Skip to main content

How many endangered species remain to be discovered in Brazil?

Pimm, Stuart L., Jenkins, Clinton N., Joppa, Lucas N., Roberts, David L., Russell, Gareth J. (2010) How many endangered species remain to be discovered in Brazil? Natureza a Conservacao, 8 (1). pp. 71-77. ISSN 16790073 (ISSN). (doi:10.4322/natcon.00801011) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:33819)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.4322/natcon.00801011

Abstract

How many species are likely as-yet unknown to science? Even in relatively well-known groups, there may be substantial numbers of such species. It seems likely that these unknown species will be rare and threatened with extinction. Indeed, science may not discover them before they go extinct. We address these issues for a sample of endemic flowering plants and three vertebrate groups: amphibians, birds, and mammals, all from Brazil. We predict the likely numbers of missing species from models of the declining numbers of species described per five-year interval. The raw numbers increase over time, so we must scale these by the taxonomic effort. We show that while the catalogues of birds and mammals are nearly complete, the numbers of amphibians may increase by 15% and the numbers of endemic plants by ~10 to ~50% depending on region. These percentages may still seem encouragingly low, given the complexities of studying a country as large as Brazil, with its extraordinary diversity, and with many of its regions large and still poorly explored. What is more worrying is that these numbers of as-yet unknown species are broadly the same as the percentages of species that are presently considered threatened with extinction. That is, we know only half of the species in danger of extinction - and our knowledge of even those species has mostly been acquired in the last three decades. © 2010 ABECO.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.4322/natcon.00801011
Additional information: Unmapped bibliographic data: PY - 2010/// [EPrints field already has value set] AD - Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, PO Box 90328, Durham, NC 27708, United States [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Department of Biology, University of Maryland, 1210 Biology-Psychology Building, College Park, MD 20742, United States [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Microsoft Research, 7 J J Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0FB, United Kingdom [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Marlowe Building, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, United Kingdom [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, United States [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, United States [Field not mapped to EPrints] JA - Nat. Conserv. [Field not mapped to EPrints]
Uncontrolled keywords: Amphibians, Biodiversity, Birds, Brazil, Endangered species, Flowering plants, Mammals, Unknown species
Subjects: Q Science
Q Science > QH Natural history
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH75 Conservation (Biology)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > DICE (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology)
Depositing User: David Roberts
Date Deposited: 20 Feb 2014 15:00 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:11 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/33819 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.