scholarly journals Developing global vulnerabilities and conservation priorities for cave-dwelling bats

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krizler Tanalgo ◽  
Hernani Oliveira ◽  
Alice Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Scale Analysis ◽  
Data Sampling ◽  
Conservation Priority ◽  
Effective Parameters ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Evolutionary Distinctiveness ◽  
Cave Ecosystems ◽  
Threat Levels ◽  
Conservation Interventions

Abstract Research and conservation interventions are disproportionately focused on taxa perceived as charismatic, while other systems with high levels of endemism, and often under-protected such as caves and subterranean ecosystems remain neglected. Bats are keystone to cave ecosystems making them ideal surrogates to understand diversity patterns and assay conservation priorities. Using a novel framework, we assessed and mapped the global bat cave vulnerabilities and priorities at the biome and site level. Almost half (N = 678, 48%) of bat species across the world regularly use caves, with 32% endemic to a single country, and 15% currently threatened with extinction. Tropical realms and small-ranged species faced the highest levels of risk. Our analyses consistently showed that most caves with lower threat levels show higher cave biotic potential (i.e., evolutionary distinctiveness and endemism), though this may be due to the loss of species from more disturbed caves. We estimate that 3% to 28% are high-priority caves for conservation in broad-scale (biome level) and fine-scale (site-dependent) analyses respectively. Amongst regions, the highest concentration of conservation priority areas are in the Palearctic and tropical regions (except Afrotropical), which requires more intensive data sampling. Our results further highlight the importance of prioritising bat caves at local scales but show that broader scale analysis is possible if robust cave data is present and effective parameters are included (i.e., appropriate landscape features and threats). Developing priorities for these systems requires more systematic approaches as a standard measure to develop the priorities needed to maintain cave diversity.

scholarly journals Global evolutionary isolation measures can capture key local conservation species in Nearctic and Neotropical bird communities

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1662) ◽  
pp. 20140013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Redding ◽  
Arne O. Mooers ◽  
Çağan H. Şekercioğlu ◽  
Ben Collen
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Pairwise Distance ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Local Conservation ◽  
Trait Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Distinctiveness

Understanding how to prioritize among the most deserving imperilled species has been a focus of biodiversity science for the past three decades. Though global metrics that integrate evolutionary history and likelihood of loss have been successfully implemented, conservation is typically carried out at sub-global scales on communities of species rather than among members of complete taxonomic assemblages. Whether and how global measures map to a local scale has received little scrutiny. At a local scale, conservation-relevant assemblages of species are likely to be made up of relatively few species spread across a large phylogenetic tree, and as a consequence there are potentially relatively large amounts of evolutionary history at stake. We ask to what extent global metrics of evolutionary history are useful for conservation priority setting at the community level by evaluating the extent to which three global measures of evolutionary isolation (evolutionary distinctiveness (ED), average pairwise distance (APD) and the pendant edge or unique phylogenetic diversity (PD) contribution) capture community-level phylogenetic and trait diversity for a large sample of Neotropical and Nearctic bird communities. We find that prioritizing the most ED species globally safeguards more than twice the total PD of local communities on average, but that this does not translate into increased local trait diversity. By contrast, global APD is strongly related to the APD of those same species at the community level, and prioritizing these species also safeguards local PD and trait diversity. The next step for biologists is to understand the variation in the concordance of global and local level scores and what this means for conservation priorities: we need more directed research on the use of different measures of evolutionary isolation to determine which might best capture desirable aspects of biodiversity.

scholarly journals Genetics and the last stand of the Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis

Oryx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Goossens ◽  
Milena Salgado-Lynn ◽  
Jeffrine J. Rovie-Ryan ◽  
Abdul H. Ahmad ◽  
Junaidi Payne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Management Unit ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Geographical Distances ◽  
Conservation Interventions

AbstractThe Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis is on the brink of extinction. Although habitat loss and poaching were the reasons of the decline, today's reproductive isolation is the main threat to the survival of the species. Genetic studies have played an important role in identifying conservation priorities, including for rhinoceroses. However, for a species such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, where time is of the essence in preventing extinction, to what extent should genetic and geographical distances be taken into account in deciding the most urgently needed conservation interventions? We propose that the populations of Sumatra and Borneo be considered as a single management unit.

scholarly journals Science should not be left behind during the design of a marine protected area: meeting conservation priorities while integrating stakeholder interests

FACETS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 472-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Muntoni ◽  
Rodolphe Devillers ◽  
Mariano Koen-Alonso
Keyword(s):  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Marine Protected Area ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Conservation Priority ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Stakeholder Interests ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Complex Process

Marine protected areas (MPAs) design is a complex process that typically involves diverse stakeholders, requiring compromise between diverging priorities. Such compromises, when not carefully understood, can threaten the ecological effectiveness of MPAs. Using the example of the Canadian Laurentian Channel MPA, we studied a planning process from initial scientific advice to the final MPA. We analysed the impacts of successive boundary modifications to the draft MPA, often made to accommodate extractive industries, on the protection of seven species initially identified as potential conservation priorities. We also quantified the potential economic impacts of changes in boundary modifications on the fisheries industry. Results show that reducing the proposed MPA size by 33.4% helped reduce the potential economic impact on the fishing industry by 65.5%, but it resulted in up to 43% decrease in protection of species of conservation priority. Changes in MPA boundary delineation during the design were not subjected to formal scientific reviews, raising questions on the potential effectiveness of this MPA. Better integration of science in MPA design is required to help assess the impacts that trade-offs made during stakeholder consultations can have on the MPA ecological effectiveness.

