Reconciling global mammal prioritization schemes into a strategy

The huge conservation interest that mammals attract and the large datasets that have been collected on them have propelled a diversity of global mammal prioritization schemes, but no comprehensive global mammal conservation strategy. We highlight some of the potential discrepancies between the schemes presented in this theme issue, including: conservation of species or areas, reactive and proactive conservation approaches, conservation knowledge and action, levels of aggregation of indicators of trend and scale issues. We propose that recently collected global mammal data and many of the mammal prioritization schemes now available could be incorporated into a comprehensive global strategy for the conservation of mammals. The task of developing such a strategy should be coordinated by a super-partes, authoritative institution (e.g. the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN). The strategy would facilitate funding agencies, conservation organizations and national institutions to rapidly identify a number of short-term and long-term global conservation priorities, and act complementarily to achieve them.     

Mammal diversity and taxonomy in Italy: implications for conservation

The paper attempts to describe Italian mammal diversity in an evolutionary context. With 122 species according latest researches, Italy holds the richest mammal assemblage among European countries. Specific taxa are often represented by clearly distinctive lineages and several of them appear restricted to the Italian peninsula. Poor knowledge of taxonomy and uncritical application of IUCN threat categories at the national level could produce a flawed set of conservation priorities, independently from the rigorous application of the proposed guidelines for national Red List assessments. Furthermore, classical conservation assessments and protective legislation only consider traditionally named taxa, often privileging insular taxa of artificial origin but neglecting most of the results of genetic and molecular studies on intraspecific variation. The aim of the present work is to outline the need to incorporate phylogenetic and biogeographic data in the assessment of conservation priorities among mammals in Italy, in order to maximise the national contribution to biodiversity conservation in Europe. To this end, distribution, threat status, intraspecific and supraspecific taxonomy of the native mammal fauna should be analysed in a global context. Phylogeographic patterns emerging from previous studies indicate the general inadequacy of continental European populations serving as sources for re-stocking or re-introductions operations in Italy and the other European peninsulas. Thus the importance of integrating international guidelines on reintroductions with a clear understanding of national biogeographical peculiarities is highlighted.     

Global versus Local Conservation Focus of U.S. State Agency Endangered Bird Species Lists

The development of species priorities for conservation at local or regional scales (for example, within a state or province) poses an interesting paradox. One the one hand, locally or regionally-derived species priorities may lead to greater interest in and resources directed to biodiversity conservation by local or regional institutions. On the other hand, locally or regionally-derived species priorities could overlook national or global priorities. We assessed U.S. state government agency endangered-threatened bird lists to determine the comparative representation of species of global versus local conservation significance on them. State lists tended to be represented primarily by species of low global risk-low global responsibility (range: 15–100%; mean 51%) and high global risk-high global responsibility (range: 0–73%; mean 35%). In 25 states, more than half of the species on the state lists were in the low global risk-low global responsibility category. Most U.S. state agency lists represent a combined strategy of highlighting species of both local and global conservation significance. Even with this combined local-global strategy, most state lists were predominated by species that represent local but not global conservation significance. Such a strategy could have profound negative consequences for many species that are not formally recognized under national endangered species protections but that are also left off of state-level endangered species lists.     

Bat ecology and conservation in semi-arid and arid landscapes: a global systematic review

1. Semi-arid and arid landscapes (dry-lands) cover 41% of the Earth’s land surface over five continents. These areas are home to 55% of mammal species. Bats have the second highest species richness among mammals, and, although many species are adapted to arid conditions, they are particularly sensitive in these habitats and require conservation priority.
2. Information on bats in arid and semi-arid landscapes is scattered, patchy and focused on small-scale studies; therefore, we undertook a systematic review using the PRISMA protocol to identify the current knowledge status, detect knowledge gaps and propose future research priorities.
3. We analysed 346 published articles and evaluated 40 topics within five topic categories (taxa studied, methodologies used, biology, ecology and conservation). The most commonly studied topic categories were ecology and biology. However, we found a gap in the topic category conservation (including topics such as conservation status and roost conservation). Our network analysis of topics within the categories showed that most ecology papers were focused on distribution, species richness and habitat use.
4. When we analysed keywords, we found that phylogeny, taxonomy and distribution demonstrated relatively high presence. Moreover, comparison of the percentage of studies conducted in dry-lands and the percentage of land surface area covered by dry-lands in the continents revealed that dry-lands in Africa and Australia were especially under-represented. Our review shows that knowledge of bats in semi-arid and arid landscapes is biased towards new records of the distribution of species, as well as covering systematic/taxonomic and morphological aspects of bat biology.
5. We suggest that research on conservation measures and guidelines to protect the bat species found in semi-arid and arid landscapes should be prioritised, together with the sharing of knowledge with local practitioners and the development of citizen science programmes.

