TY - JOUR
T1 - Extinction risk and conservation of marine bony shorefishes of the Greater Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico
AU - Linardich, Christi
AU - Ralph, Gina M.
AU - Robertson, David Ross
AU - Harwell, Heather
AU - Polidoro, Beth
AU - Lindeman, Kenyon C.
AU - Carpenter, Kent E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was partially funded by the Agence Française de
Funding Information:
This project was partially funded by the Agence Française de Développement and additional funding was provided by the US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. This research was conducted as part of the master's thesis of C. Linardich. Many Old Dominion University (ODU) graduate students and interns contributed, especially M. Comeros-Raynal, E. Stump, C. Gorman, J. Buchanan, A. Goodpaster, A. Hines, M. Harvey, M. Tishler, and M. Steell. We thank Conservation International staff, including N. Cox, C. Elfes, F. Barthelat, and T. Defex, for helping to facilitate the Greater Caribbean project. We are grateful to IUCN staff C. Pollock and C. Sayer for reviewing the Red List assessments, and to J-C. Vié and Roger McManus for sage advice and for securing funding. We give special thanks to the 97 experts who made these assessments possible, including: A. Carvalho-Filho, A. Abad Uribarren, A. Acero Pizarro, A. Aguilar-Perera, A. Polanco Fernandez, A.M.T. Rodrigues, A.P. Marceniuk, B. Padovani-Ferreira, B. Russell, B. Zane, B.B. Collette, C. Sampaio, D. Buddo, D. Grubbs, D. Wells, D.G. Smith, F. Lucena-Fredou, F. Pezold, F. Pina Amargos, F.M.S. da Silva, G. Hardy, G. Sedberry, G. Zapfe, G.M. Bustamante, H. Espinosa Perez, H. Jelks, H. Larson, H. Oxenford, H. Perez Espana, I. Harrison, J. Brenner, J. Brown, J. Carlson, J. Caruso, J. Cowan, J. Leis, J. McCosker, J. Simons, J. Tolan, J. Tyler, J. Van Tassell, J. Vieira, J.A. Moore, J.D. McEachran, J.K. Dooley, J.P. Vieira, J.T. Mendonça, J.T. Williams, J-L. Bouchereau, J-P. Marechal, K. Goodin, K. Matsuura, K. Tighe, K.A. Aiken, K-T. Shao, L. Barbieri, L. Chao, L. Jing, L. Rocha, L. Tornabene, L. Villwock de Miranda, L.M. Grijalba Bendeck, M. Brick-Peres, M. Craig, M. Curtis, M. Haimovici, M. Liu, M. Nirchio, M. Zapp-Sluis, M.E. Vega Cendejas, M.G. Castro, N.N. Fadré, O.S. Aguilera, P. Chakrabarty, R. Betancur, R. Claro, R. Kishore, R. Myers, R. Pollom, R.G. Gilmore Jr., R.H. Robins, R.J. Albieri, S. Barbieri, S. Ross, S. Santos, S. Singh-Renton, T. Camarena Luhrs, T. Fraser, T. Giarrizzo, T. Munroe, W. Eschmeyer, W. Smith-Vaniz, W.D. Anderson Jr., and X. Chiappa Carrara.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - Understanding the conservation status of species is important for prioritizing the allocation of resources to redress or reduce biodiversity loss. Regional organizations that manage threats to the marine biodiversity of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico seek to delineate conservation priorities. This process can be usefully informed by extinction risk assessments conducted under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria: a widely used, objective method to communicate species-specific conservation needs. Prior to the recent Red List initiatives summarized in this study, the conservation status was known for just one-quarter of the 1360 Greater Caribbean marine bony shorefishes. During 10 Red List workshops, experts applied data on species' distributions, populations, habitats, and threats in order to assign an extinction risk category to nearly 1000 shorefishes that range in the Greater Caribbean. As conservation is mostly implemented at national and local levels, two more workshops assessed the Gulf of Mexico populations of 940 shorefishes using the regional Red List guidelines. About 5% of these shorefishes are globally or regionally threatened, including 6% of Greater Caribbean endemics and 26% of Gulf endemics. About 9% of the species are Data Deficient. Species-richness analyses show that the highest numbers of threatened species endemic to the Greater Caribbean are found in Belize, Panama, and the Cayman Islands. The most pervasive threats to the threatened and Near Threatened species are overexploitation, habitat degradation, and predation by the invasive lionfish. Half of the threatened species are experiencing multiple threats that are likely to amplify extinction risk. Recommended actions, in addition to conducting diversity surveys in lesser explored areas, include improving fishery management, reducing habitat degradation, and controlling lionfish populations.
AB - Understanding the conservation status of species is important for prioritizing the allocation of resources to redress or reduce biodiversity loss. Regional organizations that manage threats to the marine biodiversity of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico seek to delineate conservation priorities. This process can be usefully informed by extinction risk assessments conducted under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria: a widely used, objective method to communicate species-specific conservation needs. Prior to the recent Red List initiatives summarized in this study, the conservation status was known for just one-quarter of the 1360 Greater Caribbean marine bony shorefishes. During 10 Red List workshops, experts applied data on species' distributions, populations, habitats, and threats in order to assign an extinction risk category to nearly 1000 shorefishes that range in the Greater Caribbean. As conservation is mostly implemented at national and local levels, two more workshops assessed the Gulf of Mexico populations of 940 shorefishes using the regional Red List guidelines. About 5% of these shorefishes are globally or regionally threatened, including 6% of Greater Caribbean endemics and 26% of Gulf endemics. About 9% of the species are Data Deficient. Species-richness analyses show that the highest numbers of threatened species endemic to the Greater Caribbean are found in Belize, Panama, and the Cayman Islands. The most pervasive threats to the threatened and Near Threatened species are overexploitation, habitat degradation, and predation by the invasive lionfish. Half of the threatened species are experiencing multiple threats that are likely to amplify extinction risk. Recommended actions, in addition to conducting diversity surveys in lesser explored areas, include improving fishery management, reducing habitat degradation, and controlling lionfish populations.
KW - Red List
KW - coastal
KW - conservation evaluation
KW - fish
KW - ocean
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053685665&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1002/aqc.2959
DO - 10.1002/aqc.2959
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85053685665
SN - 1052-7613
VL - 29
SP - 85
EP - 101
JO - Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
JF - Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
IS - 1
ER -