Climate change affects life at global scales and across systems but is of special concern in areas that are disproportionately rich in biological diversity and uniqueness. Using a meta-analytical ...approach, we analysed >8000 risk projections of the projected impact of climate change on 273 areas of exceptional biodiversity, including terrestrial and marine environments. We found that climate change is projected to negatively impact all assessed areas, but endemic species are consistently more adversely impacted. Terrestrial endemics are projected to be 2.7 and 10 times more impacted than non-endemic natives and introduced species respectively, the latter being overall unaffected by climate change. We defined a high risk of extinction as a loss of >80% due to climate change alone. Of endemic species, 34% and 46% in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and 100% and 84% of island and mountain species were projected to face high extinction risk respectively. A doubling of warming is projected to disproportionately increase extinction risks for endemic and non-endemic native species. Thus, reducing extinction risks requires both adaptation responses in biodiversity rich-spots and enhanced climate change mitigation.
•Climate change is projected to negatively impact 273 biodiversity-rich areas globally.•Risks are 3 and 10 times more for endemic than native and introduced species.•Introduced species may be unaffected or benefit from climate change.•34% of land and 54% of marine endemic's, risk extinction.•100% of island, 84% of mountain species risk extinction due to climate change.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Rates of biodiversity loss are higher in freshwater ecosystems than in most terrestrial or marine ecosystems, making freshwater conservation a priority. However, prioritization methods are impeded by ...insufficient knowledge on the distribution and conservation status of freshwater taxa, particularly invertebrates. We evaluated the extinction risk of the world's 590 freshwater crayfish species using the IUCN Categories and Criteria and found 32% of all species are threatened with extinction. The level of extinction risk differed between families, with proportionally more threatened species in the Parastacidae and Astacidae than in the Cambaridae. Four described species were Extinct and 21% were assessed as Data Deficient. There was geographical variation in the dominant threats affecting the main centres of crayfish diversity. The majority of threatened US and Mexican species face threats associated with urban development, pollution, damming and water management. Conversely, the majority of Australian threatened species are affected by climate change, harvesting, agriculture and invasive species. Only a small proportion of crayfish are found within the boundaries of protected areas, suggesting that alternative means of long-term protection will be required. Our study highlights many of the significant challenges yet to come for freshwater biodiversity unless conservation planning shifts from a reactive to proactive approach.
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How useful are thermal vulnerability indices? Clusella-Trullas, Susana; Garcia, Raquel A.; Terblanche, John S. ...
Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam),
November 2021, 2021-11-00, Volume:
36, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
To forecast climate change impacts across habitats or taxa, thermal vulnerability indices (e.g., safety margins and warming tolerances) are growing in popularity. Here, we present their history, ...context, formulation, and current applications. We highlight discrepancies in terminology and usage, and we draw attention to key assumptions underpinning the main indices and to their ecological and evolutionary relevance. In the process, we flag biases influencing these indices that are not always evaluated. These biases affect both components of index formulations, namely: (i) the characterisation of the thermal environment; and (ii) an organism’s physiological and behavioural responses to more frequent and severe warming. Presently, many outstanding questions weaken a thermal vulnerability index approach. We describe ways to validate vulnerability index applications and outline issues to be considered in further developing these indices.
Accurate forecasts of the impacts of climate change are essential for managing biodiversity and minimising further species losses. Indices reflecting forecasts are useful when they are simple enough to be implemented at large scales, but this needs to be balanced against their ability to predict actual impacts.Thermal vulnerability indices such as safety margins and warming tolerance have increased in popularity for making both regional and global predictions of species vulnerability to climate change, but concerns have been raised about their forecasting potential.By estimating the deviation between species’ thermal sensitivity and thermal exposure, these indices often do not reflect variation relevant to the organism. They also fall short of considering many intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect species vulnerability, weakening their usefulness.Under specific circumstances, safety margins can however answer particular questions relating to species’ relative sensitivity and exposure, and can be complemented by other approaches, all of which require validation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Although habitat fragmentation is often assumed to be a primary driver of extinction, global patterns of fragmentation and its relationship to extinction risk have not been consistently quantified ...for any major animal taxon. We developed high-resolution habitat fragmentation models and used phylogenetic comparative methods to quantify the effects of habitat fragmentation on the world’s terrestrial mammals, including 4,018 species across 26 taxonomic Orders. Results demonstrate that species with more fragmentation are at greater risk of extinction, even after accounting for the effects of key macroecological predictors, such as body size and geographic range size. Species with higher fragmentation had smaller ranges and a lower proportion of high-suitability habitat within their range, andmost high-suitability habitat occurred outside of protected areas, further elevating extinction risk. Our models provide a quantitative evaluation of extinction risk assessments for species, allow for identification of emerging threats in species not classified as threatened, and provide maps of global hotspots of fragmentation for the world’s terrestrial mammals. Quantification of habitat fragmentation will help guide threat assessment and strategic priorities for global mammal conservation.
