title: The biogeography of globally threatened seabirds and island conservation opportunities.
abstract: Seabirds are the most threatened group of marine animals; 29% of species are at some risk of extinction. Significant threats to seabirds occur on islands where they breed, but in many cases, effective island conservation can mitigate these threats. To guide island-based seabird conservation actions, we identified all islands with extant or extirpated populations of the 98 globally threatened seabird species, as recognized on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, and quantified the presence of threatening invasive species, protected areas, and human populations. We matched these results with island attributes to highlight feasible island conservation opportunities. We identified 1362 threatened breeding seabird populations on 968 islands. On 803 (83%) of these islands, we identified threatening invasive species (20%), incomplete protected area coverage (23%), or both (40%). Most islands with threatened seabirds are amenable to island-wide conservation action because they are small (57% were <1 km(2) ), uninhabited (74%), and occur in high- or middle-income countries (96%). Collectively these attributes make islands with threatened seabirds a rare opportunity for effective conservation at scale.
authors.affiliation: Coastal Conservation Action Lab, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Dena R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Spatz
authors.forename: Kelly M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.forename: Reina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.forename: Bernie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tershy
authors.forename: Nick D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: Stuart H M
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Butchart
authors.forename: Donald A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Croll
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D056727:Endangered Species; D058865:Introduced Species; D062312:Islands
keywords: biogeografía; biogeography; conservación de islas; endangered species; especies en peligro; especies invasoras; global conservation planning; invasive species; island conservation; planeación de la conservación global; protected areas; áreas protegidas