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Biodiversity hotspot for conservation priorities
Abstract
Conservationists are far from able to assist all species under threat, if only for lack of funding. This places a premium on priorities: how can we support the most species at the least cost? One way is to identify 'biodiversity hotspots' where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. As many as 44% of all species of vascular plants and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups are confined to 25 hotspots comprising only 1.4% of the land surface of the Earth. This opens the way for a 'silver bullet' strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on these hotspots in proportion to their share of the world's species at risk.
... Due to the absence of biological data and the scarcity of preserved specimens in collections, any information about this poorly known genus is important (Lingnau et al. 2008). Therefore, we present herein the first description of the advertisement call of C. lithomimeticus, an enigmatic stream-dwelling frog from the Atlantic Forest morphoclimatic domain, a Brazilian hotspot for conservation priorities (Myers et al. 2000). Furthermore, we contribute to the taxonomy of the genus Cycloramphus by including a phylogenetic comparative analysis based on call duration and call dominant frequency. ...
... The Atlantic Forest belongs to the leading global biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al. 2000). Although the biome has been one of the most scientifically explored historically in Brazil, it is also one of the most endangered (for a historical view, see Dean 1996;Solórzano et al. 2021). ...
... The currently well-known distribution and the potential use of future acoustic monitoring of C. lithomimeticus may clarify aspects such as activity pattern, habitat use, occupancy, and population size, as well as the degree of protection and the degree of threat to the habitat (see Sugai et al. 2019). In addition to the apparent low environmental plasticity and high degree of geographic endemism in one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world (Myers et al. 2000;Galindo-Leal & Câmara 2003), C. lithomimeticus presents low representativeness in Brazilian scientific collections. In conclusion, despite the new information obtained for the species, efforts are encouraged to gather additional data in order to clarify more precisely the distribution and biology of the species and, consequently, its conservation status. ...
In anurans communities, vocalizations play a fundamental role in social interactions, being the most important behavioral modality of communication. Therefore, the description of acoustic signals is indispensable for understanding aspects of their evolutionary history. The Cycloramphus genus consists of 30 species allocated into five groups, of which only 19 have the vocalization described. Cycloramphus lithomimeticus is a small-sized frog belonging to the C. granulosus group. This poorly known species is associated with rock surfaces near waterfalls in Atlantic montane forests, restricted to the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Currently, it's classified as Near Threatened species category of IUCN and many aspects of its natural history remain unknown. Herein, we describe the advertisement call of C. lithomimeticus extending its known geographical distribution and providing additional data on the natural history of the species. We recorded and analyzed 44 calls from 10 males of C. lithomimeticus. The advertisement call of C. lithomimeticus consists of a single pulsed note with 0.3-0.8 sec of duration, emitted sporadically, with an interval between calls of 27.5-226.3 sec, composed by 7-17 pulses emitted at a rate of 18-26/sec, with a peak frequency of 2062.5-3000 Hz. After defining the correspondence between structures for systematic purposes , we made a comparative analysis determined by establishing homology connections with other species of the genus. According to our dominant frequency evolutionary reconstruction, an evolutionary increase in frequency mainly occurred in the C. lithomimeticus species lineage from an ancestral dominant frequency of 1500 Hz of the clade with C. eleutherodactylus species group, C. granulosus species group, and C. fuliginosus species group. This study contributes to our knowledge about the biology of C. lithomimeticus, and our results provide basic data for further acoustic, taxonomic and ecological studies in the genus Cycloramphus.
... Preserving as many species as possible by minimizing conflict with human activities is one of the most cost-effective strategies to protect biodiversity (Brooks et al., 2004;Brooks et al., 2006;Kati et al., 2004;Pringle, 2017). Globally, 36 global biodiversity hotspots (GBHs) were delimited based on high rates of endemism and high threat level of vascular plants covering 16% of the terrestrial areas (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, 2016;Mittermeier et al., 2011;Myers et al., 2000). Defining these regions has been an attempt to provide a framework for concentrating conservation practices on higher priority areas (Brooks et al., 2006;Mittermeier et al., 2011;Myers et al., 2000). ...
... Globally, 36 global biodiversity hotspots (GBHs) were delimited based on high rates of endemism and high threat level of vascular plants covering 16% of the terrestrial areas (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, 2016;Mittermeier et al., 2011;Myers et al., 2000). Defining these regions has been an attempt to provide a framework for concentrating conservation practices on higher priority areas (Brooks et al., 2006;Mittermeier et al., 2011;Myers et al., 2000). However, these biodiversity hotspots are also under high pressure due to human-induced threats (i.e., agricultural intensification, climate change, etc.) and have lost a significant amount of their natural habitats (Bellard et al., 2014;Habel et al., 2019). ...
... In southwest Asia, two GBHs extend across the northern and western parts of Iran: the Irano-Anatolian and the Caucasus hotspots (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, 2016;Myers et al., 2000;Mittermeier et al., 2011;Figure 1). While the Irano-Anatolian hotspot covers mountainous areas of the north and west of the country, the Caucasus mainly encloses a narrow area across the southern seashores of the Caspian Sea (Mittermeier et al., 2011;Myers et al., 2000). ...
Amidst the era of rapid decline in insect diversity, the role of protected areas (PAs) in conserving current insect diversity is more significant than ever. Previous studies indicate that the species‐diverse regions in Iran fall within two global biodiversity hotspots (GBHs): the Irano‐Anatolian hotspot in the north and the Caucasus hotspot in the west. However, there is an extensive conservation gap between species‐diverse regions and PAs for different vertebrate taxa. Additionally, mega‐diverse groups of insects have been overlooked in previous conservation assessments.
In this study, using the most comprehensive occurrence dataset of 1974 species from nine families of Lepidoptera, we delineated regions with statistically significant high diversity as diversity hotspots of the group. Furthermore, we defined the regions with higher conservation priority. Finally, we applied a gap analysis to assess the mismatch between the network of PAs and the most species‐diverse regions.
Most species‐diverse regions of Lepidoptera fall within GBHs and particularly the Irano‐Anatolian hotspot. Overall, the results of our gap analysis revealed that less than one quarter of currently established PAs cover priority areas for conservation, which indicates a dramatic deficiency of the network of PAs in conserving higher priority areas of Lepidoptera.
Misplacement of the PAs in Iran, beside pressure of human footprint, can reduce the effectiveness of the established PAs to conserve the current biodiversity. Hence, enhancing the existing network of PAs and designing new ones, while considering mega‐diverse taxa such as insects, will be essential for implementing effective conservation practices.
... Different areas worldwide have been experiencing vast impacts from the introduction of NNS, often related to increased human activities, such as the opening of canals, the continuous growth of the shipping industry across biogeographic barriers [2,3], a wide range of changes in water temperature due to climate change [4−6], fishing pressure [7−9], and habitat degradation or loss of species [10−12]. In the studied area of the Mediterranean Sea, recognized as one of the main hotspots of marine biodiversity [13,14], the effects of NNS are apparent, both in terms of introduction rate [15] and number of introduced species [16], leading to the global acknowledgment of the Mediterranean region as a hotspot area for NNS [17]. ...
... For GNSs and GTRs, nine different mesh sizes (20,22,24,26,28,30,32,36,45 in mm) were used, and for LLS six different hook sizes (9,10,11,12,13,14) were used to reflect the most commonly used mesh and hook sizes in small-scale fisheries of the Aegean Sea. ...
... Fistularia petimba was distinguished from its confamilial species by its specific morphological features [29]: number of rays on the dorsal fin (13)(14)(15)(16)(17) and the anal fin (13)(14)(15)(16), elongated bony plates embedded in the skin along the midline of the back, with posterior lateral line ossifications terminating in a retrorse spine (Figure 4). ...
The rapid spread of non-native species (NNS) poses a significant threat to biodiversity globally, with the Mediterranean region being particularly susceptible due to increased human activities and its status as a marine biodiversity hotspot. In this study, we focus on the introduction and distribution of Fistularia petimba, a member of the Fistulariidae family, in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and a record from the coasts of Amorgos Island, Greece. Through a baseline fishery study conducted over 12 months, utilizing experimental sampling with gillnets, trammel nets, and longlines, one individual of F. petimba was captured off the coast of Katapola Bay. Morphological examination confirmed its identity, with measurements on meristic characteristics obtained and the stomach content analysed. This finding represents a significant addition to the documented distribution of F. petimba in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the Aegean Sea, underscoring the importance of ongoing research in uncovering new occurrences and expanding our understanding of marine biodiversity and ecosystem changes. Further investigation into the ecological preferences and population dynamics of F. petimba in the Aegean Sea is crucial for informed conservation and management efforts if this species is considered to be established.
... The Cerrado, a biodiversity hotspot in Brazil [16], faces alarming rates of deforestation, driven in part by expanding monoculture activities [17]. Given that anthropogenic alterations in land use are major contributors to zoonotic spillover events [18], understanding the viromes associated with arthropod vectors in this biome is crucial for enhancing genomic surveillance of emerging arboviruses. ...
... (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 28 June 2024 doi:10.20944/preprints202406.1993.v116 ...
Studies on animal virome have mainly concentrated on chordates and medically significant invertebrates, often overlooking sylvatic mosquitoes, constituting the major part of mosquito species diversity. Despite their potential role in arbovirus transmission, the viromes of sylvatic mosquitoes remain largely unexplored. These mosquitoes may also harbor insect-specific viruses (ISVs), affecting arboviral transmission dynamics. The Cerrado biome, known for rapid deforestation and its status as a biodiversity hotspot, offers an ideal setting for investigating mosquito viromes due to potential zoonotic spillover risks from land use changes. This study aimed to characterize the viromes of sylvatic mosquitoes collected from various locations within Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Total RNA was extracted from mosquito pools of Psorophora albipes, Sabethes albiprivus, Sa. chloropterus, Psorophora ferox, and Coquillettidia venezuelensis species, followed by high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Bioinformatic analysis included quality control, contig assembly, and viral detection. Sequencing data analysis revealed 11 near-complete viral genomes (new viruses are indicated with asterisks) across seven viral families and one unassigned genus. These included: Xinmoviridae (Ferox mosquito mononega-like virus* and Albipes mosquito Gordis-like virus*), Phasmaviridae (Sabethes albiprivus phasmavirus*), Lispiviridae (Pedras lispivirus isolate MG), Iflaviridae (Sabethes albiprivus iflavivirus*), Virgaviridae (Buriti virga-like virus isolate MG and Sabethes albiprivus virgavirus 1*), Flaviviridae (Psorophora ferox flavivirus*), Mesoniviridae (Alphamesonivirus cavallyense isolate MG), and the genus Negevirus (Biggie virus isolate MG virus and Coquillettidia venezuelensis negevirus*). Phylogenetic analyses revealed evolutionary relationships with varying degrees of similarity to known sequences in distinct host species. In some cases, new viruses and potential new genera were discovered, emphasizing the importance of studying sylvatic mosquito virome to understand viral diversity and evolution in ecologically sensitive regions. Moreover, the presence of ISVs and potential novel arboviruses underscores the need for ongoing surveillance and control strategies to mitigate the risk of emerging infectious diseases.
... The state of Arunachal Pradesh, also known as the "land of the dawn-lit mountains," holds a key location in the zone separating the Indo-Burma and Himalayan biodiversity hotspots. The state is bordered by Bhutan to the west, Tibet to the north, Myanmar to the east, and Assam and Nagaland to the south (Tsering et al., 2017;Myers et al., 2000). It is the largest state in Northeast India, covering an area of roughly 83,700 km 2 , and is one of the 200 ecoregions that have gained international recognition (Olson and Dinerstein, 1998). ...
... Some of which are depicted in Fig. 1. Consequently, the biodiversity of the area is under tremendous pressure, with many species on the verge of extinction (Choudhury et al., 2007), and some disappearing even before being known to the scienti c world (Myers et al., 2000;Pimm and Raven, 2000). Since the 18th century and continuing to the present day, numerous studies have been published shedding light on the bioculturally important oras and oristic diversity of the forest lands of Arunachal Pradesh (Burkill, 1924;Ward, 1929;Rao and Joseph, 1965;Chauhan et al., 1996;Hajra et al., 1996;Choudhary, 2008;Giri et al., 2008;Chowdhery et al., 2009;Choudhary et al., 2012;Ambrish, 2013). ...
A verdant plot of land in Nirjuli, Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh, is home to an impressive array of biodiversity. Within this modest expanse, 156 species of flowering plants, representing 129 genera and 57 families thrive astoundingly. Notably, 11 of these species are only found in North East India, with five ( Amomum arunachalense, Boeica arunachalensis, Henckelia collegii-sancti-thomasii, Pseuderanthemum arunachalense and Rhynchothecum nirjuliense ) of them being endemic to this particular area only. Regrettably, the relentless march of urbanization and rapid encroachments of human settlements has led to the extinction of its once-thriving microhabitats. This lamentable tale is not unique to this plot alone, it also applies to many other regions across the state. Faced with these alarming circumstances, ex-situ conservation efforts are imperative to safeguard these irreplaceable bioresources.
... The combination of conservation concerns within highly biodiverse regions is epitomised within global 'biodiversity hotspots'. These regions are delineated by high species diversity, endemism, and the degree of habitat loss (>70% of primary vegetation; Myers et al. 2000). The disproportionate risk of extinction in biodiversity hotspots is also exacerbated by the fact that a considerable proportion of global biodiversity remains undocumented (Joppa et al. 2011), including cryptic species (Adams et al. 2014;Struck et al. 2018). ...
... The first (of only two) biodiversity hotspots to be declared for Australia was the temperate southwest, commonly referred to as the Southwest Western Australia (SWWA) hotspot or the Southwest Australia Floristic Region (Hopper and Gioia 2004;Myers et al. 2000). This region features high floristic diversity and endemism, with >8000 species of plants recorded and >4000 of those endemic to the region (Gioia and Hopper 2017). ...
