Gray, CL;
Hill, SLL;
Newbold, T;
Hudson, LN;
Boïrger, L;
Contu, S;
Hoskins, AJ;
... Scharlemann, JPW; + view all
(2016)
Local biodiversity is higher inside than outside terrestrial protected areas worldwide.
Nature Communications
, 7
, Article 12306. 10.1038/ncomms12306.
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Abstract
Protected areas are widely considered essential for biodiversity conservation. However, few global studies have demonstrated that protection benefits a broad range of species. Here, using a new global biodiversity database with unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage, we compare four biodiversity measures at sites sampled in multiple land uses inside and outside protected areas. Globally, species richness is 10.6% higher and abundance 14.5% higher in samples taken inside protected areas compared with samples taken outside, but neither rarefaction-based richness nor endemicity differ significantly. Importantly, we show that the positive effects of protection are mostly attributable to differences in land use between protected and unprotected sites. Nonetheless, even within some human-dominated land uses, species richness and abundance are higher in protected sites. Our results reinforce the global importance of protected areas but suggest that protection does not consistently benefit species with small ranges or increase the variety of ecological niches.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Local biodiversity is higher inside than outside terrestrial protected areas worldwide |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/ncomms12306 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12306 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1507954 |
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