Fiddling in biodiversity hotspots while deserts burn? Collapse of the Sahara's megafauna

Abstract

Biodiversity hotspots understandably attract considerable conservation attention. However, deserts are rarely viewed as conservation priority areas, due to their relatively low productivity, yet these systems are home to unique species, adapted to harsh and highly variable environments. While global attention has been focused on hotspots, the world's largest tropical desert, the Sahara, has suffered a catastrophic decline in megafauna. Of 14 large vertebrates that have historically occurred in the region, four are now extinct in the wild, including the iconic scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah). The majority has disappeared from more than 90% of their Saharan range, including addax (Addax nasomaculatus), dama gazelle (Nanger dama) and Saharan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) -all now on the brink of extinction. Greater conservation support and scientific attention for the region might have helped to avert these catastrophic declines. The Sahara serves as an example of a wider historical neglect of deserts and the human communities who depend on them. The scientific community can make an important contribution to conservation in deserts by establishing baseline information on biodiversity and developing new approaches to sustainable management of desert species and ecosystems. Such approaches must accommodate mobility of both people and wildlife so that they can use resources most efficiently in the face of low and unpredictable rainfall. This is needed to enable governments to deliver on their commitments to halt further degradation of deserts and to improve their status for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Only by so-doing will deserts be able to support resilient ecosystems and communities that are best able to adapt to climate change.

Precipitation quantity and timing affect native plant production and growth of a key herbivore, the desert tortoise, in the Mojave Desert

“…Desert ecosystems, which are characterized by extreme water scarcity, are expected to be disproportionately affected by climate change [24,62]. Desert inhabitants have many specialized traits that allow them to persist despite regular water deficits [63].…”

Oil in the Sahara: mapping anthropogenic threats to Saharan biodiversity from space

“…Owing to limited funding and conservation attention [14][15][16], little is currently known about the location and intensity of rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans.…”

“…Deserts are one such biome that has previously been poorly studied and has received little attention from conservation activities [14,15], despite covering 17% of global land mass and harbouring surprisingly high levels of biological diversity, including many endemic species and some of the most endangered species in the world [17 -20]. This neglect is worrying as (i) available information suggests that desert and dryland biodiversity is declining rapidly [14,[18][19][20][21][22]; and (ii) predictions show that the rate of climate change is likely to be particularly high in the desert biome, with species potentially facing especially difficult adaptation challenges in the near future [23].…”

“…This neglect is worrying as (i) available information suggests that desert and dryland biodiversity is declining rapidly [14,[18][19][20][21][22]; and (ii) predictions show that the rate of climate change is likely to be particularly high in the desert biome, with species potentially facing especially difficult adaptation challenges in the near future [23]. This is of particular concern, as the ecology and distribution of desert-adapted species are under extreme climatic control [24].…”

Biophysical Characterization of Protected Areas Globally through Optimized Image Segmentation and Classification

“…Species data at the global scale might be biased due to differential sampling efforts related to location or taxa, whereas remote sensing data about habitats can be obtained more systematically and globally [38][39][40].…”