Extinction Risk Escalates in the Tropics 英文参考文献.docVIP

ExtinctionRiskEscalatesintheTropics JanaC.Vamosi*,StevenM.Vamosi DepartmentofBiologicalSciences,UniversityofCalgary,Calgary,Canada Abstract The latitudinal biodiversity gradient remains one of the most widely recognized yet puzzling patterns in nature [1]. Presently,thehighlevelofextinctionoftropicalspecies,referredtoasthe‘‘tropicalbiodiversitycrisis’’,hasthepotentialto erodethispattern.Whiletheconnectionbetweenspeciesrichness,extinction,andspeciationhaslongintriguedbiologists [2,3],theseinteractionshaveexperiencedincreasedpoignancyduetotheirrelevancytowhereweshouldconcentrateour conservationefforts.Naturalextinctionisaphenomenonthoughttohaveitsownlatitudinalgradient,withlowerextinction ratesinthetropicsbeingreportedinbeetles,birds,mammals,andbivalves[4–7].Processesthathavebufferedecosystems from high extinction rates in the past may also buffer ecosystems against disturbance of anthropogenic origin. While potential parallels between historical and present-day extinction patterns have been acknowledged, they remain only superficially explored and plant extinction patterns have been particularly neglected. Studies on the disappearances of animalspecieshavereachedconflictingconclusions,withtherateofextinctionappearingeitherhigher[8]orlower[9]in speciesrichnesshotspots.Ourglobalstudyofextinctionriskinvascularplantsfindsdisproportionatelyhigherextinction riskintropicalcountries,evenwhenindicatorsofhumanpressure(GDP,populationdensity,forestcoverchange)aretaken intoaccount.Ourresultsareatoddswiththenotionthatthetropicsrepresentamuseumofplantbiodiversity(placesof historicallyloweredextinction)andwediscussmechanismsthatmayreconcilethisapparentcontradiction. Citation:VamosiJC,VamosiSM(2008)ExtinctionRiskEscalatesintheTropics.PLoSONE3(12):e3886.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003886 Editor:RobP.Freckleton,UniversityofSheffield,UnitedKingdom ReceivedSeptember19,2008;AcceptedNovember12,2008;PublishedDecember10,2008 Copyright: ? 2008 Vamosi et al. This is an open-access article dist