Hilbers, JP;
Santini, L;
Visconti, P;
Schipper, AM;
Pinto, C;
Rondinini, C;
Huijbregts, MAJ;
(2017)
Setting population targets for mammals using body mass as a predictor of population persistence.
Conservation Biology
, 31
(2)
pp. 385-393.
10.1111/cobi.12846.
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Abstract
Conservation planning and biodiversity assessments need quantitative targets to optimize planning options and assess the adequacy of current species protection. However, targets aiming at persistence require population-specific data, which limit their use in favor of fixed and nonspecific targets, likely leading to unequal distribution of conservation efforts among species. We devised a method to derive equitable population targets; that is, quantitative targets of population size that ensure equal probabilities of persistence across a set of species and that can be easily inferred from species-specific traits. In our method, we used models of population dynamics across a range of life-history traits related to species’ body mass to estimate minimum viable population targets. We applied our method to a range of body masses of mammals, from 2 g to 3825 kg. The minimum viable population targets decreased asymptotically with increasing body mass and were on the same order of magnitude as minimum viable population estimates from species- and context-specific studies. Our approach provides a compromise between pragmatic, nonspecific population targets and detailed context-specific estimates of population viability for which only limited data are available. It enables a first estimation of species-specific population targets based on a readily available trait and thus allows setting equitable targets for population persistence in large-scale and multispecies conservation assessments and planning.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Setting population targets for mammals using body mass as a predictor of population persistence |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cobi.12846 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12846 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Allometry, conservation biology, conservation target, extinction, minimum viable population, population viability analysis, wildlife, wildlife management, extinction risk, safe index, conservation, size, biology, biodiversity, metaanalysis, ecology, history, power |
| 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/1538034 |
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