Species traits in road ecology: defining intrinsic vulnerability

González-Suárez, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5069-8900, Medrano-Vizcaíno, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3122-048X and Grilo, C. (2026) Species traits in road ecology: defining intrinsic vulnerability. In: D'Amico, M., Barrientos, R. and Ascensão, F. (eds.) Road Ecology: Synthesis and Perspectives. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham, pp. 403-411. ISBN 9783032166401 doi: 10.1007/978-3-032-16641-8_39

Abstract/Summary

Roads and associated traffic are known to affect wildlife. However, we lack estimates of these effects for many areas and species even though this understanding is key for assessing risks from transportation infrastructures and developing adequate monitoring and mitigation actions. Here we introduce a framework to produce initial assessments of vulnerability to roads that considers extrinsic and intrinsic vulnerabilities. This chapter focuses particularly on the latter, which are vulnerabilities related to how roads and traffic impact species with different morphological, ecological, behavioural, and physiological traits. We first synthesize evidence from the literature that show how animal traits mediate road impacts discussing different examples of species characteristics that influence vulnerability. Then we offer a perspective on how intrinsic vulnerability criteria could be developed for the proposed framework by introducing trait-based modelling approaches and providing examples of how these tools could be used to define vulnerability criteria and thresholds. With this chapter, we hope to raise awareness of how different traits can influence vulnerability to road impacts and to spark discussion on how road ecology can develop tools for initial assessment of road impacts across diverse areas and taxa.

Item Type	Book or Report Section
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/130295
Identification Number/DOI	10.1007/978-3-032-16641-8_39
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Publisher	Springer
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