For Immediate Release

Primary extinctions and human driven environmental

stressors increase the probability of secondary extinctions
March 14, 2015
The future of conservation study lies in exploring the intricacies of secondary extinction,
and incorporating the findings in planning and implementing future conservation efforts.
Agencies such as the Nature Conservancy are beginning to implement strategies for mitigating
secondary extinctions, but given that secondary extinction is an under-researched and complex
event in our ecosystem, future research is essential to adequately deal with this accelerating
phenomenon.
Until recently, most studies on secondary extinction and species interaction disruption
have focused on single human disruptions. Because ecosystems are intricate webs of interacting
species, the secondary extinction phenomenon incorporates multiple human-caused threats to
biodiversity.
Secondary extinction is most prevalent in areas with multiple exposures to human
disruption, such as disturbance in habitat, loss of keystone predators, loss of seed dispersing
animals, and increases in temperature. Decoding the intricacy of secondary extinction is crucial
for understanding the fate of global biodiversity.
There is difficulty in predicting the correlation between human impact and secondary
extinction risk, but determining this correlation is absolutely necessary. First, it is critical to
identify the primary stressors and their impact on species interaction disruption. When a primary
extinction occurs, and the plant or animal has interacting partners in the ecosystem, as bees
pollinate flowering plants, the probabilities increase for the occurrence of a secondary extinction
of these interacting partners. If bees disappear, the flowering plants ability to reproduce may
decline from the loss of this interacting partner.
At this point, researchers cannot determine the number of secondary extinctions that have
occurred from the loss of partner interactions with primary extinction species. Researchers have
noted, however, that some species have replaced extinct interaction partners successfully, while
other native species have managed to successfully adapt to changing conditions without their
traditional interaction partners.
Human disturbances to habitats increase the likelihood that invasive species will
proliferate and disturb the natural balance of native species, further exacerbating secondary
extinctions. One major human disturbance is the removal of keystone predators from ecosystems,
which creates drastic imbalance and increases the likelihood secondary extinctions.
Blair Foust of the Nature Conservancy contextualized secondary extinctions in a simple manner.
What we need to do, as environmental stewards of the earth, is to study the correlation between primary
and secondary extinctions in ecosystems, and do everything within our grasp to restore these ecosystems
so that they may flourish for centuries to come, Foust said.

At the Hart Prairie Nature Preserve outside Flagstaff, Arizona, Foust and the Nature Conservancy
are working to restore Aspen groves and Bebb Willow tree stands that have suffered from the loss of
keystone predators. Foust explained that Wolves and mountain lions are interacting partners with these
tree stands, because they prey on the deer and elk which graze young willows and aspens, and this
overgrazing prevents the stands from becoming established and healthy. Without this interacting partner,
the trees are defenseless against the grazing animals, and as a result, the Aspen groves and Bebb Willow
stands require human stewardship to thrive. Foust and the Nature Conservancy build fenced exclosures
around these developing groves to prevent grazing elk and deer from disrupting the balance required for a
healthy grove.
The Nature Conservancy and other conservation agencies work diligently to understand the
complex relationships between primary and secondary extinctions, but it is clear that further research is
necessary. Human activity is the primary driving force for these extinctions, and future restoration efforts
should aim to mitigate and reverse these driving forces for secondary extinctions.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534714002079