Global assessment of effective population sizes: Consistent taxonomic differences in meeting the 50/500 rule

Abstract

Effective population size ( N e ) is a particularly useful metric for conservation as it affects genetic drift, inbreeding and adaptive potential within populations. Current guidelines recommend a minimum N e of 50 and 500 to avoid short‐term inbreeding and to preserve long‐term adaptive potential respectively. However, the extent to which wild populations reach these thresholds globally has not been investigated, nor has the relationship between N e and human activities. Through a quantitative review, we generated a dataset with 4610 georeferenced N e estimates from 3829 populations, extracted from 723 articles. These data show that certain taxonomic groups are less likely to meet 50/500 thresholds and are disproportionately impacted by human activities; plant, mammal and amphibian populations had a N e and help prioritise assessment of populations from taxa most at risk of failing to meet conservation thresholds.

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