Molecular ecology meets systematic conservation planning

Nielsen, Erica S.; Hanson, Jeffrey O.; Carvalho, Sílvia B.; Beger, Maria; Henriques, Romina; Kershaw, Francine; Heyden, Sophie von der

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2022.09.006

Cited by 34 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 89 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Developing systematic conservation plans depends on a wealth of information on a region's biodiversity (Margules & Pressey, 2000; Nielson et al, 2022). Knowing what species occur where is a pre‐requisite for implementing any sort of broad systematic approach.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shedding light on dark taxa in sky‐island Appalachian leaf litter: Assessing patterns of endemicity using large‐scale, voucher‐based barcoding

Caterino,

Recuero

2023

Insect Conserv Diversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Developing systematic conservation plans depends on a wealth of information on a region's biodiversity. For ‘dark taxa' such as arthropods, such data are usually very incomplete and in most cases left out from assessments. Sky islands are important and often fragile biodiversity hotspots. Southern Appalachian high‐elevation spruce–fir forests represent a particularly threatened sky‐island ecosystem, hosting numerous endemic and threatened species, but their arthropods remain understudied. Here we use voucher‐based megabarcoding to explore genetic differentiation among leaf‐litter arthropod communities of these highlands, and to examine the extent to which they represent dispersed communities of more or less coherent species, manageable as a distributed unit. We assembled a dataset comprising more than 6000 COI sequences representing diverse arthropod groups to assess species richness and sharing across peaks and ranges. Comparisons were standardised across taxa using automated species delimitation, measuring endemism levels by putative species. Species richness was high, with sites hosting from 86 to 199 litter arthropod species (not including mites or myriapods). Community profiles suggest that around one fourth of these species are unique to single sky islands and more than one third of all species are limited to a particular range. Across major taxa, endemicity was lowest in Araneae, and highest in neglected groups like Isopoda, Pseudoscorpionida, Protura and Diplura. Southern Appalachian sky islands of spruce–fir habitat host significantly distinct leaf‐litter arthropod communities, with high levels of local endemicity. This is the first work to provide such a clear picture of peak and range uniqueness for a taxonomically broad sample. Ensuring the protection of a sizeable fraction of high‐elevation litter species richness will therefore require attention at a relatively fine spatial scale.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shedding light on dark taxa in sky‐island Appalachian leaf litter: Assessing patterns of endemicity using large‐scale, voucher‐based barcoding

Caterino,

Recuero

2023

Insect Conserv Diversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Now with increased technology and data accumulation, intraspecific diversity can be studied in the same way as species diversity. Understanding the distribution of genetic diversity is important for providing insights on the spatial distribution of biodiversity, with implications for conservation planning (De Kort et al, 2021; Lawrence & Fraser, 2020; Leigh et al, 2021; Nielsen et al, 2022; Theodoridis et al, 2020). As a growing field, ‘macrogenetics’ – the study of genetic diversity at broad scales (Blanchet et al, 2017) – thus far has revealed that genetic diversity spatial patterns are weaker, loci specific (e.g., neutral microsatellites vs. adaptive genes), taxa‐specific or in contrast to species diversity (Adams & Hadly, 2013; Habrich et al, 2021; Manel et al, 2020; Millette et al, 2020; Miraldo et al, 2016; Schmidt et al, 2022; Theodoridis et al, 2020; Yiming et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrogenetics reveals multifaceted influences of environmental variation on vertebrate population genetic diversity across the Americas

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The broad scale distribution of population-specific genetic diversity (GD P ) across taxa remains understudied relative to species diversity gradients, despite its relevance for systematic conservation planning. We used nuclear DNA data collected from 3678 vertebrate populations across the Americas to assess the role of environmental and spatial variables in structuring the distribution of GD P , a key component of adaptive potential in the face of environmental change. We specifically assessed non-linear trends for a metric of GD P, expected heterozygosity (H E ), and found more evidence for spatial hotspots and cold spots in H E rather than a strict pattern with latitude. We also detected inconsistent relationships between H E and environmental variables, where only 11 of 30 environmental comparisons among taxa groups were statistically significant at the .05 level, and the shape of significant trends differed substantially across vertebrate groups. Only one of six taxonomic groups, freshwater fishes, consistently showed significant relationships between H E and most (four of five) environmental variables. The remaining groups had statistically significant relationships for either two (amphibians, reptiles), one (birds, mammals), or no variables (anadromous fishes).Our study highlights gaps in the theoretical foundation upon which macrogenetic predictions have been made thus far in the literature, as well as the nuances for assessing broad patterns in GD P among vertebrate groups. Overall, our results suggest a disconnect between patterns of species and genetic diversity, and underscores that largescale factors affecting genetic diversity may not be the same factors as those shaping taxonomic diversity. Thus, careful spatial and taxonomic-specific considerations are needed for applying macrogenetics to conservation planning.

show abstract

“…Although uncertainties remain in the detection of SNPs associated with local adaptation, outlier detection methods, and their downstream analyses are attracting growing interest in the basic science and environmental management communities. While these genomic approaches are not easy to implement for many wild populations (particularly those lacking annotated genomes), they offer the opportunity to refine efforts for the management and conservation of species and to identify the populations with the greatest risk of decline due to climate and other anthropogenic changes (Hoffmann et al, 2015; Meek et al, 2023; Nielsen et al, 2023). Further experimental research and in situ studies are required to verify the importance of these gene regions for local adaptation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The responses of species to environmental changes should also involve the understanding of evolutionary processes (Bernatchez, 2016). This approach allows for better understanding of changes in genetic diversity, genetic structure, migration patterns and the evolutionary potential of populations (Bernatchez, 2016; Davis et al, 2005; Gerber et al, 2014; Hodapp et al, 2023), that support evidence‐based decision‐making to manage marine resources (Nielsen et al, 2021, 2023). Changes in the distributional ranges of exploited species are particularly important in a management context, since they may negatively affect the biomass of the exploited resources and impact human livelihoods (Möllmann et al, 2021; Ovenden et al, 2015; Pecl et al, 2017; Pinsky & Palumbi, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of population structure and genomic diversity to climate change and fishing pressure in a pelagic fish

Mendoza‐Portillo¹,

León²,

Heyden

2023

Global Change Biology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anthropogenic climate change drives several major changes in marine ecosystems, including increasing sea temperatures, changes in dissolved oxygen concentration, and decreases in ocean pH (Bahri et al., 2018;Mora, Wei, et al., 2013;Worm & Lotze, 2021). The contemporary and future impacts of these changes on marine species are not always well understood, but modeled simulations can be used to better understand the impact of climatic changes on adaptation and genomic vulnerability (Cheung et al., 2009;Nielsen et al., 2021), and for predicting the spatial distributions of species under projected future conditions (

show abstract

Molecular ecology meets systematic conservation planning

Cited by 34 publications

References 89 publications

Shedding light on dark taxa in sky‐island Appalachian leaf litter: Assessing patterns of endemicity using large‐scale, voucher‐based barcoding

Shedding light on dark taxa in sky‐island Appalachian leaf litter: Assessing patterns of endemicity using large‐scale, voucher‐based barcoding

Macrogenetics reveals multifaceted influences of environmental variation on vertebrate population genetic diversity across the Americas

Responses of population structure and genomic diversity to climate change and fishing pressure in a pelagic fish

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About