Biodiversity and Species Extinction

[yongestclair1]

Although 2 million species have been identified, the total number of species may range up to tens of millions. There are a multitude of species of invertebrates that have not been identified. Unfortunately, current rates of extinction are estimated to be in the order of 100 times higher than rates discovered through the fossil record. Scientists suggest that extinction rates will increase to the order of more than 1 000 times prior extinction rates over several decades.

At http://www.onebiosphere.com there is substantial discussion and debate over the problems of biodersity and animal species extinction due to climatic change and other human impacts on the environment.

Less than 10 per cent of the world's known species have been evaluated to determine their conservation prospects. Tens of thousands of species have been identified as endangered species. Among vertebrate groups, scientists have estimated that 30 per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are threatened.

In order to assess extinction trends, the conservation status of a species group must be evaluated on a regular basis. This information is available for birds and amphibians. Both groups indicate a continuing increase in the risk of extinction from the 1980s to 2007.

The threat status of species varies by ecosystem. Tropical rainforests contain the highest number of threatened species, followed by tropical dry forests, mountain grasslands and dry shrub lands. The threat status of species in freshwater habitats has been inadequately studied. However, local assessments from the U.S. and the Mediterranean suggest that many freshwater species are at higher risk of extinction than terrestrial classes. Fisheries have been severely depleted to the extent that 75 per cent of global fish stocks are fully or overexploited.

[armadillo]

Good theme for a thread!

In Greece many species face extinction ever since the big fires in 2007. Brown bears have to seek food closer to villages, wolves cannot be seen anymore, and a rare species of deer diminishes in population because most of the forest it used to live at got burnt..

Extinction is something that almost all wild species will face in the future,and some species that we might now even know of already go extinct...

[ricardo]

Plant Your Tree

There is a website with a Facebook application doing exactly this. Biodiversity conservation.

They work by planting biodiversity corridors, connecting isolated fragments of forests together, hence allowing for animal movement between these locations, helping prevent the genetic weakening of the species.

The project is located in Southern Brazil and uses native trees of the Atlantic Rainforest ecosystem.

Their site can be seen in www.plantyourtree.com

Their projects are an offshoot of a similar project in the region called the Santa Maria Biodiversity Corridor, a significant biodiversity conservation project, which can be seen in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FxLB8iiS2Y

these are serious people using modern tools to get the message across and they need all the support they can get, so please add the Plant Your Tree Facebook application and help (without charge) this wonderful project gather momentum so that PlantYourTree.com can carry out their mission which is to once again connect by forest the Amazon to Patagonia.