An Updated Protected Areas Database for the United States and Canada
Dominick A. DellaSala
Nancy L. Staus
James R. Strittholt
Arlin Hackman
Antonio Iacobelli
Protecting biodiversity in a network of reserves has been a major goal of conservationists for more than a century. However, efforts in Canada and the United States to report on progress in meeting protection goals have been hampered by a lack of standardized protected areas inventories. We present an updated protected areas database that is useful for tracking protection goals at various spatial scales (e.g., state, province, country, ecoregion, and biome). Using the database, just 5.1% and 6.5% of the land area of the United States and Canada, respectively, have been set aside in strictly protected reserves; an additional 5.3% and 0.9% of each nation, respectively, is in more relaxed levels of protection characterized by greater human activities. Amount of protection for individual states ranged from <1.0% for most of the eastern and central United States to 35.3% for Alaska, and from 1.6% for Newfoundland and Labrador to roughly 11.0% for British Columbia. Thirty ecoregions considered to have globally outstanding levels of biodiversity totaled 8.2% of land area protected. Most (97%) individual protected areas were <10,000 ha, and only a small proportion (0.53%) were >100,000 ha. Our results illustrate the importance of standardizing and periodically updating national protected areas databases to accurately report on progress in meeting national conservation targets.
Temperate-Subtropical Transition Areas for Native Woody Plant Species in Florida, USA: Present Locations, Predicted Changes under Climatic Warming, and Implications for Conservation
David W. Crumpacker
Elgene O. Box
E. Dennis Hardin
A major transition zone between native temperate and subtropical woody plant species occurs mostly in the southern half of the Florida peninsula, USA. We used a climatic-envelope analysis to predict effects of potential movement of this zone under several scenarios of 1 ºC and 2 ºC annual climatic warming. Serious in situ loss of temperate species fitness resulting from northern movement of this zone over the next 100 years was predicted in the upper (i.e., northern) two-thirds of the Florida peninsula under some 1 ºC and all 2 ºC types of warming investigated. Replacement of temperate by subtropical species in the upper half of the peninsula during this time period is unlikely because of migrational barriers formed by human-fragmented habitat. A secondary temperate-subtropical transition zone occurs at the southern end of the peninsula. Important losses of cypress (Taxodium distichum [L.] Rich.) from swamp ecosystems are predicted here under some +1 ºC and all +2 ºC scenarios. The northern, warming-induced movement of an important group of subtropical coastal species, whose mean northern boundary is presently located near the middle of the peninsula, would be greatly hindered by extensive coastal development on the Atlantic Coast and by the metropolitan areas of Tampa and Sarasota on the Gulf of Mexico. Monitoring of ecologically important woody species for fitness losses expected under warming should be initiated now in order to provide an early warning system. Suggested mitigation efforts for climatic warming include (1) developing an extensive system of connected conservation areas in the upper two-thirds of the peninsula with “stepping-stone” migration corridors in or near the Interstate 4 development corridor; (2) minimizing disturbance to cypress forests in the southern peninsula; and (3) planting of mangrove species north of Tampa on the Gulf Coast, together with protection of adjacent inland sites in this area, in case of sea-level rise.