Identifying conservation priorities of a pantropical plant lineage: a case study in Scleria (Cyperaceae).
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2847-Texto_del_art%C3%ADculo-15661-5-10-20250323.pdf
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840.52 KB
Format
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Resource type
Journal article
Date published
March 9, 2025
Abstract
Scleria is a pantropical genus of annual and perennial herbs and the sixth largest genus in the Cyperaceae family with around 261 species. In this study, we produced preliminary extinction risk assessments for the ~30% of Scleria species that do not yet have a global Red List assessment and followed the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE2) and Ecologically Distinct and Globally Endangered (EoDGE) protocols to identify evolutionary and ecologically unique Scleria species at greatest risk of extinction and hotspots of rare and endangered species. Our results indicate that 38 of the 78 Scleria species not yet included in the Red List, and 26% of species in the genus, are potentially threatened with extinction. The risk of extinction is not equally distributed across the phylogeny, and the Afrotropics and the Neotropics accumulate most threatened species. Eleven ecoregions mostly from four African (Madagascar, D.R. Congo, Zambia and Tanzania) and two South American (Brazil, Venezuela) countries accumulate almost half of Scleria species and stand out in terms of their sum of EDGE2 scores. Phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness metrics were largely uncorrelated, and the EcoDGE metric mostly points towards South American countries as reservoirs of ecologically distinctive and endangered species: Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Guyana and Dominican Republic. Recent methodological advances in the identification of species at-risk of extinction and the novel EDGE2 framework emerge as powerful tools to identify conservation priorities.
Project(s)
Priority 4: Accelerated Taxonomy
Priority 1: Ecosystem Stewardship
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
Asociación Española de Ecología Terrestre, Spain | |
ACOM LAB (Agrocomponentes), Spain | |
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain | Margarita Salas fellowship |
European Union | European Union-Next Generation Plan (MSALAS-2022-22319) |
Journal title
Ecosistemas
Volume
34
Issue
1
Article number
2847
Publisher
Asociacion Espanola de Ecologia Terrestre (AEET)
Place of publication
Madrid, Spain
eISSN
1697-2473
Date accepted
February 5, 2025
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
IF = 0.8 (2023)