scholarly journals Unravelling the structure of species extinction risk for predictive conservation science

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1710) ◽  
pp. 1329-1338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tien Ming Lee ◽  
Walter Jetz
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Level Structure ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Environmental Niche ◽  
Conservation Science ◽  
Threat Status ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
Broad Scale

Extinction risk varies across species and space owing to the combined and interactive effects of ecology/life history and geography. For predictive conservation science to be effective, large datasets and integrative models that quantify the relative importance of potential factors and separate rapidly changing from relatively static threat drivers are urgently required. Here, we integrate and map in space the relative and joint effects of key correlates of The International Union for Conservation of Nature-assessed extinction risk for 8700 living birds. Extinction risk varies significantly with species' broad-scale environmental niche, geographical range size, and life-history and ecological traits such as body size, developmental mode, primary diet and foraging height. Even at this broad scale, simple quantifications of past human encroachment across species' ranges emerge as key in predicting extinction risk, supporting the use of land-cover change projections for estimating future threat in an integrative setting. A final joint model explains much of the interspecific variation in extinction risk and provides a remarkably strong prediction of its observed global geography. Our approach unravels the species-level structure underlying geographical gradients in extinction risk and offers a means of disentangling static from changing components of current and future threat. This reconciliation of intrinsic and extrinsic, and of past and future extinction risk factors may offer a critical step towards a more continuous, forward-looking assessment of species' threat status based on geographically explicit environmental change projections, potentially advancing global predictive conservation science.

Life history and ecological correlates of extinction risk in European freshwater fishes

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 854-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D Reynolds ◽  
Thomas J Webb ◽  
Lorraine A Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Threatened Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Freshwater Fishes ◽  
Freshwater Species ◽  
Threat Status ◽  
Close Relatives

We used phylogenetically based comparative analyses to test for associations between extinction risk in European freshwater fishes and a variety of life history, ecological, and biogeographical traits. Based on the World Conservation Union classification scheme, a total of 47% of Europe's 287 native species are classified as threatened with extinction. Threatened species are significantly smaller than less-threatened species in the same genera when analyses are restricted to fully freshwater species. This trend is reversed when anadromous genera are included. These comprise many large-bodied species in which fishing has often played a greater role in declines than in other taxa. Threatened species did not differ significantly in their habitats, although they tended to occupy a narrower variety of habitats biased toward streams and rivers. Threatened species occupy much narrower latitudinal ranges than close relatives that are less threatened, and they also have more southerly distributions where pressures on habitats are intense. This study suggests that links between life histories and threat status of freshwater fishes are not as clearcut as for marine species. For fish restricted entirely to freshwater, small-bodied species are most at risk owing to their naturally small ranges, which may put them in a more precarious position when their habitats are impacted by humans.

scholarly journals Biological Correlates of Extinction Risk in Resident Philippine Avifauna

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle D. Kittelberger ◽  
Montague H. C. Neate-Clegg ◽  
J. David Blount ◽  
Mary Rose C. Posa ◽  
John McLaughlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Red List ◽  
Forest Dependency ◽  
Threat Status

The majority of the world’s biodiversity occurs in the tropics, but human actions in these regions have precipitated an extinction crisis due to habitat degradation, overexploitation, and climate change. Understanding which ecological, biogeographical, and life-history traits predict extinction risk is critical for conserving species. The Philippines is a hotspot of biodiversity and endemism, but it is a region that also suffers from an extremely high level of deforestation, habitat degradation, and wildlife exploitation. We investigated the biological correlates of extinction risk based on the IUCN Red List threat status among resident Philippine birds using a broad range of ecological, biogeographical, and life history traits previously identified as correlates of extinction risk in birds. We found strong support across competing models for endemism, narrower elevational ranges, high forest dependency, and larger body size as correlates significantly associated with extinction risk. Additionally, we compared observed threat status with threat status fitted by our model, finding fourteen species that are not currently recognized by the IUCN Red List as threatened that may be more threatened than currently believed and therefore warrant heightened conservation focus, and predicted threat statuses for the four Philippine Data Deficient bird species. We also assessed species described in recent taxonomic splits that are recognized by BirdLife International, finding 12 species that have a fitted threat status more severe than their IUCN-designated ones. Our findings provide a framework for avian conservation efforts to identify birds with specific biological correlates that increase a species’ vulnerability to extinction both in the Philippine Archipelago and elsewhere on other tropical islands.

