TWENTY PERCENT OF WORLD`S PLANTS AT RISK
Baku, October 1 (AZERTAC). A new global analysis of the world`s known plant species concludes that one-fifth of them are at risk of extinction due to human activities.
Scientists from Britain`s Royal Botanic Gardens, the Natural History Museum London, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature jointly investigated the status of 7,000 species from the five major groups of plants, a representative sampling from the approximately 400,000 known plants around the world.
The scientists poured over the vast plant collections at the Museum and Botanic Gardens, and surveyed digital data and field observations from cooperating investigators around the world, including the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United States.
The group did not have enough data on 3,000 of the plant species to make an assessment of their extinction risks. But among the remaining 4,000 species, the investigators listed 22 percent of the plants as being anywhere from near-threatened and vulnerable to critically endangered.
