Conservation priorities in a biodiversity hotspot: analysis of narrow endemic plant species in New Caledonia.

ABSTRACT: New Caledonia is a global biodiversity hotspot facing extreme environmental degradation. Given the urgent need for conservation prioritisation, we have made a first-pass quantitative assessment of the distribution of Narrow Endemic Species (NES) in the flora to identify species and sites that are potentially important for conservation action. We assessed the distributional status of all angiosperm and gymnosperm species using data from taxonomic descriptions and herbarium samples. We characterised species as being NES if they occurred in 3 or fewer locations. In total, 635 of the 2930 assessed species were classed as NES, of which only 150 have been subjected to the IUCN conservation assessment. As the distributional patterns of un-assessed species from one or two locations correspond well

SUBMITTER: Wulff AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3776834 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature