Top predators and biodiversity

Sergio, Fabrizio; Newton, Ian; Marchesi, Luigi

doi:10.1038/436192a

Cited by 248 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Top predators can drive diversification of prey 20,21 and help maintain biodiversity 22 . It is typically assumed that apex predators display little phenotypic variation, but there is emerging evidence for rich phenotypic diversity and ecotype formation of predators at the top of multiple food webs 23,24 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

2015

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Intraspecific phenotypic variation can strongly impact community and ecosystem dynamics. Effects of intraspecific variation in keystone species have been shown to propagate down through the food web by altering the adaptive landscape for other species and creating a cascade of ecological and evolutionary change. However, similar bottom-up eco-evolutionary effects are poorly described. Here we show that life history diversification in a keystone prey species, the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), propagates up through the food web to promote phenotypic diversification in its native top predator, the chain pickerel (Esox niger), on contemporary timescales. The landlocking of alewife by human dam construction has repeatedly created a stable open water prey resource, novel to coastal lakes, that has promoted the parallel emergence of a habitat polymorphism in chain pickerel. Understanding how strong interactions propagate through food webs to influence diversification across multiple trophic levels is critical to understand eco-evolutionary interactions in complex natural ecosystems.

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confidence: 99%

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

2015

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“…We believe that the relatively high abundance of owls in the xerophytic ecosystem (67% of our sampled locations) should be further investigated owing to the potential role of top predators as reliable indicators of biodiversity values. In fact, solid evidence exists of the association between apex predators that belong to higher trophic levels and habitat complexity, community richness and biodiversity levels (Sergio et al 2004;Sergio et al 2005, Sergio et al 2006. Specifically, this latter relationship has been successfully tested for Glaucidium passerinum, the European counterpart of the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, providing clear evidence of general patterns of association between charismatic top predators and biodiversity (Sergio et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding season habitat selection by Ferruginous Pygmy OwlsGlaucidium brasilianumin central Argentina

et al. 2013

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“…Reserve design should not consider only the current occupied habitat of a species, but also should take into account the potential suitable habitat for it. Although a criticized strategy (Andelman and Fagan 2000;Kerr 1997), top-predators like raptors and charismatic vertebrates have been used for protected areas planning (Carroll et al 2001;Murphy and Noon 1992) and recently, tested as adequate surrogates for conservation (Sergio et al 2005(Sergio et al , 2006. In this paper we propose to design protected areas, previously determining the potential habitat of the target species based on a previous GIS-based habitat selection analysis and, after that, evaluating how eVective is the current network of SPAs in relation to the protection of high potential habitat for the species (the GAP analysis).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are important bird areas and special protected areas enough for conservation?: the case of Bonelli’s eagle in a Mediterranean area

et al. 2007

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The Bonelli's eagle (BE) is considered by the European Union as a high-priority species for conservation in the Valencian Community (East of Spain). However, in 2006 the European Union opened a legal procedure against the Spanish Kingdom, accused of lacking of an adequate network of special protected areas (SPAs) to preserve the BE in the region. Here we evaluate whether important bird areas (IBAs) and SPAs network is enough to preserve this species, on the basis of a thorough analysis of habitat preferences. A GAP analysis is performed to conduct a revision of current SPAs and BirdLife proposed IBAs. Our results suggest that the current network of SPAs becomes insuYcient to protect the BE. The IBAs network, although improves the current network of SPAs, increasing the percentage of BE potential habitat included, also results inadequate. We propose a new SPAs network according to the potential suitable habitat for the species. Given the trade-oV between Wnancial investment and the conservation of biodiversity, we propose to maximize the surface of potential habitat included in the protected network minimizing the surface of the region that would be necessary to protect, thus avoiding an unnecessary expense and otherwise unrealistic results.

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Top predators and biodiversity

Cited by 248 publications

References 6 publications

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

Emergence of a novel prey life history promotes contemporary sympatric diversification in a top predator

Breeding season habitat selection by Ferruginous Pygmy OwlsGlaucidium brasilianumin central Argentina

Are important bird areas and special protected areas enough for conservation?: the case of Bonelli’s eagle in a Mediterranean area

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