What is it about?
At an environmental change many species might disappear. However, this may take some time and during that time there is an extinction debt. The time lag to local extinction is actually an opportunity to start with counteracting management and perhaps "waive part of the extinction debt". By that we mean that the species might not go locally extinct after all! The paper illustrates this with an example of epiphytic plants in Ethiopia where coffee cultivation promotes shade tree retention.
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Why is it important?
We think it is important to consider the possibility of finding counteracting processes when there are time-lags in local extinctions.
Perspectives
I think our paper also illustrates that it is important to always consider dynamics in time and not over-interpret current patterns of biodiversity distribution. It is also an interesting case, since coffee agroecosystems can provide opportunities for win-win situations regarding production and biodiversity conservation.
Kristoffer Hylander
Stockholm University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Waiving the extinction debt: Can shade from coffee prevent extinctions of epiphytic plants from isolated trees?, Diversity and Distributions, May 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12579.
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