US Plants and Animals on the Verge of Extinction While Ecosystems Face Collapse

According to a leading conservation research organization, 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the United States are on the verge of extinction, and 41% of ecosystems are on the verge of collapse.

Everything from crayfish and cacti to freshwater mussels and iconic American species like the Venus flytrap is in danger of extinction, according to a new report released on Monday.

NatureServe, which analyzes data from its network of over 1,000 scientists across the United States and Canada, said the report was its most comprehensive yet, synthesizing five decades of its data on animal, plant, and ecosystem health.

A huge chunk of plants and animals in the U.S. are at risk of extinction

(Photo : Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

U.S. Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat who has proposed legislation to establish a wildlife corridor system to rebuild threatened fish, wildlife, and plant populations, said NatureServe's work would be critical in assisting agencies in determining which areas to prioritize and where to establish migration routes.

Among the threatened species are icons such as the carnivorous Venus flytrap, which can only be found in the wild in a few counties in North and South Carolina, as per Reuters.

Nearly half of all cacti species are on the verge of extinction, and 200 tree species, including an Arkansas maple-leaf oak, are also on the verge of extinction.

America's vast temperate and boreal grasslands are among the most threatened ecosystems, with more than half of the 78 grassland types facing range-wide extinction.

The report discovered a variety of threats to plants, animals, and ecosystems, including "habitat degradation and land conversion, invasive species, damming and polluting of rivers, and climate change."

According to the report, California, Texas, and the southeastern United States have the highest percentages of threatened plants, animals, and ecosystems.

Those areas are the richest in terms of biodiversity in the country, but they are also where population growth has accelerated in recent decades, and human encroachment on nature has been most severe, according to Wesley Knapp, the chief botanist at NatureServe.

Knapp emphasized the threats to plants, which receive less conservation funding than animals.

There are nearly 1,250 plants in NatureServe's "critically imperiled" category, the final stage before extinction, which means that conservationists must decide where to spend limited funds to prevent extinctions, even among the most vulnerable species.

Vivian Negron-Ortiz is the president of the Botanical Society of America and a botanist with the United States Botanical Service.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, which was not involved in the NatureServe report, stated that there is still a lot scientists don't know and haven't discovered about biodiversity in the US and that NatureServe's data helped illuminate that darkness.

The data in the report, according to John Kanter, a senior wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation, is critical for guiding state and regional officials in creating impactful State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs), which they must do every 10 years to receive federal funding to protect vulnerable species.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act, which congressional sponsors say will be reintroduced soon, would have increased that to $1.4 billion, Kanter said, which would have had a significant impact on the state's ability to protect animals and ecosystems, and the NatureServe report can serve as a roadmap for officials to best spend their money.

Also Read: Salt-Loving Super Plants: Saviors of the Planet?

Plants Matter

Without plants, there will be nothing to eat.

Plants provide all of the calories we consume in the form of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, as per Good Earth.

This includes meat because the animals eat plants.

Plants use photosynthesis energy to convert carbon dioxide into complex molecules that animals, including humans, eat.

Life on Earth is dependent on oxygen, which is primarily obtained from plants, which produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.

However, the plants that surround us on land provide only half of the world's oxygen.

The other half comes from plankton in the ocean, drifting plants, algae, and even bacteria.

NOAA scientists believed the figure could be as high as 80%.

Our survival as humans is dependent on the health of these plant habitats that produce the air we breathe.

Plants are critical in the development of new drugs.

Many of the most valuable drugs in the world are derived directly or indirectly from plants.

50% of today's prescription drugs were discovered in plants.

When rainforests are destroyed, potential cures for disease and illness are lost along with habitat and oxygen-producing plants.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 65% to 80% of the world's population uses holistic plant-based medicine as their primary form of healthcare.

Plants provide habitat for other plants and animal species that rely on them for food and shelter in many places.

The English oak tree, for example, supports hundreds of insects and provides food for birds and mammals such as deer.

They support the growth of fungi and lichen.

Woodpeckers build dens, and bats eventually live in abandoned woodpecker holes. The bats then consume the insects that live in the tree canopy.