Conservation should assume realistic adaptive capacities

Conservation actions often assume implicitly that heritabilities are zero and that threatened populations cannot adapt to changing environments. To illustrate, we evaluated the last 10 y of recovery plans for US threatened and endangered species and found that only 4% assessed within-population adaptability. This omission reflects the common assumption that population adaptation is too slow or inconsequential to affect conservation practice in the short term. Yet, the median heritability (h 2 ) and evolvability (I A ) across many studies are not zero as assumed, but 0.3 and 0.4, respectively, based on a compilation of estimated values. This moderate heritability could rescue some populations. By compiling…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: 80NSSC22K0883
• DF
  Directorate for Biological Sciences

  Award: 2320675