Facing the Big Sixth: From Prioritizing Species to Conserving Biodiversity

Casetta, Elena; Silva, Jorge Marques da

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-15045-1_12

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The key idea of the ESUsbased approach is that, rather than preserving all phenotypic variants, it would be worthwhile to preserve those populations which "shows evidence of being genetically separate from other populations, and contributes substantially to the ecological or genetic diversity found within the species taxon as a whole" (Hey et al 2003: 600). The premise is that as long as evolutionary processes are able to operate, their products, in particular specific adaptive phenotypes, can be replaced or recreated (Casetta and Marques da Silva 2015a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why a Species-Based Approach to Biodiversity Is Not Enough. Lessons from Multispecies Biofilms

Silva

Casetta

2019

History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences

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In recent years, we have assisted to an impressive effort to identify and catalogue biodiversity at the microbial level across a wide range of environments, human bodies included (e.g., skin, oral cavity, intestines). This effort, fostered by the decreasing cost of DNA sequencing, highlighted not only the vast diversity at the microbial level but also the importance of cells' social interactions, potentially leading to the emergence of novel diversity. In this contribution, we shall argue that entities other than species, and in particular multispecies biofilms, might play a crucial-and still underestimated-role in increasing biodiversity as well as in conserving it. In particular, after having discussed how microbial diversity impacts ecosystems (Sect. 9.1), we argue (Sect. 9.2) that multispecies biofilms may increase biodiversity at both the genetic and phenotypic level. In Sect. 9.3 we discuss the possibility that multispecies biofilms, both heterotrophic and autotrophic, are evolutionary individuals, i.e. units of selection. In the conclusion, we highlight a major limitation of the traditional species-based approach to biodiversity origination and conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why a Species-Based Approach to Biodiversity Is Not Enough. Lessons from Multispecies Biofilms

Silva

Casetta

2019

History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences

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“…Current rates of biodiversity loss demonstrate that the world is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event and the first principally accelerated by human actions ( Wake and Vredenburg, 2008 ;Barnosky et al, 2011 ;Pievani, 2014 ;Casetta et al, 2015 ;Newbold et al, 2016 ). With global energy crises leading to oil exploration in sensitive habitats, there is a need to understand the potential effects of these activities on biodiversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Global Oil Exploration for the Conservation of Terrestrial Wildlife

Mudumba

Stimpson

Jingo

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Probing the Process-Based Approach to Biodiversity: Can Plasticity Lead to the Emergence of Novel Units of Biodiversity?

Vecchi

Mills

2019

History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences

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The history of biology has been characterised by a strong emphasis on the identification of entities (e.g., macromolecules, cells, organisms, species) as fundamental units of our classificatory system. The biological hierarchy can be divided into a series of compositional levels complementing the physical and chemical hierarchy. Given this state of affairs, it is not surprising that biodiversity studies have focused on a "holy trinity" of entities, namely genes, species and ecosystems. In this chapter, we endorse the view that a process-based approach should integrate an entity-based one. The rationale of our endorsement is that a focus on entities does not address whether biological processes have the capacity to create novel, salient units of biodiversity. This alternative focus might therefore have implications for conservation biology. In order to show the relevance of process-based approaches to biodiversity, in this chapter we shall focus on a particular process: phenotypic plasticity. Specifically, we shall describe a model of plasticity that might have implications for how we conceptualise biodiversity units. The hypothesis we want to test is whether plastic subpopulations that have enhanced evolutionary potential vis a vis non-plastic subpopulations make them amenable to evolutionarily significant units (i.e., ESU) status. An understanding of the mechanisms that influence organismic evolution, particularly when under environmental stress, may shed light on the natural "conservability" capacities of populations. We use an abstract computational model that couples plasticity and genetic mutation to investigate how plasticity processes (through the Baldwin effect) can improve the adaptability of a population

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Facing the Big Sixth: From Prioritizing Species to Conserving Biodiversity

Cited by 7 publications

References 47 publications

Why a Species-Based Approach to Biodiversity Is Not Enough. Lessons from Multispecies Biofilms

Why a Species-Based Approach to Biodiversity Is Not Enough. Lessons from Multispecies Biofilms

The Implications of Global Oil Exploration for the Conservation of Terrestrial Wildlife

Probing the Process-Based Approach to Biodiversity: Can Plasticity Lead to the Emergence of Novel Units of Biodiversity?

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