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Selección de Islas para Conservación en el Archipielago Urbano de Helsinki, Finlandia
Author(s) -
Ranta Pertti,
Tanskanen Antti,
Niemelä Jari,
Kurtto Arto
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.98290.x
Subject(s) - archipelago , biodiversity , geography , endangered species , range (aeronautics) , species richness , selection (genetic algorithm) , ecology , nestedness , global biodiversity , biology , habitat , materials science , artificial intelligence , computer science , composite material
The occurrence of vascular plants was surveyed on 207 islands (size range 0.01–390.2 ha, number of plant species 1–449) offshore from the city of Helsinki in the Baltic Sea to examine the conservation value of these islands. We calculated a rarity score for each species (1/number of islands occupied by the species) and a biodiversity score for each island (sum of the rarity scores of each species present on the island). Positive correlations between species number and biodiversity score (r s = 0.97, p < 0.001) and between biodiversity score and island area (r s = 0.87, p < 0.001) indicated that these parameters are heavily dependent on island size. With the goal of including at least one occurrence (island) of all plant species, an iterative selection algorithm chose a set of 41 islands whose average size (29.3 ha) was four times the average size of all existing islands (7.0 ha). Strong nestedness ( N < 54) explains the concentration of plant species diversity on large islands. An operational strategy for selection of sites for protection is to complement the set produced by a selection algorithm with target species not yet included (e.g., endangered species with several occurrences). Comprehensive mapping and analysis of a taxonomic group will help integrate conservation biology into land‐use planning and increase the quality of the networks of protected areas.