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Local extinction

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Local extinction, also known as extirpation, is the condition of a species (or other taxon), plants or animals, that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions.[1][2]

Local extinctions mark a change in the ecology of an area. In recent times, local extinction has sometimes been followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations; wolf reintroduction is an example of this.

Discussion

See also: Biogeography, Metapopulation, Patch dynamics, and Habitat fragmentation

Glaciation can lead to local extinction. This was the case during the Pleistocene glaciation event in North America. During this period, most of the native North American species of earthworm were killed in places covered by glaciation. This left them open for colonization by European earthworms brought over in soil from Europe.[3]

Species naturally become extirpated from islands over time. The number of species an island can support is limited by its geographical size. Because many islands were relatively recently formed due to climate change at the end of the Pleistocene when the sea level rose, and these islands most likely had the same complement of species as found on the mainland, counting the species which still survive at present on a statistically large enough amount of islands will give the parameters with which certain groups of species such as plants or birds will become less biodiverse on a given island over a given period of time, depending on its size. The same calculations can also be applied to determine when species will disappear from nature parks ('islands' in many senses), mountain tops and mesas (see sky islands), forest remnants or other such distributional patches. This research also demonstrates that certain species are more prone to extinction than others, a species has an intrinsic extinction-ability (incidence function).[4][5]

Many crocodilian species have experienced localized extinction, particularly the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), which has been extirpated from Vietnam, Thailand, Java, and many other areas.[6]

In at least one case, scientists have found a local extinction useful for research: In the case of the Bay checkerspot butterfly, scientists, including Paul R. Ehrlich, chose not to intervene in a local extinction, using it to study the danger to the world population.[7]

Canis lupus rufus

Major environmental events, such as volcanic eruptions, may lead to large numbers of local extinctions, such as with the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, which led to a fern spike extinction.

Bull Kelp

Heat waves can lead to local extinction. In New Zealand, during the summer of 2017–2018, sea surface temperatures around parts of South Island exceeded 23 °C (73 °F), which was well above normal. Air temperatures were also high, exceeding 30 °C (86 °F). These high temperatures, coupled with small wave height, led to the local extinction of Bull Kelp (Durvillaea spp.) from Pile Bay.[8]

Lagoa Santa, Brazil has lost almost 70% of the local fish species over the last 150 years. These include Acestrorhynchus lacustris, Astyanax fasciatus, and Characidium zebra. This could be caused by the introduction of non-native species, like Talapia rendalli, into the lagoon, changes in water level and organic pollution.[9]

Local extinctions can be reversed, in some cases artificially. Wolves are a species that have been reintroduced into parts of their historical range. This has happened with red wolves (Canis lupus rufus) in the United States in the late 1980s and also grey wolves in Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s. There have been talks of reintroducing wolves in Scotland, Japan, and Mexico. Reintroduction of wolves is controversial.[10]

Subpopulations and stocks

When the local population of a certain species disappears from a certain geographical delimitation, whether fish in a drying pond or an entire ocean, it can be said to be extirpated or locally extinct in that pond or ocean.

A particular total world population can be more or less arbitrarily divided into 'stocks' or 'subpopulations', defined by political or other geographical delimitations. For example, the Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the conservation status of the Black Sea stock of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) that touches six countries, and COSEWIC, which only assesses the conservation status of wildlife in Canada, even assesses Canadian species that occur in the United States or other countries.

While the IUCN mostly only assesses the global conservation status of species or subspecies, in some older cases it also assessed the risks to certain stocks and populations, in some cases these populations may be genetically distinct. In all, 119 stocks or subpopulations across 69 species had been assessed by the IUCN in 2006.[11] If a local stock or population becomes extinct, the species as a whole has not become extinct, but extirpated from that local area.

Examples of stocks and subdivisions of world populations assessed separately by the IUCN for their conservation status are:

The IUCN also lists countries where assessed species, subspecies or geographic populations are found, and from which countries they have been extirpated or reintroduced.

The IUCN has only three entries for local stocks that have become extinct[12] the Aral Sea stock of Ship sturgeon (Acipenser nudiventris); the Adriatic Sea stock of beluga sturgeon (Huso huso); and the Mexican population of wolf (Canis lupus), which is extinct in the wild -None of these species are extinct, but they are extirpated from these local regions. No plant or fungi 'subpopulations' have been assessed as separate entities by the IUCN.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ladle, Richard; Whittaker, Robert J., eds. (2011). Conservation Biogeography. John Wiley & Sons. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-4443-9811-3.
  2. ^ Smith-Patten, Brenda D.; Bridge, Eli S.; et al. (14 January 2015). "Is extinction forever?". Public Understanding of Science. 24 (4): 481–495. doi:10.1177/0963662515571489. PMC 4404403. PMID 25711479.
  3. ^ Gates, G. E. (May 1949). "Miscellanea Megadrilogica". The American Naturalist. 83 (810): 139–152. doi:10.1086/281596. ISSN 0003-0147. S2CID 222328616.
  4. ^ Diamond, Jared M. (November 1972). "Biogeographic Kinetics: Estimation of Relaxation Times for Avifaunas of Southwest Pacific Islands" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 69 (11): 3199–3203. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  5. ^ Diamond, Jared M. (1975). "The Island Dilemma: Lessons of Modern Biogeographic Srudies for the Design of Natural Reserves" (PDF). Biological Conservation. 7: 129–146. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  6. ^ Webb, Grahame; Manolis, S; Brien, Matthew (2010). Saltwater Crocodile Crocodylus porosus (PDF). Crocodiles. pp. 99–113.[dead link‍]
  7. ^ Holsinger, Kent. "Local extinction Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine". Population Viability Analysis: Bay Checkerspot Butterfly. URL accessed August 11, 2006.
  8. ^ Thomsen, Mads S.; Mondardini, Luca; Alestra, Tommaso; Gerrity, Shawn; Tait, Leigh; South, Paul M.; Lilley, Stacie A. & Schiel, David R. (March 2019). "Local Extinction of Bull Kelp (Durvillaea spp.) Due to a Marine Heatwave". Frontiers in Marine Science. 6. doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00084. ISSN 2296-7745.
  9. ^ Pompeu, Paulo dos Santos; Alves, Carlos Bernardo Mascarenhas (December 2003). "Local fish extinction in a small tropical lake in Brazil". Neotropical Ichthyology. 1 (2): 133–135. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252003000200008. ISSN 1679-6225.
  10. ^ Arts, Koen; Fischer, Anke; Wal, René van der (2016). "Boundaries of the wolf and the wild: a conceptual examination of the relationship between rewilding and animal reintroduction". Restoration Ecology. 24 (1): 27–34. doi:10.1111/rec.12309. ISSN 1526-100X.
  11. ^ IUCN Red List, search for only stocks and subpopulations [1][dead link‍]
  12. ^ IUCN Red List, search for extinct stocks and populations: [2] Archived 2018-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
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