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- Farooq, Harith, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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The fear factor-Snakes in Africa might be at an alarming extinction risk
- 2024
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Ingår i: CONSERVATION LETTERS. - 1755-263X. ; 17:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Snakes in Africa are responsible for over 20,000 deaths annually, their indiscriminate killing. As a result, snakes are vulnerable to human population increases even at low intensities. Thus, the predicted doubling of Africa's population by 2050 is likely to pose a disproportionate threat to snakes compared to other taxa. Here we quantify the current and future overlap of snake distributions and human population density under three scenarios of population growth. We find that by 2050, on average, 71% of snake ranges of conservation concern will overlap with areas occupied by ten or more people per km2, a 22% increase from 2020. In addition, the number of Least Concern species with most of their range within areas with high human population density will more than double, likely increasing the number of threatened species over the next decades. Our results call for immediate policy action targeting people's perceptions and fears of snakes, and incorporating snakes directly into development and conservation plans to reduce the impact of future urban expansions across Africa.
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| 2. |
- Farooq, Harith, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Threats to reptiles at global and regional scales
- 2024
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Ingår i: CURRENT BIOLOGY. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 34:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reptiles are an important, yet often understudied, taxon in nature conservation. They play a significant role in ecosystems1 1 and can serve as indicators of environmental health, often responding more rapidly to human pressures than other vertebrate groups.2 2 At least 21% of reptiles are currently assessed as threatened with extinction by the IUCN.3 3 However, due to the lack of comprehensive global assessments until recently, they have been omitted from spatial studies addressing conservation or spatial prioritization (e.g., Rosauer et al.,4 4 Fritz and Rahbek,5 5 Farooq et al.,6 6 Meyer et al., 7 and Farooq et al.8). 8 ). One important knowledge gap in conservation is the lack of spatially explicit information on the main threats to biodiversity,9 9 which significantly hampers our ability to respond effectively to the current biodiversity crisis.10,11 10,11 In this study, we calculate the probability of a reptile species in a specific location being affected by one of seven biodiversity threats-agriculture, climate change, hunting, invasive species, logging, pollution, and urbanization. We conducted the analysis at a global scale, using a 50 km 3 50 km grid, and evaluated the impact of these threats by studying their relationship with the risk of extinction. We find that climate change, logging, pollution, and invasive species are most linked to extinction risk. However, we also show that there is considerable geographical variation in these results. Our study highlights the importance of going beyond measuring the intensity of threats to measuring the impact of these separately for various biogeographical regions of the world, with different historical contingencies, as opposed to a single global analysis treating all regions the same.
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| 3. |
- Monadjem, Ara, et al.
(författare)
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Elevation filters bat, rodent and shrew communities differently by morphological traits
- 2024
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Ingår i: Diversity and Distributions. - 1366-9516 .- 1472-4642. ; 30:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: Mountains are geographic features that provide sharp elevational gradients which can accommodate a diversity of terrestrial flora and fauna. In the face of climate change, many of these species are being pushed higher to escape ever-increasing temperatures. Despite this, we have little understanding of how species distribute themselves across mountains. African mountains in particular are less studied than mountains elsewhere and the small mammal groups that inhabit them are also poorly studied when compared to other groups. In this study, we examined the responses of three functionally distinct small mammal taxonomic groups to changes in elevation across Africa. Location: Africa. Methods: We calculated four functional diversity metrics for 166, 97 and 153 communities of rodents, bats and shrews comprising 225, 183 and 109 species, respectively. We employed RLQ and fourth-corner analyses to identify any associations between the functional traits of the small mammals and elevation and other climatic variables. Results: We show that the species richness of the three taxa responded differently to increases in elevation, with only rodents showing a mid-elevational hump. The composition of rodent and bat communities differed significantly in upland versus lowland sites, but bat communities showed far more overlap across the elevational gradient. Functional diversity metrics responded differently for each taxon highlighting the importance of using different taxonomic groups when studying elevational patterns of functional diversity. Main Conclusions: Our study shows that functional divergence increases with elevation in all three taxa, indicating a pervasive and broadly applicable strong environmental filtering at higher elevations. Our findings suggest that species at higher elevations may be at higher risk due to specialization. These species are losing habitat due to ongoing climate change that will force them up the elevational gradient. At the same time, the human population in Africa is predicted to triple in size by the year 2100, which will also likely contribute to further habitat loss and fragmentation. As small mammals often play essential roles in ecosystems, from seed dispersal to soil aeration and predation, understanding the susceptibility of the specialization of species at higher elevations is crucial for the effective conservation and management of mountain ecosystems, especially in light of climatic change and human expansion.
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