Identifying species' characteristics associated with natural population die-offs in mammals

Ameca, Eric I.; Mace, Georgina M.; Cowlishaw, Guy; Pettorelli, Nathalie

doi:10.1111/acv.12053

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Biological traits, including home‐range size (Ameca y Juárez, Mace, Cowlishaw, & Pettorelli, ), and individual demographic factors, including age, are likely to mediate sensitivity to extreme events (Beehner, Onderdonk, Alberts, & Altmann, 2006). For example, older female baboons ( Papio cynocephalus ) in Kenya are less likely to have successful pregnancies during drought (Beehner et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation implications of ecological responses to extreme weather and climate events

Maxwell

Butt

Maron

et al. 2018

Diversity and Distributions

226

162

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Aim Many conservation efforts now focus on mitigating biodiversity loss due to climate change. While a focus on impacts from mean, long‐term changes in climate is warranted, the vast majority of conservation plans largely ignore another key factor of climate change—changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events. A typology of the full range and severity of ecological responses to extreme events would help underpin tracking of their impacts. Location Global. Methods Here, we review 519 observational studies of ecological responses to extreme events between 1941 and 2015. We include responses from amphibians, birds, fish, invertebrates, mammals, plants and reptiles to cyclones, drought, flood, cold waves and heat waves. Results Negative ecological responses were the most commonly reported, accounting for 57% of all documented responses. There were over 100 cases of a >25% population decline and 31 cases of local extirpation. Sixty per cent of the studies in our review observed ecological responses for more than 1 year, and of the studies that monitored species or ecosystem recovery following exposure to an extreme event, 38% showed species or ecosystems did not recover to pre‐disturbance levels. Main conclusions Extreme weather and climate events have profound implications for species and ecosystem management. We discuss current conceptual challenges associated with incorporating extreme events into conservation planning efforts, which include how to quantify species sensitivity and adaptive capacity to extreme events, how to account for interactions between extreme events and other stressors, and how to maximize adaptive capacity to more frequent and intense extreme events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation implications of ecological responses to extreme weather and climate events

Maxwell

Butt

Maron

et al. 2018

Diversity and Distributions

226

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany recovery or reduce the threat to threatened species (Ameca y Juárez et al, 2014). Taking a predictive approach based on an interaction effect that was empirically derived is a major advance.…”

Section: Hotspot Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change modifies risk of global biodiversity loss due to land-cover change

Mantyka‐Pringle

Visconti

Marco

et al. 2015

Biological Conservation

240

127

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a b s t r a c tClimate change and land-cover change will have major impacts on biodiversity persistence worldwide. These two stressors are likely to interact, but how climate change will mediate the effects of land-cover change remains poorly understood. Here we use an empirically-derived model of the interaction between habitat loss and climate to predict the implications of this for biodiversity loss and conservation priorities at a global scale. Risk analysis was used to estimate the risk of biodiversity loss due to alternative future land-cover change scenarios and to quantify how climate change mediates this risk. We demonstrate that the interaction of climate change with land-cover change could increase the impact of land-cover change on birds and mammals by up to 43% and 24% respectively and alter the spatial distribution of threats. Additionally, we show that the ranking of global biodiversity hotspots by threat depends critically on the interaction between climate change and habitat loss. Our study suggests that the investment of conservation resources will likely change once the interaction between climate change and land-cover change is taken into account. We argue that global conservation efforts must take this into account if we are to develop cost-effective conservation policies and strategies under global change.

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“…Quantitative assessments of species' responses to climate change, including extreme climatic events, as a function of intrinsic biology remains an avenue for further development and research. Establishing clear links between traits and species' responses to these threats is fundamental for designing and implementing conservation actions (Albaladejo‐Robles et al., 2023; Ameca et al., 2014). We stress that more field investigations are needed to document species' responses to climate extremes (e.g., through monitoring changes in demography, behaviours, and physiological responses).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the global vulnerability of dryland birds to heatwaves

Ding,

Newbold,

Ameca

2024

Global Change Biology

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As global average surface temperature increases, extreme climatic events such as heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense, which can drive biodiversity responses such as rapid population declines and/or shifts in species distributions and even local extirpations. However, the impacts of extreme climatic events are largely ignored in conservation plans. Birds are known to be susceptible to heatwaves, especially in dryland ecosystems. Understanding which birds are most vulnerable to heatwaves, and where these birds occur, can offer a scientific basis for adaptive management and conservation. We assessed the relative vulnerability of 1196 dryland bird species to heatwaves using a trait‐based approach. Among them, 888 bird species are estimated to be vulnerable to heatwaves (170 highly vulnerable, eight extremely vulnerable), of which ~91% are currently considered non‐threatened by the IUCN, which suggests that many species will likely become newly threatened with intensifying climate change. We identified the top three hotspot areas of heatwave‐vulnerable species in Australia (208 species), Southern Africa (125 species) and Eastern Africa (99 species). Populations of vulnerable species recorded in the Living Planet Database were found to be declining significantly faster than those of non‐vulnerable species (p = .048) after heatwaves occurred. In contrast, no significant difference in population trends between vulnerable and non‐vulnerable species was detected when no heatwave occurred (p = .34). This suggests that our vulnerability framework correctly identified vulnerable species and that heatwaves are already impacting the population trends of these species. Our findings will help prioritize heatwave‐vulnerable birds in dryland ecosystems in risk mitigation and adaptation management as the frequency of heatwaves accelerates in the coming decades.

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Identifying species' characteristics associated with natural population die-offs in mammals

Cited by 11 publications

References 67 publications

Conservation implications of ecological responses to extreme weather and climate events

Conservation implications of ecological responses to extreme weather and climate events

Climate change modifies risk of global biodiversity loss due to land-cover change

Assessing the global vulnerability of dryland birds to heatwaves

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