scholarly journals Habitat specialization, distribution range size and body size drive extinction risk in carabid beetles

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1267-1283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothea Nolte ◽  
Estève Boutaud ◽  
D. Johan Kotze ◽  
Andreas Schuldt ◽  
Thorsten Assmann
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Distribution Range ◽  
Carabid Beetles ◽  
Habitat Specialization

scholarly journals Biological and extrinsic correlates of extinction risk in Chinese lizards

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxi Zhong ◽  
Chuanwu Chen ◽  
Yanping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Habitat Specialization ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Small Range ◽  
Extrinsic Factors

Abstract China is a country with one of the most species rich reptile faunas in the world. However, nearly a quarter of Chinese lizard species assessed by the China Biodiversity Red List are threatened. Nevertheless, to date, no study has explicitly examined the pattern and processes of extinction and threat in Chinese lizards. In this study, we conducted the first comparative phylogenetic analysis of extinction risk in Chinese lizards. We addressed the following three questions: 1) What is the pattern of extinction and threat in Chinese lizards? 2) Which species traits and extrinsic factors are related to their extinction risk? 3) How can we protect Chinese lizards based on our results? We collected data on ten species traits (body size, clutch size, geographic range size, activity time, reproductive mode, habitat specialization, habitat use, leg development, maximum elevation, and elevation range) and seven extrinsic factors (mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, mean annual solar insolation, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), human footprint, human population density, and human exploitation). After phylogenetic correction, these variables were used separately and in combination to assess their associations with extinction risk. We found that Chinese lizards with small geographic range, large body size, high habitat specialization, and living in high precipitation areas were vulnerable to extinction. Conservation priority should thus be given to species with the above extinction-prone traits so as to effectively protect Chinese lizards. Preventing future habitat destruction should also be a primary focus of management efforts because species with small range size and high habitat specialization are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss.

scholarly journals Evolution in Extremis: The When, How, and Why of Hawaiian Carabid Beetles

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Liebherr
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Carabid Beetle ◽  
Carabid Beetles ◽  
Habitat Specialization ◽  
Dispersal Ability ◽  
Ecological Specialization ◽  
Hawaiian Archipelago ◽  
Ecological Zones

The Hawaiian Archipelago is the most isolated oceanic island system in the World, separated from the nearest source areas by more than 4000 km. Five independent colonization events have resulted in diversification of a native carabid beetle fauna in excess of 400 known species. This diverse assemblage is disharmonic, with the major radiations restricted to the platynine genus Blackburnia Sharp (139 species), the subgenus Nesocidium Sharp of Bembidion Latreille (21 species), and the moriomorphine genus Mecyclothorax Sharp (239 species). Biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary attributes of these three radiations are compared in order to determine factors crucial to carabid beetle diversification in this most-isolated situation. Biogeographical attributes include the age of origin of the constituent radiation, the island likely colonized by its common ancestor, and the biological characteristics, where known, of the colonizing ancestors for each independent radiation. Ecological attributes include the amount of habitat specialization undergone during each radiation, taking into account the primordial habitat colonized and the subsequent pattern of occupation of different habitat types during diversification. Evolutionary attributes include brachyptery, body-size evolution, sexual selection, and the evolution of specialized body conformations. It is shown that ecological specialization—i.e., occupation of a diverse array of ecological zones and microhabitats—in concert with reduced dispersal ability brought on by evolution of brachyptery are positively associated with enhanced levels of diversification. Comparing sympatric island faunas, it is shown that the latter operates synergistically with body size, as the smaller-bodied Mecyclothorax beetles speciate much more rapidly than the larger-bodied Blackburnia on Maui and Hawai῾i Island. Nonetheless, small body size does not gaurantee high diversity, as Bembidion beetles attain body sizes similar to Mecyclothorax beetles. Age of origin of a radiation is a subsidiary criterion for diversification given that the Mecyclothorax radiation commenced only 1.2 Ma, whereas it is hypothesized that Blackburnia have been resident in the Hawaiian archipelago for upwards of 28 Ma. Thus especially for Blackburnia we are constrained in our ability to know all of the evolutionary products of the radiation due to extinction of presumably all or nearly all species that occupied the now-sunken islands northwest of the oldest high island of Kauai. We are fortunate to know of several extinct Blackburnia species discovered in lowland subfossil deposits in Kauai, and these species provide crucial information now regarding future patterns of extinction. Sexual selection can be demonstrated for the Bembidion subgenus Nesocidium, and is a likely explanation for genitalic evolution over parts of the Mecyclothorax radiation, but it is not a phenomenon pervasively associated with increased levels of speciation.

scholarly journals Why do bugs perish? Range size and local vulnerability traits as surrogates of Odonata extinction risk

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1924) ◽  
pp. 20192645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Rocha-Ortega ◽  
Pilar Rodríguez ◽  
Jason Bried ◽  
John Abbott ◽  
Alex Córdoba-Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Volcanic System ◽  
Thermal Limits ◽  
Geographic Range Size ◽  
Insect Decline ◽  
Local Extirpation

Despite claims of an insect decline worldwide, our understanding of extinction risk in insects is incomplete. Using bionomic data of all odonate (603 dragonflies and damselflies) North American species, we assessed (i) regional extinction risk and whether this is related to local extirpation; (ii) whether these two patterns are similar altitudinally and latitudinally; and (iii) the areas of conservation concern. We used geographic range size as a predictor of regional extinction risk and body size, thermal limits and habitat association as predictors of local extirpation. We found that (i) greater regional extinction risk is related to narrow thermal limits, lotic habitat use and large body size (this in damselflies but not dragonflies); (ii) southern species are more climate tolerant but with more limited geographic range size than northern species; and (iii) two priority areas for odonate conservation are the cold temperate to sub-boreal northeastern USA and the transversal neo-volcanic system. Our approach can be used to estimate insect extinction risk as it compensates for the lack of abundance data.

