Extinction Risk For Many Species Of Plants & Animals Are Higher Than Suspected

A new study demonstrates that the extinction risk for many species of plants and animals are impressively higher than already suspected. A team of scientists has discovered a technique or a formula that will help paint a more exact picture of the extinction risk data for a number of plant and animal species.

According to Phys.org, few species geographic ranges describing maps are being used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for determining the threat status, or which can be called as the extinction risk. The maps appear to methodically overestimate the span of the habitat in which species can flourish.

The report on the extinction risk study was given by Don Melnick, the senior investigator of the study and Thomas Hunt Morgan, who is the professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. The research study has been published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Presently, IUCN makes utilization of species sightings detailed by scientists to draw limits mirroring the geographic scope of a given animal species. Science Daily reported that from these maps, the IUCN builds up its Red List, which appoints a risk status to wild species: Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered. The accuracy of an extinction risk for any species which has been assigned or will be assigned relies on the map used by IUCN only.

Senior researcher of the study Melnick doubts that the data is almost always overestimated than the actual spread of a species by incorporating areas of the habitat which are unsuitable. The range overestimation can lead to a population size overestimation and further underestimation of extinction risk of the species.

The estimates of the new range which have been gathered from the Columbia study revealed that the IUCN maps for 17 of the 18 bird species contained expansive zones of unsatisfactory territory and boundlessly overestimated their ranges. By augmentation, the risk levels which are connected to species range size are most likely thought little of, Melnick stated, and the review proposes that IUCN extinction risk status for no less than 10 of the 18 species ought to be lifted.