bioRxiv | PREPRINT
Read
30 years of satellite data show imperiled species are most vulnerable to habitat loss on private lands
Abstract
ABSTRACT To stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity, there is an urgent need to distinguish effective and ineffective approaches to protecting species and their habitats. Conservation laws may be strong on paper but ineffective in practice, or vary in effectiveness across different contexts, such as different land ownership and management settings. Using Google Earth Engine and 30 years of Landsat satellite images, we quantify annual habitat change for 24 species on the U.S. Endangered Species List and IUCN Red List across different categories of land ownership, such as federal, state, and private. We show that imperiled species lost very little habitat on federal lands (3.6%), while losses on non-protected private lands (8.1%) were twice as great. Patterns of loss suggest that listing species under the Endangered Species Act was one mechanism limiting habitat loss, and that the law was most effective on federal lands. These results emphasize the importance of federal lands for protecting habitat for imperiled species, but also highlight the need to improve habitat protection on private lands for long-term conservation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We provide the first large-scale, long-term analysis of imperiled species habitat loss under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Scientists have historically lacked the tools to evaluate patterns of habitat loss at large spatial and temporal scales, and instead focused on small-scale case studies that are insufficient for informing national policy debates. Our results substantiate the import...
Round-ups are the summaries of handpicked papers around trending topics published every week. These would enable you to scan through a collection of papers and decide if the paper is relevant to you before actually investing time into reading it.
Climate change Research Articles published between Jun 13, 2022 to Jun 19, 2022
Understanding the effects of the snow ratio on glacier mass balance under variable climatic conditions is crucial for predicting how glaciers will res...
Read MoreGood health Research Articles published between Jun 13, 2022 to Jun 19, 2022
In West Africa, the various types of diabetes according to WHO or the American Diabetes Association (ADA) are endemic; a particular type referred to a...
Read MoreGender Equality Research Articles published between Jun 13, 2022 to Jun 19, 2022
This study aims to evaluate changes in the presence of women on Spanish boards after the Unified Good Governance Code of Listed Companies (2006) and t...
Read More