Features | H Hidden hotspots To preserve the diversity of the world’s wildli ife, Kate Ravilious finds we should focus on unusual terrain, not animals and plants Hedisused quarry inchefisin Tice cence Iwouldbeigh onanyones conseintion wit Agta arth Inds oasntrloelog pt pont garded byadene thier and overhungbyteerand thnbe abot ponastalase feck watts bara whllsrosterand ‘ought cy fom dsc tature havens ethe claagor sand hesornewat tnnspnglandscape could al themin vale Noonlyisthequseybrimmingwith vile ncuingmany ve and thetened ‘pels tutte sects tots bodveraty Coupee alifeoncrpant isn widely acpte at arhis expertencngasichmasrextntion een ‘he United Natonsexinatestat about {nllonspelraetheatenedand any haved eens touman acy We caraveeverything chow dow prise? Uni nw the fos hasbeen on divers hotspots ations ithgood abs that ‘apport eaceptonalconeentaonsot difeentpeties butmaybeoureioshave beenmisgldd Insteadotfocaingon ‘peepee or abt ect bet ‘40lNew Sclentst|7 September 2019 ‘ways of putting the brakes on the current mass extinction may be to protect our planet's rocks and sols: its geodiversity. They may notlook like much, but neglected quarriesand unloved serubland may be key to ensuring the long: termsurvival oflife on Earth. ‘This change in perspective emerged around decade ago. Mark Anderson t the Nature ‘Couservanty, conservation chaty in We US, ‘was assessing which areas oflandscape they should prioritise. "I realised that wewere bbuying up land to protect the speciesliving therenow, but climate change impacts might ‘mean this woulda't bethe right place inthe futur,” says Anderson. Thatled toan epiphany. Instead of buying land with grea biodiversity, today he decided tolook forareas that would retain theirdiversity asthe planet warmed, His initial focus was on landscapes witha widerange of microdimates: places with “Unusual or contrasting geologies can stimulate evolutionary diversification” nooks and crannies slopes andhills, sunshine and shade, wet anddry. The thinking was that even ifthe climate of the region hanged significantly, the local climate variability would Degreater giving speciesa greater chance of findinga suitable new habitat locally. Totest theidea, Anderson and his colleagues startedtracking how species richness changed ‘wil landscape ain cla vaelables across 14S states and three Canadian provinces, ‘They found that over 90 per cent of species diversity in temperate climates could be ‘explained byjustfourlandscape features: number of rock types, latitude, elevation range and amount of chalkor ime bedrock. "We expected landscape influence species diversity but we were surprised by just how strong that link was” says Anderson. In retrospect, it makes goodsense Geology affects the chemical and physical properties ‘ofsoll and water. As Andersonsuspected, italso influences local climate via the ‘topography it ereates, The more geodiverse the underlying landscape, the greater the range ofhabitatsand themorespeciesa regioncan support. "It seems that unusual ‘or contrasting geologiescan stimulate ‘evolutionary diversification,” says Anderson,Save our soils johnc newscientistlive.com Changing focus to geodiversity could be beneficial in other ways. Collecting biodiversity datais time-consumingand expensive. Someof the most biodiverse areas the world are almost certainly unrecognised and unprotected because no one has recorded what lives there. Geodiversiy is easier to recognise, and getting easierall the time: Joseph Baley,a geographer at Yorkt John University, UK, has been working on a way touse satellite data to measure geodiversity, automatically. By homingin on very .geodiverse regions, wecan pinpoint where ‘urmostbiodiverse locations are likely to be and target our conservation efforts. The strategy pioneeredby Anderson has gradually gathered traction, He and his colleagues have now mapped geodiversity iestinated Ue esilienve uf Urelaslavape across most of the US. The Rockies and desert areas ofthe south-west United statesare the lasttwo outstanding areas, which they hope tocompleteby the end of the year. Their work suggests that to give US wildlife the greatest chance ofadaptingto and surviving future climate change, rounda quarter of the US landscape needs to have protected status, ‘Thanks tothe Nature Conservancy anda number of otheragencies, 0 per cent of those resilient locations arealready protected. Now, theirfocusison the remaining 60 per cent. Their wishlist may seem surprising, with overworked farmland and dull chunks of prairie often ranking above pristine wilderness. But Andersonbelieves thatthe Jandisin the right place andis underlain by the right mixof rocks, then these areas can have greater conservation value. Right atthe top of the listare places that can provide corridorsin ford reveals a new way tolook at so at New Scientist Live thelandscape, ensuring there is room for wildlife to move between habitatsasthe climate changes."Ourworkhasidentified some reall scary pinch points," he says, Disused quarries areanother surprising poster child for the conservation movement. ‘Therange of gradients and variety of microclimates hot south-facing slopes and cool, shady north facing crannies) makefor massive range of ecological niches. A 2013 study of Cheffois found that it represents ‘beacon of biodiversity inan area where intensive farming practices have long threatened wildlife. Its multitude of different landforms supports 27 kinds of cricket alone, ‘long with hundreds of plants, including rare mosses, ferns and rock-loving flowers. ‘The UKlandscapeis peppered with such sites, but many arebeing sold offas rubbish dusnps, “The pressuretouse old quarries as andi sites {shuge. says ohn Faithfullat the University (of Glasgow, UK Some, suchas Treame quarry {in yrshire, havealreadybeen stuffed fullof rrubbish,and others face uncertain futures. [But thereare success stories, too. Thanksto the ‘campaigning efforts of geologists, two Scottish ‘open-cast coal mines, Spireslack and Mainshill ‘Wood, may soon become geoconservation. sites. Today, peregrine falcons nest onand |hunt from Spireslack’s exposed cliff, whilst ccurlews and lapwings relish the undisturbed moorand grassland nearby. Geodiversity also applies underwater, asa recent Finnish study shows. "We found ‘that thegreater the geodiversity, the higher ‘theaquaticplant species richness” says ‘Maja Toivanen from the University of Oulu Saving geodiversity onits own won't save theplanet. Bailey mapped plant species ‘Anew breed of conservation areas, fromleft:Cheffois ‘uarryin France; the Loess hills, ‘of owa; the Spirestack open cast coal minein Lanarkshire, Scotland; thelakes of Finland richness across the UKand compared itagainst sgeodiversty. He foundthat there wasavery stronglinkbetween the two, but that there were inevitable exceptions tothe rule: single geologies that bredadiversity oflife. What's ‘more, therearealso very geodiverse areas that are comparatively barren, such as high ‘but fairly hostile placestolive “Isee .geodiversity as another string tothe bow of conservation, rather than being something we should switch to completely.” says Baley [Even soit isastring that hassofarbeen underused. Wehavedoneareasonablejob of protecting majesticlandscapes—lush Islands, awe-inspiring coastlines and dramatic ‘mountaintops—but theless photogenic pieces oflandaren’tas well-loved. f we want t stop the mass extinction oflife on our planet, ‘we will eed to fight it not only on the beaches andonthe hills but in the floodplainsand the quarries too. 1 ita thataresockerich KatoRavousisasconce vite based no UK Foto eo ier ie Okaterav 1 September2019| New Scientist