Habitat Loss and Extinction in the Hotspots of Biodiversity

Abstract: Nearly half the world's vascular plant species and one‐third of terrestrial vertebrates are endemic to 25 “hotspots” of biodiversity, each of which has at least 1500 endemic plant species. None of these hotspots have more than one‐third of their pristine habitat remaining. Historically, they covered 12% of the land's surface, but today their intact habitat covers only 1.4% of the land. As a result of this habitat loss, we expect many of the hotspot endemics to have either become extinct or—because much of the habitat loss is recent—to be threatened with extinction. We used World Conservation Union [ IUCN ] Red Lists to test this expectation. Overall, between one‐half and two‐thirds of all threatened…

• CD
  Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior