Rarity value and species extinction: The anthropogenic Allee effect
Rarity value and species extinction: The anthropogenic Allee effect
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pbio.0040415
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发表时间：
2006-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
9.8
通讯作者：
Meinard, Yves
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Courchamp, Franck;Angulo, Elena;Meinard, Yves
标准的经济理论预测，由于寻找一个正在衰退的物种的最后个体的成本不断上升，仅仅是开发不太可能导致物种灭绝。我们认为，人类倾向于夸大稀有性的价值，助长了对稀有物种的过度开发，使它们变得更加稀有，从而更受欢迎，最终导致它们陷入灭绝漩涡。在这里，我们提出了一个简单的数学模型和各种经验的例子，以显示在一些人类活动中的价值归因于稀有可能会沉淀稀有物种的灭绝，我们的概念，人为Allee效应。令人震惊的发现是，人类对稀有性的认识会加速物种灭绝，这对保护稀有物种或可能变得稀有的物种有着严重的影响，无论这些物种是有魅力和象征性的，还是仅仅可能成为某些活动的时尚。
Standard economic theory predicts that exploitation alone is unlikely to result in species extinction because of the escalating costs of finding the last individuals of a declining species. We argue that the human predisposition to place exaggerated value on rarity fuels disproportionate exploitation of rare species, rendering them even rarer and thus more desirable, ultimately leading them into an extinction vortex. Here we present a simple mathematical model and various empirical examples to show how the value attributed to rarity in some human activities could precipitate the extinction of rare species-a concept that we term the anthropogenic Allee effect. The alarming finding that human perception of rarity can precipitate species extinction has serious implications for the conservation of species that are rare or that may become so, be they charismatic and emblematic or simply likely to become fashionable for certain activities.