The Chain of Extinction

A joint study by researchers in Singapore, the US and Canada estimates that an additional 6000 species will go extinct if their endangered host organism dies out. The scientists started with a list of species considered to be threatened or endangered, then estimated the additional loss of species that are dependent on the endangered organisms.

Many of the species on the list are insects, mites or fungi, which had not previously been thought to be threatened. The research points to the interconnectedness of living systems.

Loss of habitat remains the primary cause of species loss, but the loss of co-dependent organisms appears to be a factor in the global extinction crisis.

Links:

• Extinct plants, animals threaten loss of thousands more in the CBC News


• Species Coextinctions and the Biodiversity Crisis from Science Magazine (subscription or institutional access required)

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 7:30 PM on November 15, 2004

Want to talk about this weblog entry? As of August 22, 2006, all new entries and most older entries are cross-posted to the UBC Botanical Garden Discussion Forums for discussion (you might need to use the search function to find the thread you are looking for).

This is an effort to reduce the amount of time spent dealing with spam (the forums are very good at stopping spam, the weblog commenting system is not so good).

Older entries already containing comments remain open for discussion.