Biological determinants of extinction risk: why are smaller species less vulnerable?

被引:142
作者
Cardillo, M [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Queensland, Dept Zool, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
关键词
D O I
10.1017/S1367943003003093
中图分类号
X176 [生物多样性保护];
学科分类号
090705 ;
摘要
It is becoming increasingly clear that species of smaller body size tend to be less vulnerable to contemporary extinction threats than larger species, but few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this pattern. In this paper, data for the Australian terrestrial mammal fauna are used to ask whether higher reproductive output or smaller home ranges can explain the reduced extinction risk of smaller species. Extinct and endangered species do indeed have smaller litters and larger home ranges for their body size than expected under a null model. In multiple regressions, however, only litter size is a significant predictor of extinction risk once body size and phylogeny are controlled for. Larger litters contribute to fast population growth, and are probably part of the reason that smaller species are less extinction-prone. The effect of litter size varies between the mesic coastal regions and the and interior of Australia, indicating that the environment a species inhabits mediates the effect of biology on extinction risk. These results suggest that predicting extinction risk from biological traits is likely to be a complex task which must consider explicitly interactions between biology and environment.
引用
收藏
页码:63 / 69
页数:7
相关论文
共 30 条
[1]   Variation in extinction risk among birds: Chance or evolutionary predisposition? [J].
Bennett, PM ;
Owens, IPF .
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 1997, 264 (1380) :401-408
[2]   Systematic relationships within the dasyurid marsupial tribe Sminthopsini - A multigene approach [J].
Blacket, MJ ;
Krajewski, C ;
Labrinidis, A ;
Cambron, B ;
Cooper, S ;
Westerman, M .
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION, 1999, 12 (02) :140-155
[3]   PATTERNS IN THE MODERN DECLINE OF WESTERN-AUSTRALIA VERTEBRATE FAUNA - CAUSES AND CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS [J].
BURBIDGE, AA ;
MCKENZIE, NL .
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION, 1989, 50 (1-4) :143-198
[4]   Body size and risk of extinction in Australian mammals [J].
Cardillo, M ;
Bromham, L .
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, 2001, 15 (05) :1435-1440
[5]   The ecological basis of life history variation in marsupials [J].
Fisher, DO ;
Owens, IPF ;
Johnson, CN .
ECOLOGY, 2001, 82 (12) :3531-3540
[6]  
FLANNERY TF, 1989, KANGAROOS WALLABIES, V1, P1
[7]   BIRDS, BODY-SIZE AND THE THREAT OF EXTINCTION [J].
GASTON, KJ ;
BLACKBURN, TM .
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 1995, 347 (1320) :205-212
[8]   Evolutionary age and risk of extinction in the global avifauna [J].
Gaston, KJ ;
Blackburn, TM .
EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY, 1997, 11 (05) :557-565
[9]  
Harvey P. H., 1991, COMP METHOD EVOLUTIO
[10]   Life history correlates of responses to fisheries exploitation [J].
Jennings, S ;
Reynolds, JD ;
Mills, SC .
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 1998, 265 (1393) :333-339