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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/134718
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Predicting the optimal amount of time to spend learning before designating protected habitat for threatened species |
Author: | Camaclang, A.E. Chadès, I. Martin, T.G. Possingham, H.P. |
Citation: | Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2022; 13(3):722-733 |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Issue Date: | 2022 |
ISSN: | 2041-210X 2041-210X |
Statement of Responsibility: | Abbey E. Camaclang, Iadine Chadès, Tara G. Martin, Hugh P. Possingham |
Abstract: | 1. Deciding when to protect threatened species habitat when complete knowledge about the habitat extent is uncertain is a common problem in conservation. More accurate habitat mapping improves conservation outcomes once that habitat is protected. However, delaying protection to improve accuracy can lead to species decline or, at worst, local extinction when threats to that habitat continue unabated before protection is implemented. Hence, there is a trade-off between gaining knowledge and taking conservation action. 2. We quantified this trade-off and determined the optimal time to spend learning about a species' habitat before protecting that habitat. We used a range of hypothetical learning curves to model improvements in the accuracy of predicted habitat over time, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to model the corresponding increase in the proportion of habitat protected. We used rates of habitat loss to model the impact of delaying habitat protection and derived analytical solutions to the problem for different types of learning curves. 3. We illustrate our approach using two threatened species, the koala Phascolarctos cinereus in Australia and northern abalone Haliotis kamtschatkana in Canada. Our approach confirms that when impacts of threatening processes are incurred rapidly, the need for timely protection is high, and the optimal time to spend learning is short for all learning curves. When the rate of habitat loss is low, we benefit from better habitat identification, and the optimal time to protect is sensitive to assumptions about how we learn and the proportion of non-habitat we are willing to protect unnecessarily. 4. Navigating the trade-off between information gain and timely action is a common problem in conservation. By optimizing the trade-off between the benefits of improving mapping accuracy and the costs of delaying protection, we provide guidelines on the effective allocation of resources between habitat identification and habitat protection. Importantly, by explicitly modelling this trade-off with a range of learning curves and estimates of the rates of habitat loss or other threatening processes, we can predict the optimal time to spend learning even when relatively little is known about a species and its habitat. |
Keywords: | critical habitat; decision science,; habitat loss; map accuracy; optimal timing; protected areas; threatened species; uncertainty |
Rights: | © 2022 The Authors. Methods in Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
DOI: | 10.1111/2041-210X.13770 |
Grant ID: | ARC |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.13770 |
Appears in Collections: | Earth and Environmental Sciences publications |
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hdl_134718.pdf | Published version | 1.29 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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