     

Ancient introductions of mammals in the Mediterranean Basin and their implications for conservation

• 1 The importance of taxonomy to the determination of conservation priorities and actions is widely accepted. It should be not surprising therefore that the taxonomic treatment of mammal species that have been subject to human actions in antiquity may well influence the contemporary assessment of conservation priorities at various levels.
• 2 As a result of early extinctions caused by humans and protohistoric and historic introductions, we suggest that the Mediterranean Basin and its islands are particularly prone to misdirection of efforts towards biodiversity conservation.
• 3 The two main risks associated with the failure to use an evolutionary and palaeoecological approach to conservation efforts are (i) an underestimation of the conservation importance of distinctive continental taxa vs. the apparent endemicity of island taxa; and (ii) a serious risk for native and endemic island species when anthropochorous mammals, especially ungulates, misguidedly become the focus of conservation actions, particularly inside protected areas.
• 4 Urgent measures, including refinement of mammal taxonomy, the exclusion of known anthropochorous taxa from conservation lists and implementation of protective legislation, are necessary to maintain the uniqueness and richness of the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot.

     

Global conservation strategies for two clades of snakes: combining taxon-specific goals with general prioritization schemes

Aim We present the first attempt of mapping global conservation priorities for two snake clades, Viperidae and Elapidae. We compared the global conservation priorities of each clade with the nine global conservation schemes defined by Brooks et al. to evaluate how effective these schemes are in ensuring the preservation of viperid and elapid biodiversity. Location Global. Methods Based on range maps of 228 species of Viperidae and 224 species of Elapidae, we used systematic conservation planning methods of complementarity and irreplaceability to generate a set of conservation networks under two cost scenarios: (1) minimizing conservation‐human development conflicts and (2) maximizing environmental suitability for high snake richness. Analysis of variance was used to investigate whether the mean irreplaceability of cells matching the areas covered by each of the nine global prioritization schemes in Brooks et al. was higher than the mean irreplaceability of cells located outside these areas. Results Overall, few areas showed irreplaceability higher than 0.5 based on a goal of representing 25% of the species’ ranges. The conservation networks generated in expectation of low conflicts between human development and conservation were quite different from the networks of high environmental suitability. Areas with higher irreplaceability coincided with the regions covered by global schemes of Endemic Bird Areas (for Viperidae and Elapidae) and High‐Biodiversity Wilderness (for Elapidae). Main conclusions Our findings indicated the existence of viable conservation opportunities for these two snake groups. This study can be viewed as a way to overcome, at least in part, the recent criticism concerning the independent development of several global conservation priorities by evaluating which groups of organisms are better represented in each of them. More than simply determining priorities for snakes’ conservation, our analyses showed that the development of parallel priority‐setting initiatives can be reconciled with those strategies for which financial resources are already being designed.     

Global habitat suitability models of terrestrial mammals

Detailed large-scale information on mammal distribution has often been lacking, hindering conservation efforts. We used the information from the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a baseline for developing habitat suitability models for 5027 out of 5330 known terrestrial mammal species, based on their habitat relationships. We focused on the following environmental variables: land cover, elevation and hydrological features. Models were developed at 300 m resolution and limited to within species' known geographical ranges. A subset of the models was validated using points of known species occurrence. We conducted a global, fine-scale analysis of patterns of species richness. The richness of mammal species estimated by the overlap of their suitable habitat is on average one-third less than that estimated by the overlap of their geographical ranges. The highest absolute difference is found in tropical and subtropical regions in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia that are not covered by dense forest. The proportion of suitable habitat within mammal geographical ranges correlates with the IUCN Red List category to which they have been assigned, decreasing monotonically from Least Concern to Endangered. These results demonstrate the importance of fine-resolution distribution data for the development of global conservation strategies for mammals.     

