Dresdner Planerforum - Small spaces pack a big punch for biodiversity

Date

Mar 25, 2020

Time

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Speaker

Lenore Fahrig, Chancellor's Professor

Affiliation

Carleton University, Ottawa

Series

Dresdner Planerforum

Language

en

Main Topic

Umwelt

Description

Globally, thousands of species go extinct every year due to human activities. The primary cause is habitat loss, as natural areas are converted to human uses, especially agriculture. How can we accommodate both nature and people? Are there "better" ways to lose habitat? I present two research lines on this topic. The first one finds that more species occur in a given amount of habitat when that habitat is in several small patches than few large ones. The second research line finds higher biodiversity in farmlands with smaller crop fields, for a given area under crop production. Overall, our research suggests that habitat preservation and restoration should be top priority for biodiversity conservation. Habitat preservation should apply to all habitat areas, not just large ones; we should especially encourage local, small-scale conservation efforts. In addition, we need policies and incentives to reverse the ongoing trend towards enlargement of crop fields.

Links

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Last modified: Mar 10, 2020, 8:34:04 AM