Anthropogenic climate change is forecast to drive regional climate disruption and instability across the globe. These impacts are likely to be exacerbated within biodiversity hotspots, both due to the greater potential for species loss but also to the possibility that endemic lineages might not have experienced significant climatic variation in the past, limiting their evolutionary potential to respond to rapid climate change. We assessed the role of climatic stability on the accumulation and persistence of lineages in an obligate freshwater fish group endemic to the southwest Western Australia (SWWA) biodiversity hotspot. Using 19,426 genomic (ddRAD-seq) markers and species distribution modelling, we explored the phylogeographic history of western ( Nannoperca vittata ) and little ( Nannoperca pygmaea ) pygmy perches, assessing population divergence and phylogenetic relationships, delimiting species and estimating changes in species distributions from the Pliocene to 2100. We identified two deep phylogroups comprising three divergent clusters, which showed no historical connectivity since the Pliocene. We conservatively suggest these represent three isolated species with additional intraspecific structure within one widespread species. All lineages showed long-term patterns of isolation and persistence owing to climatic stability but with significant range contractions likely under future climate change. Our results highlighted the role of climatic stability in allowing the persistence of isolated lineages in the SWWA. This biodiversity hotspot is under compounding threat from ongoing climate change and habitat modification, which may further threaten previously undetected cryptic diversity across the region.
... The Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado are Brazilian domains with high species endemism and are highly threatened due to, mainly, conversion of habitat to agriculture, livestock and urbanization and, therefore, they are considered biodiversity hotspots [27][28][29][30]. The forest cover of the contemporary Atlantic Forest is restricted to only 12% of its original cover, with approximately 84% of the remainder represented by forest fragments smaller than 50 hectares [31]. ...
... We sampled medium and large-sized mammals in 13 agricultural landscapes (1267 ha each) of Minas Gerais state, southeast of Brazil ( Figure 1). This region is in a transitional zone between Atlantic Forest and Cerrado domains, both hotspots for biodiversity conservation [27]. The study region has a subtropical climate with the dry and colder season from April to September and the wet and warmer season from October to March and mean annual temperature and precipitation of 20.4°C and 1,460 mm, respectively [32,33]. ...
The conversion of native habitats into anthropogenic ones compromises the original composition and configuration of the landscapes, influencing ecological dynamics and affecting biodiversity. Increasingly, landscape ecology has shown that these effects can only be understood if accessed at adequate spatial scales, as the scale which landscape structure is evaluated influences species responses. Here, we investigated how three variables of landscape composition (proportion of forest, coffee crop and pasture) and two of configuration (number of fragments and mean nearest neighbor distance) interfere in the richness and composition of medium and large-sized mammals considering a multiscale approach. We recorded medium and large-sized mammal species in 13 landscapes with predominantly matrices of coffee and pasture in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Then, we built distance-based linear models to identify the scale of effect of each landscape variable for both response variables considering eight scales (from 250 m to 2000 m). Finally, we verified the influence of the landscape on the richness and composition of mammals, considering the landscape variables in their respective scales of effect. We found 67% of the probable species occurring in the region. The scales of effect varied among landscape variables probably due to the different variables affect different aspects of organisms' ecological requirements. The proportion of pasture in the landscape explained the variation in species richness, while the proportion of forest explained the variation in species composition. In addition, the proportion of pasture in the landscape had a positive influence on species richness, indicating that this matrix may favor the presence of generalist species of habitat and/or this result is due to the higher concentration of species in the fragments immersed in this matrix. These results suggest that considering different responses to biodiversity is important to understand different aspects of the landscape's influence on biodiversity. In addition, the composition of the landscape is fundamental for the perpetuation of species and, therefore, both forest cover and types of matrices in the landscape must be considered to improve species conservation strategies. Finally, generalizing a spatial scale can lead to misinterpretations about the influence of the landscape on biodiversity.
... Savannas are globally acknowledged as ecosystems of immense biodiversity and are distinguished by their unique endemic species (both animals and plants) (Ratter et al. 1997, Myers et al. 2000, Andresen 2005, Murphy et al. 2016. These ecosystems confer a multitude of indispensable services to humanity, including food production, water provision, and carbon sequestration and regulation (Greiner et al. 2009, Marchant 2010, Williams et al. 2022. ...
... Despite their substantial ecological value, savannas are among the most threatened natural systems worldwide (Myers et al. 2000, Murphy et al. 2016, by the rapid land-use expansion and climate change, which induce alterations in fire regimes (Beerling and Osborne 2006, Hoffman and Vogel 2008, Andersen et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2022). For example, over the past 2 decades, Neotropical savannas (e.g., Cerrado), have witnessed a loss of approximately 50% of their original area to agricultural commodities like soybean, sugarcane, corn, and livestock pasture (Klink and Machado 2005, Gomes et al. 2019, Aragão et al. 2022, Tovar et al. 2023. ...
Savannas are recognized as one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. However, these environments have the highest rates of habitat loss due to land use and climate-induced alterations in fire regimes. The combination of these threats, along with knowledge gaps in biodiversity, represents formidable challenges to conservation efforts in these regions. Dung beetles, vital for comprehending the impact of land use on savannas, have yet to undergo comprehensive study. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of the current state of knowledge regarding dung beetles distributed in savannas within Neotropical, Afrotropical, and Australasia zoogeographic regions. We describe the encompassing geographical distribution, research topics, studied habitats, and key metrics assessed in existing studies. Our results reveal a pronounced focus on Neotropical savannas highlighting a substantial deficit in dung beetle ecology knowledge within Afro-tropical and Australasian savannas. Most articles focused on savanna grasslands, woodlands, and human-introduced habitats such as pastures. The predominant articles focused on community patterns, habitat replacement, and degradation. Noteworthy metrics included abundance, richness, and species composition. Diversity indexes and functional diversity were also relatively well-explored metrics. However, across all zoogeographic regions, aspects of dung beetle behavior, reproductive biology, and physiology remain inadequately explored. In conclusion, urgent research efforts are imperative, emphasizing the need for comprehensive metrics, including biomass, morphometrics, and ecological functions of dung beetles, to advance our understanding of their significance and roles within savannas.
... The forest ecosystem of CNP first gained protection for its value in protecting the watershed of the nearby city of San Pedro Sula. It is situated within the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000) and is globally recognised by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (2018) for the critical habitat it provides to its endemic amphibian fauna. Likewise, CNP was included in a global list of the most irreplaceable protected areas on the basis of its amphibian, bird, and mammal diversity (Le Saout et al. 2013) and is considered a Key Biodiversity Area by the IUCN. ...
Mesoamerican cloud forests support a rich and unique biodiversity but face severe threats from increasing habitat degradation and climate change. Here, we present an updated overview of the amphibians and reptiles of Cusuco National Park (CNP), an isolated cloud forest in the Sierra de Omoa, Northwest Honduras. Based on surveys conducted over a 17-year period, we report the presence of 105 confirmed species of amphibians (30) and reptiles (75) within the reserve. This includes numerous threatened and regionally endemic amphibian species, as well as several reptile species previously unrecorded within the park. Given that it harbours approximately 26% of all recorded Honduran herpetofauna, our study highlights CNP as the most diverse forest region in Honduras with respect to the reptile and amphibian diversity documented to date. Our findings reinforce the plea to actively protect CNP as a globally valuable biodiversity hotspot and a centre of herpetofaunal endemicity. Furthermore, in the face of rapid deforestation across Mesoamerica, our findings highlight the need for expanded biodiversity studies across extant forest regions in Honduras to refine species distribution ranges and facilitate timely and effective conservation measures. Resumen Los bosques nublados de Mesoamérica soportan una diversidad rica y única, pero por otro lado sufre de severas amenazas debido a la degradación del hábitat y el cambio climático. En este manuscrito presentamos un listado general de los anfibios y reptiles del parque Nacional Cusuco (CNP), un bosque nublado en la sierra de Omoa, norocci-dente de Honduras. Basados en muestreos durante un periodo de 17 años reportamos la presencia de al menos 105 especies de anfibios (30) y reptiles (75) en la reserva. Dicha herpetofauna incluye numerosas especies endémicas y amenazadas de anfibios, así como algunos reptiles no registrados previamente en el área. Esto alberga el 26% de toda la herpetofauna conocida para Honduras, nuestro estudio remarca que CNP es la Academic editor: Monika Lipińska
... Due to their abundance in plant genetic resources, tribal areas have been named "Hot Spots" of agri-biodiversity. However, they differ from biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al., 2000), which prioritise establishing a region's hotspots of all endemic biodiversity. Crops that originated in their centre of origin underwent morphological, physiological, and agronomic changes from their wild progenitors to newer forms during crop evolution through selection for desired features. ...
About weed control practices by chemical and biological methods
... These regions significantly overlap with global biodiversity hotspots, characterized by high levels of endemic species and facing significant habitat degradation. They are also widely recognized as priority areas for conservation to prevent large-scale extinctions [40]. The importance of geographic regions in these high-risk areas is corroborated by other studies. ...
Land use change is considered to be one of the key direct drivers of ecosystem erosion and biodiversity loss. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) serves as a robust tool for environmental impact assessment, featuring an advanced framework and indicators for assessing global biodiversity loss. In this research, we utilized the Species Distribution Model (SDM) to evaluate 6569 species across five taxonomic groups. We simulated habitat change and losses induced by land use changes under sustainable future scenarios from the present to 2100. This enables us to assess spatial extinction risks based on shifts in the global distribution of species. Our findings reveal a global biodiversity extinction risk of approximately 4.9 species/year, equivalent to an extinction rate of 745.9 E/MSY. Notably, higher-risk hotspots have been identified in regions such as South America, South Australia, and New Zealand. Although future sustainable scenarios involving land intensification may mitigate the biodiversity extinction rate, the objective of reaching 10 E/MSY by the end of this century remains a distant goal. By providing a more rational basis for biodiversity loss, the indicators of spatial extinction risk demonstrate the advantage of effectively reflecting regional characteristics.
... Motivated by the need to assess climate change risk to floristic diversity in a plant diversity hotspot, we conducted this analysis for 82 terrestrial plant species in the California Floristic Province (CFP) (see Figure S1 in Appendix S1). The CFP is a large (>322,000 km 2 ) biodiversity hotspot characterized by a Mediterranean-type climate, rich flora (almost 7000 native plant taxa) and high (42%) endemism that is almost entirely found within California, with extensions not included in this study into Nevada and Oregon, USA, as well as Baja, Mexico (Burge et al., 2016;Myers et al., 2000). The 82 study species include approximately 4% of the region's endemic flora, are representative of various plant life forms and life histories and have heterogeneous range characteristics Serra-Diaz et al., 2014), allowing us to relate aspects of their rarity and geography to uncertainty in habitat suitability change (question iii). ...
Aim
Variation in spatial predictions of species' ranges made by various models has been recognized as a significant source of uncertainty for modelling species distributions. Consensus approaches that combine the results of multiple models have been employed to reduce the uncertainty introduced by different algorithms. We evaluate how estimates of habitat suitability, projected using species distribution models (SDMs), varied among different consensus methods relative to the variation introduced by different global climate models (GCMs) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs) used for projection.
Location
California Floristic Province (California, US portion).
Methods
We modelled the current and future potential distributions of 82 terrestrial plant species, developing model predictions under different combinations of GCMs, RCPs, time periods, dispersal assumptions and SDM consensus methods commonly used to combine different species distribution modelling algorithms. We assessed how each of these factors contributed to the variability in future predictions of species habitat suitability change and aggregate measures of proportional change in species richness. We also related variability in species‐level habitat change to species' attributes.
Results
Assuming full dispersal capacity, the variability between habitat predictions made by different consensus methods was higher than the variability introduced by different RCPs and GCMs. The relationships between species' attributes and variability in future habitat predictions depended on the source of uncertainty and dispersal assumptions. However, species with small ranges or low prevalence tended to be associated with high variability in range change forecasts.
Main Conclusions
Our results support exploring multiple consensus approaches when considering changes in habitat suitability outside of species' current distributions, especially when projecting species with low prevalence and small range sizes, as these species tend to be of the greatest conservation concern yet produce highly variable model outputs. Differences in vulnerability between diverging greenhouse gas concentration scenarios are most readily observed for end‐of‐century time periods and within species' currently occupied habitats (no dispersal).
... reflect many processes that operate at biogeographic scales, including climate, geomorphology, habitat complexity, palaeogeography and human impacts (Myers et al., 2000). However, widely used biogeographic classes, including ecoregions (Olson, 2001), forest types (Ruefenacht et al., 2008) and community classifications (Jennings et al., 2009), are typically defined by the distribution of plants. ...
Aim
The assembly of species into communities and ecoregions is the result of interacting factors that affect plant and animal distribution and abundance at biogeographic scales. Here, we empirically derive ecoregions for mammals to test whether human disturbance has become more important than climate and habitat resources in structuring communities.
Location
Conterminous United States.
Time Period
2010–2021.
Major Taxa Studied
Twenty‐five species of mammals.
Methods
We analysed data from 25 mammal species recorded by camera traps at 6645 locations across the conterminous United States in a joint modelling framework to estimate relative abundance of each species. We then used a clustering analysis to describe 8 broad and 16 narrow mammal communities.
Results
Climate was the most important predictor of mammal abundance overall, while human population density and agriculture were less important, with mixed effects across species. Seed production by forests also predicted mammal abundance, especially hard‐mast tree species. The mammal community maps are similar to those of plants, with an east–west split driven by different dominant species of deer and squirrels. Communities vary along gradients of temperature in the east and precipitation in the west. Most fine‐scale mammal community boundaries aligned with established plant ecoregions and were distinguished by the presence of regional specialists or shifts in relative abundance of widespread species. Maps of potential ecosystem services provided by these communities suggest high herbivory in the Rocky Mountains and eastern forests, high invertebrate predation in the subtropical south and greater predation pressure on large vertebrates in the west.
