4 types of biodiversity models
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species distribution (where do species live?)
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land use (LPjML)
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Ecosystem Services (Natcap InVest and InVest GTAP, linking to economy)
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integrated assessments
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Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) - link (removed from Planetary Boundaries)
- summarises the change in ecological communities in response to human pressures. The BII is an estimated percentage of the original number of species that remain and their abundance in any given area, despite human impacts.
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Red List Index (RLI) - measures changes in extinction risk
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Living Planet Index (LPI) measures relative changes in population abundance, in both cases aggregated across multiple species.
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Planetary Boundaries approach
- Genetic diversity - extinctions per million species-years
- functional diversity - Human appropriation of Net Primary Production (NPP)
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Talk - We need to talk about biodiversity - How to measure biodiversity impact
problems with current models:
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invasive species not accounted for
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not resilience
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not tail-risks
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metrics allowing for pluralism - creating a typology of tools for different use cases for investors
- different types of decisions require different types of metrics, and then can be remixed based on the need
- we cannot hope to capture biodiversity based on only one metric
- we’ll need different ones for different types of risks
- we cannot hope to capture biodiversity based on only one metric
- different types of decisions require different types of metrics, and then can be remixed based on the need
“Absolute species richness or species abundance relates more to geography than ecosystem health – a healthy tundra forest may have fewer species and less biomass than a highly degraded tropical rainforest. This means that global spatial products that only map biodiversity or species richness are less informative than datasets that focus on ecosystem properties related to their healthy functioning or conservation value.” (Rossi et al., 2024, p. 3)