Socioeconomic deprivation and racialised disparities in competitive athletes with sudden cardiac arrest from the USA.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association of socioeconomic deprivation and racialised outcomes in competitive athletes with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the USA. METHODS: SCA cases from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research (July 2014 to June 2021) were included. We matched Area Deprivation Index (ADI) scores (17 metrics to grade socioeconomic conditions) to the 9-digit zip codes for each athlete's home address. ADI is scored 1-100 with higher scores indicating greater neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation. Analysis of variance was used to assess differences in mean ADI by racial groups. Tukey post hoc testing was used for pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: 391 cases of SCA in competitive athletes (85.4% male; 16.9% collegiate, 68% high school, 10.7% middle school, 4.3% youth) were identified via active surveillance. 79 cases were excluded due to missing data (19 race, 60 ADI). Of 312 cases with complete data, 171 (54.8%) were white, 110 (35.3%) black and 31 (9.9%) other race. The mean ADI was 40.20 (95% CI 36.64, 43.86) in white athletes, 57.88 (95% CI 52.65, 63.11) in black athletes and 40.77 (95% CI 30.69, 50.86) in other race athletes. Mean ADI was higher in black versus white athletes (mean difference 17.68, 95% CI 10.25, 25.12; p=0.0036) and black versus other race athletes (mean difference 17.11, 95% CI 4.74, 29.47; p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Black athletes with SCA come from areas with higher neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation than white or other race athletes with SCA. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic deprivation may be associated with racialised disparities in athletes with SCA.

Prevalence and perspectives of illegal trade in cacti and succulent plants in the collector community.

Although illegal wildlife trade (IWT) represents a serious threat to biodiversity, research into the prevalence of illegal plant collection and trade remains scarce. Because cacti and succulents are heavily threatened by overcollection for often illegal, international ornamental trade, we surveyed 441 members of the cacti and succulent hobbyist collector community with a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. We sought to understand collector perspectives on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) and on the threats IWT poses to cactus and succulent conservation. Most respondents (74% of 401 respondents) stated that illegal collection in cacti and succulents represents a "very serious problem" and that the problem of wild plant collection is increasing (72% of 319 respondents). Most forms of illegal collection and trade were seen as very unacceptable by respondents. Self-reported noncompliance with CITES rules was uncommon (11.2% of 418 respondents); it remains a persistent problem in parts of the cacti and succulent hobbyist community. People engaging in rule breaking, such as transporting plants without required CITES documents, generally did so knowingly. Although 60.6% of 381 respondents regarded CITES as a very important tool for conservation, sentiment toward CITES and its efficacy in helping species conservation was mixed. Collectors in our survey saw themselves as potentially playing important roles in cactus and succulent conservation, but this potential resource remains largely untapped. Our results suggest the need for enhanced consultation with stakeholders in CITES decision-making. For challenging subjects like IWT, developing evidence-based responses demands deep interdisciplinary engagement, including assessing the conservation impact of species listings on CITES appendices.

