No 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 the incorporation of reptiles into conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here, we present and analyse 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

2016-12-23T18:52:10

the heat?: a tale of ecology and evolution under two temperatures.Global Ecology and Biogeography, 22 (7). 834-845. 10.1111/geb.12053 Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. their geographic ranges to examine the relationships between these two measures. 49 Location: Worldwide 50Methods: We examined factors influencing body temperatures, and tested for the influence of both 51 body and mean annual temperatures on ecological and life history traits, while accounting for the 52 influence of shared ancestry. 53Results: Body temperatures and mean annual temperatures are uncorrelated. However, accounting 54 for activity time (nocturnal species have low body temperatures), use of space (fossorial and semi-55 aquatic species were "colder"), insularity (mainland species are "hotter") and phylogeny, the two 56 temperatures are positively correlated. High body temperatures are only associated with larger 57 hatchlings (contra the temperature size rule) and with increased rates of biomass production. Annual 58 temperatures are positively correlated with clutch frequency and annual longevity, and negatively 59 correlated with clutch size, age at first reproduction and longevity . High annual temperatures are 60 positively correlated with productivity and brood frequency, but negatively correlated with clutch 61 size, age at first reproduction, and longevity. 62

No abstract