Urbanization Costs Five Billion Years of Evolutionary History
All over the globe, the urbanization of landscapes is increasing. 60% of the land surface which is expected to be urban by 2030 is currently not built on at all. How this will impact on biological diversity will only be apparent in retrospect.
As well as looking back over the past three centuries, the researchers looked ahead to the future. The team calculated how the current evolutionary diversity of Halle’s flora would change if, firstly, the plants found in Halle listed on the Red List of endangered species disappeared and, secondly, the most common introduced species in Germany which are not yet found in Halle were to migrate there. “Evolutionary diversity will very probably continue to fall,” says Dr. Marten Winter from iDiv, who participated in the study.
The evolutionary diversity of plants is considered to be an important foundation for the stability of ecosystems. It stimulates the diversity of other organisms and can increase biomass production. How many millions of years of evolutionary history would need to be lost to make an ecosystem unstable is however not yet known. Researchers are therefore appealing for the precautionary protection of biological diversity. As the loss of evolutionary diversity in Halle is primarily being driven by the loss of native species – including many species which depend on cool, nutrient-poor environments – Sonja Knapp and her colleagues are calling for more protection for these species and their habitats.
Contacts and sources:
Dr. Marten Winter
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research – UFZ
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/04/urbanization-costs-five-billion-years.html
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