A conservation landscape for the Dry Chaco based on species habitat suitability
Visualizações: 439DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15451/ec2021-12-10.39-1-14Keywords:
Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species, Land-use planning, Land-sharing, Large mammals, LandscapeAbstract
The Dry Chaco (DCH) is a biodiversity-rich region that contains the largest dry forest in the world. It is seriously endangered and has one of the fastest deforestation rates. Yet, very few conservation efforts have been undertaken to protect this ecosystem, and information to develop efficient and sustainable land-use plans is scarce. This study aimed to design a conservation landscape that would maximize the conservation of the DCH’s ecological integrity, endangered species, and ecological and evolutionary processes. Five focal species of high conservation value were chosen based on their ecological roles, conservation status, or endemism: white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari, chacoan peccary Catagonus wagneri, giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, tapir Tapirus terrestris, and giant armadillo Priodontes maximus. We used interviews with local informants to obtain information on species presence and location. Their habitat suitability was modelled and ranked using Maxent software. A conservation landscape was designed by overlapping these spatially explicit models. A systematic conservation planning framework was followed, considering habitat connectivity using Zonation. Interviews proved to be useful for conservation planning in this region with longstanding close ethnozoological relationships. The spatial design obtained was compared with existing land-use policies and protected areas to discuss conservation strategies that could be efficient if applied in the DCH and considering land sharing vs. land sparing conservation strategies. There is a large surface of suitable habitat for the studied species, but their conservation cannot be ensured with the present conservation schemes. We consider land-sharing as a feasible conservation strategy for this region and its species, and identified areas that should be preserved and their optimal connections to increase conservation opportunities for the Dry Chaco.
Downloads
References
Abba AM, Tognelli MF, Seitz VP, Bender JB, Vizcaíno SF (2012) Distribution of extant xenarthrans (Mammalia: Xenarthra) in Argentina using species distribution models. Mammalia 76:123–136 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2011-0089
Altmoos M, Henle K (2010) Relevance of multiple spatial scales in habitat models: A case study with amphibians and grasshoppers. Acta Oecologica 36:548–560 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2010.08.001
Altrichter M (2005) The sustainability of subsistence hunting of peccaries in the Argentine Chaco. Biological Conservation 126:351–362 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2005.06.024
Altrichter M (2008) Assessing Potential for Community-based Management of Peccaries through Common Pool Resource Theory in the Rural Area of the Argentine Chaco. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 37:108–113 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2008)37[108:APFCMO]2.0.CO;2
Altrichter M, Boaglio GI (2004) Distribution and relative abundance of peccaries in the Argentine Chaco: associations with human factors. Biological Conservation 116:217–225 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00192-7
Alves R (2012) Relationships between fauna and people and the role of ethnozoology in animal conservation. Ethnobiology and Conservation DOI: https://doi.org/10.15451/ec2012-8-1.2-1-69
Aranda M, Sánchez-Cordero V (1996) Prey Spectra of Jaguar (Panthera onca) and Puma (Puma concolor) in Tropical Forests of Mexico. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 31:65–67 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1076/snfe.31.2.65.13334
Baldi G, Paruelo JM (2008) Land-Use and Land Cover Dynamics in South American Temperate Grasslands. Ecology and Society 13:art6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02481-130206
Balmford A, Green R, Phalan B (2012) What conservationists need to know about farming. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279:2714–2724 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.0515