scholarly journals Tetrapods on the EDGE: Overcoming data limitations to identify phylogenetic conservation priorities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rikki Gumbs ◽  
Claudia L. Gray ◽  
Oliver R. Wearn ◽  
Nisha R. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
New Method ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Conservation Action ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
Evolutionary Distinctiveness ◽  
Conservation Prioritisation

AbstractThe scale of the ongoing biodiversity crisis requires both effective conservation prioritisation and urgent action. The EDGE metric, which prioritises species based on their Evolutionary Distinctiveness (ED) and Global Endangerment (GE), relies on adequate phylogenetic and extinction risk data to generate meaningful priorities for conservation. However, comprehensive phylogenetic analyses of large clades are extremely rare and, even when available, become quickly out-of-date due to the rapid rate of species descriptions and taxonomic revisions. Thus, it is important that conservationists can use the available data to incorporate evolutionary history into conservation prioritisation. We compared published and new methods to impute ED for species missing from a phylogeny whilst simultaneously correcting the ED scores of their close taxonomic relatives. We found that following artificial removal of species from a phylogeny, the new method provided the closest estimates of their “true” score, differing from the true ED score by an average of less than 1%, compared to the 31% and 38% difference of the previous imputation methods. Previous methods also substantially under- and over-estimated scores as more species were artificially removed from a phylogeny. We therefore used the new method to estimate ED scores for all tetrapods. From these scores we updated EDGE prioritisation rankings for all tetrapod species with IUCN Red List assessments, including the first EDGE prioritisation for reptiles. Further, we identified criteria to identify robust priority species in an effort to further inform conservation action whilst limiting uncertainty and anticipating future phylogenetic advances.

scholarly journals Conservation Priorities Analysis of Chinese Indigenous Pig Breeds in the Taihu Lake Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-bo Zhao ◽  
Eugenio López-Cortegano ◽  
Favour Oluwapelumi Oyelami ◽  
Zhe Zhang ◽  
Pei-pei Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Taihu Lake ◽  
Gene Diversity ◽  
Allelic Diversity ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Conservation Priority ◽  
Pig Breeds ◽  
Total Gene Diversity ◽  
Lake Region

Most indigenous pig resources are known to originate from China. Thus, establishing conservation priorities for these local breeds is very essential, especially in the case of limited conservation funds. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed 445 individuals belonging to six indigenous breeds from the Taihu Lake Region, using a total of 131,300 SNPs. In order to determine the long-term guidelines for the management of these breeds, we analyzed the level of diversity in the metapopulation following a partition of diversity within and between breed subpopulations, using both measures of genic and allelic diversity. From the study, we found that the middle Meishan (MMS) pig population contributes the most (22%) to the total gene diversity while the Jiaxing black (JX) pig population contributes the most (27%) to the gene diversity between subpopulations. Most importantly, when we consider one breed is removed from the meta-population, the first two breeds prioritized should be JX pig breed and Fengjing pig breed followed by small Meishan (SMS), Mizhu (MI), and Erhualian (EH) if we pay more attention to the gene diversity between subpopulations. However, if the priority focus is on the total gene diversity, then the first breed to be prioritized would be the Shawutou (SW) pig breed followed by JX, MI, EH, and Fengjing (FJ). Furthermore, we noted that if conservation priority is to be based on the allelic diversity between subpopulations, then the MI breed should be the most prioritized breed followed by SW, Erhuanlian, and MMS. Summarily, our data show that different breeds have different contributions to the gene and allelic diversity within subpopulations as well as between subpopulations. Our study provides a basis for setting conservation priorities for indigenous pig breeds with a focus on different priority criteria.

scholarly journals Identifying global favourable habitat for early juvenile loggerhead sea turtles

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (175) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl S. Harrison ◽  
Jessica Y. Luo ◽  
Nathan F. Putman ◽  
Qingfeng Li ◽  
Pooja Sheevam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Turtles ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Sandy Beaches ◽  
Ocean Current ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Loggerhead Sea Turtles ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Boundary Currents ◽  
Nesting Sites

Loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ) nest globally on sandy beaches, with hatchlings dispersing into the open ocean. Where these juveniles go and what habitat they rely on remains a critical research question for informing conservation priorities. Here a high-resolution Earth system model is used to determine the biophysical geography of favourable ocean habitat for loggerhead sea turtles globally during their first year of life on the basis of ocean current transport, thermal constraints and food availability (defined here as the summed lower trophic level carbon biomass). Dispersal is simulated from eight major nesting sites distributed across the globe in four representative years using particle tracking. Dispersal densities are identified for all turtles, and for the top 15% ‘best-fed’ turtles that have not encountered metabolically unfavourable temperatures. We find that, globally, rookeries are positioned to disperse to regions where the lower trophic biomass is greatest within loggerheads' thermal range. Six out of the eight nesting sites are associated with strong coastal boundary currents that rapidly transport hatchlings to subtropical–subpolar gyre boundaries; narrow spatial migratory corridors exist for ‘best-fed’ turtles associated with these sites. Two other rookeries are located in exceptionally high-biomass tropical regions fuelled by natural iron fertilization. ‘Best-fed’ turtles tend to be associated with lower temperatures, highlighting the inverse relationship between temperature and lower trophic biomass. The annual mean isotherms between 20°C and the thermal tolerance of juvenile loggerheads are a rough proxy for favourable habitat for loggerheads from rookeries associated with boundary currents. Our results can be used to constrain regions for conservation efforts for each subpopulation, and better identify foraging habitat for this critical early life stage.

scholarly journals Identifying conservation priorities in a defaunated tropical biodiversity hotspot

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Tilker ◽  
Jesse F. Abrams ◽  
An Nguyen ◽  
Lisa Hörig ◽  
Jan Axtner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Endemic Species ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Site Occupancy ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Species Responses ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Conservation Interventions

AimUnsustainable hunting is leading to widespread defaunation across the tropics. To mitigate against this threat with limited conservation resources, stakeholders must make decisions on where to focus anti-poaching activities. Identifying priority areas in a robust way allows decision-makers to target areas of conservation importance, therefore maximizing the impact of conservation interventions.LocationAnnamite mountains, Vietnam and Laos.MethodsWe conducted systematic landscape-scale surveys across five study sites (four protected areas, one unprotected area) using camera-trapping and leech-derived environmental DNA. We analyzed detections within a Bayesian multi-species occupancy framework to evaluate species responses to environmental and anthropogenic influences. Species responses were then used to predict occurrence to unsampled regions. We used predicted species richness maps and occurrence of endemic species to identify areas of conservation importance for targeted conservation interventions.ResultsAnalyses showed that habitat-based covariates were uninformative. Our final model therefore incorporated three anthropogenic covariates as well as elevation, which reflects both ecological and anthropogenic factors. Conservation-priority species tended to found in areas that are more remote now or have been less accessible in the past, and at higher elevations. Predicted species richness was low and broadly similar across the sites, but slightly higher in the more remote site. Occupancy of the three endemic species showed a similar trend.Main conclusionIdentifying spatial patterns of biodiversity in heavily-defaunated landscapes may require novel methodological and analytical approaches. Our results indicate to build robust prediction maps it is beneficial to sample over large spatial scales, use multiple detection methods to increase detections for rare species, include anthropogenic covariates that capture different aspects of hunting pressure, and analyze data within a Bayesian multi-species framework. Our models further suggest that more remote areas should be prioritized for anti-poaching efforts to prevent the loss of rare and endemic species.

scholarly journals A global phylogenetic regionalisation of vascular plants reveals a deep split between Gondwanan and Laurasian biotas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelino Carta ◽  
Lorenzo Peruzzi ◽  
Santiago Ramirez Barahona
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Phylogenetic Information ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Transition Zones ◽  
Evolutionary Distinctiveness ◽  
History Of ◽  
Latitudinal Patterns ◽  
Plant Assemblages ◽  
High Degree

Existing global regionalisation schemes for plants consider the compositional affinities among biotas, but these have not considered phylogenetic information explicitly. Incorporating phylogenetic information may substantially advance our understanding of the relationships among regions and the synopsis of biogeographical schemes, because phylogeny captures information on the evolutionary history of taxa. Here, we present the first phytogeographical delineation of the global vascular flora based on the evolutionary relationships of species. We analysed 8,738,520 geographical occurrence records for vascular plant species together with a time-calibrated phylogenetic tree including 67,420 species. We estimated species composition within 200x200 km grid cells across the world, and used a metric of phylogenetic beta diversity to generate a phylogenetic delineation of floristic regions. We contrasted these results with a regionalisation generated using a taxonomic beta diversity metric. We identified 16 phylogenetically distinct phytogeographical units, deeply split into two main clusters that broadly correspond to the Laurasia-Gondwana separation. Our regionalisation broadly matches currently recognized phytogeographical classifications, but also highlights that the Gondwanan area is split into a large Holotropical cluster and an Australian-NeoZelandic-Patagonian cluster. In turn, we found that the northernmost and southernmost units have the most evolutionarily distinct vascular plant assemblages. In contrast, taxonomic dissimilarity returned a regionalisation composed of 23 units with a high degree of shared taxa between Laurasian and Gondwanan areas, with no clear split among their biotas. The integration of phylogenetic information provided new insights into the historical relationships among phytogeographical units, enabling the identification of three large, clearly differentiated biotas, here referred to as kingdoms: Holarctic, Holotropical, and Austral. Our regionalization scheme provides further evidence for delineating transition zones between the Holarctic and Holotropical kingdoms. The latitudinal patterns of evolutionary distinctiveness of vascular plant assemblages are consistent with recent evidence of higher and more recent diversification of flowering plants outside tropical regions.

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