Main Conclusions
Our results highlight the importance of climate to modern mammals and suggest that climate change will have strong impacts on these communities. Our new empirical approach to recognizing ecoregions has potential to be applied to expanded communities of mammals or other taxa.
... The Mediterranean region stands as one of the most critical biodiversity hotspots globally (Myers et al. 2000, Thompson 2020). It boasts diverse habitats characterized by variations in topography, soils, microclimates, and a complex history of geomorphological and climatic dynamics. ...
The hypothesis regarding the origin of Narcissus ×weickertii through hybridization of its putative parent species, N. papy-raceus and N. gaditanus, is investigated in populations from the southwestern of the Iberian Peninsula. Multivariate analyses of quantitative morphological characters in both vegetative and flower structures, coupled with a descriptive analysis of qualitative traits, reveal that N. ×weickertii displays an intermediate morphology between its putative parents. Several anatomical traits of the leaf and scape provide additional support for its hybrid nature. Karyotype analyses show that N. ×weick-ertii has a 2n=21 karyotype, which falls between those of the putative parent species, with several chromosomes showing an inability to pair. Fluorescence in situ hybridization procedures, encompassing both FISH (targeting NOR regions) and GISH (using total DNA from the putative parents), yield conclusive evidence regarding the hybrid nature of N. ×weickertii and confirm the hypothesis about the identity of their putative parent species. Furthermore, phylogenetic relationships suggest that N. gaditanus likely served as the maternal parent, while N. papyraceus acted as the paternal species, maintaining the hybrid species the style polymorphism of their parent species. The degree of viability observed in the N. ×weickertii pollen grains might indicate that it could bear some possibilities of sexual reproduction beyond the typical vegetative propagation of many described Narcissus hybrid species.
... We systematically assessed the sensitivity of vegetation to repeated drought periods of variable duration that we superimposed on climate change impacts and CO 2 increases predicted in the RCP8.5 scenario until 2099. The study region hosts five biodiversity hot-spots (Myers et al., 2000) and exceptional biodiversity. The climate in the region is strongly driven by the Indian monsoon which has been identified as a potential tipping element of the Earth system (Lenton et al., 2008;Steffen et al., 2018). ...
The projected increase of drought occurrence in many tropical and subtropical regions globally under future climates will affect terrestrial ecosystems, particularly by increasing drought-induced plant mortality. The capacity to simulate drought mortality in vegetation models is therefore essential to understand future ecosystem dynamics. Using the trait-based vegetation model aDGVM2, we assessed drought mortality and resilience in tropical Asia under climate change. We conducted model simulations for ten sites in tropical Asia, representing a biogeographic gradient. Responses of vegetation attributes and mortality rates were simulated until 2099 for hypothetical drought scenarios and recovery times were calculated. Model simulations showed biomass dieback during drought due to increased plant mortality, primarily among tall and old trees. Drought responses were related to hydraulic traits and associated ecological strategies. Despite severe drought impacts, recovery was possible, but recovery times differed between ecosystem attributes. We conclude that the aDGVM2 enhances our ability to understand drought impacts in tropical ecosystems. The model can simulate increased mortality during drought in a trait-and individual-based modeling framework. It indicated drought resilience of forests and adaptation to drought by changes in community trait composition and the demographic structure. Yet, further model improvements are required to better represent drought impact and recovery.
... The Tropical Andes region, spanning several countries in South America, is one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, with its unique ecosystems harboring the highest number of endemic plant and animal species in the world [1][2][3]. This exceptional diversity not only holds intrinsic value but also provides vital ecosystem services crucial for local populations and the global community [4,5]. ...
The Tropical Andes, one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, is vital for ecological research and conservation. However, while researchers in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru contribute significantly to scientific knowledge, their publication rates in academic journals have historically lagged behind neighboring nations. A multifaceted strategy was employed to understand and address the publication divide in the Tropical Andes region. This approach focused on regional researchers and consisted of a three-day workshop to improve scientific writing skills, offer publication insights, and equip researchers with tools to overcome obstacles. A series of surveys were also conducted to explore the challenges faced by local researchers and their proposed solutions, covering topics such as participant demographics, factors contributing to lower publication rates, personal barriers, proposed strategies for improving publications, specific topics of interest, participant satisfaction, most valuable workshop topics, and future recommendations. The workshop had an overwhelming response, with over 500 interested participants registering in just a few days, mostly experienced professionals, highlighting the need for such initiatives in the region. About two-thirds had ready-to-publish materials, highlighting the potential impact of targeted interventions on unlocking untapped knowledge. The surveys revealed the challenges contributing to the publication divide, including insufficient training, cultural emphasis on economic development, language barriers, limited resource access, lack of institutional support, high publishing costs, and time and financial constraints. The most common personal barriers were insufficient knowledge and experience in the publication process, lack of self-confidence, and fears of rejection. Proposed solutions include conducting training workshops, fostering collaborative networks, improving resource accessibility, and an institutional and cultural shift that encourages publishing. Addressing challenges faced by experienced professionals in the Tropical Andes by understanding individual needs, fostering support, and demystifying the publication process offers a promising path to closing the publication divide and unlocking the region’s valuable scientific contributions.
... The third factor that likely contributes to the spread of non-native herpetofauna across the Caribbean is the high rates of endemism. The Caribbean is a reptile diversity hotspot due to these high rates of endemism where many species are found on only one or a few islands (Myers et al. 2000;Hedges 2011;Powell and Henderson 2012). As a result, Caribbean species that get translocated to a new location within the Caribbean are likely not native to the new location. ...
Islands harbor a significant proportion of global biodiversity and also have disproportionately high richness of introduced species relative to continents. Given the sensitivity of island ecosystems to introduced species, data deficiencies on introduction pathways, patterns of establishment, and potential impacts of introduced species can hamper mitigation and conservation efforts on islands. The Caribbean region is emerging as a hotspot for introduced amphibian and reptile (herpetofaunal) species, but patterns associated with herpetofaunal introductions on specific islands are not well explored. Here, we perform a detailed investigation of Aruba, a small Caribbean island with an exceptionally high number of introduced herpetofaunal species. We compile a database from the literature of introduction pathways, introduction years, source locations, native ranges, establishment outcomes, habitat use, and ecological impacts for three newly documented species and the 12 previously documented introduced herpetofaunal species on Aruba. From this database we synthesize emergent introduction patterns on Aruba and highlight areas of data deficiency. Overall, the patterns on Aruba echo the patterns exhibited in the greater Caribbean region. Introduction rates on Aruba have been increasing exponentially, yet the introduction pathways and source locations of most species are unknown. Following introduction, most species successfully establish localized populations in anthropogenic habitat, but the ecological impacts of most species have not been well-assessed. We suggest increased monitoring of shipments will help identify potential pathways to slow the introduction of new species, and further studies of ecological impacts of introduced species are needed.
... The first biocultural diversity studies were conducted in tropical areas with high levels of cultural and biological diversity (Posey, & Balée, 1989), as well as non-western areas with Indigenous populations (Maffi & Woodley, 2010;Stepp, 2005) whose lifestyles, livelihoods, and in some cases, survival were under increasing threat from wider industrialized communities and the spread of diseases to which they lacked immunity (Oldfield & Alcorn, 1987). However, the Mediterranean Basin, while considered a cradle of cultures and a hotspot of biodiversity (Myers et al., 2000) with a rich history and important political changes, has been surprisingly overlooked. The researches presented here delve into aspects of the relations The 12 papers selected for this special issue of Human Ecology are related to the BioDivMeX program (BioDiversity of the Mediterranean eXperiment) which ran from 2015 to 2021. ...
... For M. keaysi, the first area of potential climate stability was identified in the Tropical Andes region, extending from southern Bolivia to Ecuador almost continuously, and the second area is in Venezuela (Figure 8b). These areas have very heterogeneous vegetation and climate and are among the most biodiverse regions on the planet (Myers et al., 2000). Dinerstein et al. (2017) present data that indicate the protection status of the world's ecoregions. ...
Myotis originated during the Oligocene in Eurasia and has become one of the most diverse bat genera, with over 140 species. In the case of neotropical Myotis, there is a high degree of phenotypic conservatism. This means that the taxonomic and geographic limits of several species are not well understood, which constrains detailed studies on their ecology and evolution and how to effectively protect these species. Similar to other organisms, bats may respond to climate change by moving to different areas, adapting to new conditions, or going extinct. Ecological niche models have become established as an efficient and widely used method for interpolating (and sometimes extrapolating) species' distributions and offer an effective tool for identifying species conservation requirements and forecasting how global environmental changes may affect species distribution. How species respond to climate change is a key point for understanding their vulnerability and designing effective conservation strategies in the future. Thus, here, we assessed the impacts of climate change on the past and future distributions of two phylogenetically related species, Myotis ruber and Myotis keaysi. The results showed that the species are influenced by changes in temperature, and for M. ruber, precipitation also becomes important. Furthermore, M. ruber appears to have been more flexible to decreases in temperature that occurred in the past, which allowed it to expand its areas of environmental suitability, unlike M. keaysi, which decreased and concentrated these areas. However, despite a drastic decrease in the spatial area of environmental suitability of these species in the future, there are areas of potential climate stability that have been maintained since the Pleistocene, indicating where conservation efforts need to be concentrated in the future.
... This situation becomes more problematic for research institutions located in developing countries, where the same Leica BLK360 scanner would be equivalent to 24 months of salary for a postdoc in Brazil (based on official wages of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [20] and an exchange ratio of 1 BRL to 0.21 USD). To further complicate matters, most of earth's biodiversity hotspots are located in developing countries [21], where research institutions in those countries have easy access to and extensive expertise on the local environment, but may not have access to the expensive equipment needed to better study these vulnerable ecosystems (e.g., tropical rainforests with complex three-dimensional vegetation). ...
Despite recent popularization and widespread use in modern electronic devices, LiDAR technology remains expensive for research purposes, in part due to the very high performance offered by commercially available LiDAR scanners. However, such high performance is not always needed, and the expensive price ends up making LiDAR scanners inaccessible for research projects with reduced budget, such as those in developing countries. Here we designed and built a simple ground-based LiDAR scanner, with performance sufficient to fulfil the requirements for a variety of ecological research projects, while being cheap and easy to build. We managed to assemble a LiDAR scanner under 400 USD (as of 2021), and it is simple enough to be built by personnel with minimal engineering background. We also demonstrated the quality of the resulting point clouds by scanning a test site and producing some common LiDAR products. Although not adequate for mapping large area due to its limited range, our LiDAR design is open, customizable, and can produce adequate results while costing ~1% of “low-cost” scanners available in the market. As such, our LiDAR scanner opens a world of new opportunities, particularly for projects in developing countries.
... This is most likely a result of the combined use of Criteria A and B in the vascular plant assessment (Kougioumoutzis et al. 2020)-something impossible for the Arthropods since their data are too coarse for the utilization of criterion A. This dominant trend of Crete is also true for land mollusks with 41.7% of the Cretan endemics being Threatened (IUCN) compared to the 20.5% of Threatened endemics for Europe (Neubert et al. 2019). This is particularly worrying given Crete's significance as a biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000;Médail 2017) and the fact that it refers to single island endemics. Cretan taxa display a worse trend not only compared to Europe (Supplementary Material 2, Figure 1), but also when compared to Greece. ...
Arthropod decline has been globally and locally documented, yet they are still not sufficiently protected. Crete (Greece), a Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, is a continental island renowned for its diverse geology, ecosystems and endemicity of flora and fauna, with continuous research on its Arthropod fauna dating back to the nineteenth century. Here we investigate the conservation status of the Cretan Arthropods using Preliminary Automated Conservation Assessments (PACA) and the overlap of Cretan Arthropod distributions with the Natura 2000 protected areas. Moreover, we investigate their endemicity hotspots and propose candidate Key Biodiversity Areas. In order to perform these analyses, we assembled occurrences of the endemic Arthropods in Crete located in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Crete together with literature data. These assessments resulted in 75% of endemic Arthropods as potentially or likely threatened. The hotspots of endemic taxa and the candidate Key Biodiversity Areas are distributed mostly on the mountainous areas where the Natura 2000 protected areas have great coverage. Yet human activities have significant impact even in those areas, while some taxa are not sufficiently covered by Natura 2000. These findings call for countermeasures and conservation actions to protect these insular environments, especially mountain species that lack the space to further escape from threats affecting their habitat.
... The northeast region of India, a part of larger Indo-Burma diversity hotspot, is one of the most diverse habitats of India (Myers et al., 2000). Such rich biodiversity and endemism are possible due to the confluence of biogeographic regions like Indo -Malayan, Indo -Chinese and mainland India. ...
Northeast India, with its variety of geographical features and topography, provides a plethora of niches for species to evolve and thrive. Among a multitude of factors, past climate change is one of the important factors influencing primate speciation in this region. Populations of various species could have risen or declined in response to these climatic fluctuations. Recent advances in climate modelling as well as genomic data analysis has paved the way for understanding how species accumulate at a particular geographic region. We utilized these methods to explore the primate diversity in the unique region of northeast India. To ascertain these population level changes, we inferred demographic history of nine species of primates found in northeast India with MSMC2 and compared it with species distribution models using past climate data of Pliocene and Pleistocene period. Through this study, we are able to give a detailed picture of how past climatic changes have affected the present species diversity and we show that the primate diversity in northeast India is a mix of species either originated there or have dispersed from mainland southeast Asia. We observe that effective population size has decreased for all the species, but distributions are different for all the four genera, Macaca, Trachypithecus, Hoolock and Nycticebus, and this provides important insights pertaining to present primate diversity in the region. It also gives an idea about how each species is affected differently by climate change, and why it should be given emphasis in framing species-wise conservation models for future climate change.
