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Human impact on the natural world is pervasive. The effects of historical and contemporary industrialisation, agricultural expansion and globalisation can be felt even in remote environments. Addressing anthropogenic threats to biodiversity is becoming ever more urgent, and ever more challenging. Conservationists must navigate increasingly complex problems that consider not only natural processes, but also the inextricable social dimensions of environmental change, and must do so with limited human and financial resources. The challenge is particularly great in tropical regions. These are home to the majority of terrestrial biodiversity and are facing unprecedented pressures due to expanding and impoverished human populations, urbanisation and exploitation of natural resources. Conservation strategies in the tropics increasingly recognise the need to embrace social-ecological approaches, often designed around initiatives that aim to safeguard biodiversity and the benefits provided to humans by ecosystems, and promote social progress. Yet development of monitoring techniques to better inform these strategies has lagged behind. Despite recent growth in the presence of social science theory and methods in conservation, research to characterise threats and identify conservation priorities rely heavily on traditional ecological methods. These methods have limitations, including restricted replication capacity, small spatial scales and sampling error. Perhaps more importantly, they fail to elicit the social context of human activities and behaviours. The main objective of this thesis was to critically examine and develop methods to address complex conservation problems in tropical forest contexts strongly influenced by human actions. The research is based in Brazil, a mega-diverse country experiencing turbulent economic and political times. The thesis begins in the Brazilian Amazon, where recent evidence indicates that urban consumption and commercial trade of wild-meat may be widespread, presenting an important threat to Neotropical biodiversity. Yet adequate regional data is scarce. Subsequently the first two data chapters of this thesis examine two approaches that could provide important insights into the extent and characteristics of wildlife harvest and trade across large spatial scales: expert knowledge and federal enforcement reports. First, using caiman as a model taxon, I surveyed experts across the Brazilian Amazon using a Likert-style questionnaire (Chapter 2). The results of expert responses revealed novel evidence of common and geographically widespread caiman hunting, driven in part by urban demand for meat and resulting in long-distance trade networks. Chapter 3 examines the potential of federal enforcement data to provide valuable regional information on illegal harvest and trade activities, utilising reports of enforcement events in 549 Amazonian municipalities. I also examine spatial and temporal patterns of institutional capacity of Brazil’s environmental agency to understand the efficacy of governance in tropical forests against this cryptic and hard-to-detect activity; and in turn how these realities impact our interpretations of the species data contained within enforcement reports. The analyses revealed evidence of inadequate institutional capacity and low enforcement of wildlife crime, particularly in smaller towns far from deforestation frontiers. Nonetheless, the approach yielded vital conservation information on spatial patterns and dynamics of species-level harvest and trade, including evidence of large-scale commercial trade in larger cities, and local-level harvest of vulnerable terrestrial vertebrates. The study also highlighted a potential Amazonian enforcement vacuum resulting from decentralization and institutional reforms. From here, we move to the Atlantic forest, a severely modified biome and conservation hotspot, to explore the use of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) to inform on local-scale occupancy and population trends of large-bodied mammals and birds. I conducted interviews with rural people to assess their knowledge of selected native species, and also to elicit their perceptions of social, environmental and economic processes of change. The results demonstrate that LEK can provide valuable information on species responses within severely modified tropical landscapes. Perhaps more importantly, qualitative insights from respondent interviews illustrated the inter-linked social, economic and political drivers of changing landscapes and livelihoods that have shaped contemporary species patterns. The findings of this thesis demonstrate the value of alternative and innovative research methods for eliciting important conservation-relevant information in tropical forest contexts. The research presented highlights the importance of critical and robust development and application of methods, recognizing the challenges that stem from integrating social-ecological knowledge systems and approaching complex problems at different spatial scales.

Billions of people rely on wild meat (wild fish and bushmeat) for their livelihood and food security, but unsustainable harvesting is causing pan-tropic defaunation. In addition to the decline of prey populations, many harvest-dependent societies in these regions are witnessing major social and environmental changes, including; rapid urbanisation, population growth, (unequal) socio-economic development, nutritional transitions, policy alterations, habitat conversion and climatic change. Despite the potential importance of these changes for biodiversity and human well-being, our understanding of how these changes are impacting the dynamics of harvesting systems is poor. In this thesis I engage with four major knowledge gaps, in particular. The first is that we know almost nothing about the relative influence of emergent large rainforest cities on wildlife. Second, the suggested connections between defaunation and food insecurity have weak empirical foundations. Third, links between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are largely neglected. And fourth, despite recent recognition of their importance, social-ecological feedbacks in tropical harvesting systems remain woefully understudied. Hence, my overall aim in this thesis was to address these and related knowledge gaps by investigating the drivers and dynamics of contemporary wildlife harvesting in the Amazon, and assess the outcomes for biodiversity and rural food security. I focus on rural Amazonians, amongst who high levels of social marginalization, multi-dimensional poverty and food insecurity have been identified. These people are juxtaposed between traditional lives where seasons dictate subsistence wildlife harvesting, and a modern Amazonia in which rural livelihoods are increasingly influenced by the demands of growing urban areas, home to three out of four Amazonians. This PhD study was designed to capture the influences of the seasonal flood pulse and urban markets (metropolitan and provincial) in an extensive and largely-forested area of the Amazon floodplain. This was achieved by interviewing households in 22 communities during both the high and low water season along a 1,267 km stretch of the River Purus, the most important river for commercial fishing for Manaus, Amazonia’s largest city of over 2 million people. Food insecurity was assessed during 556 household visits, in which time nearly 600 different harvesters were interviewed about their hunting and fishing activities, including detailed catch and effort data concerning 886 fishing trips. I show that Manaus’ favourite fish species (tambaqui, Colossoma macropomum) halves in body size and catch rate (catch-per-unit-effort in biomass; CPUEb) within several hundreds of kilometres of the city, with defaunation detectable 1000 km into the rainforest wilderness (Chapter 2). Despite defaunation of the main target species, rural fishers near to Manaus managed to maintain overall fish CPUEb, and levels of food insecurity were no worse than upstream (Chapter 3). Instead, I reveal severe seasonal food insecurity among the rural population associated with falls in aggregated fishing CPUEb of 73% during high waters. I provide novel evidence that food insecurity can result from significant falls in wildlife CPUEb (Chapter 3), and that this seasonal food insecurity may drive increased bushmeat offtake (Chapter 4). I also show in Chapter 4 how seasonal water-level and market forces can dictate wildlife harvesting profiles (akin to species assemblages). I provide evidence that the mechanism driving the defaunation seen in Chapter 1 and the differing harvest profiles in Chapter 4 is the regular service of city-based boats that purchase fish and deposit ice only in communities nearer to Manaus. Chapter 5 was inspired by listening to local voices, specifically, concerns that making a living is being increasing constrained by a combination of defaunation and environmental legislation. I explored these viewpoints using a social-ecological vulnerability framework, allowing me to better understand and voice their concerns, while contributing to the poorly studied concept of social-ecological feedbacks. Through these findings, I establish and advance key links between drivers and dynamics of contemporary wildlife harvesting in the Amazon, and the outcomes for biodiversity and rural food security. As such, I emphasise the importance of taking a holistic view of the research and management of harvesting systems to help achieve sustainable food systems in the Amazon, and across the planet.

Consideration of the ‘social dimensions’ is increasingly gaining currency within the conservation community. A growing body of literature indicates the importance and influence people and societal practices have on the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation. As such, conservationists and their organisations are being urged to embed more social components within their projects and programmes. However, there is self-reported lack of understanding, skills and confidence by many conservationists about the scope and nature of this social dimension within the biodiversity conservation context. This thesis aims to recast the social dimensions of conservation. Specifically, to explore its boundaries and how current understanding can be supplemented using a social practice theoretical lens. It aims to strengthen conceptual understanding and develop pathways of practical application within conservation organisations. This research was undertaken within the context of my own institution, the Zoological Society of London which is a UK zoo-based conservation organisation. The research was exploratory in nature due to the complexity and relatively undefined status of the social dimensions within biodiversity conservation. A mixed method approach was employed using key informant interviews and an online survey instrument to depict and describe practices within the social dimensions of conservation, and to gather perceptions about these practices. The thematic results offer both a recasting of the definition of the social dimensions of conservation and a conceptual model of the ‘ecologies of practices’ at the Zoological Society of London. These new knowledge resources provide a basis to foster further understanding of how people and their practices fit into the conservation landscape. They also offer recommendations for both the Zoological Society of London and the wider biodiversity conservation community, to build individual and organisational capacity towards the social dimensions through future research, training and organisational development.

Across the world, particularly in the tropics, the extent of forest clearance has been widespread. At present, few studies have been undertaken and little is known on the long-term effect of land use history following clearance, on forest recovery, a significant sink for atmospheric CO2. This study aimed at quantifying the capacity of regenerating forests in the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) to recover carbon using a combination of Earth Observation (EO) data and the 3-PG forest growth model. Three sites were selected within the BLA, representative of diffrent clearance histories on which extensive deforestation has occurred. Land use history and forest age for these areas was obtained from time-series analysis of Landsat images (1974 - 2011). Long term trends of aboveground biomass (AGB) accumulation in secondary forests were studied using field inventory data from 52 secondary forest plots north of Manaus from 1993, 1995 and 2014. Plots were representative of different clearance histories; a combination of clearance frequency and period of active land use prior to abandonment. A variance based global sensitivity analysis (SA) was carried out on the 3-PG forest growth model to identify its most sensitive model inputs when applying it to a mixed tropical rainforest. A parameter set for mixed tropical forests was identified using a Monte-Carlo simulation and by comparing simulated outputs to field data. These parameters were used within 3-PG to provide estimates of total carbon sequestration and model sensitivity to future climate change. Results of this thesis showed that forest age derived from remote sensing time series was comparable to that derived from field observations and interviews. Sites with a higher land use intensity did not accumulate biomass at a significantly slower rate than those used less intensively. Accumulation rates predicted from the model closely matched those calculated from the forest inventory data gathered at each plot. SA results demonstrated scientifically credible behaviour of the model and allowed identification of the most responsive model inputs and interactions. Findings illustrated the suitability and potential of combining a process based model with EO data as a way to forecast the productivity of mixed secondary forest in Brazil. Comparisons with existing estimates highlight uncertainties in deriving secondary forest AGB from remote sensing using relationships fitted to primary forests. Development of these methodologies has applications to other tropical ecosystems that have experienced a similar history of disturbance and can provide invaluable information for future land-use planning and REDD+ monitoring.

Expanding anthropogenic development within the tropical forest biome is driving the loss of an irreplaceable global resource. Mega-diverse tropical forests are vital for regulating the global carbon cycle, and are essential for climate change mitigation. Today, over half of the world’s remaining tropical forest is degraded or regenerating secondary forest. Tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented through the expansion of agriculture and roads. Landscape-scale flooding of terrestrial habitats caused by dam construction is an emerging driver of habitat loss and fragmentation. Much attention has been paid to the long-term impacts of tropical forest fragmentation for biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and carbon emissions. Most of our understanding of the impacts associated with habitat fragmentation originates from systems in which the habitat matrix surrounding remnant forest patches is another, albeit low quality, terrestrial habitat. However, dam-induced habitat fragmentation results in remnant terrestrial biological communities becoming isolated on islands within a water matrix. A water matrix presents the worst-case scenario for remnant habitat fragments. In Chapter 2 I synthesise the results of numerous studies reporting the responses of taxonomic groups to isolation on reservoir land-bridge islands, and uncover a globally-applicable pattern of extinction debt acting upon remnant biological communities on reservoir islands. All islands, regardless of taxonomic group, habitat type, or island area lose species as island isolation time increases. Moreover, I show that contrary to existing ecological theory, once terrestrial habitat becomes isolated within a water matrix, it is effectively too isolated for species losses to be buffered by metapopulation dynamics. Dam development is rapidly expanding in the largest remaining tract of intact tropical forest, the Amazon Basin. In Chapters 3 and 4 I study the Balbina mega-dam system in the central Brazilian Amazon. Here, I use detailed field inventories of trees and lianas on islands and in continuous mainland habitat to determine the impact of landscape-scale habitat fragmentation caused by reservoir creation on these taxonomic groups. I find that islands maintain tree communities at significantly lower densities, richness and diversity compared to continuous forest. Furthermore, tree communities on islands exhibit compositional divergence from those found in mainland continuous forest. Island tree assemblages are dominated by low-wood density species, and may be on a trajectory towards communities characteristic of early successional forests with reduced carbon storage capacity. In contrast, liana assemblages remain compositionally intact and are becoming increasingly dominant relative to trees. Thus, lianas appear robust to many of the negative impacts associated with landscape-scale habitat fragmentation. As insular tree communities continue to degrade through area- and edge-effects, lianas may become a key feature of this archipelagic landscape due to their competitive advantage over trees in disturbed forest habitats. Lianas significantly inhibit tree recruitment and carbon storage. Thus, findings from Chapters 3 and 4 provide strong evidence for additional, and currently unaccounted-for biodiversity and carbon impacts associated with tropical dams. As development of tropical forest regions increases, there is an urgent need to reconcile the need for resources with the need for ecosystem service provision, such as carbon storage, particularly as we attempt to mitigate the impacts of rising atmospheric carbon. Recent studies have shown that secondary tropical forests have the potential to rapidly uptake atmospheric carbon, and act as a powerful tool in climate change mitigation policy. Broad-scale estimates of secondary forest carbon uptake are currently based on above-ground biomass alone. In Chapter 5 I present carbon stock estimates of additional tropical forest carbon pools - soil and dead woody biomass - in secondary forests ranging from 40-120 years. I find that soil fertility (nitrogen concentration) is key in determining carbon storage in secondary forests, and that the stability of carbon stocks held in dead woody biomass increases with secondary forest stand age. I highlight the need to integrate detailed site-specific information into broad-scale predictive models of secondary tropical forest carbon sequestration. This thesis links ecological theory and landscape-scale field inventories, to provide new understanding of the long-term costs of tropical forest fragmentation for biodiversity conservation and carbon storage, and provides further evidence of the important role secondary tropical forests may play in carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.

