The Missing Pieces in the 6th Mass Extinction

Recent biodiversity reports point to a drastic drop in species across the world, but on the local scale the results are more mixed. We're also missing data from some of the key ecosystems on our planet. In order to fight off the 6th mass extinction, we need more data to get a complete picture of the state of life on Earth.
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In recent years, reports on extinction and biodiversity loss have pointed toward a global drop in species. Back in 2019, hundreds of researchers from a UN-backed international organization found that one million species of fauna and flora are at risk of extinction. Experts estimate that today’s extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the ‘background’ rate. Measuring biodiversity losses is incredibly complicated, especially because there’s no standard way to do it.
The most common way to track biodiversity is to measure species richness, or count the number of species in a particular place and time. And they also only capture certain facets of biodiversity. Depending on what metric you use, you could get completely different results. When it comes to conservation efforts or biodiversity offsets-when developers measure biodiversity loss for a project-how we measure biodiversity can really make a difference.
On top of that, global averages don’t always reflect biodiversity variation on a local scale. It's important to look locally since biodiversity affects how ecosystems impact water supply, fuel, pollination, food, and more for their surrounding regions. And what researchers are finding is pretty surprising. Turns out, local biodiversity measures are incredibly mixed and some ecosystems are doing even better than we might expect.
#seeker #science #climatechange #massextinction #biodiversity
Read More:
The Biodiversity Crisis Needs Its Net Zero Moment
www.wired.com/story/2021-biod...
The last time the parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity got together to set a global biodiversity agenda was in Japan in 2010, where they came up with the Aichi targets, a set of 20 goals aimed at reducing a range of environmental harms including habitat loss, overfishing, and pollution over the subsequent decade. But those goals were difficult to measure, and countries weren’t required to report their progress in any definite way.
BioTIME
biotime.st-andrews.ac.uk/
BioTIME is a comprehensive collection of assemblage time-series in which the abundances of the species that comprise ecological communities have been monitored over a number of years. BioTIME data span the globe and encompass land and seas; they also include freshwater systems.
Airborne DNA Can Reveal Earth’s Biodiversity
www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
These projects have crept along because of the painstaking work of identifying and describing species-as well as, in many cases, collecting samples of the organisms for DNA sequencing. Now a new approach to cataloguing the world’s animals has emerged: vacuuming DNA out of thin air.
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[@IsaacGuenard]

25 years ago if you drove to the big city from my home town, which takes about 4 hours, you would have to stop 2 or 3 times to wipe the bugs off your headlights. That's not necessary anymore. Where did the bugs go? It's a big topic of conversation when I go home to visit my parents, and the implications are scary. The more attention on this topic, the better, in my opinion.

[@gregor-samsa]

Same here route Germany, Mannheim where the car was invented in 1886 to Germany, Stuttgart. 110 kilometers. In 1980 one had to stop at Every gasoline station to clean the window. It is said the mass of flying insect was reduced by 75%. I belive it is more 95%.

[@jmpcrx]

Think youll find thats due to farmers spraying the fields, not global warming... Same reason as to why bees are dissapearing.

[@daskrumpl7570]

We still get bugs on windows where I live, but that's cuz I live in the middle of nowhere

[@Rugged-Mongol]

*Maybe start assessing the health and stability of the base of the food chains?*

[@WilhelmDrake]

Habitat lost is the main problem.

[@VariantAEC]

I won't argue with that point. Habitat destruction will force organisms to leave and some maybe even most won't adapt to an environment that has gone through significant changes over short only a few years time. That topic is difficult to argue against or for directly but I would side with the conservative approach. Change as lottle about the environment as possible. The expansion we see in rural America is propelled by big businesses and banking loans. Our money from nothing economy is going to cause another economic bubble but the most profitable businesses are the *ones causing the largest environmental impacts. Housing subdivisions, data centers and green energy projects are causing the biggest environmental impacts and all of them could be seen as net negative. [Edit: identified by asterisk]

[@alparslankorkmaz2964]

Nice video.