Improving bioregional frameworks for conservation by including mammal distributions

Large identifiable landscape units, such as ecoregions, are used to prioritize global and continental conservation efforts, particularly where biodiversity knowledge is inadequate. Setting biodiversity representation targets using coarse large‐scale biogeographic boundaries, can be inefficient and under‐representative. Even when using fine‐scale biodiversity data, representation deficiencies can occur through misalignment of target distributions with such prioritization frameworks. While this pattern has been recognized, quantitative approaches highlighting misalignments have been lacking, particularly for assemblages of mammal species. We tested the efficacy of Australia's bioregions as a spatial prioritization framework for representing mammal species, within protected areas, in New South Wales. We produced an approach based on mammal assemblages and assessed its performance in representing mammal distributions. Substantial spatial misalignment between New South Wales's bioregions and mammal assemblages was revealed, reflecting deficiencies in the representation of more than half of identified mammal assemblages. Using a systematic approach driven by fine‐scale mammalian data, we compared the efficacy of these two frameworks in securing mammalian representation within protected areas. Of the 61 species, 38 were better represented by the mammalian framework, with remaining species only marginally better represented when guided by bioregions. Overall, the rate at which mammal species were incorporated into the protected area network was higher (5.1% ± 0.6 sd) when guided by mammal assemblages. Guided by bioregions, systematic conservation planning of protected areas may be constrained in realizing its full potential in securing representation for all of Australia's biodiversity. Adapting the boundaries of prioritization frameworks by incorporating amassed information from a broad range of taxa should be of conservation significance.     

气候速度影响下中国周边海域鲨鱼保护优先区识别

鲨鱼在气候变化和人类活动等因素的影响下面临着种群衰退的风险,开展鲨鱼保护优先区研究是鲨鱼保护行动的重要工作.将气候速度引入鲨鱼保护优先区的识别过程,旨在阐明中国周边海域鲨鱼现状保护成效和保护空缺,并预测气候速度影响下的鲨鱼保护优先区空间格局及其变化趋势.以集成物种分布模型模拟的146种鲨鱼栖息地作为保护对象,以2015年至2100年两种气候变化情景下的气候速度作为保护的机会成本,基于系统保护规划理论模拟现状和未来情景下的鲨鱼保护优先区选址方案.研究结果表明：（1）长江口以南至台湾海峡和北部湾近岸海域为鲨鱼多样性分布的主要区域,台湾海峡区域亦为珍稀濒危物种的重要分布区;（2）在两种气候情景下,南海中南部将面临较高的气候变化风险,而长江口以南至珠江口的近岸海域气候速度均相对较低,提示了这些区域或能成为气候变化影响下的生物避难所;（3）现有保护区仅保护了1.33%的海域和不到4%的鲨鱼物种,尚存在较大的保护空缺.当保护海域比例提升至10%时,可覆盖绝大多数鲨鱼物种.而当比例提升至30%时,珍稀濒危物种的栖息地将得到有效保护;（4）气候变化影响下保护优先区选址将发生不同程度的变化,尤其是在中国南海区域,如在保护规划时兼顾气候速度,可在满足相似保护目标的前提下减少保护优先区内25%以上的气候压力,以使其具有较强的应对气候变化潜力。     