Aunque el mercado ilegal de especies (MIE) representa una amenaza seria para la biodiversidad, son escasas las investigaciones sobre la prevalencia del intercambio y la colecta ilegal de plantas. Ya que las cactáceas y suculentas están amenazadas seriamente por la sobrecolección, generalmente para el mercado ornamental internacional e ilegal, encuestamos mediante una estrategia cualitativa y cuantitativa a 441 miembros de la comunidad de aficionados a coleccionar estas plantas. Buscamos entender las perspectivas que tienen los coleccionistas sobre la Convención sobre el Comercio Internacional de Fauna y Flora Silvestres (CITES) y sobre las amenazas que el MIE representa para la conservación de las cactáceas y las suculentas. La mayoría de los respondientes (74% de 401) mencionaron que la recolección ilegal de estas plantas representa un "problema muy serio" y que el problema de la recolección de plantas silvestres está en aumento (72% de 319 respondientes). Casi todas las formas de mercado y colecta ilegal fueron consideradas como inaceptables por los respondientes. El no cumplimiento autoreportado de las reglas de la CITES no fue recurrente (11.2% de 418 respondientes), pero permanece como un problema persistente en algunos sectores de la comunidad de aficionados a la colección de estas plantas. Las personas que rompieron las reglas, como con el transporte de plantas sin los documentos CITES requeridos, en su mayoría lo hicieron conscientemente. Aunque el 60.6% de los 381 respondientes consideraron la CITES como una herramienta muy importante para la conservación, los sentimientos hacia ella y su eficiencia en el apoyo a la conservación de especies fueron encontrados. Los coleccionistas de nuestra encuesta se reconocieron como actores potencialmente importantes en la conservación de las cactáceas y las suculentas, pero este recurso potencial permanece desaprovechado en su mayoría. Nuestros resultados sugieren que es necesaria una consulta reforzada con los actores en las decisiones de la CITES. Para temas exigentes como el MIE, el desarrollo de respuestas basadas en evidencias demanda una participación interdisciplinaria profunda, incluyendo la evaluación del impacto de conservación que tienen los listados de especies en los apéndices de CITES. Prevalencia y perspectivas del mercado ilegal de cactáceas y plantas suculentas en la comunidad de coleccionistas.

Incorporating evolutionary and threat processes into crop wild relatives conservation.

Crop wild relatives (CWR) intra- and interspecific diversity is essential for crop breeding and food security. However, intraspecific genetic diversity, which is central given the idiosyncratic threats to species in landscapes, is usually not considered in planning frameworks. Here, we introduce an approach to develop proxies of genetic differentiation to identify conservation areas, applying systematic conservation planning tools that produce hierarchical prioritizations of the landscape. It accounts for: (i) evolutionary processes, including historical and environmental drivers of genetic diversity, and (ii) threat processes, considering taxa-specific tolerance to human-modified habitats, and their extinction risk status. Our analyses can be used as inputs for developing national action plans for the conservation and use of CWR. Our results also inform public policy to mitigate threat processes to CWR (like crops living modified organisms or agriculture subsidies), and could advise future research (e.g. for potential germplasm collecting). Although we focus on Mesoamerican CWR within Mexico, our methodology offers opportunities to effectively guide conservation and monitoring strategies to safeguard the evolutionary resilience of any taxa, including in regions of complex evolutionary histories and mosaic landscapes.

Elevated extinction risk of cacti under climate change.

Cactaceae (cacti), a New World plant family, is one of the most endangered groups of organisms on the planet. Conservation planning is uncertain as it is unclear whether climate and land-use change will positively or negatively impact global cactus diversity. On the one hand, a common perception is that future climates will be favourable to cacti as they have multiple adaptations and specialized physiologies and morphologies for increased heat and drought. On the other hand, the wide diversity of the more than 1,500 cactus species, many of which occur in more mesic and cooler ecosystems, questions the view that most cacti can tolerate warmer and drought conditions. Here we assess the hypothesis that cacti will benefit and expand in potential distribution in a warmer and more drought-prone world. We quantified exposure to climate change through range forecasts and associated diversity maps for 408 cactus species under three Representative Concentration Pathways (2.6, 4.5 and 8.5) for 2050 and 2070. Our analyses show that 60% of species will experience a reduction in favourable climate, with about a quarter of species exposed to environmental conditions outside of the current realized niche in over 25% of their current distribution. These results show low sensitivity to many uncertainties in forecasting, mostly deriving from dispersal ability and model complexity rather than climate scenarios. While current range size and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List category were not statistically significant predictors of predicted future changes in suitable climate area, epiphytes had the greatest exposure to novel climates. Overall, the number of cactus species at risk is projected to increase sharply in the future, especially in current richness hotspots. Land-use change has previously been identified as the second-most-common driver of threat among cacti, affecting many of the ~31% of cacti that are currently threatened. Our results suggest that climate change will become a primary driver of cactus extinction risk with 60-90% of species assessed negatively impacted by climate change and/or other anthropogenic processes, depending on how these threat processes are distributed across cactus species.

