The comparative method in conservation biology

Fisher, D. Jerome

doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(04)00140-5

Cited by 213 publications

(65 citation statements)

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“…Across studies, high extinction risk is generally associated with large body size, long generation times and small geographic range sizes (Bennett and Owens 1997 ;Russell et al 1998 ;Purvis et al 2000a ;Cardillo 2003 ;Fisher and Owens 2004 ;Cooper et al 2008 ). Conversely, species at low risk of extinction are small, reproduce rapidly, and have a wide niche breadth.…”

Section: Extinction Drivers In Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering the Loss of Evolutionary History: How Does Non-random Extinction Prune the Tree-of-Life?

Yessoufou

Davies

2016

Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation

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Analysing extinction within a phylogenetic framework may seem counter-intuitive because extinction is a priori a non-heritable trait. However, extinction risk is correlated with other traits, such as body size, that show a strong phylogenetic signal. Further, there has been much effort in identifying key traits important for diversifi cation, and recent evidence has demonstrated that the processes of speciation and extinction may be inextricably linked. A phylogenetic approach also allows us to quantify the impact of extinction, for example, as the loss of branches from the tree-of-life. Early work suggested that extinctions might result in little loss of evolutionary history, but subsequent studies indicated that nonrandom extinctions might prune more of the evolutionary tree. Loss of phylogenetic diversity might have ecosystem consequences because functional differences between species tend to be correlated with the evolutionary distances between them. Here we explore how extinction prunes the tree-of-life. Our review indicates that the loss of evolutionary history under non-random extinction (the emerging pattern in extinction biology) might be less pronounced than some previous studies have suggested. However, the loss of functional diversity might still be large, depending on the evolutionary model of trait change. Under a punctuated model of evolution, in which trait differences accrue in bursts at speciation, the number of branches lost is more important than their summed lengths. We suggest that evolutionary models need to be incorporated more explicitly into measures of phylogenetic diversity if we are to use phylogeny as a proxy for functional diversity.

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Section: Extinction Drivers In Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering the Loss of Evolutionary History: How Does Non-random Extinction Prune the Tree-of-Life?

Yessoufou

Davies

2016

Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation

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“…There are several possible reasons: Large-bodied species are more tempting targets than small ones for hunters; they are, on average, less abundant; and they take longer to reach sexual maturity, have smaller litters of larger offspring, and have larger individual home ranges. Narrow ecological tolerances are also a plausible risk factor-habitat specialists may be more at risk than generalists from habitat loss (45). A small geographic range size may reflect narrow tolerances and increase the risk that the whole of the species' range is in the firing line.…”

Section: Comparative Analyses Of Mammalian Extinction Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many facets of geography (including human population density), ecology, and life history were tested as predictors of extinction risk, by using phylogenetically independent contrasts. A phylogenetic approach is needed because, although extinction risk and some of the possible predictors listed above (e.g., geographic range size) do not evolve along the phylogeny's branches like, say, body size does, they nonetheless tend to show phylogenetic signal [i.e., they tend to take more similar values in close relatives than in species chosen at random; (41,45,46)]. Minimum adequate models were derived from a large initial set of predictors.…”

Section: Comparative Analyses Of Mammalian Extinction Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phylogenetic trees and the future of mammalian biodiversity

