Dataset Information

Data gaps and opportunities for comparative and conservation biology.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity loss is a major challenge. Over the past century, the average rate of vertebrate extinction has been about 100-fold higher than the estimated background rate and population declines continue to increase globally. Birth and death rates determine the pace of population increase or decline, thus driving the expansion or extinction of a species. Design of species conservation policies hence depends on demographic data (e.g., for extinction risk assessments or estimation of harvesting quotas). However, an overview of the accessible data, even for better known taxa, is lacking. Here, we present the Demographic Species Knowledge Index, which classifies the available information for 32,144 (97%) of extant described mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. We show that only 1.3% of the tetrapod species have comprehensive information on birth and death rates. We found no demographic measures, not even crude ones such as maximum life span or typical litter/clutch size, for 65% of threatened tetrapods. More field studies are needed; however, some progress can be made by digitalizing existing knowledge, by imputing data from related species with similar life histories, and by using information from captive populations. We show that data from zoos and aquariums in the Species360 network can significantly improve knowledge for an almost eightfold gain. Assessing the landscape of limited demographic knowledge is essential to prioritize ways to fill data gaps. Such information is urgently needed to implement management strategies to conserve at-risk taxa and to discover new unifying concepts and evolutionary relationships across thousands of tetrapod species.

SUBMITTER: Conde DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6511006 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Data gaps and opportunities for comparative and conservation biology.

Conde Dalia A DA Staerk Johanna J Colchero Fernando F da Silva Rita R Schöley Jonas J Baden H Maria HM Jouvet Lionel L Fa Julia E JE Fa Julia E JE Syed Hassan H Jongejans Eelke E Meiri Shai S Gaillard Jean-Michel JM Chamberlain Scott S Wilcken Jonathan J Jones Owen R OR Dahlgren Johan P JP Steiner Ulrich K UK Bland Lucie M LM Gomez-Mestre Ivan I Lebreton Jean-Dominique JD González Vargas Jaime J Flesness Nate N Canudas-Romo Vladimir V Salguero-Gómez Roberto R Byers Onnie O Berg Thomas Bjørneboe TB Scheuerlein Alexander A Devillard Sébastien S Schigel Dmitry S DS Ryder Oliver A OA Possingham Hugh P HP Baudisch Annette A Vaupel James W JW

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190419 19

Biodiversity loss is a major challenge. Over the past century, the average rate of vertebrate extinction has been about 100-fold higher than the estimated background rate and population declines continue to increase globally. Birth and death rates determine the pace of population increase or decline, thus driving the expansion or extinction of a species. Design of species conservation policies hence depends on demographic data (e.g., for extinction risk assessments or estimation of harvesting qu ...[more]

PMID: 31004061

Similar Datasets

Project description:For over a century, physiological tools and techniques have been allowing researchers to characterize how organisms respond to changes in their natural environment and how they interact with human activities or infrastructure. Over time, many of these techniques have become part of the conservation physiology toolbox, which is used to monitor, predict, conserve, and restore plant and animal populations under threat. Here, we provide a summary of the tools that currently comprise the conservation physiology toolbox. By assessing patterns in articles that have been published in 'Conservation Physiology' over the past 5 years that focus on introducing, refining and validating tools, we provide an overview of where researchers are placing emphasis in terms of taxa and physiological sub-disciplines. Although there is certainly diversity across the toolbox, metrics of stress physiology (particularly glucocorticoids) and studies focusing on mammals have garnered the greatest attention, with both comprising the majority of publications (>45%). We also summarize the types of validations that are actively being completed, including those related to logistics (sample collection, storage and processing), interpretation of variation in physiological traits and relevance for conservation science. Finally, we provide recommendations for future tool refinement, with suggestions for: (i) improving our understanding of the applicability of glucocorticoid physiology; (ii) linking multiple physiological and non-physiological tools; (iii) establishing a framework for plant conservation physiology; (iv) assessing links between environmental disturbance, physiology and fitness; (v) appreciating opportunities for validations in under-represented taxa; and (vi) emphasizing tool validation as a core component of research programmes. Overall, we are confident that conservation physiology will continue to increase its applicability to more taxa, develop more non-invasive techniques, delineate where limitations exist, and identify the contexts necessary for interpretation in captivity and the wild.

Dataset Information

Data gaps and opportunities for comparative and conservation biology.

Publications

Data gaps and opportunities for comparative and conservation biology.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets