Wikipedia

Local extinction

Local extinction refers to the complete disappearance of a species (or other taxon) from a specified geographic area, region, or habitat while that species continues to survive in some other part of the world. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions in which the species no longer lives anywhere worldwide.[1][2]

Local extinctions often mark a change in the ecology of the affected area, such as a species disappearing due to introduction of a competing species from another location, such as with wolf reintroduction.

Causes of local extinction

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Local extinction occurs when environmental changes reduce a species' ability to survive in the particular habitat. Habitats may be changed, or even destroyed, by numerous natural processes or by human activity, with one or more local extinctions being a consequence. Some of these processes are described below.

When habitats are destroyed or changed, by human activity or by natural processes, species populations may decline and then completely disappear from the affected region. Habitat fragmentation, in which a large continuous area is broken into a series of smaller isolated habitats can also contribute to local extinction by dividing continuous and connected habitats into smaller and more isolated patches. The isolation and reduction of habitat size can result in reducing total population size, slowing of movement between a set of smaller populations, and reduced genetic diversity for each sub-population which, in turn, increases risk of a major population collapse (Fahrig, 2003)[3].

Changes of natural ecosystems for agriculture, urban development, or other human activities are a significant cause of habitat destruction. Overexploitation of a species can also contribute to local extinction, due to members of a species being removed from a region faster than their ability to reproduce and recover. Overfishing, hunting, and poaching can reduce a population enough to make it more vulnerable to extinction in specific regions. Some species have been deliberately or systematically exterminated from both large and small geographical areas, for reasons including pest reduction, elimination of threats to agriculture and farming.

Climate change increasingly impact species survival as changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, and severe weather impacts ecosystems. Smaller, declining, or isolated populations are more prone to extinction than large stable populations.[4][5]

A range of geological processes can also result in local extinctions, due to significant disturbances of natural habitats such as reforming land and sea features, exposure, introduction of toxic gases, and temporary or enduring temperature change. For example, glaciation during the Pleistocene glaciation event in North America resulted in death of most native North American species of earthworm due to glaciers covering a significant geographic area, leaving the region subsequently open for colonization by European earthworms transported in soil from Europe.[6] Volcanic activity may also lead to significant numbers of local extinctions and possibly subsequent repopulation.[7][8][9][10]

The size of any geographic area affects the number of species, and the total population size, that it can sustain. This is particularly relevant for islands, where rise and fall of surrounding water changes a range of habitats, causing local extinctions or even, in cases of island endemism, outright extinction. Numerous examples of this occurred at the end of the Pleistocene period.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Metapopulation dynamics

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Metapopulation dynamics describe a model of how species survive across fragmented habitats and, conversely, how local extinction occurs. A metapopulation refers to a group of spatially separated populations of a single species that live in distinct habitats with some interconnected due to migration or dispersal. Species survival across different regions often depends on the specific balance and interaction between local extinction and recolonization events, in which populations may disappear from one habitat but be re-established due to individuals migrating from nearby populations (Hansik,1998).[20]

Habitat fragmentation can create connected networks causing some smaller populations to interact with each other, and the long term persistence of the species depends on the movement of the individuals species between habitats. Interruptions in dispersal between habitats increases the risk of permanent local extinction.(Harrison,1991).[21]

Extinction debt

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Extinction debt refers to the existence of a species in an ecosystem despite a loss of habitat or other ecosystem features necessary for survival. A species may remain present in a habitat for a significant time after environmental degradation, after ecological changes have their chance of long term survival. (Tilman et al.,1994)[22].

Extinction risk

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Extinction risk is the probability that a species will disappear from a specific region based on ecological, biological and other environmental factors. Evaluations of extinction risk account for variables such as population size, geographic range, availability of habitat, and biological traits of a species. Biological characteristics have an strong impact on extinction risk. Species with a small geographic range, slow life histories or expectancies, and higher tropic levels have the greatest vulnerability to extinction compared to species with wider distributions and faster reproductive rates. (Purvis et al., 2000).[23]

Environmental pressures such as habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and negative human interactions are causes of increased local extinction risk. Extinction risk occurs when external pressures interact with the species' biological characteristics. Predictive models and comparative analyses can identify which species have the highest extinction risk and are the most likely to experience future population falls and local extinction (Cardillo et al.,2005).[24] Extinction risk allows researchers and conservation authorities to prioritize species that need the most protection from local extinction. By identifying species with the highest extinction risk, conservation strategies can be centered in protecting habitats, stabilizing populations, and slowing down the threats that lead to extinction.

Collection of statistics for populations of species in areas gives data that can inform development and usage of models to characterize how populations of various species evolve in a given region over time. Such models may be used to predict risk of extinctions from protected wilderness areas and national parks, and even plan remediation efforts, allowing for certain species being more prone to extinction than others, described in terms of an intrinsic extinction-ability (incidence function).[25][26]

Miscellaneous observations

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Some species exploit or require transient or disturbed habitats, such as vernal pools, a human gut, or burnt woodland after forest fires. These species are characterized by highly fluctuating population numbers and shifting distributional patterns. Many natural ecosystems cycle through a standard succession, pioneer species disappear from a region as the ecosystem matures and reaches a climax community.

