Extinctions in Mediterranean areas

Abstract

Abstract Thirty-one species and two subspecies of vascular plants of the M editerranean area are presumed extinct. This would correspond to an extinction rate of 0.11 % of the native M editerranean flora, which compares with rates of 0.3% for vascular plant species of the Cape floristic province of S. Africa, 0.4% for higher plant taxa of California, and 0.66% for those of Western Australia. Percentages of threatened plant taxa are between 25 and 125 times as high as extinction rates. Records of plant extinctions are both incomplete and error-prone, as shown by examples, but even with improving knowledge the rates of species loss are unlikely to change significantly. They are lowest for the M editerranean area, in which hum an im plantation is most ancient, and for which large-scale undocumented early extinction is assumed, and highest for the most recently colonized area, south-western Australia, where extinction may now be at its peak. At least for the M editerranean, aiming at the rescue of each and every species in danger is a realistic if ambitious goal.