Baku, July 6 (AZERTAC). The term "center of biological diversity» (biodiversity hotspot) was formulated in 1988 by Norman Myers (Norman Myers) from Oxford University. By his definition, such a plot should inhabit at least 1.5 thousand endemic - living only in the area - plant and animal species, and the focus should lose at least two-thirds of native vegetation due to human activities or other factors. Scientists have found 25 regions that meet these criteria, most of them located in the equatorial and tropical regions of South America, Asia and Africa. This time, scientists led by Myers attempted to compare the number of undiscovered species of plants in the centers of biological diversity in other parts of the world to assess the effectiveness of conservation measures. For their assessments, scientists used data on flowering plants, which constitute 96% of the total projected number of species of higher plants. The authors analyzed how varied the annual number of open plants and the number of scientists who described and classified the new species over the past 200 years. Using the "performance" of a scientist, they amounted to an equation for the number of species that are opened at a time, and from the estimated expected total number of species. Scientists estimate that to date have yet to discover and classify about 21% of all existing species of plants. Pockets of biodiversity that are most susceptible to destructive human activities and needs to contain up to 70% of all new to science species of plants. A significant number of unknown species - in Peru and Ecuador (up to 29% of the total undiscovered species) in southern Africa (16%) and Australia (8%). Scientists note that in general, existing conservation measures and public attention focused today on those areas that will contribute to the rapid classification and protection is not known, but endangered species of plants. On the other hand, the uneven distribution of the unknown species by region may mean that current estimates of the number of endangered plant species, based on various assumptions, in fact, understated.