Rates Of Species Loss Research Articles

Predicting the responses of European grassland communities to climate and land cover change.

European grasslands are among the most species-rich ecosystems on small spatial scales. However, human-induced activities like land use and climate change pose significant threats to this diversity. To explore how climate and land cover change will affect biodiversity and community composition in grassland ecosystems, we conducted joint species distribution models (SDMs) on the extensive vegetation-plot database sPlotOpen to project distributions of 1178 grassland species across Europe under current conditions and three future scenarios. We further compared model accuracy and computational efficiency between joint SDMs (JSDMs) and stacked SDMs, especially for rare species. Our results show that: (i) grassland communities in the mountain ranges are expected to suffer high rates of species loss, while those in western, northern and eastern Europe will experience substantial turnover; (ii) scaling anomalies were observed in the predicted species richness, reflecting regional differences in the dominant drivers of assembly processes; (iii) JSDMs did not outperform stacked SDMs in predictive power but demonstrated superior efficiency in model fitting and predicting; and (iv) incorporating co-occurrence datasets improved the model performance in predicting the distribution of rare species. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere'.

Does trade openness aggravate embodied species loss?: Evidence from the belt and road countries

Along with the evolution of the international division of labor, trade openness is increasingly affecting species diversity in a profound way, driving an accelerated loss of species diversity. However, current research rarely discusses the mechanism of action between the two. To fill this gap, this paper based on the input and output model quantified the trade-off between economic efficiency and species diversity in global supply chain by centering on a dynamic evolution of embodied species loss driven by trade openness. The results show that effect coefficients of trade openness on embodied species loss is positive which means trade openness exacerbates the level of species loss; Regression results distinguishing the stages of species loss show that increasing the level of trade openness can exacerbate species loss in samples with higher levels of loss. Heterogeneity analysis finds that increased trade openness in developing economies can exacerbate the rate of species loss. Mechanistic tests find that trade openness affects species loss mainly by enhancing the level of technological progress and mitigating the size of the labor force; Machine learning models reveal a nonlinear trend of trade openness on species loss. This paper proposes relevant policy implications: countries should correctly balance the relationship between trade openness and species loss, focus on optimizing the structure of import and export trade, and reduce species loss while improving the trade openness system.

Molecular Characterization of Pollinators in Cotton Ecosystem

DNA barcoding using cytochrome c oxidase I (mtCO1) for molecular characterization is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an insect DNA to identify a species, including an unknown species. The coming-to-light of this identification tool is timely when we are facing perhaps the greatest rate of species loss in recent millennia. This study contributes to increasing the number of published accounts of DNA barcoding and accurately distinguishing the pollinator fauna of cotton in Punjab, India. The mtCOI region of all the samples was amplified, cloned and the nucleotide sequences were determined and analyzed. This study reveals that specimens collected in cotton belong to order Hymenoptera and Diptera. Hymenopterans include Apis dorsata, Apis florea, Xylocopa fenestrata, Sceliphron madraspatanum and Polistes wattii. Dipterns include Eristalinus quinquelineatus and Musca convexifrons.

GABI-I: The global ant biodiversity informatics-island database.

Island systems are known to harbor disproportionate amounts of geographically restricted biodiversity and to experience high rates of species loss, and they ultimately represent critical systems with significant conservation values. However, knowledge of the biodiversity value of insular systems remains highly fragmented and incomplete for many groups of organisms, especially insects. This gap limits our understanding of their global significance for biodiversity and inhibits prioritization for future exploration and conservation efforts. Here, we developed a new database to present current knowledge on ants on 2678 islands globally, based on nominal species, and provide information on their native or exotic status. In total, this database contains 7010 ant species (44.6% of the known global ant fauna) that have been recorded on islands globally from 449,232 records. In addition, this database identifies 108 large islands (area > 200 km2 ) that have received no ant sampling efforts globally. This new data set provides the most comprehensive understanding of ant diversity and composition on islands globally, opening up new opportunities to address questions on a multitude of research questions and fields related to biogeography, ecology, and evolution. This data set also provides a roadmap for future exploration and conservation actions in connection with ants on islands as well as overall ant diversity, with updates available as new records and taxonomic updates are published. There are no copyright restrictions on this database and users should cite this data paper in publications when using the data.

