Despite its successes, the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has proven challenging to implement due to funding limitations, workload backlog, and other problems. As threats to species survival intensify and as more species come under threat, the need for the ESA and similar conservation laws and policies in other countries to function efficiently has grown. Attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to streamline ESA decisions include multispecies recovery plans and habitat conservation plans. We address species status assessment (SSA), a USFWS process to inform ESA decisions from listing to recovery, within the context of multispecies and ecosystem planning. Although existing SSAs have a single-species focus, ecosystem-based research can efficiently inform multiple SSAs within a region and provide a foundation for transition to multispecies SSAs in the future. We considered at-risk grassland species and ecosystems within the southeastern United States, where a disproportionate number of rare and endemic species are associated with grasslands. To initiate our ecosystem-based approach, we used a combined literature-based and structured World Café workshop format to identify science needs for SSAs. Discussions concentrated on 5 categories of threats to grassland species and ecosystems, consistent with recommendations to make shared threats a focus of planning under the ESA: (1) habitat loss, fragmentation, and disruption of functional connectivity; (2) climate change; (3) altered disturbance regimes; (4) invasive species; and (5) localized impacts. For each threat, workshop participants identified science and information needs, including database availability, research priorities, and modeling and mapping needs. Grouping species by habitat and shared threats can make the SSA process and other planning processes for conservation of at-risk species worldwide more efficient and useful. We found a combination of literature review and structured discussion effective for identifying the scientific information and analysis needed to support the development of multiple SSAs.

中文翻译：

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根据美国濒危物种法案改善物种状况评估以及对全球多物种保护挑战的影响

尽管取得了成功，但事实证明，由于资金限制、工作量积压和其他问题，美国濒危物种法案 (ESA) 的实施具有挑战性。随着对物种生存的威胁加剧以及越来越多的物种受到威胁，欧空局和其他国家的类似保护法律和政策有效运作的需求也在增长。美国鱼类和野生动物管理局 (USFWS) 简化 ESA 决策的尝试包括多物种恢复计划和栖息地保护计划。我们在多物种和生态系统规划的背景下处理物种状态评估 (SSA)，这是一种 USFWS 流程，用于通知 ESA 从列表到恢复的决策。尽管现有的 SSA 只关注单一物种，基于生态系统的研究可以有效地为一个区域内的多个 SSA 提供信息，并为未来向多物种 SSA 的过渡奠定基础。我们考虑了美国东南部处于危险中的草原物种和生态系统，其中不成比例的稀有和特有物种与草原有关。为了启动我们基于生态系统的方法，我们使用了结合了基于文献和结构化的 World Café 研讨会形式来确定 SSA 的科学需求。讨论集中在对草原物种和生态系统的 5 类威胁上，与将共同威胁作为欧空局规划重点的建议一致：(1) 栖息地丧失、破碎化和功能连通性中断；(2) 气候变化；(3) 改变扰动机制；(4) 入侵物种；(5) 局部影响。对于每种威胁，研讨会参与者确定了科学和信息需求，包括数据库可用性、研究重点以及建模和绘图需求。按栖息地和共同威胁对物种进行分组可以使 SSA 过程和其他保护全球濒危物种的规划过程更加有效和有用。我们发现文献综述和结构化讨论相结合，可以有效识别支持多个 SSA 开发所需的科学信息和分析。按栖息地和共同威胁对物种进行分组可以使 SSA 过程和其他保护全球濒危物种的规划过程更加有效和有用。我们发现文献综述和结构化讨论相结合，可以有效识别支持多个 SSA 开发所需的科学信息和分析。按栖息地和共同威胁对物种进行分组可以使 SSA 过程和其他保护全球濒危物种的规划过程更加有效和有用。我们发现文献综述和结构化讨论相结合，可以有效识别支持多个 SSA 开发所需的科学信息和分析。