Complete extinction: serious threat to thousands of plant and animal species identified

A new analysis has revealed the gravest threat to thousands of flora and fauna species facing extinction. Modern agriculture in Europe appears to be most responsible for this, researchers say.

A new analysis by scientists shows that of the 14,669 species of plants and animals found in Europe that were listed as critically endangered by the end of 2020, one fifth of them were listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Endangered.

As reported by CNN, the researchers also determined that the biggest threat posed by Europe’s declining biodiversity is changes in agricultural land use, which lead to habitat loss and overexploitation of biological resources, the study said in a press release published Wednesday in the journal Plos One.

“We thought it would be a good idea to combine all this data to see what are the main threats? Where are the regions where the most endangered species occur? – says lead author of the study Axel Hochkirch, head of the ecology department at the National Museum of Natural History in Luxembourg. “Because only if we know about the threats can we do something about it.”

The IUCN Red List is considered the most comprehensive global source of information on threatened species, and Europe contains the most data of any region represented in the index, Hochkirch said. According to the article, the thousands of species found in Europe and listed in the Red Book make up almost 10% of the continent’s total biodiversity.

The index categorizes species as Least Concern, Critically Endangered, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, and Extinct. In their analysis, the researchers found that 19% of all species listed on the European Red List, including 27% of plants, 24% of invertebrates and 18% of vertebrates, are “endangered”.

Species at risk may be listed in the Red Book as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.

“One of the most interesting findings of the study is that plants and invertebrates are more endangered than vertebrates,” said Gerardo Ceballos, a professor at the Institute of Ecology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and one of the world’s leading ecologists.

A 2019 global assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES, found that, based on the “sparse data” available for insects, 10% of all insects worldwide are at risk of extinction, according to a new study. . But Hochkirch and his team found more than twice as many invertebrates at risk in Europe.

The IUCN estimates that 95% of the world’s animals are invertebrates and 73% are insects.

It was initially estimated that 1 million species of plants and animals around the world were at risk of extinction, including about half a million species of insects, based on findings from the Red Data Book. Invertebrate data from a new analysis suggests that the number of species at risk of extinction worldwide is actually closer to 2 million, Hochkirch warns.

“The extinction crisis is more serious than previously thought,” Ceballos said.

In addition to agricultural land use, the analysis identified several other major threats to Europe’s biodiversity, including pollution, climate change and severe weather, invasive species, and residential and commercial development.

The analysis confirms agriculture’s greater impact on global biodiversity, said Dr David Williams, lecturer in sustainability and the environment at the University of Leeds in the UK.

“Agriculture primarily threatens biodiversity through expansion into natural habitats and intensification (increased productivity). The problem is that we can’t cut expansion and intensification at the same time, because doing either (let alone both) would reduce the amount of food produced,” Williams notes.

“So what should Europe do? How can we preserve the region’s biodiversity without simply shifting the biodiversity costs of our food production offshore? … This is a very clear next question,” he emphasizes. Williams was the lead author of a 2020 study that found that nearly 90% of land animals could suffer habitat loss by 2050 due to agricultural growth.

Hochkirch said he hoped the analysis would prompt further action to conserve insects and other endangered species in Europe.