Prioritising river stretches using multi-modelling habitat suitability of Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica) as a flagship species for aquatic biodiversity conservation in the Ganga River Basin, India

Globally, the river ecosystems are threatened due to human-driven exploitation and indiscriminate resource use. The rate of species loss is a magnitude higher in these ecosystems, hence, identifying conservation priority areas as refugia, using the flagship-cum-indicator species approach can aid in long-term conservation of multiple species and ensure uninterrupted functioning of ecological processes. For effective conservation planning, we derived the site occupancy and abundance of Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica) as a flagship species in the Ganga River Basin, and modelled their distribution vis-à-vis river conditions for identifying Conservation Priority Stretches (CPS). The study incorporates the first-ever basin-wide (4635 km river) Gangetic dolphin (GD) sightings to estimate range decline, abundance, and identify CPS of select rivers in the Basin. A total of 2151 sightings of surfacing dolphins with mean encounter rate of 0.55 ± 0.09 sightings/km of the river was observed from the surveyed stretch. The GD encounter rate varied significantly across the surveyed rivers (Analysis of Variance, F = 3.08, p < 0.001). We estimated 24.37 % decline in the dolphin distribution range in the basin since 19th Century. The estimated population size of the dolphin in the Basin was 3330 individuals ± 620 individuals (Confidence Interval 95 % = 2304–4668; Coefficient of Variance = 18.61) which varied across the river. The site occupancy and abundance were best predicted by channel depth (β = 0.82 ± 0.46), meanders (β = 02.56 ± 0.87) and individual rivers, whereas channel width (β = 0.11 ± 0.08) and survey efforts influenced detection probabilities. Further, we identified 610 km (12.2 %) of river stretches as high CPS in the Basin based on the prediction probability (≥0.70) of GD. Protection of these stretches is likely to ensure sustained reproduction of GD and provide refugia for other threatened species of the Ganga River and its tributaries, which is under increasing anthropogenic pressure.

Predicting diversity changes in subalpine moorland ecosystems based on geometry of species distributions and realistic area loss

AbstractQuestionHow does plant species richness respond to simulated area loss based on the realistic geometry of area loss in subalpine moorland ecosystems?LocationHakkoda mountain range, Aomori, Japan.MethodsWe constructed species distribution models based on relationships between species distributions and environmental conditions in subalpine moorland ecosystems. We then simulated moorland area loss based on the realistic geometry of area loss from the past (1967) to the present (2019) to predict future changes in plant diversity. Here, we defined the realistic geometry of area loss as the plausible spatial pattern of future habitat loss. Finally, we analyzed how the rate of species loss in response to the realistic area loss can be explained by a range of factors including spatial patterns in species distributions, total number of species present, and environmental variables for the focal moorland.ResultsWithin each moorland site, areas prone or those less prone to be lost were distributed non‐randomly at a local scale. In general, the patterns of species loss caused by the realistic area loss differed from those caused by random area loss. At most sites, realistic area loss caused a relatively small decline in species richness up to a certain threshold of area loss, and accelerating decline thereafter. None of the factors can explain the rate of decrease in species richness caused by the realistic area loss. At the species level, however, species with lower occurrence rates at a given site can be lost earlier than those with higher occurrence rates by the realistic area loss.ConclusionsPatterns of habitat loss and species distributions are not spatially random, and the classical approach based on the species–area relationship assuming random area loss can thus either under‐ or overestimate the risk of species loss.

The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation?