Coastal habitats are highly sensitive to change and highly diverse. Degrading environmental conditions have led to a global decline in biodiversity through loss, modification and fragmentation of habitats, triggering an increased effort to conserve these ecosystems. Remote sensing is important tool for filling in critical information gaps for monitoring habitats, yet significant barriers exist for operational use within the ecological and conservation communities. Reporting on both extent and condition of habitats are critical to fulfil policy requirements, specifically the ECs Habitat’s Directive. This study focuses on the use of Very High Resolution (VHR) optical imagery for retrieving parameters to identifyassociations that can separate habitat boundaries for extent mapping down to species level for indicators of condition, with a focus on operational use. The Earth Observation Data for Habitat Monitoring (EODHaM) system was implemented using Worldview-2 data from two periods (July and September), in situ data and local ecological knowledge for two sites in Wales, Kenfig Burrows SAC and Castlemartin SSSI. The system utilises the Food and Agricultural Organisation’s (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) but translations between land cover and habitat schemes are not straight forward and need special consideration that are likely to be site specific. Limitations within therule-based method of the EODHaM system were identified and therefore augmented with machine learning based classification algorithms creating a hybrid method of classification generating accurate (>80% overall accuracy) baseline maps with a more automated and repeatable method. Quantitative methods of validation traditionally used within the remote sensing community do not consider spatial aspects of maps. Therefore, qualitative assessments carried out in the field were used in addition to error matrices, overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient. This required input from ecologists and site specialists, enhancing communication and understanding between the different communities. Generating baseline maps required significant amount of training data and updating baselines through change detection methods is recommended for monitoring. An automated, novel map-to-image change detection was therefore implemented. Natural and anthropogenic changes were successfully detected from Worldview-2 and Sentinel-2 data at Kenfig Burrows. An innovative component of this research was the development of methods, which were demonstrated to be transferable between both sites and increased understanding between remote sensing scientist and ecologist. Through this approach, a more operational method for monitoring site specific habitats through satellite data is proposed, with direct benefits for conservation, environment and policy.

Disturbance of wildlife is inevitable in a world with a rapidly increasing human population. Whilst improving engagement with the natural world can have the benefit of encouraging people to help protect it, there is also the issue of increased potential for damaging effects of disturbance. A better understanding is needed of the circumstances under which disturbance would be expected to be a conservation problem, either alone or in combination with the impacts of other human activities. The aim of this thesis is therefore to address these questions: using wintering waders in estuarine habitats as the study system and taking a joint fieldwork and simulation modelling approach. Fieldwork was centred on Poole Harbour; an estuary and wetland of international importance located on the south coast of the UK. Disturbance experiments and observations showed that bird responses to disturbance are highly variable and related to factors including body mass, environmental conditions, site quality, and disturbance type. The energetic and lost-feeding-opportunity costs of responding to individual disturbance events were relatively small and therefore considered unlikely to cause major reductions in individual body condition or significantly limit overwintering population size, given observations of present-day spatial and temporal patterns of human activities. Simulation modelling using two types of individual-based model (IBM) supported this conclusion. Although high levels of disturbance can have a significant impact on wintering bird populations, current frequencies of human activities in Poole Harbour were not found to be reducing the carrying capacity of the site. Increased disturbance frequencies were predicted to be problematic, however, in combination with environmental change that reduced bird ability to meet their daily energy requirements: such as loss of foraging habitat through sea level rise, or reductions in prey availability due to over-exploitation. This has important implications for identifying the most effective conservation management methods. As well as site-specific management recommendations, this research contributes to understanding of the mechanisms by which disturbance may or may not have a significant impact on wintering wader populations; along with applications to other systems; and tools and general principles that conservation managers and decision makers can use to prioritise further investigation and action.

For over a century there has been a push to preserve the areas of nature where the human impact is the smallest, often referred to as wilderness. In Europe the suitability of the concept is debated, as the entire continent has been heavily modified by humans, and the areas without visible human impacts are small and fragmented. At the same time there is a strong push for preserving these areas, including the areas at sea. At sea the wilderness concept faces unique challenges, as the environment is less understood than the terrestrial, and the potential wilderness areas are not necessarily accessible for recreational purposes. This thesis examines the use of the wilderness concept, especially as it relates to the marine environment, in both policy and common use. The aim is to contribute to the conceptual framework for marine wilderness, by studying how the concept of wilderness is understood and used by policymakers and stakeholders. The research is conducted using discourse analysis on legal texts and newspapers, and surveys, interviews, and social network analysis to examine the views of individual stakeholders. The results show that while there is political will in Scotland to conserve wild areas, which are more modest in size than wilderness but provide the wildness quality and its beneficial effects, the concept of wilderness has multiple interpretations, and can be rather political. To address the consequent issues, participation of stakeholders is considered vital for successful management. Marine wilderness remains a particularly ambiguous concept, and considering the ongoing tensions in marine resources management, it is suggested that marine wilderness is more useful if seen as an added benefit than the ultimate goal.

Biodiversity describes diversity at different levels of biological organisation, including: habitat diversity; species diversity; and genetic diversity. Understanding the processes that contribute to maintaining biodiversity is a primary concern for both ecology and evolutionary biology. To this end, research into the factors influencing the different levels of biodiversity independently are widespread. However, little is understood about the relationship between the different levels. This study investigates the patterns of habitat, species, and genetic diversity in fragmented internationally important calcareous grasslands, and analyses the spatial and temporal factors influencing them. Finally, the relationship between these levels of biodiversity is examined. Within the South Downs National Park study area, substantial change to habitat diversity and landscape structure was measured between the 1930s and 2012. The transition of semi-natural habitat to agricultural land was the predominate change. Loss of habitat between the 1930s and 2012 was found to influence both species richness and species evenness of vegetation in twelve calcareous grassland study sites. By contrast, none of the variables examined explained the variation in species composition between sites. Further analysis, at the genetic level, for two target species showed that the amount of habitat loss was important in explaining the genetic variation in Cirsium acaule, and soil nutrients were important in explaining the variation of Ranunculus bulbosus. In contrast to the predictions of the species genetic diversity correlation theory, no relationship was established between species and genetic diversity. Similarly, no relationships were found between habitat diversity and diversity at the species or genetic level. Although there were similarities in the factors influencing different levels of biodiversity, habitat diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity appear to be responding independently to the processes acting on them. As such efforts to conserve biodiversity should consider the influence of conservation strategies on biodiversity holistically, and not focus on a single measure.

The quantity of fish that may be sustainably harvested from the oceans depends uponhow abundant they are and, less obviously, on their rate of growth, the sizes they can attain and the sizes at which they begin reproducing. This thesis investigates whether fish stocks in Scottish waters have exhibited long term changes in growth rates, maturation scheduling or abundance. The Firth of Clyde was of particular interest, so fish stocks from this region were considered separately in each chapter. Scientific bottom trawl survey data were used to examine changes in growth rates and maturation scheduling. Trends in growth rates were determined by calculating time series of mean lengths-at-age and von Bertalanffy growth parameters. Probabilistic maturation reaction norms were used to investigate trends in maturation. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters and maturation indices were regressed against sea-surface temperature data and abundance indices derived from the survey data to determine whether trends in these variables were responsible for changes in growth and maturation. Demersal fish species were considered in chapters 2 and 3, and pelagic fish species were considered in chapter 4. Long term declines in growth rates and lengths-at-maturation were observed in several species. A length based stock assessment model was developed in chapter 5. Information on the length structure of stocks was provided by survey samples instead of catch-at-length data which is typical for such models, so the model presented here should be widely applicable since many different species are sampled by surveys. Model output was compared with existing results derived from more conventional age based models. The results were encouraging; Bayesian implementations, in particular, returned output very similar to the existing age based models.

The local unitary authorities of Calderdale, Kirklees and Bradford in West Yorkshire have joint jurisdiction over the South Pennine Moors Special Protection Area (SPMSPA). This is an upland protected area in the North of England. The SPMSPA provides feeding and breeding habitat for an assemblage of bird species of international conservation concern. Knowledge of the habitat associations of these species within the fringe of the SPA is lacking. Thirteen species form the bird assemblage that has been identified in collaboration with the project partners as in most need of ecological evidence within the moorland fringe landscape. Within this PhD, the ecology of these species was investigated in the context of the immediate 1 km fringe outside of the SPMSPA. The habitat composition of this fringe was found to be a heterogenous mosaic, predominantly characterised by smaller fields dominated by species-poor agricultural habitats. Curlew Numenius arquata, Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Wheatear Oeanthe oeanthe and Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria were found to be associated with fields comprising tussocks, wet flush and evidence of intensive grazing. Species richness was found to be greatest in habitats not typical of moorland or farmland. Bird diversity and species richness were lowest within 100 m of Small Wind Turbines (SWTs), with Magpie Pica pica and Starling Sturnus vulgaris negatively associated with proximity to SWTs. Landsat 8 imagery were found to be a good predictor of the distribution of habitat suitability for five moorland fringe bird species, especially when used to supplement empirical data. Building density was an important predictor for the majority of these species. The lack of unimproved grassland and particularly high land cover of improved and semi-improved agricultural land indicate that the SPMSPA fringe landscape is suboptimal for the conservation of moorland fringe bird diversity. The results of this research can be used as ecological evidence to assist future planning decisions and the conservation of habitats within the SPA fringe for birds of conservation concern.

Species abundance and distribution metrics are cornerstones of conservation planning, for example, in establishing extinction risk and selecting priority areas, but abundance data are scarce and costly to obtain in comparison to those on species occurrence. Occurrence records, often from citizen science or nonsystematic surveys, are increasingly used to model species’ distributions using environmental predictors. Methods to relate occurrence models to abundance, and therefore, provide greater understanding of patterns of abundance across species’ ranges and population size estimates could bring important benefits for conservation decisions. This thesis aims to develop tools, combining different analytical techniques, field data and GIS, to provide improved estimates of species distribution and abundance in support of extinction risk assessments in threatened Neotropical bird species. To achieve this aim, a case study was implemented over the ranges of 14 dry forest birds from the Tumbesian region of Peru –an area of critical conservation importance due to high endemism and severe anthropogenic threats– with the following objectives: to model the distribution of study species (Chapter 2); to estimate local abundance of species across their ranges using covariate Distance sampling (Chapter 3); to explore range-wide variation in abundance (Chapter 4); to explore the relationship between relative probability of occurrence, derived from modelling, and bird abundance, derived from field studies (Chapter 5). First, ensemble species distribution models, using four modelling methods, were built with a median of 150 occurrence records per species, bioclimatic variables and vegetation indices. Modelled Extent of Occurrence, using a 5% omission error threshold to define presence and absence, was compared to existing range estimates used in extinction risk assessment. Additionally, field data were obtained on the local abundance of the study species and habitat characteristics along four 2.5 km transects at 26 sites over the study area. Covariate Distance sampling was used to estimate bird abundances at each site. Where sites represented discrete or delimited units (e.g. protected areas), specific population sizes were estimated. Local abundance was compared across sites and by range core versus edge; spatial autocorrelation was examined with multivariate Mantel tests; and, relationships with environmental variables were examined using Generalised Additive Models. Finally, relationships between abundance estimates, obtained from the field study, and relative probability of occurrence, obtained from distribution models, were tested using correlations, and where significant relationships were found, these were modelled using hierarchical logistic regression. Individual species distribution modelling methods performed adequately and coincided highly in terms of ranked correlation but differed in the distribution of their predicted values. Range size estimates, from thresholded models, were generally smaller than, but coincided spatially with, published ranges, with the exception of three species of conservation interest. Local abundance varied by one or two orders of magnitude across sites for almost all species, with abundance not necessarily highest at the centre of species’ ranges. Sites of maximum abundance for individual species did not coincide – nine different sites held the highest densities of at least one species. Eleven of 14 species showed significant positive correlations between their abundance and modelled occurrence for at least one modelling technique. Modelling techniques are discussed in light of complementing existing techniques to estimate Extent of Occurrence for extinction risk assessments. Abundance estimates, using methods that incorporate detectability, can be obtained for rare species over very patchy habitats with relatively low survey effort, using a suitably designed sampling protocol. The extreme variation in species' abundances and the complexity in relationships with environmental variables has conservation implications, for example, in the design of conservationmotivated surveys and regarding the need for multiple reserves to capture high local abundances of key species. The relationship between modelled species' occurrence and local abundance is a promising area of research with a view to obtaining better abundance information with less survey effort. In terms of biodiversity conservation in north Peru, critical sites are recommended for urgent protection, and updated extinction risk categories are given for threatened species.

