Threatened and endemic species: are they good indicators of patterns of biodiversity on a national scale?

Endemic and/or threatened species are often targeted to set conservation priorities. It is tempting to assume that a reserve network focusing on these species will be an effective umbrella for overall species richness of a country. Here in South Africa and Lesotho they tested whether complementary networks selected for threatened and/or endemic bird species satisfactorily represent all bird species, both in terms of capturing areas where other species are present or areas where they are more abundant (and, presumably, more viable). They found that areas selected for threatened and endemic species perform considerably better than areas selected at random. However, they do not guarantee the representation of overall bird species diversity, particularly not in peak abundance locations. Although nationally threatened and endemic species are important conservation targets, their results indicate that reserve networks focusing solely on these species may not be sufficient to preserve overall species diversity in a country.

Even though we learned in lecture that <2% of the Earth’s surface contains 60% of the Earth’s species, endemic species might not fully represent overall species diversity in a country…

Shelby Grose

Bonn, Aletta, Anna S. Rodrigues, and Kevin J. Gaston. "Threatened and endemic species: are they good indicators of patterns of biodiversity on a national scale?" Ecology Letters 5.6 Nov. (2002): 733-41. Wiley Online Library. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. .