There have been five Mass Extinction events in the history of Earth's biodiversity, all caused by dramatic but natural phenomena. It has been claimed that the Sixth Mass Extinction may be underway, this time caused entirely by humans. Although considerable evidence indicates that there is a biodiversity crisis of increasing extinctions and plummeting abundances, some do not accept that this amounts to a Sixth Mass Extinction. Often, they use the IUCN Red List to support their stance, arguing that the rate of species loss does not differ from the background rate. However, the Red List is heavily biased: almost all birds and mammals but only a minute fraction of invertebrates have been evaluated against conservation criteria. Incorporating estimates of the true number of invertebrate extinctions leads to the conclusion that the rate vastly exceeds the background rate and that we may indeed be witnessing the start of the Sixth Mass Extinction. As an example, we focus on molluscs, the second largest phylum in numbers of known species, and, extrapolating boldly, estimate that, since around AD 1500, possibly as many as 7.5-13% (150,000-260,000) of all ~2 million known species have already gone extinct, orders of magnitude greater than the 882 (0.04%) on the Red List. We review differences in extinction rates according to realms: marine species face significant threats but, although previous mass extinctions were largely defined by marine invertebrates, there is no evidence that the marine biota has reached the same crisis as the non-marine biota. Island species have suffered far greater rates than continental ones. Plants face similar conservation biases as do invertebrates, although there are hints they may have suffered lower extinction rates. There are also those who do not deny an extinction crisis but accept it as a new trajectory of evolution, because humans are part of the natural world; some even embrace it, with a desire to manipulate it for human benefit. We take issue with these stances. Humans are the only species able to manipulate the Earth on a grand scale, and they have allowed the current crisis to happen. Despite multiple conservation initiatives at various levels, most are not species oriented (certain charismatic vertebrates excepted) and specific actions to protect every living species individually are simply unfeasible because of the tyranny of numbers. As systematic biologists, we encourage the nurturing of the innate human appreciation of biodiversity, but we reaffirm the message that the biodiversity that makes our world so fascinating, beautiful and functional is vanishing unnoticed at an unprecedented rate. In the face of a mounting crisis, scientists must adopt the practices of preventive archaeology, and collect and document as many species as possible before they disappear. All this depends on reviving the venerable study of natural history and taxonomy. Denying the crisis, simply accepting it and doing nothing, or even embracing it for the ostensible benefit of humanity, are not appropriate options and pave the way for the Earth to continue on its sad trajectory towards a Sixth Mass Extinction.

The Decision Phases Framework for Public Engagement:Engaging Stakeholders about Gene Editing in the Wild

Some experts and advocates propose environmental biotechnologies such as genetic engineering, gene drive systems, and synthetic biology as potential solutions to accelerating rates of species loss. While these tools may offer hope for a seemingly intractable problem, they also present potential governance challenges for which innovative decision-making systems are required. Two of the perennial governance challenges include, when are broader stakeholder groups involved in these decisions and who exactly should be involved? We propose the decision phases framework-which includes research and development, regulatory review, and deployment, management, and monitoring-as a framework for identifying which stakeholders might be best suited for different phases throughout the innovation and deployment of emerging environmental biotechnologies for species protection.

Subjectivity in the Age of Pandemics

Abstract The current pandemic that originated in a “wet” market in Wuhan has often been compared to the threat we face with climate change. The former originated in the trade in wild animals, which has driven many species to the point of extinction. In fact, we face an unprecedented rate of species loss due to pressures on habitats, pollution, and human predation. The threat of climate change originates with our uncontrolled use of fossil fuels, which, in making large parts of the globe uninhabitable, imperils our own species. The rationality (or lack thereof) that is exhibited here concerns our relation to the earth. We regard it simply as a means for our purposes. Separating ourselves from it, we follow the Biblical injunction to have “dominion” over it. In this, we express a conception of subjectivity that is exemplified by Descartes and Kant. To overcome this, I argue, we need a different sense of what it means to be a subject, one that takes it as a sustaining ground and points to the earth as the ultimate subject.

Protecting the unseen majority: Land cover and environmental factors linked with soil bacterial communities and functions in New Zealand

The biodiversity in soil ecosystems is simultaneously incredibly rich and poorly described. In countries such as New Zealand, where high endemism in plant species emerged following extended geographical isolation, it is likely similar evolutionary pressures extended to soil microbial communities (our biodiversity ‘dark matter’). However, we have little understanding of the extent of microbial life in New Zealand soils, let alone estimates of endemism, rates of species loss or gain, or implications for systems where plants and their microbiomes have co-evolved.

Using Environmental DNA to Monitor the Reintroduction Success of the Rhine Sculpin (Cottus rhenanus) in a Restored Stream