尤溪县生物多样性保护优先地区分析

选择人类活动频繁的常绿阔叶林林区具有代表性的福建尤溪县进行了生物多样性保护的优先性分析。在多次实地调查基础上,利用野生动物野外实地样带调查数据,已有的珍稀淑危鸟,兽和植物物种的分布资料,同时结合利用地理信息系统软件ARC/INFO数字化1：10万林相图和1：5万地形图,建立了基于GIS的尤溪县生物多样性信息系统,然后根据物种多样性,珍稀濒危物种保护和生态系统保护目标,确立了保护优先性分析原则,即珍稀濒危物种尽可能包含在保护区和保护小区内,同时在优先保护区尽可能包含更多的其它物种,用最新的森林分布图及调查物种分布与生境关系,生态系统在保护物种与生态系统功能等方面的作用等,提出了生态系统的保护优先地区,将提出保护优先地区与已建保护小区和保护点分布图进行叠加分析表明,保护小区和保护点的方法是保护珍稀濒危物种的有效方法,但是需要考虑保护小区之间的联系,在对大型哺乳动物保护时需要建立面积较大的自然保护区,最后,提出了建立自然保护区规划。     

Future hotspots of terrestrial mammal loss

Current levels of endangerment and historical trends of species and habitats are the main criteria used to direct conservation efforts globally. Estimates of future declines, which might indicate different priorities than past declines, have been limited by the lack of appropriate data and models. Given that much of conservation is about anticipating and responding to future threats, our inability to look forward at a global scale has been a major constraint on effective action. Here, we assess the geography and extent of projected future changes in suitable habitat for terrestrial mammals within their present ranges. We used a global earth-system model, IMAGE, coupled with fine-scale habitat suitability models and parametrized according to four global scenarios of human development. We identified the most affected countries by 2050 for each scenario, assuming that no additional conservation actions other than those described in the scenarios take place. We found that, with some exceptions, most of the countries with the largest predicted losses of suitable habitat for mammals are in Africa and the Americas. African and North American countries were also predicted to host the most species with large proportional global declines. Most of the countries we identified as future hotspots of terrestrial mammal loss have little or no overlap with the present global conservation priorities, thus confirming the need for forward-looking analyses in conservation priority setting. The expected growth in human populations and consumption in hotspots of future mammal loss mean that local conservation actions such as protected areas might not be sufficient to mitigate losses. Other policies, directed towards the root causes of biodiversity loss, are required, both in Africa and other parts of the world.     

Application to the terrestrial vertebrates of Italy of a system proposed by IUCN for a new classification of national Red List categories

The criteria for classification set down in the new system of the IUCN Red List categories were applied to national distribution areas. Application of the new criteria to national distribution areas calls for an estimate of the rate of immigration. Classification was applied to the Italian autochthonous terrestrial vertebrate species that reproduce in Italy (Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves and Mammalia). Species with both marine and land habitats were included, but Cetaceans were excluded. Eighty-eight species of the autochthonous species that reproduce in Italy were classified in the threatened categories at the national level. One of the main purposes of the present classification of the risk of extinction in national distribution areas is to provide the information needed to define global conservation priorities of species present on national territory. The species nationally and/or globally endangered or at lower risk were grouped into four priority classes, on the basis of their reproductive phenology on national territory and the size of temporarily present contingents. Of the 551 species present regularly or seasonally on Italian territory, 149 (27.0%) are in the initial indicative list of conservation priorities.     

Predicting potential distribution of the jaguar (Panthera onca) in Mexico: identification of priority areas for conservation

Aim The jaguar, Panthera onca, is a species of global conservation concern. In Mexico, the northernmost part of its distribution range, its conservation status, is particularly critical, while its potential and actual distribution is poorly known. We propose an ensemble model (EM) of the potential distribution for the jaguar in Mexico and identify the priority areas for conservation. Location Mexico. Methods We generated our EM based on three presence‐only methods (Ecological Niche Factor Analysis, Mahalanobis distance, Maxent) and considering environmental, biological and anthropogenic factors. We used this model to evaluate the efficacy of the existing Mexican protected areas (PAs), to evaluate the adequacy of the jaguar conservation units (JCUs) and to propose new areas that should be considered for conservation and management of the species in Mexico. Results Our results outline that 16% of Mexico (c. 312,000 km²) can be considered as suitable for the presence of the jaguar. Furthermore, 13% of the suitable areas are included in existing PAs and 14% are included in JCUs ( Sanderson et al., 2002 ). Main conclusions Clearly much more should be carried out to establish a proactive conservation strategy. Based on our results, we propose here new jaguar conservation and management areas that are important for a nationwide conservation blueprint.     

