Browsing by Author "Li, Binbin V"
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Item Open Access Batch-produced, GIS-informed range maps for birds based on provenanced, crowd-sourced data inform conservation assessments.(PloS one, 2021-01) Huang, Ryan M; Medina, Wilderson; Brooks, Thomas M; Butchart, Stuart HM; Fitzpatrick, John W; Hermes, Claudia; Jenkins, Clinton N; Johnston, Alison; Lebbin, Daniel J; Li, Binbin V; Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Parr, Mike; Wheatley, Hannah; Wiedenfeld, David A; Wood, Christopher; Pimm, Stuart LAccurate maps of species ranges are essential to inform conservation, but time-consuming to produce and update. Given the pace of change of knowledge about species distributions and shifts in ranges under climate change and land use, a need exists for timely mapping approaches that enable batch processing employing widely available data. We develop a systematic approach of batch-processing range maps and derived Area of Habitat maps for terrestrial bird species with published ranges below 125,000 km2 in Central and South America. (Area of Habitat is the habitat available to a species within its range.) We combine existing range maps with the rapidly expanding crowd-sourced eBird data of presences and absences from frequently surveyed locations, plus readily accessible, high resolution satellite data on forest cover and elevation to map the Area of Habitat available to each species. Users can interrogate the maps produced to see details of the observations that contributed to the ranges. Previous estimates of Areas of Habitat were constrained within the published ranges and thus were, by definition, smaller-typically about 30%. This reflects how little habitat within suitable elevation ranges exists within the published ranges. Our results show that on average, Areas of Habitat are 12% larger than published ranges, reflecting the often-considerable extent that eBird records expand the known distributions of species. Interestingly, there are substantial differences between threatened and non-threatened species. Some 40% of Critically Endangered, 43% of Endangered, and 55% of Vulnerable species have Areas of Habitat larger than their published ranges, compared with 31% for Near Threatened and Least Concern species. The important finding for conservation is that threatened species are generally more widespread than previously estimated.Item Open Access China's endemic vertebrates sheltering under the protective umbrella of the giant panda.(Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 2016-04) Li, Binbin V; Pimm, Stuart LThe giant panda attracts disproportionate conservation resources. How well does this emphasis protect other endemic species? Detailed data on geographical ranges are not available for plants or invertebrates, so we restrict our analyses to 3 vertebrate taxa: birds, mammals, and amphibians. There are gaps in their protection, and we recommend practical actions to fill them. We identified patterns of species richness, then identified which species are endemic to China, and then which, like the panda, live in forests. After refining each species' range by its known elevational range and remaining forest habitats as determined from remote sensing, we identified the top 5% richest areas as the centers of endemism. Southern mountains, especially the eastern Hengduan Mountains, were centers for all 3 taxa. Over 96% of the panda habitat overlapped the endemic centers. Thus, investing in almost any panda habitat will benefit many other endemics. Existing panda national nature reserves cover all but one of the endemic species that overlap with the panda's distribution. Of particular interest are 14 mammal, 20 bird, and 82 amphibian species that are inadequately protected. Most of these species the International Union for Conservation of Nature currently deems threatened. But 7 mammal, 3 bird, and 20 amphibian species are currently nonthreatened, yet their geographical ranges are <20,000 km(2) after accounting for elevational restriction and remaining habitats. These species concentrate mainly in Sichuan, Yunnan, Nan Mountains, and Hainan. There is a high concentration in the east Daxiang and Xiaoxiang Mountains of Sichuan, where pandas are absent and where there are no national nature reserves. The others concentrate in Yunnan, Nan Mountains, and Hainan. Here, 10 prefectures might establish new protected areas or upgrade local nature reserves to national status.Item Open Access Ecology and economics for pandemic prevention.(Science (New York, N.Y.), 2020-07) Dobson, Andrew P; Pimm, Stuart L; Hannah, Lee; Kaufman, Les; Ahumada, Jorge A; Ando, Amy W; Bernstein, Aaron; Busch, Jonah; Daszak, Peter; Engelmann, Jens; Kinnaird, Margaret F; Li, Binbin V; Loch-Temzelides, Ted; Lovejoy, Thomas; Nowak, Katarzyna; Roehrdanz, Patrick R; Vale, Mariana MItem Open Access Free-ranging livestock threaten the long-term survival of giant pandas(Biological Conservation, 2017-12-01) Li, Binbin V; Pimm, Stuart L; Li, Sheng; Zhao, Lianjun; Luo, Chunping© 2017 Elsevier Ltd China has implemented forest policies and expanded protected areas to halt deforestation and protect giant panda habitats. These policies simultaneously encouraged local communities to raise livestock that then freely range in forests. This grazing had unintended consequences. As an alternative livelihood, it has become the most prevalent human disturbance across the panda's range. How do free-ranging livestock impact giant panda habitats and what are the implications for future conservation and policy on a larger scale? We use Wanglang National Nature Reserve as a case study. It has seen a nine-fold livestock increase during past 15 years. We combined bamboo survey plots, GPS