Publication: Are the endemic water beetles of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands effectively protected?
Authors
Sánchez Fernández, David ; Bilton, David T. ; Abellán, Pedro ; Ribera, Ignacio ; Velasco, Josefa ; Milán, Andrés
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Publisher
Elsevier
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DOI
doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.04.005
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
©2008. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This document is the Published version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Biological conservation. To access the final edited and published work see doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.04.005
Abstract
One of the most serious environmental problems is the current acceleration in the rate of
species extinction associated with human activities, which is occurring particularly rapidly
in freshwaters. Here we examine whether endemic water beetles are effectively protected
by existing conservation measures in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, a
region of high diversity and intense human pressure. We used an exhaustive database
for aquatic beetles in the region to address such issues. Firstly, we identify the most threatened
endemic taxa using a categorization system to rank species according to their conservation
priority or vulnerability. Of the 120 endemic species of water beetles used in
the analysis, only two (Ochthebius ferroi and Ochthebius javieri) were identified as being extremely
vulnerable, 71 were highly vulnerable and 46 moderately vulnerable, with only a single
species identified as having low vulnerability status. Since no Iberian species of aquatic
Coleoptera has legal protection, the only conservation measure available for these species
is the extent to which they occur in protected areas. Here we identify distributional hotspots
for threatened endemic species, and evaluate the extent to which these are already
included in the Natura 2000 network in Spain and Portugal. Despite a high degree of concordance
between hotspots and Natura 2000 sites, the distribution of four species falls
completely outside the network. The analysis also reveals that Natura 2000 fails to protect
saline water bodies, despite their high conservation interest and narrow global distribution.
The picture revealed here with water beetles is likely to be similar for others groups of
freshwater macroinvertebrates, since Coleoptera are known to be good surrogates of aquatic
biodiversity in the region. Finally, the degree of protection provided via Natura 2000, and
the utility of red lists are discussed.
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Citation
Biological conservation 141 (2008) 1612-1627
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