Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas

Considerable attention has been paid to climate change and its impacts on biodiversity. The climate change has caused several problems such as continuous ecosystem degradation and a resultant biodiversity decline. In addition, climate warming has a range of indirect effects through changes in vegetation type level and sea that affect physical and biological systems. This has also led to changes in the distribution of species, as well as reductions in the size of populations, or even local extinctions of these populations. Moreover, many species are disappearing with time due to climate change combined with the emergence of disease that develops and increases with time. These problems affect different biodiversity components that are close to collapse. This chapter explored the richness of biodiversity in arid and semi-arid zones. It is also illuminates the effects of climate change on distribution of biodiversity. The authors highlight the responses of biodiversity under climate change, in terms of species extinction, biodiversity loss, and the impacts of climate change to ecological tourism. Finally, the authors show how biodiversity can overcome the effect of climate change, by developing some systems that allow to them to survive and conservation of species and ecosystems.

The Fight Against Climate Change From an Indigenous System Perspective

The 21st century has witnessed that climate change has become an acute daily agony. In Africa, to be specific, it has made the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals a myth. It is argued that the implications of climate change are evident in numerous ways on the African continent: incessant floods, cyclones, droughts, and heat waves. These have introduced disastrous outcomes: a heightened threat of food security, inadequate water resource availability, diminished biodiversity, decline in human health viability, and increasing land degradation. At the centre of all this, a more robust understanding of climate change and appropriate palliatives is called for. In South Africa, conservation by the state and numerous stakeholders on the thorny issue of climate change has tended to favour and privilege Western scientific interpretations at the expense of the “indigenous” interpretations as informed by their indigenous epistemologies.

Widespread homogenization of plant communities in the Anthropocene

Native biodiversity decline and non-native species spread are major features of the Anthropocene. Both processes can drive biotic homogenization by reducing trait and phylogenetic differences in species assemblages between regions, thus diminishing the regional distinctiveness of biotas and likely have negative impacts on key ecosystem functions. However, a global assessment of this phenomenon is lacking. Here, using a dataset of >200,000 plant species, we demonstrate widespread and temporal decreases in species and phylogenetic turnover across grain sizes and spatial extents. The extent of homogenization within major biomes is pronounced and is overwhelmingly explained by non-native species naturalizations. Asia and North America are major sources of non-native species; however, the species they export tend to be phylogenetically close to recipient floras. Australia, the Pacific and Europe, in contrast, contribute fewer species to the global pool of non-natives, but represent a disproportionate amount of phylogenetic diversity. The timeline of most naturalisations coincides with widespread human migration within the last ~500 years, and demonstrates the profound influence humans exert on regional biotas beyond changes in species richness.

Children's Species Literacy as Estimated and Desired by Biodiversity Communicators: a Mismatch with the Actual Level

While biodiversity decline continues and laypeople's knowledge about species is limited, especially in children, high-quality communication is needed to raise awareness. For this, communicators should be aware of current knowledge levels in their target groups. We compared biodiversity communicators' estimates of the average species literacy level in primary school children with the actual level. Moreover, we explored the importance that communicators placed on species literacy and the level that they desired. Estimations of children's average knowledge level varied widely and differed from the actual level. In particular, communicators overestimated the species literacy level. Although most biodiversity communicators agreed that knowledge about species is important, their view differed as to why species literacy would be important. Moreover, communicators differed with respect to the relative importance attached to different knowledge components. Professionals may thus benefit from a detailed framework of species literacy that illustrates different aspects and values. Most importantly, our findings suggest that to bridge the gap between actual and desired knowledge levels in children effectively, biodiversity communicators first need to become more aware of current perceptions in young audiences.

Variation in herpetofauna detection probabilities: implications for study design

Population monitoring is fundamental for informing management decisions aimed at reducing the rapid rate of global biodiversity decline. Herpetofauna are experiencing declines worldwide and include species that are challenging to monitor. Raw counts and associated metrics such as richness indices are common for monitoring populations of herpetofauna; however, these methods are susceptible to bias as they fail to account for varying detection probabilities. Our goal was to develop a program for efficiently monitoring herpetofauna in southern Texas. Our objectives were to (1) estimate detection probabilities in an occupancy modeling framework using trap arrays for a diverse group of herpetofauna and (2) to evaluate the relative effectiveness of funnel traps, pitfall traps, and cover boards. We collected data with 36 arrays at 2 study sites in 2015 and 2016, for 2105 array-days resulting in 4839 detections of 51 species. We modeled occupancy for 21 species and found support for the hypothesis that detection probability varied over our sampling duration for 10 species and with rainfall for 10 species. For herpetofauna in our study, we found 14 and 12 species were most efficiently captured with funnel traps and pitfall traps, respectively, and no species were most efficiently captured with cover boards. Our results show that using methods that do not account for variations in detection probability are highly subject to bias unless the likelihood of false absences is minimized with exceptionally long capture durations. For monitoring herpetofauna in southern Texas, we recommend using arrays with funnel and pitfall traps and an analytical method such as occupancy modeling that accounts for variation in detection.

