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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (4 results)

  • Article
Frontiers of Biogeography, Volume 13, Issue 4 (2021)

Human activities are altering the structure of ecosystems, compromising the benefits they provide to nature and people. Effective conservation actions and management under ongoing global change rely on a better understanding of socio-ecological patterns and processes across broad spatiotemporal scales. Both macroecology and conservation science contribute to this improved understanding and, while they have different scopes, these disciplines have become increasingly interconnected over time. Here we describe examples of how macroecology has contributed to conservation science, and how conservation science can motivate further macroecological developments and applications. We identify challenges and untapped potential to further strengthen the links between these two disciplines. Major macroecological contributions include developing ecological theory, providing methodologies useful for biodiversity assessments and projections, making data more accessible and addressing knowledge gaps. These contributions have played a major role in the development of conservation science, and have supported outreach to policy makers, media, and the public. Nonetheless, a pure macroecological lens is limited to inform conservation decisions, particularly in local contexts, which frequently leads to the misuse of macroecological analyses for conservation applications, misunderstandings of research outputs, and skepticism among conservation practitioners and scientists. We propose possible solutions to overcome these challenges and strengthen links between macroecology and conservation science, including a stronger focus on ecological mechanisms and predictive approaches, and the creation of hybrid journals and meetings. Finally, we suggest new avenues for macroecological research that would further benefit conservation science.

    Cover page: The interface between Macroecology and Conservation: existing links and untapped opportunitiesCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Santa Cruz Previously Published Works (2025)
      Cover page: Author Correction: Warming and cooling catalyse widespread temporal turnover in biodiversityCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Santa Cruz Previously Published Works (2025)
      Turnover in species composition through time is a dominant form of biodiversity change, which has profound effects on the functioning of ecological communities1-4. Turnover rates differ markedly among communities4, but the drivers of this variation across taxa and realms remain unknown. Here we analyse 42,225 time series of species composition from marine, terrestrial and freshwater assemblages, and show that temporal rates of turnover were consistently faster in locations that experienced faster temperature change, including both warming and cooling. In addition, assemblages with limited access to microclimate refugia or that faced stronger human impacts on land were especially responsive to temperature change, with up to 48% of species replaced per decade. These results reveal a widespread signal of vulnerability to continuing climate change and highlight which ecological communities are most sensitive, raising concerns about ecosystem integrity as climate change and other human impacts accelerate.
        Cover page: Warming and cooling catalyse widespread temporal turnover in biodiversityCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2018)

        Motivation

        The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

        Main types of variables included

        The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record.

        Spatial location and grain

        BioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km2 (158 cm2) to 100 km2 (1,000,000,000,000 cm2).

        Time period and grain

        BioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year.

        Major taxa and level of measurement

        BioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates.

        Software format

        .csv and .SQL.
          Cover page: BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the AnthropoceneCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
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