IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-10284-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Projected losses of global mammal and bird ecological strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Robert S. C. Cooke

    (University of Southampton
    University of Southampton
    Marwell Wildlife, Thompson’s Lane, Colden Common)

  • Felix Eigenbrod

    (University of Southampton
    University of Southampton)

  • Amanda E. Bates

    (Memorial University of Newfoundland
    University of Southampton)

Abstract

Species, and their ecological strategies, are disappearing. Here we use species traits to quantify the current and projected future ecological strategy diversity for 15,484 land mammals and birds. We reveal an ecological strategy surface, structured by life-history (fast–slow) and body mass (small–large) as one major axis, and diet (invertivore–herbivore) and habitat breadth (generalist–specialist) as the other. We also find that of all possible trait combinations, only 9% are currently realized. Based on species’ extinction probabilities, we predict this limited set of viable strategies will shrink further over the next 100 years, shifting the mammal and bird species pool towards small, fast-lived, highly fecund, insect-eating, generalists. In fact, our results show that this projected decline in ecological strategy diversity is much greater than if species were simply lost at random. Thus, halting the disproportionate loss of ecological strategies associated with highly threatened animals represents a key challenge for conservation.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert S. C. Cooke & Felix Eigenbrod & Amanda E. Bates, 2019. "Projected losses of global mammal and bird ecological strategies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10284-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10284-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10284-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-10284-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rob Cooke & Ferran Sayol & Tobias Andermann & Tim M. Blackburn & Manuel J. Steinbauer & Alexandre Antonelli & Søren Faurby, 2023. "Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Jean C. Bikomeye & Sima Namin & Chima Anyanwu & Caitlin S. Rublee & Jamie Ferschinger & Ken Leinbach & Patricia Lindquist & August Hoppe & Lawrence Hoffman & Justin Hegarty & Dwayne Sperber & Kirsten , 2021. "Resilience and Equity in a Time of Crises: Investing in Public Urban Greenspace Is Now More Essential Than Ever in the US and Beyond," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-39, August.
    3. Mariana Munguía-Carrara, 2020. "From Human-Wildlife Conflicts to Human- Wildlife Coexistence in Anthropocene Landscapes," Agricultural Research & Technology: Open Access Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 24(4), pages 140-144, June.
    4. R. C. Rodríguez-Caro & E. Graciá & S. P. Blomberg & H. Cayuela & M. Grace & C. P. Carmona & H. A. Pérez-Mendoza & A. Giménez & R. Salguero-Gómez, 2023. "Anthropogenic impacts on threatened species erode functional diversity in chelonians and crocodilians," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10284-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.