Activity Recognition is concerned with identifying the physical state of a user at a particular point in time. Activity recognition task requires the training of classification algorithm using the processed sensor data from the representative population of users. The accuracy of the generated model often reduces during classification of new instances due to the non-stationary sensor data and variations in user characteristics. Thus, there is a need to adapt the classification model to new user haracteristics. However, the existing approaches to model adaptation in activity recognition are blind. They continuously adapt a classification model at a regular interval without specific and precise detection of the indicator of the degrading performance of the model. This approach can lead to wastage of system resources dedicated to continuous adaptation. This thesis addresses the problem of detecting changes in the accuracy of activity recognition model. The thesis developed a classifier for activity recognition. The classifier uses three statistical summaries data that can be generated from any dataset for similarity based classification of new samples. The weighted ensemble combination of the classification decision from each statistical summary data results in a better performance than three existing benchmarked classification algorithms. The thesis also presents change detection approaches that can detect the changes in the accuracy of the underlying recognition model without having access to the ground truth label of each activity being recognised. The first approach called `UDetect' computes the change statistics from the window of classified data and employed statistical process control method to detect variations between the classified data and the reference data of a class. Evaluation of the approach indicates a consistent detection that correlates with the error rate of the model. The second approach is a distance based change detection technique that relies on the developed statistical summaries data for comparing new classified samples and detects any drift in the original class of the activity. The implemented approach uses distance function and a threshold parameter to detect the accuracy change in the classifier that is classifying new instances. Evaluation of the approach yields above 90% detection accuracy. Finally, a layered framework for activity recognition is proposed to make model adaptation in activity recognition informed using the developed techniques in this thesis.

This thesis explores how people in mountainous regions of Albania interrelate with large carnivores. For the research, I used a combination of questionnaire survey and ethnographic fieldwork to generate insights into how rural dwellers perceive and interact with bears, wolves and lynx. Research and conservation efforts relating to large carnivores in areas where they live near humans often have a strong focus on human-wildlife conflicts; with the presumption that conflicts are a central part of people’s relationships with predators. I argue that, although conflicts between people and predators do occur, human-predator relationships in highland Albania are complex and diverse, beyond a simple engagement with conflict-causing animals. Large carnivores have rich local cultural profiles; each species being differently perceived, and responded to, by local groups in terms of their beliefs about the behaviours and characteristics of the animals. I argue that large carnivores are constructed, and responded to, as social actors and, as such, they are integrated into the moral community of humans. Customary codes that regulate the social life of people in highland Albania seem to extend into relationships with carnivores. Damages from predators are largely interpreted and evaluated on principles of belonging and moral integrity with little considerations of their financial aspects. Lack of conservation efforts from Albanian institutions for prolonged periods of time, and the remoteness of mountain communities, has brought about a situation in which locals have been largely left uninfluenced in shaping their relationships with large carnivores. I contend that such a situation, albeit seemingly problematic from an outside perspective, is particularly beneficial in maintaining low conflicts with, or over, predators. Recent increases in conservation efforts in Albania may influence relationships between people and predators in the future. Conservation actors will be faced with the challenge of avoiding possible conflict escalation to the detriment of large carnivores and to rural livelihoods.

With biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation ongoing, the conservationists' toolkit needs to be augmented by innovative and sometimes bold solutions. It is already apparent that the scale of the problem exceeds the capabilities of any one organisation working in isolation. However, collaboration between stakeholder groups may have the potential to enhance conservation outcomes. Cross-sector collaborations, such as those between non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and corporations, are proliferating in conservation. However, little is known about their efficacy and subsequent impact on the wider natural environment, with many assumptions based on anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. This thesis aims to fulfil an important and substantial knowledge gap by using data-driven approaches to understand partnerships in conservation from the perspective of conservation NGOs. Firstly, I assess the types and prevalence of partnerships between conservation NGOs and corporations and find a diverse range of projects are occurring. For example, financial donations are a frequent form of NGO-corporate interaction, but other collaborative activities such as terrestrial ecosystem restoration and educational activities, are regularly reported. Secondly, I evaluate an NGO-led collaborative network to understand what motivates organisations to initiate a membership committing them to voluntary environmental measures that go beyond regulatory compliance. Results suggest that the majority of members join to fulfil strategic objectives such as reputation protection, rather than for altruistic reasons. Furthermore, participants with stronger sustainability credentials occupy the most influential positions within the network, meaning that they are strongly positioned to receive and disseminate information. Lastly, I use social network analysis to explore how a conservation NGO delivers its landscape-scale conservation projects by acquiring key resources from multiple partners. Results indicate that partners providing land-based support are well connected with one another, meaning that landscape-scale conservation activities can be coordinated more easily. Furthermore, the in-kind support network, primarily comprising NGOs, displays the greatest innovative capacity. The research presented in this thesis highlights that cross-sector partnerships have a central role to play in bridging the interests of different stakeholder groups, and reflect the inclusive vision of conservation we should all be striving to create.

This thesis presents an analysis of community based natural resource management (CBNRM) policies in Namibia, focusing on institutional and organizational arrangements. The analysis is based on case studies of two CBNRM institutions: the Conservancy, a community based wildlife management programme, and the Community Forest programme. First, I introduce the policies that made provision for the formation of conservancies and community forests, and examine the differences between local institutional arrangements that have resulted from these policies. The policies and institutional arrangements of the two programmes have important differences resulting in variations in how local communities can implement, participate, benefit and use resources at the local level. Second, I examine the performance of the two programmes at the local level in terms of stated programme goals. I use the enriched version of Ostrom's Institutional and Development (IAD) framework, thereby making it suitable for policy analysis. Results suggest that at the local level, both the conservancy and community forest programmes have not satisfactorily succeeded in achieving their intended goals. First, the two programmes have not sufficiently involved the majority of households affected by their formation in decision making. Rather, the likelihood of a household to influence decisions in conservancy and community forest meetings was observed to be related to gender, age, wealth and financial benefits from the programme. Second, while conservancies have collectively generated high revenues, equity in benefit distribution is not currently being achieved and benefits reach only a few households. Forests on the other hand have been found to be contributing more to rural livelihoods through both subsistence use and sale of forest resources by many households. Third, results also indicate that compliance with new rules introduced by conservancies and community forests is low. Specifically, results indicate that rule enforcement was not effective in all three case studies due to several reasons and that illegal harvesting and hunting was still taking place. Finally, based on the findings of this study, I recommend broad courses of action to the challenges encountered by common-pool resource institutions such as conservancies and community for effective governance of the resources. It is recommended that conservation programmes seek to better understand the communities they work with to ensure effective participation of all affected members. The issue of equity in benefit distribution needs to be clearly addressed in laws and operational plans to ensure the benefit of the poor segments of communities. In order for conservancies and community forests to work as development strategies and not only conservation strategies, there have to be mechanisms to enhance the amount of benefits and the distribution to a larger number of households. Lastly, there exist the need to strengthen existing rule monitoring and enforcement systems to ensure sustainable use of natural resources. In order to realize their goals, institutional arrangements in conservancies and community forests need to be re-designed on a site by site basis to reflect the varied socio-economic, cultural and institutional settings of local communities.

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are Critically Endangered in Bangladesh with only 106 individuals remaining. Poaching is one of the major reasons for the rapid decline in tiger numbers across their entire range. In Bangladesh, very little is known about the utilization of tiger parts, and few details exist to date regarding their acquisition and trade. This research is an original study that explores the local usage, poaching, and trade of tiger parts in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh for the first time. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 141 respondents in the villages around the Bangladesh Sundarbans from December 2011 to June 2013. The respondents include Village Tiger Response Team members (n=46/141), general members of the village community (n=62/141), and tiger killers (n=33/141). The study revealed the local use of, and belief in, the medicinal values of tiger parts is diverse (e.g. medicinal uses, as protection from "dangers" in the forest, and to enhance personal social status and/or wellbeing), and that virtually all parts of the tiger are used including teeth, bones, meat, tongue, genital organs, claws, furs, and whiskers. The research concludes that 65% of the respondents use and/or believe in the benefits of tiger parts, 20% do not use or believe, 9% do not want to talk about the use of tiger parts and 6% are coded 'don't know'. Of the respondents who reported using and/or believing in the benefits of tiger parts, 52% used tiger parts, and 96% believed in the benefits of tiger parts in spite of personal consumption or not. A local trade of tiger parts is present in the villages around the Bangladesh Sundarbans where tiger parts are traded via local middlemen or friends or families with little or no money. Five groups were identified that are involved in tiger killing: villagers, poachers, shikari (local hunters), trappers, and pirates. Villagers kill tigers in the village predominantly for safety, while other groups kill inside the forest professionally or opportunistically. Poachers kill tigers purely for money, but the diverse incentives for the other groups are more complex. Shikari's motives are multi-faceted, encompassing excitement, profit, esteem, and status arising from providing tiger parts for local medicine. Pirates, on the other hand, not only kill tigers for profit and safety, but also as a 'protection service' to the community. The results further illustrate that each group that engages in the killing of tigers submit tiger parts to the commercial trade in exchange for money. This study, additionally, found that a recent commercial demand for tiger bones exists in the Bangladesh Sundarbans; however, the commercial trade of tiger skin was always present. In the Bangladesh Sundarbans, the tiger killers locally tan the skin using local ingredients (potash alum, blue vitriol, salt), and bury the rest of the body to collect the bones later. The price range of a skin varies between BDT 40,000-90,000 (USD520-1,169); for bones BDT 1,500-3,000/kg (USD20-39) and for a canine BDT 1,000-7,000 (USD13-91). Non-local Bangladeshi traders from other cities come and buy the bones from the tiger killers. Note, the trade chain for bones and skin are separate in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. The secondary data documented 46 incidents of tiger or tiger parts being traded in the Bangladesh from 1981 to 2015, of which most of them are confiscation of tiger/tiger parts by the law enforcement authorities (n=26). The overall tiger poaching situation in Bangladesh is complex and requires a multifaceted conservation approach based on the local benefits of tiger conservation that is generated by new development measures, combined with stronger enforcement. These suggested conservation efforts may likely represent the only sustainable solution to maintain a steady tiger population in the Bangladesh Sundarbans.

Conservation priorities are increasingly focused on biodiversity hotspots. As far as amphibians and reptiles are concerned, areas of exceptionally high diversity are centered on tropical and subtropical regions. The Great Desert of Australia, the USA and the Kalahari desert, the Amazon rainforest, and the forests of Thailand are some of the regions sharing the highest biodiversity in the globe. These are all large areas of land containing over 200 herpetofauna species. We investigated herpetofauna diversity, species assemblages distributions, occupancy, detection, survival and body condition on a small portion of the Atlantic forest on the north coast of Bahia, Brazil. This ecosystem, known as "restinga", comprises white sand dunes habitats and covers 450 km2. During four years of sampling we recorded over 23,000 individuals from 224 herpetofauna species on nine sites measuring 25 km2 each, covering nearly half of the of remaining restinga habitats. Amphibians were represented by 89 species (86 anurans; 3 caecilians), reptiles by 135 species (60 snakes, 59 lizards, two caimans; 14 testudines). One single 25 km2 grid cell contained over 105 species alone. This level of diversity represents half of the known species richness described for the state of Bahia, and over 12% of the entire Brazilian herpetofauna. Most reptile assemblages are related to the open sand dune habitats and the amphibian assemblages are related to humid areas or the dense forest patches. Occupancy and detection indices were possible for a large number of species, however a few endemic or endangered species showed very low rates. Equally, 'disturbance adaptors' tended to show high levels of occupancy and detectability, while 'disturbance avoiders' showed the opposite pattern. However, there were also some taxonomic differences, with snakes showing lower levels of detectability than lizards or frogs. Capture Mark Recapture analysis was used to determine estimates of annual survival, which was significantly higher in invasive species. Likewise, invasive species tended to show higher body condition indices than native species, and were better able to exploit disturbed sites. Apparently native and endemic species are suffering from habitat loss and urbanization disturbance caused by the growth of tourism in the region. Unfortunately the network of protected areas are failing to protect this impressive hotspot diversity which is under increasing pressure from development, agriculture and tourism.

