基于空间分析的保护生物学研究

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY BASED ON THE SPATIAL ANALYSIS

保护生物学家和生态学家早就认识到只有准确地辨识保护对象的空间位置、范围、及其相邻的关系 (例如边缘 )和连接度 ,以及依存的地形和气候等生境条件 ,才能发现生物种群和生境在空间的扩散与收缩、增长与灭绝的动态 ,揭示分布的格局 ,从而系统、全面地了解保护对象和生境的存在状态、破碎程度和变化趋势 ,进行有效的自然保护。得益于新兴的空间分析技术 ,保护生物学自 2 0世纪 90年代以来取得了很大的进步。基于空间分析的保护生物学研究是最近 10年左右大力发展的新保护生物学的重要基础。该文结合作者的研究工作 ,综述了基于空间分析的保护生物学项目 ,探讨了保护生物学发展历史、主要研究方法与应用、以及今后的可能发展趋势。在生物多样性的丰度和分布的空间解绎部分 ,通过综述世界保护监测中心的图解全球生物多样性的工作 ,如国家尺度的生物多样性水平、植物多样性的分布中心和维管束植物科的多样性等的空间分布 ,介绍了Dobson等图示美国主要濒危植物、鸟类、鱼类和软体动物等 4个主要类群在县 (County)为基本空间单位上分布的空间格局 ,讨论了生物多样性空间解绎的意义。在第二部分用世界资源研究所的全球森林监测 (Globalforestwatch)项目 ,美国的国家保护缺失区分析 (GAPanalysis)项目 。

The use of spatial analysis in conservation biology as a research tool has grown tremendously over the past decade and a half. Although conservation biologists and ecologists have recognized the potential of spatial information for informing conservation biology and policy for a long time, such as for studying changes and trends in populations and habitats, it has been only recently that spatial analysis has been incorporated into most conservation biology studies. Since the 1990s, conservation biology has developed quickly by the application of spatial analysis technologies. In this paper, we review the history, methodologies and applications of this tool, and the potential for growth and other applications by using some projects and works in which the authors were involved as examples. First, we discussed the use of spatially explicit data on biodiversity and its distribution, and the significance of using spatially explicit methods in conservation biology was summarized. We presented patterns of biodiversity at the global scale and country level, and discussed plant diversity centers and vascular plant family diversity as monitored by the World Conservation Monitor Center (WCMC). We also discussed the spatial distribution of four groups (plant, birds, fishes and molluscs) of endangered species in the United States. Mapping the spatial distribution of biodiversity is a useful comparative tool for analyzing the patterns, magnitude and extent of biodiversity, changes in spatial distributions at different temporal scales, understanding the relationships between populations and habitats, and for conservation by spatial overlap analysis as in GAP analysis. Second, we reviewed various conservation projects including Global Forest Watch of World Resource Institute, National GAP Analysis of United States, Roadless Area of Forest Service-USA, and Nature Audit of Canada. Also, some examples from the literature were used, such as a comparative study of plant diversity richness between East Asia and North America and the spatial analysis of biological invasions. The spatial analysis of patterns of biodiversity and habitats were discussed in the third part of this paper. During the last two decades, pattern-oriented ecology and conservation biology has made a lot progress, especially spatial pattern analyses, spatial statistics originating from geo-statistics, geographic information systems, spatially explicit model-based growth of individuals (grid), population theory based on patch analysis (e.g., metapopulations and source-sink models), and so on. The application of spatial pattern analysis in conservation biology was summarized by examining two conservation projects: the forest fragmentation analysis of the USA and late seral forests spatial pattern analysis in the Pacific Northwest, USA. We also presented the theory of 'Matrix conservation' by Lindenmayer and Franklin, 'Conserving Forest Biodiversity, A Comprehensive Multiscaled Approach'(2002). We agree with the authors of this new initiative that extends conservation efforts beyond nature reserves to integrated conservation strategies that balance conservation and development at landscape or regional scales. Lastly, models that are used widely in conservation biology, the spatially explicit model, process-based spatial model, agent-based spatial adaptation model (SWAM) and Dynamics Global Vegetation Model (DGVM), were discussed.This new branch of conservation, spatial conservation biology, has matured as a new discipline that contains a lot of spatial and information technology and may make more contributions to the global biodiversity conservation.