Recommendations for the Identification and Selection of Vertebrate Umbrella Species for Conservation Planning in Terrestrial Ecosystems.

Date
2014-10-02
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Abstract
Umbrella species approaches are a widely used ‘short-cut’ to guide conservation planning and management. Determining how to select surrogate species is a current gap in praxis and would allow for more successful and efficient implementation of this approach. I used a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis to synthesize the published literature on 1) empirical evaluations of umbrella and extended- umbrella species effectiveness in terrestrial ecosystems; and 2) selection frameworks for these surrogates. In phase 1, I found that there are no generalizable criteria to identify effective umbrella species and instead identified four principles of an effective umbrella species. These are representativeness, applicability, practicality, and persistence. In phase 2, I synthesized existing selection frameworks and recommend a twelve-step process for selecting and using umbrella species in conservation planning. I conclude with six recommendations for the identification and selection of umbrella species for systematic conservation planning in terrestrial landscapes.
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Forestry and Wildlife, Ecology, Environmental Sciences
Citation
Rasmussen, K. (2014). Recommendations for the Identification and Selection of Vertebrate Umbrella Species for Conservation Planning in Terrestrial Ecosystems. (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27558