Suchergebnisse

Conservation strategies are rarely systematically evaluated, which reduces transparency, hinders the costeffective deployment of resources, and hides what works best in different contexts. Using data on the iconic and critically endangered orangutan (Pongo spp.), we developed a novel spatiotemporal framework for evaluating conservation investments. We show that around USD 1 billion was invested between 2000 and 2019 into orangutan conservation by governments, non-governmental organizations, companies and communities. Broken down by allocation to different conservation strategies, we find that habitat protection, patrolling and public outreach had the greatest return-on-investment for maintaining orangutan populations. Given variability in threats, land-use opportunity costs, and baseline remunerations in different regions, there were differential benefits-per-dollar invested across conservation activities and regions. We show that, while challenging from a data and analysis perspective, it is possible to fully understand the relationships between conservation investments and outcomes, and the external factors that influence these outcomes. Such analyses can provide improved guidance towards more effective biodiversity conservation. Insights into the spatiotemporal interplays between the costs and benefits driving effectiveness can inform decisions about the most suitable orangutan conservation strategies for halting population declines. While our study focuses on the three extant orangutan species of Sumatra and Borneo, our findings have broad application for evidence-based conservation science and practice worldwide.

Abstract. The properties of European windstorms under present climate conditions are estimated on the basis of surface wind forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Ensemble Prediction System (EPS). While the EPS is designed to provide forecast information of the range of possible weather developments starting from the observed state of weather, we use its archive in a climatological context. It provides a large number of modifications of observed storm events and includes storms that did not occur in reality. Thus it is possible to create a large sample of storm events, which entirely originate from a physically consistent model, whose ensemble spread represents feasible alternative storm realizations of the covered period. This paper shows that the huge amount of identifiable events in the EPS is applicable to reduce uncertainties in a wide range of fields of research focusing on winter storms. Windstorms are identified and tracked in this study over their lifetime using an algorithm based on the local exceedance of the 98th percentile of instantaneous 10 m wind speed, which is associated with a storm severity measure. After removing inhomogeneities in the data set arising from major modifications of the operational system, the distributions of storm severity, storm size, and storm duration are computed. The overall principal properties of the homogenized EPS storm data set are in good agreement with storms from the ERA-Interim data set, making it suitable for climatological investigations of these extreme events. A demonstrated benefit in the climatological context by the EPS is presented. It gives clear evidence of a linear increase of maximum storm intensity and wind field size with storm duration. This relation is not recognizable from a sparse ERA-Interim sample for long-lasting events, as the number of events in the reanalysis is not sufficient to represent these characteristics.

Publishing is an important pillar for the advancement of scientific knowledge and of science as a whole. Among its characteristics are a) the organization of effective communication between researchers (between authors and all potential recipients, i.e. securing an adequate dissemination), b) a high degree of trustworthiness (e.g. with regard to priority, copyrights, authenticity, and quality of content) that is communicated to the users of publications (i.e. researchers), and c) sustainability and verifiability (persistent citations, long-term availability, traceability of the steps on the way to publication). The present catalog of criteria translates these general expectations of scientific publishing into concrete minimum requirements of Open Access publication services. As platforms for the publication and presentation of scientific and scholarly works these represent important hubs in the scientific communication process. As Open Access services they facilitate the dissemination and democratization of knowledge.

Even though information on global biodiversity trends becomes increasingly available, large taxonomic and spatial data gaps persist at the scale relevant to planning conservation interventions. This is because data collectors are hesitant to share data with global repositories due to workload, lack of incentives, and perceived risk of losing intellectual property rights. In contrast, due to greater conceptual and methodological proximity, taxon-specific database initiatives can provide more direct benefits to data collectors through research collaborations and shared authorship. The IUCN SSC Ape Populations, Environments and Surveys (A.P.E.S.) database was created in 2005 as a repository for data on great apes and other primate taxa. It aims to acquire field survey data and make different types of data accessible, and provide up-to-date species status information. To support the current update of the conservation action plan for western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) we compiled field surveys for this taxon from IUCN SSC A.P.E.S., 75% of which were unpublished. We used spatial modeling to infer total population size, range-wide density distribution, population connectivity and landscape-scale metrics. We estimated a total abundance of 52 800 (95% CI 17 577-96 564) western chimpanzees, of which only 17% occurred in national parks. We also found that 10% of chimpanzees live within 25 km of four multi-national 'development corridors' currently planned for West Africa. These large infrastructure projects aim to promote economic integration and agriculture expansion, but are likely to cause further habitat loss and reduce population connectivity. We close by demonstrating the wealth of conservation-relevant information derivable from a taxon-specific database like IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. and propose that a network of many more such databases could be created to provide the essential information to conservation that can neither be supplied by one-off projects nor by global repositories, and thus are highly complementary to existing initiatives. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. ; Peer reviewed