New shortcut for conservation: The combination management strategy of “keystone species” plus “umbrella species” based on food web structure

Abstract

In our protection efforts, it is urgently needed to adopt precise and efficient management measures to address the challenges brought by biodiversity loss. Keystone and umbrella species are one of the most widely used surrogate species concepts. Keystone species often determine the stability of food web. Umbrella species, often the top predators and further influencing the integrity of the food web. Conservation efforts relying on a single surrogate species often face limitations. In order to seek complementary and optimized management strategies, we innovatively combining the concepts of two surrogate species, propose the hypothesis that “keystone species plus umbrella species reflect the stability and integrity of the food web respectively, so the combination of them is the most suitable combination for the overall protection of the food web”, and conducted validation research in a typical herbaceous marsh ecosystem. We constructed a typical food web model by using stable isotope, centrality indices and umbrella species strength index were used to quantitatively determine the keystone and umbrella species. Finally, we randomly paired nodes within the food web and remove different node pairs to investigate the impact of removal on the robustness of the food web, further validate the hypothesis. Our results indicated that when the node pair of “aquatic insects (keystone species) and top predatory catfish (Silurus asotus) (umbrella species)” was removed, the network efficiency reached its lowest point. This result confirmed our hypothesis, proposed a novel combination management strategy, which contribute to the development of more efficient and comprehensive biodiversity conservation decisions.