To stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity, conservation practitioners must distinguish between effective and ineffective approaches for protecting species habitats. Using Google Earth Engine and 31 years of Landsat images, we quantified changes in the habitats of 24 vertebrates listed under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List across categories of land ownership (eg federal, state, private) in the continental US that are subject to different conservation‐focused legal restrictions. These estimates exclude changes attributable to agricultural conversion and burned areas. The imperiled species we evaluated lost the least amount of habitat (3.6%) on federal lands, whereas losses on private lands without conservation easements were more than twice as high (8.1%). Differences in annual percent loss before and after ESA listing, and between ESA‐listed and Red List species, indicate that the ESA limited habitat loss and was most effective on federal lands. These results underscore the importance of federal lands in protecting habitat for imperiled species and highlight the need to improve habitat protection on private lands for long‐term conservation.

中文翻译：

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美国濒危物种最容易遭受私人土地上栖息地的丧失

为了阻止生物多样性的持续丧失，保护从业人员必须区分保护物种栖息地的有效方法和无效方法。利用Google Earth Engine和31年的Landsat图像，我们量化了根据美国濒危物种法（ESA）和国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）红色名录列出的24种脊椎动物的生境变化，涉及土地所有类别（ （例如联邦，州，私人）在美国大陆受到不同的以保护为重点的法律限制。这些估计数不包括可归因于农业转产和烧毁面积的变化。我们评估的濒危物种在联邦土地上的栖息地损失最少（3.6％），而在没有保护地役权的私有土地上的损失则高出两倍（8.1％）。在ESA上市前后，以及被ESA列入清单和列入红色清单的物种之间，年损失百分比的差异表明，ESA限制了栖息地的丧失，并且在联邦土地上最为有效。这些结果强调了联邦土地在保护濒临灭绝物种的栖息地方面的重要性，并强调了需要改善私人土地上的栖息地保护以进行长期保护。