Assessing the Value of the Umbrella-Species Concept for Conservation Planning with Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The umbrella-species concept, which suggests that conservation strategies designed for one species may benefit co-occurring species, has been promoted as a framework for conservation planning. Nevertheless, there has been considerable variation in the outcome of empirical tests of this concept that has led researchers to question its value, so we used data from 15 published studies in a meta-analysis to evaluate whether conservation of putative umbrella species also conserves co-occurring species. We tested the effectiveness of putative umbrella species categorized by taxonomic group, taxonomic similarity to co-occurring species, body size, generality of resource use, and trophic level to evaluate criteria proposed to guide the selection of umbrella species. We compared species richness and number of individuals (by species and higher taxonomic group) between sites with and without putative umbrella species to test whether more co-occurring species were present in greater abundances when the area or resource needs of umbrella species were met. Species richness and abundance of co-occurring species were consistently higher in sites where umbrella species were present than where they were not and for conservation schemes with avian than with mammalian umbrella species. There were no differences in species richness or species abundance with resource generalist or specialist umbrella species or based on taxonomic similarity of umbrella and co-occurring species. Taxonomic group abundance was higher in across-taxonomic umbrella species schemes than when umbrella species were of the same taxon as co-occurring species. Co-occurring species had similar, or higher, species richness with small-bodied umbrella species relative to larger-bodied umbrella species. The only significant difference among umbrella species categorized by trophic level was that species richness was higher with omnivorous than it was with carnivorous avian umbrella species. Our results suggest there is merit to the umbrella-species concept for conservation, but they do not support the use of the criteria we used to identify umbrella species.

A Comprehensive Survey of Pelagic Megafauna: Their Distribution, Densities, and Taxonomic Richness in the Tropical Southwest Indian Ocean

“…In addition, since they are considered to be sentinel species (Bossart, 2011) their status can inform on the status of whole ecosystem. Indeed marine megafauna could be considered as umbrella species (Zacharias and Roff, 2001;Branton and Richardson, 2011) because their effective conservation should incorporate the conservation of a suite of lower trophic level species and associated ecosystem services. Moreover, top predators can play a key role in maintaining biodiversity patterns by either top-down control or behaviorally mediated mechanisms (Heithaus et al, 2008).…”

The history and future of fungi as biodiversity surrogates in forests

“…Umbrella species are proposed to serve as conservation umbrellas for a number of other species with shared habitat or management requirements (Roberge & Angelstam 2004b;Branton & Richardson 2011). Related hereto, the Focal species concept is basically a multispecies umbrella species approach, where a set of selected species are proposed to have specific life history characteristics that are expected to confer protection to other species that are facing similar threats if addressed properly in conservation planning (Nicholson et al 2013).…”

Biodiversity gains from efficient use of private sponsorship for flagship species conservation

“…In addition, several studies have found that flagship species conservation programmes may have limited effectiveness in conserving other species [14,15], and that species such as large predators (which are often flagship species [6]) may have relatively low utility as 'umbrella' species for conserving biodiversity in general [16]. However, such studies have generally examined habitat overlaps rather than synergistic benefits of conservation actions that may be shared among species.…”