Biodiversity is eroding at unprecedented rates due to human activity. Species' trajectories towards extinction are shaped by multiple factors, including life-history traits as well as human pressures. Previous studies linking these factors to extinction risk have been narrow in their taxonomic and geographic scope, thus limiting the ability for identifying global predictors. We studied the relation between 12 traits and the extinction risk of almost 900 species representing 15 groups across the tree of life (vertebrates, invertebrates and plants) at a global scale. We show that threatened species share narrow habitat breadth, poor dispersal ability, low fecundity, small altitudinal range, and are affected by a large human footprint. Other traits either show contrasting responses among groups (body size, offspring size, and change in human footprint), or relations were found for only a limited number of taxa (generation length, diet breadth, microhabitat). Our study suggests that in the absence of data on the precise distribution and population trends of species, traits can be used as predictors of extinction risk and thus help guide future research, monitoring and conservation efforts.

中文翻译：

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物种特征预测整个生命之树的灭绝风险

由于人类活动，生物多样性正以前所未有的速度在侵蚀。物种灭绝的轨迹受多种因素影响，包括生命历史特征和人类压力。先前将这些因素与灭绝风险联系起来的研究在分类学和地理范围上都很狭窄，因此限制了识别全球预测因素的能力。在全球范围内，我们研究了12个性状与代表生命树中15个群体的近900种物种（脊椎动物，无脊椎动物和植物）的灭绝风险之间的关系。我们表明，受威胁物种共有狭窄的栖息地广度，扩散能力差，繁殖力低，海拔范围小，并且受人类足迹的影响较大。其他特征在各组之间的反应也不同（体重，后代大小，以及人类足迹的变化），或者只发现了数量有限的类群（世代长度，饮食宽度，微生境）。我们的研究表明，在没有有关物种的精确分布和种群趋势的数据的情况下，性状可以用作灭绝风险的预测指标，从而有助于指导未来的研究，监测和保护工作。