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

Gumbs, R; Gray, CL; Böhm, M; Hoffmann, M; Grenyer, R; Jetz, W; Meiri, S; ... Rosindell, J; + view all (2020) Global priorities for conservation of reptilian phylogenetic diversity in the face of human impacts. Nature Communications , 11 , Article 2616. 10.1038/s41467-020-16410-6. Green open access

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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.

Type: Article
Title: Global priorities for conservation of reptilian phylogenetic diversity in the face of human impacts
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16410-6
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16410-6
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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/10097265
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