“Nature is in an imbalance caused by the double crisis of climate change and the loss of natural resources. biodiversity“. The fifth and final report from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in the UK, published today and based on the work of 200 international researchers, supports the scientific community’s complaint: Three of the four undescribed plant species on the planet are already on the verge of extinction.
Plants and fungi support all life on Earthby providing valuable ecosystem services that support human livelihoods, They provide food, medicine, clothing and raw materials. In the report, ‘Confronting the emergency of the natural world: evidence, data gaps and priorities’, scientists delve into what is known and unknown about the diversity of ecosystems and these key components of ecosystems. threats they face.
“Right now Plants and fungi are increasingly threatened“We must act quickly to fill knowledge gaps and identify conservation priorities,” said Alexandre Antonelli, Scientific Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
With approximately 350,000 species vascular Plants As science already knows, researchers are in a race against time to name and evaluate those that have not yet been identified. But the difficulty is huge: Nearly 100,000 of them have not yet been officially named.
Scientists suspect that Approximately 75,000 vascular plant species are in danger of extinction. Based on these findings, they call for all newly described species to be treated as if they were considered threatened, unless proven otherwise.
45 percent of flowering plants are endangered
“Unfortunately, more and more recently described species have small ranges (most are described from a single location) and decrease in population and/or habitat“Note the report’s authors, who believe prioritizing these species for full assessments on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List will aid conservation efforts.
“Ideally, partnerships between taxonomists and conservation consultants should aim to simultaneously describe and assess species. Maximize opportunities for effective conservation actions” says Matilda Brown, researcher in Conservation Assessment and Analysis at Kew.
“In the meantime, our advice could help protect tens of thousands of undescribed threatened species that may be treated as threatened once we recognize them,” adds Brown.
The situation is alarming: 45% of all known flowering plants may be on the verge of extinction. Orchidaceae (orchid) plant families; Piperaceae, which includes black pepper; bromeliads containing pineapple; Researchers note that araceae and araceae, which include many important crops, are among the most threatened.
Scientists hope that these new findings Guide policymakers and conservation efforts to save plants on the brink of extinction foreverThis is accelerating extinction risk assessments of species, says Steven Bachman, species conservation research leader at Kew.
“The number of threatened plants has increased dramatically in recent years. When I started as a taxonomist 30 years ago, I never even thought that a species I was publishing might become extinct; it was just assumed that it would still exist in the wild,” he explains. Martin Cheek, head of accelerated taxonomy research at Kew.
More than 90% of mushrooms will be discovered
what happens mushroom? Compared to plants and animals that have received greater scientific attention over the centuries, little is known about their diversity. So far, only 155,000 mushroom species have been officially named.But researchers have long suspected that this kingdom is as diverse as plants and animals, if not more so.
Current estimates The number of fungal species is approximately 2.5 millionthat is, more than 90% has not yet been discovered. This is one of the future discoveries scientists hope to make. may provide new sources of food, drugs, chemicals and enzymes with beneficial properties such as plastic degradation.
Scientists warn that the current pace of discovery of the problem is “completely inadequate to solve the magnitude of the problem.” As of January 2020, only 10,200 fungal species have been officially described as new to science. At this rate, it would take between 750 and 1000 years to tell it all.
Researchers are hopeful that DNA sequencing and molecular data could lead to the cataloging of 50,000 new species each year from environmental samples.
It is very important to know what types of mushrooms exist in the world and what we need to do to avoid losing them.“, emphasizes Tuula Niskanen, former research leader in accelerated taxonomy at Kew.
“The vision of what could happen if we lost too many species—a homogenized global vegetation and ecosystems that couldn’t provide the resources we needed.” The urgency of stopping biodiversity loss, managing ecosystems sustainably And re-stabilizing planetary systems while we can,” the authors conclude.
Connection To the fifth report of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
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