Habitat Loss and Extinction in the Hotspots of Biodiversity

@article{Brooks2002HabitatLA,
  title={Habitat Loss and Extinction in the Hotspots of Biodiversity},
  author={Thomas M. Brooks and Russell A. Mittermeier and Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier and Gustavo A B da Fonseca and Anthony B. Rylands and William R. Konstant and Penny Flick and John D. Pilgrim and Sara Oldfield and Georgina Magin and Craig Hilton‐Taylor},
  journal={Conservation Biology},
  year={2002},
  volume={16}
}
Nearly half the world's vascular plant species and one-third of terrestrial vertebrates are endemic to 25 "hotspots" of biodiversity, each of which has at least 1500 endemic plant species. [] Key Result Overall, between one-half and two-thirds of all threatened plants and 57% of all threatened terrestrial verte- brates are hotspot endemics. For birds and mammals, in general, predictions of extinction in the hotspots based on habitat loss match numbers of species independently judged extinct or threatened. In…
View on Wiley
ask-force.org
1,816 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
75
Background Citations
833
Methods Citations
31
Results Citations
7

Figures and Tables from this paper

1,816 Citations

The Silent Mass Extinction of Insect Herbivores in Biodiversity Hotspots

  • C. Fonseca
  • Environmental Science
    Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
  • 2009
The results strongly support the overall strategy of selecting priority conservation areas worldwide primarily on the basis of richness of endemic plants and the number of extinctions of monophagous species.

Extinction risks of Amazonian plant species

  • K. FeeleyM. Silman
  • Environmental Science
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2009
It is predicted that by 2050, human land-use practices will have reduced the habitat available to Amazonian plant species by ≈12–24%, resulting in 5–9% of species becoming “committed to extinction,” significantly fewer than other recent estimates.

Global Warming and Extinctions of Endemic Species from Biodiversity Hotspots

Estimated global-warming-induced rates of species extinctions in tropical hotspots in some cases exceeded those due to deforestation, supporting suggestions that global warming is one of the most serious threats to the planet's biodiversity.

Evaluating Global Biodiversity Hotspots – Very Rich and Even More Endangered

The areas where can be found the highest concentrations of endemic species and that also face the highest loss of natural habitats are called biodiversity hotspots, and the most important hotspots are Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands and Sundaland.

Habitat loss, extinction predictability and conservation efforts in the terrestrial ecoregions

Global Biodiversity Conservation: The Critical Role of Hotspots

Global changes, from habitat loss and invasive species to anthropogenic climate change, have initiated the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth’s history. As species become threatened and…

Effects of habitat disturbance on tropical forest biodiversity

  • J. Alroy
  • Environmental Science
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2017
Global losses in 11 groups of organisms that would ensue from disturbance of all remaining tropical forest habitats are predicted based on extrapolating the respective numbers of species in disturbed and undisturbed habitats using a large global database of species inventories.

Global State of Biodiversity and Loss

The dimensions and nature of the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity are examined, and the scientific facts concerning the rate of loss of biodiversity and the drivers of this loss are reviewed.

Pervasive Defaunation of Forest Remnants in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot

A staggering rate of local extinctions in the mammal fauna is uncovered, with only 767 from a possible 3,528 populations still persisting in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Cumulative habitat loss increases conservation threats on endemic species of terrestrial vertebrates in Mexico

...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 77 REFERENCES

Deforestation and bird extinctions in the Atlantic forest

The Atlantic forests of South America hold a great concentration of biodiversity, but most of this habitat has been destroyed. We therefore expect many species to become extinct, and yet no bird…

Human population in the biodiversity hotspots

Estimates of key demographic variables for each hotspot and for three extensive tropical forest areas that are less immediately threatened suggest that substantial human-induced environmental changes are likely to continue in the hotspots and that demographic change remains an important factor in global biodiversity conservation.

Deforestation Predicts the Number of Threatened Birds in Insular Southeast Asia

The world’s tropical forests are being cleared rapidly, and ecologists claim this is causing a massive loss of species. This claim has its critics. Can we predict extinctions from the extent of…

Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities

A ‘silver bullet’ strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on ‘biodiversity hotspots’ where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat, is proposed.

Bird extinctions in the central Pacific

Interestingly, there are fewer recent extinctions and currently endangered species in the islands of the western Pacific, which were the islands occupied first by humans, and it is suggested that the species sensitive to human occupation died out long ago in these areas.

The Future of Biodiversity

Estimates of future extinctions are hampered by the authors' limited knowledge of which areas are rich in endemics, and regions rich in species found only within them (endemics) dominate the global patterns of extinction.

Threat from deforestation to montane and lowland birds and mammals in insular South‐east Asia

Summary 1. A reduction in forest area should result in a reduction of its number of species and, moreover, do so in a characteristic way according to the familiar species-area relationship.…

Time Lag between Deforestation and Bird Extinction in Tropical Forest Fragments

Abstract: Tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, threatening the survival of the species that depend on them. Small, isolated forest fragments will lose some of their original…

The question of scale in threat analysis: a case study with Brazilian mammals

There is both theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that threat analysis will generate more accurate estimates of species loss when conducted on a more local scale, particularly for the fauna of non-insular, continental regions.

Rare species, the coincidence of diversity hotspots and conservation strategies

SPECIES conservation in situ requires networks of protected areas selected for high conservation interest1–3. Throughout most of the world, however, there are neither the resources nor the time to…
...