... Vietnam had been recorded as one of the countries with the highest biodiversity value, ranking 16 th in the world (World Bank, 2005). Situated in the Indo-Burma region, Vietnam is one of 25 global biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al., 2000). The country's biodiversity is evidenced by its diverse natural ecosystems and rich, endemic genetic resources. ...
The management of access to genetic resources, traditional knowledge (TK), and benefit sharing among indigenous people and local communities in the worldwide is extensively addressed in international legal instruments, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits (ABS) Arising from their Utilization. The CBD aims to promote the conservation of biological resources, the sustainable use of biodiversity components and the equitable, fair sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. The Nagoya Protocol sets out core obligations for its contracting Parties to take measures in relation to ABS and compliance. In 2021, the Secretariats of the CBD released the first draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework with the mission for the period up to 2030, aiming towards the 2050 vision: “To take urgent action across society to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetics resources, to put biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030 for the benefit of planet and people.” Therefore, capacity building and development for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol are crucial, especially for developing countries. One of the most commonly identified new capacity building needs is digital sequence information on genetic resources and their roles in ABS. As a member of the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol, Vietnam has obligations to develop the National Strategy Framework on Biodiversity to 2030, with a vision to 2050, consistent with the requirements of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Protocols, and relevant Agreements. This includes developing recommendations on management of access to genetic resources and TK, as well as benefit sharing within the Draft of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. This research aims to contribute to implement the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the Nagoya Protocol in Vietnam by assessing the status of management regarding access to genetic resources, TK, and benefit sharing.
... The Cerrado, or Brazilian savannas, is hotspot for global biodiversity conservation (MYERS et al., 2000). Its ecosystems are characterized by high species diversity and endemism, while also providing environmental services such as water cycle regulation and carbon storage (BUSTAMANTE; OLIVEIRA, 2008;COLLI et al., 2020). ...
The Brazilian Cerrado, a hotspot for global biodiversity conservation, evolved under the presence of natural wildfires. Fire has become frequent and widespread, and the Cerrado, where natural fires have occurred for at least four million years, is threatened by human-induced wildfires. The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park (CVNP), located in the state of Goiás, Brazil, was established in 1961 and currently covers 240,611 ha. In 2017, approximately 66,000 ha were burned in the CVNP, and the Integrated Fire Management (IFM) was implemented still in that year to reduce the negative impacts of future criminal/accidental events. Remote Sensing (RS) data show that there were fire-foci in the CVNP during the dry months of 2020, 2021, and 2022. There are two RS-based products for wildfires detection: products of released heat and products of biophysical changes in vegetation. As an example of provider, there is the Queimadas Program of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which provides products on daily fire hotspots and a monthly product of burned areas for the Cerrado. As of the current date, there are no products that employ Brazilian satellite images for the systematic mapping of burned areas. The objective of this research is to explore methods for supervised classification of time series images captured by the Wide Field Imager (WFI) sensor on board the CBERS-4, CBERS-4A, and AMAZONIA-1 satellites, using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. The study area is the CVNP and its buffer zone of 10 km, and the time window covers the years 2020, 2021 and 2022. A total of 382 images were acquired from INPE archive and after filtering for cloud cover it was decided to keep 235 images: 50 from 2020, 72 from 2021 and 113 from 2022. The WFI sensor has four spectral bands (BGR NIR), which is a limiting factor. Consequently, we estimated and integrated the BAI (Burned Area Index), EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index), GEMI (Global Environmental Monitoring Index), NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), and NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) spectral indices into a regular grid with 500 m x 500 m cells, totalling 38,957 cells. For each one of the previous spectral indices more the NIR band, datasets containing anual and semi-annual observations were structured and the models were trained using samples of “burned areas” and “unburned areas” previously collected through visual image analysis. The annual models achieved at least 90% accuracy and the best generalization results were observed using multi-temporal datasets. The results of this research indicate that, given a representative sample set, it is possible to detect burned areas in the CVNP using WFI imagery.
... Ancient Hindu texts 'Rig-Veda' (4500-1600 BCE), 'Chakra Samhita' (1000-800 BCE), 'Sushrut Samhita' (800-700 BCE) have large, recorded data about medicinal plants (Manilal 1989;Singh, 2021;Rana et al. 2021). As one of the world's 12 megadiverse nations, India contributes 8% of the world's total biodiversity (Bapat et al. 2008, Myers et al. 2000. It also occupies four hot spots of the world (Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Sunderland and Western Ghats) (Chitale et al. 2014, Jaishankar et al. 2018. ...
Background: Indians has long been using plants and their parts as medical remedies to treat various diseases. They have been utilized as medications to treat various illnesses since ancient times. The majority of tribal people still rely on regional traditional healing methods to cure their illnesses. Therefore, documenting the use of traditional medicinal plants by the natives will provide valuable information on the distribution and utilization of medicinal plants in the region. Methods: The present study commenced to explore the traditional knowledge of ethno-medicinal plants used by indigenous people of Deiya range, tehsil Nerwa of district Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. Snowball sampling was used to gather data from 110 people living in 11 distinct villages within the study area. Present work contains a compilation of information obtained through field surveys, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires conducted with the natives of studied area. Results: In this investigation, total 52 ethnomedicinal plants belonging to 34 distinct families were recorded from the natives as potential remedies for various illnesses. The indigenous inhabitants primarily utilized the 26 species of herbs for medical purposes. Rosaceae and Amaranthaceae families were the two most frequently employed in medicine. The most species (26) were used to cure skin ailments followed by 12 plant species for curing Gastro-intestinal Disease (GID), 11 plant species for General Health (GH) and 10 species for Muscle/Bone Problem (MBP). Conclusion: This study offers comprehensive details about the Deiya range's significant medicinal plants. In this study we concluded that mostly old age people possess most of the information of medicinal plants, whereas the generation below forty has a little or no knowledge. Herbs and leaves (as a part) are majorly used as medicinal preparation and skin problems are most treatable disease in the study area. Angelica glauca, Gentiana kurroo and Taxus wallichiana need to be carefully monitored for conservation due to their great therapeutic value in the research region. Keywords: Ethnobotanical Uses; Indigenous; Medicinal Plants; Phytotherapeutical; Traditional Knowledge
... The origin and radiation of plants in the Mediterranean Basin have long captured the interest of researchers (Myers et al. 2000;Grobler and Cowling 2022). The taxa of the Nigelleae tribe primarily thrive in the Mediterranean climatic area. ...
Detailed karyological analyses of the Nigelleae tribe which includes taxa belonging to both gen-era Garidella and Nigella were performed. All studied taxa are diploid with 2n=12 and all the chromosomes are Ranunculus-type, chromosome size is large, and all taxa exhibit metacentric chromosomes. The karyotype formulas for Nigella and Garidella are 10m+2st and 12m, respectively, and only Nigella orientalis has satellite (SAT) chromosomes among the studied taxa. Secondary constrictions were documented in N. elata and N. orien-talis. Genome size was determined using flow cytometry (FCM) and 2C genome sizes of some diploid Nigella species ranged from 21.25 to 23.48 pg. In contrast, a much smaller genome size, 17.68 pg, was determined in Garidella nigellastrum. UPGM cluster analyses were carried out to evaluate the correspondence between chro-mosomal features and the taxonomy of the tribe. The results showed that karyological parameters are highly useful in taxonomic delimitation at the generic level.
... Habitat fragmentation, grazing, deforestation, permissible tourism, Horse trampling, human interventions are the major threat to all the endemic species of western ghats - (Gunawardene et al., 2007;Malav, Kumar and Malav, 2020) (Table 1, Fig. 2). High species endemism and limited conservation strategies restrict the population size of the species (Barthlott et al., 1996;Myers et al., 2000;Swarts and Dixon, 2009). Similar observations were made during the population studies of a critically endangered orchid Habenaria panchganiensis Santapau and Kapadia. ...
Anthropogenic activities are altering the quality of
the habitat as a result steep decline in the population of
many endemic species is observed. Habitat
fragmentation, grazing, deforestation, permissible
tourism, Horse trampling, human interventions are the
major threat to all the endemic species of western ghats
–(Gunawardene et al., 2007; Malav, Kumar and Malav,
2020) (Table 1, Fig. 2). High species endemism and
limited conservation strategies restrict the population
size of the species (Barthlott et al., 1996; Myers et al.,
2000; Swarts and Dixon, 2009). Similar observations
were made during the population studies of a critically
endangered orchid Habenaria panchganiensis
Santapau and Kapadia. H. panchganiensis commonly
known as 'Panchgani Aamri', is a endemic orchid which
usually grow in lateritic plateaus of Western Ghats.
Lateritic plateaus is habitat of poor soil, thermal
variations, less water retention and extreme
environmental conditions throughout the year
(Porembski and Barthlott, 2000; Scarano, 2002; Lekhak
and Yadav, 2012). Population of Habenaria
panchganiensis is declining at a faster rate and the
species was placed in the critically endangered
category ' (Sharma and Lakshminarasimhan, 1996;
Singh and Karthikeyan, 2000; Watve, 2003, 2007,
2013). External factors like habitat disturbances,
grazing, permissible tourism and internal factors like
limited seed set, specific pollination, less seed
germination are raising the concerns about family
Orchidaceae.
... The Hengduan Mountains region is located at the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the highest and geologically youngest huge plateau in the world, which has been designated as one of the most important global biodiversity hotspots because of Patterns in glandular trichomes • 3 its high levels of endemism and species diversity (Myers et al. 2020, Hrdina and Romportl 2017. This area (c. ...
Glandular trichomes are traditionally regarded as a defence against insect herbivores in plants. A comprehensive examination of their occurrence across an entire flora is essential for understanding how plant-herbivore interactions influence species abundance, traits, and diversity. In this study, we gathered data on the presence of glandular trichomes in a diverse flora comprising 7751 angiosperm species from the Hengduan Mountains region in southwestern China, testing the effects of plant organ, life form, leaf habit, phylogenetic position, and geographical element on the occurrence of glandular trichomes. Our results showed that 1021 species (13.2%) in the studied flora possessed glandular trichomes. Reproductive organs (88.0%) displayed a significantly higher occurrence of glandular trichomes compared to vegetative organs (59.1%). Within flowers, the calyx (81.1%) was the most defended, followed by the corolla (17.4%), and the gynoecium (12.5%). The androecium (1.8%) was the flower component least associated with glandular trichomes. Herbaceous species (14.0%) were more likely to have glandular trichomes than woody species (11.6%). For woody plants, leaf habit (deciduous/evergreen) had no significant effect on the presence of glandular trichomes on leaf blades, but had a significant effect on the occurrence of glandular trichomes on reproductive organs, with deciduous woody species (11.0%) displaying a higher prevalence compared to evergreen woody species (8.3%). Interestingly, the proportion of species with glandular trichomes was notably lower in the tropical elements (6.8%) compared to both temperate and cosmopolitan elements (15.3% and 15.6%, respectively). Our findings suggest that in the Hengduan Mountains region, the evolution of glandular trichomes exhibits distinct patterns among various life forms, plant organs, leaf habits, and geographical elements, while showing limited influence from phylogenetic relatedness, highlighting the remarkable evolutionary adaptability of this defensive plant trait.
... The Mediterranean basin is considered a plant biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000), where historical land uses (agricultural, livestock and forestry) have profoundly altered the landscape and plant ecosystems (García-Ruiz et al., 2020). However, in some regions such as the conterminous Spain, formerly rural areas are rewilding after massive rural abandonment in the 1960s (Alfaro-Sánchez et al., 2019;Quintas-Soriano et al., 2022). ...
Anticipating future impacts of climate warming and aridification on drylands requires understanding how coexisting woody plant species respond to climate variability. However, we lack knowledge of the growth resilience capacity of Mediterranean shrubs. Do coexisting trees and shrubs differ in their response to climate? Do coexisting shrub species have comparable post‐drought growth resilience?
This study was conducted in two Mediterranean shrublands with sparse trees in semi‐arid north‐eastern Spain. We selected sites situated in formerly agricultural or grassland areas in two regions subjected to semi‐arid Mediterranean climate conditions. We sampled six shrubs' species (Juniperus phoenicea, Juniperus oxycedrus, Pistacia lentiscus, Pistacia terebinthus, Rhamnus lycioides and Rhamnus alaternus) and one tree species (Pinus halepensis) to measure their radial growth and to reconstruct their past growth patterns using dendrochronology. We quantified climate–growth relationships of trees and shrubs, as well as the growth resilience capacity after drought events of the six shrubs.
Growth patterns differed between species but a prevalent trade‐off between growth and longevity was found. Growth responses to climate were comparable between species but differed between sites. Most species responded positively to precipitation and negatively to temperature. The most negative correlations of growth with drought severity were found at the driest Valcuerna site. Shrubs differed in their resilience capacity. Across sites, species were more resistant and resilient in Alcubierre, the wettest site. The shrubs P. terebinthus and R. lycioides were more resistant and resilient than the rest of species, which required longer growth recovery times and accumulated stronger growth reductions, particularly J. phoenicea.
Synthesis. These results highlight the importance of drought as a driver of growth in Mediterranean scrublands. Growth resilience strategies differed between species with junipers being less resilient to drought than other coexisting shrubs. Further research should investigate how this difference in post‐drought resilience is related to functional traits, particularly those related with plant water‐use strategies.