Identifying global centers of unsustainable commercial harvesting of species.

Overexploitation is one of the main threats to biodiversity, but the intensity of this threat varies geographically. We identified global concentrations, on land and at sea, of 4543 species threatened by unsustainable commercial harvesting. Regions under high-intensity threat (based on accessibility on land and on fishing catch at sea) cover 4.3% of the land and 6.1% of the seas and contain 82% of all species threatened by unsustainable harvesting and >80% of the ranges of Critically Endangered species threatened by unsustainable harvesting. Currently, only 16% of these regions are covered by protected areas on land and just 6% at sea. Urgent actions are needed in these centers of unsustainable harvesting to ensure that use of species is sustainable and to prevent further species' extinctions.

Global gap analysis of cactus species and priority sites for their conservation.

Knowing how much biodiversity is captured by protected areas (PAs) is important to meeting country commitments to international conservation agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, and analyzing gaps in species coverage by PAs contributes greatly to improved locating of new PAs and conservation of species. Regardless of their importance, global gap analyses have been conducted only for a few taxonomic groups (e.g., mangroves, corals, amphibians, birds, mammals). We conducted the first global gap analysis for a complete specious plant group, the highly threatened Cactaceae. Using geographic distribution data of 1438 cactus species, we assessed how well the current PA network represents them. We also systematically identified priority areas for conservation of cactus species that met and failed to meet conservation targets accounting for their conservation status. There were 261 species with no coverage by PAs (gap species). A greater percentage of cacti species (18%) lacked protection than mammals (9.7%) and birds (5.6%), and also a greater percentage of threatened cacti species (32%) were outside protected areas than amphibians (26.5%), birds (19.9%), or mammals (16%). The top 17% of the landscape that best captured covered species represented on average 52.9% of species ranges. The priority areas for gap species and the unprotected portion of the ranges of species that only partially met their conservation target (i.e., partial gap) captured on average 75.2% of their ranges, of which 100 were threatened gap species. These findings and knowledge of the threats affecting species provide information that can be used to improve planning for cacti conservation and highlight the importance of assessing the representation of major groups, such as plants, in PAs to determining the performance of the current PA network.

Análisis del Vacío Mundial de Especies de Cactáceas y Sitios Prioritarios para su Conservación Resumen El conocimiento sobre cuánta biodiversidad es captada por las áreas protegidas (AP) es importante para cumplir los compromisos de cada país con los acuerdos internacionales sobre conservación, como la Convención sobre la Diversidad Biológica, y el análisis de los vacíos en la cobertura de especies por las AP contribuye enormemente a una ubicación mejorada de AP nuevas y a la conservación de especies. Sin considerar su importancia, los análisis de vacío global se han realizado solamente para unos cuantos grupos taxonómicos (p. ej.: mangles, corales, anfibios, aves, mamíferos). Realizamos el primer análisis de vacío global para un grupo completo de especies de plantas, las Cactaceae, que se encuentran bajo seria amenaza. Evaluamos que tan bien representa la red actual de AP a las cactáceas con datos de distribución geográfica de 1438 especies de cactus. También identificamos sistemáticamente las áreas prioritarias de conservación para especies de cactus que cumplieron o fallaron los objetivos de conservación considerando el estado de conservación de las cactáceas. Hubo 261 especies sin cobertura en las AP (especies vacío). Un mayor porcentaje de especies de cactus (18%) careció de protección comparado con los mamíferos (9.7%) y las aves (5.6%), y también encontramos un mayor porcentaje de especies amenazadas de cactus (32%) fuera de las áreas protegidas comparado con los anfibios (26.5%), aves (19.9%) o mamíferos (16%). El 17% máximo del paisaje que mejor capturó a las especies cubiertas representó el 52.9% de la extensión de las especies. Las áreas prioritarias para las especies vacío y la porción desprotegida de la extensión de las especies que sólo cumplieron parcialmente con sus objetivos de conservación (es decir, el vacío parcial) capturaron en promedio el 75.2% de la extensión de las cactáceas, de las cuales 100 eran especies vacío amenazadas. Estos hallazgos y conocimiento sobre las amenazas que afectan a las especies proporcionan información que puede usarse para mejorar la planeación de la conservación de cactáceas y también resalta la importancia de la evaluación de la representación de grupos importantes, como las plantas, en AP para determinar el desempeño de la red contemporánea de AP.

