Setting population targets for mammals using body mass as a predictor of population persistence |
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| Authors: | Jelle P Hilbers Aafke M Schipper Cecilia Pinto Carlo Rondinini Mark AJ Huijbregts |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsJoint first authors.;2. Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;3. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Netherlands;4. Centre Manche‐Mer du Nord, Ifremer, France;5. Global Mammal Assessment Program, Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Conservation planning and biodiversity assessments need quantitative targets to optimize planning options and assess the adequacy of current species protection. However, targets aiming at persistence require population‐specific data, which limit their use in favor of fixed and nonspecific targets, likely leading to unequal distribution of conservation efforts among species. We devised a method to derive equitable population targets; that is, quantitative targets of population size that ensure equal probabilities of persistence across a set of species and that can be easily inferred from species‐specific traits. In our method, we used models of population dynamics across a range of life‐history traits related to species’ body mass to estimate minimum viable population targets. We applied our method to a range of body masses of mammals, from 2 g to 3825 kg. The minimum viable population targets decreased asymptotically with increasing body mass and were on the same order of magnitude as minimum viable population estimates from species‐ and context‐specific studies. Our approach provides a compromise between pragmatic, nonspecific population targets and detailed context‐specific estimates of population viability for which only limited data are available. It enables a first estimation of species‐specific population targets based on a readily available trait and thus allows setting equitable targets for population persistence in large‐scale and multispecies conservation assessments and planning. |
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| Keywords: | allometry conservation biology conservation target extinction minimum viable population population viability analysis wildlife wildlife management alometrí a aná lisis de viabilidad poblacional biologí a de la conservació n extinció n manejo de vida silvestre població n mí nima viable objetivo de conservació n vida silvestre |
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