Soil carbon is a useful surrogate for conservation planning in developing nations

PERI, PABLO L.; LASAGNO, ROMINA G.; MARTÍNEZ PASTUR, GUILLERMO; ATKINSON, RACHEL; THOMAS, EVERT; LADD, BRENTON

Scientific Reports

Nature

Año: 2019 vol. 9 p. 1 - 6

Defining the optimal placement of areas for biodiversity conservation in developing nations remainsa significant challenge. Our best methods for spatially targeting potential locations for biodiversityconservation rely heavily on extensive georeferenced species observation data which is oftenincomplete or lacking in developing nations. One possible solution is the use of surrogates that enablesite assessments of potential biodiversity values which use either indicator taxa or abiotic variables, orboth. Among the plethora of abiotic variables, soil carbon has previously been identified as a potentiallypowerful predictor for threatened biodiversity, but this has not yet been confirmed with directobservational data. Here we assess the potential value of soil carbon for spatial prediction of threatenedspecies using direct measurements as well as a wide range of GIS derived abiotic values as surrogatesfor threatened plant species in the PEBANPA network of permanent plots in Southern Patagonia. Wefind that soil carbon significantly improves the performance of a biodiversity surrogate elaborated usingabiotic variables to predict the presence of threatened species. Soil carbon could thus help to prioritizesites in conservation planning. Further, the results suggest that soil carbon on its own can be a muchbetter surrogate than other abiotic variables when prioritization of sites for conservation are calibratedon increasingly small sets of observation plots. We call for the inclusion of soil carbon data in theelaboration of surrogates used to optimize conservation investments in the developing world.