A dark side of conservation biology: protected areas fail in representing subterranean biodiversity

1. Biodiversity conservation is a central imperative of the 21st century. Subterranean ecosystems deliver critical nature’s contributions to people and harbour a broad diversity of poorly understood specialised organisms. However, the subterranean biome is still largely overlooked in global biodiver...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Colado, Raquel, Abellán, Pedro, Pallarés, Susana, Mammola, Stefano, Milione, Roberto, Faille, Arnaud, Fresneda, Javier, Sánchez-Fernández, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2072/536956
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/2072/536956
https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12666
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Alps
Pirineus
Fauna cavernícola
Biologia de la conservació
Conservació de la diversitat biològica
Coleòpters
Liòdids
Aràcnids
59
Descripción
Sumario:1. Biodiversity conservation is a central imperative of the 21st century. Subterranean ecosystems deliver critical nature’s contributions to people and harbour a broad diversity of poorly understood specialised organisms. However, the subterranean biome is still largely overlooked in global biodiversity targets. 2. We assessed how well subterranean biodiversity is represented in protected areas (Natura 2000 and Emerald networks) in two global hotspots of subterranean biodiversity (the Pyrenees and the Alps). For this, we used two comprehensive databases of terrestrial subterranean taxa, that is, leiodids (beetles) from the Pyrenees and spiders from the Alps, and identified priority areas in each region using both species richness and geographic rarity patterns. 3. Our results show the incapacity of surface-protected area networks to represent subterranean biodiversity, as more than 70% and 90% of the identified priority areas (and 40% and 22% of the species) are not effectively covered by protected areas in the Pyrenees and the Alps, respectively. 4. These findings call for developing an urgent plan for subterranean biodiversity conservation within the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.