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Protecting Important Sites for Biodiversity Contributes to Meeting Global Conservation Targets

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, March 2012
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (89th percentile)

Mentioned by

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3 policy sources
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12 X users
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1 Facebook page

Citations

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232 Dimensions

Readers on

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691 Mendeley
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2 CiteULike
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Title
Protecting Important Sites for Biodiversity Contributes to Meeting Global Conservation Targets
Published in
PLOS ONE, March 2012
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0032529
Pubmed ID
Authors

Stuart H. M. Butchart, Jörn P. W. Scharlemann, Mike I. Evans, Suhel Quader, Salvatore Aricò, Julius Arinaitwe, Mark Balman, Leon A. Bennun, Bastian Bertzky, Charles Besançon, Timothy M. Boucher, Thomas M. Brooks, Ian J. Burfield, Neil D. Burgess, Simba Chan, Rob P. Clay, Mike J. Crosby, Nicholas C. Davidson, Naamal De Silva, Christian Devenish, Guy C. L. Dutson, David F. Día z Fernández, Lincoln D. C. Fishpool, Claire Fitzgerald, Matt Foster, Melanie F. Heath, Marc Hockings, Michael Hoffmann, David Knox, Frank W. Larsen, John F. Lamoreux, Colby Loucks, Ian May, James Millett, Dominic Molloy, Paul Morling, Mike Parr, Taylor H. Ricketts, Nathalie Seddon, Benjamin Skolnik, Simon N. Stuart, Amy Upgren, Stephen Woodley

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation efforts and now cover nearly 13% of the world's land surface, with the world's governments committed to expand this to 17%. However, as biodiversity continues to decline, the effectiveness of PAs in reducing the extinction risk of species remains largely untested. We analyzed PA coverage and trends in species' extinction risk at globally significant sites for conserving birds (10,993 Important Bird Areas, IBAs) and highly threatened vertebrates and conifers (588 Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, AZEs) (referred to collectively hereafter as 'important sites'). Species occurring in important sites with greater PA coverage experienced smaller increases in extinction risk over recent decades: the increase was half as large for bird species with>50% of the IBAs at which they occur completely covered by PAs, and a third lower for birds, mammals and amphibians restricted to protected AZEs (compared with unprotected or partially protected sites). Globally, half of the important sites for biodiversity conservation remain unprotected (49% of IBAs, 51% of AZEs). While PA coverage of important sites has increased over time, the proportion of PA area covering important sites, as opposed to less important land, has declined (by 0.45-1.14% annually since 1950 for IBAs and 0.79-1.49% annually for AZEs). Thus, while appropriately located PAs may slow the rate at which species are driven towards extinction, recent PA network expansion has under-represented important sites. We conclude that better targeted expansion of PA networks would help to improve biodiversity trends.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 691 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 7 1%
Brazil 6 <1%
France 3 <1%
Canada 3 <1%
Italy 2 <1%
United States 2 <1%
India 2 <1%
Colombia 2 <1%
Sweden 2 <1%
Other 12 2%
Unknown 650 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 146 21%
Student > Master 120 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 105 15%
Student > Bachelor 65 9%
Other 45 7%
Other 115 17%
Unknown 95 14%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Environmental Science 258 37%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 238 34%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 20 3%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 9 1%
Social Sciences 9 1%
Other 37 5%
Unknown 120 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 19. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 January 2023.
All research outputs
#1,865,578
of 23,577,761 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#23,737
of 202,082 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#11,070
of 162,225 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#382
of 3,709 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,761 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 202,082 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 162,225 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 3,709 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.