Abstract High-latitude countries tend to contain the polar range-edge of many species that are nationally rare but globally common. This can focus national conservation efforts toward range-edge populations, whose conservation needs and value are disputed. Using plants in Canada as a case study, we ask whether national species-conservation rankings prioritize range-edge populations, and whether conservation priority is matched by habitat protection and research effort. We found that >75% of federally protected plants only occur in Canada peripherally, at the northernmost 20% or less of their total range, and that the most imperilled taxa had the smallest percentage of their range in Canada (endangered plants: median = 1.0%). Occurring peripherally in Canada was associated with higher threat even after accounting for range area, potentially because range-edge taxa experienced 85% higher human population densities in their Canadian range than non-peripheral taxa. High conservation priority was not matched by habitat protection, as more imperilled and more peripheral taxa had smaller fractions of their Canadian range in protected areas. Finally, peer-reviewed research on plants at-risk in Canada was low. Only 42% of plants considered at-risk in Canada had been studied in Canada, and only 11% of species with broad distributions outside Canada had been studied in the context of their wider geographic range—information that is critical to establishing their relative conservation value. Our results illustrate that plant conservation in Canada is fundamentally linked to conserving range-edge populations, yet edge populations themselves are understudied, a research gap we must close to improve evidence-based conservation.

中文翻译：

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栖息地保护或研究工作不匹配的边缘植物种群的高度保护优先级

摘要 高纬度国家往往包含许多全国罕见但全球普遍的物种的极地边缘。这可以将国家保护工作集中在边缘种群上，这些种群的保护需求和价值存在争议。我们以加拿大的植物为案例研究，询问国家物种保护排名是否优先考虑范围边缘种群，以及保护优先事项是否与栖息地保护和研究工作相匹配。我们发现，超过 75% 的联邦保护植物仅出现在加拿大的外围，占其总分布范围的最北端的 20% 或更少，并且最危险的分类群在加拿大的分布范围内所占的百分比最小（濒危植物：中位数 = 1.0 %）。即使考虑到射程区域，在加拿大外围发生的威胁也与更高的威胁有关，可能是因为范围边缘分类群在其加拿大范围内的人口密度比非外围分类群高 85%。栖息地保护与高保护优先级不匹配，因为更危险和更外围的分类群在保护区内的加拿大范围更小。最后，同行评审对加拿大处于危险中的植物的研究很少。只有 42% 在加拿大被认为处于危险中的植物在加拿大进行了研究，只有 11% 在加拿大境外广泛分布的物种在其更广泛的地理范围内进行了研究——这些信息对于确定其相对保护价值至关重要. 我们的结果表明，加拿大的植物保护从根本上与保护范围边缘种群有关，但边缘种群本身并未得到充分研究，