Dangers of animal and plant extinction
According to a new study in the journal "Science", many plants may lose their means of transportation, which makes them move to areas less suitable for their type, and thus they are at greater risk of death. New studies also indicate that the decline of bird and mammal species has reduced the ability of plants to spread their seeds, which has contributed to destabilizing the foundations of a healthy ecosystem.
Endangered species are animal and plant species that are at risk of extinction. Scientists estimate that more than 8,300 plant species and 7,200 animal species around the planet are threatened with extinction, and the majority of these species are found in tropical regions and developing countries. Thousands more become extinct every year before they are discovered by biologists.
Extinction is a natural process during the course of evolution. Species have evolved and disappeared slowly over geological time as a result of climate change and their inability to adapt to competitive and predation relationships. But since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the rate of extinction has increased significantly due to the increase in the world population and human consumption of natural resources. Today, most habitats are changing faster than most species can adapt to through the process of evolution. The current global extinction rate is alarmingly higher than the natural extinction rate. Many biologists believe that we are in the midst of the largest mass extinction since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The scale of the problem
Scientists estimate that the world is losing between fifty thousand and one hundred thousand species of creatures every year, and one biologist has stated that the rate of species extinction is twice what experts estimated just four years ago. While one environmental report indicated that this rate of species decline has not occurred on Earth for sixty-five million years, when the dinosaurs became extinct, and at this rate, we may be approaching a mass extinction similar to what happened before. If the current environmental deterioration is not stopped, the world will lose about fifty-five percent of its species forever within a period ranging between fifty and one hundred years from now. Similar rates of loss of biodiversity have occurred in the past, and these disasters resulted in dire consequences for the species that escaped extinction. Over the next thirty years, scientists expect about a quarter of known mammals and a tenth of recorded bird species to become extinct as a result of steady climate change and loss of their natural habitats. They also expect that a large number of insects, worms and spiders are also on the verge of extinction. When species become extinct, they leave a gap in the ecosystem, and may affect our awareness of our environment. But that's not all, as every extinct creature takes with it a wealth of information. When the last individual of a species dies, we lose all the information about the adaptations that have accumulated over millions of years. It would be grossly negligent of us to allow this information to be lost (Facts and Figures):
• 5.3 billion years of evolution to reach our current biodiversity.
• 13–14 million is the total number of species estimated to exist.
• 12%–13% is the percentage of species studied.
• 816 is the number of species that have gone extinct in the last five centuries due to human activities.
• 1 in 4 is the percentage of mammalian species that are at risk of extinction in the near future.
• 1 in 7 is the percentage of plant species that are at risk of extinction in the near future.
• 1 in 8 is the percentage of bird species that are at risk of extinction in the near future.
• The estimated value of international wildlife trade each year is more than US$200 billion.