The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?

Extinction has increased as human activities impact ecosystems, yet relatively few species have conservation assessments. Novel approaches are needed to highlight threatened species that are currently data-deficient. Many Madagascan plant species have extremely narrow ranges, but this may not have a...

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Autores principales: Helmstetter, Andrew J., Cable, Stuart, Rakotonasolo, Franck, Rabarijaona, Romer, Rakotoarinivo, Mijoro, Eiserhardt, Wolf L., Baker, William J., Papadopulos, Alexander S. T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8456134/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34547905
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0957
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author Helmstetter, Andrew J.
Cable, Stuart
Rakotonasolo, Franck
Rabarijaona, Romer
Rakotoarinivo, Mijoro
Eiserhardt, Wolf L.
Baker, William J.
Papadopulos, Alexander S. T.
author_facet Helmstetter, Andrew J.
Cable, Stuart
Rakotonasolo, Franck
Rabarijaona, Romer
Rakotoarinivo, Mijoro
Eiserhardt, Wolf L.
Baker, William J.
Papadopulos, Alexander S. T.
author_sort Helmstetter, Andrew J.
collection PubMed
description Extinction has increased as human activities impact ecosystems, yet relatively few species have conservation assessments. Novel approaches are needed to highlight threatened species that are currently data-deficient. Many Madagascan plant species have extremely narrow ranges, but this may not have always been the case—it is unclear how the island's diverse flora evolved. To assess this, we generated restriction-site associated DNA sequence data for 10 Madagascan plant species, estimated effective population size (N(e)) for each species and compared this to census (N(c)) sizes. In each case, N(e) was an order of magnitude larger than N(c)—signifying rapid, recent population decline. We then estimated species' demographic history, tracking changes in N(e) over time. We show that it is possible to predict extinction risk, particularly in the most threatened species. Furthermore, simulations showed that our approach has the power to detect population decline during the Anthropocene. Our analyses reveal that Madagascar's micro-endemics were not always rare, having experienced a rapid decline in their recent history. This casts further uncertainty over the processes that generated Madagascar's exceptional biodiversity. Our approach targets data-deficient species in need of conservation assessment, particularly in regions where human modification of the environment has been rapid.
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spelling pubmed-84561342021-10-19 The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare? Helmstetter, Andrew J. Cable, Stuart Rakotonasolo, Franck Rabarijaona, Romer Rakotoarinivo, Mijoro Eiserhardt, Wolf L. Baker, William J. Papadopulos, Alexander S. T. Proc Biol Sci Evolution Extinction has increased as human activities impact ecosystems, yet relatively few species have conservation assessments. Novel approaches are needed to highlight threatened species that are currently data-deficient. Many Madagascan plant species have extremely narrow ranges, but this may not have always been the case—it is unclear how the island's diverse flora evolved. To assess this, we generated restriction-site associated DNA sequence data for 10 Madagascan plant species, estimated effective population size (N(e)) for each species and compared this to census (N(c)) sizes. In each case, N(e) was an order of magnitude larger than N(c)—signifying rapid, recent population decline. We then estimated species' demographic history, tracking changes in N(e) over time. We show that it is possible to predict extinction risk, particularly in the most threatened species. Furthermore, simulations showed that our approach has the power to detect population decline during the Anthropocene. Our analyses reveal that Madagascar's micro-endemics were not always rare, having experienced a rapid decline in their recent history. This casts further uncertainty over the processes that generated Madagascar's exceptional biodiversity. Our approach targets data-deficient species in need of conservation assessment, particularly in regions where human modification of the environment has been rapid. The Royal Society 2021-09-29 2021-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8456134/ /pubmed/34547905 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0957 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolution
Helmstetter, Andrew J.
Cable, Stuart
Rakotonasolo, Franck
Rabarijaona, Romer
Rakotoarinivo, Mijoro
Eiserhardt, Wolf L.
Baker, William J.
Papadopulos, Alexander S. T.
The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
title The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
title_full The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
title_fullStr The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
title_full_unstemmed The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
title_short The demographic history of Madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
title_sort demographic history of madagascan micro-endemics: have rare species always been rare?
topic Evolution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8456134/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34547905
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0957
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