Climate and socio-economic change impacts interact in complex ways. These are likely to cross traditional sectoral and regional boundaries with cascading indirect and potentially far reaching repercussions. This is particularly important for the food-water-land-ecosystems (FWLE) nexus. A holistic understanding of these interactions is central for devising appropriate adaptation strategies. This thesis presents a systematic methodological framework that provides new insights into understanding key sensitivities and uncertainties of these possible cross-sectoral impacts for informing future adaptation policies. The research is based on: (1) appraisal of integrated assessment models (IAMs), and (2) investigation of the direct and indirect implications of a wide range of climate and socio-economic scenarios taking into account important cross-sectoral linkages and interactions between six key European land- and water-based sectors/sub-systems (agriculture, biodiversity, coasts, forests, urban, and water). This is achieved through (1) a review of existing integrated approaches and tools, and (2) assessment and extensive application of one European IAM – the CLIMSAVE* Integrated Assessment Platform (IAP). The IAP application uses a combined approach drawing on a systematic: (i) Sensitivity analysis based on a One-Driver-at-a-Time (ODAT) approach, (ii) Scenario and uncertainty analysis based on Multiple-Drivers-at-a-Time (MDAT) approach, and (iii) Robustness Assessment of Adaptation Policies (RAAP). The key outputs include: (i) new quantitative insights into the complex interactions of the FWLE nexus and associated synergies, conflicts and trade-offs in Europe, (ii) identifying key sensitivities and uncertainties of the potential cross-sectoral impacts and adaptation policies under various scenarios of future changes in climate as well as social, technological, economic, environmental, and policy governance settings, (iii) development of a new nexus-based conceptual framework for a long-term, multi- and cross-sectoral adaptation planning, and (iv) identification of potential areas of improvement of the IAP to inform development of the next generation of IAMs to assess the FWLE nexus. The ODAT analysis demonstrates that while a large number of drivers (20 out of 25) affect most sectors/sub-systems either directly or indirectly, eight drivers are key parameters at the European scale, with important cross-sectoral implications (i.e., ‘strong’ and ‘non-linear’ impacts on more than one sector/sub-system). These include: four climatic (temperature, summer and winter precipitation, and CO2 concentration) and four socio-economic (population, GDP, food imports, and agricultural yields) factors. Considering a wide range of scenario combinations of these drivers (taking into account the ‘full’ and ‘plausible sample’ scenario ranges), the MDAT analysis demonstrates that: (i) food production is likely to be the main driver of Europe’s future landscape change dynamics (even without climate change), (ii) agriculture and land use allocation in general is often driven by complex interactions between various sectors/sub-systems, (iii) there are no clear trends/patterns in future food production under most climate scenarios, (iv) agricultural changes have significant cascading effects on other sectors/sub-systems such as forestry, biodiversity, and water and (v) there are consistent trends for biodiversity, water and flood impacts with regional variations. The results also demonstrate that the combined effects of socio-economic and climatic factors are not always additive, highlighting the complexity of understanding impacts across sectors/sub-systems and regions. As a result, adaptation policy choices are complicated and difficult, even without climate change. A better understanding of the critical trade-offs across sectors/sub-systems and regions under various adaptation options is required. Such systematic analysis provides important insights for decision-makers to devise robust adaptation policies that maximise benefits and minimise unintended consequences across sectors/sub-systems and scales. *CLIMSAVE (Climate change integrated assessment methodology for cross-sectoral adaptation and vulnerability in Europe) is an FP7 project (2010–2013) funded by the European Commission. The CLIMSAVE IAP is an interactive exploratory web-based integrated landscape change assessment model that allows stakeholders to investigate climate and socio-economic change impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities for six key sectors/sub-systems (agriculture, biodiversity, coasts, forests, urban areas and water resources) (Harrison et al. 2013; 2015a).

There is increasing emphasis to consider ecosystem services in natural resource policy and management, which has the potential to provide win-wins for species and habitat conservation and human use of resources. Inland freshwater fisheries provide over 33% of the world’s small scale fish catch and employ over 60 million people. However inland waters are the most threatened ecosystem in the world, which in turn threatens thelivelihoods and sustenance of millions globally. This thesis assesses the role of freshwater species in providing food as an ecosystem service, particularly to poor and vulnerable groups, and how the needs of fisheries align and contrast with threatened species inhabiting the waterways. In Chapter 2 the value of fisheries was assessed alongside other ecosystem services provided by inland water systems, where it was shown that monetary and nonmonetary valuations suggest very different priorities across a suite of services. Disaggregation of beneficiaries also showed a mismatch in prioritisation between different stakeholders, and in particular that fishermen and women, who rely most directly on the water resources, value resources incompatibly from a standard monetary valuation. In Chapter 3 I examined the effect of biodiversity on fishery yields and variability to determine if there is a potential for a win-win for conservation and ecosystem service delivery, and showed that increased species richness provides a significant positive contribution. The study of inland water systems and fisheries is hampered by a lack of data and in order to map the benefits from fisheries a model was created for Chapter 4 to spatially predict the relative importance of inland waterways to fishery yields. Example output from this model was used in Chapter 5 to explore how fisheries and freshwater species hotspots overlap spatially, and how this information can be used to determine potential areas of synergy where improved management could ensure benefits to humans while protecting wetland species, but equally to examine where there is potential conflict. With an increased understanding of freshwater ecosystems and their link to the resources they provide, there is potential for inland waters to be managed to benefit both people relying on food provision and the species living within.

Agriculture is the greatest threat to biodiversity across the world and a major contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Both pressures will increase over coming decades as populations and per capita consumption rise. How we choose to produce food will, to a large extent, determine the state of biodiversity and the wider environment in the 21st century. Balancing livestock production and environmental concerns is of particular importance: rangelands cover approximately one quarter of the world’s ice-free land and livestock consume over one third of all calories from crops. In addition, livestock, particularly ruminants are extremely inefficient and use more land, nitrogen and water than other foodstuffs, whilst producing more CO2. Finally, there is a strong relationship between wealth and meat consumption. Combined with increasing populations, this means that demand for meat is likely to continue to increase. Two alternative strategies have been proposed to minimise the environmental cost of food production: land sharing attempts to maximise biodiversity within the farmed landscape by keeping yields artificially low. Alternatively, land sparing links high yield agriculture with increased habitat protection or restoration. Previous studies have examined the relative benefits of the two strategies in different agricultural systems and regions. However, my research is the first to look at a wide range of alternative livestock production systems in a highly disturbed part of the tropics. To investigate this issue I collected data on the production and requirements of different cattle ranching systems in Yucatán, Mexico, as well as on the population densities of birds, trees and dung beetles, and carbon stocks in both natural habitats and the different ranching systems. I used novel methods to estimate the yields of my study sites and applied both previously developed density-yield functions and new scenario building methods to model how species and carbon stocks responded to increasing agricultural yields. I found that all taxa, and carbon stocks, show similar responses: rapidly declining with conversion from natural habitats to agricultural land. The populations of most species, and regional carbon stocks, were therefore maximised with a land-sparing strategy that combines high yields with forest protection or restoration. Such as strategy is broadly aligned with the goals of producers, environmental organisations and policy makers in Yucatán. However, mechanisms for active land sparing, which can link yield increases with habitat protection, will be needed to ensure that the benefits of land sparing can be realised. In addition, even with land sparing, probable 2030 production targets still resulted in forest loss, highlighting the need for demand reduction as an important part of a sustainable food strategy.

Suitable habitat for some of the most threatened species is dwindling fast and with limited conservation resources available, it is essential that we invest those resources in areas with great biodiversity value. The Uxpanapa Valley in Mexico is one of Mesoamerica's largest forest remnants, is considered as a main biodiversity hotspot and has recently been established as a Protected Area. However, only minimal research has been conducted on the distribution of species in the area and deforestation activities remain high. The initial management proposal lacked zonation as well as species sampling data and did not include a portion of the Uxpanapa Valley in which there are several threatened species, including two primates present in the region (Ateles geoffroyi and Alouatta palliata). The main aim of this project was to identify areas most suited to biodiversity protection and conservation based on primate distribution. This was achieved through the following steps: first, primate distribution and group sizes were established and primate presence/absence was associated with landscape attributes. Spider monkeys were found to be positively associated with tall forest. Second, threats present in the study area were quantified (fire incidents, hunting activities and natural predation) but no clear impacts of these factors were found on primate distributions. Third, the potential for primates to act as umbrella species for bat species was investigated, and a positive association was found between the distributions of endangered bats and spider monkeys. In the final analysis, all the above results were combined in a Systematic Conservation Planning approach, and Priority Conservation Sites were selected. The final output should contribute toward structuring an effective management plan for the Protected Area that will ensure maximum protection for biodiversity. Overall, this work provides information on the effectiveness of using primates for developing conservation strategies and their potential to be used as a proxy for ensuring tropical forest maintenance.

This thesis intends to be a contribution both to the sociological analysis of law and to the analysis of regulatory approaches of biodiversity conservation. In particular, and on the one hand, I intend to contribute to a better understanding of the regulatory trilemma of ecosystems conservation in the context of the local implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (the ´CBD´). Specifically, I examine how local legal systems utilize traditional regulatory instruments, and particularly traditional property rights, in order to implement the ecosystems conservation -or in-situ conservation- measures of the CBD. On the other hand, I intend to develop an understanding of the reflexive or non-exclusionary nature of law, on the basis of the general theory of society of Niklas Luhmann. This will entail the development of an understanding of the reflexive form of law, which in turn will, first, allow us to go beyond the Weberian dichotomy between form and substance and, second, allow us to assess the varying degrees of social reflexivity –or reflexive capacity- of different legal forms. These theoretical developments will then be combined with Gunther Teubner´s post-regulatory approach known as reflexive law, which will allow us to explore general mechanisms for enhancing mutual observation and interference between law and society that, in turn, will be expressed on new forms of law that should have a higher reflexive capacity to tackle the limits of regulatory law. Furthermore, in the context of my analysis of reflexive law, I will propose an understanding of Teubner´s idea of interference –and of the encompassing idea of direct contact between law and society- by reference to Maturana´s and Hejl´s ideas on the relational and social domain, and to Bankowsky’s notion of transitional spaces, that should allow observing or better observing the interactions between law and different spheres of society. These theoretical understandings will allow me to better analyse the regulatory trilemma of ecosystems conservation and, particularly, better assess the limitations of the legal form of traditional property rights as a regulatory instrument for ecosystem´s conservation. This will show that these property rights are predominantly reflexive to the observations of the economic sphere but not to the observations of other social spheres. This analysis and critique will be mainly focused on ownership but, as will be shown, it will also apply to other traditional property rights such as easements and servitudes. Finally, it will be on the basis of all these understandings and considerations that I will propose and assess the creation of a new property right - the conservation property right- as a reflexive law mechanism that should allow broader social interaction amongst different spheres of society for the purpose of better tackling the regulatory trilemma of ecosystems conservation.

The contribution of energy from biomass sources is projected to increase in Britain to assist in meeting renewable energy targets and reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. With increasing concerns over the sustainability of food crop-based biofuels, purpose-grown lignocellulosic biomass crops such as Miscanthus and short rotation coppice (SRC) willow have been promoted as more sustainable feedstocks for the production of heat and electricity as well as for the future production of liquid biofuels. With the introduction of the Energy Crops Scheme, land-use change (LUC) for lignocellulosic biomass crop production has become increasingly common in Britain in recent decades. However, there is limited understanding of the impact this has on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and limited predictability concerning the overall trajectory, magnitude and rate of SOC changes under a range of different conditions. Using a chronosequence of 93 biomass crop plantations in England and Wales, mainly of 1 to 14 years age, empirical models were developed to determine the short term trajectory of SOC stocks following LUC from arable and grassland to SRC willow and Miscanthus production. SOC stocks were calculated for each site using a fixed sampling depth of 30 cm and estimated changes were inferred by comparing with typical pre-change SOC stocks. These results indicate that only LUC from arable crops to SRC willow demonstrated an overall increase in SOC stocks, by an estimated 15.3 ± 2.2 t C ha-1 (± 95% confidence intervals) after 14 years and 68.8 ± 49.4 t C ha-1 after 22 years. LUC from arable crops to Miscanthus and from both arable crops and grassland to SRC willow and Miscanthus demonstrated no overall net effect on SOC stocks. Soil texture and climate data were measured for each site and multivariable models were created to assess the influence of different environmental conditions on SOC trajectory. In most cases the addition of these explanatory variables improved the model fit, and the models provide some preliminary estimates of more region-specific changes in SOC following LUC. Since LUC to biomass crops often causes a loss of SOC, at least in the short term, the potential for pyrogenic carbon (PyC) to ameliorate this effect was investigated. Studies indicate that PyC can interact with and stabilise native SOC, a process termed negative priming, although the potential for PyC to reduce LUC-induced losses of SOC by negative priming has not yet been assessed. Although negative priming has been observed in many studies, most of these are long term incubation experiments which do not account for the impact of environmental weathering of PyC on interactions with native SOC. Here the aim was to assess the impact of environmentally weathered PyC on native SOC mineralisation at different points in LUC from arable crops to SRC willow. Soil was sampled to a 5 cm depth from multiple recently established SRC willow plantations approximately 2 years after amendment with PyC. Cumulative CO2 flux was measured weekly from incubated soil and soil-surface CO2 flux was also measured in the field. The results demonstrate a PyC-induced increase in CO2 flux for the surface 5 cm of soil. However, no net effect on soil-surface CO2 flux was observed in the field. Although the mechanisms for these contrasting effects remain unclear, they do not suggest that PyC can reduce LUC-induced SOC losses through negative priming.

