What are umbrella species?

The Umbrel species is a plant or animal species with a wide range that has requirements for life that are as high in their habitat than in other animals. This means that if the requirements of this kind are met, the requirements of many other species will be met. As such, these animals are commonly used while maintaining. Although this term is related to other protection ideas such as the flagship, Keystone or the indicator, it is actually something very different. There are critics of the umbrella system; However, it turned out to be useful in several situations.

There are no international criteria for selecting animals that will serve as umbrella species, but generally, they tend to be large mammals or birds because they tend to have the largest range of the environment and often have a great impact on their ecosystem. Many times endangered or vulnerable animal types are selected because more people know about them or because envrendial legislation can be used more easily to jEjich protection. Some nature conservationists use a widespread umbrella in which they choose several types of high needs that have overlapping requirements to have the best chance of satisfying the needs of as many animals as possible. Common umbrella species include northern spotted owls, tigers, grizzly bears, rhinos and whales.

uses

The use of umbrella species is designed to facilitate the process of protection and environmental decision -making. With so many millions of different forms of wildlife requiring monitoring and protection, it can be difficult to assess the individual needs of each individual. Since umbrellas requirements include the requirements of so many other species, nature can reasonably assume that they have helped all the other species that share the requirements with them when Help it.

This model is also used in creating reserves of wildAnimals. In this situation, nature calculates how much land would be needed, and then mark as much land as this animal would need as an area of ​​interest or reserve.

Critics

Although it is assumed that umbrella protection will automatically provide protection to other surrounding organisms, in practice it is often difficult to monitor. Some also feel that focusing on only one species on the possible costs of others is not the best method of maintaining. In addition, only a small research has been conducted to confirm whether the umbrella actually works, and many studies that have been done on it show that it is not always effective. For example, noses et al. (1996) found that although Grizzly Bears would function relatively well as an umbrella animal, the needs of bears reptiles would not be covered. Despite these critics, this model worked in multiple time. For example, Martinkainen et al. (1998) found that the white-under-supported woodpecker worked well as an umbrella for a certain type of beetle.

SatIntroducting concepts

The idea of ​​choosing one kind that helps or monitors is also used in choosing a flagship, a key or indicator species. The flagships are animals that are chosen as the "face" of environmental campaigns because they are attractive and many people know about them. For example, pandas or whales are commonly used as a flagship.

KEYSTONE species are animals that have a relatively low distribution, but have a great impact on their environment, like beavers. The types of indicators are those that can be used to learn certain things about the environment. For example, some fish types can only live in very clean water, so the presence of this fish in the area would indicate that water is clean.