[@drstone7014]

Are any now corals sprouting where it Used to be to cold

[@GuruDevoMeheshvray]

Thanks 🙏

[@xxACIDVIRUSxx]

I honestly thought by the title of the video that it was going to be about the human self-destruction, based on what’s going on now, and crystal clear indications that we will soon be in a nuclear war, saving the creator time, and effort by eliminating ourselves to the point of mass extinction..if there’s really a creator of course!

[@shukrantpatil]

nuclear war ? lmao , nothing like that's gonna happen lol

[@xxACIDVIRUSxx]

@@shukrantpatil Yeah...and Putin also said he was not going to invade Ukraine!

[@rosssmith8481]

The estimated polar bear population has quadrupled since 1950, rising from 10,000 bears in 1950 to 39,000 bears today.

[@JMARTIN1947]

Maybe Polar Bears will take over the earth and be the new dinosaurs.

[@burritosplants913]

I watch plants do what they do my whole life and the nature of them. Nature continues to one thing. Survive and put out seeds. I think of all the disasters plants have been through and the nature of nature is to stay nature. Why are trees and plants putting out so many seeds? Bc they have been through things we haven’t.

[@jmpcrx]

Presumably, in a warming world, there will be an increase in overall spicies, not a decrease....?...

[@Pistolita221]

when temperature increases at over 10c per million years it's likely to cause a mass extinction, we're changing the global average temperature by 17,000C per million years.

[@jmpcrx]

@@Pistolita221 thats a bit of a silly statement really. Scare mongering. I like to be genuinely realistic. We wont keep pumping out c02 like we do today, so that wont happen. tech is at the point that we could actually deal with the problem if governments got their act together and focused on it instead of wars and the like.

[@Pistolita221]

@@jmpcrx But the methane has already begun melting, so within a decade or two the earth will be thawing, because it reached a certain melt rate.

[@Pistolita221]

@@jmpcrx And then we're stuck with warming until it collapses the ocean current cycle, plunging the poles into deep freezes and the global equatorial region unlivibly hot

[@jmpcrx]

@@Pistolita221 lets hope not

[@Physco219]

Not first. I would like to know more about what is being done in developing nations to prevent mass extinction of local biodiverse organisms. Can we do more without legislating it? I just don't think legislation will help any of this. What do you think could stimulate better protections for our shared planet?

[@Skippy0330]

We could all start, by not having anymore children (or only 1) and reducing our numbers. There is no way for us to exist the way we do without having negative consequences. Any other effort is moot, a waste of money and time and our efforts. But that takes real responsibility and sacrifice so it'll never happen, they'll just yell at government to solve the problem they're creating themselves.

[@sachinnn101]

Fyi Developing countries like mine are putting much serious efforts for safeguarding biodiversity and environment. despite having the constant huge dilema of development Vs environment, we still have lot of legislation that take care of environment. Now the question arises what the devloped World really doing?... forget about their historical damage to the planet, I'm more interested into their way of seeing future of planet.

[@MJorgy5]

As long as people demand larger homes, vehicles and continue to waste energy. It's a safe bet that more natural habitats will suffer.

[@Pistolita221]

that's in large part due to zoning and lobbying.

[@oneboxer8329]

Wow

[@drstone7014]

How much Difference can we tell of species by their skeletons. Maybe this level of extinction is more normal

[@VariantAEC]

You mean this level of death? There is no extinction these airheads just want to keep the buzzword alive.

[@rustyshackle917]

Are you saying 7 billion modern day humans don't have an adverse effect on the ecosystem? Real big brain u got there 😂

[@Zift_Ylrhavic_Resfear]

There are surprisingly many ways to tell species apart by their skeletons, and we are talking about all species on earth, so i don't think this is a significant problem.

[@RichardTavilla]

Save the rainforest, acid rain, ozone layer, in the 70s we were going into an ice age. Turn of your T.V

[@NOLAMarathon2010]

Said, J. B. S. Haldane, ""The Creator, if He exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles”. Haldane observed that there are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal.