Beck H (2005) Seed predation and dispersal by peccaries throughout the neotropics and its consequences: a review and synthesis. In: Forget PM, Lambert JE, Hulme PE, Vander Wall SB (eds) Seed fate: predation, dispersal and seedling establishment. CABI, Wallingford, pp. 77–115 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1079/9780851998060.0077
Beck H, Thebpanya P, Filiaggi M (2010) Do Neotropical peccary species (Tayassuidae) function as ecosystem engineers for anurans? Journal of Tropical Ecology 26:407–414 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467410000106
Bodmer RE (1990) Responses of ungulates to seasonal inundations in the Amazon floodplain. Journal of Tropical Ecology 6:191–201 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467400004314
Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel interference: a practical information-theoretic approach. 2nd ed. Springer, New York, USA
Camino M (2016) Occupancy and habitat selection of three peccary species in the Argentinean Semiarid Chaco. Tesis doctoral, Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Ceballos G (2005) Global Mammal Conservation: What Must We Manage? Science 309:603–607 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1114015
Clark ML, Aide TM, Grau HR, Riner G (2010) A scalable approach to mapping annual land cover at 250 m using MODIS time series data: A case study in the Dry Chaco ecoregion of South America. Remote Sensing of Environment 114:2816–2832 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2010.07.001
Desbiez ALJ, Kluyber D (2013) The Role of Giant Armadillos ( Priodontes maximus ) as Physical Ecosystem Engineers. Biotropica 45:537–540 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12052
Dinerstein E, Olson DM, Graham DJ, Webster AL, Primm SA, Bookbinder MP, Ledec G (1995) Una evaluación del estado de conservación de las eco-regiones terrestres de América Latina y el Caribe. Banco Mundial, Washington, DC
Elith J, H. Graham C, P. Anderson R, Dudík M, Ferrier S, Guisan A, Hijmans RJ, Huettmann F, Leathwick JR, Lehmann A, Li J, Lohmann LG, Loiselle BA, Manion G, Moritz C, Nakamura M, Nakazawa Y, McC. Overton J, Townsend Peterson A, Phillips SJ, Richardson K, Scachetti-Pereira R, Schapire RE, Soberón J, Williams S, Wisz MS, Zimmermann NE (2006) Novel methods improve prediction of species’ distributions from occurrence data. Ecography 29:129–151 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2006.0906-7590.04596.x
Fa JE, Brown D (2009) Impacts of hunting on mammals in African tropical moist forests: a review and synthesis. Mammal Review 39:231–264 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2009.00149.x
García Collazo MA, Panizza A, Paruelo JM (2013) Ordenamiento Territorial de Bosques Nativos: Resultados de la Zonificación realizada por provincias del Norte argentino. Ecología Austral 23:097–107 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.13.23.2.0.1165
Gasparri NI, Grau HR, Manghi E (2008) Carbon Pools and Emissions from Deforestation in Extra-Tropical Forests of Northern Argentina Between 1900 and 2005. Ecosystems 11:1247–1261 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-008-9190-8
Graesser J, Aide TM, Grau HR, Ramankutty N (2015) Cropland/pastureland dynamics and the slowdown of deforestation in Latin America. Environmental Research Letters 10:034017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/3/034017
Grau HR, Aide M (2008) Globalization and Land-Use Transitions in Latin America. Ecology and Society 13:art16 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02559-130216
Grau HR, Aide TM, Gasparri NI (2005) Globalization and soybean expansion into semiarid ecosystems of Argentina. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 34:265–266 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-34.3.265
Guisan A, Zimmermann NE (2000) Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling 135:147–186 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3800(00)00354-9
Hansen MC, Potapov PV, Moore R, Hancher M, Turubanova SA, Tyukavina A, Thau D, Stehman SV, Goetz SJ, Loveland TR, Kommareddy A, Egorov A, Chini L, Justice CO, Townshend JRG (2013) High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change. Science 342:850–853 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1244693
Hijmans RJ (2012) Cross-validation of species distribution models: removing sorting. Ecology 93:679–688 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1890/11-0826.1
