Specialist and generalist species in habitat use: implications for conservation assessment in snakes

Segura, Carmen; Feriche, Mónica; Pleguezuelos, Juan M.; Santos, Xavier

doi:10.1080/00222930701664203

Cited by 61 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…1 & 2). Species with a narrow and fragmented geographical range (Hanski 1982;Korkeamäki & Suhonen 2002;Segura et al 2007) and occurring in low-quality habitats (e.g., Thomas et al 1996;Johnson 2004;Suhonen et al 2010) have been reported to be sensitive to environmental changes.Several previous studies show that species with limited ecological and geographical range size are vulnerable to extinction (e.g., Johnson 1998;Purvis et al 2000a;Collen et al 2011). Locally, common species become widely distributed because of their low-extinction and high-colonization rates (e.g., Hanski & Gyllenberg 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of Local Extinction of Odonata Freshwater Habitat Generalists and Specialists

Suhonen

Korkeamäki

Salmela

et al. 2014

Conservation Biology

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Understanding the risk of a local extinction in a single population relative to the habitat requirements of a species is important in both theoretical and applied ecology. Local extinction risk depends on several factors, such as habitat requirements, range size of species, and habitat quality. We studied the local extinctions among 31 dragonfly and damselfly species from 1930 to 1975 and from 1995 to 2003 in Central Finland. We tested whether habitat specialists had a higher local extinction rate than generalist species. Approximately 30% of the local dragonfly and damselfly populations were extirpated during the 2 study periods. The size of the geographical range of the species was negatively related to extinction rate of the local populations. In contrast to our prediction, the specialist species had lower local extinction rates than the generalist species, probably because generalist species occurred in both low- and high-quality habitat. Our results are consistent with source-sink theory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of Local Extinction of Odonata Freshwater Habitat Generalists and Specialists

Suhonen

Korkeamäki

Salmela

et al. 2014

Conservation Biology

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“…4 Percentage of P. hispanica and P. algirus in a macrohabitat and b microhabitat types in burnt and unburnt sites features of snakes are unknown, many species combine several traits such as low fecundity, retarded sexual maturity, and small population size, making them vulnerable to extinction (Webb et al 2002). Within snakes, specialist species in the habitat use are more threatened than generalist species (Segura et al 2007), and ambush predators snakes are more commonly threatened than active foragers (Reed and Shine 2002). Within the snake assemblage in the Natural Park, V. latastei is the only ambush predator and the most ecological specialist (Santos et al 2006), factors that probably would explain why it was found more frequently in unburnt than in burnt habitats ( Table 1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological succession and habitat attributes affect the postfire response of a Mediterranean reptile community

Santos¹,

Poquet²

2010

Eur J Wildl Res

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Wildfires are recognized as natural disturbances that have shaped landscape structure and ecosystem composition in many regions of the world. As ectotherms, many Mediterranean reptiles are expected to benefit from the thermal quality of open areas created by fires. However, not all the reptile species respond positively to this pattern. We have explored the response to fire of a Mediterranean reptile community in a protected area of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. We visually searched for reptiles at 102 sites, including unburnt, recently burnt (2003), and old burnt (1985)(1986) localities. The number of reptiles and species richness was higher at burnt sites, and both were related to several variables of the habitat structure. Accordingly, between the two most common species in recently burnt sites, Podarcis hispanica declined in old fire habitats whereas Psammodromus algirus did not. Snakes did not differ between burnt and unburnt areas, although the ambush predator viper Vipera latastei was found more frequently in unburnt habitats. Our results imply that there are different succession trajectories for Mediterranean reptile species according to their habitat preferences, life history traits, and dietary specialization. The study area has been drastically human-altered in the last 100 years by agriculture, pine reforestation, agricultural abandonment, and wildfires. These land use changes drastically alter the vegetation cover, favoring some reptiles and damaging others, and finally can promote local extinctions of sensitive species to habitat shifts.

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“…For reptiles and amphibians, the literature on dispersal rates is sparse. However, Segura et al 49 found that snakes have limited dispersal abilities, and Araujo et al 50 with the observed temperature change, and thus providing a lower limit to the potential dispersal rate. However, dispersal in lizards could be inhibited by temperature rise 52 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss

et al. 2013

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Climate change is expected to have significant influences on terrestrial biodiversity at 21all system levels, including species-level reductions in range size and abundance, 22 especially amongst endemic species 1-6 . However, little is known about how mitigation of 23 greenhouse gas emissions could reduce biodiversity impacts, particularly amongst 24 common and widespread species. Our global analysis of future climatic range change of 25 common and widespread species shows that without mitigation, 57±6% of plants and 26 adaptation. 34The IPCC 3 estimates that 20-30% of species would be at increasingly high risk of 35 extinction if global temperature rise exceeds 2-3°C above pre-industrial levels. However, 36 since quantitative assessments of the benefits of mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss are 37 lacking, we know little about how much of the impacts can be offset by reductions in 38 greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, despite the large number of studies addressing 39 extinction risks in particular species groups, we know little about the broader issue of 40 potential range loss in common and widespread species, which is of serious concern as even 41 small declines in such species can significantly disrupt ecosystem structure, function and 42 services 7 . 43Here we quantify the benefits of mitigation in terms of reduced climatic range losses 44 in common and widespread species, and determine the time early mitigation action can "buy" 45 3 for adaptation. In particular, we provide (i) a comprehensive analysis of potential climatic 46 range changes for 48,786 animal and plant species across the globe, using the same set of 47 global climate change scenarios for all species; and (ii) a direct comparison of projected 48 levels of potential climate change impacts on the climatic ranges of species in six 21 st century 49 mitigation scenarios, including a 'no policy' baseline scenario in which emissions continue to 50 rise unabated (Fig. 1, Table 1). To calculate the climatic range changes, we employed 51MaxEnt, one of the most robust bioclimatic modelling approaches for cases where only 52 presence data (as opposed to presence-absence) are available 8 . MaxEnt models the 53 probability of a species' presence, conditioned on environment 8 so that in this paper 'climatic 54 range change' specifically refers to the change in the modelled probability of a species' 55 occurrence, conditioned on climatic variables. Eighty percent of the species studied have 56 climatic ranges in excess of 30,000 km 2 , which is the range size used by Bird Life 57International to delineate 'restricted range species', whilst less than 7% have ranges 58 occupying less than 20,000 km 2 ( Supplementary Fig. S1). Our study therefore focuses on 59 quantifying the effects on widespread species, which are in general more common and less 60 likely to become extinct than restricted range species 9 , in contrast to previous studies that 61 have only speculated that there may be effects such species [1][2][3][4][5][6] . In projecting future...

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Specialist and generalist species in habitat use: implications for conservation assessment in snakes

Cited by 61 publications

References 22 publications

Risk of Local Extinction of Odonata Freshwater Habitat Generalists and Specialists

Risk of Local Extinction of Odonata Freshwater Habitat Generalists and Specialists

Ecological succession and habitat attributes affect the postfire response of a Mediterranean reptile community

Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss

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