New endangered list for ecosystems modeled after ‘Red list’ for species

by Mongabay.com on 9 May 2013

The IUCN has unveiled the first iteration of its new Red List of Ecosystems, a ranking of habitats worldwide.

The Red List of Ecosystems is modeled after the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, which now serves as the global standard for assessing the extinction risk of plants and animals. Like the species ranking system, the ecosystem list will identify whether an ecosystem is vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. The list applies across terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, potentially helping governments prioritize conservation efforts, according to David Keith, the lead author of the PLoS ONE study that lays out the criteria for initiative.

“By knowing which ecosystems are tracking well and which ones are in trouble, governments, industries and local communities will be well-positioned to make smart investment decisions for sustainable environmental management,” Keith said via a press release.

Venezuela’s unusual tepui ecosystem was assessed in the study

The criteria for the list include four “symptoms” of ecosystem risk: “A) rates of decline in ecosystem distribution; B) restricted distributions with continuing declines or threats; C) rates of environmental (abiotic) degradation; and D) rates of disruption to biotic processes.” A fifth criterion is the risk of ecosystem collapse.

The paper included a collection of 20 “case study” ecosystems. The most endangered of these is the Aral Sea in Central Asia, which has suffered from severe shrinkage and salinization, leading to species extinction and invasion by non-native species.

Sample ecosystems

Aral Sea	Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan	freshwater	critically endangered
Raised bogs	Germany	freshwater	critically endangered
Gonakier forests of the Senegal River floodplain	Senegal	freshwater	critically endangered
Cape Sand Flats Fynbos	South Africa	terrestrial	critically endangered
Coorong lagoons	Australia	freshwater/marine	critically endangered
Karst rising springs	Southern Australia	freshwater	critically endangered
Coastal sandstone upland swamps	Australia	freshwater	endangered/critically endangered
Swamps, marshes and lakes in the Murray-Darling Basin	Australia	freshwater	endangered/critically endangered
Giant kelp forests	Alaska	marine	endangered/critically endangered
Caribbean coral reefs	Caribbean	marine	endangered/critically endangered
Seagrass meadows	Southern Australia	marine	endangered-critically endangered
German tamarisk pioneer vegetation	Europe	freshwater	endangered
Coolibah-Black Box woodland	Australia	freshwater/terrestrial	endangered
Tapia forest	Madagascar	terrestrial	endangered
Semi-evergreen vine thicket	Australia	terrestrial	endangered
Great Lakes Alvars	United States and Canada	terrestrial	vulnerable/endangered
Reed beds	Europe	freshwater	vulnerable
Floodplain ecosystem of river red gum and black box	Southeastern Australia	freshwater	vulnerable
Tepui shrubland	Venezuela	terrestrial	least concern
Granite gravel fields and sand plains	New Zealand	terrestrial	least concern

Citation: Keith DA, Rodríguez JP, Rodríguez-Clark KM, Nicholson E, Aapala K, et al. (2013) Scientific Foundations for an IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 8(5): e62111. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062111