Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Aug 28;109(35):14063-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1210251109. Epub 2012 Aug 14.
The benefits of protected areas (PAs) for biodiversity have been questioned in the context of climate change because PAs are static, whereas the distributions of species are dynamic. Current PAs may, however, continue to be important if they provide suitable locations for species to colonize at their leading-edge range boundaries, thereby enabling spread into new regions. Here, we present an empirical assessment of the role of PAs as targets for colonization during recent range expansions. Records from intensive surveys revealed that seven bird and butterfly species have colonized PAs 4.2 (median) times more frequently than expected from the availability of PAs in the landscapes colonized. Records of an additional 256 invertebrate species with less-intensive surveys supported these findings and showed that 98% of species are disproportionately associated with PAs in newly colonized parts of their ranges. Although colonizing species favor PAs in general, species vary greatly in their reliance on PAs, reflecting differences in the dependence of individual species on particular habitats and other conditions that are available only in PAs. These findings highlight the importance of current PAs for facilitating range expansions and show that a small subset of the landscape receives a high proportion of colonizations by range-expanding species.
保护区（PAs）在气候变化背景下对生物多样性的益处受到质疑，因为 PAs 是静态的，而物种的分布是动态的。然而，如果当前的 PAs 能够为物种在其前沿分布边界的定居提供合适的位置，从而使物种能够扩散到新的区域，那么它们可能仍然很重要。在这里，我们对 PAs 在最近的分布扩张中作为定居目标的作用进行了实证评估。密集调查的记录显示，有 7 种鸟类和蝴蝶比从所定居的景观中 PAs 的可用性来看，定居在 PAs 的频率高出 4.2 倍（中位数）。对更多采用非密集调查的 256 种无脊椎动物的记录支持了这些发现，并表明 98%的物种在其分布范围的新定居部分不成比例地与 PAs 相关。尽管定居物种普遍偏爱 PAs，但它们对 PAs 的依赖程度差异很大，这反映了个别物种对特定栖息地和其他仅在 PAs 中可用的条件的依赖程度存在差异。这些发现强调了当前 PAs 对促进分布扩张的重要性，并表明景观的一小部分区域接收了大量分布扩张物种的定居。
