Do biodiversity hotspots match with rodent conservation hotspots?

Abstract

Biodiversity hotspots are used widely to designate priority regions for conservation efforts. It is unknown, however, whether the current network of hotspots adequately represents globally threatened taxonomic diversity for whole plant and animal groups. We used a mammalian group traditionally neglected in terms of conservation efforts, the rodents, in order to test whether biodiversity hotspots match the current distribution of threatened taxa (genera and species). Significantly higher numbers of threatened rodent genera and species fell within biodiversity hotspots; nonetheless over 25% of the total threatened genera and species did not occur in any biodiversity hotspot. This was particularly true for the Australian region, where 100% of the threatened genera and species fell outside biodiversity hotspots, with many threatened taxa found in Papua-New Guinea. We suggest to officially including Papua New Guinea among biodiversity hotspots for rodents, and also the steppic/semidesert areas of central Asia.