Influence of Feeding and Body Mass on IUCN Extinction Threat of Extant Marine and Terrestrial Mammals
Abstract
Extinction is a fundamental phenomenon that has been occurring for millions of years and is critical to the development of new organisms and niches. However, the current extinction rate is now one hundred to a thousand times the past background extinction rate due to human influences and rapidly changing environments. Research on geographic range and life history has been performed in extinction analyses, but rarely any on feeding type and trophic level. We compiled data from the IUCN Red List Database, Paleobiology database and diets from Pauly et al. (1998) to explore the possible correlation between various aspects of ecology and extinction threat. By doing so, we can better understand where to focus our conservation efforts, and what type of approach will reap the best results. We discovered that terrestrial carnivores are slightly less at risk than herbivores and omnivores, and that the feeding and tiering of marine mammals have minimal effect on their IUCN threat level. Body mass is the most influential factor on risk level, with larger adult body masses being most at risk.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMED41A0770L
- Keywords:
-
- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0825 Teaching methods;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0850 Geoscience education research;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION