extinction – Australian Science

What Animals Will Go Extinct During Our Lifetime?

Kelly Burnes — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:08:19 +0000

Blue Whale, via NPR.org

I spent the other day meandering through some of the exhibits on display at the American Museum of Natural History. I checked out the Global Kitchen, Butterflies, and Whales exhibits and the planetarium Journey to the Stars show. Between the whales and the planetarium, I had this thought: What animals will we see extinct during our lifetime?

Perhaps a morbid thought, but when you walk through an exhibit on whale hunting, see hundreds of taxidermic specimens, stroll through the hall of biodiversity, you start to think about the state of the natural world. And what a state it is in.

Whales

The sheer size of a blue whale (30 metres) or a sperm whale (15 metres) is astonishing. Several skeletons were on display at the museum. A model of the sperm whale’s heart – about the size of a Mini Cooper – serves as an indication as to what these giants of the sea need to survive from an anatomical and physiological perspective. What they don’t need to survive was evident in photos showing the flesh of whales sliced through from the blades of a shipping container’s propeller. The mysterious mass beach strandings, fishing nets, oil spills, the Japanese “Research

Cite this article:
Burnes K (2013-06-24 00:08:19). What Animals Will Go Extinct During Our Lifetime?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 06, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/biology/what-animals-will-go-extinct-during-our-lifetime/

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Weekly Science Picks

Sharon — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 07:43:02 +0000

A happy Science Sunday to everyone! As usual there’s been a lot happening in the world of science, so lets take a peek of the most interesting picks for the past week!

Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) to launch!

At the end of this month, NASA will launch IRIS. IRIS will watch the Sun and provide NASA with information on the Sun’s atmosphere and the interface region. This will give scientists a better understanding of how the Sun’s energy powers the solar wind!

NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to explore Mercury

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Italian Space Agency (ASI) President Enrico Saggese signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation on the European Space Agency (ESA) led BepiColombo mission to Mercury

Earth’s plant life shown in Hi Res imaging

NASA’s Suomi NPP Satellite shows Earth’s vegetation mapped at a higher resolution than ever before.

Human Brain Mapped in 3D!

A new three-dimensional map, aptly called BigBrain is the most detailed ever constructed! Scientists hope it will lead to a more accurate picture of how the brain’s different regions function.

Can high energy y-ray astronomy be done from Earth?

Traditionally astronomers have relied on space telescopes to conduct high-energy y ray astronomy because Earth’s atmosphere is a very efficient shield for y rays. However, in early July at the International Cosmic Ray Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, indicate that γ-ray astronomers are betting their future on an ambitious ground-based telescope.

What drives mammals to extinction?

Australian researchers say that it’s not bad luck that drives mammals to extinction over geological time, but their failure to keep pace with a deteriorating environment.

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The extinction that is yet to come

Charles Ebikeme — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:00:42 +0000

By 2050 they will all be gone. The worst is yet to come.

The Amazon rainforest contains a wider variety of plant and animal life than any other biome in the world. The region in its entirety is home to roughly 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2000 fishes, 1000 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified. The Brazilian Amazon harbors roughly 40% of the world’s tropical forest and a significant proportion of global biodiversity.

The numbers speak for themselves. However, over the past few years what we’re seeing is a biodiversity crisis in slow-motion. Those numbers are at risk. The largest drivers of which being climate change and habitat loss by deforestation.

Habitat loss results in species extinction, but not immediately. When habitats shrink it may take several generations after an initial impact before the last individual of a species is gone. Extinction against the clock and in slow motion.

Visualising how this occurs and estimating the impact has always been a problem for researchers. The question now is — how many species are headed for extinction as a result of past and future deforestation?

New research published today in Science describes cutting-edge statistical tools used to devise a novel strategy to estimate the expected number of local species extinctions as a function of the extent of habitat loss.

Researchers made predictions on the extent of the extinction damage based on four possible scenarios — two in which all parties comply and respect current environmental law and protected area networks; and two which rely on strong reductions and eliminations in current deforestation rates. A reflection of recent pledges by the Brazilian government and potential reductions in deforestation proposed in 2009. What researchers describe is an estimation of something much more serious than previous estimates.

Spatial patterns in bird species and extinction debt in the Brazilian Amazon

Deforestation over the last three decades in some localities of the Amazon has already committed up to 8 species of amphibians, 10 species of mammals, and 20 species of birds to future extinction. Local regions will lose an average of nine vertebrate species and have a further 16 committed to extinction by 2050. The worst is yet to come it seems. More than 80% of local extinctions expected from historical deforestation have not yet happened.

An “extinction debt

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