effects on nature reserves. Objectives are: quantify rates of change in land use around reserves; examine consequences for biodiversity within the context of specific ecological mechanisms; and draw implications for regional management. Within each of the study regions, semi-natural habitats around nature reserves have been converted to agricultural, rural residential, or urban land uses. Rates vary from 0.2-0.4 %/yr in Yucatan, to 9.5 %/yr in Borneo. Such land use changes may be important because nature reserves are often parts of larger ecosystems that are defined by flows in energy, materials, and organisms. Land use outside of reserves may disrupt these flows and alter biodiversity within reserves. Ecological mechanisms that connect biodiversity to these land use changes include habitat size, ecological flows, crucial habitats, and edge effects. For example, the effective size of the East African study area has been reduced by 45% by human activities. Based on the species area relationship, this reduction in habitat area will lead to a loss of 14% of bird and mammal species. A major conclusion is that the viability of nature reserves can best be ensured by managing them in the context of the surrounding region. Knowledge of the ecological mechanisms by which land use influences nature reserves provides design criteria for this regional management.
DE: 6329 Project evaluation
DE: 6339 System design
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting