Biodiversity clock and conservation triangle: Integrative platform for biodiversity monitoring, evaluation, and preemptive conservation intervention

Business-as-usual is no more an option on the table for biodiversity conservation. Disruptive transformation at both policy and polity levels are pressing needs. The possibilities presented by the current wave of information and communication technology can act as travelators to meet the conservation targets. Here, we introduce twin concepts of biodiversity clock and conservation triangle that posit as convergence plane to seamlessly consolidate ongoing discrete efforts and convey real-time biodiversity information in a lucid schematic form. In its present form, the biodiversity clock depicts 12 ecological and 6 biophysical components. The universal consistency in clock-reading facilitates the biodiversity clock to be read and interpreted identically across the world. A ternary plot of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) species conservation status is presented as the conservation triangle. Together, the biodiversity clock and the conservation triangle are invaluable in strategizing biodiversity conservation, post-2020. Leveraged smartly, they make possible pre-emptive intervention for biodiversity conservation.

[1]  Klarin Tomislav The Concept of Sustainable Development: From its Beginning to the Contemporary Issues , 2018 .

[2]  K. R. Clarke,et al.  Practical measures of marine biodiversity based on relatedness of species , 2001 .

[3]  E. C. Pielou The measurement of diversity in different types of biological collections , 1966 .

[4]  Mandar Datar,et al.  Floristic uniqueness and effect of degradation on diversity : A case study of sacred groves from northern Western Ghats , 2018 .

[5]  L. Brillouin,et al.  Science and information theory , 1956 .

[6]  Philip Bubb,et al.  A Biodiversity Indicators Dashboard: Addressing Challenges to Monitoring Progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets Using Disaggregated Global Data , 2014, PloS one.

[7]  Pawan Sinha,et al.  Recognizing complex patterns , 2002, Nature Neuroscience.

[8]  W. Berger,et al.  Diversity of Planktonic Foraminifera in Deep-Sea Sediments , 1970, Science.

[9]  L. Fahrig Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Biodiversity , 2003 .

[10]  S. Strahan,et al.  Decline in Antarctic Ozone Depletion and Lower Stratospheric Chlorine Determined From Aura Microwave Limb Sounder Observations , 2018 .

[11]  N. Dulvy,et al.  Linked indicator sets for addressing biodiversity loss , 2011, Oryx.

[12]  W. Bossert,et al.  The Measurement of Diversity , 2001 .

[13]  M. Mattson Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain , 2014, Front. Neurosci..

[14]  A. Roy,et al.  Sacred grove as remnant forest: A vegetation analysis , 2017 .

[15]  I. Kowarik,et al.  What criteria should be used to select biodiversity indicators? , 2010, Biodiversity and Conservation.

[16]  Yogesh Gokhale,et al.  CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF SACRED GROVES IN INDIA , 2002 .

[17]  B. Redekop Embodying the story: Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation leadership , 2016 .

[18]  James E. M. Watson,et al.  Formulating Smart Commitments on Biodiversity: Lessons from the Aichi Targets , 2016 .

[19]  T. Ramachandra,et al.  Socio-cultural protection of endemic trees in humanised landscape , 2014, Biodiversity and Conservation.

[20]  Daniel P. Faith,et al.  Integrating Phylogenetic Diversity, Complementarity, and Endemism for Conservation Assessment , 2004 .

[21]  T. Edwards Figs of Southern and South-Central Africa , 2005 .

[22]  Calyampudi R. Rao Diversity and dissimilarity coefficients: A unified approach☆ , 1982 .

[23]  E. Gibbs Emerging zoonotic epidemics in the interconnected global community , 2005, Veterinary Record.

[24]  Robert H. Whittaker,et al.  Evolution of Species Diversity in Land Communities , 1977 .

[25]  L. Pelletier,et al.  Persuasive communication and proenvironmental behaviours: How message tailoring and message framing can improve the integration of behaviours through self-determined motivation. , 2008 .

[26]  D. Doak,et al.  The Keystone-Species Concept in Ecology and ConservationManagement and policy must explicitly consider the complexity of interactions in natural systems , 1993 .

[27]  L. DiPietro A Silent Spring? , 2017, Journal of physical activity & health.

[28]  C. Rutte,et al.  Sacred groves: potential for biodiversity management , 2006 .

[29]  M. Hill Diversity and Evenness: A Unifying Notation and Its Consequences , 1973 .

[30]  N. P. Sooraj,et al.  Comparative study on the floral spectral reflectance of invasive and non-invasive plants , 2019, Ecol. Informatics.

[31]  Sandrine Dudoit,et al.  GC-Content Normalization for RNA-Seq Data , 2011, BMC Bioinformatics.

[32]  S. Price,et al.  A promising future for integrative biodiversity research: an increased role of scale-dependency and functional biology , 2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[33]  P. S. Ramakrishnan,et al.  Conserving the sacred : for biodiversity management , 1998 .

[34]  A. Dobson,et al.  What biodiversity? , 1991, Nature.

[35]  K. R. Clarke,et al.  A taxonomic distinctness index and its statistical properties , 1998 .

[36]  Valentín,et al.  Chapter 2. , 1998, Annals of the ICRP.

[37]  B. Cardinale Impacts of Biodiversity Loss , 2012, Science.

[38]  Paul J. Ferraro,et al.  Show Me the Money: Do Payments Supply Environmental Services in Developing Countries? , 2010, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.

[39]  J. Castilla,et al.  Challenges in the Quest for Keystones , 1996 .

[40]  J. Morrone Homology, biogeography and areas of endemism , 2001 .

[41]  Lawrence M. Page,et al.  Digitization of Biodiversity Collections Reveals Biggest Data on Biodiversity , 2015 .

[42]  Lian Pin Koh,et al.  Species Coextinctions and the Biodiversity Crisis , 2004, Science.

[43]  Dave Roberts,et al.  A framework for publishing primary biodiversity data , 2011, BMC Bioinformatics.

[44]  A. Penedo,et al.  International Socio-Environmental Conferences and Agreements: A Thematic Review , 2016 .

[45]  Gill Seyfang,et al.  Environmental mega-conferences - From Stockholm to Johannesburg and beyond , 2003 .

[46]  M. Gadgil,et al.  The sacred groves of Western Ghats in India , 1976, Economic Botany.

[47]  William,et al.  Challenges in the Quest for Keystones Identifying keystone species is difficult-but essential to understanding bow loss of species will affect ecosystems , 2003 .

[48]  S. Sharrock,et al.  Plant Conservation Report 2014: a review of progress towards the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011-2020. , 2014 .

[49]  N. B. Kotliar Application of the New Keystone‐Species Concept to Prairie Dogs: How Well Does It Work? , 2000, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[50]  R. Allan Climate change: Dichotomy of drought and deluge , 2014 .

[51]  M. Loreau,et al.  Biodiversity and ecosystem productivity in a fluctuating environment: the insurance hypothesis. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[52]  C. Bradshaw,et al.  Tropical turmoil: a biodiversity tragedy in progress , 2009 .

[53]  R. Morris Anthropogenic impacts on tropical forest biodiversity: a network structure and ecosystem functioning perspective , 2010, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[54]  R. Macarthur PATTERNS OF SPECIES DIVERSITY , 1965 .

[55]  D. Lindenmayer,et al.  Landscape modification and habitat fragmentation: a synthesis , 2007 .

[56]  P. Epstein Climate change and emerging infectious diseases. , 1998, Microbes and infection.