«El principal responsable de su exterminio es la agricultura. Los principales problemas son la excesiva roturación, el arado y el labrado de la tierra. Otros focos de amenaza son la construcción, las enfermedades y los pesticidas según esgrime el estudio realizado por 80 profesionales.»
Royal Botanical Gardens: Mixed report on the world’s plants
May 10, 2016 by By Gregory Katz
«A report billed as the first comprehensive look at world’s plants finds a planet slowly being ravaged by changing land use, mostly conversion of forests to agriculture to feed a growing population, and climate change.
The «State of the World’s Plants» study is designed to provide a baseline for annual reports that will measure how many plant species are being discovered, and how many are being lost forever.
«The positive is we’re still discovering lots of new plants, about 2,000 each year, new plants for food, for fuel, for drugs,» said Kathy Willis, science director at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. «On the negative, we’ve seen a huge change in land cover, mainly driven by cultural activity, with a little bit of climate change in there as well.»
The goal, she said, is to better understand the factors driving these negative changes—and to change them to protect more plants from extinction.
The report by one of the world’s leading research institutions involved more than 80 scientists. Here are some of its findings:»
HOW MANY PLANTS ARE OUT THERE?
«The report estimates there are 391,000 vascular plant species known to science, with an average of 2,000 new ones being discovered and named each year.
Brazil, with its vast rainforests, has led the way in the last decade with the highest number of newly discovered species.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-05-royal-botanical-gardens-world.html#jCp