IUCN (2016) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/] Accessed April 14, 2016
Izquierdo AE, Grau HR (2009) Agriculture adjustment, land-use transition and protected areas in Northwestern Argentina. Journal of Environmental Management 90:858–865 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.02.013
Keuroghlian A, Eaton DP, Desbiez ALJ (2009) The response of a landscape species, white-lipped peccaries, to seasonal resource fluctuations in a tropical wetland, the Brazilian pantanal. 11
Kiltie RA, Terborgh J (1983) Observations on the Behavior of Rain Forest Peccaries in Perú: Why do White-lipped Peccaries Form Herds? Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 62:241–255 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1983.tb02154.x
Knight AT, Driver A, Cowling RM, Maze K, Desmet PG, Lombard AT, Rouget M, Botha MA, Boshoff AF, Castley JG, Goodman PS, Mackinnon K, Pierce SM, Sims-Castley R, Stewart WI, Von Hase A (2006) Designing Systematic Conservation Assessments that Promote Effective Implementation: Best Practice from South Africa. Conservation Biology 20:739–750 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00452.x
Kukkala AS, Moilanen A (2013) Core concepts of spatial prioritisation in systematic conservation planning. Biological Reviews 88:443–464 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12008
Loyola RD, Kubota U, da Fonseca GAB, Lewinsohn TM (2009) Key Neotropical ecoregions for conservation of terrestrial vertebrates. Biodiversity and Conservation 18:2017–2031 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9570-6
Macchi L, Grau HR, Zelaya PV, Marinaro S (2013) Trade-offs between land use intensity and avian biodiversity in the dry Chaco of Argentina: A tale of two gradients. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 174:11–20 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.04.011
Marinaro S, Grau HR, Aráoz E (2012) Extensión y originalidad en la creación de parques nacionales en relación a cambios gubernamentales y económicos de la Argentina. Ecología Austral 22:1–10
Mastrangelo ME, Gavin MC (2012) Trade-Offs between Cattle Production and Bird Conservation in an Agricultural Frontier of the Gran Chaco of Argentina: Mastrangelo & Gavin. Conservation Biology 26:1040–1051 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01904.x
Matteucci SD, Camino M (2012) Protected Areas Isolation in the Chaco Region, Argentina. Journal of Geography and Geology 4:p15 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5539/jgg.v4n3p15
Matteucci SD, Totino M, Arístide P (2016) Ecological and social consequences of the Forest Transition Theory as applied to the Argentinean Great Chaco. Land Use Policy 51:8–17 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.10.032
Merow C, Smith MJ, Silander JA (2013) A practical guide to MaxEnt for modeling species’ distributions: what it does, and why inputs and settings matter. Ecography 36:1058–1069 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.07872.x
Moilanen A (2007) Landscape Zonation, benefit functions and target-based planning: Unifying reserve selection strategies. Biological Conservation 134:571–579 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2006.09.008
Moilanen A (2012) Zonation. Conservation planning software. Biodiversity Conservation Informatics Group, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Morello J, Adámoli J (1974) Las grandes unidades de vegetación y ambiente del Chaco, Argentina. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Instituto de Botánica Agrícola, Buenos Aires
Morello J, Pengue W, Rodríguez A (2005) Un siglo de cambios de diseño el paisaje: el Chaco Argentino. Primeras Jornadas Argentinas de Ecología de Paisaje 32
Morello J, Rodríguez AF, Silva ME (2012) Ecorregión del Chaco Seco. In: Morello J, Matteucci SD, Rodríguez AF, Silva ME (eds) Ecorregiones y complejos ecosistémicos argentinos. Orientación Gráfica Editora S.R.L, Buenos Aires, pp. 151–203
Núñez-Regueiro MM, Branch L, Fletcher RJ, Marás GA, Derlindati E, Tálamo A (2015) Spatial patterns of mammal occurrence in forest strips surrounded by agricultural crops of the Chaco region, Argentina. Biological Conservation 187:19–26 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.04.001
Ojeda RA, Chillo V, Diaz Isenrath GB (2012) Libro rojo de los mamíferos amenazados de la Argentina. SAREM (Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de los Mamíferos), Buenos Aires Argentina