scholarly journals The effects of geographic range size and abundance on extinction during a time of “sluggish”’ evolution

Paleobiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Casey ◽  
Erin E. Saupe ◽  
Bruce S. Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
The North ◽  
Geographic Range Size ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Habitat Tracking

Abstract Geographic range size and abundance are important determinants of extinction risk in fossil and extant taxa. However, the relationship between these variables and extinction risk has not been tested extensively during evolutionarily “quiescent” times of low extinction and speciation in the fossil record. Here we examine the influence of geographic range size and abundance on extinction risk during the late Paleozoic (Mississippian–Permian), a time of “sluggish” evolution when global rates of origination and extinction were roughly half those of other Paleozoic intervals. Analyses used spatiotemporal occurrences for 164 brachiopod species from the North American midcontinent. We found abundance to be a better predictor of extinction risk than measures of geographic range size. Moreover, species exhibited reductions in abundance before their extinction but did not display contractions in geographic range size. The weak relationship between geographic range size and extinction in this time and place may reflect the relative preponderance of larger-ranged taxa combined with the physiographic conditions of the region that allowed for easy habitat tracking that dampened both extinction and speciation. These conditions led to a prolonged period (19–25 Myr) during which standard macroevolutionary rules did not apply.

Allometry of home range size in lake and river fishes

1995 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 1499-1508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles K. Minns
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Home Range ◽  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Fish Population ◽  
Home Range Size ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Territory Size ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals

A data set assembled from published literature supported the hypotheses that (i) home range size increases allometrically with body size in temperate freshwater fishes, and (ii) fish home ranges are larger in lakes than rivers. The allometric model fitted was home range = A∙(body size)B. Home ranges in lakes were 19–23 times larger than those in rivers. Additional analyses showed that membership in different taxonomic groupings of fish, the presence–absence of piscivory, the method of measuring home range, and the latitude position of the water bodies were not significant predictive factors. Home ranges of freshwater fish were smaller than those of terrestrial mammals, birds, and lizards. Home ranges were larger than area per fish values derived by inverting fish population and assemblage density–size relationships from lakes and rivers and territory–size relationships in stream salmonids. The weight exponent (B) of fish home range was lower than values reported for other vertebrates, 0.58 versus a range of 0.96–1.14. Lake–river home range differences were consistent with differences reported in allometric models of freshwater fish density and production.

Measuring insect rarity: practical issues, pragmatic approaches

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Fattorini ◽  
Andrea Di Giulio ◽  
Leonardo Dapporto
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Literature Information ◽  
Invertebrate Conservation ◽  
Species Vulnerability ◽  
Museum Data ◽  
Data Field

Rarity is often considered an indication of species extinction risk, and rarity measures are used as important tools to predict species vulnerability and hence to establish conservation priorities. For these reasons, rarity is among the most important issues involved in conservation programs. A number of studies have attempted to investigate relationships between rarity and extinction risk in plants and vertebrates, whereas only few papers have investigated similar issues in invertebrate taxa. This has limited the use of standardized rarity measures in invertebrate conservation studies. Assessing rarity is especially important when other pieces of information are difficult, or even definitively impossible, to obtain, as commonly found for most insects. Four broad categories of rarity are commonly recognized: geographical, ecological, population and phylogenetic rarity. On the basis of this framework, we present here a short review of the rarity forms most frequently investigated in insect studies, and their relationships with the main species traits related to extinction risk (such as body size, mobility, trophic level, host specificity, larval and adult behaviours, etc.). We discuss what they mean, how they can be measured, which type of data (field collections, museum data, literature information) are needed and how to avoid the most common pitfalls associated with rarity studies, with indications for pragmatic approaches in data analysis.

Biotic influences on species duration: interactions between traits in marine molluscs

Paleobiology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S. Crampton ◽  
Roger A. Cooper ◽  
Alan G. Beu ◽  
Michael Foote ◽  
Bruce A. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Large Range ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Marine Molluscs ◽  
Larval Type ◽  
Feeding Type ◽  
Life Mode

We analyze relationships among a range of ecological and biological traits—geographic range size, body size, life mode, larval type, and feeding type—in order to identify those traits that are associated significantly with species duration in New Zealand Cenozoic marine molluscs, during a time of background extinction. Using log-linear modeling, we find that bivalves have only a small number of simple, two-way associations between the studied traits and duration. In contrast, gastropods display more complex interactions involving three-way associations between traits, a pattern that suggests greater macroecological complexity of gastropods. This is not an artifact caused by the larger number of gastropods than bivalves in our data set. We used stratified randomized resampling of families to test for associations between traits that might result from shared inheritance rather than ecological trait interactions; we found no evidence of phylogenetic effects in any associations examined. The relationships revealed by our study should serve to constrain the range of possible biological mechanisms that underlie these relationships. As previously observed, two-way associations are present between large geographic range and increased duration, and between large geographic range and large body size, in both bivalves and gastropods. In gastropods, planktotrophic larval type is associated with large range size through a three-way interaction that also involves duration; there is no direct association of larval type and geographic range. Gastropods also display two-way associations between duration and life mode, and duration and feeding type. We note that in gastropods, an infaunal life mode is associated with large range size, whereas in bivalves infaunality is associated with reduced range size.

scholarly journals Body Size, Extinction Risk and Knowledge Bias in New World Snakes

PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e113429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Vilela ◽  
Fabricio Villalobos ◽  
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez ◽  
Levi Carina Terribile
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
New World ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Knowledge Bias
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