Current Conservation The Silent Impact: How Roads Are Eroding Europe’s Food Webs

Those who know my work, now that I have had some scientific contributions to a branch of Conservation Biology related to the impacts of roads on wildlife, **Road Ecology**. Now, working in a research centre mostly devoted to marine science, I’ve broadened my research scope to include the impacts of _marine_ roads on _marine_ biodiversity. This approach is exciting and challenging in many ways. For starters, in the ocean, there are no roads _per se_. **Terrestrial roads, actual roads, are physical things. Marine roads are fuzzy, not actually there**. On roads, we sometimes lack information on traffic intensity, on shipping lanes that’s all we have (I’ll stop calling it “marine roads” to make it simple, you get the analogy!). **On the sea, the transportation routes are defined by the density of ships in any given area (check outthis website). That’s the very definition of the transportation route.** Source: https://globalmaritimetraffic.org/ **Other essential difference: on roads, we can see many of the impacts, such as the animals flattened by cars in the runway. On shipping lanes evaluating direct mortality is way more complex, the Ocean is a dynamic ever-moving system.** The paper we just made available as a preprint, “**Mapping global shipless areas and conflict zones between shipping and marine biodiversity** “, presents a first approach to evaluating the effects of such a pervasive threat on marine biodiversity. Shipping traffic is increasing, therefore these threats are likely to become even more serious in the future. Also, marine traffic will be affected by climate change (with new, polar, routes becoming available), political and military instability and other disturbances (e.g. piracy). Here, we identified “**shipless areas** ” (**areas with minimal shipping activity**) by examining the overlap between shipping density and key marine taxa (cetaceans, sea turtles, pinnipeds, and seabirds). We also evaluated the extent to which these shipless areas and conflict zones are encompassed by Marine Protected Areas, Exclusive Economic Zones, and High Seas. **Our findings reveal that shipless areas are mostly restricted to polar and remote oceanic regions**. We have designated “**Priority Preservation Areas** ” (regions where high biodiversity intersects with low vessel activity, in yellow in the image below) and “**Priority Mitigation Areas** ” (regions where high biodiversity intersects with intense vessel activity, in – sort of – red). We suggest that low-conflict zones should be maintained and that targeted mitigation strategies should be implemented in high-conflict zones. This study highlights the**urgent need to take action to protect marine biodiversity from the threats of shipping**. We suggest a variety of mitigation strategies, such as traffic rerouting, speed reductions, and enhanced protection measures. By providing a comprehensive spatial and taxonomic framework, this study supports global efforts to balance maritime trade with marine biodiversity conservation. I hope you find this interesting! ### Share this: * Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) * Like Loading... ### _Related_

The growth of global maritime traffic poses increasing threats to marine biodiversity including vessel collisions, disturbance, and pollution. Protecting areas