... The basin experienced long-term anthropogenic changes started by ancient civilizations, triggering ecosystem transformation, biotic homogenization and biodiversity loss (Médail, 2017). From the conservation perspective, this area has been considered one of the most important global hotspots of biodiversity (Médail, 2022;Médail & Quézel, 1997;Myers et al., 2000). Our study system consists of a set of 58 islands located in the Central Mediterranean Sea, around peninsular Italy but not exclusively Italian (Fig. 1). ...
Aim: The study of islands biotas is fundamental to understand biodiversity patterns and process, both on evolutionary and ecological time scales. This study explores the influence of biogeographic and climatic factors on island species-area relationships (ISARs) in volcanic and continental islands, aiming to detect differences in slopes and intercepts between these island origins.
Methods: Data from 5049 vegetation plots on 58 Central Mediterranean Sea islands were collected from various sources. Islands were categorized as volcanic or continental based on their geological origin. area, isolation, maximum elevation, eccentricity, mean annual temperature and annual precipitation were calculated for each island. By using a moving window, we created groups of islands, and ISARs were fitted to each group using the Arrhenius power functions. Linear models and a permutation test were employed to examine how ISAR model parameters varied with the above-mentioned variables.
Results: While ISAR intercept values did not differ between island origins, volcanic islands showed higher ISAR slopes than continental islands. Whereas increasing island isolation and mean annual temperature increased ISAR intercepts on continental islands groups, it decreased on volcanic ones. Increasing annual precipitation decreased ISAR intercept on continental islands groups and increased on volcanic islands groups. Increasing island isolation, eccentricity and mean annual temperature increased the ISAR slope on volcanic islands groups while increasing annual precipitation decreased it. Increasing maximum elevation increased ISAR slope on continental islands groups.
Main conclusions: Our study provides evidence about the importance of island geological origin in determining the observed ISAR patterns. Biogeographic and climatic factors are pivotal in shaping species richness patterns on islands, exerting varying influences on both volcanic and continental islands.
... Sierra Valley provides a strong example of social-ecological processes taking place in ranching communities across California and underlying drivers of land use change. Sierra Valley's landscape includes sagebrush scrub, grasslands, wetlands, and vernal pools covering approximately 49,000 ha 348 .California's grasslands are mostly privately-owned38 and are recognized among the world's biodiversity hotspots for native species richness349 . The ecological values of private lands are often greater than nature preserves and public lands due to better soils, water access, and low visitation rates322,350 , and also greater diversity of management practices351,352 . ...
... With more than 39,000 plant species, the Brazilian territory stands as the greatest country in terms of plant richness and includes high endemism levels (Forzza et al., 2012;BFG, 2021;Flora e Funga do Brasil, 2024). In addition, Brazil includes six phytogeographic domains, two of which (Atlantic Forest and "Cerrado") are considered hotspots for world conservation (Myers et al., 2000). These domains are subdivided into several vegetation types, so most of their areas comprise a mosaic of phytophysiognomies (IBGE, 2012). ...
The Ibitipoca Mountains occur in southeastern Minas Gerais state, Southeast Brazil, and includes a mosaic of different vegetation types, as part of the Atlantic Forest domain. Such heterogeneity results in the occurrence of several ecotones in the region, considered essential buffer zones for maintaining biodiversity and structure among adjacent ecosystems. Given the importance of these environments for biodiversity conservation, floristic surveys are important to catalogue plant richness in natural areas, where species and landscapes have been destroyed, especially over the last decades. To contribute to increase the knowledge on the vascular Flora in the Ibitipoca Mountains, a floristic inventory was undertaken in private properties located in the boundaries of “Parque Estadual do Ibitipoca” (Ibitipoca State Park). Relevant findings of the present study include: characterization of the different vegetation types, 17 new records for the Flora of Minas Gerais, collection of 288 species never recorded in the state park (80% dissimilarity – especially due to the occurrence and size of different phytophysiognomies between these areas) and presence of 31 threatened species. In addition, discussions about conservation efforts and public policies are presented.
... However, the Atlantic Forest is currently highly reduced and fragmented, with approximately only 22.9% of its original forest vegetation remaining (Vancine et al. 2024). Owing to its high biological diversity and endemism levels, associated with a high number of threats, the Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot and a global priority area for conservation (Myers et al. 2000;Mittermeier et al. 2011). ...
The Atlantic Forest is a highly diverse and threatened ecosystem that has been significantly reduced and degraded by human activities. This study provides a comprehensive inventory of bird species inhabiting the human-modified Atlantic Forest landscapes within the municipalities of Estrela Dalva and Volta Grande in the state of Minas Gerais, situated in the middle-lower Paraíba do Sul River basin, Brazil. Our data encompass non-systematic visual and audio records supplemented by MacKinnon lists collected between 2013 and 2019. Our survey identified 175 bird species, representing 54 families and 21 orders, including one species regionally categorized as Vulnerable and two species globally categorized as Near Threatened. Among the recorded species, 8.6% exhibited partially migratory habits, while 9.4% of the resident species were endemic to the Atlantic Forest. These findings underscore the critical importance of preserving forest fragments within historically degraded regions, such as the landscapes along the Paraíba do Sul River basin.
... The Gaoligong Mountains, situated longitudinally along the border of China and Myanmar, are at the convergence of three key biodiversity hotspots: Indo-Burma, the Himalaya, and the Mountains of Southwest China (Myers et al. 2000). These mountains extend northsouth in the western part of Yunnan Province, China, and are drained by the Irrawaddy River on the west and the Salween River on the east (Chaplin 2005). ...
The Gaoligong Mountains are characterized by large variations in elevation and topography, which support high levels of biodiversity and endemism that remain largely understudied. Herein, based on the integration of morphological comparisons and phylogenetic reconstruction, we describe a new species of Rhacophorus from the northern Gaoligong Mountains, Yunnan Province, China. The new species, Rhacophorus dulongensis sp. nov. , is morphologically distinguishable from its congeners based on the differences in body size, head length, tibia length, snout and tongue shape, toe webbing formula and coloration, ventral skin texture and coloration, dorsal pattern and coloration, body macroglands, iris coloration, and pattern of markings on flanks. Phylogenetically, it differs from its congeners by uncorrected p -distances of >4.8% for the 16S rRNA gene fragment. Rhacophorus dulongensis sp. nov. is likely to be found in Myanmar, considering its type locality lies close to the China-Myanmar border. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the “widespread” species, R. rhodopus , is a species complex and a composite of five distinct lineages. The results revealed that R. napoensis is also found in Vietnam, making it a new country record for Vietnam. Interestingly, R. dulongensis sp. nov. likely breeds in bamboo, a hidden behavioral characteristic that makes them easy to overlook. Given the ongoing habitat loss and degradation in the region, further biological exploration is urgently needed in the Gaoligong Mountains as a biodiversity reservoir.
... Although this outcome may stem from the exponential growth in the introduction, detection, and spread of new INNS around the world in recent decades(Seebens et al. 2017), it may also be related to an increased availability of information: more MPs published in the last decade (ICMBIO 2024), more research on biological invasions(Zenni et al. 2016;Frehse et al. 2016), and upto-date data available in the databases accessed.The distribution map shows a clear concentration of INNS along the coast, mainly in the Atlantic Forest biome, a pattern already observed in previous studies(Sampaio and Schmidt 2013;Dechoum et al. 2021). The Atlantic Forest biome is one of the global biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities(Myers 2000), with the highest demographic density in the country, and 49.3% of urban areas (IBGE 2020). Urbanization and other human activities are directly correlated with land-use change and increased propagule pressure, leading to a higher occurrence of INNS(Spear et al. 2013; IPBES 2023). ...
The number of invasive non-native species (INNS) has been increasing in Brazilian protected areas (PAs) in the last decades, even though Brazil is close to reaching the Global Biodiversity Framework Target of having at least 30% of the territory conserved in PAs. The main aim of our study is to identify spatial patterns and factors that describe the number of INNS in federal and state protected areas in Brazil. We integrated and standardized three sources of occurrences of INNS in federal and state PAs with a new database built for this study based on occurrences reported in 424 management plans (MP). A generalized linear model was used to assess the factors that best describe the number of INNS in PA using biome, year of PA creation, PA area, PA group, and PA category as fixed effects. We compiled 5,631 occurrences of 150 invasive animals, 179 invasive plants, four ferns, three protists, one alga, and one bryophyte. Protected areas with the highest number of INNS are concentrated along the coast, in the Atlantic Forest biome, especially in the south and southeast of Brazil. Biome, PA category, and PA year of creation were the most important variables in the model. We expect our results to show the magnitude of biological invasions in Brazilian PAs and we provide baseline data and recommendations to be used as reference for the development of policies and management actions at regional and local levels, thus contributing to the achievement of KMGBF targets.
... The native phytogenetic resources of the Mediterranean basin and beyond include an extensive range of plant species with ecological, ornamental or nutraceutical value which stems from the naturally high levels of 2 biodiversity, genetic diversity and endemism that characterize the above region (Strid and Tan 1997;Grigoriadou et al., 2020;Myers et al., 2000). The flora of Greece entails significant diversity of valuable plant germplasm with potential for selection and sustainable agronomic utilization in various sectors Krigas et al., 2021;Libiad et al., 2021). ...
Native phytogenetic resources can offer valuable germplasm diversity with potential for sustainable utilization. Helichrysum amorginum Boiss. and Orph. (Asteraceae) a Greek endemic, range-restricted neglected and underutilized plant species (NUP) holds significant utilization potential stemming from its known biochemical properties. The current study presents the results of a three-year experimental cultivation scheme of documented Greek H. amorginum germplasm aiming at its sustainable exploitation. Different planting densities in combination with ascending levels of organic fertilization in two distinct experimental fields were applied and plant growth coupled with inflorescence emergence and biomass yield were evaluated across a period of three years. The results highlighted the growth enhancing effect of organic fertilization under different planting densities with lower densities presenting a trend to sustain larger plants in terms of increased plant base diameter. Inflorescence emergence increased significantly from the second cultivation year onwards in both experimental fields with increasing levels of organic fertilization delivering higher rates of inflorescence number under decreasing planting densities. The current study provides a basis for a systematized research scheme that can facilitate further domestication and upscaling efforts leading to the sustainable utilization of H. amorginum in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors, offering at the same time, local economic development.
... Island ecosystems, for the area they occupy, host a disproportionately large amount of global biodiversity compared to continental ecosystems [1]. Tropical islands, in particular, are among the most critical biodiversity hotspots of the world due to their unique climatic and environmental conditions and huge concentration of endemic species [2][3][4]. The biodiversity of these fragile ecosystems is highly vulnerable to human-driven pressures including climate change, habitat degradation and the introduction of invasive alien species (IASs) [4][5][6]. ...
Invasive alien species control is recognized worldwide as a priority action to preserve global biodiversity. However, a lack of general life history knowledge for threatened species can impede the effectiveness of conservation actions. Galápagos pink land iguanas (Conolophus marthae) are endemic to Wolf Volcano, Galápagos, Ecuador. These iguanas are threatened by invasive alien species, particularly feral cats, that may affect their small population size. To guarantee the long-term survival of C. marthae, the Galápagos National Park Directorate is considering, along with an ongoing campaign of feral cat control, the implementation of a head-start program. However, the success of this management strategy necessarily relies on the identification of pink iguana nesting grounds, which were still unknown at the onset of this study. We modeled the movement patterns of male and female iguanas during the reproductive season, using location data collected from custom-made remote tracking devices installed on adult pink iguanas in April 2021. We first calculated for each individual the vector of distances from its starting location, which was defined as net displacement. We then used net displacement as the response variable in a generalized additive mixed model with day of the year as the predictor. Based on the hypothesis that males and females may behaviorally differ after mating, we looked for female-specific migratory behavior suggesting females were moving toward nesting areas. The results obtained confirmed our hypothesis, as females exhibited a distinct migratory behavior, reaching a small plateau area inside of Wolf Volcano’s caldera and ca. 400 m below the volcano’s northern rim. Moreover, once inside the caldera, females displayed a more aggregated distribution pattern. The movement data obtained allowed Galápagos National Park rangers to locate individual pink iguana nests and subsequently to sight and collect the first observed hatchlings of the species. This work constitutes a necessary baseline to perform dedicated studies of pink iguana nests and emerging hatchling iguanas, which is an essential step toward the development of an effective head-start program.
... The use of Pollard transects in Europe has provided high-quality data for evaluating butterfly occurrence and local density, ultimately aiding in understanding their interaction with environmental features and climatic change. Since 1994 the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS) in Catalunya, expanded across Spain in 2014, has furthered the understanding of these phenomena from Northern and Central Europe (Lee et al., 2020) to the Mediterranean region, one of the major biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000). Moreover, populations from Southern Europe exhibit increased genetic diversity compared to those in Northern Europe (Dincȃ et al., 2021). ...
The Butterfly Monitoring Scheme based on linear transects conducted by citizen scientists has become a fundamental indicator for understanding the impact of climate change on butterfly populations. A key finding is the fast poleward expansion of butterfly distributions in Europe, coupled with slower population declines in southern regions. Given that the Mediterranean region is a climate change hotspot, understanding the largely unknown mechanisms employed by butterflies to cope with increasing aridity is crucial for developing data-driven conservation strategies. To address this issue, we developed a monitoring approach based on 90 tran-sects fully covering areas of 50 m × 50 m squares instead of linear paths. This enabled us to explore the fine-scale dynamics of 80 butterfly species and their association with vegetational units in the Mediterranean hills (~800 m a.s.l. as maximum altitude) of the MAB UNESCO Reserve of Monte Peglia (Central Italy). We sampled the transects from April to October 2022 (the locally hottest summer of the last decade) and documented three main patterns: 1) butterfly richness and abundance correlate with environmental features and these relationships vary across seasons. Richer sites consisted of some 30 % of woodland and were those closer to water, mostly during summer (area-based analysis). 2) Environmental preferences vary with species traits. Specialist species and those adapted to colder climates and narrower temperature ranges were more abundant in higher altitudes sites, closer to water and with wider woodland coverage (fourth-quadrant analysis). 3) Although most species preferred meadows, when temperature increases, they increased their abundance in sites with wider tree coverage, closer to streams, and at higher altitude (species-based analysis). These dynamics demonstrate that butterflies oppor-tunistically move to cooler micro-habitats to buffer elevated temperatures. This phenomenon potentially involves most of the community since the species showing significant effects encompass >80 % of the observed individuals. Our analysis introduces new dimensions to the niche of Mediterranean butterflies, highlighting the significance of shady micro-habitats, altitudinal ranges, and water streams. These factors are likely to become increasingly critical with rising aridity levels. By combining our findings with existing literature data, we have provided a protocol aimed at preserving Mediterranean butterflies within the resist-accept-direct framework.
