HR: 09:15h
AN: NB51D-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Methods for Assessing the Conservation Value of Rivers
AU: * Freeman, M C
EM: mary_freeman@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2202 United States
AU: Boon, P J
EM: Phil.Boon@snh.gov.uk
AF: Scottish Natural Heritage, 2 Anderson Place, Edinburgh, UK EH6 5NP United Kingdom
AB: Assessments of rivers for conservation value in the US and the UK have built on concepts of recognizing biological representation, distinctiveness and conservation status, to support the goals of maximizing protection of biodiversity. In the UK, the System for Evaluating Rivers for Conservation (SERCON) scores attributes related to physical diversity, naturalness, representativeness (of aquatic macrophyte communities), importance to rare species, occurrence of special features, and human impacts. SERCON is designed to facilitate repeatable and comparable assessments of river reaches (generally 10 to 30 km in length). In the US, high diversity, endemism and rates of decline in riverine biota have led to a greater emphasis on protecting imperiled species (based on species occurrence data, expert opinion, and the occurrence of habitat elements considered essential to species persistence) as well as protecting the full range of habitat or community types occurring in a given region. Assessing value with respect to representing biodiversity is an evolving science, utilizing methods for habitat and community classification, and probabilistic models of assemblage richness. Methods for assessing the value of a particular river reach with respect to ecological processes that maintain lotic communities are particularly needed for conservation planning at local scales.
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly