Use of surrogate species to cost-effectively prioritize conservation actions.

ABSTRACT: Conservation efforts often focus on umbrella species whose distributions overlap with many other flora and fauna. However, because biodiversity is affected by different threats that are spatially variable, focusing only on the geographic range overlap of species may not be sufficient in allocating the necessary actions needed to efficiently abate threats. We developed a problem-based method for prioritizing conservation actions for umbrella species that maximizes the total number of flora and fauna benefiting from management while considering threats, actions, and costs. We tested our new method by assessing the performance of the Australian federal government's umbrella prioritization list, which identifies 73 umbrella species as priorities for conservation attention. Our results show tha

SUBMITTER: Ward M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7318674 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature