Phylogenetically‐Informed Crayfish Conservation in the Face of Climate Change
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Abstract
Crayfish are an ancient clade of freshwater decapods that play vital and diverse ecological roles in the freshwater systems that they inhabit. One third of assessed crayfish species is threatened with extinction and 87% are highly sensitive to climate change. However, the extent to which the evolutionary history of crayfish is threatened, especially by climate change, remains unclear. To address this, we produced a phylogenetically informed species prioritisation for the conservation of crayfish and explored the consequences of projected climate change scenarios on crayfish phylogenetic diversity. We used the EDGE2 metric to highlight 70 priority species for conservation. Their combined threatened evolutionary history accounts for 40.7% of the expected phylogenetic diversity loss for all 673 crayfish. Of these priority species, 45.7% are vulnerable to climate change, with the majority (32 species) located in Australia. Under a high warming scenario, individual species that are more evolutionarily distinct are projected to be disproportionately affected. The extinction of climate change vulnerable species could cause the loss of up to 26.3% more phylogenetic diversity than the random expectation, equivalent to 409 million years of evolutionary history. Our results highlight the need to consider climate change effects on phylogenetic diversity to fully understand its impact on biodiversity. If actions were taken to avoid a worst‐case warming scenario in favour of an intermediate scenario, we could safeguard 251 million years of unique crayfish evolutionary history.
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- Authors
- Pipins, S., Böhm, M., Bland, L., Crandall, K. A., Hossain, M. A., Rosindell, J., & Gumbs, R.
- Affiliations
- Zoological Society of London (GB)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- School of BioSciences The University of Melbourne Parkville Victoria Australia
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pipins, Sebastian
- Venue
- Animal Conservation
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2026-02-19
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 274-284
- ISSN
- 1367-9430 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1795
- OpenAlex
- W7130555191
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2
- FWCI
- 7.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Animal Conservation (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/S007415/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Crustacean biology and ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Keywords
- crayfish, climate change, phylogenetic diversity, conservation prioritization, evolutionary distinctiveness, extinction risk, freshwater decapods, species prioritization, warming scenarios
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