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Long-term loss in extent and current protection of terrestrial ecosystem diversity in the temperate and tropical Americas

Documenting changes in ecosystem extent and protection is essential to understanding status of biodiversity and related ecosystem services and have direct applications to measuring Essential Biodiversity Variables, Targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. We developed both potential and current distribution maps of terrestrial ecosystem types for the temperate and tropical Americas; with “potential” estimating where a type would likely occur today had there not been prior land conversion for modern land uses. We utilized a hierarchical classification to describe and map natural ecosystem types at six levels of thematic detail, with lower thematic levels defining more units each with narrower floristic range than upper levels. Current land use/land cover was derived using available global data on human land use intensity and combined with the potential distribution maps to estimate long-term change in extent for each ecosystem type. We also assessed representation of ecosystem types within protected areas as defined by IUCN I-VI land status categories. Of the 749 ecosystem types assessed, represented at 5th (n = 315) vs. 6th (n = 433) levels of the classification hierarchy, 5 types (1.6%) and 31 types (7.1%), respectively, have lost >90% of their potential extent. Some 66 types (20.9%) and 141 types (32.5%), respectively, have lost >50% of their potential extent; thus, crossing thresholds of Vulnerable status under IUCN Red List criterion A3. For ecosystem type representation within IUCN protected area classes, with reference to potential extent of each type, 111 (45.3%) and 125 (28.8%) of types, respectively, have higher representation (>17%) than CBD 2020 targets. Twelve types (3.8%) and 23 (5.3%) of types, respectively, are represented with <1% within protected areas. We illustrate an option for visualizing and reporting on CBD targets (2020 and proposed post-2020) for ecosystem representativeness using both potential extent as a baseline.


Introduction
Accelerating landscape change threatens biodiversity worldwide [1]. Therefore, knowledge of trends in the extent of ecosystems, as well as their proportional representation in protected areas, each provide a foundation for conservation action. Because natural pattern and process influence the composition of communities in the short run, and define selective pressures on organisms over evolutionary timeframes, loss of areal extent should correlate with a decrease in niche diversity, the pool of characteristic species, and variability in key ecological processes [2,3]. Protected area designation is a key strategy for conserving biodiversity [4] and so tracking progress on ecological representativeness of protected areas remains an important indication of progress in conservation.
There are also several global initiatives that should benefit from this knowledge. Under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020 [5], a series of targets were established to support conservation action and monitor progress. Among the Plan's stated targets, Target 11 states that... "By 2020, at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water,...especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures and integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes." The meaning of "ecologically representative" has been interpreted variously, with one common interpretation being the surface area of ecoregions [6].
Ecoregions, such as those developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) [7] are well established worldwide. Regional biogeography, climate, and physiography underlie the definition of each ecoregion. Within a given ecoregion, one could expect to find recurring patterns of upland and wetland ecosystems. The WWF ecoregion schema is commonly utilized for measuring progress against Target 11 [8]. However, some have raised concerns that ecoregions on their own fail to truly represent diversity in ecosystems, ecological and evolutionary processes, and genetics, as intended by the Convention [6]. One response to this concern would be to describe and map ecosystem types that have been defined in an established ecological classification and depict the natural patterns within each ecoregion.
In parallel to the UN Convention targets, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) supports risk assessment of ecosystem types [9] as a complement to the Red List of Threatened Species [10,11]. Bland et al. [12] described the IUCN framework for risk assessment of ecosystem types. Under that framework, four major criteria and subset measurements address threatening processes that lead to rangewide ecosystem collapse. Criterion A measures trends in declining distribution of a given ecosystem type, estimating the proportional change over recent centuries, recent decades, and into upcoming decades. Criterion B aims to assess risk to types with restricted current distributions. Criteria C and D aim to gauge trends in environmental degradation and disruption of biotic processes, respectively. Again, the definition of ecosystem type to be assessed is critical to the successful application of this red listing process. Units must describe recurrent pattern in biotic composition in response to geophysical settings and dynamic ecological processes all with sufficient level of detail to support practical conservation status measurement [13].
In 2013, a set of "Essential Biodiversity Variables" (EBVs) was proposed under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as key measurements required for study, reporting, and management of biodiversity change [14]. These variables are intended to serve as a bridge between biological observations and summary indicators for use by policymakers, and must fulfill criteria on scalability, temporal sensitivity, feasibility, and relevance. While still very much in development, there is a logical role for mapped ecosystem classifications of high thematic detail to serve as the basis for EBVs related to community composition and ecosystem structure. For example, under community composition, trends in loss of ecosystems-if defined at a thematic detail resulting in 10s -100s of types per country-could serve as an indicator under taxonomic diversity. Under ecosystem structure, trends in ecosystem extent and fragmentation for these similarly-defined ecosystem types would be quite informative to decision makers.
However, we have lacked a comprehensive ecosystem classification of sufficient thematic detail, along with type descriptions and associated map products, to support these types of analysis across the Americas. While a number of maps exist at regional [15], continental [16,17], and global [18] extents, nearly all utilize thematic classifications with a limited number of land unit descriptors that don't differentiate floristic composition among types. For example, [17] differentiate 10 forest map classes for South America, and distinguish humid, dry, flooded, temperate, and montane forests, as well as variants within these using leaf phenology classes, such as deciduous, semi-deciduous, and evergreen.
Some maps developed at national scales, such as the land use maps of Mexico's National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI) [19], have used aerial photo interpretation to map vegetation and land use classes, and some have shown their utility for tracking change in key ecosystem characteristics [20], but the classification used is not formally tied to regional or global classification standards. Still others working in Latin America have made substantial contributions toward using internationally standardized classifications of high thematic detail. Josse et al. [21] generated a map of the Amazon drainages of