Governance factors in the identification of global conservation priorities for mammals

Global conservation priorities have often been identified based on the combination of species richness and threat information. With the development of the field of systematic conservation planning, more attention has been given to conservation costs. This leads to prioritizing developing countries, where costs are generally low and biodiversity is high. But many of these countries have poor governance, which may result in ineffective conservation or in larger costs than initially expected. We explore how the consideration of governance affects the selection of global conservation priorities for the world's mammals in a complementarity-based conservation prioritization. We use data on Control of Corruption (Worldwide Governance Indicators project) as an indicator of governance effectiveness, and gross domestic product per capita as an indicator of cost. We show that, while core areas with high levels of endemism are always selected as important regardless of governance and cost values, there are clear regional differences in selected sites when biodiversity, cost or governance are taken into account separately. Overall, the analysis supports the concentration of conservation efforts in most of the regions generally considered of high priority, but stresses the need for different conservation approaches in different continents owing to spatial patterns of governance and economic development.     

Species prioritization for monitoring and management in regional multiple species conservation plans

Successful conservation plans are not solely achieved by acquiring optimally designed reserves. Ongoing monitoring and management of the biodiversity in those reserves is an equally important, but often neglected or poorly executed, part of the conservation process. In this paper we address one of the first and most important steps in designing a monitoring program – deciding what to monitor. We present a strategy for prioritizing species for monitoring and management in multispecies conservation plans. We use existing assessments of threatened status, and the degree and spatial and temporal extent of known threats to link the prioritization of species to the overarching goals and objectives of the conservation plan. We consider both broad and localized spatial scales to capture the regional conservation context and the practicalities of local management and monitoring constraints. Spatial scales that are commensurate with available data are selected. We demonstrate the utility of this strategy through application to a set of 85 plants and animals in an established multispecies conservation plan in San Diego County, California, USA. We use the prioritization to identify the most prominent risk factors and the habitats associated with the most threats to species. The protocol highlighted priorities that had not previously been identified and were not necessarily intuitive without systematic application of the criteria; many high‐priority species have received no monitoring attention to date, and lower‐priority species have. We recommend that in the absence of clear focal species, monitoring threats in highly impacted habitats may be a way to circumvent the need to monitor all the targeted species.     

Conservation biogeography of mammals in the Cerrado biome under the unified theory of macroecology

Understanding what limits the distribution and abundance of species is critical for adopting optimal conservation planning strategies, although it is still difficult to obtain abundance data at broad spatial scales. Here we propose conservation priorities in the Brazilian Cerrado based on density values of 108 mammal species. These values were estimated by an abundant-centre model coupled with McGill and Collin's unified theory for macroecology. We assumed that species' densities decay with a Gaussian distribution towards the range borders from a maximum density placed at the centre of each species' range. We used allometric equations to estimate maximum densities, at the Cerrado region we corrected the estimated densities by the natural vegetation remnants. Then we used a Simulated Annealing algorithm to select alternative sets of areas that met several levels of minimum viable population sizes (MVPSs) for each species. With low MVPSs, there were a small number of highly irreplaceable areas located in the northwest region of the biome, whereas with high MVPSs, highly irreplaceable areas occurred in up to 95% of the biome. By incorporating principles from the unified theory of macroecology, we were able to generate a conservation network for the Cerrado biome aiming to prioritise species' persistence and not just their presence.     