Internal transcribed spacer primer evaluation for vascular plant metabarcoding

The unprecedented ongoing biodiversity decline necessitates scalable means of monitoring in order to fully understand the underlying causes. DNA metabarcoding has the potential to provide a powerful tool for accurate and rapid biodiversity monitoring. Unfortunately, in many cases, a lack of universal standards undermines the widespread application of metabarcoding. One of the most important considerations in metabarcoding of plants, aside from selecting a potent barcode marker, is primer choice. Our study evaluates published ITS primers in silico and in vitro, through mock communities and presents newly designed primers. We were able to show that a large proportion of previously available ITS primers have unfavourable attributes. Our combined results support the recommendation of the introduced primers ITS-3p62plF1 and ITS-4unR1 as the best current universal plant specific ITS2 primer combination. We also found that PCR optimisation, such as the addition of 5% DMSO, is essential to obtain meaningful results in ITS2 metabarcoding. Finally, we conclude that continuous quality assurance is indispensable for reliable metabarcoding results.

Insect Epigenetic Mechanisms Facing Anthropogenic-Derived Contamination, an Overview

Currently, the human species has been recognized as the primary species responsible for Earth’s biodiversity decline. Contamination by different chemical compounds, such as pesticides, is among the main causes of population decreases and species extinction. Insects are key for ecosystem maintenance; unfortunately, their populations are being drastically affected by human-derived disturbances. Pesticides, applied in agricultural and urban environments, are capable of polluting soil and water sources, reaching non-target organisms (native and introduced). Pesticides alter insect’s development, physiology, and inheritance. Recently, a link between pesticide effects on insects and their epigenetic molecular mechanisms (EMMs) has been demonstrated. EMMs are capable of regulating gene expression without modifying genetic sequences, resulting in the expression of different stress responses as well as compensatory mechanisms. In this work, we review the main anthropogenic contaminants capable of affecting insect biology and of triggering EMMs. EMMs are involved in the development of several diseases in native insects affected by pesticides (e.g., anomalous teratogenic reactions). Additionally, EMMs also may allow for the survival of some species (mainly pests) under contamination-derived habitats; this may lead to biodiversity decline and further biotic homogenization. We illustrate these patterns by reviewing the effect of neonicotinoid insecticides, insect EMMs, and their ecological consequences.

Spatial Scale Mismatches in the EU Agri-Biodiversity Conservation Policy. The Case for a Shift to Landscape-Scale Design

Agriculture is a major driver of the ongoing biodiversity decline, demanding an urgent transition towards a system that reconciles productivity and profitability with nature conservation; however, where public policies promote such transitions are in place, their design often poorly fits the relevant biogeophysical systems, decreasing the policies’ expected effectiveness. Spatial scale mismatches are a primary example in this regard. The literature reviewed in this paper, drawing from both ecology and policy studies, suggests to foster policy implementation at the landscape scale, where most functional ecological processes—and the delivery of related ecosystem services—occur on farmland. Two strategies are identified for coordinating policy implementation at the landscape scale: the promotion of farmers’ collective action and the partition of space on an ecologically sound basis through spatial planning. As the new European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2023 is currently being defined, we assess if and how the draft agri-biodiversity legislation includes any of the strategies above. We find no comprehensive uptake of the landscape-scale perspective at the EU level, thereby suggesting that a powerful tool to overcome the CAP underperformance on biodiversity is being overlooked.

Recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda

The Convention on Biological Diversity is defining the goals that will frame future global biodiversity policy in a context of rapid biodiversity decline and under pressure to make transformative change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, we argue that transformative change requires the foregrounding of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights and agency in biodiversity policy. We support this argument with four key points. First, Indigenous peoples and local communities hold knowledge essential for setting realistic and effective biodiversity targets that simultaneously improve local livelihoods. Second, Indigenous peoples’ conceptualizations of nature sustain and manifest CBD’s 2050 vision of “Living in harmony with nature.” Third, Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ participation in biodiversity policy contributes to the recognition of human and Indigenous peoples’ rights. And fourth, engagement in biodiversity policy is essential for Indigenous peoples and local communities to be able to exercise their recognized rights to territories and resources.