Freshwaters face some of the highest rates of species loss, caused by strong human impact. To decrease or even revert this strong impact, ecological restorations are increasingly applied to restore and maintain the natural ecological status of freshwaters. Their ecological status can be determined by assessing the presence of indicator species (e.g., certain fish species), which is called biomonitoring. However, traditional biomonitoring of fish, such as electrofishing, is often challenging and invasive. To augment traditional biomonitoring of fish, the analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) has recently been proposed as an alternative, sensitive approach. The present study employed this modern approach to monitor the Rhine sculpin (Cottus rhenanus), a fish species that has been reintroduced into a recently restored stream within the Emscher catchment in Germany, in order to validate the success of the applied restorations and to monitor the species’ dispersal. We monitored the dispersal of the Rhine sculpin using replicated 12S end-point nested PCR eDNA surveillance at a fine spatial and temporal scale. In that way, we investigated if eDNA analysis can be applied for freshwater assessments. We also performed traditional electrofishing in one instance to validate our eDNA-based approach. We could track the dispersal of the Rhine sculpin and showed a higher dispersal potential of the species than we assumed. eDNA detection indicated the species’ dispersal across a potential dispersal barrier and showed a steep increase of positive detections once the reintroduced population had established. In contrast to that, false negative eDNA results occurred at early reintroduction stages. Our results show that eDNA detection can be used to confirm and monitor reintroductions and to contribute to the assessment and modeling of the ecological status of streams.

Some personal reflections on the present and future of Australia’s fauna in an increasingly fire‐prone continent

Australia already has the highest rate of species loss of any region in the world, yet the risks suddenly worsened in the spring–summer of 2019–20, with an unprecedented chain of wildfires covering 10 M ha of the nation’s forest and woodland estate. Fires of this scale were unprecedented and not factored into recovery plans for Threatened Species or ecosystem management in general. EMR asks one of Australia’s most pre‐eminent ecologists what can be done to ameliorate the losses and better avoid and respond to such impacts occurring in the future?

Biotic and abiotic drivers of species loss rate in isolated lakes.

Today, anthropogenic impacts are causing a serious crisis for global biodiversity, with rates of extinction increasing at an unprecedented rate. Extinctions typically occur after a certain delay, and understanding the mechanisms causing delays is a key challenge for both fundamental and applied perspectives. Here, we make use of natural experiments, the isolation of lakes by land uplift in Northern Scandinavia, to examine how yearly extinction rates are affected by time since isolation and a range of abiotic and biotic factors. In this aim, we adapted a model of delayed species loss within isolated communities to test the effects of time since isolation, area, pH, depth and the presence/absence of piscivores on extinction rates. As expected, we found that small and/or young lakes experience a higher annual rate of extinctions per species than larger and/or older ones. Compared to previous studies that were conducted for either young (few thousand years ago) or very old (>10,000years ago) isolates, we demonstrated over a large and continuous temporal scales (50-5,000years), similar relationship between extinction rates and age. We also show that extinction rates are modified by local environmental factors such as a strong negative effect of increasing pH. Our results urge for the need to consider the time since critical environmental changes occurred when studying extinction rates. In a wider perspective, our study demonstrates the need to consider extinction debts when modelling future effects of climate change, land-use changes or biological invasions on biodiversity.

Using Growth Forms to Predict Epiphytic Lichen Abundance in a Wide Variety of Forest Types

Epiphytic richness is continuously declining due to forest fragmentation, logging, burning, agriculture, and livestock. The rate of species loss caused by habitat degradation and loss is more pronounced in Central and South America. Considering the extreme difficulty and time required to identify the more inconspicuous species, rapid diversity assessment methods need to be extrapolated throughout the world. This study correlated lichen growth forms and total epiphytic abundance across 119 forests located in Europe and Central-South America. A total of 54 papers were selected from specific databases focused on lichens. Additionally, data from several unpublished ecological studies were included. Linear regression models showed that epiphytic lichen abundance was highly and positively correlated with the number of growth forms at all geographical levels considered (i.e., Central-South American and European forests, and the combination of both). Thus, the use of growth forms may provide an alternative and complementary way to evaluate epiphytic diversity because most growth forms have cosmopolitan distribution and are easily recognizable.

Increased community compositional dissimilarity alleviates species loss following nutrient enrichment at large spatial scales

