0000000001326060
AUTHOR
Hugh P. Possingham
showing 3 related works from this author
Towards a framework for assessment and management of cumulative human impacts on marine food webs
2015
Effective ecosystem-based management requires understanding ecosystem responses to multiple human threats, rather than focusing on single threats. To understand ecosystem responses to anthropogenic threats holistically, it is necessary to know how threats affect different components within ecosystems and ultimately alter ecosystem functioning. We used a case study of a Mediterranean seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) food web and expert knowledge elicitation in an application of the initial steps of a framework for assessment of cumulative human impacts on food webs. We produced a conceptual seagrass food web model, determined the main trophic relationships, identified the main threats to the fo…
Potential conflicts between microalgal biodiesel production and areas of high ecological importance at national scales
2018
Current bioenergy production systems—aimed at replacing fossil fuels in the transport sector—have been linked to a wide range of environmental impacts, including biodiversity losses. This is mainly because they derive from food crops (i.e., maize, sugarcane, oil palm, soybeans, and rapeseed, among others), leading to direct and indirect land-use changes in areas of high biodiversity value. However, the potential impacts of novel, non-food based bioenergy production systems on biodiversity remains unclear. Microalgal production systems, which make use of microscopic prokaryotic and eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms, have the potential to become a future source of biofuels for the transport…
Metrics and tools for evaluating conservation target achievement in protected area networks
2018
The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 11 calls for 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas to be in “effective and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well connected” protected areas by 2020. This is one of many global and national conservation policies that require progress reporting towards achieving conservation targets. Transparent and repeatable metrics that can be applied broadly are an important step towards meeting these commitments. Currently the most widely used approach for evaluating progress towards these goals is reporting total protected area coverage due to its relatively unambiguous and easily quantifiable nature. However, this alone is not…