... However, a decline in water status, together with ongoing extreme climatic events and the rise in temperature due to global change and other direct human impacts, as landscape modification, bring a catastrophic scenario to Mediterranean-type environments (Skuras and Psaltopoulos 2012;Peñuelas et al. 2017). The current loss of biodiversity that threatens the balance of these ecosystems emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the conservation of Mediterranean plant species (Myers et al. 2000;Thompson 2020). Therefore, C. albidus emerges as a suitable model species to investigate the effects of the increasingly persistent climate change on native Mediterranean species and provides an excellent opportunity to gather insights into how biological outliers behave and may help us understand results obtained under field conditions under the influence of multiple combined stresses. ...
Main conclusion
By studying Cistus albidus shrubs in their natural habitat, we show that biological outliers can help us to understand the causes and consequences of maximum photochemical efficiency decreases in plants, thus reinforcing the importance of integrating these often-neglected data into scientific practice.
Abstract
Outliers are individuals with exceptional traits that are often excluded of data analysis. However, this may result in very important mistakes not accurately capturing the true trajectory of the population, thereby limiting our understanding of a given biological process. Here, we studied the role of biological outliers in understanding the causes and consequences of maximum photochemical efficiency decreases in plants, using the semi-deciduous shrub C. albidus growing in a Mediterranean-type ecosystem. We assessed interindividual variability in winter, spring and summer maximum PSII photochemical efficiency in a population of C. albidus growing under Mediterranean conditions. A strong correlation was observed between maximum PSII photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm ratio) and leaf water desiccation. While decreases in maximum PSII photochemical efficiency did not result in any damage at the organ level during winter, reductions in the Fv/Fm ratio were associated to leaf mortality during summer. However, all plants could recover after rainfalls, thus maximum PSII photochemical efficiency decreases did not result in an increased mortality at the organism level, despite extreme water deficit and temperatures exceeding 40ºC during the summer. We conclude that, once methodological outliers are excluded, not only biological outliers must not be excluded from data analysis, but focusing on them is crucial to understand the causes and consequences of maximum PSII photochemical efficiency decreases in plants.
... Despite their claims to novelty and transformation, REDD+ and other carbon forestry initiatives have continued to manifest significant historical continuities Chomba et al., 2016;Collins, 2019;Leach & Scoones, 2015;Lund et al., 2017). 1 Like carbon forestry elsewhere, Nigeria's flagship carbon forestry program, REDD+, also promises a novel shift from the long history of forest management and conservation. REDD+ proponents hold that nothing less could achieve the task of saving what is regarded as 'Nigeria's last rainforest' -part of the Guinea forest biodiversity hotspot, a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site and a space of unique sociolinguistic diversity (Anene, 1966;Myers et al., 2000). Proponents insist that only a transformational approach that reflects in the decisive shift from timber forestry to carbon forestry could deliver the central aim of 'contribut[ing] to climate change mitigation through improved forest conservation and enhancing sustainable community livelihoods' (National Programme Document, 2011, p. 11). ...
The novelty claims in carbon forestry often obscure the complex histories
and the colonial entanglements of carbon forest socioecologies. This
paper argues that the conditions of possibility of carbon forestry in
‘Nigeria’s last rainforest’ are tightly linked to the uneven colonial production
of forests across Southern Nigeria. Drawing on archival research,
ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of program documents and academic
literature, the paper unsettles claims of novelty in Nigeria’s carbon
forestry by demonstrating the material continuity between colonial forestry
and carbon forestry. Focusing on the development of colonial forestry
in Southern Nigeria under British colonial rule, the paper traces the
coloniality of scientific forestry as a form of environmental rule, and its
entanglements with imperial capitalism and presumptions of racial hierarchy.
If the success of scientific forestry in Southern Nigeria meant the
draining of Nigeria’s forests as timber export, its failure in Cross River
paradoxically produced ‘Nigeria’s last rainforest,’ a literal ‘colonial residue’
. In colonial forestry, as in contemporary carbon forestry, a reductionist
knowledge of forests, capitalist interests and a racialized global division of
labor all interact in consequential ways. The paper concludes that decolonizing
Nigeria’s forestry is a precondition for saving its ‘last rainforest.’
... The Mediterranean-type ecosystem in central Chile holds a high proportion of endemism and is considered a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000). This ecosystem is characterised by sclerophyllous and xeric shrubland vegetation that have recently been identified as hotspots of bee species richness (Orr et al. 2021). ...
Wild pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and sustaining agricultural productivity. However, their survival is at risk due to habitat loss and land use changes, exacerbating the ongoing biodiversity crisis, and jeopardising global food security. We assessed the contribution of native vegetation cover to pollination and avocado crop yield by modelling the abundance of native bees and the pollination services they provide in agroecosystems of the Aconcagua River basin in Central Chile. This region stands as a critical biodiversity hotspot, currently confronted with the challenge of land use change, especially due to the expansion of avocado (Persea americana Mill.) monocultures. Our findings revealed a clear relationship between native bee abundance, pollination services, and avocado yield as a function of natural vegetation cover surrounding the crops. Areas with a higher proportion of native vegetation exhibited the most abundant supply of pollination services, while within avocado crops show lower levels of pollination support. A spatial mismatch between supply and demand for pollination revealed by our results indicates that agricultural expansion threatens native pollinators and agricultural yield production in this region. The development of pollination maps has been proposed as a strategic tool to guide land-use planning decisions within agricultural landscapes. Prioritizing the conservation of native vegetation or adopting biodiversity-friendly practices can help mitigate the effects of agricultural expansion on wild pollinators. These strategies are vital for safeguarding biodiversity, ensuring food security, and mitigating the far-reaching impacts of the current biodiversity crisis.
There is growing interest in using novel technologies for large-scale biodiversity monitoring. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) represents a promising approach for surveying vocalizing animals. However, further development of PAM methods is needed to improve their accuracy. The availability of extensive ecoacoustic datasets from biodiverse areas can facilitate this development. In this study, we present a large ecoacoustic dataset (1.58 TB) collected at sixty-one study sites on the island of Cyprus between March and May 2023. The dataset comprises > 310,000 audio files, representing over 5,200 hours of recordings. It can be used for a range of applications, such as developing and refining species identification algorithms, acoustic indices, and protocols for processing acoustic data to exclude non-focal sounds, e.g., those produced by human activities. It can also be used to explore fundamental ecological questions. To facilitate its use, the complete dataset has been made available on the Hugging Face repository and the ARBIMON platform, operated by Rainforest Connection™, which offers a range of free tools for ecoacoustic analyses.
Globally and particularly in Argentina, biodiversity is declining due to the loss of species and habitats, while indigenous cultures are being eroded simultaneously. This results in a reduced capacity to transmit indigenous cultural diversity, the EIK (ecological indigenous knowledge), and biological and cultural resources for future generations. The traditional use of the land by indigenous peoples for thousands of years has contributed to maintain biodiversity and cultural values. The use of EIK can generate new strategies for R + D (research and development) for biodiversity conservation and for the implementation of natural resource management (NRM) systems promoting the integration of indigenous communities in decision-making processes. This chapter reports results of an analysis on integration of EIK and ESK (ecological scientific knowledge) in NRM in Misiones Province (Argentina). We describe the results and recommendations generated by analyzing national and international experiences in NRM, including agroforestry, and present a case study in the indigenous communities that inhabit the Guarani Reserve for Multiple Use (GRMU) of the School of Forestry–National University of Misiones, regarding NRM activities and related cultural values. From the results of surveys conducted with indigenous communities, it appears that the place where the EIK can regenerate lies in the natural context where the EIK has originated. There is a need to take preventive measures to remediate the erosive processes that undermine the integrity of the cultural setting where the EIK could be applied. Preventive measures include the legal possession of large areas of forest in order to stop or slow the advance of the agricultural frontier on natural spaces where the EIK is recreated.
Agroforestry systems (AFS) are an important strategy for conservation within human managed landscapes, given their ability to harmonize productivity with environmental functions. AFS are heterogeneous in their design, management, and species composition, and this heterogeneity has implications on their restoration, conservation, and productivity functions. AFS can function as biodiversity islands (protected and/or managed areas of high biological diversity within human-dominated landscapes) or can be incorporated into existing biodiversity islands as buffer zones. In this way, they can be integrated into already productive landscapes. This chapter provides an overview of the various ecological, social, and economic benefits of the main types of AFS and their applications as and within biodiversity islands, expanding on their role in providing critical ecosystem services. It discusses the use of incentives to support and promote AFS, safeguarding the contributions they provide to landscape biodiversity and rural communities. Payments for environmental services (PES) can be specifically designed bundling several services including biodiversity as part of programs to promote desired land use changes such as AFS. Biodiversity credit markets are becoming increasingly important as a potential mechanism that can drive financing toward the protection, regeneration, and stewardship of biodiversity, including favoring biodiversity-friendly land use options such as AFS. Finally, the role of government initiatives in supporting agroecological transitions away from conventional agriculture is described, with insight into recent advances in the US. These programs work to support AFS and climate-smart agroecology over conventional agriculture, reinforcing the contributions of AFS to biodiversity islands in the agricultural landscape.
In this project, the carbon and biodiversity footprints of the most significant activities of the University of Turku in 2022 were assessed. The project was a collaboration between the University of Turku and the University of Jyväskylä. The calculation method is based on EXIOBASE, LC-IMPACT, and ecoinvent databases, that can be used to calculate the climate and biodiversity impacts of different products and services based on financial accounts. The biodiversity footprint of the University of Turku in 2022 was 96,7 nBDe (potentially disappeared fraction of species globally) and the carbon footprint 19 080 t CO2e. Energy consumption caused 41 % of the biodiversity footprint, and a significant contributor to that was the use of wood in energy production. Other major causes for the biodiversity footprint were the purchases of laboratory appliances and services (18 %), machinery and equipment (11 %), and IT equipment and services (8 %). Energy consumption contributed to 8 % of the carbon footprint. The purchases of laboratory appliances and services (24 %), machinery and equipment (18 %), IT equipment and services (14 %) and services related to research, education, and development (10 %) contributed to a larger share of the carbon footprint. Examination by unit shows that the Faculty of Medicine had the largest biodiversity footprint, with the purchases of laboratory appliances and services as a major contributor. The largest carbon footprint was caused by the joint procurements of the University, especially the purchases of IT equipment and services. According to the model, geographically a majority of the biodiversity impacts of the University of Turku were located outside of Finland. The results and suggestions of this report help identify the activities that cause the greatest carbon and biodiversity footprints, and thus also support reducing the footprints. In the future, the assessment can be fused with the annual operations and environmental impact monitoring of the University of Turku, and where necessary, the assessment can be developed to be more comprehensive and less demanding of manual work. The method used in the report assesses the global extinction risk caused to different species under one unit of measurement, similar to a carbon footprint. This makes the comparison of biodiversity footprints of different organizations and international supply chains possible, as well as the parallel calculation and examination of carbon and biodiversity footprints. In the future, universities as well as other kinds of organizations around the world can utilize the presented methodology to develop and implement measurable strategies towards carbon neutrality and nature positive impacts. Tässä hankkeessa selvitettiin Turun yliopiston merkittävimpien toimintojen hiili- ja luontojalanjälki vuodelle 2022 Turun ja Jyväskylän yliopistojen välisenä yhteistyönä. Laskentamenetelmä perustuu EXIOBASE-, LC-IMPACT- ja ecoinvent-tietokantoihin, joiden avulla pystytään talouskirjanpitoon perustuen selvittämään eri tuotteiden ja palveluiden aiheuttamat ilmasto- ja luontohaitat sekä niiden maantieteelliset sijainnit. Turun yliopiston luontojalanjälki vuonna 2022 oli 96,7 nBDe (globaali osuus lajeista, jotka ovat riskissä kuolla sukupuuttoon) ja hiilijalanjälki 19 080 t CO2e. Energiankäyttö aiheutti 41 % luontojalanjäljestä, ja merkittävänä tekijänä sen taustalla oli puun käyttö energiantuotannossa. Seuraavaksi suurimmat osuudet luontojalanjäljestä aiheutuivat laboratoriolaitteiden ja -palveluiden (18 %), koneiden ja muiden tarvikkeiden (11 %), sekä IT-tarvikkeiden ja -palveluiden (8 %) hankinnoista. Hiilijalanjäljestä energiankulutus aiheutti 8 %. Sitä merkittävämmän osan muodostivat laboratoriolaitteiden ja -palveluiden (24 %), koneiden ja muiden tarvikkeiden (18 %), IT-tarvikkeiden ja -palveluiden (14 %) sekä tutkimus-, koulutus- ja kehityspalveluiden (10 %) hankinnat. Yksiköittäin tarkasteltuna suurin luontojalanjälki aiheutui lääketieteellisen tiedekunnan hankinnoista, erityisesti laboratoriolaitteista ja -palveluista. Suurimman hiilijalanjäljen aiheuttivat yliopiston yhteiset hankinnat, erityisesti IT-tarvikkeet ja -palvelut. Mallinnuksen mukaan Turun yliopiston luontohaitat kohdistuivat maantieteellisesti merkittäviltä osin Suomen rajojen ulkopuolelle. Tämän raportin tulokset ja kehitysehdotukset auttavat tunnistamaan, mitkä organisaation toiminnot aiheuttavat suurimman hiili- ja luontojalanjäljen, ja toimivat siten tukena myös haittojen vähentämisessä. Jatkossa laskentaa voidaan jalkauttaa osaksi Turun yliopiston vuotuista toimintaa ja ympäristövaikutusten seurantaa, ja sitä voidaan tarpeen mukaan kehittää kattavammaksi ja vähemmän manuaalista työtä vaativaksi. Luontojalanjäljen laskentamenetelmä kokoaa erilaisille lajeille aiheutetun sukupuuttoriskin yhden mittayksikön alle hiilijalanjäljen tavoin. Tämä mahdollistaa organisaatioiden ja kansainvälisten tuotantoketjujen luontojalanjäljen vertailun, sekä luonto- ja hiilijalanjälkien rinnakkaisen laskennan ja tarkastelun. Tulevaisuudessa niin yliopistot kuin muunkinlaiset organisaatiot ympäri maailman voivat hyödyntää tässä raportissa käytettyä menetelmää kehittääkseen ja toteuttaakseen mitattavia strategioita hiilineutraalisuuden ja luontopositiivisuuden saavuttamiseksi.
