Siberia, Greenland, Carribean - Preparing For The Next Wave Of Extinctions

[hatrack]

A scientific study pinpoints 20 areas in the world where animals are not at immediate risk of extinction, but where the risk is likely to arise soon. The regions include Greenland and the Siberian tundra, Caribbean islands and parts of South East Asia.

The London-based research team believes its work will help conservationists prevent extinctions through early intervention - prevention, not cure. It is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study concentrates on a concept called "latent extinction risk".

This means animals are not under threat right now, and may not be classified as in danger according to the Red List, the internationally accepted database of threatened species. But the pattern of human development means they could be sent on a fast track to extinction in the near future, perhaps overtaking other species currently in higher-risk classifications.

EDIT

Re-inforcing the conclusions of other groups, they find that species at particular risk tend to have relatively large bodies, live in small areas and reproduce relatively slowly; these include, they say, the North American reindeer, the musk ox, the Seychelles flying fox and the brown lemur. Perhaps surprisingly, areas identified as containing species with a particularly large latent extinction risk exclude well-known biodiversity hotspots such as the Amazon and Congo basins, and include sub-Polar regions in northern Canada, northern Russia and Greenland.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4780876.stm

[villager]

1. how much longer can Gaia hold back her pissed-offedness at us?

well, maybe she's not. Recommended.