Erosion of natural darkness in the geographic ranges of cacti.

Naturally dark nighttime environments are being widely eroded by the introduction of artificial light at night (ALAN). The biological impacts vary with the intensity and spectrum of ALAN, but have been documented from molecules to ecosystems. How globally severe these impacts are likely to be depends in large part on the relationship between the spatio-temporal distribution of ALAN and that of the geographic ranges of species. Here, we determine this relationship for the Cactaceae family. Using maps of the geographic ranges of cacti and nighttime stable light composite images for the period 1992 to 2012, we found that a high percentage of cactus species were experiencing ALAN within their ranges in 1992, and that this percentage had increased by 2012. For almost all cactus species (89.7%) the percentage of their geographic range that was lit increased from 1992-1996 to 2008-2012, often markedly. There was a significant negative relationship between the species richness of an area, and that of threatened species, and the level of ALAN. Cacti could be particularly sensitive to this widespread and ongoing intrusion of ALAN into their geographic ranges, especially when considering the potential for additive and synergistic interactions with the impacts of other anthropogenic pressures.

Assessing the Cost of Global Biodiversity and Conservation Knowledge.

Knowledge products comprise assessments of authoritative information supported by standards, governance, quality control, data, tools, and capacity building mechanisms. Considerable resources are dedicated to developing and maintaining knowledge products for biodiversity conservation, and they are widely used to inform policy and advise decision makers and practitioners. However, the financial cost of delivering this information is largely undocumented. We evaluated the costs and funding sources for developing and maintaining four global biodiversity and conservation knowledge products: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Protected Planet, and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. These are secondary data sets, built on primary data collected by extensive networks of expert contributors worldwide. We estimate that US$160 million (range: US$116-204 million), plus 293 person-years of volunteer time (range: 278-308 person-years) valued at US$ 14 million (range US$12-16 million), were invested in these four knowledge products between 1979 and 2013. More than half of this financing was provided through philanthropy, and nearly three-quarters was spent on personnel costs. The estimated annual cost of maintaining data and platforms for three of these knowledge products (excluding the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems for which annual costs were not possible to estimate for 2013) is US$6.5 million in total (range: US$6.2-6.7 million). We estimated that an additional US$114 million will be needed to reach pre-defined baselines of data coverage for all the four knowledge products, and that once achieved, annual maintenance costs will be approximately US$12 million. These costs are much lower than those to maintain many other, similarly important, global knowledge products. Ensuring that biodiversity and conservation knowledge products are sufficiently up to date, comprehensive and accurate is fundamental to inform decision-making for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Thus, the development and implementation of plans for sustainable long-term financing for them is critical.

High proportion of cactus species threatened with extinction.

A high proportion of plant species is predicted to be threatened with extinction in the near future. However, the threat status of only a small number has been evaluated compared with key animal groups, rendering the magnitude and nature of the risks plants face unclear. Here we report the results of a global species assessment for the largest plant taxon evaluated to date under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Categories and Criteria, the iconic Cactaceae (cacti). We show that cacti are among the most threatened taxonomic groups assessed to date, with 31% of the 1,478 evaluated species threatened, demonstrating the high anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity in arid lands. The distribution of threatened species and the predominant threatening processes and drivers are different to those described for other taxa. The most significant threat processes comprise land conversion to agriculture and aquaculture, collection as biological resources, and residential and commercial development. The dominant drivers of extinction risk are the unscrupulous collection of live plants and seeds for horticultural trade and private ornamental collections, smallholder livestock ranching and smallholder annual agriculture. Our findings demonstrate that global species assessments are readily achievable for major groups of plants with relatively moderate resources, and highlight different conservation priorities and actions to those derived from species assessments of key animal groups.