Insular bats and research effort: a review of global patterns and priorities

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Vegetation structure and ground cover attributes describe the occurrence of a newly discovered carnivorous marsupial on the Tweed Shield Volcano caldera,the endangered black‐tailed dusky antechinus (Antechinus arktos)

The black‐tailed dusky antechinus (Antechinus arktos) is a recently discovered, endangered, carnivorous marsupial mammal endemic to the Tweed Shield Volcano caldera, straddling the border between Queensland and New South Wales in eastern Australia. The species' preference for cool, high‐altitude habitats makes it particularly vulnerable to a shifting climate as these habitats recede. Aside from basic breeding and dietary patterns, the species' ecology is largely unknown. Understanding fine‐scale habitat attributes preferred by this endangered mammal is critical to employ successful conservation management. Here, we assess vegetation attributes of known habitats over three sites at Springbrook and Border Ranges National Parks, including detailed structure data and broad floristic assessment. Floristic compositional assessment of the high‐altitude cloud rainforest indicated broad similarities. However, only 22% of plant species were shared between all sites indicating a high level of local endemism. This suggests a diverse assemblage of vegetation across A. arktos habitats. Habitat characteristics were related to capture records of A. arktos to determine potential fine‐scale structural habitat requirements. Percentage of rock cover and leaf litter were the strongest predictors of A. arktos captures across survey sites, suggesting a need for foraging substrate and cover. Habitat characteristics described here will inform predictive species distribution models of this federally endangered species and are applicable to other mammal conservation programs.     

Für welche Pflanzenarten hat die Schweiz eine internationale Verantwortung?

Eggenberg S. and Landolt E. 2006. For which plant species does Switzerland have an international responsibility? Bot. Helv. 116: 119 – 133. Priorities in plant species conservation are often based on national Red Lists. In an international context, however, the Red List status (threat) of a species within a limited territory may be misleading because the local disappearance of a species may or may not have serious implications for its global persistence. A second important aspect to consider in species conservation is therefore the responsibility of a country for the species, i.e. the importance of the conservation of local populations for the persistence of the species worldwide. In this contribution, we assess the responsibility of Switzerland for its vascular flora using three biogeographical criteria: (1) the Swiss portion of the species range (high responsibility for species with a large fraction of the range in Switzerland), (2) the degree of endemism (high responsibility for species with a small total range) and (3) the degree of isolation (high responsibility for isolated outposts, which may contain a large part of a species’ genetic variation). The three criteria were derived for each species from global and European distribution maps, and were then combined to an overall index of responsibility. On this basis, 397 taxa for which Switzerland has an intermediate to high international responsibility were identified. These are almost 15% of the whole vascular flora of Switzerland. Of the 397 taxa, 75% are endemic species of the Alps, and 48% are threatened taxa within Switzerland. The Responsibility List can be used together with the Red List to set priorities in plant conservation or to identify areas of particular floristic value. Manuskript angenommen am 11. September 2006     

Species vulnerability to climate change: impacts on spatial conservation priorities and species representation

Climate change may shrink and/or shift plant species ranges thereby increasing their vulnerability and requiring targeted conservation to facilitate adaptation. We quantified the vulnerability to climate change of plant species based on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity and assessed the effects of including these components in complementarity‐based spatial conservation prioritisation. We modelled the vulnerability of 584 native plant species under three climate change scenarios in an 11.9 million hectare fragmented agricultural region in southern Australia. We represented exposure as species' geographical range under each climate change scenario as quantified using species distribution models. We calculated sensitivity as a function of the impact of climate change on species' geographical ranges. Using a dispersal kernel, we quantified adaptive capacity as species' ability to migrate to new geographical ranges under each climate change scenario. Using Zonation, we assessed the impact of individual components of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) on spatial conservation priorities and levels of species representation in priority areas under each climate change scenario. The full vulnerability framework proved an effective basis for identifying spatial conservation priorities under climate change. Including different dimensions of vulnerability had significant implications for spatial conservation priorities. Incorporating adaptive capacity increased the level of representation of most species. However, prioritising sensitive species reduced the representation of other species. We conclude that whilst taking an integrated approach to mitigating species vulnerability to climate change can ensure sensitive species are well‐represented in a conservation network, this can come at the cost of reduced representation of other species. Conservation planning decisions aimed at reducing species vulnerability to climate change need to be made in full cognisance of the sensitivity of spatial conservation priorities to individual components of vulnerability, and the trade‐offs associated with focussing on sensitive species.