Species‐level persistence probabilities for recovery and conservation status assessment

Abstract

Recovery planning for species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act has been hampered by a lack of consistency and transparency, which can be improved by implementing a standardized approach for evaluating species status and developing measurable recovery criteria. However, managers lack an assessment method that integrates threat abatement and can be used when demographic data are limited. To help meet these needs, we demonstrated an approach for evaluating species status based on habitat configuration data. We applied 3 established persistence measures (patch occupancy, metapopulation capacity, and proportion of population lost) to compare 2 conservation strategies (critical habitat designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service's Carbonate Habitat Management Strategy) and 2 threat scenarios (maximum limestone mining, removal of all habitat in areas with mining claims; minimum mining, removal of habitat only in areas with existing operations and high-quality ore) against a baseline of existing habitat for 3 federally listed plant species. Protecting all area within the designated critical habitat maintained a similar level (83.9-99.9%) of species persistence as the baseline, whereas maximum mining greatly reduced persistence (0.51-38.4% maintained). The 3 persistence measures provided complementary insights reflecting different aspects of habitat availability (total area, number of patches, patch size, and connectivity). These measures can be used to link recovery criteria developed following the 3 R principles (representation, redundancy, and resilience) to the resulting improvements in species viability. By focusing on amount and distribution of habitat, our method provides a means of assessing the status of data-poor species to inform decision making under the Endangered Species Act.

Predictability of demographic rates based on phylogeny and biological similarity

“…). These habitat changes can then be translated to changes in extinction risk by applying existing models relating area of occupancy to persistence (Che‐Castaldo & Neel ).…”

Revisiting the minimum set cover, the maximal coverage problems and a maximum benefit area selection problem to make climate‐change‐concerned conservation plans effective

“…suitability) and the connectivity (i.e. functional distance) of population cores are important factors to infer persistence of the whole meta‐population (Che‐Castaldo & Neel, 2016; Christopher & Lisa, 2009; Ovaskainen & Hanski, 2003b; Zamborain‐Mason, Russ, Abesamis, Bucol, & Connolly, 2017). Moreover, in such meta‐population models, dispersal fluxes are assumed dependent on the habitat characteristics of the source and destination areas (Hanski & Ovaskainen, 2000).…”

Conservation strategies for endangered arable plant Euphorbia gaditana

“…Because we lacked presence–absence data over time to empirically estimate the parameters of the IFM, we followed the approach described in Che‐Castaldo and Neel (2016). We set e to the smallest patch size observed for E. gaditana ( e = 0.03 ha), assuming that patches smaller than these are not viable.…”

“…However, for many endangered plant species, the lack of long‐term presence–absence data for model parameterization is the rule rather than the exception. Che‐Castaldo and Neel (2016) developed a method to apply these models to such data‐poor situations based on spatial data.…”