Threatened Reef Corals of the World

A substantial proportion of the world's living species, including one-third of the reef-building corals, are threatened with extinction and in pressing need of conservation action. In order to reduce biodiversity loss, it is important to consider species' contribution to evolutionary diver...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 7; no. 3; p. e34459
Main Author: Huang, Danwei
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 30.03.2012
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Acidification
Animal behavior
Animals
Anthozoa - genetics
Biodiversity
Biodiversity conservation
Biodiversity loss
Biological evolution
Biology
Bleaching
Conservation
Coral Reefs
Corals
Cytochrome
Datasets
Endangered & extinct species
Endangered Species
Extinction
Impact resistance
Morphology
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Preservation
Protection and preservation
Pruning
Risk
Science
Scleractinia
Species diversity
Species extinction
Taxonomy
Threatened species
Trees
Wildlife conservation
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:A substantial proportion of the world's living species, including one-third of the reef-building corals, are threatened with extinction and in pressing need of conservation action. In order to reduce biodiversity loss, it is important to consider species' contribution to evolutionary diversity along with their risk of extinction for the purpose of setting conservation priorities. Here I reconstruct the most comprehensive tree of life for the order Scleractinia (1,293 species) that includes all 837 living reef species, and employ a composite measure of phylogenetic distinctiveness and extinction risk to identify the most endangered lineages that would not be given top priority on the basis of risk alone. The preservation of these lineages, not just the threatened species, is vital for safeguarding evolutionary diversity. Tests for phylogeny-associated patterns show that corals facing elevated extinction risk are not clustered on the tree, but species that are susceptible, resistant or resilient to impacts such as bleaching and disease tend to be close relatives. Intensification of these threats or extirpation of the endangered lineages could therefore result in disproportionate pruning of the coral tree of life.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: DH. Performed the experiments: DH. Analyzed the data: DH. Wrote the paper: DH.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0034459