Societal Impact Statement
Plants play fundamental roles in ecosystems, yet merely 10% of species have an
assessment of their global extinction risk. Through the integration of national Red
Lists and comprehensive global plant distribution data, we identify previously
unassessed plant species in Europe that are threatened throughout their geographic
range and thus at risk of global extinction. Our workflow can be replicated to facilitate
the integration of disparate national monitoring efforts around the world and
help accelerate global plant risk assessments.
Summary
• A comprehensive extinction risk assessment for plant species is a global biodiversity
target. However, currently, only 10% of plant diversity is assessed in the
global Red List of Threatened Species. To guide conservation and restoration
actions in times of accelerated species extinction, plant risk assessments must be
expedited.
• Here, we examine the extinction risk of vascular plant species in Europe through
the integration of two data streams: (1) national Red Lists and (2) global plant distribution
data from Kew's Plants of the World Online database. For each species
listed on a national Red List, we create a list of countries that form part of its range
and indicate the threat status in these countries, allowing us to calculate the percentage
of the range in which a given species is listed as threatened.
• We find that 7% to 9% of European vascular plant diversity is threatened in its
entire range, the majority of which are single-country endemics. Of these globally
threatened species, 84% currently have no assessment in the global Red List.
• With increasing national biodiversity monitoring commitments shaping the post-
2020 policy environment, we anticipate that integrating national Red Lists with
global plant distribution data is a scalable workflow that can help accelerate global
risk assessments of plants.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:86428 |
Date | 11 July 2023 |
Creators | Holz, Hanna, Segar, Josiane, Valdez, Jose, Staude, Ingmar R. |
Publisher | Wiley |
Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Relation | 2572-2611 |
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