Tourism puts Zanzibari reserve at a crossroads. Science 2025: 10.1126/science.aeb5285
The moist broadleaf forests located on the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya and on nearby archipelagos such as Zanzibar are highly fragmented hotspots of plant and animal diversity (1).
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Extinct in the wild: The precarious state of Earth’s most threatened group of species. Science 2023: 10.1126/science.add2889
Abstract
As we face a global extinction crisis, international commitments promise to prevent extinctions of threatened species. However, some of the most threatened species are often overlooked: those that now exist only in zoos, aquaria, gardens, or seed banks, which are classified as “extinct in the wild. ” Smith et al. synthesized data on extinct-in-the-wild plant and animal species to assess their state of risk and what actions are being taken to recover them. Most ex situ populations are small (less than 1000 individuals) and were founded by few individuals, likely with low genetic diversity. Reestablishment of species in the wild has been successful in some cases, but it has only been attempted for about one-fourth of current extinct-in-the-wild species.
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Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria. Nature Plants 2022: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01296-7
Abstract
Resurrecting extinct species is a fascinating and challenging idea for scientists and the general public. Whereas some theoretical progress has been made for animals, the resurrection of extinct plants (de-extinction sensu lato) is a relatively recently discussed topic. In this context, the term ‘de-extinction’ is used sensu lato to refer to the resurrection of ‘extinct in the wild’ species from seeds or tissues preserved in herbaria, as we acknowledge the current impossibility of knowing a priori whether a herbarium seed is alive and can germinate. In plants, this could be achieved by germinating or in vitro tissue-culturing old diaspores such as seeds or spores available in herbarium specimens. This paper reports the first list of plant de-extinction candidates based on the actual availability of seeds in herbarium specimens of globally extinct plants. We reviewed globally extinct seed plants using online resources and additional literature on national red lists, resulting in a list of 361 extinct taxa. We then proposed a method of prioritizing candidates for seed-plant de-extinction from diaspores found in herbarium specimens and complemented this with a phylogenetic approach to identify species that may maximize evolutionarily distinct features. Finally, combining data on seed storage behaviour and longevity, as well as specimen age in the novel ‘best de-extinction candidate’ score (DEXSCO), we identified 556 herbarium specimens belonging to 161 extinct species with available seeds. We expect that this list of de-extinction candidates and the novel approach to rank them will boost research efforts towards the first-ever plant de-extinction.
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Out-of-date datasets hamper conservation of species close to extinction. Nature Plants 2022: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01293-w
Abstract
International databases and data aggregators on species conservation status are powerful tools supporting the efforts of conservation biologists and practitioners in reducing the loss of biodiversity. However, out-of-date information and poor interoperability of databases can hamper conservation of highly threatened species or in extreme cases can result in their removal from conservation frameworks. Lack of common standards for database updates, slow update timing and incongruencies among datasets in terms of taxonomy, threats, conservation status and holding prevent proper conservation prioritization and actions. A simple survey to solve incongruencies between the BGCI PlantSearch Database and the IUCN Red List resulted in a change of status of 16 plant species, including the ‘rehabilitation’ of 12 species thought to be extinct.
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Seventeen ‘extinct’ plant species back to conservation attention in Europe. Nature Plants 2021: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00878-1
Abstract
Seventeen European endemic plant species were considered extinct, but improved taxonomic and distribution knowledge as well as ex situ collecting activities brought them out of the extinct status. These species have now been reported into a conservation framework that may promote legal protection and in situ and ex situ conservation.
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Ex situ seed banks and the IUCN Red List. Nature Plants 2019: 10.1038/s41477-019-0366-3.
Abstract
Extinct, or just extinct in the wild? Plants lost from in situ habitat, but represented in seed banks, are labelled extinct despite the potential for restoration. A change in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List definition of extinct in the wild is needed to improve the status and prospects of threatened plant species.
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Recent plant diversity changes on Europe’s mountain summits. Science 2012: 10.1126/science.1219033
Abstract
In mountainous regions, climate warming is expected to shift species’ ranges to higher altitudes. Evidence for such shifts is still mostly from revisitations of historical sites. We present recent (2001 to 2008) changes in vascular plant species richness observed in a standardized monitoring network across Europe’s major mountain ranges. Species have moved upslope on average. However, these shifts had opposite effects on the summit floras’ species richness in boreal-temperate mountain regions (+3.9 species on average) and Mediterranean mountain regions (–1.4 species), probably because recent climatic trends have decreased the availability of water in the European south. Because Mediterranean mountains are particularly rich in endemic species, a continuation of these trends might shrink the European mountain flora, despite an average increase in summit species richness across the region.
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Continent-wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change. Nature climate change 2012: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1329
Abstract
Climate impact studies have indicated ecological fingerprints of recent global warming across a wide range of habitats. Although these studies have shown responses from various local case studies, a coherent large-scale account on temperature-driven changes of biotic communities has been lacking. Here we use 867 vegetation samples above the treeline from 60 summit sites in all major European mountain systems to show that ongoing climate change gradually transforms mountain plant communities. We provide evidence that the more cold-adapted species decline and the more warm-adapted species increase, a process described here as thermophilization. At the scale of individual mountains this general trend may not be apparent, but at the larger, continental scale we observed a significantly higher abundance of thermophilic species in 2008, compared with 2001. Thermophilization of mountain plant communities mirrors the degree of recent warming and is more pronounced in areas where the temperature increase has been higher. In view of the projected climate change the observed transformation suggests a progressive decline of cold mountain habitats and their biota.