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  • The UN recently announced a goal to reduce Earth’s extinction rate by 90% by 2050,

  • as a way to hopefully stave off our planet’s sixth mass extinction.

  • But there are a few tiny problems: we don't know exactly how many species exist, how many

  • are facing extinction, and how many we could actually save.

  • The reason?

  • There's no standard way to measure biodiversity and were missing a lot of data.

  • In recent years, reports on extinction and biodiversity loss have pointed toward a global

  • drop in species.

  • Back in 2019, hundreds of researchers from a UN-backed international organization found

  • that one million species of fauna and flora are at risk of extinction.

  • Experts estimate that today’s extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher

  • than the background rate.

  • Measuring biodiversity losses is incredibly complicated, especially because there’s

  • no standard way to do it.

  • -There isn't like a one size fits all metric that we could use that we can always know

  • that will always be appropriate.

  • -The most common way to track biodiversity is to measure species richness, or count the

  • number of species in a particular place and time.

  • Another metric is species evenness, which tracks the population levels of different

  • species, just to name a few.

  • -It's a good idea to actually look at multiple metrics...because these metrics

  • of biodiversity are not fully independent.

  • -And they also only capture certain facets of biodiversity.

  • Depending on what metric you use, you could get completely different results.

  • When it comes to conservation efforts or biodiversity offsets, like when developers measure biodiversity

  • loss for a project,how we measure biodiversity can really make a difference.

  • On top of that, global averages don’t always reflect biodiversity variation on a local

  • scale.

  • It's important to look locally since biodiversity affects how ecosystems impact water supply,

  • fuel, pollination, food, and more for their surrounding regions.

  • And what researchers are finding is pretty surprising.

  • Turns out, local biodiversity measures are incredibly mixed and some ecosystems are doing

  • even better than we might expect.

  • -Instead of seeing biodiversity loss everywhere, we saw a bit of a balance of losses and gains.

  • -But don’t get TOO excited yet.

  • -What we also see pretty much everywhere, is a shuffling of species.

  • By shuffling, we mean that some species are dying out or leaving ecosystems, while others

  • are entering them, changing the composition.

  • -We think that this shuffling of species is partly responsible for this disconnection

  • of how biodiversity is changing at different scales.

  • -Researchers from the University of Hawai’i simulated local coral reefs over two years

  • and found that species shuffled but did not collapse despite warmer temperatures and ocean

  • acidification.

  • That’s great news right?

  • Well, maybewhat that means for the health of the reef is not entirely clear yet.

  • Species shuffling can happen in a number of ways.

  • One study found that over the past 29 years, fish assemblages in the North Atlantic were

  • becoming more similar to each other—a.k.a homogenized.

  • Over time, southern species moved north to warming waters caused by the climate crisis.

  • In some cases these new arrivals are generalist species, which thanks to their ability to

  • thrive in various environments, can increase competition for resources.

  • For example, cane toads are one of the world’s most widespread invasive species.

  • In Australia, their introduction led to the rapid population decline of native endangered

  • species like northern quolls.

  • To get a clearer picture of what’s going on, we need data, a lot of it.

  • Most of the current research is concentrated in Europe and North America.

  • Were also sorely lacking information from the tropics, where half of the Earth’s known

  • species reside.

  • Luckily, there are several efforts working to fill in those gaps.

  • Maria is part of BioTime, an open access database of studies in the same ecosystems over a number

  • of years.

  • The database now has 12 million entries for about 50,000 species.

  • Another notable project is EuropaBON, which hopes to use sensors, drones,

  • and citizen scientists to create a more complete picture of Europe’s species makeup in the

  • coming years.

  • All this data could have a huge impact on policies and goals to conserve as much biodiversity

  • as possible.

  • Many studies show that were still on track to lose almost half the world’s known species

  • by 2100, so if we want to course correct, were going to need all the help we can

  • get!

  • One of the coolest things about biodiversity research is that a lot of it is done by regular

  • citizens surveying their local habitats.

  • And this is where we come in: -I would strongly encourage people to engage

  • with these kinds of efforts because not only are they helping science.

  • They might be surprised by all the diversity that's at their doorstep.

  • -If you want to learn more about conservation efforts going on right now, check out our

  • series Rewild.

  • So what else do you want to know about the 6th mass extinction?

  • Let us know down in the comments, don’t forget to subscribe, and I’ll see you next

  • time on Seeker.

The UN recently announced a goal to reduce Earth’s extinction rate by 90% by 2050,

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The Missing Pieces in the 6th Mass Extinction

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    Summer に公開 2021 年 12 月 31 日
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