Comparative Losses of British Butterflies, Birds, and Plants and the Global Extinction Crisis

Thomas, J. A.; Telfer, Mark G.; Roy, David B.; Preston, Chris; Greenwood, Jeremy J. D.; Asher, Jim; Fox, Richard; Clarke, Ralph T.; Lawton, John H.

doi:10.1126/science.1095046

Cited by 822 publications

(533 citation statements)

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“…such an unexpected discovery challenges our current knowledge on biodiversity, exemplifying how a widespread species can remain unnoticed even within an intensely studied natural model system for speciation. G iven the global biodiversity crisis [1][2][3] , cataloguing the earth's species has become a race against time. Several studies have highlighted the presence and importance of cryptic biodiversity, which might represent a substantial proportion of Earth's natural capital.…”

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Unexpected layers of cryptic diversity in wood white Leptidea butterflies

et al. 2011

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uncovering cryptic biodiversity is essential for understanding evolutionary processes and patterns of ecosystem functioning, as well as for nature conservation. As European butterflies are arguably the best-studied group of invertebrates in the world, the discovery of a cryptic species, twenty years ago, within the common wood white Leptidea sinapis was a significant event, and these butterflies have become a model to study speciation. Here we show that the so-called 'sibling' Leptidea actually consist of three species. The new species can be discriminated on the basis of either DnA or karyological data. such an unexpected discovery challenges our current knowledge on biodiversity, exemplifying how a widespread species can remain unnoticed even within an intensely studied natural model system for speciation. G iven the global biodiversity crisis [1][2][3] , cataloguing the earth's species has become a race against time. Several studies have highlighted the presence and importance of cryptic biodiversity, which might represent a substantial proportion of Earth's natural capital. An estimate of cryptic species diversity is important to better understand evolutionary processes and patterns of ecosystem functioning, while also having deep implications for nature conservation 4,5 . The recent increase in the number of reported cryptic species is, in large part, owing to an increasing amount of studies incorporating DNA-based techniques, including large-scale approaches such as DNA barcoding 6 , which often provide resolution beyond the boundaries of morphological information. However, documenting cryptic diversity based on DNA data alone is generally not sufficient, prompting calls for integrative morphological, ecological and molecular approaches 7,8 . Recent estimates on the distribution of cryptic diversity are contradictory, and are based on a thin empirical foundation 4,9 . In any case, it is to be expected that the highest number of yet-to-be-discovered cryptic species is concentrated in the most biodiverse and least explored regions of our planet (that is, tropical areas). In temperate regions such as Europe, it is assumed that the level of unrecognized diversity is low, not only because of lower species richness, but also because taxonomic research has been intense for many groups of organisms. Such a case is represented by butterflies, probably the best-studied group of invertebrates, which have become a flagship for insect conservation efforts in Europe 10,11 .The discovery of a new European species of wood white (Leptidea sp.) at the end of the twentieth century was an important event in butterfly systematics. Leptidea sinapis (Linnaeus, 1758), a common butterfly with Palaearctic distribution was found to 'hide' a cryptic species, Leptidea reali (Reissinger, 1989) 12,13 . After the two species were shown to be separable based on their genitalia-but not on their wing morphology 13 -several studies revealed that L. reali is often sympatric with L. sinapis and that its distribution is almost as wide as that ...

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confidence: 99%

“…G iven the global biodiversity crisis [1][2][3] , cataloguing the earth's species has become a race against time. Several studies have highlighted the presence and importance of cryptic biodiversity, which might represent a substantial proportion of Earth's natural capital.…”

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confidence: 99%

Unexpected layers of cryptic diversity in wood white Leptidea butterflies

et al. 2011

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“…In recent decades, pollinators with a long proboscis (longtongued pollinators) such as bumblebees and butterflies have declined drastically worldwide [25][26][27][28][29][30], likely resulting in a functional diversity loss in the pollinator guild. Owing to the usually intimate associations between long-tongued pollinators and flowers with specialized floral organs, such as long corolla tube and spur ( [31,32]; figure 1), declines in long-tongued pollinators can lead to such plants becoming pollinator-limited [16,19,20,33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low functional diversity promotes niche changes in natural island pollinator communities

Hiraiwa¹,

Ushimaru²

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Functional diversity loss among pollinators has rapidly progressed across the globe and is expected to influence plant-pollinator interactions in natural communities. Although recent findings suggest that the disappearance of a certain pollinator functional group may cause niche expansions and/or shifts in other groups, no study has examined this prediction in natural communities with high plant and pollinator diversities. By comparing coastal pollination networks on continental and oceanic islands, we examined how community-level flower visit patterns are influenced by the relative biomass of long-tongued pollinators (RBLP). We found that RBLP significantly correlated with pollinator functional diversity and was lower in oceanic than in continental islands. Pollinator niches shifted with decreasing RBLP, such that diverse species with various proboscis lengths, especially shorttongued species, increasingly visited long-tubed flowers. However, we found no conspicuous negative impacts of low RBLP and the consequent niche shifts on pollinator visit frequencies to flowers in oceanic island communities. Notably, fruit set significantly decreased as RBLP decreased in a study plant species. These results suggest that niche shifts by other functional groups can generally compensate for a decline in long-tongued pollinators in natural communities, but there may be negative impacts on plant reproduction.

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“…It is evident that anthropogenic changes in habitats and climate affect invertebrate diversity (Thomas et al, 2004) and community processes such as insect pollination (Biesmeijer et al, 2006). Changes in land cover and/or climate may have important effects on the distribution and intensity of mosquito-borne diseases on regional scales (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The value of georeferenced collection records for predicting patterns of mosquito species richness and endemism in the Neotropics

Foley¹,

Weitzman²,

Miller³

et al. 2007

Ecological Entomology

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Abstract. 1. Detennining large-scale distribution patterns for mosquitoes could advance knowledge of global mosquito biogeography and inform decisions about where mosquito inventory needs are greatest.2. Over 43 000 georeferenced records are presented of identified and vouchered mosquitoes from collections undertaken between 1899 and 1982, from 1853 locations in 42 countries throughout the Neotropics. Of 492 species in the data set, 23% were only recorded from one location, and Anopheles albimanus Wiedemann is the most common species.3. A linear log-log species-area relationship was found for mosquito species number and country area. Chile had the lowest relative density of species and Trinidad-Tobago the highest, followed by Panama and French Guiana.4. The potential distribution of species was predicted using an Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) approach. Anopheles species had the largest predicted species ranges, whereas species of Deinocerites and Wyeomyia had the smallest.5. Species richness was estimated for 1° grids and by summing predicted presence of species from ENM. These methods both showed areas of high species richness in French Guiana, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, and Colombia. Potential hotspots in endemicity included unsampled areas in Panama, French Guiana, Colombia, Belize, Venezuela, and Brazil.6. Argentina, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Bolivia, Cuba, and Peru were the most underrepresented countries in the database compared with known country species occurrence data. Analysis of species accumulation curves suggested patchiness in the distribution of data points, which may affect estimates of species richness.7. The data set is a first step towards the development of a global-scale repository of georeferenced mosquito collection records.

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Comparative Losses of British Butterflies, Birds, and Plants and the Global Extinction Crisis

Cited by 822 publications

References 18 publications

Unexpected layers of cryptic diversity in wood white Leptidea butterflies

Unexpected layers of cryptic diversity in wood white Leptidea butterflies

Low functional diversity promotes niche changes in natural island pollinator communities

The value of georeferenced collection records for predicting patterns of mosquito species richness and endemism in the Neotropics

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