ARPHA Conference Abstracts : Conference Abstract
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Corresponding author: Paulo Alexandre Vieira Borges (pborges@uac.pt)
Received: 23 Aug 2018 | Published: 30 Aug 2018
© 2018 Paulo Borges, Lucas Lamelas-Lopez, Rui Nunes, Isabel Amorim, Mário Boieiro, Carla Rego
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Borges P, Lamelas-Lopez L, Nunes R, Amorim I, Boieiro M, Rego C (2018) Red List of Azorean endemic cave adapted arthropods: an ecological and conservation overview. ARPHA Conference Abstracts 1: e29283. https://doi.org/10.3897/aca.1.e29283
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The Azorean endemic arthropod fauna includes seventeen species and subspecies adapted to the subterranean environment. Most of these species are known from single lava-tubes or volcanic pits (seven out of the 17 species) and only a few are widespread (namely Trechus terceiranus and Trechus picoensis). Moreover, many of the caves are under severe impact of the main economic activity on Azores, dairy–cattle production. Consequently, it is urgent to assess the conservation status of the Azorean endemic cave arthropod fauna. The aims of this contribution are twofold:
Most of the species have small extent of occurrence (EOO less than 12 km²) and reduced area of occupancy (AOO less than 12 km²). The main current threat to the species is the impact of agriculture activities. We suggest as future measures of conservation the regular monitoring of the species (every ten years) and fencing the entrances of the caves where human intrusion and disturbance has been occurring. The Azorean Government will publish legislation for the protection of the most important Azorean caves in 2018.
Azores, cave species, islands, IUCN, Arthropoda, Portugal, species conservation profiles, rarity
Paulo A. V. Borges
24th International Conference on Subterranean Biology (20 – 24 August 2018). University of Aveiro, Portugal; Organized under the Auspices of the International Society for Subterranean Biology
Many thanks to the project "Toyota Global Species Programme" that is supporting the IUCN SSC Mid-Atlantic Islands Specialist Group in performing the species conservation Species conservation profile of Azorean endemic arthropods.
For the development of this paper the work of IRA, LLL, RN, MB and CR was partly supported, respectively, by grants FCT-SFRH/BPD/102804/2014, FCT-SFRH/BD/115022/2016, FRCT-M3.1.2/F/035/2011, FCT-SFRH/BPD/86215/2012 and FCT-SFRH/BPD/91357/201.
Participation on this Congress was Funded by FCT within the project UID/BIA/00329/2013
University of Azores
Paulo A. V. Borges conceived the ideas. All the remaining authors participated in species evaluations.