Roll, U;
Feldman, A;
Novosolov, M;
Allison, A;
Bauer, AM;
Bernard, R;
Bohm, M;
... Meiri, S; + view all
(2017)
The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation.
Nature Ecology & Evolution
, 1
(11)
pp. 1677-1682.
10.1038/s41559-017-0332-2.
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Abstract
The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented reptiles’ incorporation into conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here, we present and analyse, for the first time, the global distribution of 10,064 reptile species (99% of extant terrestrial species). We show that richness patterns of the other three tetrapod classes are good spatial surrogates for species richness of all reptiles combined and of snakes, but characterize diversity patterns of lizards and turtles poorly. Hotspots of total and endemic lizard richness overlap very little with those of other taxa. Moreover, existing protected areas, sites of biodiversity significance and global conservation schemes, represent birds and mammals better than reptiles. We show that additional conservation actions are needed to effectively protect reptiles, particularly lizards and turtles. Adding reptile knowledge to a global complementarity conservation priority scheme, identifies many locations that consequently become important. Notably, investing resources in some of the world’s arid, grassland, and savannah habitats might be necessary to represent all terrestrial vertebrates efficiently.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41559-017-0332-2 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0332-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| 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/1576525 |
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