Taxonomic inflation as a conservation trap for inbred populations.

Conservation is prioritized based on accepted taxa. As a consequence, a conservation incentive exists to emphasize inter-population differences to define taxa, potentially leading to taxonomic inflation. But stressing the uniqueness of threatened populations has the side effect of hindering conservation actions that promote inter-population gene flow, such as genetic rescue. These actions may be of critical importance for severely inbred populations involved in extinction vortices, for which an inflated taxonomy can become a conservation trap. Here, we exemplify this scenario with the western capercaillie (

Informations de copyright

© 2024 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interest related to the content of this publication.