Anthropogenic activities have drastically increased nutrient availability, resulting in declines in species richness in many plant communities. However, most previous studies have explored only species-loss patterns and mechanisms over small sampling areas, so their results might overestimate species loss at larger spatial scales. The aim of this research was to explore species diversity change patterns and species-loss rates at multiple scales in alpine meadow communities following nutrient enrichment. Specifically, we asked two closely related questions: (i) do changes in species diversity and species-loss patterns differ among spatial scales? and (ii) how does community compositional dissimilarity and species turnover change among spatial scale? This study was implemented in an alpine meadow community, which is regarded as one of the most sensitive and vulnerable terrestrial ecosystems to anthropogenic nutrient enrichment. We conducted a fertilization experiment that involved the addition of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and a mixture of both to a series of quadrats ranging from 1 to 16 m² over 5 years to study the variations in the patterns of species diversity in response to nutrient additions at different spatial scales. Our results showed that the changes in species diversity and species loss were dependent on the type of fertilization and the spatial scale. After N and NP fertilization, species diversity significantly decreased at the small scale but not at the large scale, and the rate of species loss decreased as the spatial scale increased. In contrast, the differences between the P addition and control communities were negligible at both the small and large spatial scales. N fertilization caused species to be lost from the small sampling scale, but because different species were lost from different samples, there was an increase in compositional dissimilarity at larger spatial scales, which reduced the total number of species lost when measured at larger scales. These findings highlight spatial scale in evaluating the biodiversity loss after fertilization and suggest that the compositional dissimilarity might play an important role in mediating species loss after fertilization. Our study significantly improved our understanding of changes in species diversity and species loss at different spatial scales under nutrient-enrichment scenarios.

Effects of long-term inter-annual rainfall variation on the dynamics of regenerative communities during the old-field succession of a neotropical dry forest

Effects of long-term rainfall inter-annual variation on regeneration dynamics of tropical dry forests (TDF) are still poorly understood. Such understanding is particularly important to assess the regeneration potential of TDF in landscapes subjected to slash-and-burn farming management. Here, we studied from 2004 to 2016 the effects of inter-annual rainfall variation on the dynamics of regenerative communities of woody species during the old-field succession of a TDF in Western Mexico. Over the study period a severe drought, caused by an El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event in 2005, and two hurricanes (Jova, 2011, magnitude 2; Patricia, 2015, magnitude 4) were experienced. In 2004, we established a chronosequence of abandoned cattle pastures and old-growth forest sites, which were assigned to four successional categories, each one with three sites: Pasture (0–3 years fallow age), Early (3–5 years), Intermediate (8–12 years), and Old-Growth Forest (without any human disturbance). At each site, seedlings, saplings and resprouts 10–100 cm height of shrub and tree species were tagged, taxonomically identified, measured in height and monitored over 12 continuous year intervals. At each year, all new plants reaching 10 cm height were recorded and considered as recruits. Community rates (recruitment, relative growth rate in height, mortality, species gain and species loss) were calculated per year, considering all plants combined and separating shrub from tree species. All community rates varied notoriously in response to temporal rainfall variability, with almost null interaction with successional category. As expected, mortality and species loss rates declined as the amount of rainfall increased, especially when precipitation of the current and the previous year were taken into account; these rates peaked in the ENSO year and were still high in the following year. Unexpectedly, recruitment and species gain rates also declined with the increase in rainfall, especially with the amount of rainfall in the current year. Overall, community rates of tree species were more responsive than those of shrub species to temporal rainfall variation. The ENSO-related drought event produced a short and transient instability in the plant density and species density of regenerative communities. However, ENSO effects were smoothed out by subsequent rainy years, leading to a net increase in plant density and species density in all successional categories, especially in the younger one. Overall, our study shows that global (e.g. ENSO) and regional (e.g. storms, hurricanes) climate factors play a key role on forest succession, modulating the speed of the TDF regeneration dynamics. We conclude that low impact agricultural land use and the presence of good levels of remnant forest cover in the landscape confers a high potential for regeneration in abandoned agricultural fields, even under the impact of severe droughts and severe hurricanes.

Automated plant species identification-Trends and future directions.

Current rates of species loss triggered numerous attempts to protect and conserve biodiversity. Species conservation, however, requires species identification skills, a competence obtained through intensive training and experience. Field researchers, land managers, educators, civil servants, and the interested public would greatly benefit from accessible, up-to-date tools automating the process of species identification. Currently, relevant technologies, such as digital cameras, mobile devices, and remote access to databases, are ubiquitously available, accompanied by significant advances in image processing and pattern recognition. The idea of automated species identification is approaching reality. We review the technical status quo on computer vision approaches for plant species identification, highlight the main research challenges to overcome in providing applicable tools, and conclude with a discussion of open and future research thrusts.

