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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Global endemics-area relationships of vascular plants
Carl BeierkuhnleinVincent Ralph ClarkVincent Ralph ClarkKeping MaJohn-arvid GrytnesSula E. VanderplankCarsten HobohmScott B. FranklinMichael W. PalmerAlessandro ChiarucciJosé María Fernández-palaciosRichard FieldPavel V. KrestovRiccardo GuarinoOle R. VetaasLea De NascimentoMonika JanišováMarcelo F. SimonManuel J. SteinbauerManuel J. SteinbauerVladimir G. OnipchenkoChristian StolzSara LandiJihong HuangAlessandra Fidelissubject
0106 biological sciencesVascular plantZero-endemic plotslcsh:QH1-199.5Range (biology)Biogeographylcsh:General. Including nature conservation geographical distributionManagement Monitoring Policy and Law010603 evolutionary biology01 natural sciencesMinimum and maximum estimatelcsh:QH540-549.5StatisticsEndemismZero-endemic plotNature and Landscape ConservationEstimationbiologyEcology010604 marine biology & hydrobiologySampling (statistics)Minimum and maximum estimatesbiology.organism_classificationGeographyGlobal referenceExpert knowledgelcsh:EcologySpecies richnessScale (map)Distribution of land and seadescription
Endemics–Area Relationships (EARs)are fundamental in theoretical and applied biogeography for understanding distribution patterns and promoting biodiversity conservation. However, calculating EARs for vascular plant species from existing data is problematic because of biased knowledge of endemic species distributions and differences between taxonomies. We aimed to overcome these challenges by developing a new standardized global dataset based on expert knowledge to produce a set of global EARs. We developed a nested circle design, with grain sizes of 10 4 , 10 5 , 10 6 , 10 7 , and 10 8 km 2 , respectively, and a global distribution of plots based on a stratified random scheme. The number of vascular plant species endemic to each circle was then estimated independently by five experts randomly chosen from a pool of 23, as both a minimum and a maximum value (lower and upper bounds of the estimation), taking into account the limitations of current knowledge and varied species concepts in existing taxonomies. This procedure resulted in a dataset of 3000 expert estimates. Based on the data, we produced three global EARs for endemic species richness using minimum, maximum and average estimates. As a validation, we used all three models to extrapolate to the entire world, producing estimates of 284,493 (minimum), 398,364 (maximum)and 312,243 (average)vascular plant species. These figures conform to the range of taxonomists’ estimates. From the models, we calculated the average area needed to harbour a single endemic species as 12,875 km 2 (range 9675–20,529). The global vascular plant EARs we calculated represent the first standardized, quantitative expectations of plant endemism at any given scale (sampling unit size). These EARs allow us to provide a clear answer to a long-standing but elusive biogeographical question: how to assess whether any area on the surface of the Earth is rich or poor in endemics relative to the average.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-04-01 |