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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Conserv. Sci.
Sec. Conservation Social Sciences
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2025.1505451
This article is part of the Research Topic Transdisciplinary Approaches for Strengthening Species Conservation: Lessons from the first 50 Years of the US Endangered Species Act View all 4 articles
50 YEARS OF INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION UNDER THE UNITED STATES ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT-HISTORY AND THREATS TO SPECIES
Provisionally accepted- 1 Marine and Environmental Biology Section - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
- 2 McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, United States
- 3 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- 4 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York, United States
- 5 American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States
The United States Endangered Species Act celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. As a hallmark piece of environmental legislation, the Act has successfully prevented the extinction of hundreds of species. During these last 50 years, we have observed the decline of many species of invertebrates, resulting in the listing of 356 species. Here, we summarize the state of endangered invertebrates by reviewing all listing documents, including listing decisions, species status assessments, critical habitat designations, and status reviews. In our review, we evaluate the most prevalent threats for aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. We find that invertebrates have been assessed and listed consistently in the past 50 years, and the last eight years have seen an uptick in status reviews. Further, we find that pollution, natural system modifications (such as dams), and intrinsic factors (such as small population sizes or number of populations) are the major contributing threats to aquatic invertebrates. On the other hand, problematic biotic factors (such as invasive species), climate change, residential and commercial development, and pollution are the major threats to terrestrial invertebrates. Overall, our study reviews the current threats to invertebrates and provides a baseline for the next 50 years in the face of a shifting threat and conservation arena.
Keywords: Endangered Species Act, conservation, Insects, Invertebrates, Mollusks
Received: 02 Oct 2024; Accepted: 28 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shirey, Lewthwaite, Gawel and Guzman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Vaughn Michael Shirey, Marine and Environmental Biology Section - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
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