Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?

The current biodiversity crisis calls for an acceleration in the implementation of measures to conserve and restore ecosystems around the world. To achieve these objectives, it is imperative to provide scientifically robust tools that practitioners can easily apply. In recent years, two theoretical...

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Main Authors: Simon Chollet, Mathilde Dano, Gabrielle Thiébaut, Vincent Jung
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-01-01
Series:Ecological Indicators
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X2401447X
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author Simon Chollet
Mathilde Dano
Gabrielle Thiébaut
Vincent Jung
author_facet Simon Chollet
Mathilde Dano
Gabrielle Thiébaut
Vincent Jung
author_sort Simon Chollet
collection DOAJ
description The current biodiversity crisis calls for an acceleration in the implementation of measures to conserve and restore ecosystems around the world. To achieve these objectives, it is imperative to provide scientifically robust tools that practitioners can easily apply. In recent years, two theoretical frameworks have been proposed, habitat-specific species pools and dark diversity. The aim of our study is to assess the value of combining these two concepts in order to improve predictions of dark diversity by restricting estimates to the pool of species typical of the habitat. Our study focuses on two habitats, heathlands and grasslands, both of which present major conservation and restoration challenges. We carried out vegetation surveys in 290 heathlands and 425 grasslands spread throughout the region. Our results indicate that restricting dark diversity estimates to the habitat-specific species pool significantly reduces the number of species estimated in dark diversity. Furthermore, we show that a large proportion of the species predicted in the dark diversity are species nontypical of the studied habitats. Our results also demonstrate that there is no redundancy between approaches based on the assessment of observed conservation status and those based on dark diversity. The use of the dark diversity is complementary to approach based on the assessment of observed conservation status for the diagnosis, prioritisation and monitoring of conservation or restoration measures. Nevertheless, our results indicate that in the context of conservation and restoration, estimates of dark diversity must be restricted to the habitat-specific species pool.
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spelling doaj-art-b62ce6df4c4144bbb62185a5b39d63432025-01-31T05:10:23ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2025-01-01170112990Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?Simon Chollet0Mathilde Dano1Gabrielle Thiébaut2Vincent Jung3Corresponding authors at: Université de Rennes, Campus de Beaulieu, bat 14a, 263 Avenue du Général Leclerc, Rennes 35042, France.; CNRS UMR 6553 ECOBIO, Université de Rennes, FranceCNRS UMR 6553 ECOBIO, Université de Rennes, FranceCNRS UMR 6553 ECOBIO, Université de Rennes, FranceCNRS UMR 6553 ECOBIO, Université de Rennes, FranceThe current biodiversity crisis calls for an acceleration in the implementation of measures to conserve and restore ecosystems around the world. To achieve these objectives, it is imperative to provide scientifically robust tools that practitioners can easily apply. In recent years, two theoretical frameworks have been proposed, habitat-specific species pools and dark diversity. The aim of our study is to assess the value of combining these two concepts in order to improve predictions of dark diversity by restricting estimates to the pool of species typical of the habitat. Our study focuses on two habitats, heathlands and grasslands, both of which present major conservation and restoration challenges. We carried out vegetation surveys in 290 heathlands and 425 grasslands spread throughout the region. Our results indicate that restricting dark diversity estimates to the habitat-specific species pool significantly reduces the number of species estimated in dark diversity. Furthermore, we show that a large proportion of the species predicted in the dark diversity are species nontypical of the studied habitats. Our results also demonstrate that there is no redundancy between approaches based on the assessment of observed conservation status and those based on dark diversity. The use of the dark diversity is complementary to approach based on the assessment of observed conservation status for the diagnosis, prioritisation and monitoring of conservation or restoration measures. Nevertheless, our results indicate that in the context of conservation and restoration, estimates of dark diversity must be restricted to the habitat-specific species pool.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X2401447XCompletenessDark diversityGrasslandHabitat conservation statusHabitat specific species poolHeathland
spellingShingle Simon Chollet
Mathilde Dano
Gabrielle Thiébaut
Vincent Jung
Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?
Ecological Indicators
Completeness
Dark diversity
Grassland
Habitat conservation status
Habitat specific species pool
Heathland
title Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?
title_full Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?
title_fullStr Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?
title_full_unstemmed Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?
title_short Dark diversity and habitat conservation status: Two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration?
title_sort dark diversity and habitat conservation status two sides of the same coin for conservation and restoration
topic Completeness
Dark diversity
Grassland
Habitat conservation status
Habitat specific species pool
Heathland
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X2401447X
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AT gabriellethiebaut darkdiversityandhabitatconservationstatustwosidesofthesamecoinforconservationandrestoration
AT vincentjung darkdiversityandhabitatconservationstatustwosidesofthesamecoinforconservationandrestoration