Credit: Julian Resasco
The next time you go for a hike, take an extra moment to appreciate the seemingly ordinary life all around you. A house fly, humble yarrow weed and other generalist plants and pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and may also serve as buffers against some impacts of climate change, finds new University of Colorado Boulder research.
The findings, published this month in
Ecology, provide valuable insights for prioritizing the conservation of species that contribute to the strength of ecological communities. A lot of times, conservation efforts are geared toward things that are rare. But oftentimes, species that are common are also in decline and could go extinct, and that could have really big repercussions for maintaining biodiversity, said Julian Resasco, lead author on the study and assistant professor of ecology.