scholarly journals Early life history responses and phenotypic shifts in a rare endemic plant responding to climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E Winkler ◽  
Michelle Yu-Chan Lin ◽  
José Delgadillo ◽  
Kenneth J Chapin ◽  
Travis E Huxman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life History ◽  
Phenotypic Variation ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Cushion Plant ◽  
Rare Endemic

We studied how a rare, endemic alpine cushion plant responds to the interactive effects of warming and drought. Overall, we found that both drought and warming negatively influenced the species growth but that existing levels of phenotypic variation may be enough to at least temporarily buffer populations.

scholarly journals Interspecific Variation in Life History Relates to Antipredator Decisions by Marine Mesopredators on Temperate Reefs

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. e40083 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Frid ◽  
Jeff Marliave ◽  
Michael R. Heithaus
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Temperate Reefs

scholarly journals Species' Life-History Traits Explain Interspecific Variation in Reservoir Competence: A Possible Mechanism Underlying the Dilution Effect

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e54341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Y. X. Huang ◽  
Willem F. de Boer ◽  
Frank van Langevelde ◽  
Valerie Olson ◽  
Tim M. Blackburn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Dilution Effect ◽  
Interspecific Variation

scholarly journals Spatiophylogenetic modelling of extinction risk reveals evolutionary distinctiveness and brief flowering period as risk factors in a diverse hotspot plant genus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Dinnage ◽  
Alex Skeels ◽  
Marcel Cardillo
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Flowering Period ◽  
Spatial Effects ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Threat Status ◽  
Latent Extinction ◽  
Evolutionary Distinctiveness ◽  
Combine Information

AbstractComparative models used to predict species threat status often combine variables measured at the species level with spatial variables, causing multiple statistical challenges, including phylogenetic and spatial non-independence. We present a novel bayesian approach for modelling threat status that simultaneously deals with both forms of non-independence and estimates their relative contribution, and we apply the approach to modelling threat status in the Australian plant genus Hakea. We find that after phylogenetic and spatial effects are accounted for, species with greater evolutionary distinctiveness and a shorter annual flowering period are more likely to be threatened. The model allows us to combine information on evolutionary history, species biology, and spatial data, to calculate latent extinction risk (potential for non-threatened species to become threatened), and estimate the most important drivers of risk for individual species. This could be of value for proactive conservation decision-making that targets species of concern before they become threatened.

scholarly journals Quantification of 27 yolk steroid hormones in seven shrubland bird species: interspecific patterns of hormone deposition and links to life history, development, and predation risk

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Merrill ◽  
S.J. Chiavacci ◽  
R.T. Paitz ◽  
T.J. Benson
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Steroid Hormones ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
American Robin ◽  
Nestling Development ◽  
Yolk Steroids

