Annelids, arthropods or molluscs are suitable as surrogate taxa for selecting conservation reserves in estuaries |
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Authors: | Mohammad Reza Shokri William Gladstone Andrew Kepert |
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Institution: | (1) School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle (Ourimbah Campus), P.O. Box 127, Ourimbah, NSW, 2258, Australia;(2) Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, G. C., Evin, Tehran, 1983963113, Islamic Republic of Iran;(3) School of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle (Ourimbah Campus), P.O. Box 127, Ourimbah, NSW, 2258, Australia |
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Abstract: | The urgent need to conserve aquatic biodiversity and the lack of spatial data on biodiversity has motivated conservation planners
and researchers to search for more readily obtainable information that could be used as proxies or surrogates. The surrogate
taxon approach shows promise in some aquatic environments (e.g. intertidal) but not others (e.g. coral reefs, temperate rocky
reefs). Estuaries are transitional environments at the land–sea junction with a unique biodiversity, but are the most threatened
of aquatic environments because of high levels of human use. The comparatively small numbers of conservation reserves means
that estuarine biodiversity is poorly protected. Selecting additional conservation reserves within estuaries would be facilitated
by the identification of a suitable surrogate that could be used in conservation planning. In one estuary in Southeast Australia,
we evaluated separately the effectiveness of annelids, arthropods, and molluscs as surrogates for predicting the species richness,
abundance, assemblage variation, and summed irreplaceability of other species and for coincidentally representing other species
in networks of conservation reserves selected for each surrogate. Spatial patterns in the species richness and assemblage
variation (but not summed irreplaceability) of each surrogate were significantly correlated with the spatial patterns of other
species. The total abundance of annelids and the total abundance of arthropods were each significantly correlated with the
total abundances of other species. Networks of conservation reserves selected to represent each surrogate performed significantly
better than random selection in representing other species. The greatest number of non-surrogate species was coincidentally
included in reserves selected for the group of mollusc species. We conclude that annelids and arthropods are effective surrogate
taxa for identifying spatial variation in several measures of conservation value (species richness, abundance, assemblage
variation) in estuaries. We also conclude that spatial data on annelids, arthropods or molluscs can be used to select networks
of conservation reserves in estuaries. The demonstrated effectiveness of these surrogates should facilitate future conservation
planning within estuaries. |
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Keywords: | Coarse-filter conservation Cross-taxon congruence Estuarine protected area Irreplaceability Reserve selection |
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