School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center (SBiK-F), Frankfurt (Main), Germany.
Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 15;14(1):4639. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40053-y.
Marine bivalves are important components of ecosystems and exploited by humans for food across the world, but the intrinsic vulnerability of exploited bivalve species to global changes is poorly known. Here, we expand the list of shallow-marine bivalves known to be exploited worldwide, with 720 exploited bivalve species added beyond the 81 in the United Nations FAO Production Database, and investigate their diversity, distribution and extinction vulnerability using a metric based on ecological traits and evolutionary history. The added species shift the richness hotspot of exploited species from the northeast Atlantic to the west Pacific, with 55% of bivalve families being exploited, concentrated mostly in two major clades but all major body plans. We find that exploited species tend to be larger in size, occur in shallower waters, and have larger geographic and thermal ranges-the last two traits are known to confer extinction-resistance in marine bivalves. However, exploited bivalve species in certain regions such as the tropical east Atlantic and the temperate northeast and southeast Pacific, are among those with high intrinsic vulnerability and are a large fraction of regional faunal diversity. Our results pinpoint regional faunas and specific taxa of likely concern for management and conservation.
海洋双壳类是生态系统的重要组成部分，在全球范围内被人类作为食物而开发利用，但受开发利用的双壳类物种对全球变化的内在脆弱性知之甚少。在这里，我们扩展了已知在全球范围内被开发利用的浅海双壳类物种的清单，在联合国粮农组织生产数据库中已有的 81 种之外，又增加了 720 种被开发利用的双壳类物种，并使用基于生态特征和进化历史的指标来研究它们的多样性、分布和灭绝脆弱性。新增的物种将受开发利用的物种的丰富热点从东北大西洋转移到了西太平洋，有 55%的双壳类科被开发利用，主要集中在两个主要的进化枝中，但所有主要的身体形态都有。我们发现，受开发利用的物种往往体型更大，生活在较浅的水域，并且具有更大的地理和温度范围——后两个特征已知在海洋双壳类中赋予了它们抗灭绝的能力。然而，某些地区的受开发利用的双壳类物种，如热带东大西洋和温带东北和东南太平洋，它们具有较高的内在脆弱性，并且是区域动物群多样性的重要组成部分。我们的研究结果确定了可能需要管理和保护的区域动物群和特定分类群。
