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biodiversity hotspots

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Subject: biodiversity hotspots
From: (John Boyce)
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 09:08:44 +1100
Hi everyone,
I thought I would just mention a paper that appeared recently in Nature
(Myers et al. 2000 Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities
403:853-858).  It identifies biodiversity hotspots around the globe with
the aim of using a significant amount of conservation money to conserve
just these highly diverse regions. To qualify as a hotspot a region had to
contain .5% of the worlds plant species as endemics.  The only Aus region
was SW Australia which contains by their measures 4331 endemic plants or
1.4% of the world total.  They find that  44% of the worlds plants and 35%
of the vertebrates are found in only 1.4% of the land mass.  They suggest
that significant conservation activities should be funnelled towards these
spots which are mostly under significant threat.  It is a very interesting
article, not only for the conservation perspective but for the lists of
endemic vertebrates in each region.  For instance they list the tropical
andes as containing a staggering 677 endemic bird species and wallacea as
249 endemic birds and 123 endemic mammals ( I could not work out which
taxonomies they were using but it is cetainly BSC and they don't consider
those elusive ultrataxons).  If you can find a copy of Nature have a look.
Best Wishes
John Boyce

***************************************************************
John Boyce
Department of Microbiology
Monash University
Clayton Rd.,
Clayton, 3800.
WorkPh  03 9905 4838
HomePh  03 9376 6641
WorkFax 03 9905 4811
***************************************************************



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