PLEA Network

24 November 2015, Climate News Network, Trees face global extinction threat. Field scientists warn that damage being done to the Amazon rainforest indicates that most of the world’s 40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as being at risk.  More than half of all tree species in the Amazon forest could be at risk of extinction, according to new research. There are at least 15,000 species of tree in and around the Amazon basin and the Guiana Shield. At the lowest estimate, 36% are at risk, but the proportion under threat could also be as high as 57%. And since the Amazon rainforest is one of the planet’s richest habitats, and since what is true for one tropical great forest must apply to others, the research suggests that the number of threatened plant species on the planet could rise by 22%. Tropical trees worldwide number more than 40,000 species, and most of these may qualify as being to some degree threatened. Deforestation maps Hans ter Steege, research fellow at the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands, and 157 colleagues from 21 countries report in Science Advances journal that they started with data from 1,485 forest inventories and measurements of species density from more than 1,600 plots of forest made across the Amazon region. They matched the information with maps of deforestation happening right now, or projected to happen, and then used statistical methods to make a range of estimates of the numbers of species at risk. The forests of the Amazon have already lost 12% of their original extent. By 2050, they could have lost at least another 9%, and perhaps as much as 28%. The forests are at risk from invasion by people hungry for land, and exploitation for mining and dam construction, as well as fire, drought and climate change. Read More here