Steroid hormones play critical organizational and activational roles during vertebrate development, impacting everything from sexual differentiation to metabolic activity. For oviparous species such as birds, these hormones are transferred from female to egg during follicle maturation, and differences in relative and absolute concentrations of the steroid hormones may reflect differences in life history, developmental, and ecological conditions. Prior work on yolk steroid hormones has focused on a handful of candidate hormones (e.g., testosterone, androstenedione, and corticosterone), but we used high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectroscopy (LC–MS–MS) to quantify 27 yolk steroids from the eggs of seven shrubland bird species (American Robin, Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766; Brown-headed Cowbird, Molothrus ater (Boddaert, 1783); Brown Thrasher, Toxostoma rufum (Linnaeus, 1758); Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus, 1758); Field Sparrow, Spizella pusilla (A. Wilson, 1810); Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766); Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758)). In addition to comparing steroid profiles across species, we conducted exploratory analyses to determine how the hormones clustered using a principal component (PC) approach and if PCs were correlated with aspects of egg resources (relative egg size, proportion yolk), life-history traits (embryonic and nestling development speed), and nest-predation risk (daily survival rate (DSR)). We documented substantial interspecific variation in both absolute and proportional endocrine profiles. PCAs indicated that glucocorticoids generally clustered together (PC1), but other classes of steroids did not. PC2 and PC3 strongly covaried with egg resources, DSR, and development speed, suggesting that they reflect adaptive patterns of maternal hormone deposition.

scholarly journals Can Morphology Predict the Conservation Status of Iguanian Lizards?

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 535-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald B Miles
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Traits ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Ann Model ◽  
Functional Link ◽  
Threat Status ◽  
Risk Of Extinction

Synopsis The integrity of regional and local biological diversity is under siege as a result of multiple anthropogenic threats. The conversion of habitats, such as rain forests, into agricultural ecosystems, reduces the area available to support species populations. Rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns lead to additional challenges for species. The ability of conservation biologists to ascertain the threats to a species requires data on changes in distribution, abundance, life history, and ecology. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) uses these data to appraise the extinction risk for a species. However, many species remain data deficient (DD) or unassessed. Here, I use 14 morphological traits related to locomotor function, habitat, and feeding to predict the threat status of over 400 species of lizards in the infraorder Iguania. Morphological traits are an ideal proxy for making inferences about a species’ risk of extinction. Patterns of morphological covariation have a known association with habitat use, foraging behavior, and physiological performance across multiple taxa. Results from phylogenetic general linear models revealed that limb lengths as well as head characters predicted extinction risk. In addition, I used an artificial neural network (ANN) technique to generate a classification function based on the morphological traits of species with an assigned IUCN threat status. The network approach identified eight morphological traits as predictors of extinction risk, which included head and limb characters. The best supported model had a classification accuracy of 87.4%. Moreover, the ANN model predicted >18% of DD/not assessed species were at risk of extinction. The predicted assessments were supported by other sources of threat status, for example, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species appendices. Because of the functional link between morphology, performance, and ecology, an ecomorphological approach may be a useful tool for rapid assessment of DD or poorly known species.

scholarly journals Warmer temperatures reduce the vectorial capacity of malaria mosquitoes

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krijn P. Paaijmans ◽  
Simon Blanford ◽  
Brian H. K. Chan ◽  
Matthew B. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Incubation Period ◽  
Vector Competence ◽  
Development Rate ◽  
Transmission Intensity ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Cumulative Distribution ◽  
Parasite Development ◽  
Maximum Proportion ◽  
Malaria Mosquitoes

The development rate of parasites and pathogens within vectors typically increases with temperature. Accordingly, transmission intensity is generally assumed to be higher under warmer conditions. However, development is only one component of parasite/pathogen life history and there has been little research exploring the temperature sensitivity of other traits that contribute to transmission intensity. Here, using a rodent malaria, we show that vector competence (the maximum proportion of infectious mosquitoes, which implicitly includes parasite survival across the incubation period) tails off at higher temperatures, even though parasite development rate increases. We also show that the standard measure of the parasite incubation period (i.e. time until the first mosquitoes within a cohort become infectious following an infected blood-meal) is incomplete because parasite development follows a cumulative distribution, which itself varies with temperature. Including these effects in a simple model dramatically alters estimates of transmission intensity and reduces the optimum temperature for transmission. These results highlight the need to understand the interactive effects of environmental temperature on multiple host-disease life-history traits and challenge the assumptions of many current disease models that ignore this complexity.

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