Rapidly Evaluating Species at Risk Using Endemic Plants of Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia

Abstract

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species is regarded as the primary source of global extinction risk for species. Despite this importance, the IUCN has assessed less than 20% of the world′s estimated 400,000 flowering plants due to issues like insufficient data or a lack of experts. Thousands of conservation status assessments were generated recently in response to the call to action by the revised Target 2 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), “An assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, as far as possible, to guide conservation action.” Accelerated extinction risk assessments are needed to identify species that are most at risk of extinction, which can then be thoroughly evaluated by the Red List assessment procedure. The land area in the Pacific Islands is significantly smaller than in other parts of the world. Plant species restricted to these islands may be identified as “At Risk” due to the limited land area of these islands, despite being widespread locally. Distribution and abundance data of single-island endemic plant taxa of Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, are analyzed and combined with digital elevation model files from this island, ArcGIS, and herbarium data, to calculate the percentage of land area that is available within a species′ elevational occurrence, a metric we have coined the Extent of Inhabitable Elevation of Island Occurrence (EIEIO). This metric can be used as a streamlined system to rapidly identify species that need plant conservation attention and allows for a swifter response to Target 2 of the GSPC.