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Grand J, Meehan TD, DeLuca WV, Morton J, Pitt J, Calvo-Fonseca A, Dodge C, Gómez-Sapiens M, González-Sargas E, Hinojosa-Huerta O, Nagler P, Restrepo-Giraldo C, Shafroth PB, Villagomez-Palma S, Wilsey CB. Strategic restoration planning for land birds in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 351:119755. [PMID: 38086116 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Ecological restoration is an essential strategy for mitigating the current biodiversity crisis, yet restoration actions are costly. We used systematic conservation planning principles to design an approach that prioritizes restoration sites for birds and tested it in a riparian forest restoration program in the Colorado River Delta. Restoration goals were to maximize the abundance and diversity of 15 priority birds with a variety of habitat preferences. We built abundance models for priority birds based on the current landscape, and predicted bird distributions and relative abundances under a scenario of complete riparian forest restoration throughout our study area. Then, we used Zonation conservation planning software to rank this restored landscape based on core areas for all priority birds. The locations with the highest ranks represented the highest priorities for restoration and were located throughout the river reach. We optimized how much of the available landscape to restore by simulating restoration of the top 10-90% of ranked sites in 10% intervals. We found that total diversity was maximized when 40% of the landscape was restored, and mean relative abundance was maximized when 80% of the landscape was restored. The results suggest that complete restoration is not optimal for this community of priority birds and restoration of approximately 60% of the landscape would provide a balance between maximum relative abundance and diversity. Subsequent planning efforts will combine our results with an assessment of restoration costs to provide further decision support for the restoration-siting process. Our approach can be applied to any landscape-scale restoration program to improve the return on investment of limited economic resources for restoration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanna Grand
- National Audubon Society, Science Division, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA.
| | - Timothy D Meehan
- National Audubon Society, Science Division, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA
| | - William V DeLuca
- National Audubon Society, Science Division, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA
| | - Julia Morton
- National Audubon Society, Colorado River Program, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA
| | - Jennifer Pitt
- National Audubon Society, Colorado River Program, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA
| | | | - Chris Dodge
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado River Multi Species Program, 500 Date Street, Boulder City, NV, 89005, USA
| | - Martha Gómez-Sapiens
- University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences, 1040 E. 4th Street, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Eduardo González-Sargas
- Colorado State University, Department of Biology, 251 W. Pitkin St, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA; U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA
| | - Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta
- Pronatura Noroeste, Cjon. 16 de Septiembre St, San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, 83440, Mexico; Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Pamela Nagler
- U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
| | - Carlos Restrepo-Giraldo
- Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Sustainable Anthropic Landscapes Laboratory, Camino a la Presa San José 2055, San Luis Potosí, 78216, Mexico
| | - Patrick B Shafroth
- U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA
| | | | - Chad B Wilsey
- National Audubon Society, Science Division, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA
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