Peres CA (1996) Population status of white-lipped< i> Tayassu pecari and collared peccaries< i> T. tajacu in hunted and unhunted Amazonian forests. Biological Conservation 77:115–123 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(96)00010-9
Periago ME, Chillo V, Ojeda RA (2014) Loss of mammalian species from the South American Gran Chaco: empty savanna syndrome?: Loss of Chacoan mammals. Mammal Review n/a-n/a
Phillips SJ, Anderson RP, Schapire RE (2006) Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling 190:231–259 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.026
Pimm SL, Raven P (2000) Extinction by numbers. Nature 403:843–845 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35002708
Piquer-Rodríguez M, Torella S, Gavier-Pizarro G, Volante J, Somma D, Ginzburg R, Kuemmerle T (2015) Effects of past and future land conversions on forest connectivity in the Argentine Chaco. Landscape Ecology 30:817–833 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-014-0147-3
Prado DE (1993) What is the Gran Chaco vegetation in South America? I. A review. Contribution to the study of flora and vegetation of the Chaco. Candollea 48:145–172
Rosenzweig ML (2003) Reconciliation ecology and the future of species diversity. Oryx 37:194–205 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605303000371
Saldivar-Bellasai SS (2014) Status and threats to persistence of the Chacoan peccary (Catagonus wagneri) in the Defensores del Chaco National Park, Paraguay. Tesis de Maestría, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, New York
Sowls LK (1997) Javelinas and other peccaries: their biology, managment, and use. Texas AandM University Press, Texas, USA
Taber A, Chalukian S, Altrichter M, Minkowski K, Lizárraga L, Sanderson E, Rumiz D, Ventincinque E, Amorim Moraes Jr. E, De Angelo C, Antúnez M, Ayala G, Beck H, Bodmer R, Boher B S, Cartes JL, de Bustos S, Eaton D, Emmons L, Estrada N, Flamarion de Oliveira L, Fragoso J, Garcia R, Gomez C, Gómez H, Keuroghlian A, Ledesma K, Lizcano D, Lozano C, Montenegro O, Neris N, Noss AJ, Palacio Vieira JA, Paviolo A, Perovic P, Portillo H, Radachowsky J, Reyna-Hurtado R, Rodriguez Ortiz J, Salas L, Sarmiento Duenas A, Sarria Perea JA, Schiaffino K, de Thoisy B, Tobler M, Utreras V, Varela D, Wallace RB, Zapata Ríos G (2008) El destino de los Arquitectos de los Bosques Neotropicales: Evaluación de la Distribución y el Estado de Conservación de los Pecaríes Labiados y los Tapires de Tierras Bajas. Grupo Especialista de la CSE/ UICN en Cerdos, Pecaríes y Hipopótamos; Grupo Especialista de la CSE/UICN en Tapires; Wildlife Conserva- tion Society; y Wildlife Trust., New York.
Tilman D, Cassman KG, Matson PA, Naylor R, Polasky S (2002) Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature 418:671–677 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01014
Torres R, Jayat JP (2010) Modelos predictivos de distribución para cuatro especies de mamíferos (Cingulata, Artiodactyla y Rodentia) típicas del Chaco en Argentina. Mastozoología Neotropical 17:335–352
Tscharntke T, Clough Y, Wanger TC, Jackson L, Motzke I, Perfecto I, Vandermeer J, Whitbread A (2012) Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification. Biological Conservation 151:53–59 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.01.068
Vallejos M, Volante JN, Mosciaro MJ, Vale LM, Bustamante ML, Paruelo JM (2015) Transformation dynamics of the natural cover in the Dry Chaco ecoregion: A plot level geo-database from 1976 to 2012. Journal of Arid Environments 123:3–11 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.11.009
Warren DL, Glor RE, Turelli M (2010) ENMTools: a toolbox for comparative studies of environmental niche models. Ecography 33:607–611 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2009.06142.x
Watson JEM, Grantham HS, Wilson KA, Possingham HP (2011) Systematic Conservation Planning: Past, Present and Future. In: Ladle RJ, Whittaker RJ (eds) Conservation Biogeography. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, pp. 136–160 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444390001.ch6
Wetzel RM, Dubos RE, Martin RL, Myers P (1975) Catagonus, an “Extinct” Peccary, Alive in Paraguay. Science 189:379–381 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.189.4200.379
Wiens JA (1989) Spatial scaling in ecology. Functional Ecology 3:385–397 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2389612
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.