Conservation status and threats for African reptiles. (December 2016)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Conservation status and threats for African reptiles. (December 2016)
- Main Title:
- Conservation status and threats for African reptiles
- Authors:
- Tolley, Krystal A.
Alexander, Graham J.
Branch, William R.
Bowles, Philip
Maritz, Bryan - Abstract:
- Abstract: The assimilation of information on taxonomy, distribution, basic ecology and conservation status of Africa's reptiles lags far behind that for most other continents. Many regions of mainland Africa are rarely surveyed, resulting in severe knowledge gaps that currently limit effective conservation of African reptiles. Here, we provide a précis on the knowledge gaps and conservation status of mainland African reptiles, and quantify the main threats based on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessments using publicly available distribution data. Our results show that these data are insufficient to confidently identify areas of high biodiversity, with large gaps in knowledge in the Horn of Africa, central Africa and West Africa. There is a strong overall taxonomic bias in extinction risk with 45% of families more threatened than expected by chance. Furthermore, Amphisbaenidae, Chameleonidae, Gerrhosauridae, Testudinidae, Viperidae all have a high percentage of their constituent species at risk. Overall, land transformation for agriculture, particularly subsistence farming, constitutes the primary threat to African reptiles, and our derived Threat Index based on socio-economic traits of African countries show that risk is high in Burundi, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These findings highlight important challenges facing the conservation of African reptiles, and we suggest that conservation priorities in mainland Africa be focussed on areas whereAbstract: The assimilation of information on taxonomy, distribution, basic ecology and conservation status of Africa's reptiles lags far behind that for most other continents. Many regions of mainland Africa are rarely surveyed, resulting in severe knowledge gaps that currently limit effective conservation of African reptiles. Here, we provide a précis on the knowledge gaps and conservation status of mainland African reptiles, and quantify the main threats based on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessments using publicly available distribution data. Our results show that these data are insufficient to confidently identify areas of high biodiversity, with large gaps in knowledge in the Horn of Africa, central Africa and West Africa. There is a strong overall taxonomic bias in extinction risk with 45% of families more threatened than expected by chance. Furthermore, Amphisbaenidae, Chameleonidae, Gerrhosauridae, Testudinidae, Viperidae all have a high percentage of their constituent species at risk. Overall, land transformation for agriculture, particularly subsistence farming, constitutes the primary threat to African reptiles, and our derived Threat Index based on socio-economic traits of African countries show that risk is high in Burundi, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These findings highlight important challenges facing the conservation of African reptiles, and we suggest that conservation priorities in mainland Africa be focussed on areas where the potential for overall loss of biodiversity is high, particularly in regions where knowledge is inadequate. Highlights: We interrogate the knowledge gaps that limit our understanding regarding the effective conservation for African reptiles We find that existing spatial data are insufficient to fully understand areas of high conservation value There is a taxonomic bias in extinction risk, and land conversion for agriculture is the primary threat to African reptiles A number of African countries have severe data deficiencies, and are potentially under high threat relating to habitat transformation Incomplete taxonomic knowledge coupled to the deficit of spatial data results in a particularly risky situation for Africa's reptiles … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Biological conservation. Volume 204:Part A(2016)
- Journal:
- Biological conservation
- Issue:
- Volume 204:Part A(2016)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 204, Issue 1 (2016)
- Year:
- 2016
- Volume:
- 204
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2016-0204-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 63
- Page End:
- 71
- Publication Date:
- 2016-12
- Subjects:
- Biodiversity -- Conservation -- Global Reptile Assessment -- Habitat loss -- Species richness
Conservation of natural resources -- Periodicals
Nature conservation -- Periodicals
Ecology -- Periodicals
Environment -- Periodicals
Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals
Electronic journals
333.9516 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00063207 ↗
http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.04.006 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0006-3207
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 2075.100000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 526.xml