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DECONSTRUCTING THE SURROGATE SPECIES CONCEPT: A LIFE HISTORY APPROACH TO THE PROTECTION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES JOHN E. BANKS (/California State University, Monterey Bay/) The use of the surrogate species concept is widespread in conservation science and environmental risk assessment, especially in efforts aimed at protecting species that are endangered or provide ecosystem services. Surrogates are often chosen on the basis of convenience or similarities in physiology or life history to species of concern, but few formal protocols exist for the choice of surrogates. At the same time, our ability to predict how species of concern will fare when subjected to anthropogenic disturbances such as environmental contaminants or toxicants is often based on misleading comparisons of static toxicity tests (e.g., the LC50). Here I present an alternative approach that features simple mathematical models parameterized with life history data, applied to different assemblages of species. I describe several case studies using data from diverse taxa including endangered salmonids and a suite of parasitoid wasps important for biological control in agroecosystems to illustrate how we can incorporate life history traits into models in order to better understand and predict population outcomes. I demonstrate that we cannot always reliably use the response of designated surrogate species to predict the fate of similar species exposed to the same disturbances. These results have implications for how we assess risk and set conservation policy in both managed and natural/semi-natural ecosystems.

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