Species characteristics affect local extinctions

Premise of the study. Human activities threaten thousands of species with extinction. However, it remains difficult to predict extinction risk for many vulnerable species. Species characteristics help predict responses to anthropogenic environmental change and may help predict likelihood of extinction. Phylogenetic signatures of extinction can also provide insights into patterns of species loss. Historical data on species losses can allow for testing phylogenetic patterns in extinctions and identifying traits that influence species vulnerability to local extinction both within particularly threatened habitat types and across habitats.
Methods. We use historical botanical data from Kalamazoo County, Michigan, USA, to examine whether species characteristics (community association, native status, growth form, life history, range edge, habitat specialization, N-fixation, photosynthetic pathway, and rarity) or phylogenetic relatedness explain local species loss at the county level.
Key res...

研究背景：人类活动已致使数千个物种陷入灭绝危机。然而，目前仍难以对众多受胁物种的灭绝风险进行精准预测。物种特征可助力预判其对人为环境变化的响应，或可辅助预测物种灭绝的可能性。物种灭绝的系统发育信号（phylogenetic signatures）同样可为物种消亡模式提供研究见解。物种消亡的历史数据，可用于检验灭绝事件中的系统发育模式，并识别出在特定受胁生境类型内以及跨生境条件下，影响物种局域灭绝易感性的相关性状。
研究方法：我们采用美国密歇根州卡拉马祖县的植物学历史数据，旨在探究物种特征（群落关联、本土性、生长型、生活史、分布区边缘、生境特化、固氮作用、光合途径及稀有度）与系统发育亲缘关系（phylogenetic relatedness），能否解释该县尺度下的物种局域消亡现象。
关键结果……