A local extinction can be useful for research: in the case of the bay checkerspot butterfly, scientists, including Paul R. Ehrlich, chose not to intervene as a population disappeared from an area in order to study the process.[27]

Many crocodilian species have experienced localized extinction, particularly the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), which has been extirpated from Vietnam, Thailand, Java and many other areas.[28]

Canis lupus
Bull Kelp

Heat waves can lead to local extinction. In New Zealand, during the summer of 2017–2018, sea surface temperatures around parts of South Island exceeded 23 °C (73 °F), which was well above normal. Air temperatures were also high, exceeding 30 °C (86 °F). These high temperatures, coupled with small wave height, led to the local extinction of bull kelp (Durvillaea spp.) from Pile Bay.[29]

Lagoa Santa, a lake in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, has lost almost 70% of the local fish species over the last 150 years. These include Acestrorhynchus lacustris, Astyanax fasciatus, and Characidium zebra. This could be caused by the introduction of non-native species, such as Tilapia rendalli, into the lagoon, changes in water level and organic pollution.[30]

Local extinctions can be reversed, in some cases artificially. Wolves are a species that have been reintroduced into parts of their historical range. This has happened with red wolves (Canis rufus) in the United States in the late 1980s and also grey wolves in Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s. There have been talks of reintroducing wolves in Scotland, Japan, and Mexico.[31]

Subpopulations and stocks

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When the local population of a certain species disappears from a certain geographical delimitation, whether fish in a drying pond or an entire ocean, it can be said to be extirpated or locally extinct in that pond or ocean.

A particular total world population can be more or less arbitrarily divided into 'stocks' or 'subpopulations', defined by political or other geographical delimitations. For example, the Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the conservation status of the Black Sea stock of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) that touches six countries, and COSEWIC, which only assesses the conservation status of wildlife in Canada, even assesses Canadian species that occur in the United States or other countries.

While the IUCN mostly only assesses the global conservation status of species or subspecies, in some older cases it also assessed the risks to certain stocks and populations, in some cases these populations may be genetically distinct. In all, 119 stocks or subpopulations across 69 species had been assessed by the IUCN in 2006.[32] If a local stock or population becomes extinct, the species as a whole has not become extinct, but extirpated from that local area.

Examples of stocks and subdivisions of world populations assessed separately by the IUCN for their conservation status are:

