Towards biodiversity hotspots effective for conserving mammals with small geographic ranges |
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Affiliation: | 1. Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland;2. Swiss Ornithological Institute, Valais Field Station, 1950 Sion, Switzerland;1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia de Fungos, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. da Engenharia, s/n, Cidade Universitária, CEP 50740-600, Recife, PE, Brazil;2. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco, Campus de Ciências Agrárias, Rodovia BR 407, Km 12, Lote 543, Projeto de Irrigação Nilo Coelho, s/n, ‘‘C1’’, Petrolina, PE CEP 56300-990, Brazil;3. Embrapa Milho e Sorgo, Núcleo de Biologia Aplicada, Rod. MG 424 KM 45 - Bairro Esmeraldas, SN, Caixa Postal 285, CEP 35701-970, Sete Lagoas, MG, Brazil;4. Agroscope, Ecotoxicology, Schloss 1, CH-8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland;1. University of Azores - Biotechnology Center of Azores (CBA-UAç), Department of Agricultural Sciences, Rua Capitão João d’Ávila, São Pedro, 9700-042, Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores, Portugal;2. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) / Azorean Biodiversity Group (GBA), Department of Agricultural Sciences, Rua Capitão João d’Ávila, São Pedro, 9700-042, Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores, Portugal;3. Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3001-401 Coimbra, Portugal;4. Biotechnology Center of Azores (CBA-UAç), University of Azores, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Rua Capitão João d’Ávila, São Pedro, 9700-042, Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores, Portugal;5. Academy of Sciences Czech Republic, Institute of Botany, CZ-25243 Pruhonice, Czech Republic;6. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, UK;7. School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia;8. University of Aveiro, Department of Biology & GeoBioTec, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal;9. Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research (ICIA), Finca “Isamar”, Ctra. de El Boquerón, Valle Guerra La Laguna, Tenerife, Canarias, Spain;1. Dept. of Natural Resources and Environment, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, P.O. Box 7144165186, Shiraz, Iran;2. Forest Research Institute, Sekocin Stary, ul. Braci Leśnej 3, 05-090 Raszyn, Poland |
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Abstract: | The main goal of using global biodiversity hotspots for conservation purposes is to protect taxa with small geographic ranges because these are highly vulnerable to extinction. However, the extent to what different hotspots types are effective for meeting this goal remains controversial because hotspots have been previously defined as either the richest or most threatened and richest sites in terms of total, endemic or threatened species. In this regard, the use of species richness to set conservation priorities is widely discussed because strategies focused on this diversity measure tend to miss many of the taxa with small geographic ranges. Here we use data on global terrestrial mammal distributions to show that, hotspots of total species, endemism and threat defined in terms of species richness are effective in including 27%, 29% and 11% respectively, of the taxa with small geographic ranges. Whilst, the same hotspot types defined in terms of a simple diversity index, which is a function of species richness and range-size rarity, include 68%, 44% and 90% respectively, of these taxa. In addition, we demonstrate that index hotspot types are highly efficient because they conserve 79% of mammal species (21% more species than richness hotspot types), with 59% of species shared by three hotspot types (31% more than richness hotspot types). These results suggest that selection of different diversity measures to define hotspots may strongly affect the achievement of conservation goals. |
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Keywords: | Biodiversity conservation Efficiency Endemism Global priorities Range-size rarity Threat |
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