Assessing Global Efforts in the Selection of Vertebrates as Umbrella Species for Conservation

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Conservation funds and resources have long been globally inadequate, and methods that could maximize conservation outcomes with limited investment, such as umbrella-species strategies, are thus needed to address the current biodiversity crisis. In this study, we summarized 242 published scientific articles and found 213 terrestrial vertebrates that were recommended as umbrella species. We summarized global trends in umbrella species selection and research during the past four decades, with North America, Europe, and Asia over-representing umbrella-related studies, and thus, more umbrella species recommendations have occurred in the Northern Hemisphere. Generally, there has been a bias toward recommending bird and mammal species, wide-ranging species, and non-threatened species, such as umbrellas, and grouses (order Galliformes) and large carnivores have often been recommended as umbrellas across different continents by multiple studies. Given observed biases and trends, we raise concerns about neglecting amphibians and reptiles, the over-preference for wide-ranging and non-threatened species, and recommend little-known species. We argue that conservation umbrella strategies can be cost-effective and successful given that appropriate species are chosen in the right location, and our findings could inform future conservation research and practices using conservation umbrella strategies. ABSTRACT: The umbrella-species strategy has been proposed as an attainable tool to achieve multi-species and community conservation with limited investment. There have been many umbrella-related studies since the concept’s inception; thus, a summary of global study efforts and recommended umbrella species is important for understanding advances in the field and facilitating conservation applications. Here, we collated 213 recommended umbrella species of terrestrial vertebrates from 242 scientific articles published during 1984–2021 and analyzed their geographic patterns, biological features, and conservation statuses to identify global trends in the selection of umbrella species. We found a considerable geographic bias: most studies and, consequently, recommended umbrella species are from the Northern Hemisphere. There is also a strong taxonomic bias, with grouses (order Galliformes) and large carnivores being the most popular umbrella species and amphibians and reptiles being largely overlooked. In addition, wide-ranging and non-threatened species were frequently recommended as umbrella species. Given the observed biases and trends, we caution that appropriate species need to be chosen for each location, and it is important to confirm that popular, wide-ranging species are effective umbrella species. Moreover, amphibians and reptiles should be investigated for their potential as umbrella species. The umbrella-species strategy has many strengths and, if applied appropriately, may be one of the best options in today’s conservation research and funding landscape.