It Turns Out This Mass Extinction Event In A Tropical Cloud Forest Never Happened, Which Means Plants Thought To Be Extinct Are Alive And Well
Apparently, a recent mass extinction event in South America never actually happened. For four decades, it was believed that a large-scale plant extinction event took place in a tropical cloud forest in Ecuador.
However, a team of researchers led by Dawson M. White from Harvard University is questioning the history records.
They are challenging the idea of “Centinelan extinction,” which states that deforestation can cause a plant species known only in one area to immediately go extinct.
It all started in the 1980s when a pair of botanists named Calaway Dodson and Alwyn Gentry reported that the Centinela ridge, located in western Ecuador, contained approximately 90 plant species that did not exist anywhere else on Earth.
They also claimed that widespread deforestation in the area likely led to the extinction of these unique plants. The event became known as the “Centinelan extinction,” and it served as a warning to conservation biologists of how abruptly biodiversity can be lost in tropical regions.
But when White and colleagues examined herbarium records and databases, in addition to conducting extensive fieldwork, they discovered that 99 percent of the so-called extinct plants have actually been found in other places. Only a tiny orchid called Bifrenaria integrilabia existed solely in Centinela.
“It’s a miracle,” said White, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard.
“Many of Centinela’s plants are still on the brink of extinction, but fortunately, the reports of their demise were exaggerated. There’s still time to save them and turn this story around.”
Although the study showed that Centinela’s plants weren’t experiencing effects as negative as they were said to be, deforestation is still a major threat to biodiversity. Many of the plants are rare and endangered. More than 150 species qualify as globally threatened.
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During their fieldwork, the researchers discovered several small remnants of the original forest and thousands of mature trees in pastures and ravines despite reports of complete deforestation.
These small areas contain a number of rare plant species that were thought to be extinct. The team also came across at least eight new plant species. The findings emphasize the need for ongoing botanical exploration.
“One of our most astonishing discoveries is a totally new species of canopy tree in the Cotton family,” said Andrea Fernández from Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden.
“It’s one of the tallest trees we have encountered, but it’s extremely rare; there could be only 15 individuals alive in Centinela. It’s now actively targeted by local loggers, so we are rushing to describe this new tree species and get its seeds growing in botanic gardens.”
While the immediate extinction threat may have been blown out of proportion, the study underscores an urgent need to protect tropical cloud forests.
It’s important that researchers take swift action as human activities continue to threaten these diverse regions.
The study was published in Nature Plants.
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