Setting population targets for mammals using body mass as a predictor of population persistence.
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.
Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Jelle P
JP
Hilbers
Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|Global Mammal Assessment Program, Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale dell'Università 32, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Luca
L
Santini
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY, U.K.|Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, U.K.
Piero
P
Visconti
Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, P.O. Box 30314 NL-2500 GH, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Aafke M
AM
Schipper
Centre Manche-Mer du Nord, Ifremer, 150 quai Gambetta, BP 699, 62321, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.
Cecilia
C
Pinto
Global Mammal Assessment Program, Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale dell'Università 32, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Carlo
C
Rondinini
Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, P.O. Box 30314 NL-2500 GH, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Mark A J
MA
Huijbregts
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D008322:Mammals; D011157:Population Dynamics
allometry; alometría; análisis de viabilidad poblacional; biología de la conservación; conservation biology; conservation target; extinción; extinction; manejo de vida silvestre; minimum viable population; objetivo de conservación; población mínima viable; population viability analysis; vida silvestre; wildlife; wildlife management