<p class="has-text-align-justify">We have developed a new version of the gDefrag package. The previous version has been retired from CRAN due to dependencies on outdated packages. <strong>This updated version is still under development and may contain limitations. Please exercise caution when using it</strong>. I have just uploaded a <strong>new version of the package gDefrag</strong> on <a href="https://github.com/FMestre1/gDefrag" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">GitHub</a>. It will still be some time for it to go to CRAN again.</p> <p><strong>What is the package all about?</strong></p> <p class="has-text-align-justify">Roads (and other linear infrastructures) fragment natural habitats. <strong>This package provides a set of tools to help the de-fragmentation process</strong>. It works by prioritizing the different sections of linear infrastructures (e.g. roads, power lines) to increase the available amount of a given resource (e.g. habitat).</p> <p class="has-text-align-justify">If you want to know more, we published a paper <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.10.012">describing the package</a> and another <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103653" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">demonstrating its usability</a>. Additionally <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325260755_Package_'gDefrag'_Title_Graph-Based_Landscape_De-Fragmentation" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here’s the manual</a> of a previous version.</p> <p><strong>Demonstration</strong></p> <p>Let’s begin with a brief demosntration. The first step is the <strong>installation</strong> of the package:</p> <ol class="wp-block-list"></ol> <ol class="wp-block-list"></ol> <pre class="wp-block-code"><code>library(devtools) devtools::install_github("FMestre1/gDefrag") </code></pre> <p class="has-text-align-justify">Then, <strong>manually download the shapefile files from our sample dataset</strong>. Go to <a href="https://github.com/FMestre1/gDefrag/tree/master/data" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">this link</a> and download all files (<code>road_P.shp</code>, <code>road_P.shx</code>, <code>road_P.dbf</code>, <code>road_P.prj</code>, etc.).</p> <p><strong>Load </strong>them to your environment:</p> <pre class="wp-block-code"><code>road_P &lt;- terra::vect("road_P.shp") </code></pre> <p>The next step is obtaining a vector file of the nodes, by running the function <strong>node.creation</strong>:</p> <pre class="wp-block-code"><code>out1 &lt;- node.creation(land_polyg = road_P, value_col = "frst_sm", scale_nodes = 10, col_nodes = "pink", cex_labels = 1)</code></pre> <p>This will create a <strong>SpatVector object and plot the following figure</strong>:</p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="" class="wp-image-2345" data-attachment-id="2345" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="image" data-large-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=640" data-medium-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=300" data-orig-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png" data-orig-size="1920,975" data-permalink="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/image-9/" height="520" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=1024" srcset="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=1024 1024w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=150 150w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=300 300w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png?w=768 768w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image.png 1920w" style="width:587px;height:auto" width="1024"/></figure></div> <p>Then you have to <strong>create the edges spatVector</strong> by running edge.creation:</p> <pre class="wp-block-code"><code>out2 &lt;- edge.creation(nodes = out1, land_polyg = road_P, min_length = 0, min_pol_area = 0)</code></pre> <p>Which will create teh following plot, with the edges in blue:</p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="" class="wp-image-2348" data-attachment-id="2348" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="image" data-large-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=640" data-medium-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=300" data-orig-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png" data-orig-size="1920,975" data-permalink="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/image-10/" height="520" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=1024" srcset="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=150 150w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=300 300w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?w=768 768w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png 1920w" style="width:631px;height:auto" width="1024"/></figure></div> <p class="has-text-align-justify">The next, and final step, is running the function prioritize to <strong>prioritize the edges to de-fragment the landscape</strong>. The you can plot the whole results:</p> <pre class="wp-block-code"><code>out3 &lt;- prioritize(nodes = out1, edges = out2, method = "value") #Plot the results: plotgraph(nodes = out1, edges = out3, land_polyg = road_P, main = "Habitat value")</code></pre> <p>This will <strong>create the following plot</strong>:</p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img alt="" class="wp-image-2350" data-attachment-id="2350" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="image" data-large-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=640" data-medium-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=300" data-orig-file="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png" data-orig-size="1920,975" data-permalink="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/image-11/" height="520" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=1024" srcset="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=1024 1024w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=150 150w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=300 300w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png?w=768 768w, https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-2.png 1920w" style="width:744px;height:auto" width="1024"/></figure></div> <p><strong>That’s it! You have to check the manual for information about each function’s specific arguments.</strong></p> <p></p> <div id="atatags-370373-67a36c235faf2"> <script type="text/javascript"> __ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initVideoSlot('atatags-370373-67a36c235faf2', { sectionId: '370373', format: 'inread' }); }); </script> </div><span id="wordads-inline-marker" style="display: none;"></span> <div id="atatags-26942-67a36c235fb63"></div> <script> __ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-67a36c235fb63', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this Ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); }); </script><div class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled" id="jp-post-flair"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a class="share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text" data-shared="sharing-twitter-2339" href="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/?share=twitter" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Twitter"><span></span><span class="sharing-screen-reader-text">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><a class="share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text" data-shared="sharing-facebook-2339" href="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/?share=facebook" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Facebook"><span></span><span class="sharing-screen-reader-text">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)</span></a></li><li class="share-mastodon"><a class="share-mastodon sd-button share-icon no-text" data-shared="sharing-mastodon-2339" href="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/?share=mastodon" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Mastodon"><span></span><span class="sharing-screen-reader-text">Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)</span></a></li><li class="share-bluesky"><a class="share-bluesky sd-button share-icon no-text" data-shared="sharing-bluesky-2339" href="https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/new-version-of-package-gdefrag/?share=bluesky" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Bluesky"><span></span><span class="sharing-screen-reader-text">Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)</span></a></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded" data-name="like-post-frame-146087315-2339-67a36c23601a1" data-src="//widgets.wp.com/likes/index.html?ver=20250205#blog_id=146087315&amp;post_id=2339&amp;origin=geekcologist.wordpress.com&amp;obj_id=146087315-2339-67a36c23601a1" data-title="Like or Reblog" id="like-post-wrapper-146087315-2339-67a36c23601a1"><div class="likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder" style="height: 55px;"><span class="button"><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class="sd-text-color"></span><a class="sd-link-color"></a></div> <div class="jp-relatedposts" id="jp-relatedposts"> <h3 class="jp-relatedposts-headline"><em>Related</em></h3> </div></div>