Islands are key for protecting the world's plant endemism.

Autor: Schrader J; School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. jschrader@posteo.de., Weigelt P; Department of Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.; Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.; Campus Institute Data Science, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany., Cai L; Department of Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany., Westoby M; School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia., Fernández-Palacios JM; Island Ecology and Biogeography Research Group, Instituto Universitario de Enfermedades Tropicales y Salud Pública de Canarias (IUETSPC), Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain., Cabezas FJ; Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain., Plunkett GM; Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics, New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY, USA., Ranker TA; School of Life Sciences, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA., Triantis KA; Department of Ecology and Taxonomy, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University, Athens, Greece., Trigas P; School of Plant Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece., Kubota Y; Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Japan., Kreft H; Department of Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.; Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.; Campus Institute Data Science, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2024 Oct; Vol. 634 (8035), pp. 868-874. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 16.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08036-1
Abstrakt: Islands are renowned as evolutionary laboratories and support many species that are not found elsewhere 1,2 . Islands are also of great conservation concern, with many of their endemic species currently threatened or extinct 3 . Here we present a standardized checklist of all known vascular plants that occur on islands and document their geographical and phylogenetic distribution and conservation risk. Our analyses of 304,103 plant species reveal that 94,052 species (31%) are native to islands, which constitute 5.3% of the global landmass 4 . Of these, 63,280 are island endemic species, which represent 21% of global plant diversity. Three-quarters of these are restricted to large or isolated islands. Compared with the world flora, island endemics are non-randomly distributed within the tree of life, with a total of 1,005 billion years of unique phylogenetic history with 17 families and 1,702 genera being entirely endemic to islands. Of all vascular plants assigned International Union for Conservation of Nature conservation categories 5 , 22% are island endemics. Among these endemic species, 51% are threatened, and 55% of all documented global extinctions have occurred on islands. We find that of all single-island endemic species, only 6% occur on islands meeting the United Nations 30×30 conservation target. Urgent measures including habitat restoration, invasive species removal and ex situ programmes are needed to protect the world's island flora. Our checklist quantifies the uniqueness of island life, provides a basis for future studies of island floras, and highlights the urgent need to take actions for conserving them.
(© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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