Integrated conservation and development projects have been widely promoted across Africa. These often involve public-private partnerships targeting tourism. Despite this encouragement, there are conflicting views regarding their impact. Conservancies have emerged bordering the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. These conservancies are the latest in a series of attempts by residents to capture benefits and developmental assistance from the safari industry. Drawing upon 19-months of fieldwork, the thesis examines the contentious relationship between conservancies and development through a case study of Olare Motorogi and Naboisho Conservancies. The thesis analyses diverging interpretations of development between and within stakeholder groups active in the study site. Three key development indicators are identified: basic needs, economic implications and livelihood security. These indicators are used to assess how the conservancies are perceived to be impacting upon development, what motivating factors for involvement are, and whether this affects society evenly. Findings suggest that conservancies and their affiliated organisations are now widely seen as the main development actors within the study site. This is largely through the creation of community projects, income-earning opportunities and grazing schemes. The involvement of conservancy-based tourism businesses in these development initiatives suggests that inclusive business models are being adopted. There is still a degree of discontent regarding conservancies, especially within neighbouring communities. Successful project outputs do not always result in successful outcomes. Without steps to ensure that these outcomes are realised, community projects may be more beneficial for tourism marketing than they are for neighbouring residents. Significant disparities also remain in income distribution, although economic benefits accruing from the conservancies are now distributed more evenly than they were in previous community-based tourism attempts in the Mara. The most emotive issue amongst local residents is access to essential resources for the dominant livelihood, pastoralism. During the research period, more comprehensive grazing schemes were introduced which simulate communal grazing systems. These practices would otherwise have been lost following land subdivision. Some pastoralists maintain that fines for grazing illegally continue to outweigh other benefits, although others assess that they are beginning to see that conservancies can have a positive impact on their livelihood. Conservancy businesses adopting more inclusive strategies constitute a more conscious form of capitalism. Motivations for this centre around the importance of place, and incorporate an Africonsciousness. As such, the conservancies exemplify Africapitalism, a new concept within the broader inclusive business arena. To date, the effectiveness of inclusive capitalism as a development agent has been inconclusive due to insufficient data. This thesis begins to address this broad literature gap, and also expands research on Africapitalism to a new industry. Although a positive relationship with development is widely perceived within the study site, the sustainability of the conservancies is questioned in the face of multiple prevailing threats. These challenges can be recognised and mitigated against, but the future of the Maasai Mara Conservancies – and their ability to continue being development actors – remains uncertain.

Amazonia is a megadiverse tropical forest biome of continental dimensions. Although still largely intact, the biome is highly threatened and future infrastructure projects associated with the low governance in Amazonian countries suggest a bleak scenario for the region in years to come. Biodiversity conservation in Amazonia has focused on creating a robust protected area (PA) network to face human-related threats. At present, some 34 % of the hydrologic domain of the entire Amazon Basin is under some category of protection. However, total acreage may not be the best way to assess levels of protection against anthropogenic pressures. This thesis considers the vulnerability to anthropogenic threats and the distribution of PAs throughout Amazonia at the scale of major watersheds. Watersheds are presented not just as a scale of analysis but also as a viable option for conservation planning units across Amazonia. Analysis of 23 major watersheds indicated that high-vulnerability are widespread all over Amazonia. However, the most threatened areas are located in the southeastern and western portions of the biome and there is clear evidence of a mismatch between PAs and high vulnerability areas. This imbalance in the allocation of conservation investments within the biome leads to either under-protection or over-protection, creating redundancy in setting aside similar habitats, thereby misusing scarce available resources. In addition, the systematic PA avoidance of high vulnerability areas is a strategy that is both deceptive and risky, because the future prospects of biodiversity conservation performance of existing hinterland reserves are less than sanguine once they eventually confront severe threats from advancing development frontiers. Creating PAs far from high pressure areas is a reasonable strategy to meet global conservation goals, but often merely serve to justify political objectives with questionable impacts on biodiversity protection.

It is argued in this thesis that it is morally right to identify and address matters of energy justice associated with renewable energy technologies - and thus biofuels. Equity appraisals, as defined in this thesis, can help to identify social and environmental burdens caused by the implementation of these technologies and where they exist, thus helping to understand the extent to which global sustainable development ideals to reduce inequalities are being achieved. This study is the first equity appraisal of an internationally-traded (Brazil-UK) liquid biofuel (sugarcane bioethanol), across both sites of production and consumption, conducted in a manner advocated by energy justice and environmental justice theories. Furthermore, this study provides the first empirical insights in this context of the ways that principal dimensions of energy justice can interrelate and specifically how matters of procedural justice and recognition can drive distributional changes in outcomes amongst people connected and affected to a transnational liquid biofuel supply chain. Primary qualitative data collected from people living in producer and consumption localities revealed that the nature and geographical patterning of issues differed from the views of transnational governance actors and experts. Rather than the majority of burdens lying with those living in Brazil, and UK-based consumers largely indifferent and unaffected, this research found both positive and negative equity issues affecting people at both ends of the supply chain. Matters of recognition and procedural injustice were found to be affecting consumers, affecting their abilities to engage effectively with their liquid biofuels purchases that could help drive the consumption of more sustainable, just and socially acceptable biofuels. Conversely, higher levels of recognition of local communities and associated impacts in this particular Brazilian production locality were found to be improving social and environmental outcomes for residents. This research highlights the importance of situated, contextual, primary qualitative data for equity appraisals of liquid biofuels and other renewable technologies. It is argued that these types of appraisals should be conducted more systematically in the field to supplement existing forms of appraisals, support decision-making processes and improve the chances of achieving energy justice in relation to renewable energy technologies.

Selective logging prevails in tropical forests around the world, posing urgent questions about how to reconcile timber extraction with biodiversity conservation. Roads are those elements of selective logging that are most costly, most visible and they probably have the most far-reaching environmental impacts. While many studies have outlined road related threats to forest ecosystems, little is known about the persistence of logging roads in the forest landscape. This is especially important in Central Africa, where selective logging is the most important type of land use, both in terms of spatial extent and financial yield. In this thesis I analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of logging road networks in a part of the Congo Basin and apply these findings to make suggestions for forest management. In five chapters I am approaching the subject from different angles and on different scales: In the introductory chapter, I compare the content and the orientation of scientific literature on logging roads in tropical forests. In general I identified two strains in the literature, one focusing specifically on road related impacts on forest ecosystems and the other giving technical advice in road planning, building and maintenance in order to improve efficiency and reduce impacts. A third, partially distinct direction of research is oriented on the characterization of the spatial distribution and coverage of forest road networks on larger scale to monitor forest exploitation and related degradation. The second chapter presents a methodology to identify roads in CentralAfrican forests based on remote sensing with LANDSAT images. In a time series approach, I used survival analysis to evaluate the temporal dynamics of secondary logging roads over the last 30 years and showed how road persistence differs depending on environmental variables such as geological substrates. The third chapter approaches the persistence of logging roads from a field based perspective. I carried out vegetation inventories on a chronosequence of roads abandoned between 1985 and 2015. The results showed that road tracks and edges are suitable habitats for commercial species regeneration with rapid changes in the environmental conditions occurring over time. During 30 years after abandonment about one third of the biomass lost for road building has re-captured in subsequent vegetation development. The fourth chapter analyses the extent of logging road networks in the overall forest landscape. I used the mathematically well-defined Empty Space Function as a novel way to calculate roadless space. I demonstrated how roadless space in intact forest landscapes (declared in 2000) has diminished in general but in particular in FSC-certified logging concessions. I recommend that forest management should make the preservation of large connected forest areas a top priority by effectively monitoring - and limiting - the occupation of space by roads that are accessible at the same time. The concluding chapter develops management suggestions to apply the findings. I showed that re-opening logging roads in subsequent harvests is rather the exception than the rule. Evaluating benefits, opportunities, costs and risks, I conclude that re-opening roads should be given a higher priority in forest management. Re-using logging roads can spare forests within the same area by avoiding new forest clearing in the vicinity and at a larger scale by sparing unlogged forests from new logging disturbance by intensifying operations on previously logged forests. As a vision for road management, I suggest to actively manage logging roads as transient elements in the landscape until they are reopened. Permanent access roads should only be built in the periphery of continuous forest blocks. As a perspective for further research, I discuss the trade-offs between the need of roads for development and the environmental impacts. As an example for this, I present evidence for the first major road corridor crossing the Congo Basin that is already under construction. To limit the impacts on the forest, large-scale conservation corridors have to be established, requiring supra-regional landscape planning.

The subject of this thesis is the bird trade as a pathway for invasions by alien species to the East Asian island nation of Taiwan. Most previous studies have considered bird invasions in a Western context, but cultural differences imply that drivers of human-mediated invasions in Eastern societies are likely to be different. Therefore, I analyse patterns in the composition of traded alien bird species in Taiwan, and identify characteristics associated with success or failure at different stages of the invasion pathway. Data on the identities, numbers and prices of birds in the Taiwanese cage bird trade were obtained from non-structured interviews with bird shop owners and employees, as described in Chapter 2. In chapter 3, I showed that species with larger native range size, smaller body size, with songs attractive to people, and native to closer regions, are more likely to be traded in Taiwan. In chapter 4, I explore the determinants of the price of bird species for sale in Taiwan, as a proxy for assessing which species in trade are more likely to be introduced into the wild. Chapter 5 analyses characteristics associated with species success in introduction and establishment. Alien species commonly for sale, sold for a longer period in the trade and with attractive songs were more likely to be introduced. Successfully established alien species are also likely to be large-bodied. Chapter 6 explores the important role of environmental suitability in alien environments in establishment success. In addition, I show that species with larger native range sizes tend to have larger alien range sizes in Taiwan. Overall, the results here show that bird species composition for sale in Taiwan is determined by the interaction of species availability and societal demands. The thesis concludes with some suggestions for the current market and future studies.

For centuries, river catchments and their constituent habitats have been altered and modified through various human activities to maximise provision of tangible benefits like food and water, while impacting on their capacity to provide other less obvious but equally important benefits for human survival. However, in the last few decades, perceptions on the role of catchments as mere providers of tangible benefits have been changing, as recognition has been given to other human beneficial services like regulation of floods. This recognition has drawn increased interest in both science and policy, towards understanding human-nature relations and how approaches like the ecosystem services concept can inform sustainable management of catchments. Although, the multiple and differently weighted relationships existing between habitats and ecosystem services have been acknowledged, the relationship between spatio-temporal change in habitats and spatio-temporal change in ecosystem services delivery, has not received as much attention in the research literature. In this thesis, it is argued that this is an important omission as spatio-temporal habitat change could have broader consequences for ecosystem services provided by a catchment. On this basis, this study maps and assesses the influence of habitat changes across space and time on ecosystem services delivery at a local catchment scale. Approaches to assessing ecosystem service delivery across landscapes and catchments draw on habitat mapping data for those landscapes or catchments. Such data are in turn used as proxies for estimating different ecosystem services delivered by the landscape or catchment based on their integration with other spatial or non-spatial data. To date this approach has been applied to assess contemporary delivery of different ecosystem services. The basis of the approach taken in this study involved comparing a pre-existing contemporary ecosystem service assessment of two chosen sub catchments of the Tweed catchment in Scotland, with a similar assessment based on a set of older “historic” habitat maps for the mid-20th century period. Derivation of the digital map base for the latter was a major focus of the present study. Aerial photography taken during the Royal Air Force surveys in the 1940s archived in the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland were obtained and first scanned digitally, arranged into a mosaic of adjacent images and ortho-rectified to remove camera distortion. These photo mosaics were then visually interpreted and, aided with ancillary data, the current (2009) habitat maps were edited and backdated to derive the historic habitat maps for the study catchments. The Spatial Evidence for Natural Capital Evaluation (SENCE) ecosystem services mapping approach was then used to translate generated habitat maps into ecosystem service supply maps. Findings show that the study catchments changed from multifunctional to intensively managed landscapes by 2009, with a higher capacity for supplying provisioning ecosystem services, while their capacity to supply regulating and supporting ecosystem services was reduced. Findings also show that a change in one habitat type results in changes in multiple ecosystem services, while changes in the spatial configuration of habitats reduces areas with high supply capacity for regulating and supporting ecosystem services. This study concludes that ecosystem service delivery is not only affected by changes in gross area of constituent habitats but also by spatial changes in the configuration and distribution of these habitats. In this regard, it is argued that recognising and understanding changes in ecosystem services adds an important strand in catchment management. It is therefore suggested that planning for future ecosystem services in catchment management needs to be informed by historic baselines.

Southeast Asian rainforests have, in recent decades, experienced the highest rates of deforestation and logging across the major tropical regions. This has left a vast estate of degraded forest in the region, which is under threat from further degradation and conversion to agriculture, principally for the expansion of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations. However, knowledge of the relative conservation value of different land-uses in the region is still limited, and a robust quantitative basis for resolving land-use tradeoffs, in particular between agricultural yield and biodiversity, is lacking. I aimed to assess terrestrial mammal species richness, abundance and β-diversity across a gradient of land-use intensity (old-growth forest, logged forest and oil palm) in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Overall mammal species richness was conserved even in the intensively-logged forests that I sampled, as were the majority of apparent old-growth specialists. Oil palm, on the other hand, harboured a highly depauperate mammal community. These broad patterns were echoed for overall mammal abundance, as well as in the potential ecosystem functions of mammals that I examined. However, I found evidence that the fundamental drivers of community assembly were altered across the land-use gradient and so, consequently, were patterns of β-diversity. Fine-grained β-diversity, in particular, was highest across the land-uses in logged forest, reflecting the increased environmental heterogeneity in this habitat. In addition, community composition and species abundance were not stable across land-uses. Omnivores and herbivores were more abundant in logged forest compared to old-growth forest, and only a limited number of carnivore species persisted in oil palm. Invasive species increased in abundance with land-use intensity. My findings underline the conservation importance of the large areas of degraded forest in Southeast Asia, and the extremely limited value offered by oil palm. If sustainability of the palm oil industry is to be achieved, new plantations should be diverted away from all remaining unfragmented forests, both old-growth and degraded forests alike.

