A functional vulnerability framework for biodiversity conservation

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 4774 - 13
• Main Authors: Auber, Arnaud, Waldock, Conor, Maire, Anthony, Goberville, Eric, Albouy, Camille, Algar, Adam C., McLean, Matthew, Brind’Amour, Anik, Green, Alison L., Tupper, Mark, Vigliola, Laurent, Kaschner, Kristin, Kesner-Reyes, Kathleen, Beger, Maria, Tjiputra, Jerry, Toussaint, Aurèle, Violle, Cyrille, Mouquet, Nicolas, Thuiller, Wilfried, Mouillot, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.09.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158; 631/158/853; 704/158/1144; Animals; Biodiversity; Biodiversity and Ecology; Case studies; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources; Disturbance; Disturbances; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Environmental protection; Environmental Sciences; Fishes; Fishes - physiology; Global Changes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Mammals; Marine fish; multidisciplinary; Protected species; Redundancy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Species diversity; Species richness; Strategic management; Uncertainty; Wildlife conservation; Ecological modelling; Community ecology; Ecology
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32331-y

Setting appropriate conservation strategies in a multi-threat world is a challenging goal, especially because of natural complexity and budget limitations that prevent effective management of all ecosystems. Safeguarding the most threatened ecosystems requires accurate and integrative quantification of their vulnerability and their functioning, particularly the potential loss of species trait diversity which imperils their functioning. However, the magnitude of threats and associated biological responses both have high uncertainties. Additionally, a major difficulty is the recurrent lack of reference conditions for a fair and operational measurement of vulnerability. Here, we present a functional vulnerability framework that incorporates uncertainty and reference conditions into a generalizable tool. Through in silico simulations of disturbances, our framework allows us to quantify the vulnerability of communities to a wide range of threats. We demonstrate the relevance and operationality of our framework, and its global, scalable and quantitative comparability, through three case studies on marine fishes and mammals. We show that functional vulnerability has marked geographic and temporal patterns. We underline contrasting contributions of species richness and functional redundancy to the level of vulnerability among case studies, indicating that our integrative assessment can also identify the drivers of vulnerability in a world where uncertainty is omnipresent. At a time when protecting the environment is urgent, dealing with inherent uncertainties in the responses of biodiversity to disturbances is essential. This study promotes a promising tool to assess the vulnerability of species assemblages to guide protection efforts even if species response and disturbance regimes are poorly documented.