Mapping cumulative impacts on biodiversity in Canada and globally

绘制对加拿大和全球生物多样性的累积影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-06216
• 负责人: Venter, Oscar
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Northern British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=712095
• 关键词: Mapping; cumulative; impacts; biodiversity; Canada

Environmental pressures, such as oil and gas infrastructure, agricultural lands and urban sprawl, are the actions taken by humans with the potential to harm nature. These pressures are changing spatially and temporally, with profound implications for the planet's biodiversity. For instance, environmental pressures are now so ubiquitous that they are precipitating a new epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene, and concurrently a global mass extinction crisis. Through an interdisciplinary project termed the human footprint', colleagues and I have provided the highest resolution and most complete view of how eight in-situ environmental pressures are changing across Earth's land areas. This work has led to a number of important discoveries. For instance, the human footprint is increasing in most places, and 75% of the planet is now experiencing measurable environmental pressures. Moreover, pressures are perversely intense in places that house high concentrations of biodiversity. Conversely, Earth's last wild landscapes are primarily in high latitudes and desert regions, as well as some tropical forest areas. However, this improved understanding of how the human footprint is changing has raised as many questions as it has answered. This Discovery Grant will fund a student-led research program to answer some of the most pressing among these questions. Specifically, we will use spatial analyses and statistical modelling to bring together a range of large data sets with the aim of improving our understanding of how environmental pressures interact to drive biodiversity declines, and whether specific tipping points exist between accumulating pressures and biodiversity declines. Moreover, my students and I will develop new refined maps of cumulative pressures at the Canadian national scale, as the global maps appear to poorly represent pressures in Canada, as well as future projections of these pressures at the global and Canadian scale. In combination, this proposed research program innovates across two major themes relating to the ecology of human-dominated environments. First, this project will present an entirely novel extension to the nascent field of cumulative pressure mapping, substantially improving its ability to relate cumulative environmental pressures to their impacts on biodiversity. Second, this project will develop novel methods for projecting future expansion of the human footprint and contraction in wilderness areas. This will provide crucial information for Canada, where large scale oil and gas developments are underway, and much of the north is becoming increasingly suitable for human uses. Moreover, our maps of habitat disturbance will provide key information for conservation planning in Canada, which has ambitious policy to expand protected areas, helping to minimize future biodiversity declines.

石油和天然气基础设施、农业用地和城市扩张等环境压力是人类采取的可能危害自然的行为。这些压力正在空间和时间上发生变化，对地球的生物多样性产生深远的影响。例如，环境压力现在如此普遍，以至于它们正在引发一个被称为“人类世”的新纪元，同时引发全球大规模灭绝危机。 通过一个名为“人类足迹”的跨学科项目，我和同事们提供了关于八种原位环境压力如何在地球陆地区域发生变化的最高分辨率和最完整的视图。这项工作带来了许多重要的发现。例如，大多数地方的人类足迹都在增加，地球 75% 的地区目前正面临着可衡量的环境压力。此外，在生物多样性高度集中的地方，压力异常巨大。相反，地球上最后的野生景观主要位于高纬度地区和沙漠地区，以及一些热带森林地区。 然而，随着对人类足迹如何变化的理解的加深，它所回答的问题也随之而来。这项发现补助金将资助一个由学生主导的研究项目，以回答这些问题中一些最紧迫的问题。具体来说，我们将使用空间分析和统计模型来汇集一系列大型数据集，目的是提高我们对环境压力如何相互作用导致生物多样性下降的理解，以及在压力累积和生物多样性下降之间是否存在特定的临界点。此外，我和我的学生将开发新的加拿大国家范围内累积压力的精细地图，因为全球地图似乎不能很好地代表加拿大的压力，以及这些压力在全球和加拿大范围内的未来预测。 结合起来，这项拟议的研究计划在与人类主导环境的生态相关的两个主要主题上进行了创新。首先，该项目将为累积压力绘图这一新兴领域提供全新的扩展，大大提高其将累积环境压力与其对生物多样性的影响联系起来的能力。其次，该项目将开发新方法来预测未来人类足迹的扩张和荒野地区的收缩。这将为加拿大提供重要信息，加拿大正在进行大规模石油和天然气开发，而且北部大部分地区正变得越来越适合人类使用。此外，我们的栖息地干扰地图将为加拿大的保护规划提供关键信息，加拿大制定了扩大保护区的雄心勃勃的政策，有助于最大限度地减少未来生物多样性的下降。