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ABSTRACT AimUnderstanding how abiotic factors influence species diversity, evolution and functional patterns of species is crucial for biodiversity conservation and for the management of terrestrial protected areas. We evaluate biogeographic and phylogenetic metrics in rodents to understand biodiversity patterns and improve wildlife conservation strategies. LocationChile, South America. TaxonRodents (Mammalia, Rodentia). MethodsWe updated the phylogeny of rodent species in Chile using gene sequences retrieved from GenBank. We used the phylogenetic tree to calculate different biodiversity indices. We analysed Species Richness (SR), observed and standard effect size (SES) of Phylogenetic Diversity (PD), Phylogenetic Endemism (PE), and Functional Diversity (FD) across different ecoregions, climatic regions, and terrestrial protected areas along gradients of temperature and precipitation. ResultsWe found high rodent diversity in north and central‐south Chile, and an association between phylogenetic and functional indices. Diversity indices (SR, SES.PD, SES.PE, SES.PE) were strongly associated with ecoregions, with the highest indices occurring in a high‐altitude ecoregion (i.e., Puna), Polar climatic region, and unprotected areas. Main ConclusionsSpatial congruence among diversity indices suggests that species composition and evolutionary history play a fundamental role in structuring rodent species assemblages. Areas with high diversity indices delineate regions with high species richness that experience higher species diversification (PD), leading to ecological specialisation (FD) and endemism (PE). The linkages between diversity indices and ecoregions suggest that environmental heterogeneity within ecoregions drives variation in community composition. Environmental variation may be more pronounced in harsh habitats (e.g., Atacama Desert), while weak in benign habitats (e.g., Puna). The spatial mismatch between biodiversity hotspots and protected areas suggests that key evolutionary and ecological processes could be occurring outside current protected areas, raising concerns about the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation strategies.
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High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure
Safeguarding Earth’s tree diversity is a conservation priority due to the importance of trees for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration. Here, we improve the foundation for effective conservation of global tree diversity by analyzing a recently developed database of tree species covering 46,752 species. We quantify range protection and anthropogenic pressures for each species and develop conservation priorities across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity dimensions. We also assess the effectiveness of several influential proposed conservation prioritization frameworks to protect the top 17% and top 50% of tree priority areas. We find that an average of 50.2% of a tree species’ range occurs in 110-km grid cells without any protected areas (PAs), with 6,377 small-range tree species fully unprotected, and that 83% of tree species experience nonnegligible human pressure across their range on average. Protecting high-priority areas for the top 17% and 50% priority thresholds would increase the average protected proportion of each tree species’ range to 65.5% and 82.6%, respectively, leaving many fewer species (2,151 and 2,010) completely unprotected. The priority areas identified for trees match well to the Global 200 Ecoregions framework, revealing that priority areas for trees would in large part also optimize protection for terrestrial biodiversity overall. Based on range estimates for >46,000 tree species, our findings show that a large proportion of tree species receive limited protection by current PAs and are under substantial human pressure. Improved protection of biodiversity overall would also strongly benefit global tree diversity.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2017949
- PAR ID:
- 10353711
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Volume:
- 119
- Issue:
- 25
- ISSN:
- 0027-8424
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2026733119
