About the SCALES project with David Storch ****************************************************************************************** * About the SCALES project with David Storch ****************************************************************************************** 19. 4. 2011, By: Marie Kohoutová, Translation: Jaroslav Švelch David Storch’s work at the Center for Theoretical Study focuses on macroecology and evolut He is currently involved in two projects investigating the processes that determine natura What can a lay person image under the title “SCALES - Securing the Conservation of biodive Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal and Ecological Scales”? It’s quite difficult to describe, even for me. The most important part is the abbreviation Are the two projects you are working on somehow related? To a certain extent, yes. The other one is a regular Grant Agency of the Czech Republic pr focuses much more on the scales themselves and on what happens when the scales change. Eur particular environmental measures. The SCALES project has similar aims, while the Grant Ag So the SCALES project is concerned with spatial scales? Pretty much so – that’s the idea of the people who proposed this project, myself included. from EU countries take part in it and EU also provides the funding. Protection and conserv environment tends to be very local and usually takes place on the level of individual envi protection areas or reservations, but the important things in nature happen on different l different scales, including the larger ones, for example the shifts in ranges of certain s changes and so on; these take place on the scale of whole continents. Our aim is then to i knowledge of what we call macroecology phenomena with the things that happen and that we c scales. That’s where the name comes from. So the SCALES project is concerned with spatial scales? Pretty much so – that’s the idea of the people who proposed this project, myself included. from EU countries take part in it and EU also provides the funding. Protection and conserv environment tends to be very local and usually takes place on the level of individual envi protection areas or reservations, but the important things in nature happen on different l different scales, including the larger ones, for example the shifts in ranges of certain s changes and so on; these take place on the scale of whole continents. Our aim is then to i knowledge of what we call macroecology phenomena with the things that happen and that we c scales. That’s where the name comes from. What if we change the scale from the local one to one that covers large regions? How does Data doesn’t really change, because it is always tied to a certain scale. It’s more comple you an example. Typically, we protect those species that are rare in the Czech Republic. B rare for various reasons. One of the might be that this is a periphery of their range; its be further east and that’s where they are abundant. Therefore we protect them, only becaus westernmost outskirts of their range. And this is important to know, in order to take furt Another thing that is interesting in terms of scales is the permeability of the landscape. we can protect certain species in a certain area, but on the other hand, if their numbers we’re protecting them, is the landscape permeable enough, so that can they spread througho something we cannot deal with on the local level. We have to know about their distribution We can explain the distribution of organisms either by environment (if it is suitable, the found there) or by the dynamics of expansion – it can be that they started expanding somew they will eventually reach us, or they might be subsiding from the whole range. We cannot without knowing what’s going on the European scale. When the project comes to a conclusion, will it change which ways of protecting the landsc effective? The project has only just started and we don’t know where it will lead us. Of course, in t the project, better databases and a more sophisticated system of data structures that will about the state of the nature of Europe and about the factors that make it different in on it is somewhere else. The project will contribute to our knowledge of the diversity of the its variation in different scales. However, it is hard to predict how much it can contribu effective protection or a better management of biodiversity. We’ve only been through the f partial evaluation, we’ve handed in partial reports, gathered some data and performed firs team is actually not involved in the stages related to environmental policy. That means th theoretical research and provide tools for other teams. Which instruments of environmental policy are more effective – the support of a more consi way of life, more environment-friendly technologies in the industry, or economic and legal as fines or financial support of environment protection projects? Or is the resultant stat something that lies outside of the human influence? I don’t think it lies outside, but many environment-friendly technologies, including lower are supposed to make our environment cleaner or to prevent climate change. I’m not sure th – but in any case it doesn’t really protect the nature. Of course it makes sense to desulp plants, but mostly for our benefit, because sulphur makes people sick. Cleaner technologie aimed at improving the environment for humans rather than protecting nature, or wildlife, for wildlife protection, I believe that administrative measures are the most effective mea Creating a new environmental protection area or a national park is such a measure, because of rules that we can rely on. There must be a legal framework that allows us to set up new protection areas, bird protection areas or other areas somehow important for wildlife, inc areas. These policy measures are a way of actually “doing” environmental protection, for e choosing and promoting the right way of managing these areas by prohibiting certain activi destroy them. You mentioned modesty – that’s always useful, but the effect of being modest is not immediate; it should help in the long run, but we cannot say that “thanks to people modest, the sparrow population is again on the rise. It’s not that simple. Then what do you think is the most important step in protecting biodiversity? What helps i That’s an intriguing question. It’s rather the other way around. We must determine what bi most threatened by. We can help it by limiting the things that threaten it. And what are these things? Among the factors that endanger current European biodiversity (and the same can be said ab Northern hemisphere), are the changes in scales of the landscape mosaic. The scale, in whi environmental processes take place in, has grown dramatically. A trivial example: Where th small fields, we can now see huge expanses of agricultural land. We could say that this st in the 1950s, but it has in fact been a continuous process. A typical European landscape u mosaic of fields and forests and bushes. But it has changed – where the fields were slight the minority biotopes disappeared and have been replaced by homogenous expanses of fields. the places with more forests have become overgrown with forest, so again, the minority bio granularity have disappeared. The landscape is becoming more homogenous in certain scales make for even more forests, more fields make for even more fields. This is related to the larger scales, to the intensification of agriculture. Humans used to farm everywhere, but changes, whereas now they farm intensively in some places and other places are becoming ov why in some reservations and environmental protection areas, old-fashioned ways of landsca being simulated, like for example hand mowing.) For me, this is the most characteristic pr nature. It is either becoming overgrown or agriculturally exploited. Peripheral habitats s and bushes are disappearing, because they are not considered “useful”. At the same time, the landscape is becoming eutrophicated. Due to the use of artifical fer other things, there is a lot of nutrients in it, which leads to the prevalence of nitrophi such as the stinging nettle. It is even pronounced in the case of freshwater. Ponds are in and eutrophicated, but the fishing industry prefers it this way – it maximizes carp produc animals don’t survive this pollution, only the carps do and that’s what’s important. What is your team’s role in the SCALES project? It’s rather theoretical. We focus on two things: Firstly, we analyze data about distributi groups of organisms from all over Europe, focusing on the factors affecting diversity – wh climate or the landscape type or the spatial arrangement of the landscape. Secondly, we do research, examining models, tools and approaches that could help us predict larger scale d smaller scale samples. The idea is that if we have some smaller samples from different pla estimate the number of species in the whole country or in Europe. It could also help us se general processes and say something about the changes in the nature of Europe. We aim to c theoretical tools for such predictions. ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ doc.▒Dr.▒David▒Storch,▒Ph.D.▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ David▒Storch▒graduated▒in▒biology▒from▒the▒Charles▒University▒Faculty▒of▒Science.▒He▒focus Science▒and▒the▒University▒of▒South▒Bohemia▒Faculty▒of▒Science.▒He▒is▒a▒co-organizer▒of▒th ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Landscape▒Biology:▒Biotypes▒of▒the▒Czech▒Republic▒and▒Doing▒Evolution.▒He▒is▒an▒editor▒of▒ edited▒the▒book▒Scaling▒Biodiversity▒for▒Cambridge▒University▒Press.▒He▒is▒the▒director▒of the▒Academy▒of▒Sciences▒of▒the▒Czech▒Republic.▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