Recent fieldwork of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in many parts of the tropics reveals the extent to which they are still undercollected and poorly studied. Recent studies of palms in Madagascar, Cameroon, Lao P.D.R., and Brunei Darussalam have produced many novelties, for example, in Madagascar, 3 new genera and 85 new species. Recent examples from Atlantic coastal Brazil, central Amazonia, and New Guinea are given. Even in apparently well collected areas such as the Ducke Forest Reserve near Manaus, Brazil, and in Brunei where detailed studies of small areas are made, many novelties are found. It is recommended that more such intensive studies of restricted areas are made. The rate of new species that are being described, an average of 2350 over the past nine years, and the rate of additions to Flora Neotropica suggest that the total number of angiosperms is currently being underestimated and that there are in fact between 300,000 and 320,000 species. In order to develop conservation and sustainable use of tropical ecosystems, it is essential that we continue to intensify the rate of collection before it is too late.
HABITAT destruction is the major cause of species extinctions13. Dominant species often are considered to be free of this threat because they are abundant in the undisturbed fragments that remain after destruction. Here we describe a model that explains multispecies coexistence in patchy habitats4 and which predicts that their abundance may be fleeting. Even moderate habitat destruction is predicted to cause time-delayed but deterministic extinction of the dominant competitor in remnant patches. Further species are predicted to become extinct, in order from the best to the poorest competitors, as habitat destruction increases. More-over, the more fragmented a habitat already is, the greater is the number of extinctions caused by added destruction. Because such extinctions occur generations after fragmentation, they represent a debta future ecological cost of current habitat destruction.
Tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, threatening the survival of the species that depend on them. Small, isolated forest fragments will lose some of their original species. What is uncertain is how long this process of faunal relaxation will take. We compiled data on birds in five tropical forest fragments in Kakamega Forest, Kenya, of known date of isolation. We then predicted the original and eventual species richness of these fragments and, from this difference, the eventual species losses. Expressing the losses to date as a fraction of eventual losses suggests that faunal relaxation approximates an exponential decay with a half-life of approximately 50 years for fragments of roughly 1000 ha. In other words, in the first 50 years after isolation, tropical forest fragments of this size suffer half of the total number of extinctions that they are likely to experience. This result sets the time scale over which humanity must take conservation action in fragmented tropical forests, may aid efforts to set priorities, and indicates how high the future global extinction rate will be.
Island biogeography theory predicts that species will be lost on habitat “islands” created by the fragmentation of continental regions. Many Tanzanian parks are rapidly becoming habitat islands as a result of human settlement, agricultural development, and the active elimination of wildlife on adjacent lands. The rate of extinction of mammals in six Tanzanian parks over the last 35–83 years is significantly and inversely related to park area, suggesting that increasing insularization of the parks has been an important contributory factor in large mammal extinctions. I compared observed patterns of persistence of mammals in Tanzanian parks to predictions derived from earlier extinction models. The predictions of the S¹ models of Soulé et al. (1979) and Burkey (1994) and the S² and S³ models of Soulé et al. (1979) match very closely the observed pattern of persistence of mammals in Tanzanian parks. The loss of mammal species will probably continue, particularly in the smaller parks. Establishment of wildlife corridors linking the parks in northern Tanzania could help to reduce the potential loss of species in the future.
Hotspots of biodiversity—areas particularly rich in species, rare species, threatened species, or some combination of these attributes—are increasingly being delineated to help set priorities for conservation. Only recently have we begun to test key assumptions that determine how useful a hotspot approach can be for conservation planning. The evidence suggests that although at large geographic scales hotspots do provide useful information for conservation planning, at smaller scales their value may be more limited.
Maps of large-scale biodiversity are urgently needed to guide conservation, and yet complete enumeration of organisms is impractical at present. One indirect approach is to measure richness at higher taxonomic ranks, such as families. The difficulty is how to combine information from different groups on numbers of higher taxa, when these taxa may in effect have been defined in different ways, particularly for more distantly related major groups. In this paper, the regional family richness of terrestrial and freshwater seed plants, amphibians, reptiles and mammals is mapped worldwide by combining: (i) absolute family richness; (ii) proportional family richness; and (iii) proportional family richness weighted for the total species richness in each major group. The assumptions of the three methods and their effects on the results are discussed, although for these data the broad pattern is surprisingly robust with respect to the method of combination. Scores from each of the methods of combining families are used to rank the top five richness hotspots and complementary areas, and hotspots of endemism are mapped by unweighted combination of range-size rarity scores.
Geographic distribution data for endangered species in the United States were used to locate "hot spots" of threatened biodiversity. The hot spots for different species groups rarely overlap, except where anthropogenic activities reduce natural habitat in centers of endemism. Conserving endangered plant species maximizes the incidental protection of all other species groups. The presence of endangered birds and herptiles, however, provides a more sensitive indication of overall endangered biodiversity within any region. The amount of land that needs to be managed to protect currently endangered and threatened species in the United States is a relatively small proportion of the land mass.
Claims that there will be a massive loss of species as tropical forests are cleared are based on the relationship between habitat area and the number of species. Few studies calibrate extinction with habitat reduction. Critics raise doubts about this calibration, noting that there has been extensive clearing of the eastern North American forest, yet only 4 of its approximately 200 bird species have gone extinct. We analyze the distribution of bird species and the timing and extent of forest loss. The forest losses were not concurrent across the region. Based on the maximum extent of forest losses, our calculations predict fewer extinctions than the number observed. At most, there are 28 species of birds restricted to the region. Only these species would be at risk even if all the forests were cleared. Far from providing comfort to those who argue that the current rapid rate of tropical deforestation might cause fewer extinctions than often claimed, our results suggest that the losses may be worse. In contrast to eastern North America, small regions of tropical forest often hold hundreds of endemic bird species.
Recent extinction rates are 100 to 1000 times their pre-human levels in well-known, but taxonomically diverse groups from widely different environments. If all species currently deemed "threatened" become extinct in the next century, then future extinction rates will be 10 times recent rates. Some threatened species will survive the century, but many species not now threatened will succumb. Regions rich in species found only within them (endemics) dominate the global patterns of extinction. Although new technology provides details of habitat losses, estimates of future extinctions are hampered by our limited knowledge of which areas are rich in endemics.
Global Biodiversity is the most comprehensive compendium of conservation information ever published. It provides the first systematic report on the status, distribution, management, and utilisation of the planet's biological wealth.
The volume is broadly split into two main sections. The firsts consists of seven introductory chapters: biodiversity and priority setting; identifying endemic bird areas; global analyses; the prioritization of endemic brid areas; the conservation relevance of endemic bird areas; endemic bird areas as targets for conservation action; and regional introductions. The second, and larger part of the text looks at the endemic bird areas in detail. The section is split into six subsections, by region: North and Central America; Africa, Europe and the Middle East; continental Asia; SE Asian Islands, New Guinea and Australia; and the Pacific Islands. Within each regional subsection the endemic areas are detailed, providing information on : general characteristics; restricted-range species; threats and conservation; and location maps.
The world’s tropical forests are being cleared rapidly, and ecologists claim this is causing a massive loss of species. This claim has its critics. Can we predict extinctions from the extent of deforestation? We mapped the percentage of deforestation on the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia and counted the number of bird species found only on these islands. We then used the species-area relationship to calculate the number of species predicted to become globally extinct following deforestation on these islands. Next, we counted the numbers of insular southeast Asian endemic bird species considered threatened—i.e., those having “a high probability of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future”—in the latest summary Red Data Book. The numbers of extinctions predicted from deforestation and the numbers of species actually threatened are strikingly similar. This suggests we can estimate the size of the extinction crisis in once-forested regions from the extent of deforestation. The numbers of extinctions will be large. Without rapid and effective conservation, many of the species endemic to insular southeast Asia will soon be lost.
This paper evaluates the proposition that rates of population and species extinction can be assessed by using an indirect measure: total consumption of energy (industrial plus traditional) by man. This proposition rests on three assumptions. First, the rate of extinction is proportional to the rate of habitat destruction because most organisms are adapted to rather limited environments. Second, the rate of habitat destruction is correlated with the scale of human enterprise: the product of the number of people, average consumption, and the environmental damage done by the technologies used to supply each unit of consumption. Third, average energy can be used as a surrogate for the latter two factors, consumption × technology. Total energy use is therefore an indicator of trends in extinction rates, and thus could be used to estimate the rates themselves. I examine these premises and conclude that they are sufficiently well supported for biologists to use total energy consumption as an index of global extinction rates. That index, however, is not useful politically because the assumptions upon which it is based are not understood by decision makers and the general public.
Biodiversity conservation requires efficient methods for choosing priority areas for in situ conservation management. We compared three quantitative methods for choosing 5% (an arbitrary figure) of all the 10 × 10 km grid cells in Britain to represent the diversity of breeding birds: (1) hotspots of richness, which selects the areas richest in species; (2) hotspots of range-size rarity (narrow endemism), which selects areas richest in those species with the most restricted ranges; and (3) sets of complementary areas, which selects areas with the greatest combined species richness. Our results show that richness hotspots contained the highest number of species-in-grid-cell records (with many representations of the more widespread species), whereas the method of complementary areas obtained the lowest number. However, whereas richness hotspots included representation of 89% of British species of breeding birds, and rarity hotspots included 98%, the areas chosen using complementarity represented all the species, where possible, at least six times over. The method of complementary areas was also well suited to supplementing the existing conservation network. For example, starting with grid cells with over 50% area cover by existing “Sites of Special Scientific Interest,” we searched for a set of areas that could complete the representation of all the most threatened birds in Britain, the Red Data species. The method of complementary areas distinguishes between irreplaceable and flexible areas, which helps planners by providing alternatives for negotiation. This method can also show which particular species justify the choice of each area. Yet the complementary areas method will not be fully able to select the best areas for conservation management until we achieve integration of some of the more important factors affecting viability, threat, and cost.
A definition of biodiversity is adopted that takes account not only of numbers of species, but also of the degrees of difference among them. The most appropriate measure of species differences is likely to be made in terms of genealogical relationships, as embodied in taxonomic classifications. Five new measures of taxonomic diversity are compared with existing measures of species richness and taxonomic root weighting for prioritising areas for the conservation of biodiversity, using as an example some data for 43 bumble bee species of the sibiricus-group. Although certain of the new measures can be shown to perform better than any existing methods, more extensive trials are needed, and further refinements can be anticipated. We conclude that combining species richness with taxonomic diversity to give a single measure inevitably involves compromise, as either component could be maximised in its own right. Nonetheless, the new prioritisation methods are already capable of giving practical results.
1. A review of the literature shows that in nearly all cases tropical rain forest fragmentation has led to a local loss of species. Isolated fragments suffer reductions in species richness with time after excision from continuous forest, and small fragments often have fewer species recorded for the same effort of observation than large fragments or areas of continuous forest. 2. Birds have been the most frequently studied taxonomic group with respect to the effects of tropical forest fragmentation. 3. The mechanisms of fragmentation-related extinction include the deleterious effects of human disturbance during and after deforestation, the reduction of population sizes, the reduction of immigration rates, forest edge effects, changes in community structure (second- and higher-order effects) and the immigration of exotic species. 4. The relative importance of these mechanisms remains obscure. 5. Animals that are large, sparsely or patchily distributed, or very specialized and intolerant of the vegetation surrounding fragments, are particularly prone to local extinction. 6. The large number of indigenous species that are very sparsely distributed and intolerant of conditions outside the forest make evergreen tropical rain forest particularly susceptible to species loss through fragmentation. 7. Much more research is needed to study what is probably the major threat to global biodiversity.
Using a stochastic exponential model of population growth based on the
Wiener-drift process, the most likely times to, and probabilities of,
regional extinction were estimated for 35 rare breeding bird species in
the United Kingdom. A quarter of these species were predicted to have
probabilities of extinction equal to 1, and a further third
probabilities of greater than 0.1. The most likely time to attaining the
threshold of a single individual was 50 years or less for both groups
and often much shorter. Although there was also support for some
acknowledged conservation success stories (e.g. osprey, avocet), overall
these results suggest a poor prognosis for many species and a challenge
to conservation agencies.
Many government subsidies serve useful purposes, but others adversely affect the economy and the environment. A forthcoming report suggests that governments could profit from scrapping such `perverse' subsidies.
