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https://theconversation.com/invisible-losses-thousands-of-plant-species-are-missing-from-places-they-could-thrive-and-humans-are-the-reason-252378>
"If you go walking in the wild, you might expect that what you’re seeing is
natural. All around you are trees, shrubs and grasses growing in their natural
habitat.
But there’s something here that doesn’t add up. Across the world, there are
large areas of habitat which would suit native plant species just fine. But
very often, they’re simply absent.
Our new research gauges the scale of this problem, known as “dark diversity”.
Our international team of 200 scientists examined plant species in thousands of
sites worldwide.
What we found was startling. In regions heavily affected by our activities,
only about 20% of native plant species able to live there were actually
present. But even in areas with very little human interference, ecosystems only
contained about 33% of viable plant species.
Why so few species in wilder areas? Our impact. Pollution can spread far from
the original source, while conversion of habitat to farms, logging and
human-caused fires have ripple effects too."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
