An invisible disadvantages: Thousands of plant species are missing from places they can flourish – human reasons

If you walk in the wild, you can expect what you are seeing is natural. There are trees, shrubs and grasses around you that are growing in their natural habitat.

But here is something that is not added. Worldwide, there are large areas of residence that correspond to the species of native plants. But very often, they are simply absent.

Our new Research The scale of this problem gauge, which is known as “Darkness“Our international team of 200 scientists examined plant species in thousands of places worldwide.

What we got was shocking. In the very affected areas of our activities, only 20% of indigenous plant species were able to live there only. But even in areas with very low human intervention, the ecosystem had only 33% of viable species of viable plants.

Why so low species in wilder regions? Our influence. Pollution can spread far away from the original source, while converting habitat into fields, logging and human-borne fire also have an effect.

Specific

Our activities have become the power to change the climate through our emissions, to a planet-shaped giving. Farming 44% Of all living land. As our footprint has expanded, other species have been pushed to extinct. The rate of loss of species has been recorded History,

When we think about loss of biodiversity, we can think of once-manipulate animal species, which lose numbers and numbers in the form of fields, cities and wild predators. But we are also losing species from within protected areas and national parks.

To date, the rapid damage of species has been seen extensively, such as states or even the whole country. There are about 600 plant species became extinct Since 1750 – and it is a major low. The extinct hotspots include air (79 species) and unique fynbos scrublands (37 species) of South Africa.

But it has become difficult to monitor the fate of our species on the local scale, such as within a national park or nature reserve.

Similarly, when scientists conduct traditional biodiversity surveys, we first count species recorded in an area and look for changes. But we are not to consider the species that can grow there – but not.

what did we do?

To get a better gauge of loss of small scale biodiversity, we worked with scientists from the International Research Network Darkdivnet To check about 5,500 sites in 119 regions worldwide. This vast body of fieldwork took years and needed to navigate global challenges such as Covid -19 and political and economic instability.

On every 100 square meter site, our team sampled all plant species against the species found in the surrounding area. We defined areas as areas of about 300 square kilometers with similar environmental conditions.

Just because a species can grow somewhere, it does not mean. To ensure that we were recording which species were really missing, we saw how often each absent species increased with species growing at our chosen sites at other samples in the region. This helped us detect a housing friendly species, but disappeared.

We then cross the data on these missing species, how big was using the local human effect. Human footprint indexWhich measures population density, land use and infrastructure.

Of the eight components of this index, six had a clear effect of how many plant species were missing: human population density, electricity infrastructure, railways, roads, manufactured environment and crops. Another component, the navigable waterway, did not have a clear effect.

Interestingly, the last component – the deadly – less plant species kept by grazing were not associated with species. This can happen because there are semi-natural meadows Used as pasture In areas such as Central Asia, Sahel region of Africa and Argentina. Here, long -term medium human effects can really maintain highly diverse and well -working ecosystems such as livestock, cultural burning and grass making practices.

Overall, however, more human appearance and link between low plant species were very clear. Ecological mechanisms were affected at a distance of hundreds of kilometers from direct disturbance.

These effects can come for several reasons. For example, poaching and logging are often away from human settlements. Hunting an animal species may mean that a plant species loses the way to spread its seeds in a major pollinator or animal dung. Over time, interruption on the web of relationships in the natural world can destroy ecosystems and result in less plant species. The hunters and illegal loggers also cut the “ghost roads” into ancient regions.

Other reasons include the fire initiated by humans, which may endanger national parks and other safe havens. Pollution can travel hundreds of kilometers from its source, affecting the ecosystem.

Our far -reaching effects can also obstruct the return of plant species, even in preserved areas. As humans expand their activities, they often cut natural areas from each other. It can separate the population of the plant. Similarly, the disadvantage of seed-spread animals can prevent plants from resumption of pre-habitat.

What does this mean?

The loss of biodiversity is not just about extinct species. It is about quietly about its prosperity, flexibility and losing actions to the ecosystem.

It is not enough to protect the land. The damage we can do can reach depth in conservation areas.

What was good news? Yes. In areas where at least one -third of the scenario had minimal human disturbances, this hidden biodiversity was less than loss.

As we work for the protection of nature, our work needs to be preserved not only that has been abandoned, but also to bring back what is missing. Now we know which species are missing in one area but still exist regional, we can start that work.

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