Tropics No Longer Museum of Plant Biodiversity

University of Calgary researchers report that the risk of extinction for plants is higher in habitats close to the equator than those that are more distant. The study by researchers by Jana Vamosi and Steven Vamosi also suggests that animals and plants undergo different extinction processes. Latitude could be more influential than human activity, the study also suggests. “"This is not to say that human activities are not underlying contemporary risk of extinction; instead, it implies that plant species in a tropical country will, on average, be more sensitive to a given amount of human disturbance than those in a temperate country," Steven Vamosi said, in the article for Science. Up to 45 precent of plant species in the tropics are at risk, compared with about 3 percent in Canada. The article concludes, “Because of the interconnectedness of the Earth's ecosystems, species loss near the equator can have significant effects on countries thousands of kilometers away.” – YaleGlobal