Cargando…

Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids

The use of endemism and vascular plants only for biodiversity hotspot delineation has long been contested. Few studies have focused on the efficacy of global biodiversity hotspots for the conservation of insects, an important, abundant, and often ignored component of biodiversity. We aimed to test f...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bazelet, Corinna S., Thompson, Aileen C., Naskrecki, Piotr
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5025148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27631131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160630
_version_ 1782453907425853440
author Bazelet, Corinna S.
Thompson, Aileen C.
Naskrecki, Piotr
author_facet Bazelet, Corinna S.
Thompson, Aileen C.
Naskrecki, Piotr
author_sort Bazelet, Corinna S.
collection PubMed
description The use of endemism and vascular plants only for biodiversity hotspot delineation has long been contested. Few studies have focused on the efficacy of global biodiversity hotspots for the conservation of insects, an important, abundant, and often ignored component of biodiversity. We aimed to test five alternative diversity measures for hotspot delineation and examine the efficacy of biodiversity hotspots for conserving a non-typical target organism, South African katydids. Using a 1° fishnet grid, we delineated katydid hotspots in two ways: (1) count-based: grid cells in the top 10% of total, endemic, threatened and/or sensitive species richness; vs. (2) score-based: grid cells with a mean value in the top 10% on a scoring system which scored each species on the basis of its IUCN Red List threat status, distribution, mobility and trophic level. We then compared katydid hotspots with each other and with recognized biodiversity hotspots. Grid cells within biodiversity hotspots had significantly higher count-based and score-based diversity than non-hotspot grid cells. There was a significant association between the three types of hotspots. Of the count-based measures, endemic species richness was the best surrogate for the others. However, the score-based measure out-performed all count-based diversity measures. Species richness was the least successful surrogate of all. The strong performance of the score-based method for hotspot prediction emphasizes the importance of including species’ natural history information for conservation decision-making, and is easily adaptable to other organisms. Furthermore, these results add empirical support for the efficacy of biodiversity hotspots in conserving non-target organisms.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5025148
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-50251482016-09-27 Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids Bazelet, Corinna S. Thompson, Aileen C. Naskrecki, Piotr PLoS One Research Article The use of endemism and vascular plants only for biodiversity hotspot delineation has long been contested. Few studies have focused on the efficacy of global biodiversity hotspots for the conservation of insects, an important, abundant, and often ignored component of biodiversity. We aimed to test five alternative diversity measures for hotspot delineation and examine the efficacy of biodiversity hotspots for conserving a non-typical target organism, South African katydids. Using a 1° fishnet grid, we delineated katydid hotspots in two ways: (1) count-based: grid cells in the top 10% of total, endemic, threatened and/or sensitive species richness; vs. (2) score-based: grid cells with a mean value in the top 10% on a scoring system which scored each species on the basis of its IUCN Red List threat status, distribution, mobility and trophic level. We then compared katydid hotspots with each other and with recognized biodiversity hotspots. Grid cells within biodiversity hotspots had significantly higher count-based and score-based diversity than non-hotspot grid cells. There was a significant association between the three types of hotspots. Of the count-based measures, endemic species richness was the best surrogate for the others. However, the score-based measure out-performed all count-based diversity measures. Species richness was the least successful surrogate of all. The strong performance of the score-based method for hotspot prediction emphasizes the importance of including species’ natural history information for conservation decision-making, and is easily adaptable to other organisms. Furthermore, these results add empirical support for the efficacy of biodiversity hotspots in conserving non-target organisms. Public Library of Science 2016-09-15 /pmc/articles/PMC5025148/ /pubmed/27631131 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160630 Text en © 2016 Bazelet et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bazelet, Corinna S.
Thompson, Aileen C.
Naskrecki, Piotr
Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids
title Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids
title_full Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids
title_fullStr Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids
title_full_unstemmed Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids
title_short Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids
title_sort testing the efficacy of global biodiversity hotspots for insect conservation: the case of south african katydids
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5025148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27631131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160630
work_keys_str_mv AT bazeletcorinnas testingtheefficacyofglobalbiodiversityhotspotsforinsectconservationthecaseofsouthafricankatydids
AT thompsonaileenc testingtheefficacyofglobalbiodiversityhotspotsforinsectconservationthecaseofsouthafricankatydids
AT naskreckipiotr testingtheefficacyofglobalbiodiversityhotspotsforinsectconservationthecaseofsouthafricankatydids