Nearly 40% of Plant Species are Very Rare and Vulnerable to Climate Change
Almost 40% of global land plant species are categorized as very rare, and these species are most at risk for extinction as the climate continues to change, according to new research published today in Science Advances. The findings are published in a special issue of Science Advances that coincides with the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25, in Madrid. The COP25 is convening nations to act on climate change. The international meeting runs from Dec. 2 through Dec. 13. “When talking about global biodiversity, we had a good approximation of the total number of land plant species, but we didn’t have a real handle on how many there really are,” says lead author Brian Enquist, of the University of Arizona. Thirty-five researchers from institutions around the world, including University of Connecticut researcher Cory Merow, worked for 10 years to compile nearly 35 million observational records of the world’s land plants. “We...