[@carbonturk7200]

I wish they (The Scientists) used correlative reasoning...! If the numbers are correct of the Historical Chronology...then the Human Population would have dwarfed every other living creature except the microbes...! According to one disappeared KZbin truther's calculation...the numbers would have reached 36 DIGITS / zeros ADDED...not just 9 DIGITS / zeros as it is now... Name of the number...? UNDECILLION...1. 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

[@Hundert1]

Let's be an outdoors health, wellness and fuN SEEKER ☀️🏊🎾🚴⛵

[@bj97301]

I don’t understand why you seem so happy about this 😞.

[@user-qm9nk8yn9l]

Интересно

[@jazzunit8234]

Riding at night in the forest I squish cane toads it’s very satisfying

[@orregomusic5850]

Why is this driver smiling while saying these terrible news, is she aware of what she is saying?

[@Technology35]

One of the best things about dude is that he never take credit for himself when he achieves some things . He always respect us the audience and his team, and he polite in all his videos . We Congratulations ourselvices on this achievement. More to come 🙏🙏👍👍😱😱🔥🔥

[@pile333]

Anthropocene will end up into a mass extiction.

[@GG-lp2ex]

Seeker used to be cool

[@sixvee5147]

Here's to making scenario SSP5-8.5 a reality. All hail the Anthroprocene epoch 🙌

[@augurelite]

this is so depressing

[@Pistolita221]

@@augurelite you don't have to look up.

[@mlgklipz2543]

None of it matters, the universe gonna end anyways

[@marcocambray7725]

Learned that we know nothing

[@VariantAEC]

Bingo!

[@Pistolita221]

@@VariantAEC it's an incredibly complex subject, it's a lot of moving parts in the equation but oh brother we know something is wrong.

[@VariantAEC]

@@Pistolita221 We should know that we aren't a significant contributing factor, considering we've been studying the topic for over 140 years now.

[@Pistolita221]

@@VariantAEC actually, all that data points to us being the main contributing factor, but hu the end of the decade, thawing methane will overtake us as the dominant warming mechanism, a secondary impact of our mistreatment of the ecosystem. Why do you think humans more than doubling the CO2 levels in 500 years won't have an impact?

[@Freshwatches]

First

[@pranay561]

Funny how UNs objectives are quoted here.. ahem ahem ukraine

[@zimtage1744]

New animals will evolve that eat plastic and breathe carbon

[@MJorgy5]

Those already exist. They're called, "Humans."

[@zimtage1744]

@@MJorgy5 😆

[@Yashsvi2006]

Bro 1st please pinme

[@SlugDropsonheads]

Sorry, you were not first

[@jakes.house.]

And also weird expectations

[@james3440]

I love your rainbow shirt

[@abhi-_-]

I dont know why but her facial expressions are a little too much for me to focus on the topic... why cant stuff become like it was 10 years ago? Why cant they just focus on accuracy of the content?

[@Skippy0330]

Because attention spans have dropped down to an average of 30 seconds. As a content creator, I can vouch for this big time, even in the last 5. a short video 5 years ago was 5 mins, now it's 30 seconds.

[@Pistolita221]

@@Skippy0330 there are long-form video essays popping up more and more. munecat, tom nicolas, atun-shei film, climate town, cj the x and many more i'm sure make long-form informational content. they're even pretty well produced.

[@Faraonqa]

Russia

[@user-tl3ho6ml9h]

America

[@perplexingperceptions8888]

It's not Russia.

[@tramsgar]

Turns out, it's Putler

[@esecallum]

Could you confirm that there will be blacks on other planets? because planets are round.

[@catman2157]

Nice audio quality you have, maybe get a better mic lmao

[@jakes.house.]

Boooo 👎👎

[@danielsimmons4436]

Bit rude mate, ngl.

[@Bassotronics]

Wtf you’re talking about? The audio sounds professional.