The conversion of land from natural environments to human-managed areas has been particularly pronounced in the semiarid Chaco Region. In this context, it is critical to understand the impacts that these major changes have on species diversity. The specific aims of this thesis were to understand: i) how the different human-modified environments influenced the distribution of the bird assemblages in the current agricultural matrix; ii) which local and landscape scale characteristics best explained species richness and relative abundance of mammals; and iii) what is the relationship between biodiversity and profit for both taxa, and given this relationship, to what extent can conservation and production objectives be simultaneously achieved. Bird and mammal community data was gathered in seven different habitats of an agricultural matrix and inside a National Park. Bird species richness and abundance were extremely low in highly modified environments (agriculture plots), but increased significantly in intermediate, or low modified habitats (silvopasture plots, forest outside and inside the National Park, respectively). Richness and capture frequency of mammals increased gradually across the gradient of habitat modification, from low numbers in agricultural habitats to a maximum in National Park forests. Changes in species composition with production intensification differed between birds and mammals. The bird communities were similar for low- and intermediate-intensity farming, with constant number of species, abundance and community integrity. However, further intensification led to an abrupt decline, defining a clear threshold. Mammal species richness was maintained in low-yield farming, relative abundance declined with increasing production, favoured by a wildlife-friendly farming approach. In contrast to birds, mammal community integrity decreased exponentially with increased levels of intensification, showing that only protected or well-preserved forests can support some habitat-restricted species. The results suggest that a combined strategy is the best option to achieve conservation and production targets that include both taxa.

Biomass is classed as a renewable resource. Depending on the means of production, it can be sustainable and can provide net benefits regarding CO2 emissions by displacing fossil fuels as an energy source. A significant biomass energy conversion technology is combustion in conventional thermal power stations. This can be implemented in large scale plants such as those which dominated electricity generation throughout the 20th century. While these power stations were generally fuelled by the erstwhile ‘King Coal’, the technology is not exclusive to it. Coal consumption can be displaced in these types of plants by either co-firing biomass with coal or full conversion to biomass. Currently, in the UK, the vast majority of the biomass fuel consumed for power generation is imported pelletized forestry wood. However, sustainability and domestic energy security concerns have created interest in using other resources including energy crops such as short rotation coppice willow and miscanthus, agricultural by-products such as wheat straw and olive residue. The variation in the properties of these fuels presents a number of technical challenges which conventional power plant must overcome to achieve ‘fuel flexibility’. Along with other technical challenges regarding the operation of conventional thermal power plant, these formed the basis of the Research Councils UK funded consortium grant (EPSRC, 2012) entitled Future Conventional Power. As a consortium partner in this project, the University of Leeds led research tasks associated with fuel flexibility. Much of the research presented in this thesis was based on the objectives set out in the Future Conventional Power project and was financially supported though this grant. Two particular challenges provide the incentive for the investigations presented in this thesis and can be summarised as: • assessing the variability in fuel combustion behaviour and control of burn-out efficiency for different fuels • understanding the behaviour of potassium during the combustion of biomass fuels to aid in the prediction of ash behaviour, emissions and associated operational problems Both these points were addressed with a series of experimental studies. In addition, a model of the combustion of single particles was developed for validating and interpreting the results. A range of fourteen solid biomass fuels, typical of those likely to be used in large scale power plant, were selected for the experimental studies. The composition and fundamental characteristics of these fuels, obtained by standard analytical techniques, are presented. In the first experimental study, single particles were exposed to a methane flame, simulating biomass combustion in a furnace. Measurements of ignition delay, volatile burning time and char burn-out time were undertaken using high speed image capture. Particle surface temperatures were measured by infra-red thermal imaging. Analysis of the data identified correlations between the biomass fundamental characteristics, particle size, and the observed combustion profiles. Empirical expressions for the duration of each combustion stage are obtained from the data. From these, a “burn-out” index is derived which provides a useful indication of the relative milling requirements of different fuels for achieving effective burn-out efficiency. A similar experimental method was used in the second study in which the gas-phase potassium release patterns from single particles of various biomass fuels were measured by use of flame emission spectroscopy. The observed potassium release patterns for the various fuel samples are presented. The release patterns revealed qualitative differences between different fuel types. Relationships between the initial potassium content, peak rate of release and the fractions of potassium released at each stage of combustion were identified. These were subsequently used for comparing with results of modelled potassium release. A third experimental study investigated the variation in thermal conductivity between different types of solid biomass using a technique and apparatus developed specifically for the study. The results showed variation of thermal conductivity between different types of biomass which had been similarly homogenised and densified. The thermal conductivity of small particles of each fuel was derived. The resulting data provides useful values for thermal modelling of biomass particles and is used subsequently in a combustion model. Elements of each of the experimental studies were used in a detailed model of single particle combustion. In this, the particle was modelled as a series of concentric spherical layers which enabled calculation of internal mass diffusion and heat transfer. Devolatilisation and char oxidation were approximated with single step reaction kinetics. A volatilisation and diffusion mechanism was adopted to simulate the release of gas-phase potassium from the particle. The output from the model was compared and validated using data from the experimental studies. The modelling produced confirming evidence that the assumed mechanisms for gas-phase potassium release were valid and provided a tool for future investigation of the subject.

Invasive alien species threaten freshwater biodiversity, with uncertain impacts on ecosystem services. Invasive alien decapods are frequent components of invaded ecosystems, and have been found to impact biodiversity, ecosystem properties and processes. Studies however often do not consider comparisons to native analogues. Native analogues could mask impacts of invasive alien species through functional redundancy. The native White Clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) is declining at the advance of the invasive alien American Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) and the Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis). Consequences of this changeover of decapod species to the patterns and processes of river basins are not well understood. Laboratory microcosm experiments found invasive alien decapods processed native leaf litter at a greater rate than native crayfish, increasing smaller fragments, notably fine particulate organic matter and dissolved organic carbon (Chapter 2). However, these differences in transformation of leaf litter into other products did not increase the productivity of algal biofilms. Each decapod species excreted nutrients at different rates: A. pallipes and E. sinensis had similar nitrogen excretion, while P. leniusculus excreted much less nitrogen suggesting this species could be a nutrient sink. These differences in nutrients were apparently absorbed by biofilms growing on leaf and rock surfaces even though they did not grow as a result. Chapter 3 found the greater detritivory performance of invasive alien decapods was observed for other species of leaf litter, including increased breakdown of particularly troublesome invasive alien riparian plant Rhododendron ponticum. Derived products varied, with more fine particulate organic matter generated for Acer pseudoplatanus and R. ponticum, suggesting less assimilation of these litter types. This revealed a previously unknown feedback between invasive plants and detritivores, whereby the litter accumulations from riparian invasive plants is potentially consumed by invasive alien decapods. This in turn may subsidise the growth and reproduction of invasive alien aquatic decapods. Outdoor pond mesocosm experiments revealed that invasive alien decapods altered taxonomic richness, diversity, and structure, with snails particularly found to decline in ponds (Chapter 4). Primary productivity of periphyton was elevated in P. leniusculus ponds compared to natives, but not in the E. sinensis ponds, explained by a combination of trophic cascade and turbidity. Leaf litter decomposition rates, community respiration, gross and net primary productivity were otherwise unaffected. Outdoor flume mesocosms were utilised to replicate headwater streams to measure bioturbation of decapods, and associated changes to biodiversity, water quality and ecosystem processes (Chapter 5). Effects on sediment topology and transport were similar for controls, native and alien species, with the presence of refuges likely causing this lack of effect. Suspended organic matter was similar for all species, but sediment respiration was higher for P. leniusculus. Invertebrate community structure was significantly different for invasive alien decapods, with significantly higher densities of collector-gathering invertebrates such as Baetis sp. and Culicoides. The the lack of consensus between the laboratory (Chapters 2-3) and mesocosm studies (Chapters 4-5) lead to the conclusion that environmental practitioners should consider context and scaling when interpreting experimental results of biological invasions. The overall findings of this study however do show that P. leniusculus and E. sinensis are not functionally redundant for several ecosystem attributes compared to A. pallipes. These differences in species functional-traits are likely to be exacerbated by greater densities of invasives observed in situ. This supports the potential for invasive alien decapods to alter the ecosystem services of entire river basins, even when a native analogue was previously present.

Gains in food production through agricultural intensification have come at an environmental cost, including reductions in habitat diversity, species diversity and some ecosystem services. Wildlifefriendly farming schemes aim to mitigate the negative impacts of agricultural intensification. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of three schemes using four matched triplets of farms in southern England. The schemes were: i) a baseline of Entry Level Stewardship (ELS: a flexible widespread government scheme, ii) organic agriculture and iii) Conservation Grade (CG: a prescriptive, non-organic, biodiversity-focused scheme). We examined how effective the schemes were in supporting habitat diversity, species diversity, floral resources, pollinators and pollination services. Farms in CG and organic schemes supported higher habitat diversity than farms only in ELS. Plant and butterfly species richness were significantly higher on organic farms and butterfly species richness was marginally higher on CG farms compared to farms in ELS. The species richness of plants, butterflies, solitary bees and birds in winter was significantly correlated with local habitat diversity. Organic farms supported more evenly distributed floral resources and higher nectar densities compared to farms in CG or ELS. Compared to maximum estimates of pollen demand from six bee species, only organic farms supplied sufficient pollen in late summer. The density and species richness of pollinators did not vary between schemes. Both CG and organic farms supported more insect-flower visitation than ELS farms. Pollination services were higher on organic farms. The results showed that prescriptive schemes (e.g. CG) and organic farming are important for supporting habitat diversity and that this is particularly beneficial for butterflies. Late summer emerged as a priority time of year to increase pollen supply on non-organic farms and management options to achieve this are discussed. The data can be used further to inform our understanding of how land management affects biodiversity, particularly pollinators.

Marine biological invasions have increased significantly in recent years due to global trade, transport and tourism. Invasions occur when species get transported from one region to another and establish themselves in the new habitat. These species compete for space and resources, displacing native species and changing, populations and communities. Invasive non-native species are the number one threat to Galapagos ecosystems and although many preventive and corrective measures have been applied to terrestrial problems, the impacts of invasive non-native species in the marine environment has received relatively little attention to date. The marine ecosystems of Galapagos harbour distinctive biological communities given a unique confluence of currents in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). They sustain a high incidence of endemic species, which are regularly subjected to extreme climate variability through El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. This research examines the negative impacts that marine non-native species can have on the biodiversity, ecosystem services and the health of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR). Baseline surveys revealed nine marine non-native species present in the GMR at this time and the potential for the impacts of high-risk species for the GMR examined. Furthermore international marine traffic was analysed resulting in Panama and Guayaquil being identified as the hotspots for the translocation of marine no-native species to the Galapagos. A species based exposure model produced a list of 469 high-risk species that could have arrived in the GMR during 2013 from 14 different regions worldwide. Additionally, natural vectors were assessed as well as natural processes enhanced by anthropogenic activity. These results reflect the considerable risk that these vectors pose in the translocation of marine non-native species, furthermore ENSO events and global climate change were identified as major threats to the marine ecosystems of the GMR due to the increase in SST. Species distribution models are presented for 19 high-risk non-native species and the open niche scenario is described as the biggest threat the GMR is facing with the arrival of non-native species regardless as to how these species arrive through anthropogenic or natural vectors. Several risk assessments are presented and discussed in order to provide management strategies for decision makers in the GMR.

Although the value of primary forests for biodiversity conservation is well known, the potential biodiversity and conservation value of regenerating forests remains controversial. Many factors likely contribute to this, including: 1. the variable ages of regenerating forests being studied (often dominated by relatively young regenerating forests); 2. the potential for confounding on-going human disturbance (such as logging and hunting); 3. the relatively low number of multi-taxa studies; 4. the lack of studies that directly compare different historic disturbances within the same location; 5. contrasting patterns from different survey methodologies and the paucity of knowledge on the impacts across different vertical levels of rainforest biodiversity (often due to a lack of suitable methodologies available to assess them). We also know relatively little as to how biodiversity is affected by major current impacts, such as unmarked rainforest roads, which contribute to this degradation of habitat and fragmentation. This thesis explores the potential biodiversity value of regenerating rainforests under the best of scenarios and seeks to understand more about the impact of current human disturbance to biodiversity; data comes from case studies from the Manu and Sumaco Biosphere Reserves in the Western Amazon. Specifically, I compare overall biodiversity and conservation value of a best case regenerating rainforest site with a selection of well-studied primary forest sites and with predicted species lists for the region; including a focus on species of key conservation concern. I then investigate the biodiversity of the same study site in reference to different types of historic anthropogenic disturbance. Following this I investigate the impacts to biodiversity from an unmarked rainforest road. In order to understand more about the differential effects of habitat disturbance on arboreal diversity I directly assess how patterns of butterfly biodiversity vary between three vertical strata. Although assessments within the canopy have been made for birds, invertebrates and bats, very few studies have successfully targeted arboreal mammals. I therefore investigate the potential of camera traps for inventorying arboreal mammal species in comparison with traditional methodologies. Finally, in order to investigate the possibility that different survey methodologies might identify different biodiversity patterns in habitat disturbance assessments, I investigate whether two different but commonly used survey methodologies used to assess amphibians, indicate the same or different responses of amphibian biodiversity to historic habitat change by people. The regenerating rainforest study site contained high levels of species richness; both in terms of alpha diversity found in nearby primary forest areas (87% ±3.5) and in terms of predicted primary forest diversity from the region (83% ±6.7). This included 89% (39 out of 44) of the species of high conservation concern predicted for the Manu region. Faunal species richness in once completely cleared regenerating forest was on average 13% (±9.8) lower than historically selectively logged forest. The presence of the small unmarked road significantly altered levels of faunal biodiversity for three taxa, up to and potentially beyond 350m into the forest interior. Most notably, the impact on biodiversity extended to at least 32% of the whole reserve area. The assessment of butterflies across strata showed that different vertical zones within the same rainforest responded differently in areas with different historic human disturbance. A comparison between forest regenerating after selective logging and forest regenerating after complete clearance, showed that there was a 17% greater reduction in canopy species richness in the historically cleared forest compared with the terrestrial community. Comparing arboreal camera traps with traditional ground-based techniques suggests that camera traps are an effective tool for inventorying secretive arboreal rainforest mammal communities and detect a higher number of cryptic species. Finally, the two survey methodologies used to assess amphibian communities identified contrasting biodiversity patterns in a human modified rainforest; one indicated biodiversity differences between forests with different human disturbance histories, whereas the other suggested no differences between forest disturbance types. Overall, in this thesis I find that the conservation and biodiversity value of regenerating and human disturbed tropical forest can potentially contribute to rainforest biodiversity conservation, particularly in the best of circumstances. I also highlight the importance of utilising appropriate study methodologies that to investigate these three-dimensional habitats, and contribute to the development of methodologies to do so. However, care should be taken when using different survey methodologies, which can provide contrasting biodiversity patterns in response to human disturbance.

