Global priorities for conservation of reptilian phylogenetic diversity in the face of human impacts

Rikki Gumbs (), Claudia L. Gray, Monika Böhm, Michael Hoffmann, Richard Grenyer, Walter Jetz, Shai Meiri, Uri Roll, Nisha R. Owen and James Rosindell
Additional contact information
Rikki Gumbs: Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot
Claudia L. Gray: EDGE of Existence Programme, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park
Monika Böhm: Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park
Michael Hoffmann: Conservation and Policy, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park
Richard Grenyer: School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
Walter Jetz: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, Yale University
Shai Meiri: School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University
Uri Roll: Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Nisha R. Owen: On The EDGE Conservation
James Rosindell: Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Phylogenetic diversity measures are increasingly used in conservation planning to represent aspects of biodiversity beyond that captured by species richness. Here we develop two new metrics that combine phylogenetic diversity and the extent of human pressure across the spatial distribution of species — one metric valuing regions and another prioritising species. We evaluate these metrics for reptiles, which have been largely neglected in previous studies, and contrast these results with equivalent calculations for all terrestrial vertebrate groups. We find that regions under high human pressure coincide with the most irreplaceable areas of reptilian diversity, and more than expected by chance. The highest priority reptile species score far above the top mammal and bird species, and reptiles include a disproportionate number of species with insufficient extinction risk data. Data Deficient species are, in terms of our species-level metric, comparable to Critically Endangered species and therefore may require urgent conservation attention.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16410-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-16410-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16410-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().