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1. The commonness of rarity: Global and future distribution of rarity across land plants

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz0414  

   Enquist, Brian J.; Feng, Xiao; Boyle, Brad; Maitner, Brian; Newman, Erica A.; Jørgensen, Peter Møller; Roehrdanz, Patrick R.; Thiers, Barbara M.; Burger, Joseph R.; Corlett, Richard T.; et al (November 2019, Science Advances)

   null (Ed.)

   A key feature of life’s diversity is that some species are common but many more are rare. Nonetheless, at global scales, we do not know what fraction of biodiversity consists of rare species. Here, we present the largest compilation of global plant diversity to quantify the fraction of Earth’s plant biodiversity that are rare. A large fraction, ~36.5% of Earth’s ~435,000 plant species, are exceedingly rare. Sampling biases and prominent models, such as neutral theory and the k-niche model, cannot account for the observed prevalence of rarity. Our results indicate that (i) climatically more stable regions have harbored rare species and hence a large fraction of Earth’s plant species via reduced extinction risk but that (ii) climate change and human land use are now disproportionately impacting rare species. Estimates of global species abundance distributions have important implications for risk assessments and conservation planning in this era of rapid global change. 

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2. Curse of rarity for autonomous vehicles

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49194-0  

   Liu, Henry X; Feng, Shuo (June 2024, Nature Communications)
3. Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50323-9  

   ter Steege, Hans; Henkel, Terry W.; Helal, Nora; Marimon, Beatriz S.; Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur; Huth, Andreas; Groeneveld, Jürgen; Sabatier, Daniel; Coelho, Luiz de; Filho, Diogenes de; et al (December 2019, Scientific Reports)
4. Of Rarity and Symbolism: Understanding Human Perceptions of Charismatic Color Morphs

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-024-00492-7  

   Williams, Tyus D; Kreling, Samantha_E S; Stanton, Lauren A; Wilkinson, Christine E; Estien, Cesar O; Schell, Christopher J; Carlen, Elizabeth J (April 2024, Human Ecology)

   Abstract Coloration in wildlife serves numerous biological purposes, including sexual selection signaling, thermoregulation, and camouflage. However, the physical appearance of wildlife also influences the ways in which humans interact with them. Wildlife conservation has largely revolved around humans’ propensity to favor charismatic megafauna, but human perceptions of wildlife species extend beyond conservation measures into our everyday interactions with individual wildlife. Our aesthetic appreciation for different species interplays with culture, lore, and the economic interest they carry. As such, one characteristic that may underpin and interact with social drivers of perception is the coloration of a particular individual. We provide case studies illustrating the dynamism in interactions people have with conspicuously colored wildlife – i.e., individuals that vary from their species-typical coloration. We focus on melanism, leucism, and albinism across four species commonly thought of as pests in the United States: coyotes (Canis latrans), eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and black-tailed deer (O. hemionus). 

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5. Eco‐evolutionary causes and consequences of rarity in plants: a meta‐analysis

   https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18172  

   Boyd, Jennifer Nagel; Anderson, Jill T.; Brzyski, Jessica; Baskauf, Carol; Cruse‐Sanders, Jennifer (August 2022, New Phytologist)