Research suggests the criteria scientists use to assess a if plant species is at risk of extinction may need revising, if conservation efforts are to save endangered plants
by Simon Levey - 24 May 2011 New research suggests that scientists may need to revise the criteria they use to assess whether a plant species is at risk of going extinct, if they are to concentrate their conservation efforts on the plants most in need. According to widely-used criteria, known at the Red List, a species is considered to be 'at risk of extinction' if it inhabits a limited geographical area and has a small population size. Now, thanks to a new analysis of a range of plant specimens from South Africa and the UK, biologists have shown that these criteria also wrongly categorise plant species as 'at risk' when they are simply newly arrived in an area. The research has been led by Professor Vincent Savolainen who holds a joint post in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and Kew Gardens, and Dr Jonathan Davies from the Department of Biology at McGill University in Canada. It is published today in the journal PLoS Biology . Dr Davies said: "Reducing rates of extinction represents one of the greatest ecological challenges of our time, but identifying which species are most at risk can be difficult." For more than 40 years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published the Red List of Threatened Species describing the conservation status of various species of animals. They are now also including plants in their lists and the picture they present is dramatic.
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