collar tracking, long-term monitoring, and species distribution modelling incorporating species interaction to understand the impacts across spatial and temporal scales. Our results showed that livestock, especially horses, lead to a significant reduction of bamboo biomass and regeneration. The most intensively used areas by livestock are in the valleys, which are also the areas that pandas prefer. Adding livestock presence to predictive models of the giant panda's distribution yielded a higher accuracy and suggested livestock reduce panda habitat by 34%. Pandas were driven out of the areas intensively used by livestock. We recommend the nature reserve carefully implement a livestock ban and prioritise removing horses because they cause the greater harm. To give up livestock, local communities prefer long-term subsidies or jobs to a one-time payment. Thus, we recommend the government provide payments for ecosystem services that create jobs in forest stewardship or tourism while reducing the number of domestic animals.Item Open Access How China expanded its protected areas to conserve biodiversity.(Current biology : CB, 2020-11) Li, Binbin V; Pimm, Stuart LHow has the global network of protected areas developed - and which decisions have guided this development? Answering these questions may give insight into what might be possible in the next decade. In 2021, China will host the Convention of Biological Diversity's Conference, which will influence the coming decade's agenda. We consider how China expanded its protected areas in the last half-century. Did concerns about biodiversity protection drive those decisions, or were other factors responsible? Like other countries, China has protected remote places with few people that are unusually cold or dry or both. Despite that, species with small geographical ranges that have the highest risk of extinction are better protected than expected. Importantly, while the growth of total area and number of protected areas has slowed for the last decade, increases in protection of forested ecosystems and the species they contain have steadily increased. China's future reserve expansion must consider where to protect biodiversity, not just how much area to protect.Item Open Access How to protect half of Earth to ensure it protects sufficient biodiversity.(Science advances, 2018-08-29) Pimm, Stuart L; Jenkins, Clinton N; Li, Binbin VIt is theoretically possible to protect large fractions of species in relatively small regions. For plants, 85% of species occur entirely within just over a third of the Earth's land surface, carefully optimized to maximize the species captured. Well-known vertebrate taxa show similar patterns. Protecting half of Earth might not be necessary, but would it be sufficient given the current trends of protection? The predilection of national governments is to protect areas that are "wild," that is, typically remote, cold, or arid. Unfortunately, those areas often hold relatively few species. Wild places likely afford the easier opportunities for the future expansion of protected areas, with the expansion into human-dominated landscapes the greater challenge. We identify regions that are not currently protected, but that are wild, and consider which of them hold substantial numbers of especially small-ranged vertebrate species. We assess how successful the strategy of protecting the wilder half of Earth might be in conserving biodiversity. It is far from sufficient. (Protecting large wild places for reasons other than biodiversity protection, such as carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services, might still have importance.) Unexpectedly, we also show that, despite the bias in establishing large protected areas in wild places to date, numerous small protected areas are in biodiverse places. They at least partially protect significant fractions of especially small-ranged species. So, while a preoccupation with protecting large areas for the sake of getting half of Earth might achieve little for biodiversity, there is more progress in protecting high-biodiversity areas than currently appreciated. Continuing to prioritize the right parts of Earth, not just the total area protected, is what matters for biodiversity.Item Open Access Incorporating explicit geospatial data shows more species at risk of extinction than the current Red List.(Science advances, 2016-11-09) Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Jenkins, Clinton N; Vijay, Varsha; Li, Binbin V; Pimm, Stuart LThe IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List classifies species according to their risk of extinction, informing global to local conservation decisions. Unfortunately, important geospatial data do not explicitly or efficiently enter this process. Rapid growth in the availability of remotely sensed observations provides fine-scale data on elevation and increasingly sophisticated characterizations of land cover and its changes. These data readily show that species are likely not present within many areas within the overall envelopes of their distributions. Additionally, global databases on protected areas inform how extensively ranges are protected. We selected 586 endemic and threatened forest bird species from six of the world's most biodiverse and threatened places (Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Central America, Western Andes of Colombia, Madagascar, Sumatra, and Southeast Asia). The Red List deems 18% of these species to be threatened (15 critically endangered, 29 endangered, and 64 vulnerable). Inevitably, after refining ranges by elevation and forest cover, ranges shrink. Do they do so consistently? For example, refined ranges of critically endangered species might reduce by (say) 50% but so might the ranges of endangered, vulnerable, and nonthreatened species. Critically, this is not the case. We find that 43% of species fall below the range threshold where comparable species are deemed threatened. Some 210 bird species belong in a higher-threat category than the current Red List placement, including 189 species that are currently deemed nonthreatened. Incorporating readily available spatial data substantially increases the numbers of species that should be considered at risk and alters priority areas for conservation.Item Open Access Measuring Terrestrial Area of Habitat (AOH) and Its Utility for the IUCN Red List.