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In light of recent alarming trends in human population growth, climate change, and other environmental modifications, a “Warning to humanity” manifesto was published in BioScience in 2017. This call ...reiterated most of the ideas originally expressed by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1992, including the fear that we are “pushing Earth’s ecosystems beyond their capacities to support the web of life.” As subterranean biologists, we take this opportunity to emphasize the global importance and the conservation challenges associated with subterranean ecosystems. They likely represent the most widespread nonmarine environments on Earth, but specialized subterranean organisms remain among the least documented and studied. Largely overlooked in conservation policies, subterranean habitats play a critical role in the function of the web of life and provide important ecosystem services. We highlight the main threats to subterranean ecosystems and propose a set of effective actions to protect this globally important natural heritage.
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Within the subpopulations of guanacos (Lama guanicoe), some are in critical danger of extinction. This is the case of the Chaquenan guanaco, which inhabited large areas of this great ecoregion until ...the beginning of the 20th century. Based on the information that located the species in the Salinas Grandes of central Argentina, a transdisciplinary study was conducted. After seven years of field studies, the recent history of this population was characterized, and its population size and area of distribution were estimated. Currently, the number of guanacos that persists is less than 80 individuals, being restricted to the peri-saline and surrounding areas of a large cattle ranch that prohibits hunting, the main anthropic impact that reduced this population in the recent past. Although there are encouraging aspects for its conservation, such as the recent creation of the Traslasierra National Park, it is necessary to deepen management measures to increase the size and distribution of the Chaco guanaco, as well as generate actions that allow revaluing its existence as a biocultural resource.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is central in biodiversity conservation, but insufficient resources hamper its long-term growth, updating, and ...consistency. Models or automated calculations can alleviate those challenges by providing standardised estimates required for assessments, or prioritising species for (re-)assessments. However, while numerous scientific papers have proposed such methods, few have been integrated into assessment practice, highlighting a critical research–implementation gap. We believe this gap can be bridged by fostering communication and collaboration between academic researchers and Red List practitioners, and by developing and maintaining user-friendly platforms to automate application of the methods. We propose that developing methods better encompassing Red List criteria, systems, and drivers is the next priority to support the Red List.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species plays a central role in monitoring biodiversity and informing conservation actions.To best inform conservation, the Red List must be frequently updated, become more taxonomically and geographically representative, and be consistent within and among taxonomic groups, but this is hampered by limited resources.A variety of models and automated calculations has been proposed in the literature to support Red List assessments, for instance using citizen science or remote-sensing data to predict extinction risk.We highlight a major research–implementation gap in the application of these methods, which could be bridged by providing assessors with easy access to the most relevant tools, hands-on training, and strengthening communication.Further efforts are needed to develop relevant methods to prioritise assessments or better predict extinction risk.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Species vary in their vulnerability to extinction according to their biology, ecology, environmental factors and threats to which they are exposed. Diet is an important ecological trait that affects ...many aspects of a species' biology, including its vulnerability to extinction. Despite the importance of diet as a species' trait, its influence on extinction risk has only been studied in a coarse way, in part due to a lack of detailed diet data covering a large breadth of species or geographic areas. We examined the association between diet and extinction risk in primates, using a high‐resolution dataset covering all major primate lineages and habitats on a global scale. The resolution of the dataset allowed us to calculate multiple biologically informative metrics for diet composition and diversity, allowing us to tease apart what aspects of diet were most important for predicting the risk of extinction, whilst accounting for phylogeny, body mass and geographic range size. Our results showed that both diet disparity and diet diversity predict primate extinction risk, showing that primates that are able to consume more types of items, and items that are more disparate from one another, are less prone to extinction. Furthermore, we found that although closely related species tend to have similar dietary diversity and disparity, these metrics vary widely amongst primate families. Primates with a high diet diversity and disparity may be able to cope better with fluctuations in food availability than species with homogeneous diet items, through a portfolio effect. Understanding the degree of dietary specialization of the species may help guide new studies relating to extinction risk and threats and be useful in future species assessments.
We examined the association between diet and extinction risk in primates, using a high‐resolution dataset covering all major primate lineages and habitats on a global scale. We found that diet disparity and diet diversity metrics predict primate extinction risk – primate species with a more diverse diet in terms of diet disparity and diversity are less prone to extinction than species with a more similar range of foods in their diets. Furthermore, closely related species tend to have similar dietary diversity and disparity, although these metrics vary widely amongst primate families. Primates with a high diet diversity and disparity may be able to cope better with fluctuations in food availability than species with homogeneous diet items, through a portfolio effect.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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