ABSTRACT
As biodiversity declines toward the poles, high-latitude countries will contain the poleward range edge of many species, potentially focusing national conservation toward range-edge populations whose global conservation value remains contentious. Using the >200 vascular plants assessed for protection in Canada, we ask whether national species-conservation rankings are biased toward range-edge populations and supported by adequate research. Of 192 plant taxa deemed at-risk in Canada, 77% were only found in Canada at the northernmost 20% or less of their range. Higher threat categories had more peripheral taxa, and the mismatch between national and global threat rankings was greater for peripheral vs. non-peripheral taxa. Almost half (43%) of Canadian at-risk plants had not been studied in the peer-reviewed, conservation-relevant literature, 57% had not been studied in Canada, and peripheral populations received even less research effort than non-peripheral taxa. Only 5% of 7-9 conservation-relevant studies assessed at-risk populations in the context of their geographic range—information that is critical to establishing their relative conservation value. Thus, flora conservation in Canada is largely the conservation of edge populations, yet edge populations themselves and the geographic context that makes them unique are understudied, a research gap we must close to improve evidence-based conservation.