2019/03/12 by James R. Allan, James Watson, Moreno Di Marco +4 · 4 citations
Environmental Science · #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Species Distribution and Climate Change
paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000158
openalex publication_date 2019/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Conserving threatened species requires identifying where across their range they are being impacted by threats, yet this remains unresolved across most of Earth. Here, we present a global analysis of cumulative human impacts on threatened species by using a spatial framework that jointly considers the co-occurrence of eight threatening processes and the distribution of 5,457 terrestrial vertebrates. We show that impacts to species are widespread, occurring across 84% of Earth's surface, and identify hotspots of impacted species richness and coolspots of unimpacted species richness. Almost one-quarter of assessed species are impacted across >90% of their distribution, and approximately 7% are impacted across their entire range. These results foreshadow localised extirpations and potential extinctions without conservation action. The spatial framework developed here offers a tool for defining strategies to directly mitigate the threats driving species' declines, providing essential information for future national and global conservation agendas.