(Trends in ecology & evolution, 2019-11) Brooks, Thomas M; Pimm, Stuart L; Akçakaya, H Resit; Buchanan, Graeme M; Butchart, Stuart HM; Foden, Wendy; Hilton-Taylor, Craig; Hoffmann, Michael; Jenkins, Clinton N; Joppa, Lucas; Li, Binbin V; Menon, Vivek; Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Rondinini, CarloThe International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species includes assessment of extinction risk for 98 512 species, plus documentation of their range, habitat, elevation, and other factors. These range, habitat and elevation data can be matched with terrestrial land cover and elevation datasets to map the species' area of habitat (AOH; also known as extent of suitable habitat; ESH). This differs from the two spatial metrics used for assessing extinction risk in the IUCN Red List criteria: extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO). AOH can guide conservation, for example, through targeting areas for field surveys, assessing proportions of species' habitat within protected areas, and monitoring habitat loss and fragmentation. We recommend that IUCN Red List assessments document AOH wherever practical.Item Open Access Molecular phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Vernaya (Mammalia: Rodentia: Muridae) with the description of two new species.(Ecology and evolution, 2023-11) Zhao, Songping; Wang, Xuming; Li, Binbin V; Dou, Liang; Liu, Yingxun; Yang, Siyu; Fan, Ronghui; Jiang, Yong; Li, Quan; Liao, Rui; Hu, Miao; Jiang, Xuelong; Liu, Shaoying; Chen, ShundeThe climbing mouse is a rare, small mammal listed as an endangered species on the China species red list. Molecular phylogenetic analyses and the evolutionary history of the genus remain unexplored because of the extreme difficulty in capturing individuals and their narrow distribution. Here, we collected 44 specimens, sequenced one mitochondrial and eight nuclear genes, and integrated morphological approaches to estimate phylogenetic relationships, delimit species boundaries, and explore evolutionary history. Molecular analyses and morphological results supported the validity of these four species. Here, we describe two new species, Vernaya meiguites sp. nov. and Vernaya nushanensis sp. nov., and recognize Vernaya foramena, previously considered a subspecies of Vernaya fulva, as a valid species. The estimated divergence time suggests that the climbing mouse began to diversify during the Pliocene (3.36 Ma).Item Open Access Remotely Sensed Data Informs Red List Evaluations and Conservation Priorities in Southeast Asia.(PloS one, 2016-01) Li, Binbin V; Hughes, Alice C; Jenkins, Clinton N; Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Pimm, Stuart LThe IUCN Red List has assessed the global distributions of the majority of the world's amphibians, birds and mammals. Yet these assessments lack explicit reference to widely available, remotely-sensed data that can sensibly inform a species' risk of extinction. Our first goal is to add additional quantitative data to the existing standardised process that IUCN employs. Secondly, we ask: do our results suggest species of concern-those at considerably greater risk than hitherto appreciated? Thirdly, these assessments are not only important on a species-by-species basis. By combining distributions of species of concern, we map conservation priorities. We ask to what degree these areas are currently protected and how might knowledge from remote sensing modify the priorities? Finally, we develop a quick and simple method to identify and modify the priority setting in a landscape where natural habitats are disappearing rapidly and so where conventional species' assessments might be too slow to respond. Tropical, mainland Southeast Asia is under exceptional threat, yet relatively poorly known. Here, additional quantitative measures may be particularly helpful. This region contains over 122, 183, and 214 endemic mammals, birds, and amphibians, respectively, of which the IUCN considers 37, 21, and 37 threatened. When corrected for the amount of remaining natural habitats within the known elevation preferences of species, the average sizes of species ranges shrink to <40% of their published ranges. Some 79 mammal, 49 bird, and 184 amphibian ranges are <20,000km2-an area at which IUCN considers most other species to be threatened. Moreover, these species are not better protected by the existing network of protected areas than are species that IUCN accepts as threatened. Simply, there appear to be considerably more species at risk than hitherto appreciated. Furthermore, incorporating remote sensing data showing where habitat loss is prevalent changes the locations of conservation priorities.Item Open Access The past and future of ecosystem restoration in China(Current Biology, 2024-05) Li, Binbin V; Wu, Shuyao; Hua, Fangyuan; Mi, XiangchengItem Open Access Unfulfilled promise of data-driven approaches: response to Peterson et al.(Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 2017-08) Pimm, Stuart L; Harris, Grant; Jenkins, Clinton N; Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Li, Binbin V