Ecological traits modulate bird species responses to forest fragmentation in an Amazonian anthropogenic archipelago

AbstractAimWe assessed patterns of avian species loss and the role of morpho‐ecological traits in explaining species vulnerability to forest fragmentation in an anthropogenic island system. We also contrasted observed and detectability‐corrected estimates of island occupancy, which are often used to infer species vulnerability.LocationTucuruí Hydroelectric Reservoir, eastern Brazilian Amazonia.MethodsWe surveyed forest birds within 36 islands (3.4–2,551.5 ha) after 22 years of post‐isolation history. We applied species–area relationships to assess differential patterns of species loss among three data sets: all species, forest specialists and habitat generalists. After controlling for phylogenetic non‐independence, we used observed and detectability‐corrected estimates of island occupancy separately to build competing models as a function of species traits. The magnitude of the difference between these estimates of island occupancy was contrasted against species detectability.ResultsThe rate of species loss as a function of island area reduction was higher for forest specialists than for habitat generalists. Accounting for the area effect, forest fragmentation did not affect the overall number of species regardless of the data set. Only the interactive model including natural abundance, habitat breadth and geographic range size was strongly supported for both estimates of island occupancy. For 30 species with detection probabilities below 30%, detectability‐corrected estimates were at least tenfold higher than those observed. Conversely, differences between estimates were negligible or non‐existent for all 31 species with detection probabilities exceeding 45.5%.Main conclusionsPredicted decay of avian species richness induced by forest loss is affected by the degree of habitat specialisation of the species under consideration, and may be unrelated to forest fragmentation per se. Natural abundance was the main predictor of species island occupancy, although habitat breadth and geographic range size also played a role. We caution against using occupancy models for low‐detectability species, because overestimates of island occupancy reduce the power of species‐level predictions of vulnerability.

Climate change versus deforestation: Implications for tree species distribution in the dry forests of southern Ecuador.

Seasonally dry forests in the neotropics are heavily threatened by a combination of human disturbances and climate change; however, the severity of these threats is seldom contrasted. This study aims to quantify and compare the effects of deforestation and climate change on the natural spatial ranges of 17 characteristic tree species of southern Ecuador dry deciduous forests, which are heavily fragmented and support high levels of endemism as part of the Tumbesian ecoregion. We used 660 plant records to generate species distribution models and land-cover data to project species ranges for two time frames: a simulated deforestation scenario from 2008 to 2014 with native forest to anthropogenic land-use conversion, and an extreme climate change scenario (CCSM4.0, RCP 8.5) for 2050, which assumed zero change from human activities. To assess both potential threats, we compared the estimated annual rates of species loss (i.e., range shifts) affecting each species. Deforestation loss for all species averaged approximately 71 km2/year, while potential climate-attributed loss was almost 21 km2/year. Moreover, annual area loss rates due to deforestation were significantly higher than those attributed to climate-change (P < 0.01). However, projections into the future scenario show evidence of diverging displacement patterns, indicating the potential formation of novel ecosystems, which is consistent with other species assemblage predictions as result of climate change. Furthermore, we provide recommendations for management and conservation, prioritizing the most threatened species such as Albizia multiflora, Ceiba trichistandra, and Cochlospermum vitifolium.

Assessing the relationships between phylogenetic and functional singularities in sharks (Chondrichthyes).

The relationships between diversity and ecosystem functioning have become a major focus of science. A crucial issue is to estimate functional diversity, as it is intended to impact ecosystem dynamics and stability. However, depending on the ecosystem, it may be challenging or even impossible to directly measure ecological functions and thus functional diversity. Phylogenetic diversity was recently under consideration as a proxy for functional diversity. Phylogenetic diversity is indeed supposed to match functional diversity if functions are conservative traits along evolution. However, in case of adaptive radiation and/or evolutive convergence, a mismatch may appear between species phylogenetic and functional singularities. Using highly threatened taxa, sharks, this study aimed to explore the relationships between phylogenetic and functional diversities and singularities. Different statistical computations were used in order to test both methodological issue (phylogenetic reconstruction) and overall a theoretical questioning: the predictive power of phylogeny for function diversity. Despite these several methodological approaches, a mismatch between phylogeny and function was highlighted. This mismatch revealed that (i) functions are apparently nonconservative in shark species, and (ii) phylogenetic singularity is not a proxy for functional singularity. Functions appeared to be not conservative along the evolution of sharks, raising the conservational challenge to identify and protect both phylogenetic and functional singular species. Facing the current rate of species loss, it is indeed of major importance to target phylogenetically singular species to protect genetic diversity and also functionally singular species in order to maintain particular functions within ecosystem.