{"id":4490,"date":"2020-02-05T17:38:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/?p=4490"},"modified":"2020-02-05T17:38:21","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:38:21","slug":"dice-research-shows-that-extinction-is-difficult-to-prove-for-earths-ultra-rare-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2020\/02\/05\/dice-research-shows-that-extinction-is-difficult-to-prove-for-earths-ultra-rare-species\/","title":{"rendered":"DICE research shows that extinction is difficult to prove for Earth’s ultra-rare species"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent study from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE)<\/a> has called for an increase in scientific surveys and collection of specimens to confirm the extinction of ultra-rare species.<\/p>\n

Dr David Roberts<\/a>, Reader in Biodiversity Conservation, concluded from the research that there are currently insufficient scientific surveys\u00a0to determine whether\u00a0many of the Earth\u2019s rarest species, those known only from a single specimen, still exist.<\/p>\n

As a case study, Dr Roberts investigated the\u00a0orchids of Madagascar utilising three different methods of scientific survey effort. Results showed that, as of 2000, up to nine of the 236 orchid species known from a single specimen could be extinct. Furthermore, up to two additional species could be considered as extinct by 2018 \u2013 assuming no new scientific collections have been made. However,\u00a0whether the remaining 225 orchid species still exist is unknown\u00a0as there have been insufficient scientific surveys to determine their fate.<\/p>\n

As extinction is final, we need to have as much information as possible. This can come from\u00a0digitising and making already existing data (that is currently locked away in museum cupboards) widely available. Furthermore, it can come from\u00a0collecting new knowledge\u00a0through scientific surveys and making this data widely available as quickly as possible, as well as collecting other\u00a0information such as the current state of habitats\u00a0which can be a useful indicator as to whether species still possibly exist.<\/p>\n

Dr Roberts said, “Most species are poorly known because of the very fact they are rare, which brings challenges for conservation practitioners. With conclusions of extinction being made on available data, it is difficult to know if an ultra-rare species is extinct or may have just gone unnoticed.\u00a0The conservation community needs to work in collaboration to adapt to developing species’ data resources to deliver more accurate assessments of some of the world\u2019s rarest species.”<\/p>\n

Inferring the extinction of species known only from a single specimen by David L. Roberts and Ivan Jari\u0107 is published in Oryx\u2014The International Journal of Conservation <\/em>(https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0030605319000590)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent study from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) has called for an increase in scientific surveys and collection of specimens to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40284,"featured_media":4491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159353,6599,124,70,6600],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4492,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490\/revisions\/4492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}