Identifying areas for multidimensional biodiversity conservation, with a case study in Oaxaca, Mexico

The greatest challenge that we currently face is generating integrative conservation strategies to guarantee the preservation not only of species richness, but also of ecological functions and evolutionary history. We propose to assess these different dimensions to identify areas of high multidimensional diversity (AMC), and exemplify this approach with cricetid mice, in a region of Mexico with high diversity that is considered a priority for global conservation. We elaborate models of the potential geographic distribution of 49 species of mice to predict their communities; we then used those predictions to calculate the number of rare species, and taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity. Subsequently, we identify AMC and evaluate their ecological integrity and the level to which they are protected by government and indigenous communities. We found a high spatial incongruity between the different dimensions of biodiversity, which indicates that in situ diversification processes and dispersal limitation drive spatial heterogeneous patterns of diversity. The AMC overlapped very little with the governmental (6.4%) and indigenous communities (15.2%) conservation areas, the Payments for Environmental Services initiative is the most overlaps. Half of the AMC had an intermediate ecological integrity. Protected areas systems protect few sites with high multidimensional biodiversity values, and half of the priority areas we identified requires restoration programs. The proposed methodology is an integral way to evaluate current protected areas systems and will be useful to guide effective and efficient conservation priorities involving evolutional and ecological dimensions of the biodiversity.