Age-area scaling of extinction debt within isolated terrestrial vertebrate assemblages /Hugueny, Bernard Amphibians birds conservation biology diversity dependence habitat fragmentation insular biogeography mammals relaxation reptiles A new model of delayed species loss (extinction debt) within isolated communities is applied to a large data set of terrestrial vertebrate assemblages (n = 188) occupying habitat fragments or islands varying greatly in size and age. The model encapsulates previous approaches based on diversity-dependent (DD) extinction rates while allowing for a more flexible treatment of temporal dynamics. Three important results emerge. First, species loss rate slows down with the age of the isolate, a strong and general pattern largely unnoticed so far. Secondly, while being good candidates in the light of previous works, DD models fail to account for this pattern, a result that necessitates a search for other mechanisms. Thirdly, a simple diversity-independent model based on area (converted into population size) and age explains 97% of the variability in species loss rate and appears to be a promising predictive tool to handle extinction debt following habitat loss. 2017 text https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010069501 fdi:010069501 Hugueny Bernard. Age-area scaling of extinction debt within isolated terrestrial vertebrate assemblages. 2017, 20 (5), 591-598 EN