An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages

Carly Vynne; Joe Gosling; Calum Maney; Eric Dinerstein; Andy T. L. Lee; Neil D. Burgess; Néstor Fernández; Sanjiv Fernando; Harshini Jhala; Yadvendradev Jhala; Reed F. Noss; Michael F. Proctor; Jan Schipper; José F. González-Maya; Anup R. Joshi; David Olson; William J. Ripple; Jens-Christian Svenning

doi:10.1111/ecog.06098

An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages

Carly Vynne^*, Joe Gosling, Calum Maney, Eric Dinerstein, Andy T. L. Lee, Neil D. Burgess, Néstor Fernández, Sanjiv Fernando, Harshini Jhala, Yadvendradev Jhala, Reed F. Noss, Michael F. Proctor, Jan Schipper, José F. González-Maya, Anup R. Joshi, David Olson, William J. Ripple, Jens-Christian Svenning

^*Corresponding author for this work

Section for Biodiversity

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Assemblages of large mammal species play a disproportionate role in the structure and composition of natural habitats. Loss of these assemblages destabilizes natural systems, while their recovery can restore ecological integrity. Here we take an ecoregion-based approach to identify landscapes that retain their historically present large mammal assemblages, and map ecoregions where reintroduction of 1–3 species could restore intact assemblages. Intact mammal assemblages occur across more than one-third of the 730 terrestrial ecoregions where large mammals were historically present, and 22% of these ecoregions retain complete assemblages across > 20% of the ecoregion area. Twenty species, if reintroduced or allowed to recolonize through improved connectivity, can trigger restoration of complete assemblages over 54% of the terrestrial realm (11 116 000 km²). Each of these species have at least two large, intact habitat areas (> 10 000 km²) in a given ecoregion. Timely integration of recovery efforts for large mammals strengthens area-based targets being considered under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Original language	English
Article number	e06098
Journal	Ecography
Volume	2022
Issue number	4
Number of pages	12
ISSN	0906-7590
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06098
Publication status	Published - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos

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Cite this

Vynne, C., Gosling, J., Maney, C., Dinerstein, E., Lee, A. T. L., Burgess, N. D., Fernández, N., Fernando, S., Jhala, H., Jhala, Y., Noss, R. F., Proctor, M. F., Schipper, J., González-Maya, J. F., Joshi, A. R., Olson, D., Ripple, W. J., & Svenning, J-C. (2022). An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages. Ecography, 2022(4), [e06098]. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06098

An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages. / Vynne, Carly; Gosling, Joe; Maney, Calum; Dinerstein, Eric; Lee, Andy T. L.; Burgess, Neil D.; Fernández, Néstor; Fernando, Sanjiv; Jhala, Harshini; Jhala, Yadvendradev; Noss, Reed F.; Proctor, Michael F.; Schipper, Jan; González-Maya, José F.; Joshi, Anup R.; Olson, David; Ripple, William J.; Svenning, Jens-Christian.

In: Ecography, Vol. 2022, No. 4, e06098, 2022.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Vynne, C, Gosling, J, Maney, C, Dinerstein, E, Lee, ATL, Burgess, ND, Fernández, N, Fernando, S, Jhala, H, Jhala, Y, Noss, RF, Proctor, MF, Schipper, J, González-Maya, JF, Joshi, AR, Olson, D, Ripple, WJ & Svenning, J-C 2022, 'An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages', Ecography, vol. 2022, no. 4, e06098. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06098

Vynne, Carly ; Gosling, Joe ; Maney, Calum ; Dinerstein, Eric ; Lee, Andy T. L. ; Burgess, Neil D. ; Fernández, Néstor ; Fernando, Sanjiv ; Jhala, Harshini ; Jhala, Yadvendradev ; Noss, Reed F. ; Proctor, Michael F. ; Schipper, Jan ; González-Maya, José F. ; Joshi, Anup R. ; Olson, David ; Ripple, William J. ; Svenning, Jens-Christian. / An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages. In: Ecography. 2022 ; Vol. 2022, No. 4.

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