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The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity

The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity i...

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Autores principales: Certain, Grégoire, Skarpaas, Olav, Bjerke, Jarle-Werner, Framstad, Erik, Lindholm, Markus, Nilsen, Jan-Erik, Norderhaug, Ann, Oug, Eivind, Pedersen, Hans-Christian, Schartau, Ann-Kristin, van der Meeren, Gro I., Aslaksen, Iulie, Engen, Steinar, Garnåsjordet, Per-Arild, Kvaløy, Pål, Lillegård, Magnar, Yoccoz, Nigel G., Nybø, Signe
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3081300/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21526118
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018930
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author Certain, Grégoire
Skarpaas, Olav
Bjerke, Jarle-Werner
Framstad, Erik
Lindholm, Markus
Nilsen, Jan-Erik
Norderhaug, Ann
Oug, Eivind
Pedersen, Hans-Christian
Schartau, Ann-Kristin
van der Meeren, Gro I.
Aslaksen, Iulie
Engen, Steinar
Garnåsjordet, Per-Arild
Kvaløy, Pål
Lillegård, Magnar
Yoccoz, Nigel G.
Nybø, Signe
author_facet Certain, Grégoire
Skarpaas, Olav
Bjerke, Jarle-Werner
Framstad, Erik
Lindholm, Markus
Nilsen, Jan-Erik
Norderhaug, Ann
Oug, Eivind
Pedersen, Hans-Christian
Schartau, Ann-Kristin
van der Meeren, Gro I.
Aslaksen, Iulie
Engen, Steinar
Garnåsjordet, Per-Arild
Kvaløy, Pål
Lillegård, Magnar
Yoccoz, Nigel G.
Nybø, Signe
author_sort Certain, Grégoire
collection PubMed
description The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity indexes will greatly facilitate information transfer from science toward other areas of human society. The Nature Index framework samples scientific information on biodiversity from a variety of sources, synthesizes this information, and then transmits it in a simplified form to environmental managers, policymakers, and the public. The Nature Index optimizes information use by incorporating expert judgment, monitoring-based estimates, and model-based estimates. The index relies on a network of scientific experts, each of whom is responsible for one or more biodiversity indicators. The resulting set of indicators is supposed to represent the best available knowledge on the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in any given area. The value of each indicator is scaled relative to a reference state, i.e., a predicted value assessed by each expert for a hypothetical undisturbed or sustainably managed ecosystem. Scaled indicator values can be aggregated or disaggregated over different axes representing spatiotemporal dimensions or thematic groups. A range of scaling models can be applied to allow for different ways of interpreting the reference states, e.g., optimal situations or minimum sustainable levels. Statistical testing for differences in space or time can be implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. This study presents the Nature Index framework and details its implementation in Norway. The results suggest that the framework is a functional, efficient, and pragmatic approach for gathering and synthesizing scientific knowledge on the state of biodiversity in any marine or terrestrial ecosystem and has general applicability worldwide.
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spelling pubmed-30813002011-04-27 The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity Certain, Grégoire Skarpaas, Olav Bjerke, Jarle-Werner Framstad, Erik Lindholm, Markus Nilsen, Jan-Erik Norderhaug, Ann Oug, Eivind Pedersen, Hans-Christian Schartau, Ann-Kristin van der Meeren, Gro I. Aslaksen, Iulie Engen, Steinar Garnåsjordet, Per-Arild Kvaløy, Pål Lillegård, Magnar Yoccoz, Nigel G. Nybø, Signe PLoS One Research Article The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity indexes will greatly facilitate information transfer from science toward other areas of human society. The Nature Index framework samples scientific information on biodiversity from a variety of sources, synthesizes this information, and then transmits it in a simplified form to environmental managers, policymakers, and the public. The Nature Index optimizes information use by incorporating expert judgment, monitoring-based estimates, and model-based estimates. The index relies on a network of scientific experts, each of whom is responsible for one or more biodiversity indicators. The resulting set of indicators is supposed to represent the best available knowledge on the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in any given area. The value of each indicator is scaled relative to a reference state, i.e., a predicted value assessed by each expert for a hypothetical undisturbed or sustainably managed ecosystem. Scaled indicator values can be aggregated or disaggregated over different axes representing spatiotemporal dimensions or thematic groups. A range of scaling models can be applied to allow for different ways of interpreting the reference states, e.g., optimal situations or minimum sustainable levels. Statistical testing for differences in space or time can be implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. This study presents the Nature Index framework and details its implementation in Norway. The results suggest that the framework is a functional, efficient, and pragmatic approach for gathering and synthesizing scientific knowledge on the state of biodiversity in any marine or terrestrial ecosystem and has general applicability worldwide. Public Library of Science 2011-04-22 /pmc/articles/PMC3081300/ /pubmed/21526118 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018930 Text en Certain et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Certain, Grégoire
Skarpaas, Olav
Bjerke, Jarle-Werner
Framstad, Erik
Lindholm, Markus
Nilsen, Jan-Erik
Norderhaug, Ann
Oug, Eivind
Pedersen, Hans-Christian
Schartau, Ann-Kristin
van der Meeren, Gro I.
Aslaksen, Iulie
Engen, Steinar
Garnåsjordet, Per-Arild
Kvaløy, Pål
Lillegård, Magnar
Yoccoz, Nigel G.
Nybø, Signe
The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity
title The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity
title_full The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity
title_fullStr The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity
title_full_unstemmed The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity
title_short The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity
title_sort nature index: a general framework for synthesizing knowledge on the state of biodiversity
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3081300/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21526118
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018930
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