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Applying the IUCN Red List criteria to small-sized plants on oceanic islands: conservation implications for threatened bryophytes in the Canary Islands

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Abstract

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categories and criteria were applied to small-sized spore-producing plants with high dispersal capacities (bryophytes). The application of some of the IUCN criteria to bryophytes in small and highly environmental diverse islands implies several problems. The criteria applicability increases when the occupancy area is reduced. However, for common species restricted to a single type of vegetation belt, the use of the IUCN criteria is problematic because of inapplicable and/or misleading thresholds. We adapted the IUCN criteria by modifying the occupancy and occurrence area sizes and by specifying the location. This approach allowed us to establish the first Red List for the bryophyte species in the Canaries, which comprises 105 species (67 mosses and 38 liverworts); among them, 7 are critically endangered, 20 are endangered and 78 are vulnerable. Twenty-six species were classified as near-threatened, 245 were considered to be at low risk and 125 were data deficient (DD). Among the DD ones, 19 corresponded to newly reported species (DD-n) and 40 had no records during the last 30 years (DD-va). Our findings show that the freshwater habitats as well as the habitats in the most restricted cloud forests (with Erica platycodon) contain the majority of the threatened species, followed by other types of laurel forests and high mountain habitats.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is part of the projects entitled “Lista Roja de los Briófitos de las Islas Canarias” funded by the Canary Islands Government (P1042004-028), and “Biogeografía y procesos evolutivos en briófitos. Estudios en las Islas Macaronésicas” funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CGL2005-00028) and Atlas y Libro Rojo de flora briofítica amenazada de España (280910607 (23/2008) funded by the Spanish Dirección General del Medio natural y Política Forestal. We are very grateful to Tomas Hallingbäck for the correction of the manuscript and especially for the interesting suggestions about the method and for all the questions that allowed us to obtain a more accurate method. Thanks also to Julio Leal Pérez and Angel Fernández-López for their different field work assistances, and also Marcelino Del-Arco and Víctor Garzón for their help with the data of the different vegetation types. Many thanks also to Heinjo During for his suggestions in the correction of the first manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

    Juana María González-Mancebo, Jairo Patiño & Francisco Romaguera

  2. Natuurmuseum Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Gerard M. Dirkse

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences and Management, Institute of Botany, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Jairo Patiño

  4. Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain

    Olaf Werner & Rosa María Ros

  5. Viceconsejería de Medio Ambiente, Observatorio de Desarrollo Sostenible. Avenida de Anaga, Usos Múltiples I, 4° Planta. S/C de, Tenerife, 38071, Canary Islands, Spain

    Jose Luis Martín

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  1. Juana María González-Mancebo
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Correspondence to Juana María González-Mancebo.

Appendix

Appendix

See Fig. 1 and Tables 7 and 8.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Location of the Canary Islands

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Table 7 Vegetation and bioclimatic belts, altitudinal range and mean temperature in the Canary Islands according to Del-Arco et al. (1996, 1999, 2002, 2006); Del-Arco and Wildpret (1999)
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Table 8 Red list of the Canary Islands
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González-Mancebo, J.M., Dirkse, G.M., Patiño, J. et al. Applying the IUCN Red List criteria to small-sized plants on oceanic islands: conservation implications for threatened bryophytes in the Canary Islands. Biodivers Conserv 21, 3613–3636 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0385-0

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