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dc.contributor.authorStork, Nigel E
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-03T14:56:40Z
dc.date.available2017-05-03T14:56:40Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.date.modified2012-04-10T22:48:56Z
dc.identifier.issn0960-3115
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10531-009-9761-9
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/44371
dc.description.abstractThere is a widespread belief that we are experiencing a mass extinction event similar in severity to previous mass extinction events in the last 600 million years where up to 95% of species disappeared. This paper reviews evidence for current extinctions and different methods of assessing extinction rates including species-area relationships and loss of tropical forests, changing threat status of species, co-extinction rates and modelling the impact of climate change. For 30 years some have suggested that extinctions through tropical forest loss are occurring at a rate of up to 100 species a day and yet less than 1,200 extinctions have been recorded in the last 400 years. Reasons for low number of identified global extinctions are suggested here and include success in protecting many endangered species, poor monitoring of most of the rest of species and their level of threat, extinction debt where forests have been lost but species still survive, that regrowth forests may be important in retaining 'old growth' species, fewer co-extinctions of species than expected, and large differences in the vulnerability of different taxa to extinction threats. More recently, others have suggested similar rates of extinction to earlier estimates but with the key cause of extinction being climate change, and in particular rising temperatures, rather than deforestation alone. Here I suggest that climate change, rather than deforestation is likely to bring about such high levels of extinction since the impacts of climate change are local to global and that climate change is acting synergistically with a range of other threats to biodiversity including deforestation.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.description.publicationstatusYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherSpringer Netherlands
dc.publisher.placeNetherlands
dc.relation.ispartofstudentpublicationN
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom357
dc.relation.ispartofpageto371
dc.relation.ispartofissue2
dc.relation.ispartofjournalBiodiversity and Conservation
dc.relation.ispartofvolume19
dc.rights.retentionY
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEcological applications not elsewhere classified
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEcology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode410299
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode3103
dc.titleRe-assessing current extinction rates
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
gro.date.issued2010
gro.hasfulltextNo Full Text
gro.griffith.authorStork, Nigel E.


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