Davies

Fritz²,

Grenyer

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

136

161

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Phylogenies describe the origins and history of species. However, they can also help to predict species' fates and so can be useful tools for managing the future of biodiversity. This article starts by sketching how phylogenetic, geographic, and trait information can be combined to elucidate present mammalian diversity patterns and how they arose. Recent diversification rates and standing diversity show different geographic patterns, indicating that cradles of diversity have moved over time. Patterns in extinction risk reflect both biological differences among mammalian lineages and differences in threat intensity among regions. Phylogenetic comparative analyses indicate that for small-bodied mammals, extinction risk is governed mostly by where the species live and the intensity of the threats, whereas for large-bodied mammals, ecological differences also play an important role. This modeling approach identifies species whose intrinsic biology renders them particularly vulnerable to increased human pressure. We outline how the approach might be extended to consider future trends in anthropogenic drivers, to identify likely future battlegrounds of mammalian conservation, and the likely casualties. This framework could help to highlight consequences of choosing among different future climatic and socioeconomic scenarios. We end by discussing priority-setting, showing how alternative currencies for diversity can suggest very different priorities. We argue that aiming to maximize long-term evolutionary responses is inappropriate, that conservation planning needs to consider costs as well as benefits, and that proactive conservation of largely intact systems should be part of a balanced strategy. extinction risk ͉ latent risk ͉ mammals T he Tree of Life-phylogeny-is a powerful metaphor for life's diversity, showing all species, including our own, as part of an interrelated whole. But phylogeny is more than a metaphor. It is also a research tool-the result of evolutionary processes integrated over the history of life, it can be analyzed for insights into how those processes have shaped today's biota (1). This approach is becoming increasingly powerful as the trees become ever more inclusive, built from rapidly accumulating databases using methods that continue to be improved (2, 3).Species' histories are of interest, but their futures are of more pressing concern. The Tree of Life is currently under sustained attack, as people increasingly dominate landscapes (4). Comparisons of extinction rates between today and geological history are difficult for many reasons (5), but the Tree of Life is already being pruned more quickly than it is growing (6), and extinction rates are projected to rise by at least another order of magnitude over the next centuries (7). This article describes how phylogeny has a role to play in understanding the pattern of survivors and casualties and how it can help us both to predict species' futures and to estimate some of the biodiversity value that would be lost if they went extinct.We focus o...

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“…Primates are no different from other taxa in that they often suffer from loss and fragmentation of their habitat [8][9][10]. The traits that enhance extinction risk can change with the nature of the threat [11][12][13]. We here analyze in more detail than hitherto, and over a broader geographical range, the traits that distinguish primate taxa susceptible to fragmentation from those that are less susceptible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Correlates of Extinction and Persistence of Primates in Small Forest Fragments: A Global Analysis

Gibbons

Harcourt

2009

Tropical Conservation Science

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Habitat loss and fragmentation are two of the main threats facing wildlife. The species at risk in small fragments are not a random subset of the original community. Understanding the biology behind the distinction between species at risk and more persistent species should help inform conservation efforts. We attempted to identify risky traits in a well-known taxon, the primates, by asking which traits distinguished taxa that differed in the size of the smallest fragment in which they were recorded. We assumed that taxa that could persist in smaller fragments were at less risk of extinction than those that needed larger fragments. The traits investigated are indicative of amount of habitat needed, reproductive rate, and specialization. We obtained from the literature information on the presence-absence of 68 primate species of 36 genera in forest fragments of less than 100 km 2 . Association between size of smallest fragment and biology was tested with regressions, Spearman correlations, two-sample t tests, and non-parametric Wilcoxon tests. We found no significant relationships between area of smallest fragment in which species or genera persisted and any of the biological parameters. We suggest that the most likely explanation for this unexpected finding is that the smallest fragments in which primates are currently studied are usually so small that all primate species in them are doomed in the long-term and therefore, no biological traits distinguish taxa at risk. The finding implies that conservation research and efforts should be directed at assessing the efficacy of forest fragments and small biological preserves in conserving primate species.

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The comparative method in conservation biology

Cited by 213 publications

References 0 publications

Reconsidering the Loss of Evolutionary History: How Does Non-random Extinction Prune the Tree-of-Life?

Reconsidering the Loss of Evolutionary History: How Does Non-random Extinction Prune the Tree-of-Life?

Phylogenetic trees and the future of mammalian biodiversity

Biological Correlates of Extinction and Persistence of Primates in Small Forest Fragments: A Global Analysis

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