9529872 Bradshaw This workshop has been designed to address several key issues proposed by the IAI Biodiversity and Temperate Terrestrial Ecosystems focus areas. The central goal is to understand fragmentation effects on biodiversity as driven by human land-use patterns and climate change interacting with natural landscape heterogeneity. The workshop will discuss the following topics: the effects of landscape alteration and fragmentation patterns on faunal biodiversity; underlying processes influencing landscape patterns and resultant faunal responses; interactions and trends in human land development and conservation; and the evaluation of common, effective adaptable metrics to capture change. Comparisons will include effects of major land -use activities among various ecosystems leading to an IAI Start-Up Grants Phase II proposal. The workshop seeks to identify common principles and methods of assessment as well as understanding the limits of their application to specific biomes. Although the workshop will focus on terrestrial systems, the intent is to contribute insight across ecosystems, and it seeks to complement other time-space issues of connectivity faced by aquatic and marine scientists. In the development of a conceptual common ground, the PIs seek to coordinate technical communication by collating extant GIS, remotely sensed imagery and tabular databases which are all necessary for effecting consistent comparisons between systems. The multiple-scale approach to be used by this proposal facilitates linkages with climate change and economic-ecological models. %%% This workshop has been designed to address several key issues proposed by the IAI Biodiversity and Temperate Terrestrial Ecosystems focus areas. The central goal is to understand fragmentation effects on biodiversity as driven by human land-use patterns and climate change interacting with natural landscape heterogeneity. The workshop will discuss the following topics: the effects of landscape alteration and fra gmentation patterns on faunal biodiversity; underlying processes influencing landscape patterns and resultant faunal responses; interactions and trends in human land development and conservation; and the evaluation of common, effective adaptable metrics to capture change. Comparisons will include effects of major land-use activities among various ecosystems leading to an IAI Start-Up Grants Phase II proposal. Land conversions, deforestation, and landscape alteration are processes which increasingly concern scientists and resource managers in southern and northern hemispheres. One of the chief issues relating to these land changes has been the loss of faunal habitat and the drop in biodiversity. These declines have occurred because of both direct and causes of mortality. Despite the current scientific discussion concerning measures and approaches to reducing the rate of decline of biodiversity, the transferability of present monitoring and conservation plans among biomes remains largely untested. The Americas provide an opportunity to compare relationships between human-generated landscape patterns and faunal patterns among quite different systems. Many nations in this region seek to accommodate pressures of human development while retaining indigenous flora and fauna. The similarities and differences in geologic and climate history, biotic evolution and human land-use patterns found in the two continents provide the opportunity for a coordinated effort to understand the issues of land alteration and biodiversity variability. This proposal involves the following countries: Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Ecuador, Mexico; Paraguay; and the United States. These countries are Member States of the IAI, an initiative to stimulate cooperative research on global change issues in the Americas. The National Science Foundation is the designated U.S. Government agency for carrying out U.S. responsibilities within the IAI. ***