Marine ecosystems are facing a diverse range of threats, including climate change, prompting international efforts to safeguard marine biodiversity through the use of spatial management measures. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been implemented as a conservation tool throughout the world, but their usefulness and effectiveness is strongly related to climate change. However, few MPA programmes have directly considered climate change in the design, management or monitoring of an MPA network. Under international obligations, EU, UK and national targets, Scotland has developed an MPA network that aims to protect marine biodiversity and contribute to the vision of a clean, healthy and productive marine environment. This is the first study to critically analyse the Scottish MPA process and highlight areas which may be improved upon in further iterations of the network in the context of climate change. Initially, a critical review of the Scottish MPA process considered how ecological principles for MPA network design were incorporated into the process, how stakeholder perceptions were considered and crucially what consideration was given to the influence of climate change on the eventual effectiveness of the network. The results indicated that to make a meaningful contribution to marine biodiversity protection for Europe the Scottish MPA network should: i) fully adopt best practice ecological principles ii) ensure effective protection and iii) explicitly consider climate change in the management, monitoring and future iterations of the network. However, this review also highlighted the difficulties of incorporating considerations of climate change into an already complex process. A series of international case studies from British Columbia, Canada; central California, USA; the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, were then conducted to investigate perceptions of how climate change has been considered in the design, implementation, management and monitoring of MPAs. The key lessons from this study included: i) strictly protected marine reserves are considered essential for climate change resilience and will be necessary as scientific reference sites to understand climate change effects ii) adaptive management of MPA networks is important but hard to implement iii) strictly protected reserves managed as ecosystems are the best option for an uncertain future. This work provides new insights into the policy and practical challenges MPA managers face under climate change scenarios. Based on the Scottish and international studies, the need to facilitate clear communication between academics, policy makers and stakeholders was recognised in order to progress MPA policy delivery and to ensure decisions were jointly formed and acceptable. A Delphi technique was used to develop a series of recommendations for considering climate change in Scotland’s MPA process. The Delphi participant panel was selected for their knowledge of the Scottish MPA process and included stakeholders, policy makers and academics with expertise in MPA research. The results from the first round of the Delphi technique suggested that differing views of success would likely influence opinions regarding required management of MPAs, and in turn, the data requirements to support management action decisions. The second round of the Delphi technique explored this further and indicated that there was a fundamental dichotomy in panellists’ views of a successful MPA network depending upon whether they believed the MPAs should be strictly protected or allow for sustainable use. A third, focus group round of the Delphi Technique developed a feature-based management scenario matrix to aid in deciding upon management actions in light of changes occurring in the MPA network. This thesis highlights that if the Scottish MPA network is to fulfil objectives of conservation and restoration, the implications of climate change for the design, management and monitoring of the network must be considered. In particular, there needs to be a greater focus on: i) incorporating ecological principles that directly address climate change ii) effective protection that builds resilience of the marine and linked social environment iii) developing a focused, strong and adaptable monitoring framework iv) ensuring mechanisms for adaptive management.

To mitigate potential negative impacts to marine vertebrates it is necessary to gain, and build on, knowledge and understanding of their spatial ecology. Aerial and ship based surveys, as well as satellite telemetry data, have allowed for growing insight into habitat use across a broad spectrum of migratory marine species. Furthermore, these data have often enabled characterisation of anthropogenic impacts and identified potential conservation management strategies. This thesis seeks to investigate the spatial ecology of marine vertebrates using sea turtles as a study group. Data for inter-nesting and post-nesting sea turtles are analysed, and where possible, threats investigated. The analyses presented here integrate the use of multiple spatial ecological tools, including aerial surveys, satellite tracking, remote sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and habitat modelling. Many of the analytical processes employed formulate novel methodologies, as well as build upon and develop existing techniques. For post-nesting turtles, foraging and migratory data are analysed, and observed and modelled habitat niches described. Putative threats from fisheries and climate change are investigated, and where appropriate, contextualised with data describing limits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). For inter-nesting turtles, at-sea distributions and coastal density patterns are explored. Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data are used to elucidate shipping densities; spatial patterns of threat from fisheries, and other maritime industries are inferred. Aerial survey data are used to ascertain potential impacts to turtles on nesting beaches. Throughout this thesis spatially explicit areas are identified where concentrated conservation efforts could be applied. Furthermore, many of these analyses highlight that conservation policy must recognise the spatial extent of migratory species, and be flexible and adaptive to accommodate potential range shifts under climate change. Much of the presented analyses assimilate data from multiple sources to provide large datasets; allowing analyses to be made that would be otherwise unfeasible. Finally, this thesis demonstrates the utility of developing and applying novel analytical methodologies to these data to investigate the spatial ecology of marine vertebrates of conservation concern. As such, it is likely that many of the analytical techniques presented here could be adapted and applied to other widely dispersed marine vertebrate species to help inform global conservation planning and practice.

This thesis examines the evolving relationship between protected landscapes and the corporate through the lens of tourism in US national parks, with Yosemite National Park as the empirical case study. It provides an understanding of how protected landscapes are managed by examining wise-use, its connection to responsible actions and sustainable development, and the role ‘corporate natures’ have within this management process - framed around corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR). This work is concerned with how wise-use is employed alongside the national park priorities of protection and access, so as to understand why private capital is invested in public lands to maintain public good. Such investment is examined through the role of the corporate, to show how making landscape dollarable, its commodification through tourism [visitation and access] has actually provided a safety net and enhanced protection, rather than being the antithesis to it. Tourism has not only created landscapes of economic value but also ones of social and cultural value, places that people connect with and appreciate through an identity of both place and feeling. The main findings of this thesis are that wise-use and corporate actions have evolved and are driven by a new process of CSR, representing corporate social resilience. This new process of CSR is determined by the inclusion of all relevant stakeholders, and advances adaptive co-management, offering a more robust process than the subjective and voluntary ideals of responsibility. This thesis approaches this work through a qualitative empirical study undertaken through archival research, literature reviews and research in the field at Yosemite National Park, which included documentary analysis, interviews and meetings with the main stakeholders in commercial and governance activity. This research forms an important and valuable contribution to environmental management strategies, not only for tourism but also a wider audience.

This thesis is a scientific contribution towards evaluating the effectiveness of Community-based Conservation (CBC) in saving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services and enhancing human well-being. The impact of CBC interventions carried out by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust over 109 villages in five conservation areas in Madagascar (Lake Alaotra, Baly Bay National Park, Menabe dry forest, Manombo rain forest, and Nosivolo River) since 1997, were retrospectively evaluated. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to contrast changes in a set of biodiversity and human wellbeing indicators in the intervention villages with 109 control villages, which were matched for a range of social and environmental attributes. In Chapter 2, findings suggest that over the period 2000-2014 the CBC approach has impacted the incidence of fire, resulting in a lower rate of increase in fire frequency. Although CBC interventions were not able to reduce forest loss, the rate of deforestation in CBC villages has generally been maintained at lower levels than in control villages. Political disruption, population size and travel cost (access and distance) to the villages were identified as important contributing factors towards an increase in the severity of fires and deforestation while access to mobile phones may help mitigate the pressures. In Chapter 3, results indicate that support to education through CBC interventions is significantly associated with improvements in educational attainment. However, analysis of the historical Index of Health Status at village level did not show evidence that provision of clean drinking water or other health interventions improved public health. In terms of human well-being (Chapter 4), there is no evidence that CBC interventions have any positive impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since poverty has been identified as a key factor reducing happiness, mutual trust, and power to change local decision-making, the claim that CBC will be effective in enhancing subjective well-being cannot be supported by the evidence from this study. According to the Index of Perception of Valued Ecosystem Services the declines in forest cover between 2000 and 2013 were observed by local people, with people in CBC villages demonstrating a greater propensity to note resulting changes in the provision of ecosystem services. This result could be of value when designing future CBC interventions. Maximum Entropy modelling using a set of environmental GIS layers was performed in Chapter 5 for predicting geographic distribution zones of four globally threatened species living exclusively in the five study areas. Results suggested that over the period 2000-2014 there has been a decline in habitat suitability expressed by a decrease in probability of presence of the species. Vegetation cover is predicted to be the most important factor affecting the variability of species distribution range. Potential factors responsible for the success of some actions and failure, others within the CBC approach are discussed and pragmatic recommendations are given at the end of the thesis. For example, transforming local associations into social enterprise could possibly motivate poorer households to join CBC efforts and thereby improve social and biodiversity impacts in the future.

In the last few decades, a growing literature has examined how biodiversity influences ecosystem functioning. This body of work has greatly improved our understanding of ecosystem functioning and its modulation by biodiversity. In particular, there is nowadays large consensus that biodiversity increases ecosystem productivity, and stabilises ecosystems. Early investigations were largely theoretical or involved simple experiments run in laboratory conditions, but over time biodiversity ecosystem-functioning experiments evolved to more realistic field experiments that better represent the real conditions found in natural ecosystems. In particular, these experiments are often run on larger spatial scales and over longer time frames allowing for the effect of environmental heterogeneity and temporal fluctuations to be explored. The designs of these experiments evolved along with the questions addressed in this field of research. However, the analytical tools used in the analyses of these experiments followed a slightly different path. In particular, most of the metrics currently used to analyse biodiversity ecosystem functioning experiments are not entirely suited to properly deal with the complexity of modern designs as they make a number of assumptions that are not met any more. In my thesis I developed a unified framework, based on the tailored use of Linear Mixed Effects Models, to analyse biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments such that the new complexities of these experiments can be taken into account. This thesis aimed to bring the focus of the analysis back to the biological interpretation of the results. I successfully applied my approach to several data sets. The framework developed here is expected to improve greatly our understanding of ecosystem functioning and how biodiversity modulates it. It also sheds new light on past research in this field. The great flexibility of the new approach makes it possible to let these experiments to evolve such that new biological questions can be addressed.

There has long been a divide between literature which focuses on the ethical aspects of wildlife conservation and that which deals with its practice. The split is particularly marked when it comes to practices which involve killing, such as hunting and culling. The aim of this thesis is to bridge that divide by creating a new framework, which can be used as a tool for resolving the conflicts of interests which arise when we consider killing one living thing in order to save another. I will argue that killing is only very rarely justified because it undermines the inherent value which exists in all individual living things. Not only is killing usually unethical, it is more often than not ecologically unsound. To demonstrate the veracity of my argument I will combine rigorous analyses of moral philosophy with knowledge gathered from the latest scientific findings on wildlife biology and behaviour. The first chapter of my thesis utilises these methods to show why the traditional, anthropocentric approaches to wildlife ethics are flawed and how this has led to ineffective policy creation and enforcement. The second and third chapters then set up my alternative framework, which I have termed ‘biospherical individualism’. I outline my philosophical arguments and then use these to construct a series of steps which can be used to answer the question: ‘is it morally permissible to kill X in order to protect Y?’ In the remaining chapters I present case studies to show how my framework can be put into practice. I look at the practice of population control, problems surrounding ‘invasive’ species and the ethics of medical testing to create vaccines for animals. Together, these cases highlight the ways in which our conservation policies have, to date, failed to recognise the inherent value of individual living things and how this has led to our failure to protect them. They also, however, demonstrate ways in which we can reconstruct wildlife policy to serve the interests of the plants and animals themselves and which could lead to more effective protection measures in the future.

