Influence of scale on conservation priority setting – a test on African mammals

摘要: Broad-scale priority regions for conservation can be identified usingdatabases on species distribution through the application of site-selectionalgorithms. However, influence scale large-scale setting isstill unclear. Using a data set all 939 sub-Saharan mammal species,we wanted to know if continental priorities derived at scales 1°, 2°,4° and 8° latitude–longitude grid cells are consistent. We testedwhether (1) geographical location minimum sets were nested across scale, (2)the selection sequence (priority) areas within scaledependent, (3) these coarse-scale act as cost-effectiveshortcut identification fine-scale priorities. found that minimumsets smaller largely represented largerscales, especially when flexibility was considered. geographicallocation with highest in onlyscale independent ranked by number endangered species, total speciesrichness or rare quartile richness, but surprisingly not bycomplementary richness. Minimum 1° generallyidentified 2°, 4° sets.Therefore, may provide pragmatic basis immediateassessment conservation.