The IUCN also lists countries where assessed species, subspecies or geographic populations are found, and from which countries they have been extirpated or reintroduced.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Ladle, Richard; Whittaker, Robert J., eds. (2011). Conservation Biogeography. John Wiley & Sons. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-4443-9811-3.
  2. ↑ Smith-Patten, Brenda D.; Bridge, Eli S.; et al. (14 January 2015). "Is extinction forever?". Public Understanding of Science. 24 (4): 481–495. doi:10.1177/0963662515571489. PMC 4404403. PMID 25711479.
  3. ↑ Fahrig, Lenore (1 November 2003). "Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Biodiversity". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 34: 487–515. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132419. ISSN 1543-592X.
  4. ↑ Frankham, R., Ballou, J. D. & Briscoe, D. A. (2010). Genetic consequences of small population sizes. In Introduction to Conservation Genetics (pp. 161–181). Chapter 8, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. ↑ Miller, S.M., Behrendorff, L., Allen, B.L. et al. Isolation, small population size, and management influence inbreeding and reduced genetic variation in K'gari dingoes. Conservation Genetics 25, 955–971 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-024-01616-8
  6. ↑ Gates, G. E. (May 1949). "Miscellanea Megadrilogica". The American Naturalist. 83 (810): 139–152. Bibcode:1949ANat...83..139G. doi:10.1086/281596. ISSN 0003-0147. S2CID 222328616.
  7. ↑ Carson, Hampton L., John P. Lockwood, and Elysse M. Craddock. "Extinction and recolonization of local populations on a growing shield volcano." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 87.18 (1990): 7055-7057.
  8. ↑ Del Moral, Roger, and Sergei Yu Grishin. "Volcanic disturbances and ecosystem recovery." Ecosystems of the world (1999): 137-160.
  9. ↑ Nogales, Manuel, et al. "The fate of terrestrial biodiversity during an oceanic island volcanic eruption." Scientific Reports 12.1 (2022): 19344.
  10. ↑ Brattstrom, Bayard H. "Bárcena Volcano, 1952: a 60-year report on the repopulation of San Benedicto Island, Mexico, with a review of the ecological impacts of disastrous events." Pacific Conservation Biology 21.1 (2015): 38-59.
  11. ↑ Barnosky, Anthony D., et al. "Assessing the causes of late Pleistocene extinctions on the continents." Science 306.5693 (2004): 70-75.
  12. ↑ Owen-Smith, Norman. "Pleistocene extinctions: the pivotal role of megaherbivores." Paleobiology 13.3 (1987): 351-362.
  13. ↑ Seersholm, Frederik V., et al. "Rapid range shifts and megafaunal extinctions associated with late Pleistocene climate change." Nature communications 11.1 (2020): 2770.
  14. ↑ Lopes, Renato Pereira, et al. "The extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna in the Pampa of southern Brazil." Quaternary Science Reviews 242 (2020): 106428.
  15. ↑ Blois, Jessica L., Jenny L. McGuire, and Elizabeth A. Hadly. "Small mammal diversity loss in response to late-Pleistocene climatic change." Nature 465.7299 (2010): 771-774.
  16. ↑ Prideaux, Gavin J., et al. "Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107.51 (2010): 22157-22162.
  17. ↑ Grayson, Donald K. "Deciphering north American pleistocene extinctions." Journal of Anthropological Research 63.2 (2007): 185-213.
  18. ↑ Guilday, John E. "Pleistocene extinction and environmental change." Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution (1984): 250-258.
  19. ↑ García‐Verdugo, Carlos, et al. "Pleistocene extinctions as drivers of biogeographical patterns on the easternmost Canary Islands." Journal of Biogeography 46.5 (2019): 845-859.
  20. ↑ Hanski, Ilkka (November 1998). "Metapopulation dynamics". Nature. 396 (6706): 41–49. Bibcode:1998Natur.396...41H. doi:10.1038/23876. ISSN 1476-4687.
  21. ↑ Harrison, Susan (January 1991). "Local extinction in a metapopulation context: an empirical evaluation". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 42 (1–2): 73–88. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1991.tb00552.x.
  22. ↑ Tilman, David; May, Robert M.; Lehman, Clarence L.; Nowak, Martin A. (September 1994). "Habitat destruction and the extinction debt". Nature. 371 (6492): 65–66. Bibcode:1994Natur.371...65T. doi:10.1038/371065a0. ISSN 1476-4687.
  23. ↑ Purvis, Andy; Gittleman, John L.; Cowlishaw, Guy; Mace, Georgina M. (2000). "Predicting Extinction Risk in Declining Species". Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 267 (1456): 1947–1952. doi:10.1098/rspb.2000.1234. ISSN 0962-8452. JSTOR 2665681. PMC 1690772. PMID 11075706.
  24. ↑ Cardillo, Marcel; Mace, Georgina M.; Jones, Kate E.; Bielby, Jon; Bininda-Emonds, Olaf R. P.; Sechrest, Wes; Orme, C. David L.; Purvis, Andy (19 August 2005). "Multiple causes of high extinction risk in large mammal species". Science (New York, N.Y.). 309 (5738): 1239–1241. Bibcode:2005Sci...309.1239C. doi:10.1126/science.1116030. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 16037416.
  25. ↑ Diamond, Jared M. (November 1972). "Biogeographic Kinetics: Estimation of Relaxation Times for Avifaunas of Southwest Pacific Islands" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 69 (11): 3199–3203. Bibcode:1972PNAS...69.3199D. doi:10.1073/pnas.69.11.3199. PMC 389735. PMID 16592024. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  26. ↑ Diamond, Jared M. (1975). "The Island Dilemma: Lessons of Modern Biogeographic Srudies for the Design of Natural Reserves" (PDF). Biological Conservation. 7 (2): 129–146. Bibcode:1975BCons...7..129D. doi:10.1016/0006-3207(75)90052-X. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  27. ↑ Holsinger, Kent. "Local extinction". Population Viability Analysis: Bay Checkerspot Butterfly. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2006.
  28. ↑ Webb, Grahame; Manolis, S; Brien, Matthew (2010). Saltwater Crocodile Crocodylus porosus (PDF). Crocodiles. pp. 99–113.[dead link]
  29. ↑ Thomsen, Mads S.; Mondardini, Luca; Alestra, Tommaso; Gerrity, Shawn; Tait, Leigh; South, Paul M.; Lilley, Stacie A. & Schiel, David R. (March 2019). "Local Extinction of Bull Kelp (Durvillaea spp.) Due to a Marine Heatwave". Frontiers in Marine Science. 6 84. Bibcode:2019FrMaS...6...84T. doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00084. hdl:10092/16825. ISSN 2296-7745.
  30. ↑ Pompeu, Paulo dos Santos; Alves, Carlos Bernardo Mascarenhas (December 2003). "Local fish extinction in a small tropical lake in Brazil". Neotropical Ichthyology. 1 (2): 133–135. Bibcode:2003NeoIc...1..133P. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252003000200008. ISSN 1679-6225.
  31. ↑ Arts, Koen; Fischer, Anke; Wal, René van der (2016). "Boundaries of the wolf and the wild: a conceptual examination of the relationship between rewilding and animal reintroduction". Restoration Ecology. 24 (1): 27–34. Bibcode:2016ResEc..24...27A. doi:10.1111/rec.12309. ISSN 1526-100X. S2CID 86338008.
  32. ↑ IUCN Red List, search for only stocks and subpopulations [dead link]
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