This thesis examines the biodiversity offsetting programme for England initiated by the UK government in 2011 and abandoned in 2014. Offsetting enables developers to purchase biodiversity credits, representing conservation gain somewhere else, to compensate for residual loss on the development site, ensuring no net loss of biodiversity overall. Recent years have seen increasing interest globally in market-based instruments for nature conservation, which advocates promise will deliver win-win outcomes, facilitating economic growth and safeguarding of nature at the same time, through market efficiencies. Political ecologists, on the other hand, have long highlighted the contradictions encountered in efforts to commodify nature. Drawing on Marxist political ecologies and literature on the neoliberalisation of nature, this thesis examines why the UK government was unable to establish its proposed biodiversity offsetting programme in a particular geographical and historical setting, in a climate of fiscal austerity and growth-orientated deregulation. As the government attempted to enrol sympathetic actors, disputes soon emerged over the purpose and technical details of the proposals. Deeper tensions were quickly revealed: the government’s non-negotiable position that offsetting should impose no new costs on developers, that it should be voluntary and that no new resources would be provided for planning authorities administering the policy locally, meant that it could not convince offsetting’s advocates – let alone its detractors – that it would achieve either meaningful biodiversity outcomes. Nor could it stimulate a substantial offset market, which it hoped would lubricate the planning system and accelerate land development, which was its primary goal. The thesis explores how the government’s non-interventionist, strictly pro-growth conditions played out in different moments of the policymaking process. It argues that it was precisely offsetting’s appeal to government, predicated on its promise of a win-win for development and conservation, in a neoliberal world of limited and diminishing public resources, which undermined the possibility of its implementation. Though the English case is specific, the thesis concludes that this underlying tension appears politically hard-wired into the very concept of offsetting, raising questions over its meaningful implementation anywhere.

Sustainable fisheries management require an understanding of the relationship between the adult population and the number of juveniles successfully added to that population each year. The process driving larval survival to enter a given stage of a fish population is highly variable and this pattern of variability reflects the strength of density-dependent mortality. Marine ecosystems are generally threatened by climate change and overfishing; the coupling of these two sources have encouraged scientists to develop end-to-end ecosystem models to study the interactions of organisms at different trophic levels and to understand their behaviours in response to climate change. Our understanding of this important and massively complex system has been constrained historically by the limited amount of data available. Recent technological advances are beginning to address this lack of data, but there is an urgent need for careful statistical methodology to synthesise this information and to make reliable predictions based upon it. In this thesis I developed methodologies specifically designed to interpret the patterns of variability in recruitment by accurately estimating the degree of heteroscedasticity in 90 published stock-recruitment datasets. To better estimate the accuracy of model parameters, I employed a Bayesian hierarchical modelling framework and applied this to multiple sets of fish populations with different model structures. Finally, I developed an end-to-end ecological model that takes into account biotic and abiotic factors, together with data on the fish communities, to assess the organisation of the marine ecosystem and to investigate the potential effects of weather or climate changes. The work developed within this thesis highlights the importance of statistical methods in estimating the patterns of variability and community structure in fish populations as well as describing the way organisms and environmental factors interact within an ecosystem.

Increasingly unpredictable, extreme and erratic rainfall with higher temperatures threatens to undermine the adaptive capacity of food systems and ecological resilience of smallholder landscapes. Despite growing concern, land managers still lack quantitative techniques to collect empirical data about the potential impact of climatic variability and change. This thesis aims to assess how ecosystem services and function and how this links with biodiversity and human wellbeing in smallholder agro-ecosystems in a changing climate. To this end, rather than relying on scenarios or probabilistic modelling, space was used as a proxy for time to compare states in disparate climatic conditions. Furthermore, an integrated methodological framework to assess ecosystem services at the field and landscape level was developed and operationalised, the results of which can be modelled with measures of wellbeing. Various multidisciplinary analytical tools were utilised, including ecological and socio-economic surveys, biological assessments, participatory open enquiry, and documenting ethnobotanical knowledge. The study was located within monsoon rice farms in the Terai Plains of Nepal, and dry season vegetable farms in Northern Ghana. Sites were selected that are climatically and culturally diverse to enable comparative analysis, with application to broad areas of adaptive planning. The linkages that bring about biophysical and human changes are complex and operate through social, political, economic and demographic drivers, making attribution extremely challenging. Nevertheless, it was demonstrated that within hotter and drier conditions in Ghana long-tongued pollinators and granivores, important for decomposition processes and pollination services, are more abundant in farms. Results further indicated that in cooler and drier conditions in Nepal, the taxonomic diversity of indigenous and close relative plant species growing in and around farms, important for the provisioning of ecosystem services, decreases. All other things equal, in both Nepal and Ghana findings indicate that overall human wellbeing may be adversely effected in hotter conditions, with a potentially significantly lower yields, fewer months of the year in which food is available, higher exposure to natural hazards and crop loss, unemployment, and psychological anxiety. Yet, surveys indicate smallholders continue to maintain a fair diversity of species in and around farms, which may allow them to secure basic necessities from provisioning ecosystem services. Moreover, farmers may employ adaptive strategies such as pooling labour and food sharing more frequently, and may have greater access to communication, technology, and infrastructure. Novel methodological and empirical contributions of this research offer predictive insights that could inform innovations in climate-smart agricultural practice and planning.

This thesis presents a local interpretation of an ecosystem approach; 'energyscapes' constructed through mixed methods, which captures private estate manager perception on land use, woodland expansion and collaboration over four case study areas in the Scottish Highlands. Each case study area of three contiguous estates forms a small landscape cluster, with every estate participating in field interviews, woodland planning and collaborative discussions. Private estates in Scotland cover a significant area of the Highlands and are dominated by traditional sporting interests and recreation that is not always considered compatible with woodland expansion, creating a culture of woodland neglect. Subsequently planting rates are falling and Scottish government woodland expansion targets are not being met, despite large areas of vacant land. Key areas of estate and woodland resilience are identified by land managers to improve social and structural connectivity using the novel landscape resilience mapping method, which presents land manager perceptions over a spatial scale linked to resilience concepts. The Forest Energy Tool developed in response to the need for economic justification for woodland expansion demonstrates the potential profitability of local woodfuel markets, as well as providing silvicultural treatments for further management aims. Estate resilience involves fostering effective integration between sporting uses, renewable energy and enhanced rural markets, such as value added forestry. Ecosystem approaches are normally expressed through aspirational policy that is difficult to translate into relevant practice for individual land managers. Energyscapes provides meaning to ecosystem approach policy through CBD principles and operational guidelines, and local practice; including integration of hydro schemes, forest energy and carbon sequestration at estate level and bridging of local and regional scales through six land manager identified landscape partnerships. However, developing leadership, as well as expertise and social capacity in landscape management, is required to mobilise such frameworks. Fundamental to realising these local ecosystem approaches is land manager trust and confidence, which can generate support for emerging land uses alongside tradition, increasing resilience by capturing and utilising the culture embedded within the landscape.

Most albatrosses are critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable due to the deleterious impact of fisheries, pollution, introduced species, habitat alteration, and climate change. Foraging behaviour influences many aspects of seabird biology, and a detailed understanding of foraging ecology is required to better predict the impacts of significant changes to the marine environment. Campbell Albatross (Thalassarche impavida) is a threatened endemic, confined to a small number of locations on Campbell Island, New Zealand and was recently split from the closely related Black-browed Albatross (T. melanophrys). We currently lack much basic information on the foraging behaviour of this species, hindering our ability to understand how change may have occurred in the past and make predictions about it’s long-term future. First, I used GPS loggers and stable isotope analysis of blood to investigate how distribution and foraging effort (distance travelled and duration) varied with sex and breeding stage. I found that Campbell Albatrosses are sexually dimorphic and showed sex-specific foraging behaviour and habitat use – although this varied by stage of reproduction. Because males and females may be vulnerable to different threats, such as interactions with fisheries, I compared the spatial overlap and high resolution spatio-temporal overlaps between fisheries vessels and albatrosses within New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Albatrosses utilised 32% of the EEZ, however they overlapped with fisheries vessels in only 0.20% of the area. Previous research has demonstrated that the influence of fisheries vessels goes beyond the immediate location of the boat itself. Campbell Albatross have low levels of spatio-temporal overlap with fisheries – with males overlapping more than females. More generally, my results indicate that adding data on fine scale interactions will improve fisheries risk assessments, and provide information needed for the conservation and management of the Campbell Albatross. A key development in recent ecological research has been a greater appreciation that inter-individual variation in foraging behaviour can have profound population-level consequences. Accordingly I tested for individual differences in foraging behaviour in Campbell Albatrosses. The majority of individuals demonstrated both annual and inter-annual individual consistency in foraging locations, and the degree of specialisation was influenced by both sex and year. Consistent terminal latitude and longitude of foraging trips indicated high foraging area fidelity with a degree of flexibility in the fine-scale location. During brooding, females used the Campbell Plateau and showed more consistent behaviours than males, which tended to forage in the Southern Ocean. This adds to a growing body of evidence of individual foraging specialisation among seabirds in general and albatrosses in particular and reveals marked inter-individual differences in vulnerability to threats. In light of the evidence of individual foraging specialisations in the Campbell albatross, I also preformed a literature review of individual foraging specialisations across all seabirds. I found studies examining foraging specialisation for 35 species, with 28 (80%) providing evidence of consistent inter-individual differences (i.e. specialisation). Current studies suggest that specialisation is influenced by environmental variability and resource predictability, however, with limited data in tropical regions, more studies are needed to test these links. In summary, my thesis has provided new information on Campbell Albatross foraging ecology. Sex specific variations in behaviour and habitat use may influence conservation and management strategies. I have been able to contextualise the consistent individual differences in foraging distribution described for this species in light of global patterns of individual foraging specialisation in seabirds and highlight future areas of research.

Laboratory batch and long-term column experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of wood-chip biochar and coal-derived activated carbon amendment on the microbiology of a volatile petroleum hydrocarbon (VPH) - contaminated gravelly sand. First, a stable isotope-labelled mono aromatic compound – toluene was used as a model VPH to gain insights into the mineralization of VPHs by soil microorganisms in the presence and absence of biochar or activated carbon. The biodegradation of a mixture of 12 VPHs was subsequently monitored in batch microcosms over a duration of 6-19 days by measuring headspace CO2 concentration. Further analysis was carried out by characterizing changes in the soil microbial community composition using next generation sequencing techniques – 454 pyrosequencing and Ion torrent sequencing. Increases in the levels of headspace CO2 in contaminated soil batches as compared to live and abiotic controls to which no VPHs were added indicated a stimulation of microbial activity in the batches through VPH addition. By fitting a maximum specific growth rate of 0.6 h-1 (in line with published rates), it was possible to match model predictions of 45CO2 and 44CO2 concentrations with the experimentally determined data. Half-saturation constants of 4.06 x 103 mgL-1, 7.76 x 102 mgL-1 and 1.83 x 102 mgL-1 were predicted for soil, soil & BC and soil & AC respectively, much higher than values reported in the literature. Differences in the half-saturation constant suggests that sorbent amendment affects the microbial ecology, by making microorganisms which can utilize substrates at lower concentrations more competitive. Yield coefficients (g biomass-C relative to g (biomass-C + CO2-C)) compared more closely in the nutrient (N & P) amended soils ranging from 4.83±0.46 in soil and biochar to 7.86±0.72 in unamended soil, than in the batches without nutrients, 4.1±3.1 in soil & BC, 17.7±5.2 in soil and 13.7±4.6 in soil & AC. Sorbent amendment thus reduced yield coefficients, thereby slowing the growth of VPH degrading biomass. Microbial community structure analysis revealed an increase in the relative abundance ranking of members of the genera Pseudomonas, Pseudoxanthomonas, and Arenimonas by up to 32 folds and in the families Nocardioidaceae and Pseudomonadaceae by at least 32 folds in sorbent amended and unamended soil batches and columns compared to their initial soil conditions. Consequently, amending soils with 2% BC or AC changed the biokinetics of VPH degradation by rendering VPHs less bioavailable, but did not appear to have any detrimental effects on the VPH degrading bacteria both in the short- and long-term, and may serve as a sustainable, cost-effective approach for enhancing the natural attenuation of VPHs in soil, thus addressing the challenge of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination.

Contemporary biodiversity has been shaped by interactions between intrinsic characters of organisms and extrinsic environmental features that often cannot be reliably predicted. Regions where many species boundaries coincide represent intriguing systems to disentangle factors underpinning eco-evolutionary divergence with relevance to the understanding of how species may respond to climate change. Such regions often harbour complex patterns of inter- and intra-specific biodiversity that are taxonomically challenging. The Benguela cold upwelling system (BCS) has emerged as a major biogeographic barrier promoting and maintaining differences between the Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific Ocean coastal fauna. This research assessed nuclear and mitochondrial DNA variation and applying population genetic and phylogeographic analytical frameworks assessed divergence across the BCS in a number of coastal Sea Bream species (Sparidae). In conjunction with available morphological and ecological data, the results support species level divergence across the BCS in what were previously regarded as conspecific populations in both Spondyliosoma and Diplodus cervinus/hottentotus and direct taxonomic rearrangement. The data also support the potential inadequacy of mtDNA COI barcoding for species discovery in the region due to variable interspecific coalescent depths. Lithognathus mormyrus and Sarpa salpa revealed similar phylogeographic patterns with (1) distinct African and Atlantic/Mediterranean and (2) divergence across the BCS. Phylogenetic analysis supported the ancestral status of African clades and the potential of an Angolan glacial refuge. A salient feature of the results was the signature of historical and largely asymmetric gene flow across the BCS from South Africa to Angola. This episodic permeability has implications for unexpected species' responses to climate change which are discussed. Collectively, this study provides new insights into the dynamic role of the BCS in shaping marine biodiversity in both the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.