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Reply to: The Living Planet Index does not measure abundance

Nature volume 601, page E16 (2022)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 26 January 2022

replying to M. Puurtinen et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03708-8 (2022)

In the accompanying Comment1, Puurtinen et al. provide a clear example of why one must be careful when interpreting analyses using the Living Planet Database (LPD). We were pleased to read this Comment inspired by our recent paper2. It is an important continuation of the discussion about what can be learned from the rich data in the LPD. In brief, we concur that the Living Planet Index (LPI), and any summary analyses using the LPD (including ours), do not reflect changes in abundance. This is an important point that is often missed by the media, and it is exactly the type of nuance we wanted to promote with our paper.

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References

  1. Puurtinen, M., Elo, M. & Kotiaho, J. S. The Living Planet Index does not measure abundance. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03708-8 (2021).

  2. Leung, B. et al. Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines. Nature 588, 267–271 (2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Brian Leung & Anna L. Hargreaves

  2. Bieler School of Environment, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Brian Leung

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Dan A. Greenberg

  4. School of Biology and Ecology and Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Brian McGill

  5. Centre for Biological Diversity, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Maria Dornelas

  6. Indicators and Assessments Unit, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK

    Robin Freeman

Authors
  1. Brian Leung
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  2. Anna L. Hargreaves
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  3. Dan A. Greenberg
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  4. Brian McGill
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  5. Maria Dornelas
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  6. Robin Freeman
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Contributions

B.L. wrote the response. A.L.H. and D.A.G. helped with writing, editing and discussing ideas. B.M., M.D. and R.F. discussed ideas and did some editing.

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Correspondence to Brian Leung.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Leung, B., Hargreaves, A.L., Greenberg, D.A. et al. Reply to: The Living Planet Index does not measure abundance. Nature 601, E16 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03709-7

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