SPECIES conservation in situ requires networks of protected areas selected for high conservation interest13. Throughout most of the world, however, there are neither the resources nor the time to carry out detailed inventories for most taxa2,4 before designating protected areas. Site selection (on grounds other than availability) would be easier and more effective if two things were true: (1) habitats that are species-rich for one taxon are also species-rich for others5; and (2) rare1 species occur in, and therefore benefit from the conservation of, species-rich habitats. Diversity (usually, species richness) and the presence of rare species are the most frequently cited criteria for site selection by conservationists68. Here, we use data on British plants and animals held by the Biological Records Centre (BRC)9 and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), mapped on a grid of 10 km × 10 km ('10 km squares') to examine the extent to which species-rich areas for different taxa coincide, and whether species-rich areas contain substantial numbers of rare species. The fine scale and high intensity of recording in Britain produces distributional datasets at least as good as and, in most cases, better than those available elsewhere. For Britain at least, we do not find strong support for either proposition. Species-rich areas ('hotspots'10) frequently do not coincide for different taxa, and many rare species do not occur in the most species-rich squares.
The following is an overview of the June 1998 Issues in International Conservation, which was inadvertently omitted from that issue. The editorial staff regrets this oversight.
Over the last three decades a great deal of research, money, and effort have been put into the development of theory and techniques designed to make conservation more efficient. Much of the recent emphasis has been on methods to identify areas of high conservation interest and to design efficient networks of nature reserves. Reserve selection algorithms, gap analysis, and other computerized approaches have much potential to transform conservation planning, yet these methods are used only infrequently by those charged with managing landscapes. We briefly describe different approaches to identifying potentially valuable areas and methods for reserve selection and then discuss the reasons they remain largely unused by conservationists and land-use planners. Our informal discussions with ecologists, conservationists, and land managers from Europe and the United States suggested that the main reason for the low level of adoption of these sophisticated tools is simply that land managers have been unaware of them. Where this has been the case, low levels of funding, lack of understanding about the purpose of these tools, and general antipathy toward what is seen as a prescriptive approach to conservation all play a part. We recognize there is no simple solution but call for a closer dialogue between theoreticians and practitioners in conservation biology. The two communities night be brought into closer contact in numerous ways, including carefully targeted publication of research and Internet communication. However it is done, we feel that the needs of land managers need to be catered to by those engaged in conservation research and that managers need to be more aware of what science can contribute to practical conservation.
Populations that have survived extensive habitat loss may still face extinction owing to a time lag between initial habitat loss and eventual population collapse. Using island biogeography theory, I investigated the potential existence and magnitude of such “extinction debts” among African forest primates as a result of historical deforestation. Forest primate species exhibited a classic species-area relationship ( S = cAz) with forest habitat across African countries. I conducted three tests based on the species-area relationship that indicate extinction debts are likely to exist in African forest primates; in particular, several national extinctions should have already occurred solely as a result of forest loss in the last 50 years (if extinctions occurred simultaneously with habitat loss), but none of these extinctions have yet taken place. I also used the species-area relationship to predict the number of species that make up the total debt accumulated since deforestation began in these countries. My results suggest that in most countries the debt currently consists of over 30% of the forest primate fauna, which usually constitutes between four and eight species. These figures are likely to be accurate because the same model predicts with a reasonable degree of precision (1) the severity of threat of extinction from deforestation faced by country endemics, (2) the distribution of regional community endemics threatened by deforestation, and (3) the total number of African species threatened by deforestation (according to the 1996 IUCN Red List). My findings indicate that although protected areas are an essential part of conservation, the protection of the remaining forest alone may not be enough to prevent extinctions caused by habitat loss.
The survival outlook for biodiversity is being profoundly and adversely influenced by the twin phenomena of discontinuities and synergisms. So potent are their impacts that they may well cause the mass extinction to overtake us more swiftly and extensively than is often expected. Despite their importance, however, we know all too little about these phenomena. They remain almost entirely a black hole of research. This paper, being an introduction to the special issue, presents a short selection of both phenomena, with an evaluation of their impacts on biodiversity. It concludes with an overview of the human enterprise and its probable future repercussions for biodiversity.
Politicians and scientists alike now agree that a priority list of global centres for preservationof biological diversity is required. Diversity has generally been measured only in terms of species richness, or in the form of indices combining richness with abundance. Such measures are considered inadequate for the task in hand. A novel index, based on the information content of cladistic classifications and giving a measure of taxonomic distinctness, is introduced. This taxic diversity measure, when coupled with detailed knowledge of distribution, can be used in modified analyses of the type previously developed as ‘critical faunas analysis’ or ‘network analysis’. Central to all such analyses is the concept of complementarity of floras or faunas. By employing complementariry, step-wise procedures can identify optimally efficient, single-site sequences of priority areas for a group, taking existing reserves into account or not, as required. For practical planning it is concluded that two basic rounds of analysis are required: first, recognition of global priority areas by taxic diversity techniques; secondly, within any such area, analysis without taxic weighting (as being developed by Margules and his co-workers) to identify a network of reserves to contain all local taxa and ecosystems. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some immediate prospects for development of a systematic approach to global conservation evaluation.
1. How do insect and plant species numbers change with respect to one another at a regional scale? Evidence for three higher insect taxa suggest that the patterns may vary substantially from one group to another. 2. Estimates of the total numbers of insect species in different countries suggest that overall there may be a tendency for ratios of insect-to-plant species to be low when plant richness per unit area is high. Regional insect-to-plant ratios are very variable. 3. For particular higher insect taxa global ratios of insect-to-plant species fall within the range of regional ratios, suggesting that regional ratios of all insects to plants may provide a means of estimating the global number of insect species.
In identifying priorities for conservation action, it is critically important to assess how much current conservation initiatives are targeted toward key sites for biodiversity. Such analyses are greatly hampered, however, by lack of information about biological richness and existing conservation effort. We tried to address this problem by using data on one well-known indicator group and by focusing solely on an international scale, which is the only level at which global information on certain aspects of conservation effort is so far available. Building on the results of a project that mapped the distribution of all bird species with breeding ranges of less than 50,000 km2, we found that the number of these restricted-range birds in tropical countries was a useful predictor of national levels of endemism and, to a lesser extent, species richness and threat in other animal and plant groups. The relationships usually persisted after removing the effects of country area, confirming the utility of restricted-range birds as biodiversity indicators. When we then compared national scores for restricted-range bird species with measures of current conservation effort, we found that the extent of both protected areas and foreign funding for biodiversity conservation and research increased with this index of a country’s biological value. Thus, conservation efforts are generally greater in tropical countries with large numbers of restricted-range birds. These results should be interpreted cautiously. When we controlled for area effects, although mean biodiversity spending per unit area of a country increased with area-adjusted importance for restricted-range birds, the percentage of a country covered by protected areas did not increase. Moreover, our indices of effort and biological richness are clearly limited in scope, quality, and resolution. Most important, the relationships between overall current effort and biological value are weak, and there are many ornithologically rich countries that receive relatively little conservation attention. These nations are in many cases important priorities for additional conservation action.
Con la finalidad de identificar prioridades para la acción conservacionista, resulta crítica la determinación de la cantidad de iniciativas conservacionistas actuales que se centran en sitios claves para la biodiversidad. Este análisis se enfrenta a grandes impedimentos debido a la falta de información sobre la riqueza biológica y los esfuerzos conservacionistas existentes. En el presente estudio, tratamos de considerar este problema, utilizando datos de un grupo indicador bien conocido y concentrándonos solamente a escala internacional, ya que es el único nivel al cuál la información global de ciertos aspectos de los esfuerzos conservacionistas se encuentra disponible. Trabajando con los resultados de un proyecto dedicado a mapear la distribución de todas las especies de aves con rangos de cría menores a 50,000 km2, encontramos que el número de estas aves con un área de distribución restringida en países tropicales, fue un predictor útil del endemismo a nivel nacional y en menor grado, de la riqueza de especies y del grado de amenaza en otros grupos de animales y plantas. En general, la relación persistió después de haber extraído los efectos del área del país, lo que confirma la utilidad de las especies de aves con áreas de distribución restringidas como indicadores de la biodiversidad. Luego, cuando comparamos los resultados nacionales de las especies de aves con áreas de distribución restringidas, con las medidas de los esfuerzos actuales de conservación, encontramos que la extension de las áreas protegidas y aquellas destinadas a la conservación y a la investigación de la biodiversidad con fondas económicos foráneos, incrementaron con este índice del valor biológico del país. Por consiguiente, los esfuerzos de conservación son generalmente mayores en países tropicales, con un gran número de especies de aves y con un área de distribución restringida. Estos resultados deben ser interpretados con precaución. Cuando controlamos los efectos del área, encontramos que si bien el gasto promedio en biodiversidad por unidad de área de un país aumentó, con su importancia para las aves con áreas de distribución restringida, el porcentaje de un país cubierto por áreas protegidas no aumentó. Más aún, nuestros índices de esfuerzo y riqueza biológica están claramente limitados en alcance, calidad y resolución. De mayor importancia aún, resulta la debilidad de la relación entre el esfuerzo total actual y el valor biológico y existen muchos países ricos desde un punto de vista ornitológico que, sin embargo, reciben relativamente poca atención a nivel de conservación. Estas naciones constituyen en muchos casos importantes prioridades para una acción conservacionista adicional.
The intention and practice of conservation reserve selection are different. A major reason for systems of reserves is to sustain biological diversity. This involves protecting examples of as many natural features, e.g. species, communities or environments, as possible. In reality, however, new reserves have rarely been dedicated for their representation of features. Furthermore, the opportunism that has characterized the development of reserve systems can actually jeopardize the representation of all features in reserves through the inefficient allocation of limited resources. More systematic approaches are essential if reserves are to play their role in protecting biodiversity. Some basic principles for conservation planning are emerging from recent systematic procedures for reserve selection. These principles will help to link intention and practice.
The phylogeny of the Phytophaga, the largest and oldest radiation of herbivorous beetles, was reconstructed from 115 complete DNA sequences for the 18S nuclear ribosomal subunit and from 212 morphological characters. The results of these analyses were used to interpret the role of angiosperms in beetle diversification. Jurassic fossils represent basal lineages that are still associated with conifers and cycads. Repeated origins of angiosperm-feeding beetle lineages are associated with enhanced rates of beetle diversification, indicating a series of adaptive radiations. Collectively, these radiations represent nearly half of the species in the order Coleoptera and a similar proportion of herbivorous insect species.
This paper aims to throw light on the mass extinction that is overtaking Earth's species. Using an analytic methodology developed for an earlier partial assessment, it focuses on a series of "hotspot" areas, these being areas that a) feature exceptional concentrations of species with high levels of endemism and b) face exceptional threats of destruction. The paper identifies another 8 such areas, 4 of them in tropical forests and 4 in Mediterranean-type zones. The analysis reveals that the 4 tropical-forest areas contain at least 2835 endemic plant species in 18,700 sq. km, or 1.1% of Earth's plant species in 0.013% of Earth's land surface; and that the 4 Mediterranean-type areas contain 12,720 endemic plant species in 435,700 sq. km, or 5.1% of Earth's plant species in 0.3% of the Earth's land surface. Taken together, these 8 hotspot areas contain 15,555 endemic plant species in 454,400 sq. km, or 6.2% of Earth's plant species in 0.3% of Earth's land surface. This is to be compared with the earlier hotspot analysis of 10 tropical-forest areas, with 34,400 endemic plant species in 292,00 sq. km, or 13.8% of Earth's plant species in 0.2% of Earth's land surface. Taking all 18 hot-spot areas together, the authors find they support 49,995 endemic plant species, or 20% of Earth's plant species, in 746,400 sq. km, or 0.5% of Earth's land surface. This means that one-fifth of Earth's plant species are confined to 0.5% of the Earth's land surface--and they occur in habitats that are mostly threatened with imminent destruction. By concentrating on these hotspot areas where needs are greatest and where the pay-off from safeguard measures would be greatest, conservationists can engage in a more systematized response to the challenge of large-scale impending extinctions.
The mass-extinction episode underway is largely centered on tropical forests, insofar as they contain at least half of all Earth's species and they are being depleted faster than any other biome. But species distributions and depletion patterns are anything but uniform throughout the biome. This paper identifies 10 areas that a) are characterized by exceptional concentrations of species with high levels of endemism and b) are experiencing unusually rapid rates of depletion. While these "hotspot" areas comprise less than 3.5% of remaining primary forests, they harbor over 34,000 endemic plant species (27% of all plant species in tropical forests and 13% of all plant species worldwide). They also feature 700,000 endemic animal species and possibly several times more. Unfortunately, they appear likely to lose 90% of their forest cover as soon as the end of the century or shortly thereafter, causing the extinction of almost 7% of Earth's plant species and at least a similar proportion of animal species, this occurring in only 0.2% of Earth's land surface. By concentrating on such areas where needs are greatest and where the pay-off from safeguard measures would also be greatest, conservationists can engage in a more systematized response to the challenge of large-scale extinctions impending in tropical forests.
Governments could safeguard the world's biodiversity with a small
fraction of the money they spend on environmentally harmful subsidies.
Centres of Plant Diversity (three vols) (World Wide Fund for Nature and International Union for Conservation of
- S Davis
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The Global 200: Key Ecoregions for Saving Life on Earth (World Wildlife Fund-US
- E Dinerstein
Dinerstein, E. et al. The Global 200: Key Ecoregions for Saving Life on Earth (World Wildlife Fund-US, Washington DC, 1996).
Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences
- W M Eschmeyer
- WM Eschmeyer
Eschmeyer, W. M. Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 1998).
- B Groombridge
Groombridge, B. (ed.) Global Biodiversity (Chapman and Hall, London, 1992).